Coach Pitino Trying To Motivate Chane Behanan? I Think So

I know you probably didn’t get a chance to hear it, but Coach Pitino was a guest yesterday afternoon at about 5:35 on the Terry Meiners show on 84WHAS. Most of you were listening to my show on 1450 The Sports Buzz from 5-6, right? Just making sure.

Anyways…when asked about first string and second string line-ups for Saturday’s first Red – White game, Coach Pitino gave an interesting list for the first string. Pitino says as of right now, Peyton Siva, Kevin Ware, Wayne Blackshear, Montrezl Harrell (or) Angel Nunez, and Gorgui Dieng is your current first string line-up in practice.

The most notable name not mentioned as a starter is Chane Behanan, who was the MVP of the Western Region in last year’s NCAA tournament. Coach Pitino has forgotten more about the game of basketball than I’ll never know, but to think of Chane Behanan playing a reserve role on this year’s team is laughable. I’m sure this is just a motivational tool for Chane. I’ve not heard of any recent issues with his effort level in practice, but Pitino has always mentioned that as long as Chane stays hungry, the sky is the limit. Pitino has even compared him to Charles Barkley.

I’d say this was just a media spin from Coach Pitino, to try and keep Behanan humble as he heads into what is expected to be a stellar sophomore season.