For me this time, it's coming from an article recently published on CBSportsline by a guy named Matt Jones who is one of the heads of University of Kentucky sports radio and occasionally masquerades as a writer for national sports sites like this. Jones is obviously a Kentucky fan given his title and occupation, which trust me I don't mind at all, but he recently put out an article titled "Pitino Plods Along Without Former Mojo" in which he rips Louisville coach Rick Pitino and essentially makes him out to be a washed-out has-been.
The link to the article is below:
http://www.cbssports.com/collegebasketball/story/12955173/pitino-plods-along-without-his-former-mojo
What Jones has exhibited here is something that virtually every Kentucky fan does: they still have an axe to grind with Pitino, not only for going to Louisville, but for leaving them for the Celtics gig back in 1997. The man's quite possibly gone from hero to pariah faster than anyone I've ever seen. The article really doesn't read like any sort of reputable piece or journalism or even just a basic column: it comes off like a rant fueled by pent-up hatred.
A laundry list of things bother me with this column.
First, Jones sets up his tale of a fall from grace by describing a Louisville-DePaul game he went to recently in the Chicago suburbs, seeing a half-empty arena with Pitino coaching in it and automatically using it as an anecdote to prove Pitino's "fall". Way to pick the worst home court atmosphere in the Big East to prove his Mr. Jones, show up to Freedom Hall or the Carrier Dome and try to pull this same argument.
Jones also says that Pitino's coaching a "mediocre, inconsistent Louisville team", but his tone makes it seem like Pitino's coaching UMBC. Sure the Cards are inconsistent this year, but to call them mediocre? We're talking about a team that's come off a road win against a top 5 Syracuse team, and was absolutely hosed by the refs in games against Pitt and West Virginia that they would have won otherwise. Let's also consider the fact that Louisville wasn't supposed to be some sort of barn-stormer this year; they lost two guys who ended up being lottery picks in the NBA for Christ sake.
I actually like the fact that Jones acknowledged that Louisville's one of the top ten programs of all-time in college basketball, considering a lot of people (especially up here) don't seem to give them that designation.
Louisville's certainly not a bad team this year (they are 18-9, 9-5 in Big East play), but I think a lot of their struggles have been magnified by how well Kentucky is doing right now. This is really what bothers me with this article. Why attack Pitino right now when your favorite program is off to one of the best starts in school history, has three certain lottery picks on their team, and is being led by the man-crush of the Wildcat faithful? Completely unnecessary and classless.
Jones draws a comparison between the career paths of Pitino and Steve Spurrier which kind of makes sense, but doesn't completely add up. Sure, there's been the general process of success at small places (Pitino at Providence, Spurrier at Duke), otherwordly success at huge gigs (Pitino at UK, Spurrier at Florida), failure in the pros (Pitino with the Celtics, Spurrier with the Redskins), but the South Carolina-Louisville comparison makes little sense. Of course Pitino hasn't had the same level of success at Louisville that he did at Kentucky, but did anybody honestly expect him to? Also, Spurrier's gone 35-28 at South Carolina and hasn't gotten to a bowl better than the Outback Bowl and hasn't had a team finish better than 8-5. No BCS games, no SEC titles. Meanwhile, Pitino's accumulated a 215-80 record in The Ville and has taken Louisville to a Final Four and two Elite Eights. Doesn't follow through Mr. Jones.
To end what it turning into a rant of my own, I would have loved to see Matt Jones write this article one year ago when Louisville was on a run that included a Big East regular season title, Big East tournament title, and a No. 1 overall seed in the NCAA Tournament. Was he washed up then? Does taking over a program that was coming off of a 12-20 season and a decade of mediocrity and leading them to six NCAA Tournament appearances in eight years, a Final Four, and two elite eights qualify as some sort of failure in this guy's mind?
My theory with this was that he was channeling notable NFL Draft bust Matt Jones by snorting coke before he wrote this.
Then again, that's just me.
But regardless of my crazy theory, I'm not sure how valid a guy's opinion can be considered when he labels a guy who has resurrected one of college basketball's greatest programs an abject failure.
No Mr. Jones, I believe that would be you.
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