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
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.
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 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.
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.
Why don't we just go to New York and we'll see you there?
You have to come away with the victory. You can't play this well and come away with a loss.
What I wanted to see was, were we proud of being in the NIT? We worked our tails off.
With seven new players, you're never going to have an experienced lineup. This is who we are. ... Our guys did a good job. The key is six weeks from now, how good can we become?
With seven new players, we're never going to have an experienced lineup. This is who we are. We're a very young and inexperienced basketball team. But they're willing to play hard.
What I've found in my life with our children is that often you can give them advice and tell them to eat the right things, stay in shape and wear sunscreen, and they don't really want to listen. But then they hear it from someone else, and they do listen.
I think I do regret leaving Kentucky because I took over a team with 15 wins banking everything on the Tim Duncan lottery, and once we didn't get Tim Duncan, I realized that leaving Kentucky was not a good move.
I'd tell any coach not to move for money... Stay at your job if you're really happy.
The other guys just caught lightning in a bottle with a great game.