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 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.
We hang in there with some pretty good basketball teams. (But) there is no substitute for experience. Young teams don't win against good teams.
We've never been a Top 20 team, at least not yet. Don't get carried away with beating Louisville. Any win in the Big East is great, but I wouldn't use it as a barometer.
If you go to the NIT and win a championship, that is special. That's the way we're looking at this.
The more you lose, the more positive you have to become. When you're winning, you can ride players harder because their self-esteem is high. If you are losing and you try to be tough, you're asking for dissension.
I'm at the stage of my career when it's not only about winning and developing players, it's about having fun. That's a void in your life right now, but it's something you're going to have here.
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.
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.
These are special fans. That was a great 14,000 fans - they were terrific. The NIT is a chance for some of our fans who don't have season tickets to help our team, which they did tremendously. I think our guys responded like there was a lot at stake, because there is a lot at stake.
Billy coached as perfect a game as I've ever seen in a national championship game. It reminded me of 1987 when he carried an average Providence team to the final weekend.
I've never beaten a team that played that well. This is the gutsiest, most phenomenally tough group that I've ever been around.
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.