I always forget Calhoun. I think they were mostly a doormat in the 80s, and got better in the 90s.
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Yea totally forgot he was there at the start. Honestly kinda changes my perspective in him realizing what he built
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Get this - In 1988, UConn went 4-12 in the Big East, and then won the NIT. Heh! Tate George, Cliff Robinson, Steve Pikiell.
I could spend a day on Sports Reference, but play date coming… Nice to have a distraction from UVa football!
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Now I’m diving down the rabbit hole
Talk about a different time heres how the Calhoun era starts
86/87 9-19
87/88 20-14 NIT Champs
88/89 18-13 NIT quarters
89/90 31-6 Elite 8
90/91 20-11 Sweet 16
91/92 20-10 Round of 32
92/93 15-13 NIT first round
Before Calhoun they were a doormat best finiah was 7th in the Big East and hadnt been to a post season since 82 NIT
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Calhoun crushed it at Northeastern with Reggie Lewis before UConn. Built UConn up from nothing and always lectured at the good hoop camps in the summer like Eastern Invitational and Five Star in Pittsburgh.
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Thats right i forgot he had that Northeastern run. I’m not a Calhoun fan but I’ve always had respect for him.
Reggie - one of my faves ever!! Loved him
Calhoun also cheated big time at UConn. Ahead of the game
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Get this - my first boss was on that team. He scored 1pt that year.
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Nice. 1 more point than I’ve ever scored in college hoops
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Get this further - Dave leitao was an assistant coach for that team and this guy assured me leitao was going to crush it at Virginia. Oops.
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So that guy goes down as a Top 5 worst boss and Top 2 mentor you’ve ever had?
Also are we sure that guy wasn’t @DFresh11
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I woulda made both FTs bro
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#RickPitino2UVA
We need this energy. Let Pitino loose in Charlottesville
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Sounds like it was a bit of a hypothetical musing about portal dynamics, not something the player said to him:
Rick has like anti-media-training where everything he says is very easy to turn into a eye-catching snippet. That wasn’t even the most “likely to be aggregated out of context” thing he said in the interview!
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The wording on this is interesting, though I doubt he and Tony have been in close contact since he left Louisville:
“I’m not anti-NIL,” Pitino said. “Tom Izzo was anti-NIL, Jay Wright was, Tony Bennett was anti-portal. I’m not anti that at all. I felt that we’ve been making millions of dollars all those years. The players should make money, so I’m for that.
(Tony anti-portal / others anti-NIL)
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This has always been my POV on Tony. He wasn’t against NIL. It wasn’t that the packline wasn’t going to work anymore. It’s just that he needed continuity for both on-court success and personal fulfillment, and the portal makes that hard (but not impossible).
Unfortunately, he wasn’t able to make continuity work given his roster management decisions over the last few years, unlike others (Shaka, Painter, Few, etc.) who did. And Tony was just worn out with it…
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This has also always been my impression of Tony. The money wasn’t the issue. It being impossible to construct a roster that lasts more than a season was. Plus always having to re-recruit your own guys and it changing the way a lot of guys probably view development time versus instant playing time. Just didnt work with how he coached.
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Yeah that was #2 on my most likely to be aggregated list behind the pocket-watching of K-State. I didn’t listen to the interview, but I’d guess Rick was just riffing off of the public statements each has made.
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Yep. The cynic/optimist in me over the last few years had thought if Tony had just decided to stop playing the portal game (like Shaka, Painter, etc.) and take a reset year, he might still be here and might have outlasted the portal itself.
I’m guessing the portal will go away with a collective bargaining agreement, which hopefully is less than 5 years away. Pay for play wont ever go away, which is fine by me as long as its governed and capped for parity sake - like every other sport.
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