Louisville coach Rick Pitino has got his own matters to worry about, with six more games packed into the remainder of the Cardinals' non-conference schedule, but that's not stopping him from worrying about his son's affairs, too.
Pitino has closely watched his son's team –Richard Pitino's Gophers – this season as he always does, and like many Minnesota fans, he's having a hard time stomaching the results.
The Gophers have lost consecutive "guarantee" games to South Dakota and South Dakota State and have dropped three of their last five. Apparently a stretch like that is worthy of a plea for holy intervention.
"I'm living and dying right now," the elder Pitino said on his weekly radio show. "I asked Father Bradley to say mass. I went to church today. He lost to South Dakota in double overtime with a six-point lead and then is playing South Dakota State ... We just die with our son."
Like father like son? Of course a lot of Rick's commentary needs to be read with tongue firmly in cheek, but by the sounds of it, Richard isn't exactly relaxed, either.
"I told him, 'Richard, going into the season, you said we've got seven freshmen and sophomores, we're not going to be real good this year but we're going to learn and be outstanding next year. So why are you dying with every situation?' He said, 'I learned it from you.' Oh, we're dying with everything."
