Rick Pitino critiques social media
— -- Rick Pitino doesn't mince words when it comes to social media and sports.
He doesn't like it and believes his Louisville team is better when players stay away from it.
"Every hour, it's like taking a little bit of poison," Pitino said during an appearance Wednesday on ESPN Radio's "Mike and Mike." "It poisons their minds.
"I think technology is a great thing in many instances, and I think it's poison in others, and for people in sports especially."
Pitino has banned his players from tweeting, and if it were up to him, he wouldn't let them use any other social media forum either.
He said his players concede they use social media at least four hours a day.
"I'm trying to get our players to read more, pay attention to important things," the Hall of Fame coach said.
Pitino believes using social media impedes a player's ability to communicate.
"We as parents and teachers, we want our children, we want our players to communicate, to articulate a message, to get in front of a human resources person and articulate their passion for wanting a job," he said. "We're losing our abilities to communicate, especially young people today."
The comments came two days after Pitino sounded off on social media at the end of a Monday news conference, saying, "I think anyone who reads social media that's in sports is not all there."
Some Louisville players, including Chris Jones and Russ Smith, use the photo-sharing service Instagram.
"I don't know why people do it," Pitino said Monday. "It's not that I'm against certain facets of social media, because I'm not, but what you're talking about -- what Russ is doing -- is a total waste of time."
No. 11 Louisville (22-4, 11-2 American), the defending national champion, returns to action Saturday at No. 7 Cincinnati (23-3, 12-1 American).
Related Stories
ABC News Live