Kentucky-Louisville rivalry take big hit

UK fans may cheer, but state hoops hurt by Louisville’s woes.

LEXINGTON, KY. — The dramatic collapse of the Louisville men’s basketball program beneath years of scandal finally culminated Wednesday with the ousters of Rick Pitino and Athletic Director Tom Jurich.

In the course of University of Louisville sports history, this is the darkest day.

Although many — but not all — University of Kentucky fans were glorying in the demise of their archrival, the fall of U of L hoops is a loss for UK as well.

Louisville is all but certainly headed for further NCAA sanctions after an FBI investigation of shady financial dealings in the world of college basketball recruiting allegedly revealed an assistant participating in a plan to funnel $100,000 to the family of a prized recruit.

It means the days when the annual UK-Louisville hoops Armageddon rivaled North Carolina vs. Duke for college basketball’s premier rivalry are over for the foreseeable future.

That’s a loss for the state of Kentucky.

Pitino’s legacy in the commonwealth was defined in so many ways by his role in the Kentucky-Louisville rivalry.

When he came to UK from his job as New York Knicks head coach in 1989 to clean up a scandal-ridden Wildcats basketball program, he delighted Cats fans by dominating Denny Crum and Louisville, going 6-2 against the Cards.

Of course, after Pitino was fired from the job — head coach of the Boston Celtics — that he left UK to take, he infuriated the Big Blue Nation by returning to the commonwealth as head man of UK’s archrival in 2002.

For all the fury his return generated, once Pitino switched his neckties to red, he mostly found only frustration when facing his old school.

In 18 games against UK as Louisville head man, Pitino won only six. In NCAA Tournament meetings vs. Kentucky, he went 0-2.

After UK hired Pitino’s longtime coaching rival John Calipari in 2009-10, the antagonism between the coaches infused Cats-Cards with an extra dimension of competitive friction.

As theater, the Kentucky-Louisville rivalry was never more interesting than in the Cal vs. Ricky P. years. Competing with Kentucky in the Calipari era often seemed to bring out the worst in Pitino.

He went 2-8 vs. Calipari at Kentucky, including losses in the 2012 Final Four and the 2014 NCAA Tournament round of 16.

In the 2015-16 season, the Louisville coach was photographed flipping the bird to a heckling Kentucky fan after Louisville had missed a potential winning shot in a two-point loss at Rupp Arena.

With Calipari signing one five-star recruit after another, some Louisville fans complained that Pitino was not keeping pace. In retrospect, you wonder if it was that pressure which led to some questionable decisions.

With Pitino’s departure and Louisville all but certainly facing a period of rebuilding, its rivalry with UK will likely wane, as well.

So who is Kentucky’s archrival in basketball now?

UK has never defined itself by how it fares against the SEC schools it traditionally dominates.

The Wildcats no longer play Indiana. North Carolina, Duke and Kansas are not annual foes.

College sports without an archrival is as bland as unflavored yogurt.

Louisville, its current rival is uncertainty. The NCAA is still weighing Louisville’s appeal in the “strippers/ escorts for recruits” scandal. Now, the FBI allegedly has a Cardinals assistant on tape working out details of a six-figure payment to the family of a recruit.

Louisville needs to throw itself at the mercy of the NCAA and ask for an expedited ruling. Even if its gets the death penalty, it’s better to know. It will be impossible for Louisville to move forward until it has certainty on what it faces.