GopherLady
Well-known member
- Joined
- Nov 5, 2008
- Messages
- 9,422
- Reaction score
- 1,073
- Points
- 113
These notes are unedited, because I think my brain is on overload with all computer and no human interaction, but Pitino had a great tweet yesterday:
His wife asked him 25 minutes before he had to go onto KFAN if he had to get going…ummm, doesn't take 25 minutes to get out to the car. That's how rough the quarantine has already been in his house.
On the season being cancelled: As devastating as it was for us…I thought in the conference tournament, if we won 2 more games, we could have been back in the hunt for the NCAA tournament. When you tell your seniors, you're done, but what's even tougher is when you hear the AD telling your springs sports that your season is cancelled. I don't think it's going to happen with basketball (getting an extra year of eligibility), because we had some uncertainties at the end of the year.
On Fred Hoiberg: Funny story, or not funny…they played after us and shared the locker room next to us. I saw him, and he gave me the elbow thing. I'm watching Nebraska on TV while I'm watching film, and I see him going down on the bench, and I thought…I'm going to get this thing. Until 1am, I was tossing and turning, and I got a text from our trainer that it wasn't the corona virus.
Our guys hate watching film, and right after we watched film for 45 minutes, we got notice that it was cancelled and the guys were looking at me like…we had to watch all this?
On BTT tourney with no fans? I thought it would evolve into that, we're all touching each other constantly, why am I shaking the refs hands, each other's hands, sweating on each other…and do that with no fans? I knew that was going to change at a fast pace. When Harvard cancelled their deal, I thought it was a major over reaction…then as days passed, we're putting young people in harm's way. It was the right decision. I didn't want to be stuck and travel, wanted to get to home base.
On being back next year after Coyle's announcement being kind of a warning: I took it as we want to be competitive at the highest level…we are competitive, we're just not wining any games (laughing). Mark does everything in his power to help me win. I'm a believer, this is my fight, we've got Athlete's Village, the longer term deal will be to do something with The Barn. I feel 1000% support. No coach around here goes on and off the hot seat like me, but when you don't go to the NCAA tourney, that's how it's going to be. We were 15-16, I get that, our Ken Pom numbers were 27th nationally…that talk is going to happen. I feel 100% supported by Mark. He doesn't need to say we support Richard Pitino and he's going to be here the rest of his life. We're young, and it's my responsibility to not get young. There are situations like Amir going pro…but there have been some recruits that have transferred. We had 2 sophomores that were all conference players (Oturu and Carr). IF we recruit kids that go early to the pros, we need to have guys behind them. I really believe we can win here. I thought we had an outside chance this year to go if it didn't get cancelled.
On Oturu: We met this week…I told him, Daniel, I don't know what you're projected as. GM's and Presidents are consumed with their teams, they don't really talk draft until the tournaments. Now there are pre-draft workouts. We don't even know if that's going to happen. Daniel shouldn't be traveling right now. General managers don't want you to know who they're picking. We've submitted his form into the NBA like we did for Amir, and they project where they'll be drafted. Then you evaluate. We've got great options for him. If he comes back or goes…what's the best situation for you. Will there be a combine? Will teams fly out?
His wife asked him 25 minutes before he had to go onto KFAN if he had to get going…ummm, doesn't take 25 minutes to get out to the car. That's how rough the quarantine has already been in his house.
On the season being cancelled: As devastating as it was for us…I thought in the conference tournament, if we won 2 more games, we could have been back in the hunt for the NCAA tournament. When you tell your seniors, you're done, but what's even tougher is when you hear the AD telling your springs sports that your season is cancelled. I don't think it's going to happen with basketball (getting an extra year of eligibility), because we had some uncertainties at the end of the year.
On Fred Hoiberg: Funny story, or not funny…they played after us and shared the locker room next to us. I saw him, and he gave me the elbow thing. I'm watching Nebraska on TV while I'm watching film, and I see him going down on the bench, and I thought…I'm going to get this thing. Until 1am, I was tossing and turning, and I got a text from our trainer that it wasn't the corona virus.
Our guys hate watching film, and right after we watched film for 45 minutes, we got notice that it was cancelled and the guys were looking at me like…we had to watch all this?
On BTT tourney with no fans? I thought it would evolve into that, we're all touching each other constantly, why am I shaking the refs hands, each other's hands, sweating on each other…and do that with no fans? I knew that was going to change at a fast pace. When Harvard cancelled their deal, I thought it was a major over reaction…then as days passed, we're putting young people in harm's way. It was the right decision. I didn't want to be stuck and travel, wanted to get to home base.
On being back next year after Coyle's announcement being kind of a warning: I took it as we want to be competitive at the highest level…we are competitive, we're just not wining any games (laughing). Mark does everything in his power to help me win. I'm a believer, this is my fight, we've got Athlete's Village, the longer term deal will be to do something with The Barn. I feel 1000% support. No coach around here goes on and off the hot seat like me, but when you don't go to the NCAA tourney, that's how it's going to be. We were 15-16, I get that, our Ken Pom numbers were 27th nationally…that talk is going to happen. I feel 100% supported by Mark. He doesn't need to say we support Richard Pitino and he's going to be here the rest of his life. We're young, and it's my responsibility to not get young. There are situations like Amir going pro…but there have been some recruits that have transferred. We had 2 sophomores that were all conference players (Oturu and Carr). IF we recruit kids that go early to the pros, we need to have guys behind them. I really believe we can win here. I thought we had an outside chance this year to go if it didn't get cancelled.
On Oturu: We met this week…I told him, Daniel, I don't know what you're projected as. GM's and Presidents are consumed with their teams, they don't really talk draft until the tournaments. Now there are pre-draft workouts. We don't even know if that's going to happen. Daniel shouldn't be traveling right now. General managers don't want you to know who they're picking. We've submitted his form into the NBA like we did for Amir, and they project where they'll be drafted. Then you evaluate. We've got great options for him. If he comes back or goes…what's the best situation for you. Will there be a combine? Will teams fly out?
