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Pitino recruiting misses...

ShortCreek

Three-Star Poster
Jul 17, 2008
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Martin (Butler), Hollingsworth (WKU), Goodin (Xavier), Beverly (NC State), Holmann (Miss St) etc, etc.

I was always a huge Pitino fan but damn! Hollingsworth’s performance last night was epic. All-time WKU freshman scorer.

This reinforces my belief that there are many coaches that can get the job done for us. If we make a good hire, the next guy may very well do a lot better than Rick did here.
 
I would rather recruit from the top 25 list which we will never do again with our Adidas millstone but Pitino was horrific with local recruiting. He would pass on guys like you named and more, even future All Americans and then we wound up with walk on duds like Perrin Johnson or buffoons like Derek Caracter.
 
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The one from the past that really stung was Chris Lofton. We sort of recruited him. Had we actually offered him he would’ve crawled to UofL. Instead he went to Tenn where he was SEC POY averaging over 20pts his junior year.
 
The one from the past that really stung was Chris Lofton. We sort of recruited him. Had we actually offered him he would’ve crawled to UofL. Instead he went to Tenn where he was SEC POY averaging over 20pts his junior year.
The story is that Lofton wanted to play football his senior year but Pitino said if he did he would end his recruitment and apparently that is exactly what happened. Can you imagine a back court with Lofton and another Pitino f*ck up situation, Rajon Rondo. Pitino was such an ass.
 
The one that bugged me most was offering Rondo a walk on spot. That young man grew up a UofL fan and wanted to play for the Cards, but he wanted a scholarship too. If I remember right, he also offered a walk on spot to Chris Lofton.

Just wow. o_O
 
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Wow, I forgot about Lofton. And, Rondo - damn that one really hurt! I saw Lofton play in high school a handful of times - that kid could really stroke it!
 
I actually thought a program/AD would roll the dice and hire him. I predicted as much. If I were Pitt, I think I’d hire him. But, I may have been way off - he may in fact be done. Only time will tell.
 
Definitely more misses than hits IMO.

But in hindsight, we don't know how they'd have turned out if we got them after RP did his usual mind games, body fat, and tweeking-their-game chit.

Or, we may have had B2B NC's. Who knows.

The Drama King if ever their was one.
 
I’m under the assumption that Tyra will be named AD on Monday and have a new coach hired and on the job by this time next week? Agree?
 
He has no bargaining power.

Will his ego let him go to a smaller school, in a smaller conference, for a smaller salary? If he wants to coach again he may have to.

If he truly "loves" coaching, and not just the attention that goes with it, he would.

How much money does he need at this point of his life?
 
I’m under the assumption that Tyra will be named AD on Monday and have a new coach hired and on the job by this time next week? Agree?
That is the way it sounded. I have a feeling Tyra will be named AD, Mack will be hired and Walz contract will be extended all before the final four. That would be one hell of a week.
 
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Does anyone think there are actually multiple candidates for this job? Who thinks Mack is a done deal? Will there be a huge rabbit pulled out of the Tyra hat? A dark horse we are not even thinking about? Going to be interesting.
 
I forgot about that. As I recall if we took Rondo then Lofton would have come here or vs versa. Anyway Rick sold it all out for that powerhouse Telfair. There were lots of misses. He skipped on a lot of the local guys who were talented, but not top recruits, instead took projects like Stockman. It had everything to do with coach ability. Pitino has said more than once the guys from over seas were more receptive to coaching. But we did have some great guys throughout Pitino’s run. Russ being my all time favorite.
 
What a super timely and relevant thread! :rolleyes:

Interesting that half the responders are posters telling everyone that they need to “just get over pitino and TJ being fired” and then they get into a circle jerk of “remember when” negativity ?
 
What a super timely and relevant thread! :rolleyes:

Interesting that half the responders are posters telling everyone that they need to “just get over pitino and TJ being fired” and then they get into a circle jerk of “remember when” negativity ?

I agree with you. Two things:

1) The program was quickly brought back to relevancy with Rick at the helm. Going to 3 Final Fours and winning a title was a lot of fun. March was fun ever year, I could realistically pick Louisville to go far in my bracket without feeling like a total homer. Those were great years. Before anyone says it, I have a DVD that says 2013 National Championship game on it and when I watched it the other day Louisville won at the end.

2) Yeah things got bad at the end with Rick. No need to re-write history because of it. Basketball with Rick and football with Charlie got the program into the ACC. All the programs are elite because of Jurich's hires. That's what happened and pointing out every misfire during all the good stuff doesn't erase all the good stuff.
 
That was absolutely unnecessary. He was a walk-on. What were your stats when you played for UofL?
Chill out. The point is with a coach making what Pitino did we should not have been relying on walk on players that are not even Bellarmine level. We should have been loaded with talent during that time but as you know, Pitino was foolish. Sure he can coach but if you do not have top talent you are still limited.
 
What a super timely and relevant thread! :rolleyes:

Interesting that half the responders are posters telling everyone that they need to “just get over pitino and TJ being fired” and then they get into a circle jerk of “remember when” negativity ?

I agree with you. Two things:

1) The program was quickly brought back to relevancy with Rick at the helm. Going to 3 Final Fours and winning a title was a lot of fun. March was fun ever year, I could realistically pick Louisville to go far in my bracket without feeling like a total homer. Those were great years. Before anyone says it, I have a DVD that says 2013 National Championship game on it and when I watched it the other day Louisville won at the end.

2) Yeah things got bad at the end with Rick. No need to re-write history because of it. Basketball with Rick and football with Charlie got the program into the ACC. All the programs are elite because of Jurich's hires. That's what happened and pointing out every misfire during all the good stuff doesn't erase all the good stuff.

I’m certainly not rewriting history with my comments. I merely pointed out a recruiting deal that I didn’t like when it happened. That doesn’t take away all the good. Unfortunately for us and Pitino many of our accomplishments were erased at the end. As in the banners for 2012 & 2013. Because the point is to win championships.

But he got us back to relevance and I do appreciate that. I was a huge Pitino fan. And to this day I still believe he had nothing to do with what occurred, but he’s responsible for his program. And with the two issues so close to each other was a major issue, we needed to go in a different direction. Jurich was a political firing, shouldn’t have been fired.
 
Russ is up there on that list for sure. My favorite Pitino players were Reece Gaines (technically a Crum player, but played for both), Larry O'Bannon, Taquan Dean, Francisco Garcia, and Ellis Myles.
Interesting Cue Card in that two of them (Gaines and Myles) were Crum recruits and another two (Dean and Garcia) were players that approached Pitino and required no recruiting effort at all. And of course, O'Bannon was begging to come here and also required no recruiting by Pitino.
 
Say what you will, but Pitino was no longer the guy that American kids wanted to play for! Look at how weak his last recruiting classes were. And then there was the lack of heart and poor basketball IQ of his recruits. Then his failed experiment with all the international recruits. Let us hope we can get a coach that can recruit, win and be a man of honor also.
 
Say what you will, but Pitino was no longer the guy that American kids wanted to play for! Look at how weak his last recruiting classes were. And then there was the lack of heart and poor basketball IQ of his recruits. Then his failed experiment with all the international recruits. Let us hope we can get a coach that can recruit, win and be a man of honor also.
Pitino's International House of Projects (IHOP) was just a concession by him resulting from the fact that he had no access to the top high school recruits in America. Another Pitino fail.
 
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Reminds me of how Tom Crean would chase a 5 star kid out of the DMB area over a 3 star Indianapolis kid who would end up just as good. Some coaches just dont get it.
 
Didn't realize this was a Pitino bashing party post. I don't wish to pile on like that. I only said I was really disappointed with him not offering Rondo and Lofton full rides. He was and still is an elite coach and I still feel like the university puppets made a very hasty knee jerk reaction decision to fire him and Jurich. Since it can't be undone, I'm now in wait and see mode before passing any type of judgement on the permanent head coach decision once it's made.
 
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I never minded missing on some of the better recruits, but only if you can get the right next tier guys that fit your needs after missing.
 
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I will always remember the 2005 and 2012 Final Four teams for being completely average talent wise, but the man could do more with less than any coach.

Louisville since the 1990's hasn't been had that many highly rated recruits. I think it would be interesting to see how many of the highly ranked guys actual worked out. Seems like most of them were either busts or problem children.

It will be interesting to see how the new coach recruits.
 
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I will always remember the 2005 and 2012 Final Four teams for being completely average talent wise, but the man could do more with less than any coach.

Louisville since the 1990's hasn't been had that many highly rated recruits. I think it would be interesting to see how many of the highly ranked guys actual worked out. Seems like most of them were either busts or problem children.

It will be interesting to see how the new coach recruits.
I don't know cycle. In 2012 we had 3 McD AA's plus Gorgei, Kuric, Chris Smith and Russ Smith. I would love to have that average talent today. I'd love to have the talent from the 2005 team actually.
 
The one from the past that really stung was Chris Lofton. We sort of recruited him. Had we actually offered him he would’ve crawled to UofL. Instead he went to Tenn where he was SEC POY averaging over 20pts his junior year.

First, we offered his as a junior but he wanted to wait. We also offer Lorenzo Wade and it was Pitino’s patented first to take gets the scholarship. At that time Lofton wasn’t heavily thought of because everyone thought he had to be a point guard due to his size. At the Kentucky Derby Festival classic he was dreadful because he play point guard. During the Kentucky Indiana All-Star game they played him at shooting guard and he went nuts. That is when the light came on how good he could be playing two instead of the one. At that time however it was too late because he was going to Tennessee.
 
Thanks for making my point. He played quite a few key minutes for us for that 1.5 ppg. Played in 80 games and 560 minutes. Even started a few.

If your point is 7 MPG for a career and 1 PPG are key minutes your point is a rather weak one.

He didn't play any key minutes. He started a few out of conference games against teams UofL could have beaten if they trotted out the women's team.

I have to ask you - is Karen Sypher your mom, or ex?
 
If your point is 7 MPG for a career and 1 PPG are key minutes your point is a rather weak one.

He didn't play any key minutes. He started a few out of conference games against teams UofL could have beaten if they trotted out the women's team.

I have to ask you - is Karen Sypher your mom, or ex?
Actually he played a lot of key minutes which you would know had you actually watched the games. Based on your comments however its possible you had not been born yet though. For a program like ours to rely on a walk on with his lack of size and skills to play that many minutes and key minutes is sad. Not a knock on him but definitely a knock on Pitino. I am thinking your mom might be Katina Powell meaning you have no clue who your dad is. Must be tough on father's day.
 
Actually he played a lot of key minutes which you would know had you actually watched the games. Based on your comments however its possible you had not been born yet though. For a program like ours to rely on a walk on with his lack of size and skills to play that many minutes and key minutes is sad. Not a knock on him but definitely a knock on Pitino. I am thinking your mom might be Katina Powell meaning you have no clue who your dad is. Must be tough on father's day.


The dude was the 11th or 12th man occasionally pressed into action when guys were hurt or if Rick felt compelled to motivate one of the real players - he was the standard 11th or 12th man at the college level. Palacios did get hurt ALOT. So did Padgett. And so did Brian Johnson.

He had the standard 11th/12th man career. But never has 1.5 PPG and 7 MPG been meant more to a program. Ever.
 
  • OFFERS for Taveion Hollingsworth: WKU, E Tenn State, EKU, Morehead State, Winthrop
  • For Quentin Goodin: Florida, U of L, Miami, WKU, Xavier
  • For Kelan Martin: Butler, St. Louis, Texas Tech, Xavier, LPT
  • For Braxton Beverly: NC State, Ball State, Belmont, Cleveland State, Lehigh
  • For Aric Holmann: Mississippi State, Auburn, Chattanooga, FGCU, Northern KY
I can imagine the raised eyebrows in this space had Pitino gone after most of these guys alongside THOSE offers...
 
Offers for McMahon? But he gave him a scholly didn't he? You can't always look at the others that don't see the talent, you gotta do your job and earn the $7 million or so you're making. These kids weren't in Idaho, they were in our own backyard!

Kelan Martin scored over 2,000 pts, inexcusable! He recruited Q so he had to have seen Martin play countless times. I was a Pitino guy, but when I watched Hollingsworth score 30 freakin points vs Oklahoma State the other night I'm thinking damn! Crooked assistant coaches wasn't the only thing Rick fell asleep on, it was recruiting too!
 
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Shorty, shorty... I thought the narrative this year is that our roster had Top Ten talent? And that supposedly was what DP squandered.

If Pitino fell asleep on recruiting, why did we dump DP? And why were we worried about DP's recruiting? What am I missing?...
 
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