As a coach and a salesman, don't sell Rick Pitino short

Sporting News, The, March 17, 1997 by Lonnie Wheeler

And so Rick Pitino's midseason task was thus defined. He felt, perhaps hopefully, that the Wildcats could still be competitive on the national level, but it would take some time to retool, to restructure all the screens that had been designed for their most improvisational player, to tinker with the press to compensate for the loss of the quickest athlete that Bill Keightley had ever seen. That's why Kentucky's 58-46 victory over Vandy, however unspectacular, was so gratifying.

Afterward, a twinkle-eyed New Yorker much younger than the tired man who had been at the mall the night before declared, "It's been a great day. First, Derek had highly successful surgery. And we played defense as if we had not eaten in seven days." At one point of the evening, Mercer, known for his reserve, slid belly-down across the baseline in pursuit of a loose ball prompting Pitino to dash over and give him three brisk pats on the part facing up. ("I think that's the first time since he's been here that he's dived after the ball," senior Anthony Epps said. "That can really get a team going, when somebody like Ron Mercer takes off his tuxedo and starts diving for the ball.") The excited coach talked on that night about the energy required by his team to make up for "losing maybe the best player in the country. Statistically, this is like the Magic losing Penny Hardaway," he said. "But we're still Kentucky. It's not like we're David and Vanderbilt is Goliath. We still have players on scholarship."

And they are University of Kentucky players, which counts considerably. As the wound began to close and the 'Cats climbed the hill again, stomping to road wins at Arkansas and Florida and crushing Georgia at home, it was ap" parent that the name on the shirt had much to do with the team's remarkable constitution. Were it not Kentucky, first of all, the coach would almost surely have taken the $30 million offered last summer by the New Jersey Nets. And were it not Kentucky, surrender may have gotten a foothold on the spot where defiance took up the defense.

"There is definitely something about Kentucky players playing harder--especially if you're from Kentucky," said Mills, a home-grown, second-generation Wildcat whose 3-point shooting off the bench was becoming increasingly handy. "If you're from Kentucky, you'll do anything to wear those colors. I had scholarship offers from Georgia and a few others, but there was no decision to make. When coach Pitino said I could walk on and give it a shot, I jumped at the chance. Wouldn't you?"

"It's up to us to keep the tradition rolling," said Epps, a battling point guard who grew up in Lebanon, Ky., and also turned down Division I scholarships to walk on at UK. "We don't want to give our team a bad name by not playing hard."

"I think we're all about tradition," said Pitino, who appreciates such a thing all the more if he can sell it to his players.

As coaches go, Pitino is an unrivaled salesman. His best performance in this role may have been last year, when he had to persuade a team of draft choices to donate their stardom to the common cause. Seldom, if ever, has a college basketball team consolidated so much talent--Mercer didn't even start!--so generously. The best thing about the '96 national champions, for goodness sake, was their passing. And maybe their coach.