ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Monday, March 31, 1997 TAG: 9703310163
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B-1 EDITION: METRO
COLUMN: JACK Bogaczyk
DATELINE: INDIANAPOLIS
SOURCE: JACK BOGACZYK
The last trip his basketball team made to the RCA Dome, Rick Pitino didn't figure he'd be back anytime soon.
The road to a second straight Final Four for Kentucky ends tonight literally where it started - on Nov. 15, with a 79-71 overtime loss to Clemson, in the Black Coaches Association game.
"We were down,'' recalls senior guard Anthony Epps. "It was like starting all over again.''
The Wildcats were the defending national champions, but they clearly weren't the same team. Still aren't. Yet, only tonight's date with rising Arizona stands between Pitino's club and a second straight NCAA trophy.
"I think this as as much pride as I've had personally in a basketball team,'' Pitino said Sunday. "It's the most fun I've ever had as a coach, because they've made it that way.''
The Wildcats lost four NBA draft picks, then lost their leader - guard Derek Anderson - to a severe knee injury at midseason, after Pitino had redshirted guard Jeff Sheppard.
Pitino's bench is shorter than he is - or so it seems. In this no-depth era, however, the Wildcats have plenty of talent, led by spectacular and NBA-bound sophomore forward Ron Mercer.
"We're not a Cinderella,'' Pitino said. "We're not what [his 1987 team at] Providence was. We've been in the top four or five teams [in the polls] all year.''
So, how did Kentucky get here - to 35-4 - from there - the Clemson loss?
"I always believe you have to have a Ph.D.,'' said Pitino, part educator but mostly motivator. "You have to be poor, hungry and driven. Last year, we were those.
"We also were very talented, wanted to prove ourselves, and wanted to be champions. When we started out this year, Oct. 15, we had four weeks of terrible practices, nowhere near the other seven years [at Kentucky] from an execution standpoint.''
Pitino thought his team was working hard, but not hard enough. So, he cranked up the pressure even more on his defense. And he told the young Wildcats after the Clemson loss that he thought they'd be a .500 team unless they worked harder.
"Some guys felt that wasn't possible,'' Pitino said, "so I told them we'd be just over .500 and fighting for an NCAA bid at the end of the year with the type of schedule we play. They became poor, hungry and driven, and extra driven when Derek Anderson went down.''
Pitino "never in a million years'' would have envisioned what's happened. Without Anderson, the Wildcats are 19-2. As they play UK's seventh NCAA championship date tonight, only Mercer among the 'Cats starters scored (20 points) in last year's title victory over Syracuse.
That night, current starting point guard Wayne Turner didn't play. Besides, last weekend at the West Regional, Utah coach Rick Majerus said Turner can't go to his right or shoot. Two-guard Anthony Epps didn't score.
Center Scott Padgett had flunked out. Forward Jared Prickett, a medical redshirt with a balky knee after five games at Pitino's encouragement, was sitting in the front row of the pep band.
"There wasn't any room on the bench, so Coach Pitino told me to sit there,'' Prickett said Sunday.
Backups Nazr Mohammed and Cameron Mills, a walk-on, were junior varsity players. Jamaal Magliore had just finished his high school career in Toronto.
"If you take them separately and say, let's do matchups, we're not going to fare too well,'' said Pitino, whose 26-6 NCAA Tournament record is the best percentage among active coaches. "When you put them together, offensively, defensively, in turnover margin, then the team really shows up.''
Kentucky also has superb athleticism, and Pitino plans it that way. Sure, he wants to - and does, at times - recruit McDonald's All-Americans, but Wildcats don't necessarily have to have Big Mac reputations.
"We try to recruit players who will fit our needs,'' Pitino said. "We want guys who can run, anticipate, catch and shoot.''
And defend. Years ago, at Boston University and Providence, Pitino had his teams throwing up 3's and pressing as a compensation for a shortage of talent. It was that way when he took over the New York Knicks, too.
"When we first started pressing, it was to camouflage weaknesses in our teams,'' he said. "I felt we needed defense to score. We did it to cover up weaknesses when we got to the top of the key at the other end the last few years.
"Now, the defense has maintained the level of excellence at each part of the floor. When they cross halfcourt, our defense is just as strong with our man-to-man. That's when your press is most effective, when you're not trying to hide weaknesses.''
While Pitino's team plays pressure, he plays possum. He said in preseason he thought the Wildcats could win 19 games, then amended that to 15 after the loss to Clemson.
He wasn't fooling some people. The lowest the Wildcats were in the polls this season was No. 8, after the early dome defeat. The surprise team in the 59th NCAA final is the other Wildcats.
Kentucky is here because basketball is a game of angles, and it plays them very well on defense. Pitino does, too.
LENGTH: Medium: 95 linesby CNB