![youtube back to back drake youtube back to back drake](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/6ONRf7h3Mdk/maxresdefault.jpg)
Instead of having 6-foot-10 forward David McCormack handle the game’s opening jump ball, Self asked 6-5 guard Ochai Agbaji to do it. They’re tough to play against.”Īlthough there was nothing new about KU’s starting lineup on Sunday, Self did employ a new wrinkle to open the game. “We’d like to get to the point where we have the same type of talent Kansas has. “Now that I’ve faced Kansas, I’m glad we didn’t play them all those years,” said Pitino, who had coached against KU when Roy Williams was still coaching in Lawrence. His goal now is to build the Iona program into stalwarts the way he did with all four of those programs from the past. “They were just much better than us.”Īfter spending 24 seasons coaching at Kentucky and Louisville, Pitino’s return to the college sideline at Iona takes him back to his roots at Boston University and Providence. “We gave everything we had,” Pitino said.
![youtube back to back drake youtube back to back drake](https://images.genius.com/db8d2efc27daee56faef6a9a26462d12.750x750x1.jpg)
Still, there were stretches of the game, when Iona made Kansas sweat and frustrated the Jayhawks with their willingness to grind out every possession and not stop until the final horn. But holes of 10 points early and 20-plus points midway through the game proved to be far too big for the Gaels to overcome. Iona did its best to compete with fourth-ranked Kansas on Sunday. “But the way that his teams always competed on a very high level, and (did) it without five-star recruits, means that they develop and they get the most out of their guys.” “When you really look at coaches, there are a lot of things that make them so effective or so special,” Self said after the victory. But so, too, Self said, was the fact that his roster features several highly ranked and highly sought-after prospects, many of whom Pitino’s programs have not always had the luxury of recruiting. What I admire most is, whether it’s his fast break, his offensive sets, his rebounding… he doesn’t have a weakness as a coach.”Īll of those elements played key roles in Sunday’s Kansas victory. “I’ve always thought he’s one of the best coaches in the game. “I’ve always admired him,” Pitino said of Self after Sunday’s game. But the experience of coaching against each other for the first time was one that neither coach will soon forget. The first ever meeting between the two Hall of Fame coaches went to Self’s Jayhawks, who entered as a double-digit favorite and won 96-83. After combining to coach more than 2,000 college basketball games and racking up more than 1,500 victories, Kansas coach Bill Self and Iona coach Rick Pitino finally faced one another on Sunday at HP Field House.