Rick Pitino Freaks Out At Fan, Is Held Back During Heated Shouting Match

It’s been a contentious week for high-profile coaches in the Bluegrass State.

On Tuesday night, University of Kentucky head coach John Calipari heard it from Missouri fans in the form of “Cal, you suck” chants, flustering the coach and putting an end to his halftime interview on ESPN.

One night later, University of Louisville head coach Rick Pitino kicked it up a notch, as he needed to be restrained from going after a fan at halftime in a game against North Carolina.

As Pitino exited the court at the Dean Dome, he quickly became irate, screaming and yelling at a fan on the baseline. Pitino looked ready to head into the crowd and throw hands, but staff members and security prevented him from escalating the situation even more.

It still made for quite a scene.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1GaSATcbiX4

Rick Pitino is very displeased with a UNC fan pic.twitter.com/z4bYUuyMw6

— Jonathan Jones (@jjones9) February 23, 2017

According to an in-game report from ESPN, a fan yelled “You suck” at Pitino, which apparently was enough to set off the head coach. North Carolina also ejected the fan.

Pitino got mad because someone yelled "Pitino, you S-U-C-K"?

That's weak.pic.twitter.com/xSLA4OilPq

— TPS (@TotalProSports) February 23, 2017

Pitino addressed the spat in his postgame press conference. He claimed the fan in question was an adult, not a North Carolina student, and he called the fan a “coward.”