Rick Pitino And Gorgui Dieng Discuss Important Things

I guess he really believes in reverse psychology, and that calling someone out to the press is going to get them motivated (which, in general, it does).

Nothing more motivating than being able to prove your coach wrong after he called you out, and do it on national TV, right?

He wasn’t telling a joke when he talked about retirement. And everyone this side of Siberia can watch this year’s team and see, just plain see, that it’s offensively challenged. Good grief. We play defense out the wazoo and he says we’re not very good. We can’t throw it in a pond and we say we’re doing just fine on that end.

But hey, he gets paid millions and I’m just an old man who watched far too many games and taken it far too seriously over the years. (Or maybe, like Rick, I’m just jokin’.)

I think they’re for his players, and his players alone, and that’s fine. After considering all the ridiculous BS that’s been pouring from his mouth and getting so upset over just about every point he makes, I think the only rational conclusion at this point is that the comments he makes are solely for his team.

We just have to take these things as pure entertainment and watch as he coaches from the podium.

—Knows that Notre Dame lost some guys, but they also seem to be able to replace the guys they lose with players of similar skill level.
TRANSLATION: They don’t use injuries as an excuse, so we can’t, either

—We have to play just about every top team in the Big East on the road, which made losing that opening game to Georgetown even more of a blow. Protecting our home floor from this point on is key.
TRANSLATION: You better win the bunnies because you guys aren’t near good enough to beat the heavies

—Thought Kevin Ware played well against St. John’s and expects him to play more and at different positions going forward.
TRANSLATION: I’ll give away anyone but Gorgui’s minutes to Ware, so you better practice your ass off

—Ware has been practicing some more at the three, but he’s not ready to play there right now. Chris Smith would probably be a better backup option for Kyle right now.
TRANSLATION: Russ is going to continue to eat CS5’s minutes, probably as a starter, until Chris learns to move without the ball

—Don’t expect to see much of Wayne Blackshear this season. He’s really out of shape and Pitino again blames himself for not monitoring his weight more. He hasn’t played basketball in almost a year and is a long, long way away from being able to step on the court in an actual game. He’s not ready to practice right now, even if he gets cleared (meeting with doctors next week). If anything, he might be back for the Big East Tournament.
TRANSLATION: Get your ass in shape, Wayne, or you’ll never see the floor.

—Doesn’t have a problem with the offense right now, but thinks our defense is the problem. The defensive statistics are good, but we are not a good defensive team. The offense is OK.
TRANSLATION: We simply can’t be a good halfcourt offensive team, so I don’t want my guys obsessing about it. Better they obsess about defense, because that’s the only part of the game they might be great at.

—We played very well against St. John’s, we played 36 minutes of good basketball. The St. John’s game was an instance where we played very good defense. We also did a really good job of playing in transition.
TRANSLATION: Our offense only looks good when our defense gives us transition gimmes. So let’s work on getting more steals.

—Gets pretty mad when asked back-to-back questions about Ken McDonald being fired and the possibility of losing one of his assistants after this year.
TRANSLATION: No one is allowed to interview for a job until Peyton Siva graduates, and my final championship window closes.

—The 2017 “retirement date” comment from a few weeks back was a joke. He said it in jest and then he goes home and sees it all over ESPN, so he’s not going to play that game with the media anymore. He’s just going to talk basketball.
TRANSLATION: See above comment about a closing championship window.

—The loss of Preston Knowles is the biggest reason for the team’s struggles from 3-point range. People keyed on Preston which left them open for shots and that’s not happening this year. They aren’t off-the-bounce guys so they have to find ways to get themselves open by moving without the ball.
TRANSLATION: You guys suck, and will continue to suck until you move without the all