Pitino doesn't seem ready to hang up whistle

Late in the evening of March 28, minutes after Louisville's Sweet 16 loss to arch-rival Kentucky in Indianapolis, University of Louisville basketball coach Rick Pitino declared the "end of an era" at his program.

He listed U of L's most recent star players and said their loss in that heated rivalry showdown served as the finish line for a three-year run that churned out a national title, another Final Four appearance and a Sweet 16 berth.

"Just want to make sure (it's) not the end of an era for you, right?" one reporter asked.

Pitino, now 61, and contracted with U of L through 2022, brushed the question off. Four months later, it came up again. When will U of L's Hall of Fame coach, among college basketball's most feared, loved, hated and respected coaches, slow down and step away from coaching hoops?

It's a borderline unfathomable prospect to those who know him best.

"I'm 31 and I've been a head coach for two years, and I sit back and say, 'Can I do this 30 more years like him?'" said his son Richard, who is the head coach at Minnesota and was his dad's assistant coach for three years over two different stints at U of L.

"I know he's still very, very passionate about it, and he shows no sign of slowing down. I really don't see any reason to retire any time soon. He loves it there at Louisville."

Both Richard Pitino and his dad say U of L's last four teams have re-energized the elder Pitino, the very teams that reached the "end of an era" in March.

The teams that had Russ Smith and Luke Hancock and Kyle Kuric and Wayne Blackshear and Peyton Siva and Gorgui Dieng and "the list of great kids goes on and on," Richard said.

"They stir my drink," Rick Pitino said of his players, current team included. "They're so enthusiastic. They're willing to learn. They have such a great attitude that I feel like I'm 31.

"The last second of practice, you're disappointed that the day is over because they're so enthusiastic. It wasn't always the case here."

Notre Dame coach Mike Brey said he met Rick Pitino "a long time ago," when Brey was a camper and Pitino was a coach at a Five-Star Basketball camp in Washington, D.C., in the summer of 1976.

Brey was a rising senior at DeMatha High, a D.C.-area private school and a high school hoops powerhouse. Pitino was an assistant coach about to start the first of two years at Syracuse under future Hall of Fame coach Jim Boeheim.

The first thing Brey noticed about Pitino, who hadn't turned 24 yet, was "his passion, his energy level."

"He loves to teach," Brey said. "If you love to teach, you always have the energy to go to your class, which is basketball practice, and work with your students. He has that and then some."

All these years later, Boeheim and Pitino have joined the ACC, which already boasts Hall of Fame coaches Mike Krzyzewski at Duke and Roy Williams at North Carolina.

The four of them sat across the table from Brey at recent ACC meetings, a sight that at first had Brey thinking, "This is really cool."

"Then I came to and realized, 'Oh God, I have to coach against these guys,'T" Brey said through a laugh. "I wish they'd all retire."

To hear his current and former assistant coaches and players explain Pitino, the team meetings, film sessions and practices are as intense, if not more, than the games.

"He's the most motivated individual that I've ever been around in my life, and he's a perfectionist," said Kevin Keatts, a former U of L assistant who is four months into his new head coaching job at UNC-Wilmington.

Pitino gets up before the sun rises and works out. He'll watch games and replays of games on television as he runs the treadmill.

This past season, Pitino was on the treadmill at U of L's basketball facility when he came across Kentucky's famous 1995 SEC title game comeback against Arkansas on ESPN Classic and frantically asked a staffer to record it. He was so excited to see the game that he startled everyone within earshot.

Pitino showed the game tape of his former UK team to his U of L players and spoke at length about that game at the next press conference.

"He has as much energy now as he did when I first came in," said Keatts, who joined Pitino's staff in 2011. "Probably more, actually."

Pitino's sideline demeanor is well known among basketball fans. There's the foot stomping, the "what the heck are you doing?" look of fury, the hands behind the back, the pacing.

And in more recent years, there's been the "Russ" scream, intended for charismatic and chaotic star guard Russ Smith, who managed to both drive Pitino crazy and soften the once much-more-tightly-wound coach. No clearer evidence of that exists than when Smith, in the middle of a team huddle, hugged an infuriated Pitino and told him everything would be OK.

But his closest allies remind anyone who asks that there's more to Pitino than energy and an obsession with basketball.

"I don't know how else to explain it than say it's the experience of a lifetime coaching with him," said Cincinnati coach Mick Cronin, who was an assistant for Pitino in the early 2000s. "There's no one who does it the way he does it. As great a coach he is, he would be the absolute best at running a Fortune 500 company."

His players are walking complexities with a range of emotions and feelings toward their coach, from reverence and respect to laughter and "man, he's crazy." Pitino held a team meeting this past season to practice job interviews with senior center Stephan Van Treese, and he readily talks current affairs or politics or other sports when they come up.

Every off-season, Pitino takes his U of L coaching staff to his Miami home for a coaches' getaway. The official purpose is to strengthen the staff's bond and discuss the upcoming season and recruiting.

"But any excuse my dad can make to go to Miami, he'll make it," Richard Pitino said. "Every year I tried to find (prospects) in Miami because I knew he'd want to get down there and recruit."

A reporter earlier this month asked Pitino where he thought LeBron James might sign (before James returned to Cleveland), and if Pitino had Miami Heat season tickets.

No, Pitino said, but he does have Miami Marlins season tickets.

He's just too busy over the winter to get to many Heat games.

Reach Jeff Greer at (502) 582-4044 and follow him on Twitter (@jeffgreer_CJ).