Richard Pitino After Cardinals: “This Win Has Nothing to Do With my Father”

The first big upset in the NCAA tournament was without a doubt today’s elimination of the Louisville Cardinals. Their executors were Minnesota Golden Gophers, 86-76, led by none other than Richard Pitino, the son of former Cardinals’ coach Rick.

The No.10 seed in the East Region Gophers won their first game at the March Madness after six years, and that is a huge success for Pitino Jr.

But what made this match so big is the history between his father and the Cardinals. For 16 years, Rick Pitino had been a head coach of Louisville, and during that time he made this school one of the best in the country, by winning three regional and one national championship, which was later vacated because of the scandals during the recruitment of the young prospects.

The Cardinals didn’t stand by him in those moments, and they fired Pitino senior.

Still, his son Richard said that what previously happened between his father and Louisville had nothing to do with today’s game. He was focused on the win primarily because he wanted for his Gophers team to advance to the next stage.

One of the reporters asked him at the press conference is his father going to send some kind of a present for beating the Cardinals. Richard Pitino smiled after that and said that this win has no connection with his father at all.

“I’m truthful with it, I really am not being diplomatic, it really wasn’t about that, It’s very, very hard to get to the tournament, especially in our league. We had five new players, we had ups and downs, and the focus was on preparing, it didn’t matter who we play… it really is not anything extra,” Pitino commented.

At the later stage of that answer, Gophers’ coach said that his focus was on finding the weak spots of Louisville’s team, trying to figure out how to beat them, not to get revenge or anything like that.

His players also backed up that story, saying that they too didn’t have the motive to beat the Cardinals for no other reason than because of themselves and the college in general.

“Like I said earlier, two days ago, this wasn’t really about getting a win for Coach P,” Jordan Murphy said. “It was about getting a win for our team in general and making sure we advance to the next round.”

The first part of the opening half was close with both teams changing the lead often. But as time went by, the Gophers slowly took over the wheel and created a few-point advantage. The result at the halftime was 38-33, mostly because of their six three-pointers.

This team is not very good when it comes to shooting from behind the arc. So far this season they are averaging only 5 downtown hits per game with 32.1 percent.

Today they made 11.

“I think it just happened,” Pitino said. “It wasn’t anything that we necessarily saw. It’s a confidence builder.”

The second half opened with Minnesota’s five straight points, which pulled them away to 10 points. But the game was decided during the middle of the second half when Cardinals couldn’t score for more than three minutes, while on the other end, they allowed 9 points.

After that, they managed to come down to nine points on a couple of occasions, but each time they made some push, the Gophers would immediately reply, often with a demoralizing three.

Despite being an underdog, they solved this one very easily, and are now turning towards the next game. The opponent – No.2 Michigan State. The Spartans defeated Bradley Braves after a lot of problems, 76-65, crushing the defiance of the rivals in the last few minutes.

The game is scheduled for Saturday, and there is no doubt that after this win, Gophers’ morale is extremely high, and that they secretly hope to eliminate one of the best college teams in the US.