[Hoot Gibson]

I loved Pitino’s teams, too, but there’s one thing I disagree with you on. Tubby won with the team he had. It didn’t matter if Rick recruited it, it had to be coached. I loved Tubby and I always get a little ticked when people dismiss Tubby’s win as Pitino’s. He was a great game coach, he just wound up not being the recruiter that UK needed. Tubby would very likely have won another one if Keith Bogans hadn’t rolled his ankle before the elite 8 game where Dwayne Wade basically beat us by himself. A healthy Bogans would have at least slowed Wade enough for us to have won that game.

Great post. I also loved Pitino's teams but I was glad to see him go. His annual negotiations with NBA teams got old. I want a great coach at UK who appreciates being there and considers it the top basketball coaching job in the world, not a career stepping stone.

If Pitino had come to UK with that attitude, then he would still be coaching there and probably recognized as the greatest college basketball coach of all time and no worse than second behind John Wooden, IMO. He was a great recruiter and a great developer of players and teams.

I loved Wooden(though I always rooted for his team to lose, since they rarely ever did). I never missed a chance to watch an interview with the "Wizard of Westwood."  I could listen to him impart his words of wisdom on the world all day long. As much as he liked teaching basketball, John Wooden got his greatest joy from teaching young men about life and how to be better men. Wooden was a legend among legends.

I agree. Wooden was a special coach. There were times when I suspected that the second best team in the country was sitting beside of Wooden on the bench.