Rick Pitino did not win the lottery in the last seven days. He did not find buried treasure or discover the meaning of life or climb Mount Everest between N.C.A.A tournament contests.
Everything else: perfect.
Pitino capped the best week ever Monday night, on a basketball court at the Georgia Dome, his family, more aware than anyone else of his imperfections and his tribulations, by his side. That came after his election to the Basketball Hall of Fame. That came after Louisville’s national semifinal triumph over Wichita State and a horse he co-owns qualifying for the Kentucky Derby. That came after his 37th wedding anniversary andhis son’s new position as the coach at Minnesota and the call from the Hall of Fame.
He also reportedly collected $2.7 million in deferred bonuses; not exactly lottery money, but close enough.
So there was Pitino as Monday night bled into Tuesday morning. He flashed an “L” for Louisville with his right hand. He announced he was getting a tattoo. He let his legs dangle off the stage. He held the championship trophy high over his head. He kissed his wife.
Here was a man who lost nearly everything that mattered most to him, who lost his best friend and his infant son and so much of his reputation. Here was a man whose best week masked years of tragedy and pain, some of the latter self-inflicted.
Here was a coach and his team — the guard who broke his leg on national television, the forward with the sick father in the stands — and their national championship, his second, and at different universities. This marked a first for a Division I coach.
“I’ve never seen such affection and spontaneous emotion,” he said.
Pitino is 60 now, even if he looks younger in those custom Italian suits, every hair, even the gray ones, arranged on his head just so. There are few coaches in the country, if any, who are more polished, more presentable, slicker. For years, critics described that look as that of a snake-oil salesman, Pitino always listed among the top 10 most-hated coaches, all that inner turbulence bubbling underneath.
The more Pitino talked in Tuesday’s early hours, the more he revealed about his pain. He talked about his wife’s brother, his best friend, Billy Minardi Jr., who was killed in the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. He talked about another brother-in-law, Don, who was killed in a freakish accident. He addressed the extramarital affair and the extortion attempt that came after, all the ugly details laid out for the public in court.
When Pitino received his Hall of Fame jersey Monday, he presented it to Don’s wife, his sister-in-law Mary Minardi. He told reporters she overcame problems with alcohol and has been sober for 10 years.
“We’ve had a rough go, our family,” Pitino said. “We’re a family that’s had a lot of difficult times. That said, no one celebrates like the Pitinos and the Minardis. No one.”
The game was much like Pitino’s week — perfect, or darn close. This has not been the most aesthetically pleasing season in college basketball, with the curse of the No. 1 ranking, a dearth of offense and a plague of timeouts that delay the end of games.
The national title game, and by extension much of this N.C.A.A. tournament, might have saved the season. That is what we will remember through the summer, the game between Louisville and Michigan, between Pitino and John Beilein, between Luke Hancock and Michael Albrecht, now known to all as Spike.
We, too, should remember this Pitino coaching job. He won his first national title in 1996 with Kentucky, his roster stocked with future N.B.A. players. He left after the next season for the Boston Celtics, another misstep. He had hardly taken the time to celebrate. He never felt content.
With this team, in this season, Pitino turned potential combustion into inspiration. Hancock’s father is sick, yet Pitino chose to play Hancock more this tournament, which improved Louisville’s offense, especially in its half-court sets. Guard Kevin Ware broke his leg against Duke and became a national inspiration who late Monday cut down the final piece of one net.
Louisville won the best national championship game in recent memory — best quality of play, best representation of college basketball — because Pitino culled together so many spare parts. His Cardinals were more experienced. They leaned on guard Peyton Siva, a senior who sliced through Michigan’s defense, and on Hancock, a junior transfer who became the first most outstanding player at the Final Four who did not start — the N.C.A.A. said it researched back to 1939.
That is the way the title game unfolded, with Ware’s spirit and Hancock’s marksmanship and Siva’s will, all guided by Pitino and his seven days of golden touch.
Pitino has remained at Louisville since 2001, but in his previous career incarnations, he was always looking at somewhere better, someplace else. The university rebuilt its athletic department around him, and that culminated this year in a Sugar Bowl victory for the football team, a men’s basketball championship and a women’s basketball team that made the N.C.A.A. tournament final, scheduled for Tuesday night.
Late Monday, Pitino and his family occupied the makeshift stage at midcourt at the Georgia Dome. The coach called everyone together, his wife and his in-laws, children and grandchildren, perhaps 30 people total for a family portrait. His horse, Goldencents, had won the Santa Anita Derby and will run in the Kentucky Derby next month. His son Richard had accepted a dream job. His wife, Joanne, stood by his side. A series of photographs was taken, the smiles wide, the family close.
Everything: perfect.
