Dec 29, 2001
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By STEVE BAILEY
AP Sports Writer
LEXINGTON, Ky. – Kentucky gave Rick Pitino and his new team a rude welcome Saturday.
Tayshaun Prince scored 18 points, and Keith Bogans added 17 as the sixth-ranked Wildcats beat archrival Louisville and Pitino 82-62 in his return to Rupp Arena.
Kentucky coach Tubby Smith, Pitino’s good friend and his assistant at Kentucky for two seasons, improved to 1-5 against his mentor.
“We couldn’t let our coach lose this game or our fans would have run us out of town,” said Bogans, who went 7-of-12 from the field and had seven rebounds.
Gerald Fitch and Marquis Estill added 10 points each as the Wildcats (8-2) beat Louisville for the third straight year.
Reece Gaines, Carlos Hurt and Bryant Northern all scored 10 for Louisville (9-2), which had won eight straight games.
“In the first half, we didn’t take great shots but we rebounded well and we were in the game,” Pitino said. “In the second half, we took better shots, they just didn’t go down.”
Before tipoff, Pitino – who led Kentucky to the 1996 national championship but left a year later for the Boston Celtics – shook hands with Smith as boos rained down from the crowd of 24,330.
“I didn’t pay any attention to that,” Pitino said. “I’m the Louisville coach. They’re not supposed to cheer me.
“I get cheered in Freedom Hall. If they start booing me there, then I’m in trouble.”
Pitino coached Kentucky from 1989-97, taking over a program ruined by scandal and leading it back to national prominence.
He resigned from the Celtics in January after 3{ unsuccessful seasons and two months later accepted the Louisville job, vacated by Hall of Fame coach Denny Crum.
“Their coach is still a Crum!” read one sign in the arena’s pulsating sea of Kentucky blue.
“There were comments tonight that we laughed about,” Pitino said. “That is what the entertainment of college basketball is all about. You have to be able to laugh.”
Both teams came out tight – Kentucky made only one of its first seven shots and Louisville made two of its first seven. Midway through the first half, the Wildcats led 16-11.
An 8-2 run gave the Wildcats a 26-18 lead with 3:30 remaining. Louisville pulled within 33-28 on Larry O’Bannon’s two free throws with 1:30 to play.
Erik Brown scored the final two baskets of the half, including a dunk off a steal in the final seconds, to cut Kentucky’s lead to 36-32 at halftime.
For the half, Louisville shot 41 percent to Kentucky’s 37 percent and outrebounded the Wildcats 24-20.
“We got outtoughed in the first half and missed a lot of shots,” Smith said. “I think we were a little too keyed up early and it took us a while to settle down and play the way we normally do.”
Kentucky led by four at halftime but turned up the defensive pressure to start the second half. Louisville missed 13 of its first 16 shots to open the half as the Wildcats took control.
Kentucky hit five of its first seven shots to push the lead to 48-37 by the first TV timeout, sending the crowd into a frenzy.
Bogans scored seven points, and Prince four during the 12-2 run that gave Kentucky its largest lead to that point.
Following the timeout, Prince scored on a layup and a rim-rattling two-handed dunk, forcing Pitino to call timeout with 13:41 remaining.
Louisville never again got within double digits as Kentucky fans, including actress Ashley Judd, sensed victory was at hand.
“They didn’t show us enough respect,” said Kentucky point guard Cliff Hawkins, who finished with eight points, five rebounds and five assists. “They thought they were going to come in here and Rick Pitino was going to send them to the promised land.
“It don’t work like that. You’ve got to go out and earn respect. You can’t do it by talking.”
Leading 63-50, Kentucky scored 10 straight to put the game away with 3:49 left, bringing chants of “TUB-BY! TUB-BY!”
“We were very efficient and very effective in the second half,” Smith said. “We capitalized on a lot of their mistakes.”
Louisville shot 36 percent for the game, making only four of 19 3-pointers (21 percent). The Wildcats, who lead the nation in rebounding margin at 12.9 per game, outrebounded the smaller Cardinals 46-41.
Before the game, Kentucky renamed the new Rupp Arena floor “Cawood’s Court” in honor of former broadcaster Cawood Ledford, the voice of the Wildcats for nearly four decades. Ledford, also a horse racing announcer, died in September after a long battle with cancer.
