A legendary ol’ scallywag of a coach, in the flickering twilight of his notorious career, was once asked …..
“Coach, is it true that you broke every rule in the book?”To which the sly scoundrel replied: “Book? What book?”…. You mean the Record Book that shows how many games and rings I won. THAT is the only “book” I care about.”
Big Time and Wannabee Big Time coaches in College Football and Men’s Basketball are our modern day Mafia Dons. They create a bunker mentality – Us Against The World …. We Are Fam-i-lee – surrounding themselves with intensely loyal “foot soldiers / sycophants” who will eagerly “take a bullet” for them if asked…. or without even being asked.
As we learned with UNC’s Deborah Crowder and “Mother” Burgess and with Louisville’s Andre McGee…. loyal sycophants who will “do anything” to earn an atta boy from The Don. Cut off a thumb…. eat a bug…. devise a Scheme …. get’em laid …. drive around the state selling calendars ….. etc etc etc.
I rail against “broad brushing”; but I’m going to broad brush that there is NOBODY other than the truly insane lunatic core of ‘VilleNation that thinks for a nano-second that Rick Pitino is “innocent” in Get’em Laid-gate. – NOTE: Am I the first to create a “-gate” phrase for this one? Someone has to be first. Why can’t it be me?
How well Rick can parse “the definition of “knew about” or simply “go Sgt Schultz” is yet to be determined. “Go Sgt Schultz” has become “take the 5th” for coaching mobsters.
Godfather 2: …. Michael is appearing before the Senate committee with Tom Hagan at his side. Michael knows the senators are every bit as corrupt as he is…. and they know how totally corrupt he is. He keeps “pleading the 5th” and eventually walks….. and the old Pisano slices his wrists in the bathtub. OK, the analogy isn’t 100%…. Pitino DOES “end in a vowel”!
Hey BobLee, Pacino and Pitino look alike. Yeah and both names start with a “P” and end in “ino”…. just a coincidence. 🙂
Can’t you see Slick Rick or RoyTwoRings or The Butcher or Boeheim or Cal or, or, or, or just repeating “I didn’t knownuthin’ ’bout no paper classes, no ho’s, no nuthin’….. I didn’t know nuthin ’bout nuthin’”ad infinitum When a gal “does it” will we call it a Lois Lerner?
Never sell “a Rick Pitino” or a Larry Brown or any of the Hall of Fame of Cagey Cage Rascals short. These cats have been competing against / recruiting against one another for 20-30-40 years. They know each others’ moves and “tendencies” like Patton knew Rommel…. Like Lee & Grant….. like Blue Duck knew Rangers McRae and Call.
They are experts at “reading kids”. A Harrison Barnes, for instance, would not have reacted well to the opportunity to “get laid” by one of Andre’s skanky gals. A “Touché” McGinnis on the other hand …..
The Cagey Rascals that earn “rings” and HoF plaques learn early on whether to quote Bible verses or the latest Hip Hop lyrics to Billy Blue Chip. They can do both / either as the situation requires…. like switching from man-to-man to zone on each possession.
Louisville Ho-gate is only a week old (as far as being a public circus) and already the parsing of “know about ??” and, of course “the Slick Willie” a/k/a “what specifically is ‘having sex’” has started. When a former recruit’s argument is:
“They weren’t totally nekkid. They kept their shoes on …..”
Then we are deep into Yeeeeee HAA-Land and it’s only gonna get “more Yeee-Haa” by the hour.
Put Ho-gate on a timeline. During “the period in question” – 2010-2014 – Rick was feeling the pressure of “whatchu done for us lately, Rick” plus the Calipari Steamroller was in high gear just 78 miles away. The “pressure” was absolutely ON for Rick and his staff of sniffling sycophants including Andre Miller.
Think of Tobacco Road as a Bluegrass Road ….. Louisville / Lexington is Raleigh / Greensboro. Not QUITE as cheek-by-jowl as the steaming cauldron of Raleigh – Derm-Chapel Hill but every bit as INTENSE. Rival gangs of board monkeys are dumpster-diving 24/7 for real or imagined “dirt”.
That NattyChamp Rick won “when the kid broke his leg” was in 2012-13 – smack dab in the middle of Ho-gate.
Rick appears to be getting near the “waterworks” stage where he cries on camera and babbles about “doing it for the kids….”. This is known as “doing a Larry Brown” in the biz.
He also knows that he will eventually lose the Louisville Lunatic Fringe. A school’s Lunatic Fringe is “insane” but not “stoopid”. There is a difference. When a Rock Star Coach’s flimsy excuses have all flat lined, he will be lonelier than a Maytag Repairman with leprosy.
The “loonies” simply want to win. When Push Comes To Probation they WILL throw any coach under the bus….. and go buy themselves the Next Messiah.
They will steadfastly defend Rick so long as there is a chance he can “beat the rap”. As with the TruBlues, they will scream EDI – Everybody Does It – and try to deflect attention by claiming Calipari is producing kiddie porn DVDs in the basement of Rupp Arena or some such. Whatever Cal is doing doesn’t matter….. for now.
In these ooey-gooey messes, always play the “flip the pancake” game. Rival Lunatic Fringes are descending en masse on Louisville with pitchforks and torches ablazing; while Louisville Loonies counter with (1) “we’re being set-up by our hated rivals who are jealous of us because ________” and (2) decrying Kangaroo Kourts who rush to judgement blah blah blah. If it was Kentucky or Indiana under fire, we would simply flip the roles of the respective Loonies. Loonies is Loonies is Loonies…. forever and always.
It’s Slick Rick “on the rack” with the needles being driven under his fingernails until he breaks and tells’em where the thumbdrive is with all the middlemen’s names and secret off-shore account #s.
Maybe Rick won’t break. Maybe he will simply get all uppity about “never gonna quit…. blah blah.” And forever claim “John Blake?…. who is John Blake…. I hardly knew this John Blake you keep referring to …..” OOPS, I’m getting my Big Time Coaches confused here. My bad!
I’ve always said Roy’s Big Exit Scene will be Incredible Theater…. Steve Kirschner and Clint Gwaltney frog-marching him out of the room with him kicking and screaming about “junk” and blaming everyone but himself.
The two U of L’ville admin clowns to watch here are (1) AD Tom Jurich and (2) U of L President James Ramsey (pictured). Jurich is a very very “tough cookie”. He will totally support Rick….. until he doesn’t any more.
As long as there is one “definition of ‘a ho’ or ‘kept their shoes on’ or ‘definition of having sex’ to hide behind, Jurich will hunker down with Rick. At some point he WILL cut their umbilical and let Rick sink by himself. Self-preservation is a very strong motivator.
U of L Prez Ramsey is as clueless as EVERY University Admin always is in these cases. He, also, will back Rick and Jurich….. until he won’t any more. Then he will do a “Peter In The Garden” and deny he EVER supported them. Remember Leslie Strohm is their whizbang legal counsel.
98.4% of University Admins are Invertebrates….. that they can stand upright without benefit of a backbone is a medical miracle. Can you say Bruce Poulton boys and girls? Those over-educated, self-important dilettantes don’t know squat, Bo or diddly about “what really goes on in Big Time College FB/ MBB”. They “clap like gay seals” and live in a fantasy world of lapel ribbons and eeeeevil right-wing boogie-men.
For all his naïvet about so much of TGU, Holden wanted to fire The Butcher on several occasions during Butcher’s final season. BOTBob and his bragging rights-obsessed cronies kept talking him out of it. Holden finally dropped the hammer when BOTBob no longer had a vote. For his courage…. he received death threats. You think James Ramsey wants death threats from Louisville Loonies?
Back to that notorious old scallywag we began this rant with up top. He would likely advise Rick Pitino…..
Hellfire Rick, I bet it don’t say nowhere in that “book” about a kid “getting laid”. I mean really….. Angels don’t play football…. and virgins don’t play basketball…. ain’t that what going to college is all about? Ain’t it, Rick?
thin’ ’bout no paper classes, no ho’s, no nuthin’….. I didn’t know nuthin ’bout nuthin’” ad infinitum When a gal “does it” will we call it a Lois Lerner?
y very “tough cookie”. He will totally support Rick….. until he doesn’t any more.