Coach Talk

Lauren Dellipoali gives us some insight into the coaches of the Big East like Rick Pitino.

The games finally began to count on Friday night, with a number of Big East teams opening up their seasons on Veteran’s Day. History also took place as Louisville head coach Rick Pitino notched his 600th college victory as a coach.

Now being in a conference with Jim Boeheim who has 856 victories, and Jim Calhoun who has 855, 600 may not seem that much, but Pitino made multiple trips to the NBA, while Boeheim and Calhoun have basically never left their schools. If Pitino didn't decide that he could handle the NBA on numerous occasions, he may very well be up there in victories.

Pitino, unlike Calhoun and Boeheim has also coached at multiple universities and has not had the opportunity to truly build a program. It seems every time Pitino gets close to really getting a program set for the long term, an NBA job opens up and he leaves then returns to the college game with a different program. Hopefully, for Louisville fans, Pitino won’t pull out of this job anytime soon. He has a good team, and is slowly building a heated rivalry with John Calipari’s Kentucky Wildcats (whom he coached before Louisville).

Pitino is entering his tenth season with the Cardinals, who are ranked eighth in the polls, and are serious contenders for the Big East title. He seems happy where he is, and has been the only vocal coach in the turmoil in the Big East with teams leaving and he has offered up many replacement teams. While he may seem content right now, he has proven that he will listen to offers from NBA teams, and take them. For Pitino, money talks, and the NBA can give him more money. Fortunately, there is no NBA season now and probably won’t be for a while so Pitino will stay a Cardinal for the time being and work on moving up the victory ladder.

Jeremy Lamb helped UConn to a decisive win as they unveiled their championship banner, and Lamb made it known he will be a force to be reckoned with when he posterized a Columbia player with this monster dunk.