Rick Pitino
Appearances
Pardon My Take
Rick Pitino In Studio, Super Bowl Champ Cooper DeJean, USA/Canada's Incredible Four Nations Final + Fyre Fest of The Week
Yeah, the biggest surprise I've had, it's very tough to pack Madison Square Garden. It's a pro town, as Chicago is, and we're like the 10th, 11th pro team. So I thought we could be competitive this year. Didn't know how good we would be. You never do with the NIL stuff. But... Packing Madison Square Garden with all St. John's fans, not half Connecticut or 5,000 Villanova.
Pardon My Take
Rick Pitino In Studio, Super Bowl Champ Cooper DeJean, USA/Canada's Incredible Four Nations Final + Fyre Fest of The Week
The other night was amazing to me. We already moved the seat and hall game from campus to the garden, sold 16,000 seats. So that's been the biggest surprise for me and very exciting.
Pardon My Take
Rick Pitino In Studio, Super Bowl Champ Cooper DeJean, USA/Canada's Incredible Four Nations Final + Fyre Fest of The Week
And how much access do these guys have behind the scenes with you? Oh, they're there. A couple times I've asked them to leave. But they're there. They catch it. Next episode, Talik Brown, who's the point guard of the National Championship Connecticut team, goes off crazy. And I was in the other room, and I come in, and he goes berserk, and they captured the whole thing.
Pardon My Take
Rick Pitino In Studio, Super Bowl Champ Cooper DeJean, USA/Canada's Incredible Four Nations Final + Fyre Fest of The Week
No, I wasn't thinking that way. We were down like 10, 12 points. And what's been bothering me the whole year with my team is they count their misses. So we're not the greatest three-point shooting team, but if my guys miss a couple of free throws, a couple of threes, they won't take them anymore. And it drives me crazy because they're wide open. Everybody's packing the lane on us.
Pardon My Take
Rick Pitino In Studio, Super Bowl Champ Cooper DeJean, USA/Canada's Incredible Four Nations Final + Fyre Fest of The Week
And I keep telling them, I told them the other day, if you hear me say, shoot it or kill it, you must shoot the ball. So they kept hanging their heads every time they missed. Every time they missed a free throw, they'd hang their heads. And it got to a point, I said, you guys got to toughen up, man. This is not only a game of basketball, this is a game of life.
Pardon My Take
Rick Pitino In Studio, Super Bowl Champ Cooper DeJean, USA/Canada's Incredible Four Nations Final + Fyre Fest of The Week
You guys face a little adversity and you're wilting. It can't be. You got to be tougher. You got to learn. And it was from the heart, but I was trying to win a game.
Pardon My Take
Rick Pitino In Studio, Super Bowl Champ Cooper DeJean, USA/Canada's Incredible Four Nations Final + Fyre Fest of The Week
Well, both of you know this. Your favorite teachers are the ones that were toughest on you and taught you the most. And today, you can be tough on the team, but you can't be tough on them individually in front of the team. If you want to be tough individually, you call them in your office, you go one-on-one, and you tell them the way you feel and get feedback.
Pardon My Take
Rick Pitino In Studio, Super Bowl Champ Cooper DeJean, USA/Canada's Incredible Four Nations Final + Fyre Fest of The Week
Collectively, as a team, you can get after them, and they'll be very receptive. Most of them will say, oh, he's not talking about me. He's talking about somebody else. Right.
Pardon My Take
Rick Pitino In Studio, Super Bowl Champ Cooper DeJean, USA/Canada's Incredible Four Nations Final + Fyre Fest of The Week
It's been a little bit, about 50% better. But that part of the season, we've had some issues where we've had to correct some major, major flaws. in the way we go about things. And today, in the last like 10 games, we've corrected them. They're confident. They're also not about themselves. It is about the team. Only Qadari, as a freshman at Syracuse, has experienced the NCAA tournament.
Pardon My Take
Rick Pitino In Studio, Super Bowl Champ Cooper DeJean, USA/Canada's Incredible Four Nations Final + Fyre Fest of The Week
And Zuby did his first year at Kansas, but didn't play at all.
Pardon My Take
Rick Pitino In Studio, Super Bowl Champ Cooper DeJean, USA/Canada's Incredible Four Nations Final + Fyre Fest of The Week
Yeah, well, you pick up a stat sheet with us. Sometimes I am... Just marveled at our guys that were winning the game. The other day against Creighton, we're shooting 30-something percent, 50-something percent from the foul line. I think we were poorly from the three-point line as well, and we're up one. Based on forced turnovers and offensive rebounds.
Pardon My Take
Rick Pitino In Studio, Super Bowl Champ Cooper DeJean, USA/Canada's Incredible Four Nations Final + Fyre Fest of The Week
We're a great offensive rebounding team because we miss a lot.
Pardon My Take
Rick Pitino In Studio, Super Bowl Champ Cooper DeJean, USA/Canada's Incredible Four Nations Final + Fyre Fest of The Week
It gets better in our player development sessions, but in the game, he still goes back to the little hitch that he does have. But what we're trying to do more than anything else is give them the confidence to take it. And then more than... I've changed. Last time I was here with you, we were talking about the drills we do for three-point shooting in our player development. So this year...
Pardon My Take
Rick Pitino In Studio, Super Bowl Champ Cooper DeJean, USA/Canada's Incredible Four Nations Final + Fyre Fest of The Week
I found that we have five different shooting drills that we do, and we chart each day. And it was the lowest, even lower than Iona, of all the places I've worked. So I realized at that point we weren't going to be a great three-point shooting team. So we started working on what Kevin Durant works on, the mid-range game. And I've gone from a... Big proponent of three-point shot.
Pardon My Take
Rick Pitino In Studio, Super Bowl Champ Cooper DeJean, USA/Canada's Incredible Four Nations Final + Fyre Fest of The Week
Right now, we're shooting like almost 68% from about 12 to 15 feet. Yeah. And we've worked very hard at that. And RJ's gotten great at it. Qadari's great at it. Most of our players are really, really talented at the mid-range game.
Pardon My Take
Rick Pitino In Studio, Super Bowl Champ Cooper DeJean, USA/Canada's Incredible Four Nations Final + Fyre Fest of The Week
I think Kelvin Sampson and Houston's the greatest proponent of that. I mean, they are unbelievable offensive rebounding team. Now, he does have a better shooting team this year. But if you are an average shooting team, which I think we are, we're average, sometimes we're decent, we've got to be a great offensive rebounding team. And we also have to keep our turnovers down.
Pardon My Take
Rick Pitino In Studio, Super Bowl Champ Cooper DeJean, USA/Canada's Incredible Four Nations Final + Fyre Fest of The Week
The other day against Creighton, I believe we had five or six turnovers in the game.
Pardon My Take
Rick Pitino In Studio, Super Bowl Champ Cooper DeJean, USA/Canada's Incredible Four Nations Final + Fyre Fest of The Week
Yes. I stole that from my wife's mother-in-law. Okay. And it was an Irish expression she got from her mother who had an Irish brogue. And nothing's going to change if nothing changes. And I tell these guys, I tell Qadari this all the time. I said, Qadari. It's not going to change. Your shot's not going to change with the 42 minutes with me.
Pardon My Take
Rick Pitino In Studio, Super Bowl Champ Cooper DeJean, USA/Canada's Incredible Four Nations Final + Fyre Fest of The Week
If you don't get in the gym like Donovan Mitchell got in the gym every single night to improve his arc, it's not changing. You're not changing bad habits just by showing up. I said, you've got to work at that and work at that and work at that. And Donovan certainly did it. And... Qadari's not mastered that yet.
Pardon My Take
Rick Pitino In Studio, Super Bowl Champ Cooper DeJean, USA/Canada's Incredible Four Nations Final + Fyre Fest of The Week
And the other thing is, I've always believed, coming off the 2013 championship at Louisville, You know, I was really concerned about the team. And we had quite a few players back and somebody to look, if it's not broken, stick with your game plan of 2-2-1 to a matchup press. I said, no, you know what? If nothing's broken, break it.
Pardon My Take
Rick Pitino In Studio, Super Bowl Champ Cooper DeJean, USA/Canada's Incredible Four Nations Final + Fyre Fest of The Week
You got to make it better because everybody's going to be prepared for it. Everybody's going to steal it. And that's, I believed in it as well. If nothing's broken, don't stay the same. Break it and make it better. Innovate, get creative. And I don't believe in staying the same. You've got to change. And as we get closer to the tournament,
Pardon My Take
Rick Pitino In Studio, Super Bowl Champ Cooper DeJean, USA/Canada's Incredible Four Nations Final + Fyre Fest of The Week
We have to put in five new plays that they're not going to see come tournament time.
Pardon My Take
Rick Pitino In Studio, Super Bowl Champ Cooper DeJean, USA/Canada's Incredible Four Nations Final + Fyre Fest of The Week
Well, I think I've been blessed with so many different types of teams. My 96 championship team, I thought my second unit could have won it. We had like seven, eight pros on the team. The 87 Providence team was Billy Donovan and a bunch of guys that were just great guys and worked hard. But we had great shooters on the wing. My 2005 team at Louisville was just great shooters on the wing.
Pardon My Take
Rick Pitino In Studio, Super Bowl Champ Cooper DeJean, USA/Canada's Incredible Four Nations Final + Fyre Fest of The Week
Neither team was great defensively. Then the two teams you mentioned, were great defensively, struggled a little bit, but they were great off-the-bounce players. Peyton Seaver, Russ Smith, Luke Hancock, they could take you off the bounce. And the same thing is true with RJ Louise, with this team, Qadari Richmond, Simeon Wilshere, they can take you off the bounce.
Pardon My Take
Rick Pitino In Studio, Super Bowl Champ Cooper DeJean, USA/Canada's Incredible Four Nations Final + Fyre Fest of The Week
So I don't worry about that stat too much, as long as we're shooting the two-point shot at a high number, which we are.
Pardon My Take
Rick Pitino In Studio, Super Bowl Champ Cooper DeJean, USA/Canada's Incredible Four Nations Final + Fyre Fest of The Week
My post game speech the other night, I asked vice to leave it. And I said, look guys, just want to tell you right now. Um, You have done something that I didn't think you could do. I didn't think you could pack Madison Square Garden. I didn't think would happen in two years. So all the credit goes to you. You're on top of the Big East, which is amazing.
Pardon My Take
Rick Pitino In Studio, Super Bowl Champ Cooper DeJean, USA/Canada's Incredible Four Nations Final + Fyre Fest of The Week
All the credit goes to you, but understand now your life takes on a new meaning because now people want more and more and more. And I told them what you guys just repeated about some of the teams I've coached that weren't super talented team like the 96 team and the sky's the limit, but you must do the following things. And I went through it. You must take your game now to a new level.
Pardon My Take
Rick Pitino In Studio, Super Bowl Champ Cooper DeJean, USA/Canada's Incredible Four Nations Final + Fyre Fest of The Week
because March Madness is right around the corner.
Pardon My Take
Rick Pitino In Studio, Super Bowl Champ Cooper DeJean, USA/Canada's Incredible Four Nations Final + Fyre Fest of The Week
And they were pumped up about it. I said, but you guys, what you're doing, to me, I marvel at. And then I said something. I said, look, I don't know. Guys, I'm 72. I'm having a blast. I said, if I'm blessed enough to coach three or four more years, so be it. If I go out this year and you guys make an incredible run, so be it.
Pardon My Take
Rick Pitino In Studio, Super Bowl Champ Cooper DeJean, USA/Canada's Incredible Four Nations Final + Fyre Fest of The Week
But I just want to let you know how gratifying it is to watch you reach these heights.
Pardon My Take
Rick Pitino In Studio, Super Bowl Champ Cooper DeJean, USA/Canada's Incredible Four Nations Final + Fyre Fest of The Week
I think you've got to develop with a basketball team how much you hate losing. You've got to develop that, how much you despise losing. And then when you lose, you're willing to do anything to correct those mistakes. And you build that. Not that you're a sore loser, but that you've got to hate losing. Inside, you've got to hate to lose.
Pardon My Take
Rick Pitino In Studio, Super Bowl Champ Cooper DeJean, USA/Canada's Incredible Four Nations Final + Fyre Fest of The Week
So if you're down 14 with six to go, you have to have the belief you're going to come back and win that game because you hate to lose. And I think we instill that. It takes a year to instill that, but these guys feel it right now. And they hate to lose. I told them today, we have DePaul tonight. I said, guys, DePaul can beat anybody in this league.
Pardon My Take
Rick Pitino In Studio, Super Bowl Champ Cooper DeJean, USA/Canada's Incredible Four Nations Final + Fyre Fest of The Week
They were up four at Marquette last week, late in the game. We all saw what Connecticut did to Seton Hall. And I told them, I said, let's take Connecticut as an example. If they would have lost to Seton Hall and now they have nine or 10 losses and they lose to us or somebody else, will they go to tournament 11 and 12? And they're an outstanding team and superbly well coached.
Pardon My Take
Rick Pitino In Studio, Super Bowl Champ Cooper DeJean, USA/Canada's Incredible Four Nations Final + Fyre Fest of The Week
I said, so you have to understand this is just the beginning right now with five games left.
Pardon My Take
Rick Pitino In Studio, Super Bowl Champ Cooper DeJean, USA/Canada's Incredible Four Nations Final + Fyre Fest of The Week
Yeah, I think it's a great question. It happened to me one time in 96, a young Chicago kid named Antoine Walker – We were on a run that was incredible. The average margin of victory, I think, in the SEC at that time was 26 points. And the SEC was very strong back then. So we were killing everybody. And we go into the tournament. We've won every year at a tournament.
Pardon My Take
Rick Pitino In Studio, Super Bowl Champ Cooper DeJean, USA/Canada's Incredible Four Nations Final + Fyre Fest of The Week
And I said, boy, I'd love to not win it this year because we were so invincible beating people. And Antoine Walker, I took him out of the game. I said, great defense, Twan. Will you keep him in front of you? He said, I did. They didn't switch. He gave me a very honest answer. I said, you're done for the night. And I knew if I kept him out, we'd have a chance of losing.
Pardon My Take
Rick Pitino In Studio, Super Bowl Champ Cooper DeJean, USA/Canada's Incredible Four Nations Final + Fyre Fest of The Week
So sure enough, one of the Mississippi State players sat on the ground. Now, we tried to win the game. We did everything possible, but Twan wasn't going to play. I forgot his name, he played in the pros, six, seven forward, sat on the ground and shot the ball from the ground with no time, and we lost in the finals. And I was happy. I knew at that point we were gonna win the national championship.
Pardon My Take
Rick Pitino In Studio, Super Bowl Champ Cooper DeJean, USA/Canada's Incredible Four Nations Final + Fyre Fest of The Week
Yeah, it just gives the motivation. But with this team, to answer your question, we had four losses. We don't need to lose. Right, you don't need that at this point.
Pardon My Take
Rick Pitino In Studio, Super Bowl Champ Cooper DeJean, USA/Canada's Incredible Four Nations Final + Fyre Fest of The Week
Yeah, I was going to get all over Antoine. Because Antoine was great to coach. I mean, he drove me crazy because every single day he'd come up to me during practice. He was a trash talker all the time. And he would say, coach, do me a favor. Get Ron Mercy. Get Ron off of me. He's going to lose his confidence. We need him to play well next game. Put somebody else on me.
Pardon My Take
Rick Pitino In Studio, Super Bowl Champ Cooper DeJean, USA/Canada's Incredible Four Nations Final + Fyre Fest of The Week
And he would do that to me the whole practice. Coach, get him off me. You're going to kill his confidence.
Pardon My Take
Rick Pitino In Studio, Super Bowl Champ Cooper DeJean, USA/Canada's Incredible Four Nations Final + Fyre Fest of The Week
But the ball was—what upsets me about that, the ball was in his hands. I know. And the referee— Didn't have a stopwatch, didn't take a look at that. I know. I mean, you have to do that. I know. So I'm counting it that we've only had three losses.
Pardon My Take
Rick Pitino In Studio, Super Bowl Champ Cooper DeJean, USA/Canada's Incredible Four Nations Final + Fyre Fest of The Week
Yeah, in the ballroom, yeah. I mean, it's great to play in it, but the courts are always slippery. Yeah. The clock wasn't very well adjusted. It was a great game.
Pardon My Take
Rick Pitino In Studio, Super Bowl Champ Cooper DeJean, USA/Canada's Incredible Four Nations Final + Fyre Fest of The Week
Look, not a lot of coaches are coaching in their 70s. I do it because I love it. Tony Bennett just left a brilliant coach. Some people want to keep coaching. Because I sat out two years from the game, I realized I can't live without it. Being around the guys keeps you young. You're always working out to stay young. You're always doing things. You're active.
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Rick Pitino In Studio, Super Bowl Champ Cooper DeJean, USA/Canada's Incredible Four Nations Final + Fyre Fest of The Week
I already had the experience of retirement for two years, and I didn't like it too much. So I think we do have a successful plan. You know, I think my assistant coach, Stevie Maciello, would be a great succession to me leaving. He was my New York Knick ball boy at age 14. He went with me at Louisville. He was going to have a great team in Manhattan before he left there.
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Rick Pitino In Studio, Super Bowl Champ Cooper DeJean, USA/Canada's Incredible Four Nations Final + Fyre Fest of The Week
He's a New York guy, so I think we have that plan. Now, I don't pick that, certainly. Ed Cole, our great athletic director, will pick that. I do think I got a good run in me left. Yeah. You know, I hope, God willing.
Pardon My Take
Rick Pitino In Studio, Super Bowl Champ Cooper DeJean, USA/Canada's Incredible Four Nations Final + Fyre Fest of The Week
Well, you guys, I'll ask you a question. What's the succession plan at Virginia right now? Right. What's the succession plan at Miami right now? You know, who knows what it is? Right.
Pardon My Take
Rick Pitino In Studio, Super Bowl Champ Cooper DeJean, USA/Canada's Incredible Four Nations Final + Fyre Fest of The Week
And I will say this. St. John's. The only mistakes they made with ADs or coaches is they, St. John's is a different job. It's an inner city, a commuter school. I believe you got to hire a Northeast person who understands St. John's. You have to understand because it's different than any place I've ever worked. So it has to be a Northeastern that has close ties to New York, to the subway alumni.
Pardon My Take
Rick Pitino In Studio, Super Bowl Champ Cooper DeJean, USA/Canada's Incredible Four Nations Final + Fyre Fest of The Week
50% of our season ticket holders are not alumni. Right. So you've got to know that the NIL saved St. John's. probably the NIL saved DePaul. Because when you have the NIL now, so it's not about football, it's not about the campus, it's about playing in the Big East, playing at Madison Square Garden, and you're a professional athlete. So it helped us immensely.
Pardon My Take
Rick Pitino In Studio, Super Bowl Champ Cooper DeJean, USA/Canada's Incredible Four Nations Final + Fyre Fest of The Week
Well, to tell you the truth, we recruit very few guys from New York. Right now we have Qadari as a transfer from New York. I think he's our really only New Yorker. Jaden Glover lived in New Jersey. He's originally from New York. I think New York is more attractive away from New York than in New York.
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Rick Pitino In Studio, Super Bowl Champ Cooper DeJean, USA/Canada's Incredible Four Nations Final + Fyre Fest of The Week
Well, I grew up in New York and I didn't want to stay in New York. I wanted to travel to another campus, another place, and go away to college. So with the NIL, it's changed the game completely. Now, I like the NIL. And it's like, if you're at a Philadelphia 76ers, is your money being spent wisely? They're getting knocked all the time on TV about some of the moves they made.
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Rick Pitino In Studio, Super Bowl Champ Cooper DeJean, USA/Canada's Incredible Four Nations Final + Fyre Fest of The Week
Well, injuries are part of the game, and Bede's been hurt, this guy's been hurt, so the money is not panning out, where the Oklahoma Thunder, it's really panning out. Incidentally, I show almost four times a week clips of the Oklahoma Thunder defense to our guys. Because I know the pro thing will really excite them. Lou Dort. Yep. And we show the way they play defense.
Pardon My Take
Rick Pitino In Studio, Super Bowl Champ Cooper DeJean, USA/Canada's Incredible Four Nations Final + Fyre Fest of The Week
The way they play defense is like college defense.
Pardon My Take
Rick Pitino In Studio, Super Bowl Champ Cooper DeJean, USA/Canada's Incredible Four Nations Final + Fyre Fest of The Week
It was a great moment. You know, it... I made a statement that Kentucky should cheer John Calipari when he goes back. They won a national championship. And I said, because I knew firsthand how much it hurt me being booed by 24,000 people. Today, I understand it, going to Louisville. But I didn't go from Kentucky to Louisville. I went from Kentucky to Celtics to Louisville. I understand it.
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Rick Pitino In Studio, Super Bowl Champ Cooper DeJean, USA/Canada's Incredible Four Nations Final + Fyre Fest of The Week
But it made me feel great being welcomed back. And it wasn't taking a shot at Louisville because I root for Louisville because they have Peyton Seaver on their staff. And I root for my players. I've always rooted for my players. I watch them on TV in the pros. I watch them coaching Mick Cronin in UCLA, Billy Donovan with the Bulls. All my guys out there, when Travis Ford was with St.
Pardon My Take
Rick Pitino In Studio, Super Bowl Champ Cooper DeJean, USA/Canada's Incredible Four Nations Final + Fyre Fest of The Week
Louis, Mark Pope now, I just, Kevin Willett at Maryland, I've just root for my guys.
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Rick Pitino In Studio, Super Bowl Champ Cooper DeJean, USA/Canada's Incredible Four Nations Final + Fyre Fest of The Week
Right now, I don't think you can pay too much attention to it.
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Rick Pitino In Studio, Super Bowl Champ Cooper DeJean, USA/Canada's Incredible Four Nations Final + Fyre Fest of The Week
I'd love it because we got to the 32. We got by the first round. No, I think Kentucky's probably a polar opposite basketball team than us. They are a brilliant offensive team. Although we get a lot of assists per game. We have a high number of assists. Kentucky is a five-out basketball team. We're not. We're a terrific defensive team, offensive rebounding team. We're great off the bounce.
Pardon My Take
Rick Pitino In Studio, Super Bowl Champ Cooper DeJean, USA/Canada's Incredible Four Nations Final + Fyre Fest of The Week
But I would love it, obviously.
Pardon My Take
Rick Pitino In Studio, Super Bowl Champ Cooper DeJean, USA/Canada's Incredible Four Nations Final + Fyre Fest of The Week
They didn't have a white out this year. That was disappointing. Can you do the white suit again? The white suit against Kentucky? Definitely. I've spent a lot of money. I've won one time. Yeah. Yeah. That would be nice. We need to see that, yeah.
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Rick Pitino In Studio, Super Bowl Champ Cooper DeJean, USA/Canada's Incredible Four Nations Final + Fyre Fest of The Week
So I had a win the other day. I don't own too many of them anymore, and my ownership is a lot of guys I own. But the one horse I do own 100% of won the other day, New York bred, with a 92 buyer called Agalos the Great, named after my agent in Greece. And he's become like a little brother to me, and... Agalos, the great one, and I was super excited about that.
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Rick Pitino In Studio, Super Bowl Champ Cooper DeJean, USA/Canada's Incredible Four Nations Final + Fyre Fest of The Week
Aqueduct.
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Rick Pitino In Studio, Super Bowl Champ Cooper DeJean, USA/Canada's Incredible Four Nations Final + Fyre Fest of The Week
Yeah. You know, New York bread pots are substantial, so if you have a good New York bread, you can make some money.
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Rick Pitino In Studio, Super Bowl Champ Cooper DeJean, USA/Canada's Incredible Four Nations Final + Fyre Fest of The Week
They won the championship, Hunter Tanikos, last year. They won the EuroLeague championship.
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Rick Pitino In Studio, Super Bowl Champ Cooper DeJean, USA/Canada's Incredible Four Nations Final + Fyre Fest of The Week
Oh, they treat me great. Better than even when I was a coach at Kentucky. The people there just love basketball. What I do is I take two friends of mine and we go to two different or three different islands for eight days every summer. So last year we went to Milos, Pados, and Antipados. And we take, there's over 120 islands in Greece. When you go to Greece, Athens is good for one night. Yep.
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Rick Pitino In Studio, Super Bowl Champ Cooper DeJean, USA/Canada's Incredible Four Nations Final + Fyre Fest of The Week
A day and a half. Yeah. You go to Pantheon and you see some of the local sites, but then you go to the islands and that's what makes it fun.
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Rick Pitino In Studio, Super Bowl Champ Cooper DeJean, USA/Canada's Incredible Four Nations Final + Fyre Fest of The Week
You know, most of Europe is all soccer. Soccer is very popular in Greece, but not more popular than basketball. They rival each other. Because Panathinaikos and Olympiakos, the two great teams, that when they play each other, they put a net around the court. That's how violent it could be. And when we walk in, you'll have 50... police with shields as you walk in the building.
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Rick Pitino In Studio, Super Bowl Champ Cooper DeJean, USA/Canada's Incredible Four Nations Final + Fyre Fest of The Week
So it's one of the fiercest rivalry in all of sports, but they love it and they win a lot of EuroLeague championships.
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Rick Pitino In Studio, Super Bowl Champ Cooper DeJean, USA/Canada's Incredible Four Nations Final + Fyre Fest of The Week
Back in the New York Post said, Johnny's a dancing. We just beat Creighton. We played great. We got the first time to the quarterfinals. We were playing great basketball. I had a little darkness of doubt, but everybody else had us in. As it turned, we weren't even close. We weren't even last four out. I was more surprised. Seton Hall had 13 Big East wins, and they didn't get in.
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Rick Pitino In Studio, Super Bowl Champ Cooper DeJean, USA/Canada's Incredible Four Nations Final + Fyre Fest of The Week
Yeah, 100%.
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Rick Pitino In Studio, Super Bowl Champ Cooper DeJean, USA/Canada's Incredible Four Nations Final + Fyre Fest of The Week
Yeah, but I think Shaheen has some Italian blood in him too. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, exactly. I do believe that definitely Seton Hall deserved it. I thought what was amazing to me, for the first time, and not because we didn't make it, I thought it was the first time the chair of the committee knew very little about the game of basketball. I'm sure he's a fabulous AD.
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Rick Pitino In Studio, Super Bowl Champ Cooper DeJean, USA/Canada's Incredible Four Nations Final + Fyre Fest of The Week
But I don't understand why they don't have Coach K, Roy Williams, putting basketball people in on that every year. Guys like Jim Boeheim and Roy Williams and Coach K would be happy to be on those committees. And when they're talking about Duke, Syracuse, or North Carolina, they leave the room. But to have those guys there, they're looking.
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Rick Pitino In Studio, Super Bowl Champ Cooper DeJean, USA/Canada's Incredible Four Nations Final + Fyre Fest of The Week
And then I just wanted to know, so I called some people on the committee and said, okay, what metrics did you use and what am I missing? because we were, I think, 29 in the net. I think we were like 18 or 19 in Pomeroy. And they all had different metrics that they were using. They weren't all together using the same common denominators.
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Rick Pitino In Studio, Super Bowl Champ Cooper DeJean, USA/Canada's Incredible Four Nations Final + Fyre Fest of The Week
Yes. They bunched it down.
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Rick Pitino In Studio, Super Bowl Champ Cooper DeJean, USA/Canada's Incredible Four Nations Final + Fyre Fest of The Week
Are you in favor of expanding the tournament? I am because I don't think it hurts it. I don't think it hurts it. I think getting more teams is exciting. It's the one thing. So when I was your age, back in the day, starting out as a head coach. We're older than you think. We're older than you think, coach. We just turned 40. We just turned 40. So I was going to say 35, 36. I appreciate that.
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Rick Pitino In Studio, Super Bowl Champ Cooper DeJean, USA/Canada's Incredible Four Nations Final + Fyre Fest of The Week
So back then, college basketball and college football was on the same level. The NBA and the NFL were on the same level starting at, this is like 30, 40 years ago. Today, a bad college football game, a mid-May Ohio U playing somebody on a Saturday will outdraw an NBA playoff game. Now, is that gambling? Is it football just marketed so much better? I don't know.
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Rick Pitino In Studio, Super Bowl Champ Cooper DeJean, USA/Canada's Incredible Four Nations Final + Fyre Fest of The Week
But the one thing we do have is March Madness. So anything to make it better, if it's not broken, break it and make it better. And I don't think it hurts anything to have more TV exposure.
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Rick Pitino In Studio, Super Bowl Champ Cooper DeJean, USA/Canada's Incredible Four Nations Final + Fyre Fest of The Week
just taken over everything it to a level that we didn't never expect it it blows me away it really does blow me away I'm happy about it in one sense disappointed another sense I'm a Miami Dolphins season ticket holder for those two years I was out and I had a great time going to the games with my with my children and
Pardon My Take
Rick Pitino In Studio, Super Bowl Champ Cooper DeJean, USA/Canada's Incredible Four Nations Final + Fyre Fest of The Week
The bad thing, what I don't like right now is that I don't see UCLA and USC traveling to go play Penn State and Rutgers and teams like that. It makes no sense to me. The rivalries of UCLA and USC and some of the other programs on the West Coast, to me, I would never be in favor of that.
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Rick Pitino In Studio, Super Bowl Champ Cooper DeJean, USA/Canada's Incredible Four Nations Final + Fyre Fest of The Week
I like it because I spent 10 years in the pros. And to me, it's almost a carbon copy of the EuroLeague. The EuroLeague, if you sign a player for two years, that's a long time. So it's really a one-year contract. You're getting different players every year. And that's the way it's with us. Now, fortunately for us, we haven't lost our freshmen yet. Our freshmen have come back.
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Rick Pitino In Studio, Super Bowl Champ Cooper DeJean, USA/Canada's Incredible Four Nations Final + Fyre Fest of The Week
So this year we're losing. We're not even looking at a high school basketball player. We're losing Aaron Scott, Qadari Richmond, and Davon Smith. So we're looking for three transfer guys. And I like it. I don't get involved in the financial negotiations of any of that. But if we need more money... I'll call our guy Mike Raposo and say we need more money.
Pardon My Take
Rick Pitino In Studio, Super Bowl Champ Cooper DeJean, USA/Canada's Incredible Four Nations Final + Fyre Fest of The Week
I probably wouldn't take him. Because I don't think you can win and win big with high school kids. I really don't believe it.
Pardon My Take
Rick Pitino In Studio, Super Bowl Champ Cooper DeJean, USA/Canada's Incredible Four Nations Final + Fyre Fest of The Week
So we all make mistakes. You make mistakes in the pros with who you draft. You know, I tried to convince the years I... Begged the New York Knicks to take Donovan Mitchell. I think it's six and not at 12 I said look this guy's better than you think he is and they took Frank Nick and Nikita yeah from France. I think it was So you got to really study these guys first of all in
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Rick Pitino In Studio, Super Bowl Champ Cooper DeJean, USA/Canada's Incredible Four Nations Final + Fyre Fest of The Week
Is it just about money? Is that why they're staying in college? Or are they really into winning? Are they going to be part of that I hate to lose attitude? So you've got to really study them. You've got to talk to their trainers. You've got to talk to their assistant coaches that may have moved on. You've got to really do your homework and your research on this.
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Rick Pitino In Studio, Super Bowl Champ Cooper DeJean, USA/Canada's Incredible Four Nations Final + Fyre Fest of The Week
And we really do our homework on all of this.
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Rick Pitino In Studio, Super Bowl Champ Cooper DeJean, USA/Canada's Incredible Four Nations Final + Fyre Fest of The Week
And you're in the G League, and you're making $75,000 to $100,000, or you can go to college and make $600,000 or $400,000. Yeah. So you're going to stay in college, but are you getting them for the right reasons? Okay, the money's great. And most of these guys, what I can appreciate, they help out their families.
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Rick Pitino In Studio, Super Bowl Champ Cooper DeJean, USA/Canada's Incredible Four Nations Final + Fyre Fest of The Week
spending it on themselves. They're really helping out their families. They're getting their families into better situations. So I'm great with that. But I want to make sure we're getting guys that just have that desire where they really, really inside hate to lose.
Pardon My Take
Rick Pitino In Studio, Super Bowl Champ Cooper DeJean, USA/Canada's Incredible Four Nations Final + Fyre Fest of The Week
Here's the greatest hypocrisy of it all. I hear stories. I don't believe all of them. They're making it from $1.5 million to $100,000. Now you're going to tell them they can only work 20 hours a week? Right. I mean, it's hip. The NCAA, I've always said this about them. They are never proactive. They're always reactive.
Pardon My Take
Rick Pitino In Studio, Super Bowl Champ Cooper DeJean, USA/Canada's Incredible Four Nations Final + Fyre Fest of The Week
Remember the young man from Connecticut, I forgot his name, that he said he was starving at night, the six-foot backcourt player. I forgot his name, but he said he was starving at night and he didn't have any money for food. And now they started a refueling station where now you can have a place 24 hours a day to have food. So they reacted to his statement. Right. And they're always reacting.
Pardon My Take
Rick Pitino In Studio, Super Bowl Champ Cooper DeJean, USA/Canada's Incredible Four Nations Final + Fyre Fest of The Week
They're never proactive. The fact that we have a 20-hour rule right now is absurd. Now, we don't spend 20 hours now this part of the season because we don't want to get injured. Right. But in the summertime, they give you five hours a week.
Pardon My Take
Rick Pitino In Studio, Super Bowl Champ Cooper DeJean, USA/Canada's Incredible Four Nations Final + Fyre Fest of The Week
Eight hours with strength. I think it's four hours, actually. Four hours of basketball, four hours of strength training. That's absurd. Guys are there for the summer to work out, get better, improve it. It's the opposite of the Mamba mentality. I mean, Kobe Bryant, who believes in that, taking it to a new level. And that's that Mamba mentality.
Pardon My Take
Rick Pitino In Studio, Super Bowl Champ Cooper DeJean, USA/Canada's Incredible Four Nations Final + Fyre Fest of The Week
And I'm a firm believer in everything Kobe Bryant stood for with that.
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Rick Pitino In Studio, Super Bowl Champ Cooper DeJean, USA/Canada's Incredible Four Nations Final + Fyre Fest of The Week
Yeah, but we condition with basketball. I'm not a big suicide guy. I'm not a big guy running on the track. Everything we do is running with a basketball. It's nonstop fast break basketball. And that's the way you should condition. Yeah. Because basketball is a different form of, you know, I used to be a runner. I would run six, eight miles a day and try it for speed. And
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Rick Pitino In Studio, Super Bowl Champ Cooper DeJean, USA/Canada's Incredible Four Nations Final + Fyre Fest of The Week
And I'd go in the gym and play three-on-three, and I was exhausted. Right. It's just a different cardiovascular altogether.
Pardon My Take
Rick Pitino In Studio, Super Bowl Champ Cooper DeJean, USA/Canada's Incredible Four Nations Final + Fyre Fest of The Week
No, I run the same practices. I think that there's certain players that I give more of a break to. Like, Qadari Richmond, he's not a— He's going to save a lot of his energy for games. He's going to save it. He knows his body. He knows his game. So I'll take him. I said, you're going 100%. I'll get you out, but you're going 100%. And he gives it to me. He gives me 100%.
Pardon My Take
Rick Pitino In Studio, Super Bowl Champ Cooper DeJean, USA/Canada's Incredible Four Nations Final + Fyre Fest of The Week
When I ref before the game, I say this to the three guys who come to shake your hand. I said, I'm going to tell you right now. referee the game. Don't talk to me. Don't talk to him. That's all I say. Because I'm not going to watch you have debates with him the entire night while the game is going on or we're shooting a free throw. That's the only thing I'll say to them. I said, ref the game.
Pardon My Take
Rick Pitino In Studio, Super Bowl Champ Cooper DeJean, USA/Canada's Incredible Four Nations Final + Fyre Fest of The Week
Can you imagine you guys are Wall Street brokers and you sit in front of your monitor and it's very intense and you're trading stocks and somebody's yelling at you every play and Every trade, somebody's yelling at you, that's a bullshit call. And how are you going to focus in on trading that stock and matching up the buy and the sell?
Pardon My Take
Rick Pitino In Studio, Super Bowl Champ Cooper DeJean, USA/Canada's Incredible Four Nations Final + Fyre Fest of The Week
So I have a problem with referees because they're always... I got a technical foul, first one I think in a couple of years the other day in the Seton Hall game at Seton Hall because... The referee was literally having a discussion with Shaheen for over 45 seconds while they were at a free throw and something. They were checking the clock. I said, what are you doing? Referee the game.
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Rick Pitino In Studio, Super Bowl Champ Cooper DeJean, USA/Canada's Incredible Four Nations Final + Fyre Fest of The Week
And he gives me a technical, gives Shaheen a technical. And that's my, in the pros, they don't do that. The coach will say something to the guy and they just walk away. In the pros, they don't do that. I wished college officials would do it. Walk away. Because what's happening, if you're listening, if that referee's listening to that coach, the TV audience,
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Rick Pitino In Studio, Super Bowl Champ Cooper DeJean, USA/Canada's Incredible Four Nations Final + Fyre Fest of The Week
18,000 people saying that coach is getting the next call.
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Rick Pitino In Studio, Super Bowl Champ Cooper DeJean, USA/Canada's Incredible Four Nations Final + Fyre Fest of The Week
If I got teed up, I'd be like, fuck, yeah. As long as it doesn't affect the game. We were up 20 at the time, so I was good with it. Yeah, yeah, exactly. Fire up the guys.
Pardon My Take
Rick Pitino In Studio, Super Bowl Champ Cooper DeJean, USA/Canada's Incredible Four Nations Final + Fyre Fest of The Week
Probably Louisville, maybe Georgia Tech. Herb Sendek, I think, was my assistant coach. And I think we won the game. Herb did a great job, who's now at Santa Clara. Yeah, why'd you get thrown out? I had enough of them.
Pardon My Take
Rick Pitino In Studio, Super Bowl Champ Cooper DeJean, USA/Canada's Incredible Four Nations Final + Fyre Fest of The Week
I told Danny... When we played them, I said, you're going to win it all for a second time. And I thought he had the team. We lost 95-90 to them. We played them better than anybody else in the tournament. But I thought, you know, he does a great coaching job. And he had outstanding talent. I love the Kid Castle. I love their bigs, small forwards. They were a terrific team. They scout very well.
Pardon My Take
Rick Pitino In Studio, Super Bowl Champ Cooper DeJean, USA/Canada's Incredible Four Nations Final + Fyre Fest of The Week
They take away your strengths. So I thought they had it to win it a second time. You need some breaks. He didn't need them last year. But you need breaks to get to a Final Four and win it all. Were you on the couch watching all the games, like that Thursday appointment TV? Yeah, I'm a big fan of March Madness. Big fan. I wasn't...
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Rick Pitino In Studio, Super Bowl Champ Cooper DeJean, USA/Canada's Incredible Four Nations Final + Fyre Fest of The Week
I was upset that we didn't get in, but I said, look, I told the team this year, we blew it because early in the year we had a bad loss against Michigan. I didn't realize that that would be a quad three or quad four loss. They just didn't have it.
Pardon My Take
Rick Pitino In Studio, Super Bowl Champ Cooper DeJean, USA/Canada's Incredible Four Nations Final + Fyre Fest of The Week
Thank you.
Pardon My Take
Rick Pitino In Studio, Super Bowl Champ Cooper DeJean, USA/Canada's Incredible Four Nations Final + Fyre Fest of The Week
Yeah.
Pardon My Take
Rick Pitino In Studio, Super Bowl Champ Cooper DeJean, USA/Canada's Incredible Four Nations Final + Fyre Fest of The Week
This was the beginning of the year?
Pardon My Take
Rick Pitino In Studio, Super Bowl Champ Cooper DeJean, USA/Canada's Incredible Four Nations Final + Fyre Fest of The Week
Oh, okay.
Pardon My Take
Rick Pitino In Studio, Super Bowl Champ Cooper DeJean, USA/Canada's Incredible Four Nations Final + Fyre Fest of The Week
Yeah, they're good with that. And I think, like, I am so worried about tonight's game. with DePaul because I really like this coach from DePaul. I think he's excellent. I think he gets the most out of them. They shoot it well. And coaches like that are dangerous because they get their teams, regardless of their record, to play extremely tough basketball.
Pardon My Take
Rick Pitino In Studio, Super Bowl Champ Cooper DeJean, USA/Canada's Incredible Four Nations Final + Fyre Fest of The Week
No.
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Rick Pitino In Studio, Super Bowl Champ Cooper DeJean, USA/Canada's Incredible Four Nations Final + Fyre Fest of The Week
No one. No one. I've had a lot of contacts with professional teams right now from Europe.
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Rick Pitino In Studio, Super Bowl Champ Cooper DeJean, USA/Canada's Incredible Four Nations Final + Fyre Fest of The Week
Who are dying to have me back. Got it.
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Rick Pitino In Studio, Super Bowl Champ Cooper DeJean, USA/Canada's Incredible Four Nations Final + Fyre Fest of The Week
Yeah. Okay. So I'm going to have some people upset at me. If I was the AD at Indiana, and am I friendly with this person? Yes, I am. Do I have a lot of respect for this person? Yes, I do. But I would immediately, not even interview anybody else, and hire one of the premier coaches in all of college basketball, and that's Chris Beard from Ole Miss. I wouldn't even think about another person.
Pardon My Take
Rick Pitino In Studio, Super Bowl Champ Cooper DeJean, USA/Canada's Incredible Four Nations Final + Fyre Fest of The Week
He's perfect for that job. He's a tough, hard-nosed guy. The years I was sitting out, I got friendly with him because he asked me to, he didn't know me, I didn't know him, to come out and speak to his team. He was at Texas Tech. And I went out and spoke to him, but I watched two days of practice. And I always judge a coach by his practices.
Pardon My Take
Rick Pitino In Studio, Super Bowl Champ Cooper DeJean, USA/Canada's Incredible Four Nations Final + Fyre Fest of The Week
And I have to tell you, those are some of the best practices and meetings with his team that I've ever witnessed. So I am a gigantic fan of Chris Beard, and I think he would kill it at Indiana. He'd have him in the top five to seven every single year.
Pardon My Take
Rick Pitino In Studio, Super Bowl Champ Cooper DeJean, USA/Canada's Incredible Four Nations Final + Fyre Fest of The Week
Remember, he brought Texas Tech to the championship game and could have won it if that young man didn't hit that from Virginia, that corner shot, the great shot that he did hit. So he's a superstar top three coach in my estimation. I would never hire myself for that job.
Pardon My Take
Rick Pitino In Studio, Super Bowl Champ Cooper DeJean, USA/Canada's Incredible Four Nations Final + Fyre Fest of The Week
For that job, for Indiana.
Pardon My Take
Rick Pitino In Studio, Super Bowl Champ Cooper DeJean, USA/Canada's Incredible Four Nations Final + Fyre Fest of The Week
When the players get bored. They don't give 100% attention physically and mentally. It doesn't have to be long. It could be an hour and 20 minutes. It could be an hour.
Pardon My Take
Rick Pitino In Studio, Super Bowl Champ Cooper DeJean, USA/Canada's Incredible Four Nations Final + Fyre Fest of The Week
When they're all tuned in to the assignment of what the coaches are saying and the coaches, insistent coaches, are totally engaged in every single drill and they maximize their effort with every single drill, that's a great practice.
Pardon My Take
Rick Pitino In Studio, Super Bowl Champ Cooper DeJean, USA/Canada's Incredible Four Nations Final + Fyre Fest of The Week
He's a great guy.
Pardon My Take
Rick Pitino In Studio, Super Bowl Champ Cooper DeJean, USA/Canada's Incredible Four Nations Final + Fyre Fest of The Week
Yeah, there's another guy who should be back in the NFL. Yeah.
Pardon My Take
Rick Pitino In Studio, Super Bowl Champ Cooper DeJean, USA/Canada's Incredible Four Nations Final + Fyre Fest of The Week
Thank you.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
Hour 2: Sir, Do You Know Where I Can Find A Bathroom?
Dig in and be a basketball player. Dig in. Every time you miss a shot, your game deflates. We don't care about your missed shots. Play defense. You guys keep blowing opportunity upon opportunity upon opportunity. You're like children with bad things happening. Instead of digging in and being tougher, you wilt. Where is your toughness?
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
Hour 2: Sir, Do You Know Where I Can Find A Bathroom?
Where have you guys been raised that you're so weak mentally that you just give up when something doesn't go right for you? Don't you know what adversity is all about? That's the game of life, not the game of basketball. You don't get down when things go wrong. You dig in and get tougher. Your whole life's going to be adversity. Learn how to deal with it.