Boo-Grass Festival

Love turns to scorn.

It’s one of the oldest stories on earth.

They used to cheer Rick Pitino to the rafters in Rupp Arena, taking the slick New Yorker into the bosom of the Commonwealth of Kentucky.

When he slipped onto the court in the final seconds before his Louisville team tipped off against Kentucky on Saturday, it was to a chorus of boos--though milder than the outcry some predicted would echo from the Bluegrass country to the hills.

Louisville is part of Kentucky too, though sometimes you’d never know it.

Pitino was braced for this moment from the day he began to consider replacing Denny Crum as coach last spring.

“Traitor Rick,” he was called. “Benedict Pitino.”

On Saturday, the sign-makers were ready for the coach who led the Wildcats back from NCAA sanctions after the Eddie Sutton era to their seventh NCAA title in 1996, reaching three Final Fours before leaving for the Boston Celtics in 1997.

“Kentucky’s True Blue Coach is Tubby Smith,” one sign read.

“Their Coach is Still a Crum,” said another.

And in the style meant to catch the eye of a CBS camera:

“Celtics

Better off

Since you left.”

“I’m the Louisville coach. They’re not supposed to cheer me,” Pitino said after sixth-ranked Kentucky took apart Louisville with a couple of ferocious second-half runs, 82-62, before a crowd of 24,330, the fourth-largest in the history of Rupp Arena.

“They’re supposed to cheer Tubby. I’ll get cheered in Freedom Hall, that’s all you can ask.

“They start booing me in Freedom Hall, then I’m in trouble.”

After the game, he was philosophical. If the booing and the signs hurt, he didn’t let on.

“My son came in like a little kid, laughing hysterically, and said, ‘Dad, I wish Mom was here. They had a sign saying, “We never liked you either, Joanne.”’

“I wish I could have had that sign to bring back to her. I think that’s the way you have to take it all, in good-natured jest. Some of the comments tonight, some people may deem cruel. We laughed and thought they were funny and hysterical. That’s what entertainment and college basketball are all about. You have to be able to laugh. You have to have some fun.”

If he sounds as if he is putting sports in its place, it is because he has had to.

Pitino’s thoughts during the holidays were far less on Kentucky fans than on his six nieces and nephews who lost their fathers this year.

Don Vogt, the husband of Joanne’s sister, died in a hit-and-run accident in New York last March and left three children.

On Sept. 11, Joanne’s brother Billy Minardi--Pitino’s best friend since high school--was on the 105th floor of the north tower of the World Trade Center at his job as a trader for Cantor Fitzgerald.

He also had three children.

The couple has known grief before, losing their six-month-old son Daniel in 1987.

But they had known Minardi for a lifetime, returning from a vacation with him days before the attack. Had he lived, he would have been in Lexington on Saturday.

“This one I don’t think time will ever heal,” Pitino said in the weeks after his brother-in-law’s death.

He talked about crying every night, about the conversations he and Joanne had.

“Kidding around, I said, ‘You know I always loved Billy more than you,”’ Pitino said. “And she said, ‘I’ve always known you loved him more.”’

Billy was one of those who urged Pitino to take the Louisville job.

Pitino got his first taste of failure with the Celtics, going 102-146 in 31/2 seasons.

The opportunity to go back to the state of Kentucky arose.

But it was Louisville that had an opening, meaning Pitino would be on the other end of a rivalry so bitter the teams didn’t play for a 24-year period ending in 1983 because of the antagonism between the schools.

“It’s one of the reasons why I almost didn’t take the job, I’ll be honest,” Pitino said. “It would have been a no-brainer to take it right away if not for the fact I coached at UK. I did have trepidation. Then I listened to friends and family members, and I realized it’s one game, every other year.

“The great thing about perspective in life is you understand life and understand basketball. They’re ‘Cat fans and should be rooting for the ‘Cats. Cards fans should be Cards fans.

“Same as when Bill Parcells was coaching the Jets. If you’re a Giant fan, you’re not a Jet fan.”

It can be a hard lesson for Pitino’s old friends.

Jodi DiRaimo, who opened the Italian restaurant Bravo Pitino with the coach in downtown Lexington while Pitino was Kentucky’s coach, still has Pitino’s Pasta on the menu at the Lexington restaurant he owns now, Jodi DiRaimo’s Italian Cuisine.

The fresh tomato basil linguine with seafood in pomodoro sauce stirs resentment.

“I was on a radio show, and somebody said, ‘Well, if you like Rick Pitino that much, why don’t you close your restaurant and go to Louisville?”’ DiRaimo said. “That’s ridiculous.”

In Louisville, the Courier-Journal interviewed a Kentucky fan and grandmother who used to consider Pitino her “boyfriend.”

No more.

“I’d rather they win this game than the NCAAs,” she said.

“I hope he loses every horse race he runs. I hope he loses every game he plays. And I hope his house is haunted.”

Pitino could only chuckle.

“When I go home tonight, my house will not be haunted, I can assure you that,” he said. “Life will go on in the world of entertainment and sports.”

For Louisville, the climb is still ahead. The Cardinals--a young team with one probable pro in Reece Gaines--are 9-2 as they prepare for Conference USA.

“They’re a good group. Their attitude’s great. They’re very compassionate,” Pitino said. “I know in their mind-set they felt bad for me [returning to Rupp.] I said that was the most ridiculous thing. This is not my mind-set at all.”

Kentucky, meanwhile, is 8-2 and opened eyes with its overtime loss to Duke. Tayshaun Prince put his silky game on display with 18 points and nine rebounds Saturday, with Keith Bogans adding 17 points.

“This team has a legitimate shot,” Pitino said. “Although they could lose in the first round--I don’t want to make it sound like I’m putting heat on Tubby, because that’s not the case. Nobody’s going to outcoach him. It’s just that they’ve got a legitimate shot, if you watched the Duke game.”

Kentucky fans like their perch, for the moment.

But they worry about Pitino.

“Right now, he’s not my favorite person,” said Mark Leach, a fan from Owensboro who dyed his mustache blue for the Louisville game.

“At least he came back to the state of Kentucky. But coming back to Louisville, he just did what he had to.”

The next victory over Louisville might not come so easily.

“Look what he did at Kentucky,” Leach said. “He came in here, we had NCAA infractions and the first year he got the program to .500.

“Louisville’s young. They’re going to get better. Next year, we’re going to have a hard time in Freedom Hall.”

Also in the stands was Cameron Mills, who played under Pitino and Smith.

“I got a message from Cameron Mills and he said ‘Coach, I’ll be giving you a standing ovation,”’ Pitino said.

“I said, ‘Well, that’ll be a standing ovation of one.’

“To tell you the truth, that’s all I’ve ever wanted was for my players to applaud me. I really didn’t care whether the people did or not. That’s part of my cherished past, not my present.”

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