I just think at some point you’ve gotta let the Pitino narrative go and stop trying to control it with the endless Hurley-the-betrayer commentary.
Personally I believe in a statute of limitations with regard to dragging Hurley under the bus to save Pitino’s character. You’ve been pounding it for some time, but maybe I’m over stating it.
And I know Hurley grabbed our best player this past year.
But there was something more understood in grabbing a freshman who we knew was looking for greener pasture—early in the portal I might add in which we could fill out our roster—vs. a foundational player that held out for a long time and left the program at a point where it became unrecoverable.
Call me crazy for thinking these are two different scenarios.
And I think we all know you really like Pitino. That’s fine. But you can’t expect too much support on this forum.
"Alan, you misread me entirely"
I don't "sports-like" Pitino anymore than many, many other coaches. And I've always pulled for Hurley more than most because he's an alum, following him since St. Benedict's. But, at bottom, I don't know any of these people. I follow them as a fan of the sport, generally, and try to be an educated one at that, because I like discussing things with people who follow what's going on and have informed views.
We offer opinions on all sorts of coaches, programs and players. Pitino is a lightning rod here because he's great at what he does, and because of where he's doing it. Period. If he sucked, he wouldn't be talked about as much. If he was doing this at Creighton, Xavier, Marquette, or countless other places, he wouldn't be talked about as much either. But because of what he's doing (and already done) and where he's doing it, he gets brought up more than most of the other high major coaches combined, and so I respond with my opinion if I disagree. Simple as that. No different than I would do if it were Kelvin Sampson, Tom Izzo, Danny Hurley, Kevin Willard, or many others
And yes, I coined the Saint Danny term because I posted somewhere around winter time, maybe a bit after, that I had heard UCONN as a possible destination for Hines. In response to the typical PDS-stuff about how Slick/Quick Rick was going to steal him and all the other therapist-worthy commentary towards that end. Some disagreed because their opinion was Saint Danny would never take a player from his beloved alma mater. Others trolled me about my differing viewpoint, which is that Saint Danny, like all these other high major coaches, will do whatever they can to win games and form the best roster possible. So when Saint Danny inevitably sweeps in and takes Hines early in the process -- because that recruitment had been going on for a while -- I decided to make light of it like we do with many things on here.
You and others can hate Pitino all you want. What do I care? But don't troll me about it and expect a non-response. Or that I won't point out when "water is wet". You are entitled to your opinion that Slick/Quick taking Kadary was worse than Saint Danny taking Hines. I happen to disagree. Kadary was a kid who had already transferred once (to the Hall), was from NYC, and in his last year of college basketball. If it were me, or it was my kid, and I wanted to go to "basketball grad school" as the last stop collegiately, I would definitely consider playing for a HOFer that has developed tons of pros, is renown for player development, in front of packed houses in the building where every NYC kid grows up wanting to play basketball (MSG).
By contrast, Hines was an in-state kid who we got when he reclassified -- one of our biggest HS prep recruiting "wins" in a LONG time -- who had 3 (or maybe 4 years) to stay and play under the HC and program that took him early. So, yea, I think it sucks more on various levels. I don't think Hurley is "evil" for doing it, nor do I think the many, many UCONN donors who foot their gigantic NIL bill tare "evil" either. Nor will I waste my time on here posting therapy-fueled rants with those donors names at every turn this coming season, because no one wants to read that.
If you think that it is fine to offer views and opinions about every coach in the sport that gets discussed here, but that I should refrain from including Slick Rick in any discussion (when relevant) for some reason, well I just don't get that. If you think I should just ignore reality or what I actually think when posting about Slick or any other coach, player or program, well I don't get that either. The topics drive the discussion here, always have, and I think most posters want to have real discussions derived from reality, not made up or forced viewpoints that won't offend the majority because of some weird complex.
If people didn't troll me about this particular topic, they'd be reading a lot less of it.