I think you can like Pitino, and still want to see a coaching change. It is like dating a girl for 7 years, you had some good times and bad times, but after 7 years, you realize that something is not right and you move on to the next gal. You can still have good memories, but you wanted a change.
Well, that is an interesting perspective but there is one big difference: we may have known that we didn't want to marry Pitino after 3 years but it would have cost us something like $7 or $8 million to fire him at that time. Breaking up with girlfriends is a lot cheaper.
I liked your example but I can't imagine dating someone for 7 years (unless one has been married something like 3 times previously). You would think most people would figure out that they want to break up with, or marry, that person well before then.