LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) – Leave it to Rick Pitino to stir up a lazy summer day in the Bluegrass. The St. John’s coach slid into a Kentucky Sports Radio guest slot with the guest hosts from Pardon My Take (Big Cat and PFT), and things might never be the same.
To borrow from the old Sports Illustrated Feature, “This Week’s Sign the Apocalypse is Upon Us,” the former Kentucky and Louisville coach dished about his days in Lexington, his love for new Wildcats coach Mark Pope, his NIL gift to the Kentucky football program and more in a roughly 15-minute discussion that can only be described as remarkable. No, there are more ways than that, I’m sure.
Did I mention it was on KSR? These are wild times in Kentucky. Calipari leaves. Pope arrives. Pitino calls KSR and the curtain is rent. Has anyone checked for earthquakes?
His appearance, of course, created waves not only in Lexington, but in Louisville, where Pitino coached for 17 seasons before being forced out by the university.
The exit of Calipari from Kentucky and the entrance of Pope, a captain for Pitino’s 1996 NCAA Championship team at Kentucky, has opened the door of the program back to Pitino, and he’s been only too happy to poke his head back into a place he has conceded in recent years that he probably should never have left.
Pitino continued his effusive praise for Pope, saying he spent some time with his former player while he was out of coaching and Pope was the coach at Utah Valley.
“I was blown away at how good a teacher he was,” Pitino said. “And I watched every game I could at BYU and loved their offense. It was great ball movement, great player movement. I just think Mark does a fantastic job of communicating with this players. He has a great way about it, and he has a great quality that very few of us have. He has incredible humility.”
Pitino told a story about Pope that I’d heard him tell before. It’s no secret Pitino’s language could get rough in the heat of the moment, and many of his players could say the same of themselves. Not Pope. Pitino laughed telling the story that Pope would often say, “frick” it instead of another popular pejorative. One day, Pitino said he went to Pope and told him, “Mark, the Lord knows what you’re thinking. You might as well say it.”
Pitino’s application may have been a bit off, but his theology was on the money.
The coach further riled up folks in Louisville by letting it be known that he’d given some money to a Kentucky football Name, Image and Likeness campaign, and texted Kentucky baseball coach Nick Mingione good luck at the College World Series.
Now, yes, this is all part of a reintegration with life at Kentucky. It’s plowing the field for a possible return in 2025-26 for the 30th anniversary of his national championship at the school. He’s hoping to bring his St. John’s team to Rupp Arena next season, and play host to Kentucky in Madison Square Garden the season after.
Is it a slap at Louisville? Certainly, in a rivalry of this nature, anything positive for one will be taken negatively by the other. That’s just a given. That’s how it works.
But there is a deeper issue at play. Pitino is about people. Pope is one of his own. He’s going to reach out to him and go over the top in his support.
At Louisville, he doesn’t have many people left. A few of the coaches. A few administrators. But so many of the key people who were at the school when he was there are gone. There is a remnant left. Peyton Siva is back in the fold. Luke Hancock is around. The closeness those guys still have with their old coach was evidenced in a zoom get-together they had last season on the 10th anniversary of the team’s 2013 NCAA Championship.
Pitino has lobbied continuously for that title to return to official NCAA recognition. But objectively speaking, he can’t be expected to have warm feelings for a place that cut him loose, and notably, cut loose his boss, Tom Jurich, for not being willing to fire him.
Pitino’s dismissal at Louisville was unceremonious. It was meant to leave a mark, and it did. That’s just what happened. I don’t need to speak for him. I’m just stating facts. There’s not much reason for him to look back to Louisville except for the fans and former players.
But they’ve got fans at Kentucky too. He spoke to that on KSR.
“I had always called the University of Kentucky Camelot for me,” Pitino said. “I never had a bad year and never had a bad day. They treated me like a king. They treated me with great respect. Obviously I didn't get treated great when I was at Louisville but sitting back on it and examining it today, I totally understand why. . . . I love the Kentucky fans. To me, they’re very, very special. They were treated me and my family with great reverence. I’ve got nothing but great things to say about the Kentucky fans.
“And right now they have a fabulous program with all sports,” Pitino went on. “And I think that's going to be a special, special time for Mark Pope and the University of Kentucky Wildcats because I think the fans are going to fall in love with Mark. Yeah, because the thing about him, Pope, the name on the back never mattered to Mark. He couldn’t care less about individual glory, about if anybody mentioned that he played a great game. It's always about team. It's always about Kentucky.”
And increasingly, these days, so is Pitino. I’ve hoped a day would come that he’d feel welcomed back at Louisville, too. And I do think that will happen.
If what’s going on at Kentucky right now teaches a lesson, it’s that just about anything can happen.
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