Before Facing Duke, Pitino Lets Sarcasm Flow INDIANAPOLIS - Louisville Coach Rick Pitino is several decades removed from his upbringing on Long Island, but he has not lost his biting New York sense of sarcasm. As an opening remark at Saturday's news conference, Pitino dryly assessed Louisville's defensive performance against Oregon as, well, not up to par. "The guys basically defensively had the night off," Pitino cracked. So they're going to be very, very fresh against Duke. He later added that he believed the team would be fresh because "we didn't play a stitch of defense last night, so we're well rested - especially Russ." Upon hearing his name, Russ Smith shook his head and looked down at the podium. Peyton Siva and Chane Behanan smirked. Pitino stared ahead waiting for the next question. He added another jab at Smith after a question regarding Smith's documented desire to transfer after his freshman year. "I thought about shipping him to a different planet," Pitino said. Smith rolled his eyes at that remark. He is used to the sarcastic endearment from his coach by now. Smith, who has been battling illness this week, indicated that Pitino had been on him incessantly about not using the sickness as an excuse for poor performance. "The cold is definitely wearing me down a little bit," Smith said. Since I've been in a little lull, I assume he's definitely not going to let me do that anymore. I'm going to have to find other ways to be effective. There were more, shall we say, Pitino-isms. On Christian Laettner: "I did a Vitamin Water commercial with Christian Laettner. A lot of Kentucky fans don't like him. I got to know him and still don't like him. I'm only kidding, I'm only kidding. He's a good guy. I'm joking. On Gorgui Dieng's learning English: "When I was named the Puerto Rican National coach, I bought Rosetta Stone and was working on it for two hours a day. All I look back on it now, because I had such great difficulty, is: How did he do it? On how much he thinks about playing Duke every season after moving to the A.C.C.: "It's on the top of my list."