Pitino fuming after losing another recruit

[Guest OctoberBlood]

http://msnbc.msn.com/id/4926097/

 

After losing two recruits in one week to the NBA draft, Louisville coach Rick Pitino is starting to get steamed.

 

Southeastern Illinois Community College's Donta Smith reportedly will enter the draft, though he had been set to play for Pitino's Cardinals next year. Though the coach had been supportive when high school star Sebastian Telfair announced his decision to enter the draft earlier this week, Pitino had no such praise for Smith, according to the Louisville Courier-Journal.

 

"It could be one of the five worst moves I've ever seen," Pitino told the paper.

 

"If it's the right decision, I'll tell a player I have no problem with it. This one I totally disagree with. Somebody is giving him advice who doesn't know anything about the game of basketball. When young people listen to the wrong people, they almost always make poor decisions."

 

Smith, a 6-7 small forward told the paper he was simply following a dream.

 

"It's always been my dream in life as a basketball player," Smith said in a telephone interview with the paper. "I decided the opportunity is now."

 

Smith, averaged 25 points this season and does not have an agent. He is reportedly a second round pick at best.

 

Pitino told the paper that Cardinals assistant coach Vince Taylor had visited Southeastern Illinois twice in the past 10 days to check on Smith's academic progress. But Smith gave no indication during those visits that he was considering making himself eligible for the draft.

 

"This was very poor judgment," Pitino said. "He never called and discussed it with me. I couldn't be more upset with the player, and I'm very, very disappointed with the (junior-college) coach. That's as poor a leadership from the coach as I've ever seen.

 

"It's disappointing for (Smith), because he had a bright future ahead of him if he'd made the right decision."

 

When told of Pitino's comments, Smith said, "Yeah, it probably was a bad move on my part. I guess I just see things differently."

 

Smith told the paper he has not hired an agent, so can pull out of the draft without jeopardizing his college eligibility, but he says a return to college is unlikely.

 

"I'm really solid (on going pro)," Smith told the Courier-Journal.

 

Smith told the paper he had planned on attending Louisville until the beginning of this week, when he submitted his paperwork to the NBA. He said that a few people had tried to talk him out of going pro, but that most of his friends and family were in favor of the move.

 

"It was kind of hard, because I really wanted to go to Louisville," he said. "But I just had to follow my heart."

[mw679 0]

Gee, Rick, looks like Donta's not walkin' through that door......

[sfaJack 0]

Ok, what is with Pitino and the "______'s not walking through that door" gag? Bill Simmons has referenced it a time or two, and I've seen it here (amongst other places), but being a Houston resident I don't get the joke. What exactly happened?

[The Tino Standard 0]

Ok, what is with Pitino and the "______'s not walking through that door" gag? Bill Simmons has referenced it a time or two, and I've seen it here (amongst other places), but being a Houston resident I don't get the joke. What exactly happened?

During his abysmal tenure with the Boston Celtics, Pitino finally broke down in front of the media one day and delivered a speech saying "Larry Bird isn't walking through that door... Kevin McHale and Robert Parish aren't walking through that door..." and basically just told the media to get over the fact that it wasn't that era anymore.

 

This all would've been well and good had he been able to build a new winning dynasty, but his team imploded, his players hated him and fans stayed away in droves. He was on thin ice in Boston to begin with, and that just completely alienated him from Celtics diehards.

 

As for this case, I don't blame him for being pissed. You roll the dice when you recruit a guy like Telfair because he has very legitimate reasons for going pro right out of high school. But when a juco guy decides to make the jump without giving any indication he'd been considering it, and he'll be a second-rounder AT BEST, yeah, Pitino has a right to be salty about the whole ordeal.

[cabbageboy 0]

Oh god, as a U of L alum and fan the whole thing makes me sick. The Telfair thing was bad enough, particularly when Tubby Smith snatched Rajon Rondo out from under Pitino. Now a friggin junior college guy thinks he can go pro?

 

To be honest I think Pitino is washed up. He's still operating as though it is 1994 instead of 2004, using the same style of play and same recruiting methods regardless of whether it actually still works.

 

I might be wrong about this, and hopefully I am, but I can't see U of L ever winning or doing anything notable under Pitino.

[JangoFett4Hire 0]

from Simmons:

 

(Note: My favorite press conference involving a coach was when Rick Pitino flipped out and unleashed his "All the negativity in this town sucks ... Larry Bird isn't walking through that door, Kevin McHale isn't walking through that door and Robert Parish isn't walking through that door" speech two years ago, which might have been the funniest thing that ever happened. But every Jim Fassel press conference comes pretty damn close. Can't they televise these things on ESPN6?)