Rick Pitino Says That If He Could Do It All Over Again, He Would Have Never Left Kentucky In 1997

On today's Pardon My Take... RICK PITINO! The Hall of Famer joined Mr. Cat and Mr. Commenter on today's show to discuss his first season with St. John's, his career, basketball philosophy, the stalker who has texted Big Cat for 7 years, whether or not we can keep making jokes, and more.

Our guys asked Coach Pitino a ton of questions about his basketball life, and one of them involved his time at a very notable stop: The University of Kentucky from 1989-1997, which included a National Championship in 1996. A year later, Coach Pitino departed Lexington for a new challenge with the Boston Celtics. With the C's, he failed to get above .500 in a season, which left many thinking, should he have left Kentucky in the first place? We got his opinion on today's show, and there was no hesitation...

It's an interesting answer from Pitino. Like Dickie V said, could he have continued to dominate at Kentucky? Sure. But he wanted to try something different, and even though his time with the Celtics didn't work out, that eventually led to a new stop at Louisville, where he would win another National Championship (no asterisk in my book). 

Coach Pitino's arrival to the Big East this year has added so much intrigue and he is one of many big storylines entering Champ Week. And guess what? His St. John's team is right in the middle of the bubble conversation. Drama at The Garden this week. Sign me up.