ah yes because Kentucky was ruined. heck, Louisville was awful before he got there, so didn't exactly ruin them either.
Louisville had their title vacated, and suspended. I suppose you think that was a good job? You a big fan of luring recruits with prostitutes, too?
https://www.courier-journal.com/story/sports/college/louisville/2018/02/20/louisville-basketball-ncaa-infractions-appeal-ruling/1032556001/
His tenure here was ruinous as well.
Denny Crum won a title at Louisville so I don't know what your talking about them being a bad program prior.
Louisville (1971–2001)
In 1971, Crum was hired as head coach by the University of Louisville, taking over from John Dromo. Although there had been substantial national success under Bernard "Peck" Hickman, it was under Crum that the University of Louisville became a consistent college basketball power. By 1972, Crum had taken his first team to the NCAA Final Four, where his team lost to John Wooden's UCLA team. Crum would go on to lead the Louisville Cardinals to five more final fours (1975, 1980, 1982, 1983, and 1986). He is tied for sixth all-time in number of final four appearances with Adolph Rupp and Tom Izzo. They rank behind John Wooden, Dean Smith, Mike Krzyzewski, Roy Williams, and Rick Pitino.[5]
On March 24, 1980, the Cardinals became NCAA Tournament champions after defeating Crum's alma mater, UCLA, 59–54. Crum's 1980 national champions have been credited with popularizing the High-5.[6] Six years later, Louisville would overcome Duke 72–69 for a second title largely because of the talented play of "Never Nervous" Pervis Ellison. Crum is one of only eleven coaches to achieve two or more national championships.[7] In 30 seasons, Crum took the Cardinals to 23 NCAA tournaments, where they had an overall record of 43-21.
While in the Metro Conference, the Cardinals won 12 regular season titles and 11 tournament championships. In its 19 years of naming a champion, the Metro had Louisville as first or second place 17 times.
In 1993, Crum became the second fastest coach to reach 500 wins.[8] He ranks 16th in overall Division I wins.
Perhaps you did not follow college basketball?
Or maybe I do. Louisville had a losing record the 4 seasons before Pitino arrived. Crum hung around too long and it showed (happens a lot). That losing record was of course in CUSA. Pitino took Louisville from CUSA, to the Big East, to the ACC. All significant upgrades in money, prestige, etc. And during that time Louisville was still winning. Sure, they "lost" the national title, but the program has not only had a winning record, it has a winning ACC record in the 2 years since Pitino was fired. Not exactly what I would call ruining a program when it ends up in the best conference in the sport and has a winning record in said conference. They also had no problem at all drawing Chris Mack away from Xavier, you know an elite program that was in the Big East (a traditional elite basketball conference). Again, not exactly a sign of ruining a program.
Hawaii ended up just fine post-Pitino. Boston ended up just fine post-Pitino. Providence ended up just fine post-Pitino. Kentucky ended up just fine post-Pitino. Louisville ended up just fine post-Pitino. In fact in many of those cases, the schools found greater success post-Pitino then with Pitino.
Pitino didn't ruin anything.