Rick Pitino tweets at Kentucky basketball after Wildcats’ game against Ohio State is
The top 25 men’s college basketball showdown between Kentucky and Ohio State Saturday has been canceled due to COVID-19 issues within the Buckeyes program, but former Wildcats head coach Rick Pitino seems eager to provide John Calipari with another path to play this weekend. Pitino, now the head coach at Iona, tweeted at Kentucky Men’s Basketball Thursday hinting that his team would be up for the challenge if logistics prevailed.
Pitino, 69, served as the head coach at Kentucky from 1989-1997, coaching the Wildcats to a national championship during the 1996 season. Pitino later served as the head coach at in-state rival Louisville from 2001-2017 after several years in the NBA as the head coach of the Boston Celtics. Pitino went on to guide the Cardinal to a since-vacated national championship in 2013.
Pitino’s time at Louisville was marred by scandals at the end. During the 2015-16 campaign, Louisville self-imposed a postseason ban amid an ongoing NCAA investigation over an escort sex scandal involving Cardinals recruits. Pitino was then let go from Louisville in 2017 after Adidas allegedly gave a prospect’s family $100,000 to attend the university, something that emerged during the FBI probe into widespread corruption within college basketball.
Pitino agreed to become Iona’s coach in the spring of 2020. He guided the program to an NCAA Tournament appearance in 2021 in his first season at the helm. The Gaels were eliminated by Alabama in the opening round of the tournament.
It was announced Thursday that Kentucky’s matchup with Ohio State in the CBS Sports Classic was canceled due to positive COVID-19 results within the Buckeyes program. The CBS Sports Classic said it was working with Kentucky Athletics to find a possible replacement game to fill Saturday’s void. As of earlier in the day, Kentucky was still scheduled to make the trip to Las Vegas in hopes of finding a game. Ohio State officials, meanwhile, explained the situation in Columbus in a release.
“The safety and well-being of the student-athletes, coaches, staff and Ohio State community is the highest priority,” the release read. “All team related activities have been suspended and the players and staff will continue to be tested according to Ohio State protocols in consultation with the Big Ten Conference.”
Speaking ahead of his team’s planned travel to Las Vegas, Ohio State head coach Chris Holtmann was asked about talking to his team about COVID protocols given the increase in cases and cancelations.
“We’ve had to have real conversations about what’s happening in both professional and college sports,” Holtmann said. “As you know, we have a fully vaccinated program, but there have been breakthrough cases. There’ve been breakthrough cases among our staff this year as well. So I think you’re really aware of it and I think those kinds of conversations and that dialogue is very much a part of what we’re doing right now and I’ll leave it at that.”
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