The End of a Golden Era in College Basketball's Greatest & Fiercest Rivalry

Note: Yes, this is a history blog, but it also traces the history of things that I care about; therefore, what follows are my thoughts, hastily written in the moment, on the history of UK-UL's basketball rivalry and what was perhaps that rivalry's golden era that likely closed today with the firing of Rick Pitino.

I realized that I bled blue and did so before I was five years old. I can recall sitting on the floor watching Kentucky basketball games with my dad who was situated in his chair with his beverage of choice in one hand and the remote in the other as he shouted at the television. Of course I was indoctrinated by my family's preference for Kentucky despite having grown up in Louisville.

Throughout the 1980s, the Wildcat fan witnessed college basketball's winningest program slip behind Duke and Louisville and then came the 3-year ban, essentially the death penalty after Kentucky was found to be paying a recruit's father and slapped with academic fraud. What seemed like the end of basketball in the Commonwealth as we knew it (Louisville is, of course, a small nugget of the great Commonwealth), turned out to be a blessing in disguise as the university's basketball program was purged of all the muck that had built up during Eddie Sutton's tenure as head coach. Still, few of us thought so highly of Rick Pitino, the program's new coach, a largely unknown Italian or whatever he was from the Northeast. Within a matter of two years, Pitino had done the unthinkable with a team consisting of native Kentuckians that no program in the nation wanted. "The Unforgettables" nearly pulled off the unthinkable in knocking off Duke in the 1992 NCAA tournament had it not been for that last second buzzer beater shot by . . . oh and thanks CBS for reminding us about it EVERY March. I can remember being on an emotional roller coaster as I jumped on my bed watching the last seconds and then dejection. The hurt that loss inflicted deep within the hearts of Kentucky fans was an indication of how far we had come in such a short period a time.

Kentucky was back in the conversation among the nation's marquee basketball programs. Pitino was at the top of his game, a close tie with Coach K as the best coach in college basketball in the 1990s (I would argue better given how far he had to come as Duke had already established itself since the late 1970s.) He took us to the Final Four again, and again, and again. In the midst of the incredible ride, Kentucky won the NCAA title in 1996 with what was undoubtedly Pitino's best team to date, and arguably one of the best teams in college basketball history (even better than any of Coach John Calipari's teams during his tenure at UK). Then, Pitino was gone.

Since 1993, every UK fan had worried year in and year out that the NBA would come and pilfer Coach P. The lure of being back home in the Northeast, the glitter and glitz of professional basketball, and winning an NBA title was too much to resist. Sure Kentucky fans were hurt; however, nobody could fault him for doing what he did. Surely not I. Pitino had made my middle and high school years memorable (I thoroughly enjoyed every minute of the trash talk I engaged in with my Louisville schoolmates at school) and I was thankful for what he did and for what he left the program with--a team ready to win the next NCAA title and a great assistant coach--Tubby Smith--ready to fill his chair. Pitino could have retired at Kentucky and been made governor if he had wanted the post!

When he failed at Boston, we felt bad for him. But when Pitino came back to Kentucky, his plane landed not in Lexington, but in Louisville. Instantly the Kentucky fan base was split. I chose not to bad mouth and loathe him. I maintained my appreciation and respect for the man who restored Kentucky to its rightful place on top of college basketball. I embraced the fact that the rivalry was now going to be extra-heated and made even more special every time Kentucky won although I knew it would not be easy to do so. Despite Pitino being the better coach, he had to rebuild a program that had fallen over time as Louisville's Denny Crum saw the game pass him by. In the beginning of the Tubby-Pitino era, the edge in the rivalry remained with Kentucky. Then, things shifted quickly in Louisville's favor as Pitino worked his magic in his new adopted hometown. Meanwhile, Tubby wore out his welcome as he failed to develop players and that NCAA title he had won in 1998 seemed to be more credited to Pitino, as it was his team, rather than Tubby himself. Kentucky's star waned further in the "Billy G" years as Louisville supplanted Kentucky as the Commonwealth's superior team.

Then came 2009. It was time to flush the muck that was Billy Gillispie out of the system and to begin anew. I was not pleased one bit to hear John Calipari was to be our new coach. Sure, I thought he was dirty. There was a violation at UMass involving Marcus Camby which resulted in a vacation of wins and suspicion that possibly something unseemly was at work in Memphis where Cal went next. With Cal at the helm in Lexington, I knew Kentucky would be a 30+ win team; however, I dreaded the consequences of what might come with him. Let's face it, we all remembered the shame of 1989 and feared it would happen again (and to be honest, many fans still have those lingering fears of Cal--even though he has never been directly implicated in any NCAA violations at UMass, Memphis, or Kentucky).

Rick Pitino flips off Kentucky fans at Rupp Arena

With Cal and Pitino now on opposite sides of the court in the UK-UL rivalry, it quickly became the best rivalry in college basketball (I'm sure Duke and North Carolina's basketball fans would challenge that assertion). From the beginning, Cal had the upper hand on Pitino, as Kentucky got the best players and dominated the series. As Cal changed the face of basketball, a process which was already underway before he arrived in Lexington, it forced other coaches to adapt. It appears Pitino resisted as long as he could; however, as Duke, Kansas, and North Carolina changed to adapt to the new style, I am sure the pressure was too great on Pitino. I believe the entire hell Louisville finds itself in today is due in part to the pressure brought to bear on Coach P by Louisville fans and boosters to keep up with and beat Kentucky. The other part, and perhaps even larger part of the puzzle, is a direct consequence of the culture that has permeated the university for the past two decades under the greedy and immoral leadership of the current (hopefully not for too much longer) Athletic Director Tom Jurich and for some of that time, the former President James Ramsey where athletics was privileged over academics.

Had Pitino stuck with the coaching style that made him a Hall of Famer, I believe he would still be the coach at Louisville today. Quite frankly, when it comes to the x's and o's of basketball, Pitino is the best or a close tie with Duke's Coach K. Pitino is a much better coach than Coach Cal. Pitino is perhaps the best coach, even better than Coach K, at developing a 4-year player. That is Pitino's game, not going after the 5-star, "one and done," recruits. What Pitino lacks, is simply the flair and panache that comes natural for Cal (the stuff that lands these 5-star recruits), even if Cal can be, yes (pardon me) a blowhard. Although I have never lost my respect for Pitino as a coach, the era of my respect for Pitino as an individual ended long before the current plight that he finds himself. It is certainly not my place to judge his moral failings and I really could care less about what part he played or did not play in the current scandals facing the university. But when Pitino disgraced himself at Rupp Arena, flipping off some ignorant, foul-mouthed UK fans, that was the end of my respect for Pitino as a man. He should have been used to that treatment at an opponent's arena and controlled himself. Now, sadly, a golden era of the enduring rivalry between Kentucky and Louisville, has come--for the time being--to an end. I am sure that the game in late December will mean a little more than all other regular season games, but it won't be the same with a young, untested coach on Louisville's bench. I wish him the best, but I doubt he is their future. Here is to Louisville cleaning up the remaining muck in their program and getting back solid on their feet as quickly as possible, because I want both programs back at the top of college basketball.