The grumbling has begun, with indications that it’s only going to keep getting louder.
Three losses for the University of Louisville basketball team in four games is bringing out the critics en masse, including many who were so positive after the 12-0 start.
Rick Pitino has seen and heard them before, knowing all too well how things can turn ugly quickly. Disappointed fans are no fun. They will blame anybody and everybody when things are going wrong.
That’s why many people in college athletics try to keep a healthy distance from their own fans. They have your back when you’re winning, but watch your back if you’re losing. No one is immune, least of all the coach, including players who are coming back from injuries, giving all their bodies will permit.
Don’t get too carried away with the negativity, even if U of L drops a couple of more games in the next few days. Pitino has been there before, and he’s also won with teams with less talent than this one, under more challenging circumstances.
How much more uglier can a game get than the one last night against the Friars? Pitino spins rhetoric and hyperbole with the ease of a baker flipping pizza dough. He needs to spin some guys toward the basket to make shots, play defense and not miss wide open, uncontested layups.
The talent is there. It needs to be properly used, motivated and work together as a unit.
I switched this one off at 8 p.m. Saw a much better group of individuals working together as a team…Gibbs, McGee, DiNozo and Ziva on NCIS…
I think after the Providence game you might want to revise your last paragraph.
Too late now, cb.
Yeah, and maybe for the season too.
But women’s basketball pleases very few people most of the time.
As loud as the grumbling is about Pitino’s players…the roar from the other end of the KFC YUM! Center where the Lady Cards dress is pretty audible as well. Two season ending key injuries to starters, A transfer of a promising guard out of the program, inability to find a solid rotation in the paint…the list is extensive for Jeff Walz’s group as well.
Never mind that they’re a top #20 team. Forget the magic of Shoni Schimmel, long range skills of Becky Burke and impressive freshman debut of Bria Smith.
As Lincoln said over 150 years ago (and excuse me if I get the exact quote wrong…)
“You can please some of the people all of the time, all of the people some of the time, but never all of the people all of the time.”
The microwave society continues.
We’ve noticed, Paul, hoping they will get some fire in their bellies. The taller girls really seem to be soft, Cierra Warren and Sara Hammond really falling shy of expectations thus far.
After last year’s ridculous declaration of a bridge season, expectations were high this year. Most fans are smart enough to see through the 12-0 start and realize that this team resembles the 70% of Pitino’s Louisville teams that either lost in the 1st or second round or did not make the NCAA field at all. The fact that Pitino is one of the if not the highest paid coach just adds to the anger.
I said it when we were winning and I will say it again. The 12-0 start was fool’s gold. This team has numerous flaws which will be very difficult to overcome to finish well.