Amaker says he has been fired by Michigan

Wow, that's some idiocy you're showing there. There can only be one great program per state? Guess that means Duke's a mid-major then, huh? Maybe Coach K and Pitino should be jockeying for those elusive positions at Alaska-Anchorage and North Dakota State.

As far as the statement that Louisville "isn't even close" to being the best program in Kentucky, well historically speaking, UK is miles ahead. They do have seven titles. However, looking at the past 35 years (which is when Denny Crum and Joe B. Hall started), the programs have been even. And would you dare say UK is the stronger basketball program now?

 

College basketball is far from my specialty but you haven't really anything to convince me of my "idiocy." We're talking about career jobs ... I just can't imagine Louisville as a destination on the same level as the others, even considering the last 35 years. Given Pitino's track record, I don't see him sticking around much longer.

Duke and North Carolina are in the same state but allegiances separate those schools more than statistics.

As far as which program I'd take now, I say it's irrelevant. Both KY and Louisville are still in the tournament, last I checked anyway, and Duke is at home.

 

If you need to be convinced of your idiocy, then please try to read your second paragraph. I have no freaking clue what you're trying to say there.

I don't see Pitino coaching much longer, maybe another five years. Still, if that happens, he'll have coached at Louisville for a longer period than he coached at Kentucky. And Pitino replaced a coach who was there for 29 years. If two coaches in 40 years (and just four since 1945) doesn't scream career job, then I don't know what one is.

Here's a comparison between the two:

Louisville -- seven final fours, two NCAA titles
Kentucky -- seven final fours, three titles

And Louisville bowed out of the tourney today. Kentucky will do so tomorrow.

 

Buckdub,

Pitino left Providence for the Knicks (where he was an assistant between BU and PC) then he went to UK.

 

IU and UK are both career jobs.

If you polled coaches around the country, I'm pretty confident that UK and IU would show up many more times than not in their top 5 jobs, and the opportunities afforded to them at those two schools are as great, if not better, than at any school in America.

While I don't think UofL will ever contend with UK, IU or UNC in terms of job status (simply because UofL will never have a dominant fan base in KY), I'd still say it's one of the top 7 or 8 jobs in the country.

UK, UNC, UCLA, IU, Kansas and Duke are on a level of their own when it comes to being premier jobs. Barring any phenomenal career goals or home ties, like Roy's UNC connections, it'd be very rare to find ANY coach who'd leave those jobs for other destinations. Even when it comes to seeking an NBA job.

If there's any other college program that can even build a substantial argument to be included, it's Louisville. Like I said, I don't think Louisville affords the opportunities at all aspects that those schools offer. It doesn't have the ability to command the statewide fan base (like Duke, though it has commanded somewhat of a national fan base) and the program isn't quite as dominant into the old days as some of those schools, but it's certainly a great job. And Louisville's athletic department, at least under Jurich, is always going to find a guy (like Pitino) that doesn't have intentions of moving on and views Louisville as the big step.

That said, I think that there are coaches who may leave Louisville for a place like Duke, UNC or UCLA, but Crum had several opportunities to take the UCLA job and never did.

Who knows. I'd consider Louisville a career job, but I could understand an argument against that.

 

Anyone who thinks Pitino would even mildly contemplating another jump to the NBA hasn't been around the guy much lately.

He's all but admitted leaving Kentucky was a mistake, and he hasn't been the same man in the last few years anyway, even all the way back to 9/11 when he lost his brother-in-law and best friend. He hasn't shown the fire or passion or even the arrogance that made him so great at UK, and though he's still a top-flight coach, he's shown signs of being a tad burnt out lately.

I'd be shocked if he's at Louisville in eight or nine years, but he's headed to retirement, not the NBA.

 

Wow, Buck. You missed Boston University and the New York Knicks ... No, he's not up to Larry Brown yet but he's far from what I would call a lifer. I just don't see him sticking around too much longer ... not necessarily the NBA ...

I'm also confused on why you think I was somehow denigrating the in-state rivalry. Not my point at all. Clemson-USC have a huge football rivalry but that doesn't mean USC has anything near the history of Clemson, even if the Cocks have a better coach at the present.

Lighten up. You don't have to be such a prick when addressing me.

 

He was addressing the "allegiances...more than statistics" part of your post, and I'd agree with him. It is MUCH, MUCH more than Louisville and Kentucky fans bitching over statistics each year when the two meet.

Hell, it's a rivalry that extends outside of sports into the state itself, mainly because many Kentuckians will readily admit an outright hatred for the entire CITY of Louisville, not just the basketball team. Out in the state, it's easy to find biases against Louisville, be it in HS sports, politics, anything.

Throw in the fact that Louisville fans (and many people who work for the Univ.) think UK and its fans don't respect UofL ("Little Brother" was actually used by UK coach Hal Mumme to describe the Cards, and state politics tend to show that same attitude) and UK's fans and many at the university think it all stems from Louisville's outright jealousy of UK, and the rivalry here goes MUCH deeper than any stat you could come up with.

Plus, it's only played once a year. It's not cheapened by playing two and three times a year.

 

College,

The "Little Brother" slur started well before Hal Mumme committed his first NCAA infraction.

 

Sorry but you both missed the point. I'm saying that little separates the quality of North Carolina-Duke. They are the cream of the crop. If you say definitively that one is better than the other it probably has something to do with which one you attended ... that's what I was saying about allegiances ...

 

If one is definitely better than the other, then you don't have a rivalry. You have the Globetrotters-Generals or Notre Dame-Navy.

The Kentucky-Louisville rivalry rivals that of North Carolina-Duke. If anything, the fact that they're not conference rivals heightens the intensity of it.