Pitino's House of Cards is Crumbling

Rick Pitino just realized he has lost his mojo. Sexual and otherwise. " I guess I can enjoy watching Teague play for the Wildcats and beat my scrub team."

Marquis Teague, the Louisville Cardinals #1 recruit, has committed to play basketball for the Kentucky Wildcats. Teague had a lot to say on the subject. He said that, "I really don't expect them to be happy," when talking about Louisville. He says he "Thinks highly of coach Calipari and the things he's done for guards in the past years."

It helped that Michael Gilchrist (the #1 2011 recruit and Wildcat commit) and Teague are friends. "I've been talking to him for a long time about playing together." Teague now joins a team that could be one of the best recruiting classes ever. The class already boasts the #1 and #2 players. They are positioned to also get the #3 player in the country, Quincy Miller.

In 2009 Louisville fans were talking about how their 2011 class is going to be great. Not anymore. Teague has gone to Kentucky and Michael Chandler just opened up his recruitment again and Calipari has visited Chandler. Uh-oh.

What do you do if you are Rick Pitino? He put all of his effort into getting Teague. He put two years into the kid, went to his games, hired one of Teague's assistant coaches and he even coached his father. I think a few things factor into what is going on here:

• This past season did not help. The Cardinals were a veteran team, despite Pitino's excuses at the end. The "lack of experience" he talked about should not have come into effect. Sosa, Smith, Delk and Samuels, 4 of the starting 5, started last year or saw significant minutes. The only guy that was a freshman that came off the bench on a regular basis was Siva. They looked awful at times and were unimpressive. Kentucky had a youthful team and it showed in the Elite Eight but they saw victory all year long. Youth isn't much of an excuse if the youth is talented and well coached.


• The trial with Sypher is hurting. You have to think that parents and kids are looking at it and saying "This is some kind of a mess." Is this a small reason for things going bad? Maybe, but it factors into things such as where Pitino's focus truly is and how much time and effort he will be able to put into his job with all of the other stress surrounding him. He is not on trial but there will be some sordid details coming out that he will have to explain or defend.


• Pitino ain't what he used to be. He had two very impressive runs a couple of years ago but he hasn't had any top recruits come in since Samuels and is losing his future stars left and right. The future does not look bright for the Cards. Yes they there will be a new arena but that arena is not going to win ball games and that arena alone does not bring in recruits. Winning brings in recruits. Was the 4 year extension really the path to go with Pitino?

The sad thing is that Louisville has 7 more years of this to suffer through with Pitino. Calipari has established himself as the best recruiter in the state and the best in the country. UK is hard to pass up with the tradition, the attention and the track record. Teague's choice seemingly was not much of a choice at all. Rick Pitino has to be thinking that there is no recruit out there that he wants that Calipari can't really get if he wanted to. Just Sayin'.