Pressure Mounting On Kentucky’s Pitino
Rick Pitino received a Cat call to his Big Blue Line two weeks ago from a die-hard Kentucky fan who could pick up the coach’s talk show while driving in South Carolina.
After the caller said he had twice broken down film of the Cats’ game with Vanderbilt and offered some quick advice, Pitino signaled a quick time-out and offered some therapy of his own.
“Why don’t you go out, buy a bottle of wine, get your wife, have a nice Italian dinner and then listen to some Frank Sinatra tapes,” Pitino said.
This week, he received a handwritten letter from the same fan.
“Coach,” it started, “I followed your advice, bought a bottle of wine, had a nice Italian meal and listened to several tapes of the Chairman of the Board, followed by Tony Bennett.
“It didn’t help.”
The fan proceeded to tell Pitino he had taken the intrastate to watch the Atlanta Westside-Thomson, Ga., game and then offered his assessment on senior prospects Ricky Moore and Vonteego Cummings, who have already committed to UConn and Pitt, before getting into a rundown of underclassmen.
“Here, I thought I was helping,” Pitino said, “but some Kentucky fans can be total wackos. I want to tell them to get a life.”
The only thing most UK fans want is a sixth national championship.
The newest NCAA title banner on the walls of Memorial Hall is dated 1978 and the fans are getting edgy.
Pitino is arguably one of the five best coaches in the country. When he left the Knicks for this job six years ago, he inherited a traditionbound but scandal-plagued program. The Wildcats have been eligible for the tournament the past three years and in that time, Pitino has coached UK to one Final Four in 1993 and come within a classic last-second shot by Duke’s Christian Laettner of reaching another.
“I knew, eventually, there was going to be pressure to win a national championship when I took this job,” Pitino said. “It’s already there. It’s just something you have to live with.
“If this were a best-of-five, bestof-seven like the NBA, I’d like our chances. But the NCAA Tournament is so unpredictable. With college basketball, there’s always an element of luck involved. A great shot, an official’s call, a player like Jamal Mashburn fouling out, and it can be over. Who knows what might have happened two years ago in the semifinals against Michigan if Mash had been on the floor at the end or Dale Brown hadn’t gotten injured midway through the second half?
“I think it will happen here. But I’m not going to let it consume me. I don’t want to be like Bobby Bowden of Florida State, who said he felt his life was incomplete without one. I’d rather be like Tom Osborne of Nebraska. Stick with it. It will come.”