More to your point—Part of being a great recruiter is hiring a great “recruiting coordinator”. And if the last two years are any indication ( save Caracter ), then I’d say Mr. Masiello has learned a thing or two from his predecessors, and Rick.

But, I like your anti-Pitino tilt.

For a forty-year cat fan, you sure have a short memory.

RP declined to take Lofton (who is NOT in the NBA, by the way) and Rondo only because he already had someone universally regarded as better than both—Sebastian Telfair, who went right to the pros. The fact that a coach successfully recruits an NBA high school first rounder rather than Rondo and another guy who couldn’t even make it to the NBA does not suggest a lack of eye for NBA caliber talent. Quite the contrary.

And don’t even start on the point that Rajon has made a bigger splash in the NBA than Sebastian (he has, yahoo!), because we don’t know what Sebatian might have done had Rick been able to work his magic on him for a year or two at Louisville before Sebastian made the jump to the NBA (which Sebastian was foolish to do). He should have done what Rajon did, which was stay at least a couple years.

Nor do I fault Rajon for leaving us when he did—he couldn’t stand Tubby holding him back any longer, and in his case he NEEDED to get out from under Tubby and into the NBA where a good development coach could take him to where he needed to be (which is where Sebastian would have been had he given Rick the chance).

As far as Ken’s statement that Pitino just knows how to recognize and recruit great talent that is headed to the NBA anyway, I say, “No sh*t, Sherlock!” Where’s the deep, hidden truth there? That is precisely what every coach in America tries to do. Everybody wants the top talent; some (like Rick) are just able to identify and secure it better than others. Coaches look for the “sleepers” only when the low hanging fruit has already been picked—and even there RP has done as good a job at that as anybody.

Right now UK is fortunate to have a coach who is among the best in the country at using the talent available, even when it does not include the McDonald’s AA’s. I think BCG’s better than RP at getting guys to use what the have in a way that best fits the particular team they are playing for. BCG did not get his five “Coach of the Year” awards because of his recruiting (yet).

One of the things that has always impressed me about Pitino is that while every coach has the occasional big recruit who flames out (God knows Tubby had his share), Pitino seems to have a lot fewer of these than anybody else except maybe Roy Williams. You have to give him credit, even when he wears the red.

Go ‘Cats!

No doubt Pitino got him into much better condition. But his play in 1998 was >>> 1997 and way > than 1996.

He built his program from the ground up, whereas Tubby took a championship program and run it into the ground.

Yes, it’s easier to win a national championship with a team full of first round draft pics (see ‘99 Connecticut [6] or ‘96 Kentucky [6]), but it can be done with just one (‘94 Arkansas), or even none (see Loyola). Corliss Williamson was the only player on that nc team who was recruited by anybody else. One of Scotty Thurman’s favorite quotations is, “We certainly weren’t a team full of lottery pics.” Heck, Corey was a darned junior college player nobody wanted. Richardson did a fantastic job of teaching guys that hustle beats talent (or can at least blunt its edge).

Moreover, there are many, many teams that, while not being able to grab that national championship ring, have been able to stay consistently competitive without any first tier talent.

West Virginia hasn’t had a player in the NBA since 1981, but look what they have done. Three Sweet Sixteens and an NIT championship in the last four years—without Randolph Morriss, or Rajon Rondo, or Patrick Patterson, or Joe Crawford. And have you not seen what Princeton, or Davidson, or Gonzaga, or Valparaiso consistently do? Where were you when UAB made its surge in the 80’s? Why do you think Beilein is at Michigan now?

Yes, Rick Pitino won the N.C. in ‘96 with six first rounders, but do you remember how many were on his ‘87 Providence Final Four team? None. In fact, the ONLY NBA player on that team played a single year - for Pitino at NY - and his name was Billy Donovan.

And do I have to remind you how many times the Richmond Spiders (who’ve never had a first round pic) beat a team loaded with NBA talent, like defending national champion Indiana, or Syracuse (with Billy Owens, LeRon Ellis, David Johnson, and Adrian Autry), or Auburn (with both Barkley and Person)? I think Dick Tarrant had two NBA players in his CAREER. How many times did he beat a #2 or #3 or #4 seed?

The fact is that it does happen, and actually with some degree of regularity. I’d like to see the stats on who does it best.

(1)UK
(2) U of L
(3) Minnesota
(4) Oklahoma State or Arkansas or Florida or Arizona State

What a hoot that would be.