1996-97 OUTLOOK
P I T I N O'S POINT OF VIEW
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Coach Pitino, what did winning the title mean to you?
"Contrary to what most people believe, it's neither a relief nor a sense of any individual accomplishment. It's more an understanding that if you play good defense, unselfish offense, and you put together a very talented ball club, you have a chance at winning a championship. And you understand the reasons why you win it. We had four NBA draft picks, we were very unselfish and we were one of the better defensive teams of all-time.
Has winning the 1996 championship added pressure for the coming season?
"I'm very realistic. Most national champions are overrated. If you look at who has repeated, or gone back to the Final Four, it's been teams that have had their teams back. For instance, Duke did it because it had four or five key players back. UNLV did it because it had its key players returning. Arkansas made a run because most of its squad was back. The ones that have not done it have been the ones like UCLA, which has lost its key players. So we're both realistic and optimistic. Realistic that we've lost a lot. But it's how we make up for the losses that's going to be the key for our basketball team."
Can this team repeat?
"When you have a pro team that returns Michael Jordan, Scottie Pippen and Dennis Rodman, you can look at your chances and say 'repeat,' because they're back. When you have Worthy, Magic and Kareem back, when you have Bird, McHale and Parish back... well, that's not the way it is in the college game. You've got to continue to recruit. Recruiting is the war that you're going to base
your future on. Right now, that's what we're trying to do  create an unbelievable recruiting year so that we can continue this type of success."
Does the national title change Rick Pitino's style?
"No. I've always been an intense person. Being calm is not my thing. That's like asking any intense person  like Miami's Jimmy Johnson  if they lose their intensity when they win. You just gain more intensity. Certainly, I'm guarded against embracing any success because the national championship is part of the past. I'm interested in the present. We're not going to relax at all."
You never look past the next game. How's Clemson for an opener?
"To be only one month into practice and playing an ACC team with eight players back, we may not come out of that game on top just from an experience factor. But, if we played them later on in the year, we could definitely give them a game."
Who's the team to beat in college basketball this season?
"There's a team out there very similar to Kentucky of last year, and that's Kansas. They have the depth, the experience, the talent and the coaching; all of the ingredients to make a super basketball team, very similar to our team last year. Now, whether there's a team  be it Kentucky, Cincinnati, whoever it may be  capable of knocking them off their perch, remains to be seen. That will be interesting come NCAA Tournament time because it is only one game. If you're invincible in the tournament, then Kansas will win it. If not, if someone can take them to the wire, then it's open to the rest of us."