Pitino: ‘We’re Playing Against The Golden State Warriors Sunday’
Michigan made a Big Ten, NCAA Tournament record 16 [of 29] triples in Friday’s 92-91 win over Oklahoma State, and the Wolverines needed every one of them to win. Even more impressive … they went 15-for-21 after starting 1-for-8.
Louisville head coach Rick Pitino, whose team won a tougher than expected game over Jacksonville State, was among those who watched one of the more entertaining first round games in recent history.
“When they shoot 50 percent, go 10 for 19 from the three and you still win by 15, you have to take it,” he said of his team’s win. “That being said, we're playing against the Golden State Warriors on Sunday. So I've never seen — I watched the second half. I've never seen shooting like that since I've been a coach. It's incredible the way they shoot the basketball.
"It looks like it's going in the moment it leaves the hands, so it's going to be a tough task for us.”
The Wolverines made 11 three-pointers in the second half to only five two-pointers, led by senior Derrick Walton’s 6-for-9. Walton became the first player to reach 24 points and 11 assists in a tournament game since Marquette’s Dwyane Wade in 2003 … elite company. He finished with 26, 11, five rebounds and three steals.
The Cardinals are a 2.5-point favorite for Sunday's 12:15 game. The last time the two teams met proved to be a classic … an 82-76 Louisville win in the 2013 National Championship game.
Pitino and Beilein have faced off quite a few times, and Pitino has usually gotten the better of the match-up.
“I don't know how many times, but we've always had bizarre games,” Pitino said. “I'm not sure if he was at West Virginia when we won the Big East championship at that time, but then he had a group — talk about shooting. We had seven guys. Our seventh man, Otis George, had a stress fracture. We played no man. We couldn't press the whole season. We just played two-three bumping zone, and his team made 11 threes before half. And his son made two from the logo in Albuquerque, from the Wolf.
“We were fortunate enough to win in overtime. We played them in the Big East in the quarter semi-finals and finals. We played them in a great game in 2013. My respect for him as a basketball coach is off the charts. His teams are fun to watch, well coached, well drilled. He will turn [you] over. It's going to be a heck of a game.”
As crazy as it sounds, it could have been Pitino on the Michigan sidelines the last several years. Pitino recalled in 2012 on SiriusXM’s ‘Basketball and Beyond’ show how he had signed an agreement to become the Wolverines’ next coach. He reneged, and then U-M A.D. Bill Martin hired Tommy Amaker, instead.
“The day that I committed to Louisville, I signed an agreement to be the next head coach of Michigan and I was fired up to be the coach at Michigan," Pitino said. "The athletic director at the time, who’s no longer there [Martin], was playing squash and my wife came up. She just didn’t want me to go to the west coast, UNLV, and be away from the children. She agreed, ‘okay let’s go to Michigan.’"
But his wife called him out for being afraid to go back to the state of Kentucky to coach at Louisville, his old school's archrival. He, of course, had been Kentucky’s coach before leaving for the NBA.
Martin wasn’t available to take the call — not off sailing, but playing squash — after Pitino’s wife talked him into the Louisville job, so Pitino left him a voicemail.
"I tried to call the A.D. at Michigan between 12 and 1," he recalled. "I had a false name. I would give him a fake name and he would call me back. I couldn’t get a hold of him because he was playing squash. The secretary said he demands that he doesn’t get interrupted unless it’s an emergency, and if you want you can leave a voicemail.
"I left a voicemail and went to Louisville, and I’m really happy I did."
Amaker went 108-84 in six seasons at Michigan and never made the tournament. Martin did much better with his mulligan … Beilein has been to the NCAA Tournament seven times, has won two Big Ten titles, been to the Final Four and two Elite Eights and also won this year’s Big Ten Tournament title.
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