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Sept 26, 2001

Listen to Rick Pitino's Press Conference

By CHRIS DUNCAN
AP Sports Writer

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) - As he watched replays of the second hijacked plane crashing into the World Trade Center, Louisville coach Rick Pitino began counting floors, hoping that his best friend was still alive.

Bill Minardi, the brother of Pitino's wife, was one of 670 employees of the bond brokerage Cantor Fitzgerald who died in the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

Minardi worked on the 105th floor of the north tower, the first one hit and the second one to collapse.

"It was so painful watching those planes, over and over. I knew Billy was high," Pitino said at a news conference Wednesday.

Returning to work this week has given Pitino the diversion he's needed.

"I'm emotionally spent," he said. "The only solace I get is when I'm on that court for four hours a day. It's an escape from it all.

"What I have to do is to immerse myself in it, day and night, so I don't think as much. The only thing you have to do is go overboard and immerse yourself in your work and your family and just pass out at night."

Pitino, who was hired in March, said his new team sent him a touching sympathy card last week. He reciprocated by returning them to their usual exhausting workouts.

"Fortunately, for the players, there is a 20-hour (per week) rule," he said.

Pitino said the death of Minardi, his best friend since high school, won't change his perspective on basketball. He said that happened in 1987, when his 6-month-old son, Daniel, died from congenital heart failure.

"I had a perspective a long time ago," Pitino said. "When you're between the lines, you give it everything you can. But everything that surrounds you away from the game is the game of life, and that is so much bigger.

"(Basketball) is my passion, it's my professional life, but it's entertainment. It's always been entertainment to me since 1987. I know what sports is about - it's about making us laugh, it's about good times together."

Pitino said he and his wife, Joanne, only recently had recovered from another family tragedy. In March, Don Vogt, the husband of Joanne's sister, was struck and killed by a New York City taxi.

Pitino said last week was a blur.

"A week ago, I didn't know where my life was going," Pitino said. "You didn't know what to do, where to go."

Pitino and his wife had waited for word from Minardi on the day of the attacks, but none came. The next day, the Pitinos drove to New York.

They got false hope when Minardi's name turned up on a computer database that listed people working in the towers at the time of the attacks. Minardi was listed in critical condition, but Pitino found out through Cantor Fitzgerald's emergency hotline that the report was wrong.

Soon after, Pitino learned that every employee who showed up for work on the day of the attacks had died.

Pitino, who grew up in New York City, attended a memorial service for Minardi last Thursday.

"The swing of emotions, thinking you had a hope and a prayer, waiting for one Cantor Fitzgerald person to make it down," Pitino said. "It's just been unbelievable."

He reminisced about his friendship with Minardi through tear-filled eyes.

"Joanne and I were trying to laugh about stories about Billy the other night," Pitino said. "Kidding around, I said, 'You know, I always loved Billy more than I loved you.' And she said, 'I've always known you loved him more.'

"We had so many fun times, so many great memories. I cherish those memories. It was a good reason to marry Joanne."