UK fans say it's Pitino over Tubby

It is exactly 1,837 miles from Rupp Arena to the University of Phoenix Stadium in Glendale, Ariz.

Yet on Saturday, it is the home of the NFL's Arizona Cardinals — not the arena in downtown Lexington — that will play host to an event of unique historical import to those who appreciate University of Kentucky basketball history.

Far from the state where both have enjoyed their greatest basketball success, Rick Pitino and Tubby Smith will coach against each other for the first time when both are ex-Kentucky Wildcats head men.

The nation may see Louisville vs. Minnesota.

In most of the commonwealth, this is a battle between the winner of Kentucky's sixth NCAA championship (Pitino in 1996) and the winner of UK's seventh national title (Tubby in '98).

From the day last spring when the game was announced, my question has been: Which ex-top Cat would UK fans root for?

On a chilly, overcast December Thursday, I conducted a highly unscientific survey of Kentucky backers in downtown Lexington and on the UK campus.

The result I found might surprise some folks.

So, Wildcat fans, when they go head-to-head, do you root for Tubby or Ricky P.?

"A tough one," said Darrell Tackett, decked out in a blue UK sweatshirt while having lunch in the Lexington Center food court. "I think I'll have to go with Rick."

Upstairs in the Your Frame of Mind store, the sentiment was running the same way.

"I'll be for Rick," said Christy Conner. "I mean, sure he's a schmuck, but he did win us a national championship."

Uhmm, Tubby won Kentucky a national championship.

"Well, yes, he did, but he did it with Rick's players," Conner said.

(In a discussion of the UK coaching legacies of Pitino and Smith, I'd never heard that before.)

On the University of Kentucky campus, many of the students who were finishing up final exams Thursday are so young, they barely remember Pitino's coaching tenure in Lexington if at all.

But it sure seemed they'd heard a lot about it.

OK, UK students, root for Ricky P. or Tubby?

"I liked Tubby, but I've always been a fan of Ricky P.," said Ryan Vidal, a 19-year-old from Cincinnati.

Interjected Adam Walpole: "But, dude, it's Louisville."

Said Vidal: "I don't care. Rick Pitino is the man."

After some deliberation, and even weighing the fact that Pitino now works at Kentucky's foremost rival, Walpole said he, too, would root for Rick over Tubby on Saturday.

That was the same decision made by Justin Clark, a sophomore history major from North Laurel High. "I just like Pitino's style more than Tubby's," Clark said. "If he can beat ya by 45 points, he will."

In a parking lot near the UK campus, Hillary Johnson and Alicia Hill were working in a trailer buying books from Kentucky students for an Internet textbook company.

They both said they would root for Pitino over Tubby.

"I grew up with Rick at UK. I love him," Johnson said. "And he's cute, too."

Pause.

"Well, he was in his younger days," Johnson said.

Ouch.

There was some support for Tubby.

Brandon Nichols was tending bar inside a downtown hotel. He planned to root for Smith.

"I feel bad for the guy, the way Kentucky treated him," said Nichols, a UK graduate from Cincinnati.

On campus, Sharon Murphy was working inside the Ticketmaster booth at the UK student center.

"I'll have to go with Tubby," said the 2006 Bryan Station High graduate. "In my personal opinion, Tubby Smith did a better job at Kentucky than Pitino."

The actual game between U of L and Minnesota could be interesting. Smith's Golden Gophers will enter undefeated (9-0) but largely untested.

Pitino's Cards had only one loss going into Thursday's contest with the Fighting Kennedys of Mississippi, but have not yet played up to their lofty pre-season hype.

Here in the coaches' old Kentucky home, the Smith-Pitino matchup is interesting because of the local rooting quandary.

Inside Qdoba Mexican Grill near the Kentucky campus, UK students Josh Karpinski (Syracuse, N.Y.), Jeff Bella (Palatine, Ill.) and Thomas Strause (Sandwich, Ill.) were eating.

Karpinski and Strause both said they would root for Pitino.

Bella was with Smith.

That two-to-one split for Pitino was pretty much what I found (I did mention that this was highly unscientific, right?) around Lexington.

Not everyone felt torn.

"I like Tubby. I like Pitino," said Carol Foley, owner of the downtown Wildcats memorabilia shop The Kentucky Store. "But, basically, I'm just for UK."

It doesn't take scientific polling to recognize the majority view around these parts.

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