Pitino loses Exhibition Game to D-3 team

[BlueWhite21]

Most on here are either too young or their memories are too short to recall that prior to 1996, the knock against Slick was that he would kill it during the regular season, but then would choke against an inferior team in the Big Dance. Several years in a row.

Don't get me wrong, he was a great coach back then, and I loved having him, but he was not the invincible deity that some like to portray him as today.

You're correct in alot of ways with this post, but shit he took over a mess and never had a single losing season. He takes Duke to OT in 92, Michigan to OT in 93, Marquette 94was just a shitty loss. One of worst all time tourney losses on his resume. Then UNC95. Then 96-98 it's ours.

We shouldn't even been playing for Elite8s or FFs by 92. The no TV exposure and not playing in NCAA tournament has gotta be difficult to deal with recruiting. He found ways to pull it off and get players in wgo could compete.

I do think he choked as much as a coach can by not putting the man on G. Hill. And 1997 was a hell of a year I don't think most ppl thought we would be at the FF party without DA. I sure didn't. Of course he is not invincible but he had ppl believing that shit and they still do.

 

[Rockford]

Meaningless exhibition game.

But it sure is funny as hell.

 

[IUfanBorden]

I mean to be fair, Cal has absolutely destroyed Pitino head to head.

Talent level wasn't exactl;y , well, "even".

Head to head is always the best measuring stick....Shit, Keady had a winning record vs Knight. I doubt anyone is gonna claim Keady was better?

 

[IUfanBorden]

Most on here are either too young or their memories are too short to recall that prior to 1996, the knock against Slick was that he would kill it during the regular season, but then would choke against an inferior team in the Big Dance. Several years in a row.

92 Lost to #1 Duke
93 Lsot to #3(1 seed) Michigan in OT---in the FF
94---Ouch....but a 3 losing to a 6 seed isn't exactly breaking news
95- Lost to #4(2 seed) UNC in regional final..

He lost to two, #1 seeds a 2 seed and a 6.

Ok?

 

[IUfanBorden]

Not sure about that. The guy got out coached by Steve Fisher, Dean Smith and Lute Olson in the tourney and those guys didn’t out coach many.

Ummm two of those coaches are in the HOF... The three combined have 4 national titles...and 19 FF's.

 

[bbncal02]

It's a meaningless exhibition.

Sure they will be fine.

That’s what UofL said when hey lost to an exhibition last year. We ALL know how that turned out for them.

 

[deplion]

92 Lost to #1 Duke
93 Lsot to #3(1 seed) Michigan in OT---in the FF
94---Ouch....but a 3 losing to a 6 seed isn't exactly breaking news
95- Lost to #4(2 seed) UNC in regional final..

He lost to two, #1 seeds a 2 seed and a 6.

Ok?

You're going to lecture me on appropriate standards and expectations? lol

I realize any one of those seasons would be a pinnacle for most programs, but outside of Duke in 92, we were the far better team in all three losses.

A coaching god should certainly have found a way to win at least one of them.

Run along now. Hope your HS AA isn't making another run for the border this evening.

 

[nickhorvathsuxazz]

You have to be trolling, terrible X and O coach lmfao. Come on now.

I wouldn't call him a terrible x/o coach, but I do agree that his game coaching was a relative weakness. He was great at game-planning (x/o type stuff), but if the initial plan wasn't working, he rarely made in-game adjustments. He'd go down w/ the ship on those maybe 5% of the time games when the original plan wasn't working.

 

[grevey35]

Most on here are either too young or their memories are too short to recall that prior to 1996, the knock against Slick was that he would kill it during the regular season, but then would choke against an inferior team in the Big Dance. Several years in a row.

Don't get me wrong, he was a great coach back then, and I loved having him, but he was not the invincible deity that some like to portray him as today.

'94 was the only year that honestly applied. That UK team was just too weak in the middle after Dent went down. Duke, Michigan, And North Carolina were very legitimate competition. UNCheat was the only one I honestly felt like we should have won. The other two were obviously going to be very tough.

 

[UKAlum88]

Rick loses a game in 2023 and his fanboys automatically start bringing up when he started coaching at UK 35 years ago how his 1 title from 1996 makes him the 🐐.. 😂

Had my laugh for the morning! 😀 It’s gonna be a great day!

 

[rick64]

D-II Pace stuns Pitino-led St. John's in exhibition

St. John's lost an exhibition to Pace University, a Division II school, on Sunday. Pace led wire to wire in the 63-59 decision.

www.espn.com

 

[nssdigitalchumps]

It's a meaningless exhibition.

Sure they will be fine.

Can you imagine how melted down this board would have been over a meaningless exhibition game loss?

Wildcat1st would start so many threads.

 

[chroix]

Best Xs & Os and strategist in the college game today.
One of the best ever. Did you ever go into a game when he coached at UK that you didn’t think we’d win?

That’s true. I also never went into a game when he was at UofL that I didn’t think we were going to win.

 

[cbrwalt]

Best Xs & Os and strategist in the college game today.
One of the best ever. Did you ever go into a game when he coached at UK that you didn’t think we’d win?

And what was his record against Calipari coached Kentucky teams? 1-8


I always felt we would win when we played against him, he couldn't ever out coach Cal

 

[UKWildcats1987]

Not sure about that. The guy got out coached by Steve Fisher, Dean Smith and Lute Olson in the tourney and those guys didn’t out coach many.

I also never went into a game against him while at UL worried that UK wouldn’t win. He has one title in over 25 years of coaching at two of the top 5 programs of all time.

Can't believe all of you let this poster get away with this last sentence.

Louisville is NOT a top 5 all time program dude.

 

[Creed Bratton]

 

[Creed Bratton]

You're going to lecture me on appropriate standards and expectations? lol

I realize any one of those seasons would be a pinnacle for most programs, but outside of Duke in 92, we were the far better team in all three losses.

A coaching god should certainly have found a way to win at least one of them.

Run along now. Hope your HS AA isn't making another run for the border this evening.

I don't know that you can say we were a "far better team" than 93 Michigan or 95 UNC. You could argue we were the better team but we were not "far better" than they were. We all know about the Fab 5 but the UNC team had Rasheed, Stackhouse, Jeff McInnis and Donald Williams. They both were pretty good teams.

 

[Slowwalker]

Rick loses a game in 2023 and his fanboys automatically start bringing up when he started coaching at UK 35 years ago how his 1 title from 1996 makes him the 🐐.. 😂

Had my laugh for the morning! 😀 It’s gonna be a great day!

That’s how blind they are. They are willing to disparage a current coach who has an unbelievable win percentage since coming on board. Yes, we have had a few rough years, but we also went on a crazy run his first 4-5 years which was next to impossible to keep up.

People are willing to worship a filthy individual like Pitino in an effort to diminish what Cal has done here.

 

[UKAlum88]

That’s how blind they are. They are willing to disparage a current coach who has an unbelievable win percentage since coming on board. Yes, we have had a few rough years, but we also went on a crazy run his first 4-5 years which was next to impossible to keep up.

People are willing to worship a filthy individual like Pitino in an effort to diminish what Cal has done here.

Sad but true!

I’m not a huge Cal supporter but can say Cal owns Pitino and I always knew we’d win when we played Rick while he was at UL.

Rick had to cheat in attempt to keep up with Cal and UK and that forever makes Rick, Cal’s son. 😂

 

[bbncal02]

Can you imagine how melted down this board would have been over a meaningless exhibition game loss?

Wildcat1st would start so many threads.

Tbf, that would not sit well with many considering our lack of success lately.

 

[Smashcat]

And what was his record against Calipari coached Kentucky teams? 1-8


I always felt we would win when we played against him, he couldn't ever out coach Cal

Tubby owned him as well.

 

[BigKari]

NIL is going to expose which teams are a collection of individual talents and which teams are actual teams. UK has definitely been on the collection of individual talent end under Cal the whole time anyway, with a handful that had great talent but also played as a team (2010-12, 17, 20) and a few that had enough individual talent to exert their will and produce results (2014, 15, 19). The rest of the teams were disjointed, usually with one or two guys playing hero ball, seemingly at the direction of the coach, to poor postseason results.

I wouldn’t say this damns St. John’s. But right now they clearly aren’t a team, they’re a collection of individual talent. Building a team entirely through the portal as a year one coach is probably the smartest thing to do, especially if you are a premier recruiter like Pitino. It’s also a recipe for struggling early. If they can survive some lumps in the non-con, but settle into the conference comfortably, they could be a threat for auto bid as a conference tourney winner. But if they don’t do that, I suspect they will be a 18-14 type team and 4 seed in the NIT. And that’s not a bad result. If Pitino takes this squad past the first weekend in the Big Dance, he should be lauded for it, that would be a hell of an instant rebuild at a zombie program.

 

[Tampa_cat54]

Talent level wasn't exactl;y , well, "even".

Head to head is always the best measuring stick....Shit, Keady had a winning record vs Knight. I doubt anyone is gonna claim Keady was better?

No but when career accomplishments are very similar, as well as career path overall (Memphis vs. Providence, both coached at Kentucky, etc.), and one coach regularly and routinely kicked the other coach's ass, I'd say it's pretty clear.

 

[clevenger32]

And what was his record against Calipari coached Kentucky teams? 1-8


I always felt we would win when we played against him, he couldn't ever out coach Cal

Did have even close to the talent that Kentucky had. No on without any connection to UK would ever tell you the current coach is a better basketball coach than Pitino. Better recruiter? Yes

 

[cbrwalt]

Did have even close to the talent that Kentucky had. No on without any connection to UK would ever tell you the current coach is a better basketball coach than Pitino. Better recruiter? Yes

Umm, Rick had the returning 2013 National Champions***** up 7 with 4 minutes to go in the 2014 Sweet Sixteen. Calipari took 5 freshman and coached them to a victory. Calipari demonstrated it time and time again he was the better coach.

1-8 , its crazy you would argue otherwise

 

[clevenger32]

Umm, Rick had the returning 2013 National Champions***** up 7 with 4 minutes to go in the 2014 Sweet Sixteen. Calipari took 5 freshman and coached them to a victory. Calipari demonstrated it time and time again he was the better coach.

1-8 , its crazy you would argue otherwise

You are absolutely right. I am totally wrong. I don’t know what the hell I was thinking. Cal is the best coach that we have ever had including better than Adolph F Rupp. Cal is fantastic. He does such a great job of focusing his kids on getting out of Lexington as fast as possible to go to their NBA careers. I mean that’s what college basketball is all about and going to the NBA that’s why we pay him $9 million a year so that he can get kids to the NBA. Winning basketball games for Kentucky and SEC and national championships are absolutely of no importance anymore. That’s right I forgot.

 

[skcatfan]

Did have even close to the talent that Kentucky had. No on without any connection to UK would ever tell you the current coach is a better basketball coach than Pitino. Better recruiter? Yes

Recruiting is the most important job of a coach so Pitino’s failure to bring in equal talent is a big mark against him not an excuse. Plus he was at UofL so he had no excuse for his inability to recruit better. He had to resort to cheating to keep up with Cal and it brought on his own downfall.

 

[G-PIP]

Calipari took 5 freshman and coached them to a victory.

Irrespective of the Calipari vs. Pitino argument, that statement you made right there ought to be enough for anyone who understands coaching on the high school or college level to recognize Calipari as one heck of a coach - regardless if he did it with motivation or high-level Xs & Os.

 

[Smashcat]

😉

 

[dl51344]

Can you imagine how melted down this board would have been over a meaningless exhibition game loss?

Wildcat1st would start so many threads.

But St. John's is not Ky.

 

[crashtestdummy]

Walter McCarty says hello....

 

[azubuikefan]

You are absolutely right. I am totally wrong. I don’t know what the hell I was thinking. Cal is the best coach that we have ever had including better than Adolph F Rupp. Cal is fantastic. He does such a great job of focusing his kids on getting out of Lexington as fast as possible to go to their NBA careers. I mean that’s what college basketball is all about and going to the NBA that’s why we pay him $9 million a year so that he can get kids to the NBA. Winning basketball games for Kentucky and SEC and national championships are absolutely of no importance anymore. That’s right I forgot.

He has won as many championships as Pitino did and is less of a scumbag. He has more Final Fours as well. Dude could have left multiple times and chose not to, unlike Pitino. Glad you can admit you're wrong though!

 

[azubuikefan]

Walter McCarty says hello....

He would actually say "Hola". He coaches in Mexico now.

 

[nickhorvathsuxazz]

Recruiting is the most important job of a coach so Pitino’s failure to bring in equal talent is a big mark against him not an excuse. Plus he was at UofL so he had no excuse for his inability to recruit better. He had to resort to cheating to keep up with Cal and it brought on his own downfall.

Uh....have you been to their "campus"?

 

[clevenger32]

He has won as many championships as Pitino did and is less of a scumbag. He has more Final Fours as well. Dude could have left multiple times and chose not to, unlike Pitino. Glad you can admit you're wrong though!

I guess you didn’t read between the lines or have been following UK basketball for 60 years.

 

[crashtestdummy]

He would actually say "Hola". He coaches in Mexico now.

He is also one of the reasons Cal walks bowlegged these days....

 

[azubuikefan]

He is also one of the reasons Cal walks bowlegged these days....

Aye carumba!!!

 

[drbubba]

New York City?!!

 

[irishcat1965]

The revisionist history about Pitino on here has always been comical. After 1995, he was being heavily criticized that he couldn’t close the deal and win a NCAA title. Then he had a magical run in 1996 and had a hell of a run in 1997. He was a really good coach at UK but not the deity a lot of people think he was. Then he went to UL and was completely abused by Cal year after year. And at UL, he only made it to the second weekend of the NCAA 6 out of 12 years- and two of those years were vacated for cheating. Cal also ended Rick’s season in the NCAA Tournament twice in the years Pitino made it past the first weekend. And this coming from someone who is no fan of Cal- I have wanted him gone for a while.

 

[Skyguyb27]

That’s how blind they are. They are willing to disparage a current coach who has an unbelievable win percentage since coming on board. Yes, we have had a few rough years, but we also went on a crazy run his first 4-5 years which was next to impossible to keep up.

People are willing to worship a filthy individual like Pitino in an effort to diminish what Cal has done here.

A few rough years? Define a few.