They were all there for basketball media day at the University of Louisville it seemed.
Forty people, including sportswriters, broadcasters and bloggers, many of them with tape recorders, smart phones, laptops, pocket cams and 35 mm cameras, along with the TV cameras on tripods. Packed together, elbow-to-elbow, in a 10- x 25-foot room. Room temperature approximately 85 degrees.
The local media coming to grips with the fact that basketball season is two days away. And there is Rick Pitino at the end of the table, bemoaning a lack of depth with a roster of 17 players.
- Rakeem Buckles, Stephan Van Treese, Elisha Justice, Russ Smith and Jared Swopshire all recovering from injuries, not quite there yet.
- Zach Price not where he needs to be, Angel Nunez needing to put on 20 pounds in four weeks.
- Wayne Blackshear is eligible, but hasn’t played basketball in five-and-a-half months. However, he will play in upcoming exhibition games.
Is Pitino trying to tamp down those high expectations or is he facing reality? Probably a little bit of both as U of L opens with an exhibition game Wednesday. He also indicated:
- He will probably go with a five to seven-man rotation for a while, at least until the injured are fully recovered.
- Gorgui Dieng is the indispensable player on this team. “We’ve got to keep him out of foul trouble,” he said.
- He expects tough challenges in exhibition games against Pikeville College, the NAIA champs, and Bellarmine University, Division 2 champs. “They are both good, that’s why we have scheduled them,” he said. “They may beat us but we’re not going to get bent out of shape.”
- If his team is beaten by Bellarmine, “I will never hear the end of it from Scotty Davenport.”
- Football has taken over the college sports landscape. “Someone told me that the Liberty Bowl has higher viewership than North Carolina basketball games,” he said.
- He will enjoy the challenges of coaching in the Big 12 IF that’s where Louisville winds up in conference realignment.
Rick getting the “spin” routine off to an early start this year. He’s got depth problems? So do deep sea divers…
A pre-Halloween “trick” from the Pitino bag of goodies…
I spent the last six hours sobbing uncontrollably because Rick is only 3 deep at every position. It’s true that some of his third stringers could start for several Top 20 teams but still…what ever is he to do?
Oh… but alas and alack,there is in the whole world only one great super coach who could possibly make a winner out of this motley group of future NBA stars.
Give…me…a…break!
I should have added that NAIA is essentially the successor to the NAIB. And if you don’t remember the NAIB, that is where UofL won its first national title in 1948.
Damn, I’m old!
You are our official historian, CB.
Pikeville is the NAIA champion and not the D-III champ. D-III offers no scholarships. NAIA does allow them and is similar to D-II but probably more like D-II.5
Thanks for the clarification, CB.