Thursday, November 25, 2021

Coach Pitino

The Iona Gaels just beat Alabama 72-68.  Ken Pom gave Alabama a 90 percent chance of victory, but of course the analytics don't know that Iona is coached by Rick Pitino.  This result just led to the following tweet from Jeff Goodman:

Pitino will take his players and beat you, he'll take your players and beat you, and he'll go down to the YMCA and take those players and beat you.

You can say whatever you want about him, but he's the best coach out there.  Period.

Of course, this is true.  Pitino's the best college basketball coach I've ever seen.  And if you think he's good now, you should have seen him in his prime.  Here's a list of UK's coaches since 1931.  Check out Pitino's winning percentage, and then remember that for the first two years he was at UK, the team was on probation and couldn't go to the NCAA Tournament:

Adolph Rupp:  876-190 (.822)
Joe B. Hall:  297-100 (.748)
Eddie Sutton:  88-39 (.693)
Rick Pitino:  219-50 (.814)
Tubby Smith:  263-83 (.760)
Billy Gillespie:  40-27 (.597)
John Calipari:  343-94 (.785)

1 comment:

  1. Dayton beats Kansas 74-73. If the Cats can beat the North Florida Ospreys tonight, they can pick up a rare game on the Jayhawks.

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