Rumors have been swirling for weeks that Rick Pitino will be one of the special guests at the Big Blue Madness event this Friday. Pitino is one of the legendary Kentucky coaches who brought the Wildcats a National Championship in 1996. He coached for 8 years at Kentucky from 1989–1997 and helped restore the Wildcats to prominence after the previous head coach, Eddie Sutton, left the program wallowing in recruiting scandals.
After his stint at Kentucky, Pitino went back to the NBA and coached the Boston Celtics for four years. He resigned after struggling with a 102-146 record. He decided to head back to the college ranks and coach for Kentucky’s rival, Louisville, where he began to have a different reputation in the eyes of Kentucky fans.
So, will Pitino be at this year’s Big Blue Madness? The answer is still a little blurry, but it seems very likely. He tweeted out that he will be at the Kentucky vs. Vanderbilt football game “helping Coach Stoops.”
When Coach Pope was asked if Pitino would be there or not, he was a bit coy about it all, but he did say that he was coming to “practice.” Do you know what the biggest practice event of the year is? Big Blue Madness, which also happens the day before the game that Pitino will for sure be at.
Stay tuned because there’s a change that Pope walks out with Pitino, and the crowd welcomes back one of their own after all the years and even some years on the enemy sideline. But this is how we need to remember him and see him if he’s there on Friday:
