WE DID IT! Louisville coach Rick Pitino, who was inducted into the Hall of Fame (inset) earlier in the day, hugs forward Chane Behanan after the Cardinals’ thrilling 82-76 victory over Michigan to win the national championship last night at the Georgia Dome. (
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ATLANTA — At the end of a dream day that had already officially welcomed him into the Hall of Fame came this dream night for Rick Pitino, coaching his dream team to the national championship, becoming the first coach to win championships at two different schools, in the same basketball-crazed state, no less.
Just before noon, Pitino had been standing on a stage inside Ballroom C at the Marriott Marquis Hotel, smiling and holding a Pitino No. 13 jersey — HOF Class of 13 — and as the last night of the college basketball season approached, he was standing on the doorstep of history, looking for a daily double that no one — not Adolph Rupp or John Calipari at Kentucky, not Denny Crum at Louisville, not John Wooden, not Mike Krzyzewski, neither of whom jumped to the NBA — has achieved. Still, a championship for Kentucky in Lexington, a championship in Louisville 17 years later.
“Hopefully he can finish off a great day,” son Richard Pitino said.
Finally, just after midnight, there was Pitino cutting down the nets, and a city slicker named Russ Smith, and at 12:09 in the morning, there was Kevin Ware, Louisville’s inspiration, cutting down the nets on a lowered backboard inside the Georgia Dome and holding it high with the scissors in his hand with a smile that could have stretched to the Bronx after Louisville 82, Michigan 76.
“You would think we all came out of the same wombs, honestly,” Ware said.
There was Pitino hugging his sons and Ware and everyone, it seemed, and vowing to honor a promise to his players that he would get a tattoo across his back if they won it all. There was Peyton Siva Sr., talked out of suicide by his son, watching the coronation with wonder in his eyes. Louisville players wore “Cut the Net” T-shirts. One Shining Moment for all of them.
“We beat a great basketball team, probably because I have the toughest 13 guys I’ve ever coached,” Pitino said.
It wasn’t easy. A fearless freshman scrub with a 1.8 points-per-game average named Spike Albrecht had stormed off the bench after national player of the year Trey Burke committed his second foul midway through the first half and ignited the Wolverines by drilling four early 3-pointers so effortlessly you would have thought he was back in his Indiana backyard. Or starring as the modern-day Jimmy Chitwood in “Hoosiers.’’ And before the Cardinals knew it, Albrecht had 17 of Michigan’s 33 points, and an agitated Pitino trailed by 12.
“It’s an attack that’s difficult to defend,” Pitino said before the game.
But then Most Outstanding Player, Luke Hancock, the toughest player they have ever seen at Louisville, refusing to allow a torn labrum and partial rotator-cuff tear to sabotage his dream, playing for his gravely ill father, answered with four straight 3s of his own.
“He just blocks it out of his mind and he just goes and plays,” said Louisville trainer Fred Hina. “What he’s doing is really remarkable.”
All of a sudden it was Michigan 36, Louisville 35.
“It’s going to be one of the best games ever,” John Beilein said.
The struggle raged on, a basketball Thrilla in Manila, two heavyweights fighting for the championship of each other, and the college basketball world.
Peyton Siva (14 second-half points), prodded by Pitino, on the brink of exhaustion, began to take over with his giant heart.
“Watching him, I was out of gas,” Pitino said.
Chane Behanan (12 rebounds) dominated the boards.
“He was a monster tonight,” Pitino said.
Hancock drilled his fifth 3 without a miss on this night when everybody had to pick up Russ Smith (3-for-16 shooting). Louisville led by 10, and Michigan ran out of time.
When it ended, Pitino handed his Hall of Fame trophy to his sister-in-law, Mary Minardi, who tragically lost her husband when he was hit by a taxi in downtown New York, then lost her brother five months later in 9/11, and has had to raise three children alone.
“I’m not the Hall of Famer,” Pitino told her. “You’re the Hall of Famer.”
Pitino ties Wooden with 664 wins. It has been a life of highs and lows, of triumph and tragedy and scandal. Pitino told how he got a “GO GOPHERS” text from Richard, informing him that he had landed the head-coaching job at Minnesota, at the exact moment he got the Hall of Fame call.
“When I hung up, I was looking for lightning to hit me,” Pitino said, beaming. Sometimes it strikes twice in Rickyville.