Pitino gracious after loss

By Gary Bedore     Dec 10, 1989

Adonis Jordan guards a Kentucky player during KU's 150-95 blowout of Rick Pitino's Kentucky Wildcats in December, 1989.

Rick Pitino sure didn’t act like a coach who had been left twisting in the wind.

Yet Adolph Rupp, the legendary Baron of the Bluegrass, the man who turned college basketball into a religion in Kentucky, may have been twisting in his grave.

“I’m not concerned about the score,” Pitino said after Kansas besmirched bluegrass basketball with an astonishing 150-95 victory on Saturday afternoon in Allen Fieldhouse.

“We could have slowed down,” added Pitino, who left the New York Knicks to take over Kentucky’s probation-riddled program this season, “but we can’t get anything out of that. It’s very, very embarrassing, but if you hang your heads that’ll happen. And until we get some bigger bodies, it’ll happen again.”

It was the most lopsided loss in the history of Kentucky’s tradition-rich program. City College of New York, a school that has long since dropped basketball, clubbed the Wildcats, 89-39, in the NIT back in 1950.

Too, the 150 points were the most a Kentucky team had surrendered in 1,945 games. . .or ever since the school started its program back in 1903. The previous high was 116 and that was in a 118-116 win over Northwestern back in 1966.

Did Pitino think Kansas coach Roy Williams tried to run up the score?

“I believe they weren’t trying to hurt anyone,” he said. “They were just passing the ball and scoring. They just drilled us.”

What about the UK players?

“I’m embarrassed. . .I think everybody on the team is,” John Pelphrey, a starting forward, said in the ‘Cats’ somber locker room. “They played exceptionally well. They pinned our ears back. They didn’t miss. And when they did, they got the rebounds.”

Kansas had 48 caroms; Kentucky 25. The ‘Cats also turned the ball over 27 times and committed 35 fouls. Starting center Reggie Hanson, at 6-7 one of the tallest UK players, had to sit out the last 15 minutes of the first half after picking up his third foul.

“When we lose Reggie Hanson that really hurts,” Pitino said. “We could not guard them in the low post. But even with Hanson we’re gonna lose the game.”

Without Hanson most of the first half, the Wildcats were on fire, thanks mainly to long-range bomber Derrick Miller who made 7 of 13 three-point shots many from way beyond the arc.

Kentucky bolted to a 16-11 lead, made 9 of its first 11 shots and lagged by only six points that’s just two Miller bombs with 5:15 left in the first half.

“We were right in there until the last part of the first half,” Hanson pointed out, “so I don’t know if my being out was a factor.”

Was Hanson embarrassed by the loss?

“It’s the margin of victory, not the points,” he said. “We didn’t play as hard as we have been.”

Despite a game-high 32 points, Miller was run over by a glacier in the second half. He was 3 of 12 from the field including 1 of 6 from trey territory after intermission.

“I think in the second half I played selfish,” said Miller, who had 23 points in the first half. “I’ll take the blame for the loss.”

That’s noble, but inaccurate. The blame belongs to an NCAA probation that has left Pitino with only eight scholarship players, most of them undersized and underbulked.

“We’re in a tough situation numbers-wise,” Pitino said.

Asked if he learned anything about his team, the 37-year-old coach replied: “I didn’t learn too much. I learned that if we get in foul trouble there’s a tremendous dropoff. But there’s nothing I can do about that.”

Pitino was in foul trouble, too, during the last 16 minutes. He picked up his second technical foul at 16:05 when he said something official Mike Kouri didn’t like. Five minutes into the first half, he earned a T from Ed Hightower all three officials were assigned by the Big Eight for flinging a towel onto the floor.

“I don’t comment on the officiating,” Pitino told the media afterward. “You comment on them because I won’t say a positive or negative word.”

Pitino had only one negative thought about Kansas.

“They’re a great basketball team,” he stressed. “They really don’t have a weakness. . .except for foul shooting, and I think that’ll improve in time.”

Actually, it didn’t take Kansas long at all to improve its free throwing. The Jayhawks made 36 of 44 free throws Saturday. That’s 82 percent. Going in, KU’s percentage was 62.3.

Kentucky, 3-2, has a 10-day break before its next game against Furman in Lexington.

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