After Louisville lost four of its last six regular-season games

Almost exactly. And maybe not Ray ban sunglasses even almost.

This group of Final Four coaches has a lot of hardware. Bill Self won the 2008 national title with Kansas, Thad Matta reached the ’07 Final Four with Ohio State, and although the NCAA doesn’t acknowledge all of them, John Calipari’s Final Four visits now total four and with three schools. That trio is high on every list of accomplishments for active coaches.

Yet in this constellation of coaching stardom, Pitino is the sun. He’s the one who entered the weekend as a finalist for the Naismith Hall of Fame. He’s even the one who has succeeded in the NBA.

And even though his Louisville team is the relative underdog in the quartet, the outsider in this year’s blueblood quartet — a fourth seed in a field of 1s and 2s — and the one without an All-American on the Oakley sunglasses roster, absolutely nobody is writing Kentucky into the Monday final in ink. The reason? Pitino.

“With the five days to prepare," Calipari said, “I would imagine they’ve come up with a few things to try to — I don’t want to use the word ‘trick,’ but to confuse a team that starts three freshmen and two sophomores. I have no doubt that he has."

That might be part of the two coaches’ mutual tongue-in-cheek, half-in-jest, hidden-agenda admiration society, carried on all week as talk of their frosty relationship picked up steam. For his part, Pitino admits that contrary to popular belief, talent is good to have.

Pitino has been in Calipari’s shoes, burberry handbags of course, during his Kentucky tenure in mid-'90s, expected to win because of what he had.

Yet he won at Kentucky the same way he won with Providence, the Knicks and the first Louisville team he got to the Final Four in 2005. No matter who he has on the floor, they defend, they shoot 3s, and they are convinced, by any means necessary, that they’re as good as anybody they’re playing.

And while Pitino didn’t let on what he had in mind for the Kiddy 'Cats on Saturday, it would have made him smile to know he was on Calipari’s mind.

Louisville does have upperclassmen who have been through this grind plenty of times, in regular season, in conference tournament and in NCAA Tournament play. They had to live through two consecutive first-round losses (including Morehead State last year), they lived through a late fade that wrecked their Big East Tournament seeding, they’ve dealt with injuries and defections and changes on the fly.

Pitino has coached them up burberry watches each time.

Such experience will make a difference. The strategy will, too. He has picked the correct defensive scheme and the correct offensive tempo at the right time in each of Louisville’s last two wins, over Michigan State and Florida. That pressure definitely is capable of stopping the ball from reaching Anthony Davis and Terrence Jones inside, can rattle freshman point Marquis Teague, can take the ball out of the hands of all their most potent scorers.

At the other end, if the Cardinals burberry ties are pushing it upcourt, kicking it to the wings for 3s, or simply keeping Kentucky’s own defense from getting set and comfortable and generating its own baskets, while negating Davis’ shot-blocking inside ... it’s not hard to imagine the No. 1 team in the country suddenly out of its rhythm and off its game.

As Pitino himself said, that hasn’t changed. Neither has his ability to push the right button on his players at the right time.
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After Louisville lost four of its last six regular-season games, senior guard Chris Smith said, “He told us, ‘Your legacy lies in your own hands right now. You want to be remembered as a team that gets knocked out in the first round of the tournament, and to lose on senior night?’ "

Added fellow senior Jared Swopshire, “I feel like the turning point for us was, coach met with us, (and) he basically said, ‘New season.’ That kind of stuck with us going into Big East play."Juicy Couture sunglasses, cheap Juicy Couture glasses sale.

Then, there was how Pitino described his own words of wisdom to his players: “I was the reason we lost. I held you guys back. We didn’t press, we didn’t run ... I didn’t feel we could do it at the time. We’re gonna do it in the Big East Tournament."

They haven’t lost since.

Put all those things together, and Louisville’s appearance next to these three season-long contenders isn’t so surprising, Men louis vuitton shoes 2012 new luxury cheap outlet black and the idea that the Cardinals are underdogs makes less sense.

With all the accolades and stats and awards and rings the other coaches have, who wouldn’t take Pitino — and whatever team he’s coaching — over all of them?