Rick Pitino appeared on the Terry Meiners Show Wednesday evening to talk about is team's freshly-released 2012-13 schedule, what he thinks of the preseason hype, and how he felt about U of L's gridiron victory over Kentucky.
You can listen to the segment here, or just check out the highlights below:
--He was on the road and only caught a quarter of the football game. Thought Teddy Bridgewater looked really good. "You never know how good you are until you face real competition...not that UK isn't real competition, they're just a young football team." He's very curious to see how the team does against North Carolina.
--Very excited about his team. We're very deep, we're very athletic and we're very tall, which is something we haven't had in a while.
--It's been amazing to see the transformation with all sports at U of L. Football is back in the top 25, the women's basketball team will be back in the top 25, our soccer programs, golf programs, diving program, track programs; they've all grown so much. I've never seen this type of growth among so many different sports at one program, and it's really fun to see.
--Believes Louisville, Notre Dame and Syracuse will be the top three teams in the Big East. Can go ahead and guarantee that one of the Notre Dame games will be an overtime or double overtime game.
--We had the second toughest schedule in the country last season, and I think our non-conference schedule is much tougher this season than it was a year ago.
--The difference between last season and this season is that we have to be ready to go early this year. We play Manhattan to open and they won 20 games last season, and then not long after we go to the Bahamas for a tournament where six teams are ranked.
--This team has proved that they're worthy to play a lot of tough games early on and that's why we have the schedule we do.
--Doesn't know where this team should be ranked heading into the season, but knows they're very humble and very hungry to get the job done.
--Peyton Siva is an early pick to be a an All-American, and he's earned that by staying four years. Peyton and Kevin Ware have worked incredibly hard to improve their jump shots.
--The addition of Montrezl Harrell has really helped Chane Behanan. Chane started hearing all these people talking about how Montrezl was gonna beat him out, and that really inspired him. It's going to be very tough for anyone on this team to beat out Chane Behanan now.
--Thinks Reece Gaines will make an outstanding coach.
--Elisha Justice will be presented with his Final Four ring when Pikeville comes to the Yum Center for its exhibiton game against the Cards.
--(On how long he plans on coaching) I turn 60-years-old on Sept. 18 so right now I'm just trying to make sure I get the most out of every day. Loves coaching these guys and loves spending time with his family.