Rick Pitino
Rick Pitino
Richard Andrew "Rick" Pitino is an American basketball coach. Since 2001, he has been the head coach at the University of Louisville, and coached the Cardinals to the 2013 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Championship. As a college head coach, Pitino has also served at Boston University, Providence College and the University of Kentucky, leading that program to the NCAA championship in 1996. In addition to his college coaching career, Pitino also served two stints in the NBA, coaching the...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionCoach
Date of Birth18 September 1952
CityNew York City, NY
CountryUnited States of America
We just wanted to lock down defensively. We made great defensive plays down the stretch. Inexperienced teams find a way to lose, tonight we found a way to win.
I've tried to talk to him about it. He's not playing with Francisco, Larry (O'Bannon) and Ellis. And they know every little move that each other makes. He's playing with all new people. They don't know each other. He's got to let the game come to him and trust his teammates. And the more he goes inside to (center) David (Padgett) the more open shots he's going to get.
The whole NIT we're playing great defense, that's what we're trying to stress. We talked about, we can't hang our heads because we had injuries, we can't hang our heads because we're young. If you can head to the NIT Final Four, it means you're playing good basketball.
I've never beaten a team that played that well. This is the gutsiest, most phenomenally tough group that I've ever been around.
We've got to stop Gray inside. Padgett really played well against him and Brian and Terrance aren't the offensive threat David is, so we're going to have to get a good game out of Palacios and our two centers just to contain Gray.
Nobody we've played this season, ... has come with this much size, this much talent and this much experience. North Carolina and Georgia Tech probably have the most overall talent. Now that they're healthy, they're probably believing they can do it.
It's a big hindrance. If we were playing in the Maui Classic, we'd be in seriously bad shape. But we're not. We're starting at home. We think we can withstand these injuries.
Basketball is my passion, and I love it, and I love to see my players succeed. I'm here for them and my children. That's my passion.
They do such a good job of penetrating. We got beat constantly off the dribble. It was a matter of a team much more athletic than us. Our style is a very athletic style being played by not very athletic people.
This group is inexperienced, but once they start practicing together more, I think the sky is the limit to how good they can become. We've won all our games not because of who we played but because we've played them all at home. It will be interesting to see how they handle going into this environment.
I think Connecticut is a very easy game. They're playing to be number one in the country. It's senior afternoon. It's on national television. It should be an easy game.
He's playing on one leg. We're a banged-up team, a young team. Our backs are to the wall a little bit in this league.
Hicks is inch-for-inch, pound-for-pound the toughest player in basketball. We played really good defense against a good ball club.
Francisco Garcia could have been a high draft choice last year, probably in the 20s. He's the best wing player I've ever coached. But he's done it the right way. He knew he had to work on his body to become a good pro. When he goes into the pros, he'll be physically ready.