Is there a system that lives by night? Is the game on dangerous ground? Are the coaches in a lonely place?
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Once, a few years back, Rick Pitino appeared to break what appeared a wall of silence about an apparently sensitive aspect of recruiting. He appeared to mock TPTB that ran what now begins to appear with the FBI arrests perhaps vaguely reminiscent of some kind of film noir hustle. Now he has been been put on some kind of suspension pending resolution of legal issues for alleged, as yet apparently unspecified participation in something vaguely reminiscent of that which he appeared to mock awhile back.
But Rick ain’t apparently the first to appear to fall victim to something appearing to operate out there beyond the shadows of college basketball.
Let us all now observe a moment of silence for UW HC Bo Ryan, who dared refer to Duke’s team (was it 9 OAD/TADs?), as “rent-a-players” and shortly found his extramarital affair outed. He retired. Was there a connection between his retirement and the outing of his affair and his words?
Is the greatest game ever invented now at the mercy of a shrouded “system” slowly being exposed by its own ruthlessness?
The game at least seems “on dangerous ground,” and the coaches appear increasingly “in a lonely place,” being given the business by a system, where the real hustlers-- “they live by night.”
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@jaybate-1.0 Rick Pitino doesn’t even know he’s lying when he’s lying. He’s so believable (delusional) I think he actually believes his own lies.
I mean, Bowen recruitment he brags about not spending a dime on recruiting the player. Kid was paid $100k to come lol.
He is the one who complained the loudest about the shoe companies. Yet he is the one who has used it to his benefit.
Rick is a hell of a basketball coach. But just apparently a terrible human being.
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I try to be supportive of those that appear to break “the silence.”
If the greatest game ever invented doesn’t deserve to be saved from whatever appears to afflict it now, what does?
I don’t like that Bo was having an affair, but he broke the silence.
I don’t like that Rick lead his private life as he reputedly did, or reputedly perhaps maintained ignorance of what happened in this case.
But Rick broke the silence and NO coaches backed him up in public, as far as I recall.
Now Rick and Bo are gone.
Fear and silence appear to reign in D1 hoops.
We likely will never know for sure that Rick and Bo were run for speaking out. Those that are run for most things are often run by others with plausible deniability. It would, therefore, probably be naive to expect to know for sure with Rick and Bo.
So I praise Rick and Bo for appearing to break “the silence” and note they appear to have left the game shortly after having done so .
As Gandhi said, if we wait for the perfect among us to stand up and speak out against corruption and evil, we would never make a dent in corruption and evil.
Gandhi, by the way, was nobody’s naive mahatma. He was trained a lawyer in England, then groomed in South Africa for reform by a Jewish, Marxist labor organizer, before taking on and beating the British and Dutch in South Africa and India.
There are no saints, or heroes, as Admiral Bull Halsey said so admirably, only ordinary men faced with extraordinary challenges that try to do their duty.
Maybe Rick did decide: if you can’t beat’em, join’em.
But once he broke the silence.
And right now, we fans appear only to have Rick and Bo that have done that.
I salute them and refuse to forget, or disrespect, what they did for the greatest game ever invented.
So far, it appears way more than any other recent coaches have done.
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@jaybate-1.0 hmm. Pitino is a raging egomaniac. Might some of the things out of his mouth expose the truth a little further? Sure. And of course you’re entitled to not speak ill of him, but it seems you are too kind, imo.
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@approxinfinity JB basically just called Rick Pitino Batman lol.
“FBI: Because we have to chase him. Because he’s the hero College Basketball deserves, but not the one it needs right now, so we’ll hunt him. Because he can take it, because he’s not a hero. He’s a silent guardian, a watchful protector, a Dark Knight.”
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