Pitino has a reputation for working his players hard. He plays a demanding sort of basketball. Pressure defense. Fast-paced offense.That's why he usually has a 10-man rotation.

Pitino has done this for years. He did it with Providence. He did it with the Knicks. He did it with UK and with the Celtics. His players practiced hard, and they played hard in games. As far as I know, he's never had injury problems before the last few seasons at UL.

What's changed?

Its simple. The rules changed. The amount of time coaches are allowed to hold practices a week has been reduced. More important, Pitino has been listening to people who understand neither exercise nor the laws of correlation vs. causality, and has worked out his team even less to avoid excessive criticism.

The result?

A weak, sissified group of student athletes with fragile skulls, ligaments, and even internal organs. Its a wonder this group of pansies can even get out of bed without dislocating an elbow. Who would want to play for a coach unwilling to work out his players hard enough to protect against high ankle sprains, concussions, and torn ACLs?

You may say, "Johnnyjoejohnson, this is stupid. Your argument makes no sense." And, you're 100% correct. Everyone who has read this far has wasted 90 seconds of his or her life. But, it's no more stupid than the opposite arugment made my many people including some of our very own, courier journal "columnists," and any idiot who has a subscription to ITV.

Injuries happen. Life's not fair. Often, it sucks. You take what happens and you move on. CardiacCards brought up the book of Job. Why do bad things happen to good people? Hell if I know. But, I'm pretty sure the answer isn't, "working out too much."