Pitino returns to college game a changed man

[kevin <bostonceltics17@yahoo.com>]

http://www.orlandosentinel.com/sports/college/orl-spthoops06110601nov06.story?coll=orl%2Dsports%2Dheadlines

2001 COLLEGE BASKETBALL PREVIEW

Pitino returns to college game a changed man
By Jerry Brewer
Sentinel Staff Writer

November 6, 2001

LOUISVILLE, Ky. -- Everywhere, there is change. The University of
Louisville fans who used to abhor a blue-clad Coach Rick Pitino now
wear red T-shirts that ask "Got Pitino?" on the front.

Seventy miles away, in Lexington, where Pitino revived the Kentucky
program and enhanced his stature, fans are calling him Traitor Rick
for agreeing to coach their archenemy.

"I realize it's not going to be a party," Pitino says of his return to
the state.

He also realizes that it's, well, kind of fun. It's the ultimate
pressure: He's trying to win in the face of a previous employer and
he's replacing a legend in Denny Crum, who coached the Cardinals for
30 years. When was the last time a legend replaced a legend in college
basketball?

For the first time in his 25-year coaching career, Pitino is coming
into a new job after failure, three-and-a-half years of it. He
resigned as coach and president of the Boston Celtics in January,
realizing he couldn't turn around the once-proud NBA franchise.

"I'm a wounded tiger," he said shortly after leaving Boston.

So, he has come to Louisville to heal -- and winning is the only
salve.

Yet just as you see an entire base of Cardinals fans change from
disgusted to delighted and an entire base of Wildcats fans change from
delighted to disgusted, the biggest change itself may lie within
Pitino.

He's still the driven super-coach -- able to trim the bellies of tall
centers with a single scowl, the great recruiter and motivator whose
players always get better -- but this is a different Pitino.

He's 49, no longer the hot-shot young coach, more a middle-aged man
with an illustrious past to live up to. That past is so stunning that
you could say he has nothing to prove. Failure has humbled Pitino, but
it also has improved him.

Pitino also is in his second month of mourning the loss of his best
friend and brother-in-law, Billy Minardi, who died at the World Trade
Center on Sept. 11.

"He understands the value of life much more deeply now," said Terry
Meiners, a Louisville radio personality who is close to the coach.

It now ranks above the value of practice.

Hours after the Pitino era debuted in Louisville with the Cardinals'
81-63 exhibition victory over EA Sports last Wednesday, Meiners and
Pitino sat in Freedom Hall and watched Game 4 of the World Series.
They saw the stirring finish, when Derek Jeter homered to win the game
in the 10th inning.

Pitino motioned toward his cell phone. He stopped.

Billy's not there anymore.

Billy probably would have called before Pitino could dial the number.
He would have said something like: "Burn, baby, burn!"

Pitino would have laughed happily and issued a warning, something
like: "They're not out of it yet. Game 5 is tomorrow."

Oh, what Pitino would give for that conversation to be real. That's
what made them such a pair. They were so different, but so
understanding of each other. Billy always understood. He kept the
coach level, kept him real.

People always saw Pitino as some obsessive being. Billy was one of the
people who saw Pitino just as he was -- the son of Sal Pitino and
Charlotte Newman, who loved his sister, Joanne.

"I think I see him in every person," Pitino said. "I think whenever I
see any of my close friends, whenever I look at my wife, I see Billy.

"We're going to cry every night before we go to sleep about Billy. But
I think the tears will turn to laughter. I think I was given a great
gift that I got to spend so much time with him for 33 years."

Cardinal sin?

On the back of those "Got Pitino?" T-shirts, there is a map of
Kentucky with an arrow pointing toward Louisville. The big letters
read: "We do!"

The message is simple and clear and directed toward their rivals: What
was yours is now ours. Ha ha!

"Now is my time to lead the Cardinals back into prominence," Pitino
said when he was announced as the coach in March. Cheering erupted.

Pitino didn't reach this decision without struggle. He sat up, late
into the night, with former assistant and current Holy Cross Coach
Ralph Willard at a Boston restaurant the night before announcing his
intentions, discussing every option, doing the plus-minus list,
thinking about every detail.

Pitino has done it all. He has had three dream coaching jobs already
-- the Boston Celtics, Kentucky Wildcats and New York Knicks. He won a
national title at Kentucky, where he compiled a 219-50 record after
inheriting a program in disarray because of NCAA sanctions. He has
been to four Final Fours. In 16 seasons as a college coach, Pitino is
352-124. All these credentials make him, arguably, the best college
basketball coach in the nation.

So he didn't need this.

Pitino going to Louisville is like Steve Spurrier departing Florida
for an NFL team, then returning to replace Bobby Bowden at Florida
State.

The initial reaction Why?

"There are people who won't be able to accept it," said Ron Carmicle,
a Louisville businessman who has known Pitino for 12 years. "I've had
to defend Rick. You don't think the Kentucky coach can coach at
Louisville. But then I backed up, and I realized this was a lifestyle
choice.

"I couldn't imagine Rick at UNLV or Michigan, and they wanted him.
He's at a point in his life where he wants to be somewhere he's
familiar."

Before he made up his mind, Pitino showed up at the SEC Tournament in
Nashville, where he saw a Kentucky fan wearing a cardboard hatchet
that had two words scribbled on the back.

"Pitino."

"Traitor."

After Pitino was hired, Kentucky Coach Tubby Smith, a former Pitino
assistant, wished him well. Pitino's presence raises the pressure on
Smith and intensifies a rivalry that has been boring of late. The
Cardinals had two losing seasons in their last four years under Crum,
including 12-19 last season.

Kentucky Athletic Director Larry Ivy was not as politically correct
initially. He sent a sarcastic statement last March, saying "I can
sympathize that he's eager to return" and calling Pitino the "No. 2
coach in the Bluegrass State" and his hopes of "giving him the proper
homecoming he deserves when the Cardinals visit Camelot."

Louisville visits Rupp Arena on Dec. 29.

"People just need to get over seeing Pitino with Louisville," Meiners
said. "Life is a whole lot bigger and more multifaceted than sweaty
boys playing basketball. Friendship supercedes school colors.

"If Rick Pitino were coaching Communists, I'd go out and get a hammer
and sickle."

Rebuilding again

Pitino is trying to use humor to quell the expectations of this
Cardinals team. Some think he will have the Cardinals back in the NCAA
Tournament this season, but that's going to take every ounce of talent
his players have.

They have one proven scorer in Reece Gaines. The only other players on
the roster opponents will fear are freshmen -- point guard Carlos Hurt
and forward/center Brandon Bender.

Pitino says there is less talent on this team than on his first
Kentucky team, which finished 14-14.

Still, there is promise because he's already seeing the effort. He
mandated that his players be below 10 percent body fat, and they are.
Even assistant Scott Davenport has lost 58 pounds in seven months.

Pitino is back in his element, getting out of these players what he
couldn't get out of the Celtics. Even though he failed in his latest
venture to the pros, he has increased credibility with high school
players because they feel he will prepare them for the NBA because he
has firsthand knowledge of the NBA.

Pitino says this will be his last job, but don't bet on that. In fact,
Pitino is promised a $5 million bonus if he completes his six-year
contract.

"I am a teacher of the game," Pitino said. "I'm a coach. I am more of
a college coach. I'm glad to be back."

Soon, Pitino's team will be wreaking havoc on the college basketball
national scene.

That much has not changed.

Jerry Brewer can be reached at jbrewer2@orlandosentinel.com. 
Copyright ) 2001, Orlando Sentinel