At first glance it may seem that Rick Pitino, Tubby Smith and Herb Sendek have forged their own distinct paths as successful college coaches during the past two decades. However, these three coaches once served on the same staff twenty years ago at the University of Kentucky, and their history is detailed as the cover story of the current issue of POST magazine.
The three head coaches will enjoy an impromptu reunion on Dec. 20 at the inaugural 2008 Stadium Shootout at University of Phoenix Stadium. Pitino and Smith, the two former NCAA championship-winning coaches, square off as the number three-ranked Louisville Cardinals take on Smith’s Minnesota Golden Gophers. Sendek’s Arizona State Sun Devils will be taking on the Brigham Young University Cougars.
In 1989 Pitino was as the head coach for the University of Kentucky Wildcats, with Smith and Sendek serving as assistants laying the foundation for the resurgence of one of college basketball’s proudest programs. The success of his two former assistant coaches was expected by Pitino.
“When I interviewed them, I told them both that I don’t hire assistant coaches, I hire future head coaches,” Pitino said in the POST magazine story. “That’s the way that I felt about both of them.”
Pitino’s intuition was right, and on Dec. 20 the three coaches will share the spotlight in a supreme battle of basketball minds twenty years in the making.