Pitino: Pelphrey Can Handle Dealing With Low Numbers
Tuesday, November 17, 2009
FAYETTEVILLE — Louisville coach Rick Pitino knows John Pelphrey can handle the situation at Arkansas.
Turmoil? Pitino got a close look at how Pelphrey reacted to it when he was a young college basketball player at Kentucky. A depleted roster? It was no problem for Pelphrey back then, when he was one of a handful of players suiting up for the Wildcats.
So Pitino knows what type of problem his team could face when it opens the season against Pelphrey’s short-handed Razorbacks in St. Louis at 6:30 p.m. today.
“When you’re a wounded tiger and you have players like (Rotnei) Clarke and (Michael) Washington, you can overachieve sometimes,” Pitino said. “So we have to beready for that challenge.”
Arkansas, fresh o◊a dominant performance in the season opener against Alcorn State, will try to make an even bigger impression against the 20th-ranked Cardinals. The Razorbacks entered the season with just six scholarshipplayers because of injuries and suspensions and will have just as many tonight, but the situation reminds Pitino of when he coached Pelphrey.
The story is well-known. Pelphrey played for Pitino at Kentucky after the program hadbeen rocked by scandal.
Pelphrey was a sophomore when Pitino arrived in 1989 and one of few players left. Kentucky was banned from postseason play for the next two years, but the Wildcats reached the Elite Eight of the 1992 NCAA Tournament.
Sports, Pages 9 on 11/17/2009
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