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NCAA MEN'S REGIONALS SEMIFINALS & FINALS: PHOENIXMarch 23, 2012Chane BehananGorgui DiengKyle KuricRick PitinoPeyton SivaChris SmithPHOENIX, ARIZONA COACH PITINO: It's a lot different when you have one day to prepare. It's a little unique, though, because we really know the Florida basketball team, as we're big fans of theirs. And as a coaching staff we're watching them all the time. And probably vice‑versa, they watch us all the time. It's a little bit different. Normally it's a big problem with one‑day prep, but we're going to know them, they're going to know us, and it should be a very exciting game. Q. Chane, how was Gorgui, how did he handle such a good performance after the game last night? CHANE BEHANAN: I think he handled it pretty well. We had his back the whole time. He did a tremendous job on not getting into foul trouble. That's a big plus on his end. He had a lot of blocked shots last night, too. Q. Peyton or Chris, what challenge does Florida guards pose? PEYTON SIVA: The Florida guards are really good. They can shoot three‑point, they're quick, they're all good. And it's going to be our job to contain them and keep them limited on three‑point field goals. CHRIS SMITH: It's their speed and passing. We'll just have to really contain that. Q. A lot of the Florida players and the coach were comparing you to what they faced in Kentucky's Anthony Davis. How similar do you think you are to him? GORGUI DIENG: I mean, like he's a good shot blocker. He's not strong. We have the same style of game, he's ‑‑ yeah. Q. Why do you think your defense has been so effective at stopping 3's and how big of a challenge is that going to be against the Florida team that loves to shoot them? CHRIS SMITH: Can you repeat the question, please? Q. Why do you think your defense has been so effective at stopping teams from shooting 3's effectively? And how difficult will that be against a Florida team that loves to shoot them? CHRIS SMITH: Well, our ball pressure is like tremendous. We trace the ball wherever it goes. And we just really try to keep it out of reaching the three‑point line. And with this team we have to step out even deeper with NBA range, because those guys can really shoot it. KYLE KURIC: Pretty much like Chris said. We put pressure on the pass, so they can't get a clean pass, they can't get shot off as quick. And we extend our defense to the point where they have to shoot the ball really deep or under duress. Q. So much was made before the season of the captains and taking leadership of the team. Have you had to lead these young guys or have they come along? KYLE KURIC: They've come along at a good pace. They played like seniors that really wanted to win and advance. Q. Talk about Erik Murphy. He's a stretch forward that steps out and shoots a lot of 3's. You're going to have to talk about being aware of him outside the three‑point line. CHANE BEHANAN: When guards get drove on, little P told me to try to contain him, stay with him. And I've got an advantage over him with jumping ability and my strength. So I'm just trying to take full advantage of that as I can. Q. A lot has been made of Florida, how many 3's they shoot. Nobody has made more per game than them this year. How much do you think that will adjust your defense, if at all? PEYTON SIVA: I think we will do the same. We played teams that shot the ball like them, Cincinnati, they shot the ball three or four feet behind the three‑point line. And I think we're going to have to do the same thing we did against them, extend our zone and try to run them off the three‑point line. They are a great shooting team. They make over 10 three‑point field goals a game. I think we have a tough job, but I believe in our guards to put a lot of pressure on their guards to keep them off the three‑point line. Q. Last night Florida had a little bit of trouble scoring the ball and their guard, Bradley Beal, sort of took over at one point, went into the lane aggressively and did some things that get them on the scoreboard. Have you noticed if he's a particular threat or what you think about his game? PEYTON SIVA: Bradley Beal is a great player. He's going to be first‑round pick this year. He's a great ball player. And he's second leading rebounder on their team. He can do different things. He can shoot exceptionally well. So it's going to be tough for us to try to limit his shots and try to get the ball out of his hands. But like I say, he's a great player. He led their team this far. So it's going to be a tough job. CHRIS SMITH: I would say we have to just limit his touches and play great team defense all around to just keep the ball out of his hands. Q. You guys have thrived so much on this us against the world mentality throughout this postseason. Does it seem a little awkward now that you have a game where you're expected to win against a lower seed? CHANE BEHANAN: It does feel awkward, just knowing that throughout the whole regular season people was kind of doubting us. Once we won the Big East tournament, now they have faith in us and stuff like that. We don't let it get to us. We've just got to stick together as a team. Only worry about the people that's inside the locker room and inside the lines when we go play. Q. You've done such a good job in the Big East tournament, I guess defying odds there. You didn't make honorable mention even in the Big East tournament. How much for you is proving people wrong? You always say I want to win. Do you enjoy showing yourself on this stage? GORGUI DIENG: It's not all about me. It's how my teammates have my back. I might be playing good defense, but that's all of them. It's not about me. Like I said, like I told you yesterday, I have one mentality, I just want to win. I don't care what people say, whether it's good or bad, I want to stay focused to our goals. And then I think we are all on the same page and we just want to win. So whatever people are saying, as long as you win, that's all I care about. Q. Do you watch film of Florida and think, hey, that's our press, we run that, we run that set? How often does that occur? PEYTON SIVA: Florida, you know, they have different sets than us. But they like to get up and down. They like to shoot a lot of 3's. Coach P coached him and he worked under Coach P, so you're going to see some similar sets. But it's a lot different than what you expect. The style of play is still the same, they like to get up and down and shoot 3's. They're a good team. CHRIS SMITH: You know, they play pretty tough defense and in their press, but other than that, like Peyton said, they have pretty different plays than us. They run a lot of dribble drive to get jump shots. Q. So much has been made, it's been well documented your relationship with your father. Just curious if during games either on the tournament or throughout the year, do you ever actually hear him screaming over the rest of the crowd or take a look over to see what he's doing out there in the crowd? PEYTON SIVA: I actually don't hear it. I'm used to it, so I actually don't hear it. But Coach P tells me and the rest of the team tells me how loud he is on the bench. Coach P has to turn around and tell him to be quiet sometimes. I learned to block it out in high school and middle school. I can't really hear him. Coach hears him. So he turns around and tells him to be quiet sometimes. Q. 25 years ago Coach P had a point guard and he ended up 25 years later playing him. In 25 years could we expect maybe a Coach Peyton Siva? PEYTON SIVA: I have no idea. I'm probably not as bright as Coach Donovan is. He's a great coach. One day I hopefully can. But who knows. Coach P produced a lot of coaches. So hopefully I can follow in their footsteps. But I just want to continue playing basketball now. Q. To that same end, Coach Pitino dressed Billy Donovan up with a hat and spurs and put him on the front of a media guide. If he approached you and said you're Peyton the Kid or Billy the Kid, would you up for that? PEYTON SIVA: What I learned, I'll do whatever Coach P wants me to do. If he told me to put a tutu on in front of ESPN, I'd go do that. I trust my coach and I know he won't put me in no bad situations. Q. Is there any truth to the axiom that you taught Billy everything he knows but not everything you know? COACH PITINO: You know, Billy has got ‑‑ I taught Billy as a player and he was with us as an assistant coach, but he's developed his own methods of basketball. I think the one thing that left Billy as a player and as a coach is to build a fun style of play for the guys. And he's certainly done that in high fashion. Q. When you're bringing a player into your program like Billy and some of the other numerous guys that have gone on to be coaches, how long does it take to notice that, hey, this guy has the makings of a great coach and what are the qualities that you see early on that let's you know that this guy could be potentially a great coach? COACH PITINO: Well, I tell everybody I hire that I'm not hiring an assistant coach, I'm hiring a future head coach and I expect them to act like a head coach. By that I mean I expect them to have the same pressure that I'm under, that they drive themselves to limits where they feel the same pressure I would feel from a scouting standpoint, from a recruiting standpoint. And Billy is no different. Billy worked with Herb Sendek, who is a head coach in this town here, and they were good buddies, and they were part of a great staff. And it was ‑‑ you know, there are some coaches you hire that you don't know, like Wyking Jones or Kevin Keatts or Marvin Menzies or Reggie Theus and go on to be very successful. The guys like Billy and Herb and Jim O'Brien, Stu Jackson, Ralph Willard, Kevin Willard, Steve Masciola, you know them prior personally. So you have a better gauge on certain things. Well, I wasn't sure how good a coach Billy would be because Billy was very quiet as a player. But once he became a coach everything changed in his life. He really took that leadership responsibility on. And I just like all our coaches to feel the same pressure that I feel. And I think that drives them to be the best they can be right away. And also drives them to want to get out in a hurry, because they feel those pressures. They want to get out in three years, four years, to be a head coach, because we drive them so hard. Q. We've seen this kind of mentor‑protege relationship unfold in the NCAA tournament before. And not every coach likes it because of all the emotions involved. In that sense do you kind of dread going against Billy tomorrow or is it just like any other challenge? COACH PITINO: Not at all. It's the opposite for me because if we were playing school X tomorrow and we lost, I'd be devastated not going to a Final Four. I'll be professionally very down about not going to a Final Four, but personally I'll be very happy for Billy Donovan. Q. It's been awhile since you guys coached against each other, but does the fact that you've never lost to them, does that have any meaning on tomorrow's match‑up? COACH PITINO:  It really doesn't, because when you're coaching at Marshall and you have much better talent, and I'm never going to Marshall, he's coming to Kentucky, you don't expect to win most of the time. So you can never look at those things because he was at a tremendous disadvantage. If we had the same type of talent, then it would be a different situation. But that's not the case. We just played at home and had more talent, with the exception of a couple of games where we went home to home with Florida and Louisville. Q. As busy as you guys are, especially during the season, yet as fond as you are of one another, how much a part of each others' lives do you get to be, how often do you talk? Without getting too personal, what are those conversations like? COACH PITINO: Billy is a unique situation. You're close with all your assistants, and texting back and forth all the time. But Billy is a little different because both coaches, Billy and John Pelphrey played for me. And we had a great time together. Not only did we have success, but we really, truly love each other. So it's a little bit different. Billy, no question about it, is like a son to me. And we started at a very young age. We had a great time together. And anytime you have a great time together and you have great success it forms a wonderful relationship. Both John and Billy were truly unique. It's so weird, in a sense, because I'm getting texts the last 48 hours about coach, did you speak to Billy? We're having our reunion in Miami, our 25th reunion of Providence College, and all the guys are very excited about it. They keep saying, did you get to Billy yet? I said, let's wait for this thing to end. We're all going to get together in May down there and it will be very exciting for all of us. So we're looking forward to that. We had a very unique experience with that basketball team, because that team ‑‑ since the conception of the Big East, Providence College has never been out of last place. They were tied with Seton Hall, but never out of last place. When you go from that point to the Final Four in two years, you have to have a special group of guys. So we will look forward to that. Q. I asked this question to Coach Donovan, does that Providence team get to the Final Four without the three‑point shot, which is the first year of the three‑point shot, and how much did you embrace that new rule? COACH PITINO: Well, yes, we could have got to the Final Four. It really wasn't the fact that we embraced it. It was more the fact that our competitors did not. If my memory serves well, the first four Big East games that we played that year, I don't think teams made a three against us. I don't think they took more than five. So that whole philosophy was changing. I learned a lot by playing the Russians in the exhibition game. My goal was to lead the nation in 3‑point shooting that year, which we did do. I was off the number. I wanted to take 18 3's a game. We played the Russians and they took 28. And I moved the number up from 20 to 25 because of the Russians. They taught me how to use the three when we went against them. And I started studying it. We certainly had a guard that was a facilitator like Billy, who could get Delray Brooks and Lewis threes all the time. I think we would still be successful today because we had an outstanding team, but our success was derived more by our competitors not taking it. Q. You don't see many players like Kyle these days who stick with a program four years, don't play a lot as a freshman, because people transfer a lot. Can you talk about his journey as a freshman not playing a lot, to being a senior? COACH PITINO: Kyle came on as a walk‑on, and we gave him a scholarship for three of the years and he's developed. He went through a tough period with Terrence Williams, T‑Will, because he gets great glee out of abusing someone in practice, taking advantage of them. And Kyle had to guard him each day. So it was a great learning experience for Kyle and made him tougher. But Kyle is also very quiet, very shy, doesn't speak a whole lot. And he's done a remarkable job for us growing in the program. Q. Where is Florida's 3‑point shooting on your list of priorities heading into this game? COACH PITINO: I think the three‑point shot for us is a priority every game. It was a priority with Michigan State. It was a tremendous priority with New Mexico. It was a priority with Davidson. It's been one of the top three elements in all of the games. It was with Cincinnati in the Finals. So defending ‑‑ we're not always going to make it, because we're not a great shooting team. So if we don't make that a priority, the disparity would be too great. We've won this year giving up 3's and not shooting it ourselves. And if you look at Wisconsin, they made 14 3's and still loss to Syracuse. Q. Sticking with the theme, I guess, do you think that the three point, coming in when Billy was shining as a college player, you look at Florida now, I think they lead the nation in three points made in the game. COACH PITINO: Billy is playing a style of play that he enjoyed playing. Billy coaches the way he wants to play. And everything he does. He does great things on offense. The only difference is he has to teach defense and get his teams to play good defense. He didn't enjoy that that much as a player. But he knows that helps you win. Q. You've talked a little bit about this team being a special group. I think you said you'd never coached a group like this group. Can you elaborate on that? COACH PITINO: Well, the last two years, it's very tough to go back 25 years and say this team reminds you of your '87 team. It does in terms of the type of people they are. Someone just mentioned about you don't see four‑year players anymore. But this is a group that we have a lot of fun together. I'll tell you a really funny story with Russ Smith during the game the other night. We've never had in two years any type of argument in the huddle. These guys listen, do what they're told, very respectful. Somebody said something to Russ about a shot for the first time. And I jumped all over this guy and said, let me get this straight, coach, he's now taken 251 bad shots this year and you're now going to say something? Why didn't you say something for the other 250 ridiculous Russ‑diculous shots he's taken. Russ got very upset. This is when the other player was on the floor injured. I said Russ, don't say another word. He said, I'm okay, coach, I'm okay. I said you're okay, go back to the bench. No, coach, I'm okay, and he started clapping I'm okay. I started getting upset. I said Russ, you clap one more time, you tell me you're okay, I guarantee you're not going to be okay. He said okay again. I brought him back to the bench and I really got into him. Well, to show you how much fun we have, I put him back in the game 30 seconds later, he was the same Russ, took a couple of shots, made a couple of 3's, and now we win the game. And who do they get to join me at half court after the game but Russ Smith. And he was hugging me and going crazy, this is great, coach. I said, don't say okay in this interview, Russ, do not say okay. So now I'm doing my interview and I go back and my son says, dad, did you see Russ during your interview. Yeah, typical Russ, he's going crazy. Russ goes up and puts the rabbit ears behind my head, and jumping up, and going crazy, and dancing while I'm doing the interview. And that's the way this team behaves. They have an awful lot of fun together. They laugh constantly. That's what I mean when it's one of the more fun teams. Between the lines we take it serious, but away from the lines they're just joking around, having an awesome time together. It's refreshing to see. Last year's team was the same way, but we had a player go down, six‑month injury and we lost him, and Morehead State wound up beating us at the buzzer. It didn't have the ending this team had. We lost in the Big East final last year. And now we won the Big East championship and now we're playing for the Final Four. So now it's great to see. Q. It seems like you're having a lot of fun now. I know the last couple of years have been difficult because of the extortion trial. How did that affect you in retrospect, did you ever think to yourself, being in a job this public, out in the spotlight this much, maybe that's not something you'd wanted to go back to? COACH PITINO: No, I brought that upon myself. Although I feel there's a lot of distortion. I learned a couple of things from that experience, and that is to turn the other cheek. Just turn the other cheek. I got great advice when it comes to problems. Don't try to explain yourself. Don't try to tell the truth, tell your side. Just move on. I learned too my family was absolutely awesome. I learned my athletic director was awesome. They knew the truth. You learned to turn the cheek, move on. But to me it wasn't like 9/11 or losing a child. Something that you have to face and you move on. And so we all have ‑‑ you all have those experiences in life, I don't know about extortion, but you have bad problems in your life. I got through it and my family helped me get through it. Q. Along those lines, coach, how much was Billy a source of support? COACH PITINO: Always, in all our situations Billy and I, we have a very unique relationship, very unique. I still call him Billy the Kid today. I still ‑‑ we constantly are thinking about each other. It was funny because when we won the championship I had a great time. I was really happy for the players. We went out. I remember going to ‑‑ my wife and children and everybody went to the ‑‑ Charles Oakley was there, went to the China Club in Manhattan and stayed until sunrise. I was on "Good Morning America" and never went to bed. I remember spending times with my friends and wife. And we had a great time. When Billy won the championship ‑‑ what I'm saying, I didn't get overly emotional when we won. When Billy won the championship I sat in Indianapolis and the first thing he did when he won and shook the other coach's hand, he's waving for me to come down. And I started crying. It's very emotional when I get down there and hug him. And I realized that I actually felt better about him winning it than when I won it. And that speaks volumes of what I think of him as a young man. Because he meant so much to Providence College, the way he carried himself, his humility, his boyish behavior, everything about him. There's really not ‑‑ I can never find anything wrong with Billy Donovan. If you knew his mom and dad, if you knew his grandparents you'd understand why. His grandparents and parents traveled with us to every game that year. So it was very special. Q. I know coaches a lot of times try and play off of adversity to say you're going through this tough situation right now, it's going to make you a better person. Do you feel like these last couple of years have made you a better person and coach as well? COACH PITINO: No, I don't think anything to do with that. I think failure made me a better person, more so than any personal experiences. I think failure ‑‑ I've always tried to treat failure as fertilizer to help things grow in my life. But failure gave me the greatest gift, a missing gift that I didn't have, and that's humility. I realized there's no magic wand I press and run these certain offenses and defenses and you win. And the pros are a very humbling experience. Pat Riley said it best, when it's winning and misery, and it is, that's exactly the way the pro game is. And so when we lost with the Celtics, it taught me great humility. And people always ask me the question: Do you regret leaving Kentucky at that time? Somebody came up to me and said I figured it out, you'd have 860 wins right now. And I said, do you have anything else ‑‑ it was a Kentucky fan, to do with your time than figure out ‑‑ I said how did you come out to that figure? I averaged 23, 24 wins. I said something is wrong with you, sir. And it was the best thing that ever happened to me in my world. I could have stayed in Kentucky and had those wins but I never would have learned humility. And to me that's the greatest gift anybody can give you. You understand why you win. And so with Boston I left that and I realized, I met Tom Heinsohn, Red Auerbach, Bill Russell, John Havlicek, got to know them really well, losing was terrible. But I learned humility from that experience. And you realize now why you win. It's not because of any ‑‑ I can honestly say this, when I first started coaching Billy in 1987, about 50 percent of the people we went against, I thought we could outwork and outcoach them. But that was back before the technology of this game. Where everybody has his moves, 75 different moves, he's going to go 72 to his left. So everybody today is a great teacher and a great coach. If you can get great players who have a great attitude, that's when you have a great team. Q. Both Richard and the Florida players said that Richard kind of reminds them a little bit of Billy. Do you see that and especially since he spent the two years there? COACH PITINO: Richard is a carbon copy of Billy. Billy ‑‑ Richard is not like me at all when I was his age. He's exactly like Billy. We have a picture at home where Richard is sitting on Billy's lap in '87. And Richard idolized Billy growing up. And so Richard has patterned his teaching after Billy Donovan, exactly like that. Q. I heard a story about one time when a guy was on the free throw stripe and you shouted out to your guys, 57 percent of his misses go to the left, something along those lines. Now if everyone has that information and everybody knows what's going to be happening because of that, how can you be a better coach than somebody else? COACH PITINO: Well, obviously it's preparation, it's your game plan. So you know this information. Now how do you translate it to your players? I learned so much from Hubie Brown in two years. I laugh today with the amount of pressure and stress I was under, because back then you only had one assistant coach on the bench and one on the road faxing you back the scouting report. The technology wasn't the same. Hubie, when I do the edits, and it took a long time to do it, said keep it 16 minutes, not a second longer. One time I went 18, he called me, kid, kid, did I tell you 16 minutes? I said, Hubie, what's the big deal, it's 16 minutes. You don't understand the NBA basketball player cannot focus more than 16 minutes, I timed it to the second. Now keep it under 16. So now you've got your preparation, you've got your game plan and now how can you make sure your players absorb it. And that's a big key. And that's what makes a great basketball team. Can they stick with the game plan? Then if the game plan is not working, we're playing West Virginia in 2005 to go to the Final Four, we only have six and a half players, because the 7th player has a stress fracture. We're playing all zone at the time. They make 14 3's or 11 3's at halftime, we have to change and go full man, full pressure, we were down 20 with two to go in the half. I tear up the scouting report, you guys have to play all man, press full court. Now, can they make the change? There's a lot that goes into it, but the technology is such today that every coach does it. Now, can the players, like I was saying with Hubie, can they absorb it? And the one thing that Billy has and I have and Tom Izzo has, we don't have players that think of touches or points, we don't have players that think of agents, we don't have that. We have players that think Louisville, Michigan State, Florida, we want to win. We're lucky. We don't live in that world. We live in the world that University is first, dearest to our hearts. Q. Chris Smith has a brother, JR, playing for the Knicks. How does having a brother in the NBA impact a player in college? COACH PITINO: It helps him pay his ‑‑ I don't give him a scholarship, it helps him pay his tuition and that's a big help. Chris is 24 years ago of age, transferred from Manhattan, JR does pay for him to go to school. But Chris is a lot different than JR. And sometimes it's difficult for Chris, although he's very close with his brother, Chris is not JR. He's not 6‑6, 6‑7. And I worked JR out for a brief time in the summertime. And Chris looks up to his older brother. But he understands where his future lies. And it's a lot different for him. He doesn't feel the pressure to try and be JR, because he knows he's not, from a size standpoint and otherwise. But he gets a lot of worldly gifts that most young people do not get because he's JR's brother. Q. I was curious, you told the story about being invited down when Billy won the National Championship. Outside of your own family, how many times in life have you had those sorts of experiences? Was that a rare emotional moment? COACH PITINO: It was very emotional. And I was very surprised. I couldn't control my emotions. I hugged him and he knew I was crying. And I embraced him and wouldn't let him go, because I didn't want people to see I was crying. But I was so proud of him. When he called me down, I said ‑‑ I wasn't going to go down and he kept on waving. And I just thought, man, how lucky are you that a young man wins a championship and the first thing he wants to do is share it with you? It was truly something I'll never forget. But it's like John Pelphrey and Travis Ford, they're in coaching, and Sean Woods at Mississippi Valley State. I'm in business today with my players, with Walter McCarty, and my major business partner in life, who does all the work and I do nothing, is Jamal Mashburn. If you ask me who my best friends are in life, it's my players. We've taken it to a new level because a lot of these guys go into coaching. Q. I imagine being your son and going into the coaching profession comes with a fair amount of pressure. At what point did you kind of see that Richard was capable of being a coach and were you ever concerned about him going into the industry? COACH PITINO: Yeah, I tried to talk all my children out of it, I really did, because I saw everything changing. I'll give you what I mean. You guys aren't overly tough, I don't mean that, per se, but when you coach the New York Knicks and Boston Celtics, I say this all the time, the only thing left for the Triple Crown ask is coaching Philadelphia. You find out what the media is about when you coach New York and Boston. With that being said, you've got to have really thick skin and you've got to understand the media today. I said earlier in the year, you know, you follow the New York Giants, and my wife reads the "Post" every day online. If you're a New Yorker you read the "Post." And you get a kick out of the headlines. And Coughlin, they wanted gone. And he won a Super Bowl. With that, you have to understand the instant gratification behind it. And I didn't want my children to look at this technology and say to yourself, well, it's different. When I traveled with the Knicks as an assistant and as a head coach, we would go out with the media, have a beer together, grab a sandwich. They traveled on the same plane with us. We were friends. So it's not like that anymore. It's different. And I loved those times as an assistant coach when we traveled with the media. We joked around and had great relationships with them. It's different today, and with your children going through that today, are you ready for it? And Richard said it's no problem, I'm totally ready for it. And he is ready for it. I hope some day he turns out like a Billy Donovan, that would be awesome. Q. This is a little bit of a provincial question for you, Rick, when Wayne Blackshear got hurt this year, did you think that he might not be able to come back, and the fact that he was able to come back, is it important to give him some of this experience as a freshman? COACH PITINO: I knew he wasn't going to come back and be the Wayne Blackshear in high school that I recruited, because he's coming off inactivity for 7 months and double shoulder surgery. But I thought it was important that he get an experience in playing in the Big East and get his feet wet so he doesn't have to do it as a sophomore. He's going to be terrific. Kyle Kuric is graduating, and he'll step into that role. And now he's indoctrinated in our offense and defenses, so it will be great for him. Q. Who has shorter memories, the media and fans in New York or the media and basketball fans in the state of Kentucky? COACH PITINO: Shorter memories? In what regard? Q. In other words, two weeks ago nobody thought you'd get to this point, and now everybody is celebrating. COACH PITINO: You know, I think that's everywhere. Somebody was knocking our fans to me, saying that they're out of the canoe and then back in the canoe. And I said that's everywhere. There is a percentage of every population, whether it's politics, the medical profession or sports, that's just born negative people. Many, many years ago I called it the fellowship of the miserable. It's in every form of society today and it's a percentage of people. And to be in Louisville, it's not ‑‑ like I thought it was a terrific season winning 22 games. But when you've got your rival up the street and they don't lose any games or lose one and they're No. 1 in the country, everybody ‑‑ the one thing I don't enjoy is jealousy. I don't enjoy that. I don't have a problem with fans jumping in and out of boats because I don't pay attention to them. But I don't like jealousy at all, because I can appreciate excellence. There's too many people that are jealous in this world. And that's what brings out bad things in people. So there's a certain portion of the fans, I think the New York fan is totally unique because it's like being on Wall Street, you're only as good as your last trade. So things change from day‑to‑day. We at least change probably week to week. Q. I know you've talked a little bit about it, but can you recount the story of creating the Billy the Kid persona and how reluctant he was to buy into it. He didn't want to do the photo shoot? COACH PITINO: It caught me off guard, too, now. Literally I was playing back then. I was young, I was playing basketball until age 48, 49. And I would play Billy one‑on‑one and it wouldn't even be a game back then. And I was no big deal. But he was slow, couldn't shoot that well. And the transformation was nothing like I've ever seen. And I say it, it's truthful, I've never had a player work as hard as Billy Donovan. There's nobody even close to him. And he transformed himself into one of the better players. And the second year I couldn't even touch him. He's something ‑‑ I've always said that experience in my life, in 1987, always allowed me to dream. In other words, he just made the statement, what, about three weeks ago, the Louisville fan didn't even think we'd be in the tournament, didn't think we could play. We go on to win the Big East. Because of my Providence experience, I've always dreamed of being here, one day away from the Final Four. I never thought we were out of it. I never stopped dreaming because of what Billy and that team did. I've always had high aspirations and hopes. If you ever followed that basketball team ‑‑ we had to go through a region, when we beat Alabama in the Sweet 16, we shot ‑‑ they shot 58 percent for the game, we shot 68 percent for the game. Then Georgetown, and they beat us 30 and 32. And they were never in the game, Georgetown. So that was truly a remarkable run. And as I look back on it today and we meet with these guys, I still don't quite believe it. Q. One last follow‑up on Richard. COACH PITINO: Are you trying to get Richard a job? Q. If that's what happens. You mentioned that there are a lot of similarities between him and Billy, can you expand on that a little bit and some of the ones that you've seen? COACH PITINO: Well, his mannerisms are a lot like Billy. He loves offense like Billy loves offense. He's a great scout, a great preparer of game plans, like Billy was. He's very humble, like Billy was. He laughs like Billy. You know, like Billy told my wife, I really miss having fun with Richard. He likes to have a lot of fun. He's very close with the players, like Billy was. So it's just ‑‑ I think he looks at Billy and says, that's what I want to be like. Billy has fun coaching and I want to have fun coaching. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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