March Madness is here...

So, in honor of March madness, I present to you this article regarding UK fan's feelings of Rick Pitino in the years since his arrival at UofL. I work with some die-hard UK fans, and they still proclaim him Traitor Rick to this day and take great delight in his losses on the court, in recruiting, and beyond.

This article says that for the most part, those bad feelings are gone. There are only 8% who still feel betrayed. I believe that it is because this article was written in Louisville and appeared in the Louisville Courier-Journal, not the Lexington Herald-Leader, the paper of the town in which UK is actually located. Had that poll been conducted here, or Frankfort, or Somerset, or Pikeville, the outcome would be different. People are still holding their grudges, and probably will to their grave in their UK coffin.

In the article, Pitino states, ""If someone from UK has said they've had a problem with me, I just know that I've done more for UK than they've ever done, and leave it at that." The key word is from UK. If you ask a regular UK fan on the street, I bet they'd have a different opinion. Even if you ask a UK professor, or hey, the president, I'm sure they'd have a different opinion. Pitino has been quoted as saying that his biggest regret is leaving UK. Nice sentiment, but you still went to UofL, and have been bad-mouthing Lexington lately.

But for all Pitino was, in the lore of UK basketball, Tubby Smith is the current head coach, like him or not (I do), and he is now in a dead heat with Pitino in accomplishments in his 8 seasons as head coach, the same amount of time Pitino had. I won't throw all the statistics at you, you can read them here. But, its nice to know that for all those Tubby-haters, who compare his results to Traitor Rick's years here, there's no reason for your hate. He's done a fine, outstanding job coaching the Cats. Stats don't lie.