Rick Pitino and Tom Jurich were both fired from the University of Louisville only days apart. It’s fitting since the two were seemingly joined at the hip. Jurich had saved Pitino’s bacon in two high profile scandals, but in the end, the third strike cost both of them their jobs.
Growing up in Jefferson County, I remember the Kentucky/Louisville rivalry from the nineties. The two played every year, and while the fans cared, not much was made of it nationally.
Part of that was because Pitino and Tubby Smith were coaching circles around Denny Crum and the Louisville basketball program that was fading into the shadows of what it once was in the 70s and 80s.