Lets start with a quick timeline of the season. Team starts 14-0 and even though there was obvious areas of weakness everyone was happy. We were ranked #4 in the nation and about to have the biggest week of the season with a home game against #10 Georgetown and then of course @ #1 UK. Of course we lose both those plus 2 out of next 3 (along with a blow out loss at providence) then everyone panics. The Pitino is washed up starts along with this team wont win another game rumblings. Well of course as all Pitino team's do they start to play better in mid January and come mid February they look like a team that will make a run in the tournament. Then comes the last 2 weeks of the season come and three out of four losses to end the year. Everyone starts to bash the team and Pitino again but slick Rick had something up his sleeve.

Big East tournament starts and suddenly this team is running up and down the floor pressing full court like the team we thought we would see all year. Of course now we know they go on to win the Big East tournament and the first three games of the NCAA tournament. This team has a real chance to get to the Final Four.

This team is built around two things that the last three teams to win the National Championship had in common: Field Goal % defense and 3 point defense. For some reason though people forget that defense wins championships. As much as I hate to say it the best offensive team in the nation (UK) we were able to hold them to 69 points (32 of those points were from the free throw line) and 29.8% shooting from the field. The 3 point defense is drastically improved from then and are a much better rebounding team than the team that was outrebounded 49-28. Remember Chane played 15 mins in the game because of an early second foul and a bogus Technical early in the game. This defense is the BEST in the nation.

Pitino built this team for this time of year and it is evident he knew more than we did all along (imagine that). basically this question is for everyone who thought that Pitino needed to be fired or to retire. Do you still feel that way?