Denouement–or Renaissance for Pitino ?
Posted by frankpos on April 24, 2010
“What (Coach Denny Crum) lost at the end – he never lost a step coaching – he lost the eye of the tiger in recruiting.”
U of L Coach Rick Pitino (as quoted in C-J in October, 2009)
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Coach Rick Pitino in happier times...
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Outside of the Cards rocking Freedom Hall big, one last time, in a spectacular send off
not much has gone well for U of L basketball since T-Will, Earl, and gang rocketed to the top of the college basketball world
and then crashed shy of even a Final Four.
First…the bombshell Karen Sypher “incident” and continuing trial.
Key recruiter Rick, Jr. departs suddenly for Florida.
Then, Fab Melo (a lock by most accounts) goes to Syracuse.
Followed by Jeremy Tyler foregoing his final year in high school to go pro overseas,
Michael Chandler de-committing,
and now Marquis Teague (another lock until a month ago) picks UK over us
without ever setting foot on UK’s campus.
And nearby, Calipari is re-loading Big Blue with 5 star blue chips with seeming ease.
Hmmm….
Is it the style of play? With Calipari’s dribble-drive offense being the current craze?
Is it the style of coaching? Old school, hard-ass Pitino vs. Let- ‘em- play Cal.
Is it the loss of a key recruiter? Rick , Jr. was very close in age to guys he was recruiting and obviously could relate well with them.
Is it the NBA- type bling and media fawning? LeBron James, Drake and World Wide Wes are tough to recruit against. Top recruits nowadays are less concerned about winning championships than one-and-done-ing it to the NBA ASAP. UK only got to the Elite 8 with their star-power freshmen BUT they are sending 4-5 players to the NBA this year.
Or, is it age? Pitino is 57, Calapari is 51. The great coaches seldom achieved great heights again after 55…
Is it something we as U of L fans even need to be concerned about at all? After all, NONE of the four teams in this year’s Final Four had a one-and done player. NONE.
Pitino has been burned by the pursuing one-and-doners like Telfair and has adjusted his recruiting to focus more attention on players on the next tier down, that will stay 2-4 years.
Will this type of recruiting focus and different style of play and coaching produce more results–and championships– than the one-and-done style of UK? For Pitino, is this the beginning of the inevitable downward trend experienced by all coaches as they age past 55? Or… is Rick on target with his style and still will produce Final 4′s– and a National Championship–during his expected last 5 – 7 years of coaching?
Those are the key questions in the great local and national college basketball soap opera that will unfold over the next several years as Pitino and Calipari continue their battles….
Two of the better — and more rational — comments on this situation and recruiting wars…
http://www.cardchronicle.com/2010/4/22/1436272/what-is-rick-pitino-supposed-to-do
http://www.cardchronicle.com/2010/4/22/1437699/gasoline-meet-fire
