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Too Soon? Barkley Blames Louisville For His Busted Bracket… While Sitting Next To Rick Pitino

The Louisville Cardinals had an extremely disappointing one-and-done showing in the 2011 NCAA tournament, losing to Morehead State in what coach Rick Pitino called “as tough a loss as I’ve had in coaching.”

Pitino’s comments during a somber postgame press conference (“my window is closing in coaching”) have raised doubts about his future with Louisville, while his presence today on CBS’ Kentucky-West Virginia halftime show have started rumors that his next move is to TV.

Well, if Pitino does choose to make the jump to media, he may want to avoid being in-studio with Charles Barkley.

During a segment on Barkley’s disastrous bracket picks (host Greg Gumbel correctly compared it to a “CSI crime scene”), Barkley blamed his bad luck on two factors: his penchant for picking coaches he was friendly with… and the Louisville Cardinals. Keep in mind: their head coach was sitting right there.

Pitino, for his part, responded with a joke. Barkley was joking as well. But just two days removed from one of his toughest losses ever, one has to wonder if the nationally-televised ribbing came a bit too early for Pitino’s liking.