BEST IN THE BUSINESS

You heard the story. Any coach with a clipboard could have won the national championship at Kentucky last year.

It entailed the following: Huddle together the 10 best players on one team in the country, roll out a ball, stomp your feet a few times on TV and arrange for a ring-fitting.

That was the 1995-96 thumbnail on Rick Pitino, who won his first NCAA championship only to find out the bigger story would have been if Kentucky had not won.

Funny how perceptions change.

Kansas Coach Roy Williams had the same working script this year: best players, best team, odds-on favorites to ransack the tournament.

Except Kansas didn’t win, flaming out against Arizona.

With the Kansas crash came a new appreciation for single-elimination play and for what Pitino did last year with a team that was conceded the title around Lincoln’s birthday.

To prove 1996 was no fluke, fate put Pitino to the test this season, toying with his lineup and trying his patience.

Gone were stars of yore: Walter McCarty, Tony Delk, Antoine Walker, Mark Pope--all NBA draft picks. Jeff Sheppard, a key contributor, was redshirted.

Pitino opened practice Oct. 15 and remembers his jaw almost hitting the hardwood.

“Quite frankly, the preseason for me, out of all the years I’ve been in Kentucky, was a nightmare as far as our expectations,” Pitino said this week.

The Wildcats proved his point by losing their opener to Clemson.

Nightmare?

Kentucky (34-4) has lost three games since and will play today’s Final Four semifinal game against Minnesota (31-3) at the RCA Dome with sights set on becoming the first team since Duke in 1991 and 1992 to win consecutive titles.

This year’s Kentucky title run could not have been more pleasantly surprising than, or more different from, last year’s.

This year there was trouble at every turn.

“This team right now close to last year’s team?” sophomore forward Ron Mercer asked, repeating a reporter’s question. “I wouldn’t say so as far as talent-wise. No way, not even close, because we lost four NBA draft picks. And not a lot of people expected us to be in this situation now, having lost those guys. We’re not as talented or as deep as last year. But we do have guys that are willing to sacrifice and go out and play hard, and that’s why we’re here right now.”

You can talk your way around the issue, argue that Pitino is a master at sandbagging and media manipulation.

Or you can look at the facts: In a Final Four that features Dean Smith, the man who just passed Adolph Rupp on the all-time victory list, 44-year-old Rick Pitino might be in a class by himself.

After Kentucky beat Georgia Tech by 29 points in December, Yellow Jacket Coach Bobby Cremins summed up the state of the college coaching world.

“Rick is the man right now,” Cremins said. “At one time, John Wooden was the man, and Dean Smith and Bobby Knight and Mike Krzyzewski. Well, right now, Rick is the man. He’s changed college basketball with his style of play, with his full-court game and the speed and his pressure.”

In his eighth season in Lexington, Pitino this month surpassed Krzyzewski to become the active coach with the best winning percentage (80.6%) in NCAA tournament history. Pitino’s record is 25-6, compared to Krzyzewski’s 40-11 (78.4%).

Kentucky has somehow maintained its frenetic defensive pressure despite diminished depth.

Pitino’s response was to crank up the heat, make practices harder, push the limits. Pitino, with a hummingbird’s metabolism, is the kind of coach who would hold a staff meeting at 7 the morning after his team beat Syracuse in last year’s national championship game.

The message was clear: There would be no celebration. His motto was “Never Embrace Success.”

Need to know more? Check out Pitino’s new book on the subject: “Success Is a Choice: Ten Steps to Overachieving in Business and Life.”

The facts are that Kentucky started the season with only two marquee players--Mercer and senior guard Derek Anderson--and will finish it without Anderson.

The supporting cast was just that. The center, Nazr Mohammed, was a junior varsity player last season; a 6-foot-10, 310-pound freshman blob who was so fat he couldn’t even dunk.

The other inside possibility, freshman Jamaal Magloire, was months removed from a standout high school career . . . in Canada.

Jared Prickett, a 6-9 senior, was coming off a medical redshirt season.

Scott Padgett, 6-9 sophomore, was not eligible until December because of academics.

Anthony Epps, the returning point guard, was never going to be confused with Stephon Marbury. Epps was a better football player in high school.

“He tells you when you first come in,” Epps said of Pitino, “ ‘If you don’t practice hard, you don’t play.’ I had a choice. Do I want to be a cheerleader for four years or do I want to practice hard?”

Cameron Mills was a former walk-on who was told bluntly by Pitino he would never play.

From this material, Pitino sewed his patchwork quilt, driving his players to new heights.

The blowouts came in bunches: 27 over College of Charleston, 34 over Indiana, 29 over Georgia Tech, 24 over Notre Dame, 34 over Tennessee.

But then came the calamity of Jan. 18, when Anderson banged his right knee on the court against Auburn. It seemed a minor injury at first, until X-rays the next Monday revealed a full tear of the anterior cruciate ligament.

Anderson was leading the Southeastern Conference in scoring at the time and was possibly the quickest player in the country.

Pitino was so devastated, he almost conceded the season on the spot.

Asked what could be expected of his team after the injury, Pitino said: “What do you think our chances would be? I think it’s obvious, isn’t it?”

Again, reports of Kentucky’s demise were greatly exaggerated.

The Wildcats, in fact, are 18-2 since Anderson’s injury.

One of the victories was a 93-56 pasting of Villanova at Rupp Arena in February. Pitino could only describe that Anderson-less effort as “flawless.”

After the initial post-traumatic-Anderson syndrome, Pitino challenged his players for more.

He measures championship runs by what he calls the “PHD” factor: Poor, Hungry and Driven.

“They became extra driven when Derek Anderson went down,” Pitino says.

Every Wildcat stepped up his game.

Pitino has used 11 starting lineups this season. Mercer, the superstar sophomore who already has declared himself eligible for the NBA draft, is the only Kentucky player to start every game.

* Mohammed? The blob? He has shed nearly 70 pounds since last season and become a tournament factor. In 14 minutes against Iowa in an NCAA West Regional second-round game, Mohammed had 10 points and 10 rebounds.

* Mills, the former walk-on who turned down a scholarship at Georgia for the chance to sit on Kentucky’s bench, scored 19 points against Montana in the first round and then 19 more against St. Joseph’s in the regional semifinals.

* Epps has played the last five games at shooting guard after starting 30 games at the point. Not known as much of a shooter, Epps leads the team with 64 three-point baskets and had a 15-point, six-assist effort in Kentucky’s regional final triumph over Utah.

Pitino thought Epps would be, at best, a solid backup point guard.

“I felt he wouldn’t scare away any other recruits when he chose Kentucky,” Pitino said.

* Sophomore Wayne Turner has started the last seven games at point guard and scored in double figures in six.

“I think he’s been the key to our team,” Pitino said.

Kentucky has shed several skins this season.

“Since Derek has gone down, we’ve had four and five players in double figures,” Pitino said. “Cameron Mills, Wayne Turner, Jared Prickett, Scott Padgett, so we have much more balance, it seems. Why that is I don’t know. Probably because we ran 80% of our offense to Derek and Ron.”

Can Kentucky win the title?

Absolutely.

Is Pitino the best coach in the country?

Epps thinks so.

“He brings the best out of his players,” said Epps, the senior. “One word sums him up: Intense.”

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

Tournament Tough

Active college basketball coaches with highest winning percentage in NCAA tournament:*--*

Coach W-L Pct. Rick Pitino 25-6 .806 Mike Krzyzewski 40-11 .784 Steve Fisher 20-6 .769 Dean Smith 65-26 .714 Roy Williams 20-8 .714

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