Rick Pitino hearts texting, Motown and BET

As part of the publicity tour for his new book, Rick Pitino recently sat down for some one-on-one time with The Courier-Journal's Angie Fenton. I think I speak for all of the men this morning when I say congratulations, you lucky, lucky son of a bitch.

During the Q &A Pitino gave his thoughts on music, technology and the upcoming U of L basketball season.

You've recently learned how to text message. How has that changed things for you?

I used to live on the phone. Now I live text messaging people. My son … wants me to get the Blackberry and use both thumbs, but I do it the old-fashioned way. … I've gone from being semi-computer literate to now being on it all the time.

Do you text your kids?

All the time, all day long. And it's great with the players.

What's on your iPod?

It changes, but I love the Eagles, I have Billy Joel … Marvin Gaye, Sam Cooke, every person that's ever played in Motown.

What prompted you to begin watching BET, Black Entertainment Television, when you exercise?

I was … with the women volleyball and basketball players on the treadmills, on the ellipticals, and they would say, "Coach, you want me to change it?" and I would say, "No, it's great. I love this station," and I would watch it with them as I was getting my exercise.

The man's just a wee bit cool.

In a related story, Steve Kragthorpe recently took part in a similar interview as part of the whirlwind publicity tour for his new book, Throwing Three-Yard Outs on 3rd and 8 Rules: The Art of Building an Average WAC Program 2.0, and revealed that he enjoys calculators, the music they play in the background of car commercials, and the blurry channel where someone is constantly preaching that you can only find on televisions without cable.

And if you're reading this right now while still trying to figure out whether or not you're offended by the previous sentence, come on, when it comes to charisma we've got Fonzie and Screech serving as the two front men of the athletic program. That's all I'm trying to say.

I'm also trying to say that I hate three-yard outs on 3rd and 8.