Pitino's Fingerprints

Rick Pitino has nothing left to prove in college basketball. We all heard about his accolades, the Final Fours with three different programs, his 500th win earlier in the season and his NCAA Championship with the Kentucky Wildcats. Pitino is without a doubt one of the most glamorous and well respected coaching figures of our time. Yet it's always great to see this man at work and see his teams and his players thrive under the leadership of this great coach. Well, I don't know if Bruce Pearl is so happy watching it. His Tennessee Volunteers got hammered by Pitino's Louisville Cardinals 79-60 in the Sweet Sixteen last night in what was a full court clinic for almost forty minutes. The Cards beat the Vols at their own game, their own strength and now look to face Tournament favorite North Carolina in the Elite Eight. Rick Pitino once again has his team at full strength and dangerously confident at Tourney time and it not only shows in the results but also in the individual development of his players.

There is for example Earl Clark, a hot commodity among NBA scouts, who was benched earlier in the year and made the news due to violating team rules and character issues. Today, about a season later, Clark is one of the best players on this Louisville team as he showed last night with 17 points, 12 rebounds and 4 blocks. He looks quicker, better prepared and mentally tougher than early in the year. "The way we are playing now is just the way Coach P wants us to play", says the 6-9 Clark, who is finally living up to the hype he faced since arriving at Louisville in 2006. "It feels great to live up to his expectations and to finally click as a team at the right time." Doesn't sound like a headcase to me. More like a kid who is finally seeing the light after his coach worked hard with him through some bad times. "Earl's problem is he is so young. New York city kids, greater metropolitan area kids, are the toughest kids to coach", explains Pitino. "But once you get through them and you have them working hard, they are the greatest kids in the world to coach." It seems like he has gotten through Earl Clark who is averaging 14 points, 8.4 rebounds and 1.4 blocks over his last seven games. Or during "the right time" as Clark said.

Another example of Pitino's influence is Terrance Williams. I remember Louisville's game fron last year's Tournament when they lost to Texas A&M in a close contest. Terrance Williams played like Terrance Williams used to play. Wasting his athletisism on the perimter, immature and as trigger happy as they come. Now, a year later, this exact same Terrance Williams is one of the vocal leaders of the Cardinals team and propably it's most unselfish player. Rarely pulling up for longrange bombs anymore, Williams has actually become a stat sheet stuffer who plays outstanding defense and gets his teammates involved. He even made school history this season, recording two triple doubles, just as many as there have been in the history of Louisville basketball before him. It's great to see the development in talented players like Clark or Williams and how they respond to good coaching and outstanding leadership. Too bad not everyone seems to commit to that as Louisville's sophomore center Derrick Caracter is thinking about entering the NBA despite being far from pro ready. He's a good buddy of Clark and maybe he should just listen to him and how listening to Pitino could actually work out. There are worse things to do than listening to one of the greatest coaches in college basketball...