Do you know your Enemy? A beginner's guide to Kentucky Basketball's enemies

by Jared Quillen

So since it may or may not be true that Richard Pitino, son of Rick Pitino and current University of Florida assistant leaked Eric Bledsoe’s transcript to The New York Times, I thought it would be appropriate to take a look at a non-exhaustive list of Kentucky’s greatest enemies. There are several that I left off this list purely due to the fact that well, I have a job, a life, and a wife and today is our anniversary, so I’m mailing this one in. Perhaps we shall delve into this subject again later, but for now here you go.

Name: John Feinstein
Category: Sportswriter
Bio: Feinstein has written for Sports Illustrated and has written several books on college basketball. He has a degree from Duke and in no way hides his hatred for Kentucky in his writing. Google him and you’ll find plenty of statements on Kentucky.
Talent: Sucking
Quote: “Well, you know, a coach who I will not name, said to me not that long ago that he thinks John Calipari is, this are his words, ‘Is the most dangerous coach in college basketball.’
And I said ‘why’.
And he said ‘Because he’s a hell of a coach, he’s a nice guy, everybody likes him and he cheats his butt off.’”
And this was his comment on the 1978 National Championship game between Duke and Kentucky.
“The script written for this game was clear and neat: the big bad boys from Kentucky versus the nice boys from Duke.” – by John Feinstein, Forever’s Team, Villard Books, 1990, pg. 160.
Oh poor Duke. They had to play those mean ol’ Kentucky boys.

Name: Bobby Knight
Category: Coach
Bio: Coach Knight rose to prominence as a coach at Army where he coached Kentucky nemesis Mike Krsequiaziwewskiprkg who would later go on to coach Duke.
Talent: The chair throw.
Accomplishments: Winning a sh@t load of basketball games.
Quote: “We’ve gotten into this situation where integrity is really lacking and that’s why I’m glad I’m not coaching….You see we’ve got a coach at Kentucky who put two schools on probation and he’s still coaching. I really don’t understand that.”+
Story:
“The situation was, he was yelling at the officials from in front of my bench, in front of me,” [Coach Joe B] Hall says. “And as he turned to go back to the bench, I said, ‘Way to go, Bob, give ’em hell.’ Good-naturedly, because this was a friend of mine.
“And he turned and broke down, almost like an attack position, and he screamed at me, ‘Don’t ever talk to me during a game! Why don’t you coach your own motherfucking team?’
“And his facial expression was – what do I want to say? – distorted in anger so that I felt moved to do something. So, I followed him up and I said, ‘Hey, Bob, I didn’t mean anything by that. You know I hope you’re not upset by what I said because I didn’t mean anything by that. You know I hope you’re not upset by what I said because I didn’t mean anything personal to you. You’ve kicked our butts soundly, you’ve got a great team.’
“And I turned to walk away and he popped me with an open hand at the back of the neck. Pretty strongly. And I turned in response and he again broke down in attack mode and he said, ‘I didn’t mean anything by that, either.'”
(from Bob Knight: The Unauthorized Biography by Steve Delsohn and Mark Heisler, Simon & Schuster, 2006, pg. 95-96.

Name: Rick Pitino
Category: Former Coach
Talent: Philandering
Bio: Ricky P was almost given the head coaching job at Hawaii where he was an assistant at age 24 when he promised to help rat out the head coach who was involved in some violations if he could be the next coach. Ratting people out huh. Like father like son I guess. See Richard (Dick) Pitino below.

Name: Billy Gillispie
Category: Former Coach
Talent: Pissing off the entire state of Kentucky
Accomplisments: Making the NIT
Bio: Billy G is really good at drinking and driving and getting caught. He was once known as one of the fastest rising coaches in college basketball. Now he’s as untouchable as the “Bog of Eternal Stench.”

Name: Richard (Dick) Pitino
Category: Rival Assistant Coach
Bio: Honestly I don’t know a ton about him because until recently, I didn’t care about him. But I think he’s a legitimate son of Rick Pitino.
Talent: Pissing me off.
Accomplishments: None to date. But some day we may credit him with releasing Eric Bledsoe’s transcript and getting the NCAA to slap unwarranted sanctions upon UK.

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