I am getting ready to write a positive article about Rick Pitino. No, trust me, I am not sick, deranged, or delusional. As we all know, Rick Pitino will bring his (over rated) Louisville Cardinals into Rupp Arena to face our beloved Kentucky Wildcats on December 31. And like we have heard the last couple of trips Pitino has brought the Cards, a familiar story will start to repeat the rounds:
Should Rick Pitino’s banner be taken down from Rupp Arena?
Trust me, I get it. Kentucky fans have no love for Rick Pitino and even I admit that Pitino jokes make up about 38.7% of the jokes on this site. A recent appearance by ESPN’s GameDay showed the disdain Kentucky fans have for all things Pitino related:
But strip his banner from the rafters at Rupp? Let’s nip this in the bud. No, no, and no. First, the man put UK in position to win three straight national titles from 1996-1998, and if not for an injury to Derek Anderson would have been responsible for kickstarting back to back to back titles.
But it’s just not that. Kentucky’s opponent Saturday is the Indiana Hoosiers who saw their program decimated after the Kelvin Sampson era and ensuing probation. Indiana hired the right man for the program, Tom Crean, to rebuild the program, but it has been a slow, torturous task for Crean.
Crean is in his fourth season of rebuilding and so far his Hoosiers have posted records of 6-25, 10-21, and 12-20 for a record of 28-66. Yes, the Hoosiers are off to an 8-0 start this year, but they were off to a 7-1 start last season. Regardless, even with the 8-0 start, Indiana is still no where close to where they used to be. Most polls have them ranked between 31-39 in the country. Kentucky fans lambasted Tubby Smith for losing 10 games and called him “10 loss Tubby”. Well, Indiana fans are estatic about “10 win Crean”.
And face it. Indiana fans would lap up a Billy Gillispie 40-27 mark over two seasons with a NIT and NCAA appearance. Like Crean, Rick Pitino was charged wiwth the task of rebuilding a college basketball dynasty after the effects of probation ravaged the program. Eddie Sutton’s last team went 13-19 and worse seasons were predicted for Pitino. But when Rick Pitino took the Kentucky job, it was apparent that he was not going to settle for anything of a lesser standard for Kentucky.
Instead, Pitino turned in a miraculous 14-14 campaign his first season at the helm and followed that up with a 22-6 and a 29-7 season and an Elite Eight appearance. ALL within three seasons. Let’s look at that. In three seasons at Indiana, Tom Crean went 28-66. In three seasons at Kentucky, Rick Pitino went 65-27 and landed in the Elite Eight.
Nothing against Crean, but Pitino’s rebuilding of the Kentucky program is unprecedented. Keep in mind that Pitino had to recruit the old fashioned way as well. Without email. Or text mesages. Or cell phones to keep in touch with the recruits. He did it the old fashioned way. Flying his ass across the country and knocking on doors and making his recruiting pitches without Kentucky fans “assisting” on Twitter, Facebook, and the like.
We can say what we want about Rick Pitino now. But as we face the Hoosiers and look at the last three years they have went through, let’s never, ever talk again about stripping Rick Pitino’s banner from the rafters of Rupp Arena ever again.
Now, I return this site to Pitino bashing in 5 …4…3….2…. and 1 ….