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CBS Reporter Shows Great Defense While Boxing Rick Pitino in for One More Answer

Evan Washburn wasn’t letting Rick Pitino off the hook that easy.

Tyler Lauletta

Evan Washburn interviews St. John’s head coach Rick Pitino during second-round game against Arkansas.
Evan Washburn interviews St. John’s head coach Rick Pitino during second-round game against Arkansas. / @CBSSports / X
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Saturday’s second-round game of the men’s NCAA tournament was a matchup of two coaching legends, with Rick Pitino’s St. John’s squad going up against John Calipari’s Arkansas.

While the play on the court was extremely high-level, some of the best defense of the day came from an unlikely source: CBS reporter Evan Washburn.

Washburn was charged with making the most of on-court mid-game interviews, and had to show off his shuffle step to keep Pitino on the hot seat.

During a break in the first half, Washburn asked Pitino about his team’s priorities to finish out the period. After a diplomatic answer—stressing that the Red Storm were taking the ball into the hole too deep and would have to find some more open shots around the perimeter—Pitino attempted to escape.

Washburn said, effectively, not so fast there buddy, putting his arm out and side-stepping with Pitino to sneak in another question. Pitino obliged without hesitation, explaining how the game had changed due to two early fouls called on Kadary Richmond.

Take a look at this stellar display of reporting below.

Washburn crushes this whole interaction. He’s not getting in Pitino’s space by any means, but is insisting on getting in his second question, and gets a great response as a result. Kudos to Pitino as well for not boiling over after his attempt to get out of the conversation was initially thwarted.

As Pitino couldn’t escape Washburn’s defense, so did the Red Storm struggle with the defense of the Razorbacks, with Pitino’s squad ultimately being bounced early from the tournament after a 75–66 defeat.

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Tyler Lauletta
TYLER LAULETTA

Tyler Lauletta is a staff writer for the Breaking and Trending News Team/team at Sports Illustrated. Before joining SI, he covered sports for nearly a decade at Business Insider, and helped design and launch the OffBall newsletter. He is a graduate of Temple University in Philadelphia, and remains an Eagles and Phillies sicko. When not watching or blogging about sports, Tyler can be found scratching his dog behind the ears.

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