CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Ask Louisville coach Rick Pitino to discuss his relationship with Tennessee coach Bruce Pearl and he'll say, “We're not really that close. But I marvel at the job he's doing. Bruce is making it fun there. He's great for college basketball.”
Ask Pearl about Pitino and the compliments both multiply and intensify.
“I grew up admiring him, literally admiring him,” said Pearl earlier this week. “I've gone up against Coach Pitino before (when Pearl coached at Wisconsin-Milwaukee), and it was a complete mismatch. He out-coached me, and he always out-dresses me. I'm trying to learn. I'm good. He's the best.”
For those who buy the line about imitation being the sincerest form of flattery, Pearl would appear to be the ultimate Pitino wannabe heading into tonight's NCAA East regional semifinal between Louisville and Tennessee.
Just like Ricky P, Bruce Almighty’s teams love to press, shoot the 3-pointer and get under the skin of everybody they play.
Just like Rick took over the Southeastern Conference by the close of his third season at Kentucky when he won the 1992 SEC Tournament, Pearl won the regular-season SEC title in his third year.
Just like Rick, Pearl's a native Northeasterner who's found nirvana in a Southern river town. Never mind that Pitino returning from the NBA to coach Louisville after making his name at Kentucky would be like Pearl taking a four-year break from Knoxville and winding up in Memphis.
They even both have a special affection for their big guys.
Pitino said of senior center David Padgett this week, “He's probably one of my three favorite players I've ever coached. Mark Jackson with the Knicks. Billy Donovan at Providence and David Padgett. No matter how tough things seem, David's always upbeat and positive. He's just fun to be around.”
Said Pearl of sophomore Wayne Chism, “There are 99.5 percent of the students at UT who have not gotten more out of their first year and a half or two years than Wayne Chism. He's done a wonderful job in the classroom and a wonderful job in community service. It's wonderful to see this young man grow up and blossom.”
But for a UT fan, it may become most wonderful to see which one gets the better of the other one when it counts the most. Was Pearl merely setting Pitino up when he said, “I don't want a track meet because we've got no chance to win a track meet”?
In other words, is Pearl practicing idle chatter or idol worship?
“He (Pitino) was the head coach at Boston University when I was a student assistant at Boston College,” said Pearl. “Dr. Tom Davis was at Boston College and Jim Calhoun was at Northeastern. They were in a pro town. The Celtics were rolling and nobody even noticed the three of them.
“You've got three of the finest basketball coaches in the country, maybe of all time, sitting right there in a pro town that could care less about basketball. And they watched each other, and they competed against each other and they annoyed each other. But they developed a system of up-tempo basketball and pressure defense.”
From those systems Pearl created his own mystic mixture of fun and gun, though both Pitino and Pearl will tell you their systems aren't that similar.
“They're different systems altogether,” Pitino said. “But we want the same outcome.”
Said Pearl, “Coach Pitino's press is more multiple and puts more pressure on you on a regular basis. Our press is more of an annoyance.”
The chief annoyance in this pyrotechnic pairing of Coach Ps is the starting time. It's scheduled to start around 10 p.m., which means it may not end until well past midnight. So much for the young ones getting a primer in basketball the way it should be played.
But as he left his press conference for practice Wednesday afternoon, Pearl sounded neither in awe nor in doubt regarding Pitino and the Cardinals.
Asked which was bigger, facing Louisville in the Sweet 16 or beating Memphis in February, Pearl said, “That was for an opportunity to be ranked No.1. This is an opportunity to finish No. 1.”
If nothing else, when it comes to quotes, Pitino may be good but Pearl is the best.
Mark Wiedmer started work at the Chattanooga News-Free Press on Valentine’s Day of 1983. At the time, he had to get an advance from his boss to buy a Valentine gift for his wife. Mark was hired as a graphic artist but quickly moved to sports, where he oversaw prep football for a time, won the “Pick’ em” box in 1985 and took over the UTC basketball beat the following year. By 1990, he was ...
