To pick up on this half- finished thought from last night:
I think most fans my age or older come from the frame that you bring players in with the idea of keeping and developing them. And with that comes a certain long-term perspective that lends itself to how you coach players - not just for today, but for tomorrow and next season. You don't want to be too tough on kids who have potential or bury them on the bench because you will lose them and their potential, thus wasting the work you did to bring them in.
Moreover, coaches tend to be teachers, and teachers tend to be built to work and behave that way anyway.
Pitino has gone the opposite way last year and this one. If you are playing and producing the way he wants, then you are "in the club" and you get lots of rope. Jenkins last year, Kadary and Zuby this year.
If you are not in the club, then he's going to be tremendously hard on you. You will get pulled and yelled at for every mistake, sometimes you'll get back in and sometimes you won't, sometimes you won't play at all.
If you survive that mentally and play and produce the way he wants, then you can make your way into the club. Wilcher is just about there. Smith got in now.
If you don't, his view is clearly "fine, you'll leave and I'll get someone else."
That is pretty dissonant for us olds, it is not at all what we grew up with and watched for decades.
But in truth Pitino has adjusted to the modern era better than most. He isn't wrong - the players have an equally short term view. So there really is no sense in investing in players for the long haul when they won't be there for the long haul anyway.
It's very disappointing and dispiriting from a human and teaching perspective, but it is the world we live in now. Which is why Jay Wright, Tony Bennett, Larranaga, Nick Saban and other excellent coaches have bailed out.
I probably prefer the Kim English approach to the modern era (more positivity and salesman, similar to Shaka Smart) than Pitino's Darth Vader approach, but I can't say he is off base.
