In a recent interview on the Cameron Mills Show, Rick Pitino said he really wanted the 1996 SEC Tournament championship game to Mississippi State.
Pitino felt the loss would bring his team back down to earth and allow them to refocus for the NCAA Tournament, which they won in impressive fashion.
Here is an excerpt of Pitino’s comments from 247 Sports:
I really wanted to lose that game. I didn’t, obviously, lose on purpose,” Pitino said. “But I benched Antoine Walker and he didn’t do anything that wrong. He said something like, ‘I didn’t think it was a bad shot’ and I took him out and benched him. I think if we left him in we probably would have won. I did want to get a loss going into that tournament. Not intentionally. If it happened as it did happen, I was very happy about that.”
The rest, of course, is history. The 1996 Wildcats won its first four NCAA Tournament games by an average of 28.2 points to reach the Final Four, where it exacted revenge with an 81-74 win over UMass.
Pitino says he knew that loss to Mississippi State, who joined UK at the Final Four in New Jersey, would bring his team back down to earth and remove that aura of invincibility to refocus his team on the ultimate goal.
“You have to know the personality of your basketball team,” Pitino said. “Antoine Walker, to say he was over-confident, would be a mild understatement. And I love him to death. He’s a very confident young man. I felt the second unit on that team could have won a national championship. That’s how good we were. A loss took away that invincibility that there’s no way we can lose and if we got down six with five to go in the game with a loss under our belt, it would be no problem.”
