Rick ‘Pitweeto?’ Ex-Louisville coach’s social media debut gets off to rocky start.

The moment Rick Pitino started a Twitter account, he knew he’d be opening himself to a whole new avenue of abuse, and said as much in his first tweet.

“For years I have stayed away from Twitter because there was very little positivity. I will stay completely away from cynicism and destructive words. I hope to bring a spirit of optimism, which is so needed today,” Pitino tweeted at 2:40 p.m. Thursday.

That tweet had more than 6,000 likes and more than 1,000 responses Friday morning, but several missteps in the launching of the account made it easy to make fun.

For starters, the account, which has since been verified by Twitter, launched with a huge banner graphic that misspelled his name — “Pitno.” And his bio information stated that he is the only coach to have led three different teams to the NCAA Final Four, forgetting that Kentucky’s John Calipari has done the same. Even the off-center placement of his face in his bio photo was a subject of derision.

Each of those errors were quickly addressed, and an apology was issued via Twitter on Friday morning.

The apology also included a new term for his fans’ and detractors’ lexicons — “Pitweeto.”

“Alright Pitweeto’s sorry for the couple of bio/spelling mistakes yesterday. The graphic designer never heard of me :),” the coach’s account said.

There was plenty of reaction on Twitter to Pitino’s debut.

With only three tweets on his resume, Pitino has already garnered more than 15,000 followers in less than 24 hours. Pitino is in the midst of promoting his new book, “Pitino: My Story,” which offers some insight into the recruiting scandals that ultimately led to his firing from the Louisville men’s basketball head coaching job.

As for dealing with the negativity that is so much a part of the forum, Pitino would do well to follow Calipari’s social media advice whether it be positive or negative.

Never read any of it.