DES MOINES, Iowa (WDRB) -- As a coach on the eve of the NCAA Tournament, you generally don't want to take the NCAA to task, unless you're Jeff Walz or somebody like that.
But Chris Mack, in a way even more diplomatic than I could've probably fashioned, figured out a way to gently do just that on Wednesday.
Everybody knows it's a strange situation. Louisville junior Ryan McMahon described his reaction upon seeing the name of Minnesota, coached by Richard Pitino, opposite Louisville's in the East Regional bracket.
"You're just like, 'Oh, come on now,'" McMahon said. "I wonder if that was a coincidence? It obviously wasn't. But we're just focused on beating the team ahead of us."
Chris Mack's second University of Louisville basketball team is a consensus preseason Top 5 pick in seven polls.
The backstory isn't having any effect on the players. They do have to answer the questions. It's taking some of the focus away from the game, at least from a media standpoint. People will blame the media for this discussion, but that's like asking the media not to talk about a thunderstorm because it might distract all the people working outside.
"For sure, it's kind of a sexy storyline for the media," Louisville graduate point guard Christian Cunningham said. "But as far as our program is concerned, we are worried about beating Minnesota and advancing. It's not about any name that's associated with the school."
Still, Mack (and a lot of other people) would rather the subject not come up.
And, for the record, nobody hated these kind of "storyline" games more than Rick Pitino, the fired Cardinal coach who has an active lawsuit against the school, nonetheless has done nothing but wish the players he recruited to the school well, and has been publicly very supportive of Mack, while, of course, always rooting for and supporting his son at Minnesota.
"I understand why media are going to ask about it," Mack said. "But here is the thing: I took over for a Hall of Fame coach. I get that. He's a terrific coach. I asked him his advice on Louisville when I took over the program, and he was nothing but gracious to me. But this is about the players and the coaches' experience in the tournament and that's it. It's no more than that. I think the committee could have probably had a little bit more self-awareness so we don't have to be up here answering these type of questions and focusing on the student-athletes and the coaches' experience and the fan base's experience, but, you know, I can't control that."
Richard Pitino was the first coach up on the Des Moines podium on Wednesday. He entered Wells Fargo Arena and hugged Louisville sports information director Kenny Klein. He did an interview with Louisville play-by-play man Paul Rogers. He greeted many of us whom he knew from his years in Louisville. Some former Louisville basketball employees will be behind the Gophers' bench cheering him on come Thursday afternoon.
But Pitino said there's no further motivation beyond just wanting to win an NCAA Tournament game. He said the pairing initially caught his attention, but he's moved on to game preparation.
"I think when you see Louisville pop up you are more about okay, what am I going to say to the media? How am I going to lie to the media?" he said, laughing. "I think you have to be prepared for those questions. But from an emotional standpoint when you play in the Big Ten there are so many emotional games. I learned that. I'm only 36. As a young head coach you have to keep your emotions in check. I think I do a pretty decent job of that."
Minnesota guard DuPree McBrayer said that the storyline has been a non-starter with the Gophers' players.
"I've been telling the guys from day one it's not about the Pitino family," he said. "It's about Minnesota versus Louisville and knowing that our coach came from Louisville and it's just Minnesota versus Louisville. We will be fine."
As for the elder Pitino, except for a Tweet congratulating his son for making the NCAA Tournament, it's been radio silence. Tim Sullivan of The Courier Journal asked Richard Pitino if his dad had been asked to keep quiet.
As if that ever worked, his son intimated.
"Not by me," Pitino said. "We spoke. Normally he would listen if I told him to be quiet. (That, reader, is sarcasm.) I think you know better than that. No, I spoke to him once. He's in Greece. Not easy to get ahold of people in Greece. We didn't talk much about anything other than he asked about Matz (Stockman, former Louisville player now at Minnesota), how he's doing, asked about the team. At the end of the day my focus is totally on helping our team be put in a position to succeed, not a whole lot else more than that."
There's always more. But in this case, the sideshow is receding, and soon the spotlight will move to the court.
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