After Louisville’s last-second loss to Kentucky in Rupp Arena on Saturday afternoon, Louisville head coach Rick Pitino appeared to flip off Kentucky fans as he left the court.
According to Pitino, however, he wasn’t flipping the bird as a group of fans that were saying things he didn’t like.
He was saying “we’re No. 1,” or so he told ESPN.com’s Dana O’Neil.
[MORE: Video of Pitino’s gesture]
“No I didn’t flip off the fans,” he told ESPN via text message. “I was in the tunnel. People were yelling ugly crude things that I didn’t like. The 1-8 comment [Pitino’s record against John Calipari] was fine. But the other comments I didn’t like.’'
Pitino did not elaborate on what those comments were, but considering that the former Kentucky head coach has been embroiled in two embarrassing sex scandals -- one of his own doing, one involving recruits being given prostitutes -- in the last five years, it’s not hard to imagine what was being said.