|
Sidelines Kalani Simpson |
Pitino has many
clones but few equals
LAHAINA, Maui » Pitino. He was the original. The first.Soon, every school wanted one. Every up-and-coming young coach wanted to be him. They were everywhere. Like clones.
But none pulled it off the way Rick Pitino could.
There was John Calipari, perhaps the closest, but then came NBA burnout, then scandal. Later, there was Quin Snyder, who just went straight to scandal.
These "image coaches" are everywhere. They have the hair and the suits and the mannerisms and the attitude down cold. All of them trying for the same thing.
None of them is the real thing.
Pitino.
It's amazing. So many of these college basketball coaches cast themselves as characters. Bob Knight is the throw-a-chair-on-the-court character. Rick Majerus was the stocky balding funnyman character. Al McGuire was the "character" character.
Now those guys had originality.
How many coaches out there are just playing Pitino?
And why Pitino?
"His incredible charisma, tireless work ethic, captivating speaking skills and widespread appeal not only mesmerize the Cardinal faithful, but have the collegiate basketball world abuzz as well," the Louisville basketball media guide (available in hard cover) reads.
Well.
I guess you could see the appeal.
Here yesterday at the EA Sports Maui Invitational, Pitino brought his Cardinals onto the Lahaina Civic Center court and the Louisville fans went crazy.
They knew they had the original. They knew that with all the coaches out there in this attack of the clones, they had the real thing.
HE STARTED HERE, at Hawaii, a grad assistant for UH, then they even paid him, full-time. That is mentioned on his official rŽsumŽ. (No mention of his being interim head coach.)
And maybe that is why he has been so successful while so many of his imitators have eventually made career-killer moves under a spotlight's heat. Maybe he learned a couple of tough career/life lessons early -- in the mid-'70s Hawaii had internal strife and external trouble with the NCAA -- when nobody was watching.
Maybe he'd already learned more than most by the time the legend began.
Boston U. at age 25. And then Providence and the Final Four.
The Knicks, when Ewing was young. (Er. Young-er.)
And then back to college. Kentucky. Of course.
The Celtics. Ouch.
"Larry Bird isn't walking through that door."
(See? That's how you know you've got one of the greats. Even in his meltdown moment, this is what he comes up with. June Jones gave a pretty good performance the other night, but it wasn't in the same league as "Larry Bird isn't walking through that door.")
And then back to college. Louisville. Of course.
Knicks. Celtics. Kentucky. Louisville.
Pitino on storied programs: "The tradition schools go through periods of a down cycle, but they always come back because of their reputation and their name."
The rest of them have a can of mousse and slicked-back hair, but the life they all dream about is his.
YESTERDAY AT THE Maui Invitational we saw it. Rabid red fans whipped into a frenzy. The running, sometimes trapping, up-tempo play. Louisville's Ellis Myles tumbled into the front row on the opening tip.
"They put so much pressure on you," Steve Alford, Iowa's coach, would say.
It was a marathon and a sprint. It was a suicide drill with 3-point shots.
This was Pitino basketball. This was what all the wannabes wanted to be.
There he was in the middle of it, gesturing, directing, getting on officials with that Al Pacino voice.
Being Pitino.
But then the Cardinals went cold. Cold as ice. Cold as the Lahaina Civic's air conditioning.
"We did not get as much enjoyment out of passing as we should have," Pitino would say after the game. He looked downcast. He looked like Dracula.
"I don't think we're ready to play the pace we want to play yet," he would say.
On the other side was Alford. His guys were running, dunking, rebounding, blocking every shot. In the end, the Hawkeyes would come back. In the end, the Hawkeyes would win.
Officially, he is a Bob Knight disciple. But Alford is young and up-and-coming and highly touted. He has a famous name and had a relatively quick trip to a big-time job.
And his hair is perfect.
He can claim blue-collar roots, but even unintentionally, this is an "image coach" if there ever was one.
And yesterday, he beat the original.
The Hawkeye fans went crazy. They just knew their man was the real thing. Every school wants one. They were living the dream.