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LOUISVILLE MAGAZINE 2.16 57 they responded with a healthy cheer. If the fans and alumni had any issues with the basketball dorms turning into Animal House on your watch, they appeared to have made their peace with it. Te game was a chippy, old-school Big East battle. Sometimes, after a particularly stressful play went against you, you very nearly walked of the court, going well past the baseline. Forty-two years and still there was that intense desire to win. Or, perhaps more accurately, there was that intense desire not to lose. Right before the game's frst timeout, ffth-year point guard Trey Lewis appeared to blow an assignment on the defensive end. Pitt was unable to score on the play, but that didn't stop you from chewing of Lewis' hide when he returned to the bench for the timeout. You were so frustrated that you pulled him from the lineup. Tis was not a unique scene with this group. On a number of occasions prior to inbounds plays, I saw you actually grab freshman forward Ray Spalding and move him in the direction of a player you wanted him to guard, or to an area you wanted him to cover. Your team was a good, balanced group with few weaknesses. Chinanu Onuaku, a big man who shoots his free throws underhanded, was a force in the middle. Lee and Lewis were solid in the backcourt. Spalding was still making some rookie mistakes, but with you constantly on his ass, he was making fewer and fewer of them. Sam Draut, the sports editor for the independent school paper the Louisville Cardinal, has covered you for the last four years and senses the afection you have for these players. "I've never heard him talk this highly of a team in my four years here," Draut says. "Even the 2013 national championship team. He was still more critical of those guys." "We didn't know how good we would be, but we knew we had a special group," you'll say on Feb. 5, after learning the news of the postseason ban. "I compared it to the 1987 Providence team, which is probably as close to my heart as any team I've coached." At the Pitt game, I was seated in an upper corner of the arena, above the Louisville bench. From a distance, you didn't look so great. Turns out you were under the weather. You ate before the game, which apparently you seldom do. Te food didn't agree with you. All you had was plain turkey with no bread, but it was still enough to send you to the latrine at an inopportune moment. With 11:15 to go in a relatively close game, timeout was signaled, and you took of your jacket and sprinted for the tunnel, shoving a team trainer out of your way. "I can't eat game day," you'd say afterward. "A nine o'clock game kills me. I made a mistake and I went and ate something. I get sick if I eat something." Tat is truly amazing to me. You've been coaching for four decades, and you still can't hold down food on game day. Despite looking pale, you were happy. Your team was playing the kind of game you always want. Tey were challenging shots, creating turnovers, controlling the glass. Pitt could not establish any type of ofensive rhythm. Louisville 59, Pittsburgh 41. "I feel like my long-lost best friend came back tonight," you said during the postgame news conference. "We've been waiting some time for us to play defense like that." Eight minutes after you took the podium, you departed with a smile on your face. O n a cold and sunny Tuesday in mid-January, I visited the U of L campus. It was the third week of the semester, and the campus buzzed with activity. Te temperature hovered around 20 degrees, so the students marched with a purpose to their next class. Te campus features an interesting mix of brand-spanking-new buildings and structures that look to have long passed their sell-by date. Te 128,000-square-foot Student Recreation Center glistens. Te Swain Student Activities Center? Not as much. (Any chance you could steer a couple of booster dollars toward renovating some of the Swain bathrooms? Te men's room on the third foor looks like it hasn't been cleaned since the Denny Crum days.) I cross Fourth Street and arrive at Billy Minardi Hall. It's small, just two stories high. It holds only 38 students. It's deserted right now. Most of the kids are at class, or getting ready for practice. From the outside, it looks quaint. Frankly, it's hard to picture this as a den of debauchery. So what's the story, coach? Did you know? Did you not know? Did you knowingly not know? Which of those three options constitute a freable ofense? Just what should the university do with you? "I thought the president should have asked Pitino to take temporary administrative leave back in October," says Milligan, the law professor. "Administrative leave in no way signals guilt or innocence. I think it would have been the best way for the university to manage the several ongoing investigations." Milligan concedes the difculty in proceeding with any course of action. "Tere's no easy answer," he says. "Pitino's a world-class coach, and he's made Louisville fans proud over the years. But the allegations are serious." What if the NCAA adds to the sanctions and tacks on another year to the postseason ban, or more? What if you're forced to give up some wins? What if you're no longer a member of the 700-win club? Worst of all, what if the school is forced to vacate the 2013 national championship? A huge chunk of your Hall of Fame legacy could potentially be erased. It's logical to wonder, at age 63, just how much of a punishment you'd be willing to take. "How long is he gonna stick around?" the Louisville Cardinal's Draut asks. "I could very well see him sticking out one year. I can't see him staying for two years if he knows…he can't go to the postseason, can't go to the Final Four, can't go to the national championship." And that's why rumors like the one published in the Las Vegas Review-Journal on Jan. 16 will continue to surface, and have at least some traction. According to the report, you are considering a move to UNLV at the end of the season. "Next question, guys," you said, tersely responding to a query about the story at a Jan. 19 news conference. "Anybody have a basketball question about Florida State? I'll be glad to answer it. But please don't talk about job openings in January." Te Review-Journal reported that the idea would be to bring your son Richard — who's struggling in his third season as head coach at the University of Minnesota — with you as a head-coach-in-waiting, should you decide to retire. Watching you frenetically work the sidelines, I have trouble believing you plan to retire anytime soon. Te game is still very much in your blood. Continued on page 110 "I feel like my long-lost best friend came back tonight," you said during the postgame news conference. "We've been waiting some time for us to play defense like that."