Part of this kind of reads like you’re saying pitino was responsible for 2 or 3 recruiting classes AFTER he left. That seems a little unreasonable.
Also i think it’s a pretty safe bet that pitino would have continued his success here given that he went to 3 more final fours and won another title at a lesser program after that. (and no i don’t care how he won the title at UL at this point given that we’ve now seen all of Kansas, UNC and Duke win titles in the last 15 years under suspicious circumstances or even while under investigation for blatant and obvious cheating)
What I am saying is that Pitino teams were always built mainly around Juniors and Seniors, with maybe a young guy or two. Nothing like Cal does it. And when Tubby took over, the Senior class was very good, and a couple of Juniors were good, but not much behind them. Here was Pitino's last 3 classes:
Turner, Mohammed, Mercer, Lathram, Simmons
Masiello, Magloire
Bradley, Anthony, Hogan
The turner class turned out very good and played a big part in the 98 championship, in part because Mohammed developed very well. However, Mercer left after 97, so Turner and Mohammed were all the high level contributors that remained from that class. In his last 2 recruiting classes, he got 1 great, 1 really good, and 3 not good at all players, and that was what was left for Tubby.
As for the continued success under Pitino, while I agree UL is a lesser program, it isn't that much of a lesser program. It is a top 6 or 7 program in the country, and a program that obviously was willing to do whatever it took to succeed. Pitino was there for like 17 years to get that 1 extra championship and handful of final fours. May blow your mind, but he actually coached UL almost twice as long as he coached UK. The odds are really, really high that had Pitino stayed, we would have the exact same number of championships today that we have.
For all those that want to knock on Cal for needing the #1 and #2 draft pick to win a championship at UK, Pitino's lone championship at UK was with arguably the greatest team ever assembled. A team that had 9 players that played at some point in the NBA. A team that had several lottery picks on it stretched out over several classes. Nothing about that, or his time at UL indicates that he would have produced 3 or 4 more championships. He got 1 in 17 years at UL.