RP show

[Alex Wang <awang@mit.edu>]

On the Easter Sunday Rick Pitino show:

Rick talked about the team's losing spell. The players are tentative 
because the fans are "booing like they're at a wrestling match." 
He says that fans naturally wanted improvement from last year but the
lockout prevented that. He told the team that if they win 17 of their
next 21 games, they could make the playoffs, unrealistic as that is.
Of course, it's 17 of 19 after the last two losses. 

They interview Red Auerbach for his take on the team. He likes the
fact that the team is athletic, can run, and is coachable. He thinks
that there's "not a bad apple among them." Pitino "knows the hell 
what he's doing. He's a pro." Red feels they are two more players 
away; the team needs a tough, Oakley-type player that demands and
gets rebounds. "Not Rodman though, I'd retire if they got Rodman."

Pitino jokes that the team really is two players away - "Larry Bird
and Kevin McHale." But he thinks the needs are a big point guard that
can stop opposing point guards from posting up, and a power forward
so that Antoine can play at 3 and Pierce can play at 2. Honestly, 
it really sounds like Mercer is a goner to me. When's the last time
Pitino has criticized Mercer either, even after some clearly bad games?
I think he's keeping Mercer's trade value up.

Pitino defends Antoine for his leadership, hard work, and the fact 
that he learns from his mistakes. 
 
They give a tour of the new facility which looks amazing, although 
I haven't seen any other training facilities to compare (except 
Brandeis). Pitino mentions that in the offseason, he plans to have
4 day a week training sessions every other week. He feels that the
facility is such an impressive environment that the athletes will
be more motivated to train. At some point he mentions that the 
training will help things such as the press. Right now players just
press by covering their man over the full court. They don't even 
try to rotate because the players have just not had time to learn 
the correct rotations. Essentially the press is not really set up
to create steals. But even when steals don't occur, the shot clock
is eaten up, leading to rushed shots, assuming the Celtics can play
good defense for about 10 seconds.

In the coaches' clinic, Pitino shows off his expensive video equipment
in his new facility. He goes over several examples of doubling down.
He says the best defensive teams (Indiana, Miami, NY) play man-to-man
defense and thus avoid the problems with doubling down, which include 
generating bad mismatches and bad blockouts. He breaks down the Celtics
rotations and how they can improve, and when players are missing 
assignments, down to very small details. It's obvious that Pitino is a 
video fanatic. 

Lobel brings up the Potapenko trade and how he's nervous about losing
the draft pick. Pitino says that no one in the draft will be as good
a player up front (I assume he means centers) as Potapenko. He says 
that every decision is discussed by the entire management, from Wallace
to the scouts to Auerbach, and that the Potapenko trade was a unanimous
decision.

Finally, Lobel gives Pitino a chance to brag about picking UConn over
Duke in the championship game.

Alex