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Pitino still has the magic that Cal lost years and years ago

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Jgrass34

Mar 3, 2024
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Pitino sets a new record leading 6TH team to the tourney. Dude is a legend.
Along the way, Cal got soft and decided to rely mostly on top notch talent to make his job easier.
Pitino is and has always been a master motivator and teacher of the game.
Cal inherited the NIL budget of Elon Musk, and still couldn't produce a top 10 team.
Yet, these 2 will sit side by side in the Hall of Fame. Doesn't really seem right to me.
 
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Jgrass34 said:
Pitino sets a new record leading 6TH team to the tourney. Dude is a legend.
Along the way, Cal got soft and decided to rely mostly on top notch talent to make his job easier.
Pitino is and has always been a master motivator and teacher of the game.
Cal inherited the NIL budget of Elon Musk, and still couldn't produce a top 10 team.
Yet, these 2 will sit side by side in the Hall of Fame. Doesn't really seem right to me.
Click to expand...
Cal has two weaknesses one he is not good at X and O's and two he refuses to change, Cal can't even get the top talent like he used to either.
 
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One of them was humbled multiple times while one of them has never thought anything was his fault even once in his entire life.

Pitino went to the Celtics and failed. Then he went to Louisville and ended up shamed and banished from college basketball, coaching in Europe.

Meanwhile two of Cal’s teams forfeited games but it was never his fault. He ran Kentucky into the ground but in his mind that was our fault. He won’t ever change because in his mind he is already better and smarter than everyone else and is incapable of being wrong.
 
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That “magic” is hard work.

Pitino got the hunger to win back being exiled to Greece. He knows what it’s like to be at the peak of the mountain and staring at that SOB from overseas. He’s hungry af. Cal is full on brownies.
 
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UKWildcats1987 said:
And pitino had more talent when he beat cal when pitino was at UK and cal was at UMass.

It's usually about who has the better players n sports.
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Yeah but UMass beat UK once that year and also played UK very close the other game. Pitino had waaaayyyyy more talent. As bad as cow became at UK, I’m still amazed at how successful he was before coming to Ky. I think his early success here was due to the amount of talent he had and feel strongly that he actually underperformed. It’s almost like he really was a good coach and then forgot how to be that same good coach.
 
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To be fair, the vast majority of Cal's long college coaching career has been legendary. It's only in recent years where its fallen off the cliff. Pitino is like some energizer bunny.
 
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Jgrass34 said:
Pitino sets a new record leading 6TH team to the tourney. Dude is a legend.
Along the way, Cal got soft and decided to rely mostly on top notch talent to make his job easier.
Pitino is and has always been a master motivator and teacher of the game.
Cal inherited the NIL budget of Elon Musk, and still couldn't produce a top 10 team.
Yet, these 2 will sit side by side in the Hall of Fame. Doesn't really seem right to me.
Click to expand...
I think the biggest difference that I have noticed between Rick and Cal is the motivation he drives in players. Look at some of the videos that have surfaced. Rick hasn’t changed in terms of expectations. Cal’s messages came across as whiny at times to our players.

On YouTube, I came across a video the other day where Bob Knight was interviewed by 60 minutes. He was an azz to everyone including his players and always demanded 1000% effort. He felt like that was the difference. Rick seems to still be able to get that and almost will his teams to win.

I love Pope but would like for him to develop at least some of this mentality. Especially since he came from Rick’s coaching tree.
 
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UKBB4Ever said:
Yet Cal owns Pitino.
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Just at Louisville. And honestly it’s because Pitino lost his mind when he returned to Louisville and we didn’t kiss his ring. Pitino always wants to be the biggest player and when Cal arrived he became second banana.

He’s one of the biggest reasons we don’t have an NBA team in Louisville. Couldn’t stand the competition. And he lost his mind, hired strippers to try to beat Cal. Had a compete meltdown in 2014 when he was up 6 with a few minutes to go. You’re seeing the Pitino again at St. John’s. I bet he would beat Cal like a rented mule right now
 
Pitino would be dead by now if he stayed at Kentucky. I'd argue he's where he is today, because he honed his craft at UK, and then got out before too long.
 
Cal has always wanted to recruit players that were going to go pro anyway and tell himself that they went pro and the whole family got rich because of him. Huge diffieence in him and Pitino. Cal can win when winning is his only priority. But it's only a priority when he's on the road and told he has no chance to win, hates the coach he's coaching against, etc.

Pitino is not world's better than Cal if Cal wanted to win as he did almost ever time he played Pitino (hates him) when he was at UK and Pitino at UL. He beat the guy over and over with Freshman.
 
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I'll never understand this boards obsession with this man. Guy left 30 years ago, went to a rival, did some heinous shit both personally and competitively, become the only coach to have a title vacated, came to Rupp and flipped the fans the bird. It's like men who can't stop dating crazy and keep coming back for more.

His resume may be impressive but the dude is an asshole.
 
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Pitino seems to understand that college basketball is a pro league now with NIL and the portal. In most cases you do not hire an unproven, 17 year old high school kid when you can pay an experienced grown man to do the job.

Pitino and Calipari are building their brand with their reality docuseries on the Vice TV Network: Red Storm Rising, and Razors Edge.
 
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ccukuk said:
Yeah but UMass beat UK once that year and also played UK very close the other game. Pitino had waaaayyyyy more talent. As bad as cow became at UK, I’m still amazed at how successful he was before coming to Ky. I think his early success here was due to the amount of talent he had and feel strongly that he actually underperformed. It’s almost like he really was a good coach and then forgot how to be that same good coach.
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Yeah, but that’s when he had Delk at PG. Pitino didn’t have his rotation close to being set at that time. That 96 UK team was also integrating at least three key pieces to the team. That 96 UMass team’s top 6/7 players played at least two complete seasons together. Not to mention, Cal had the best player (and center) in the country. That’s saying something in 1996. Tim Duncan was at WF.

Had those two teams played even two weeks later, UMass doesn’t beat them IMO. Furthermore, that F4 game wasn’t all that close honestly. UK had a double digit lead most of the second half. UMass made a good comeback, but the game was never really in question.
 
I know this is a bash Cal post and it’s cool to slurp Pitino again, but Cal absolutely handed Rick’s ass to him on a platter while at UK. And it was glorious. No revisionist history coming from me.

Louisville Pitino was 2-8 against UK Cal and 0-2 in the tournament. Cal owning Rick like that drove Rick to cheat at Louisville and cost him a title.

The excuse will be talent, but shouldn’t a master strategist and motivator be able to beat an apparent bum who happens to have better talent more than 20 percent of the time?
 
Lempface said:
I'll never understand this boards obsession with this man. Guy left 30 years ago, went to a rival, did some heinous shit both personally and competitively, become the only coach to have a title vacated, came to Rupp and flipped the fans the bird. It's like men who can't stop dating crazy and keep coming back for more.

His resume may be impressive but the dude is an asshole.
Click to expand...
Did you watch UK Basketball in the 1990s? Bringing the program back from probation was incredible. Those UK teams were ridiculously entertaining to watch. He also built the best team in program history and possibly the best in modern college basketball history. I couldn’t give a shit less about his personal endeavors. What he did here was amazing.
 
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Cowtown Cat said:
Did you watch UK Basketball in the 1990s? Bringing the program back from probation was incredible. Those UK teams were ridiculously entertaining to watch. He also built the best team in program history and possibly the best in modern college basketball history. I couldn’t give a shit less about his personal endeavors. What he did here was amazing.
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And then proceeded to destroy all that goodwill by going to a rival and making a laughing stock of the sport. Squirts on the ceiling? For real?
 
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Jgrass34 said:
Pitino sets a new record leading 6TH team to the tourney. Dude is a legend.
Along the way, Cal got soft and decided to rely mostly on top notch talent to make his job easier.
Pitino is and has always been a master motivator and teacher of the game.
Cal inherited the NIL budget of Elon Musk, and still couldn't produce a top 10 team.
Yet, these 2 will sit side by side in the Hall of Fame. Doesn't really seem right to me.
Click to expand...

They aren't similar in any way other than being Italian American coaches.
 
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