I understood Pitino to Boston.

[TNCatfanforever]

I never understood him taking the U of L job. He knew first hand that only the Duke - UNC rivalry equaled the UK-UK rivalry. He could have easily taken the Michigan job and all would have been well. I think him being at U of L had some bearing on the demise of Coach Smith. We all were bitter and had reasons to be. Pitino self destructed when Cal came to UK. I am thankful Pope brought him back to mend fences. We need to honor Pitino, Tubby Smith, and Cal when he returns in January. All three brought us our only titles in the last 45 years. Time to show some class and move on. Coach Pope is pushing all the right buttons and hopefully this translates into on court success.

 

[bbncal02]

I never understood him taking the U of L job. He knew first hand that only the Duke - UNC rivalry equaled the UK-UK rivalry. He could have easily taken the Michigan job and all would have been well. I think him being at U of L had some bearing on the demise of Coach Smith. We all were bitter and had reasons to be. Pitino self destructed when Cal came to UK. I am thankful Pope brought him back to mend fences. We need to honor Pitino, Tubby Smith, and Cal when he returns in January. All three brought us our only titles in the last 45 years. Time to show some class and move on. Coach Pope is pushing all the right buttons and hopefully this translates into on court success.

Cal is too soon. He’s still an active coach, in the same conference and at a somewhat rival school basketball wise. Not happening.

 

[Orville Boggs]

If the Celtics got Tim Duncan in the NBA draft things would have been different!

 

[UKWildcats1987]

I only care about what they did here. All 3 won a title and as you mentioned, we have only won 3 in 45 years. To be fair, if you go 46 it's 4 with Joe Bs.

Pitino embarrassed UL. He had a title vacated. He was the best mole in the history of moles.

 

[LmdCat]

I never understood him taking the U of L job. He knew first hand that only the Duke - UNC rivalry equaled the UK-UK rivalry. He could have easily taken the Michigan job and all would have been well. I think him being at U of L had some bearing on the demise of Coach Smith. We all were bitter and had reasons to be. Pitino self destructed when Cal came to UK. I am thankful Pope brought him back to mend fences. We need to honor Pitino, Tubby Smith, and Cal when he returns in January. All three brought us our only titles in the last 45 years. Time to show some class and move on. Coach Pope is pushing all the right buttons and hopefully this translates into on court success.

I have no interest in honoring Cal. Cal's situation is considerably different from Pitino. Pitino didn't run off to another SEC school while taking as many of UK's players with him for the sole purpose of causing harm. Cal always saw himself bigger than anything considered Kentucky. He didn't like the state, fans, homegrown talent, or its tradition. He only came to Kentucky because he was in need of a program large enough to fit his oversized ego. He is gone and should stay gone. He will never be welcomed back like RP. Unlike Cal, RP harmed himself and his legacy as opposed to the University of Kentucky.

 

[drcats2013]

He took the best college job available. End of discussion.

 

[CELTICAT]

There was a period between December 2000 through early January 2001 where the Sixers were very interested in hiring Tubby and Rick was going to return to UK. I think UL was his sort of consolation prize to all of that falling through.

 

[bbncal02]

There was a period between December 2000 through early January 2001 where the Sixers were very interested in hiring Tubby and Rick was going to return to UK. I think UL was his sort of consolation prize to all of that falling through.

I guess. It’s not like Michigan was a bad program though. They’ve got good history, but you would always be second fiddle up there. Always. And we know that isnt Rick.

Logically it made sense to take that UofL job. And I guess in away that got us Cal for a good few years.

 

[CELTICAT]

I guess. It’s not like Michigan was a bad program though. They’ve got good history, but you would always be second fiddle up there. Always. And we know that isnt Rick.

Logically it made sense to take that UofL job. And I guess in away that got us Cal for a good few years.

As I recall, UNLV was the third option in that group. UL was the best basketball program of the three, as I don’t think Rick was interested in being second fiddle to the football program at Michigan.

 

[bbncal02]

As I recall, UNLV was the third option in that group. UL was the best basketball program of the three, as I don’t think Rick was interested in being second fiddle to the football program at Michigan.

Of course. Like I said it was the logical choice but man that was like “screw you rick”.

Social Media wasn’t as big then either so it was hard to know the circumstances going on so to a lot of us it looked lit he took that job out of pure spite.

I’m glad Cal was able to smack him around though. Can you imagine the crap talk if he wasn’t able to handle Rick most years?

 

[truebluewildcat]

UL job made perfect sense. It was a basketball school, in a basketball state. He was looking for work, they were offering.

There was never any malice in the decision. We didn't fire him, he left. He wasn't looking to get at us in anyway. In fact, I think he liked the state, people, their passion for the game. It wasn't a "I'm gonna get UK..." type of deal like people make it out to me. It was more of a "This is a great place to coach basketball..." type of decision.

They're our rival, but nowhere near what some of the other big college sports rivalries are. Hell, the series went dormant for big chunk of history, and we didn't even play. Not in the same conference. Didn't and don't really compete for the same recruits, or types of recruits too often.

They weren't and aren't close to us in resume. He didn't go on some historical run there. He did great for them and put them back on the map.

 

[Louis_Skunt]

I have no interest in honoring Cal. Cal situation is considerably different from Pitino. Pitino didn't run off to another SEC school while taking as many of UK's players with him with the sole purpose of causing harm. Cal always saw himself bigger than anything considered Kentucky. He didn't like the state, fans, homegrown talent, or its tradition. He only came to Kentucky because he was in need of a program large enough to fit his oversized ego. He is gone and should stay gone. He will never be welcomed back like RP. Unlike Cal, RP harmed himself and his legacy as opposed to the University of Kentucky.

Funny. We all said the same EXACT thing about Pitino. Theyre very similar, and as much disdain as we have for Cal (at this moment) we had more for Pitino....and he was welcomed back. Cal will be welcomed back just like Pitino, guaranteed. Also to note, Cal did more for this state than all the coaches put together. The fund raising, helping the needy, helping towns with disasters...zero comparison.

 

[ganner918]

Funny. We all said the same EXACT thing about Pitino. Theyre very similar, and as much disdain as we have for Cal (at this moment) we had more for Pitino....and he was welcomed back. Cal will be welcomed back just like Pitino, guaranteed. Also to note, Cal did more for this state than all the coaches put together. The fund raising, helping the needy, helping towns with disasters...zero comparison.

Some time after Cal has left Arkansas, after enough time has passed, he'll be back. He'd sucked for too long and needed to be gone but he DID bring us a championship and 4 FFs, he'll be back to celebrate those achievements. Just like I always knew Pitino would have his day here, some time after he was gone from Louisville.

 

[cat tat2]

Personally, I won’t welcome JVC back, possibly ever. Pitino left on a high note and went to the Celtics. Then took the UL job and flipped the bird to loudmouth fan. JVC left on a low note, went to an in conference rival. Flipped the bird to ALL UK fans countless times, with smart comments and lies. F him forevermore, IMO.

 

[CatFanInIlliniLand]

Way too soon to honor Cal.

I am not sure how I’ll react to him being here in Feb. He’s my UK public enemy #1 right now.
In time, I’ll feel the same way about him, as I do about Pitino and Tubby. All won one title and didn’t let us become Indiana. Right now, Cal doesn’t deserve the ovation Coach Pitino received. The amount of talent through here in 15 years and only winning 1 title stings almost as bad as Pitino to UofL.

 

[bigblueinsanity]

If the Celtics got Tim Duncan in the NBA draft things would have been different!

Imo it would've only been different for duncan. Pitino had enough talent to do far better than he did, he just mismanaged them.

In terms of taking the cards job, that's really always stuck with me. Literally any other job and we all would've always been a fan. I never saw any way to justify it.

Imo it wasnt uk he loved, but the adoration of an entire state and he thought he could pull that to ul. So the camelot of his speeches wasnt a place, it was a spotlight. A spotlight he could never regain until last night.

I feel the same way about cal but to a lesser extent. At least he didn't go to ul, but going in conference is an insult just a notch below.

 

[jwphelps]

I never understood him taking the U of L job. He knew first hand that only the Duke - UNC rivalry equaled the UK-UK rivalry. He could have easily taken the Michigan job and all would have been well. I think him being at U of L had some bearing on the demise of Coach Smith. We all were bitter and had reasons to be. Pitino self destructed when Cal came to UK. I am thankful Pope brought him back to mend fences. We need to honor Pitino, Tubby Smith, and Cal when he returns in January. All three brought us our only titles in the last 45 years. Time to show some class and move on. Coach Pope is pushing all the right buttons and hopefully this translates into on court success.

I could see it, Pitino realized he was not a pro coach and wanted to get back into the college game, UofL was looking to replace a legend in Deny Crum and to be honest UofL historically was a top 7 program so why not. I never faulted him for going there.

 

[The_Catfather]

He's said on many occasions his biggest regret was leaving Kentucky. Now that he despises U of L and they hate him, we've come full circle. He's a Wildcat again. I hope we can bring him back into some type of ambassador/NIL role when he retires from St. John's. I think he'd love to retire in Lexington and be near the horse farms.

 

[FtWorthCat]

At the time, Pitino had his choice of three jobs, UofL, UNLV and Michigan. They had friends in Kentucky, and the UK job wasn't open at the time. Although Tubby did get a raise out of it by flirting with South Carolina after the season, iirc. It was very insecure of UK fans to be so upset with Pitino for taking the best job open to him at the time.

 

[BlueEmpire]

I only care about what they did here. All 3 won a title and as you mentioned, we have only won 3 in 45 years. To be fair, if you go 46 it's 4 with Joe Bs.

Pitino embarrassed UL. He had a title vacated. He was the best mole in the history of moles.

He did, in fact, do our dark (blue) bidding.

MUAHAHAHAHAHA (or insert your preferred diabolical laughter.) 🦹‍♂️

 

[paulcalhoun]

I could see it, Pitino realized he was not a pro coach and wanted to get back into the college game, UofL was looking to replace a legend in Deny Crum and to be honest UofL historically was a top 7 program so why not. I never faulted him for going there.

I think forced out a legend to make room for him is more accurate.

 

[Cold Stout Beer]

Personally, I won’t welcome JVC back, possibly ever. Pitino left on a high note and went to the Celtics. Then took the UL job and flipped the bird to loudmouth fan. JVC left on a low note, went to an in conference rival. Flipped the bird to ALL UK fans countless times, with smart comments and lies. F him forevermore, IMO.

Such a stupid post. He did the right thing and made sure we didn't pay a PENNY for him to be gone.

Oh, and Pitino is a disgusting POS that is only coming back to rub it in Cal's face.

Go Pope.

 

[Aike]

UL job made perfect sense. It was a basketball school, in a basketball state. He was looking for work, they were offering.

There was never any malice in the decision. We didn't fire him, he left. He wasn't looking to get at us in anyway. In fact, I think he liked the state, people, their passion for the game. It wasn't a "I'm gonna get UK..." type of deal like people make it out to me. It was more of a "This is a great place to coach basketball..." type of decision.

They're our rival, but nowhere near what some of the other big college sports rivalries are. Hell, the series went dormant for big chunk of history, and we didn't even play. Not in the same conference. Didn't and don't really compete for the same recruits, or types of recruits too often.

They weren't and aren't close to us in resume. He didn't go on some historical run there. He did great for them and put them back on the map.

Don’t agree with this at all. Pitino’s incredibly large ego had him believing he could flip UK fans into UL fans. Possibly he was even salty because he thought UK would run Tubby off to get him back.

They are our rival. They are a huge rival. The amount of acrimony only magnified with RP taking that job. I don’t know if I’d use the word malice, but RP taking that job was more than a subtle jab.

We didn’t play for years, but there were threats that the government would force us to play. The meeting in 1983 was the “Dream Game” for a reason.

 

[Ky grandpa]

What ever reason any of you make up about Pitino is just an opinion... None of us know what or why any of this happened, if you are still mad that Rick left or went to U6... I did not like it totally either, but I do have a forgiving heart to forgive those who do wrong... That is what everyone should do, I am not patting myself on the back and thinking I am better than you... I am not better than anyone and I try not to judge those others who do something I hear about...
Pitino has done things we don't like, I don't like the fact that he paid for a baby to be murdered... But I can't judge him that is for God to do... If he is remorseful I am sure God would forgive him so why can't I???
As far as UKBB goes I forgave him a long time ago... Everyone makes mistakes and regrests it and he has said many time's that was his worse mistake to leave UKBB...

GBB

 

[flacat22]

He took the best college job available. End of discussion.

No. Michigan, UNLV, Tennessee were also open. Michigan, it could be argued was in a better position back when he took the loserville job.

 

[Seth_C]

I never understood him taking the U of L job. He knew first hand that only the Duke - UNC rivalry equaled the UK-UK rivalry. He could have easily taken the Michigan job and all would have been well. I think him being at U of L had some bearing on the demise of Coach Smith. We all were bitter and had reasons to be. Pitino self destructed when Cal came to UK. I am thankful Pope brought him back to mend fences. We need to honor Pitino, Tubby Smith, and Cal when he returns in January. All three brought us our only titles in the last 45 years. Time to show some class and move on. Coach Pope is pushing all the right buttons and hopefully this translates into on court success.

I’m sorry but we don’t need to honor Cal when he comes to Rupp months after abandoning the university, as the coach of the team we are playing against. Nah. Sorry. Years from now, I hope so. It took Pitino ~25 years. Cal can come begging for forgiveness around 2050.

 

[drcats2013]

No. Michigan, UNLV, Tennessee were also open. Michigan, it could be argued was in a better position back when he took the loserville job.

You can argue anything you want, but the fact is Michigan is not a better job than U of L; and I hate Louisville. So yes.

 

[truebluewildcat]

Don’t agree with this at all. Pitino’s incredibly large ego had him believing he could flip UK fans into UL fans. Possibly he was even salty because he thought UK would run Tubby off to get him back.

They are our rival. They are a huge rival. The amount of acrimony only magnified with RP taking that job. I don’t know if I’d use the word malice, but RP taking that job was more than a subtle jab.

We didn’t play for years, but there were threats that the government would force us to play. The meeting in 1983 was the “Dream Game” for a reason.

All coaches have an ego, especially at big time programs. You almost have to in order to survive and thrive to the expectations. Exception being Mark Pope, but he is clearly an outlier.

Stoops has an ego; Cal has an Ego. Tubby was chill but look what that got him. Can't criticize one guy's ego when we ran off the guy who replaced him who didn't have as big of one only to replace him with perhaps the biggest of all egos. That's what we wanted...UK basketball fans collectively have one of the biggest egos in sports. Which is why Pitino worked here and Cal worked here. This fanbase wants all that. If we're not the headline we're not happy. We want that swagger, that attitude, that spotlight...

Our sports media. Who has the monopoly? Who do people clamor into a restaurant to see? Some meek, aww shucks, guy? No, the damn mouth of the south big ass ego.

He's not stupid. Nobody is coming to UL thinking of flipping fans. That's asinine. Sure, he wanted to come in, beat UK, win at a high level. Flip fans...doubt that ever crossed his mind. Maybe flip some media, some casual sports consumers who cheer for both programs, maybe win some advertisers, sponsors, etc...but that's about it.

They're a huge rival to us, but nationally nobody would notice if we didn't play. Nobody clamors for it nor promotes like they do OSU v Mich, Duke UNC, Texas OK...

In fact, I would argue when we come across KU, UNC, Duke once in a blue moon in the "champions classic" it's a bigger deal.

 

[Aike]

All coaches have an ego, especially at big time programs. You almost have to in order to survive and thrive to the expectations. Exception being Mark Pope, but he is clearly an outlier.

Stoops has an ego; Cal has an Ego. Tubby was chill but look what that got him. Can't criticize one guy's ego when we ran off the guy who replaced him who didn't have as big of one only to replace him with perhaps the biggest of all egos. That's what we wanted...UK basketball fans collectively have one of the biggest egos in sports. Which is why Pitino worked here and Cal worked here. This fanbase wants all that. If we're not the headline we're not happy. We want that swagger, that attitude, that spotlight...

Our sports media. Who has the monopoly? Who do people clamor into a restaurant to see? Some meek, aww shucks, guy? No, the damn mouth of the south big ass ego.

He's not stupid. Nobody is coming to UL thinking of flipping fans. That's asinine. Sure, he wanted to come in, beat UK, win at a high level. Flip fans...doubt that ever crossed his mind. Maybe flip some media, some casual sports consumers who cheer for both programs, maybe win some advertisers, sponsors, etc...but that's about it.

They're a huge rival to us, but nationally nobody would notice if we didn't play. Nobody clamors for it nor promotes like they do OSU v Mich, Duke UNC, Texas OK...

In fact, I would argue when we come across KU, UNC, Duke once in a blue moon in the "champions classic" it's a bigger deal.

Never said others don’t have egos, but Pitino’s was on the Mount Rushmore of egos.

We can argue forever about what he did or didn’t think. Neither of us know for sure.

Still think you are also soft-selling the UK/UL rivalry, especially in the Pitino/Cal era. Got more hype than any rivalry other than UNC/Duke, imo. We even had to go through them on the way to one championship, and another runner-up.

But you are entitled to your opinion, of course. I’m sure some people thought KU/UK in November was a bigger game.

 

[Fox2monk]

Cal is too soon. He’s still an active coach, in the same conference and at a somewhat rival school basketball wise. Not happening.

He will be honored when he retires, I doubt he will have the long tenure nor the success at Arkansas he did here. He will mostly be remembered as Kentuckys coach IMO.