Pitino appears close to hiring last Gophers assistant, Wichita State's top recruiter

Donate To GopherHole
BleedGopher

BleedGopher

Well-known member
Joined
Nov 11, 2008
Messages
62,757
Reaction score
20,108
Points
113
per STrib:

Gophers basketball coach Richard Pitino appears to be filling his last assistant coaching spot with Wichita State’s Kyle Lindsted, a source told the Star Tribune on Sunday.

Lindsted, who was the top recruiter for Shockers coach Greg Marshall, is working on finalizing a deal at Minnesota this week, Wichita’s KWCH 12 TV reported earlier Sunday afternoon.

The 41-year-old Kansas native worked at Wichita State for three seasons after spending 15 years at Sunrise Christian Academy in his home state, a school his father founded in 1987.

Sunrise Christian was put on the prep basketball map when Lindsted worked as athletic director and head boys basketball coach, producing 35 Division I players from 2000-2015, including former national college player of the year and Oklahoma star Buddy Hield, ex-Michigan State point guard Tum Tum Nairn and former Gophers center Bakary Konate.

http://www.startribune.com/richard-pitino-appears-close-to-hiring-last-gophers-assistant/481866051/

Go Gophers!!
 

2 out of three ain't bad...[emoji444][emoji441][emoji445]

BleedGopher said:
Sunrise Christian was put on the prep basketball map when Lindsted worked as athletic director and head boys basketball coach, producing 35 Division I players from 2000-2015, including former national college player of the year and Oklahoma star Buddy Hield, ex-Michigan State point guard Tum Tum Nairn and former Gophers center Bakary Konate.

http://www.startribune.com/richard-pitino-appears-close-to-hiring-last-gophers-assistant/481866051/

Go Gophers!!
Click to expand...
 

Since you're so busy being so cute and hilarious, I'll help you out. Maybe 34 out of 35 if you could read but a still stupid take. Bakery was good enough to play Division I basketball. He seems like a really good person, worked hard, stayed out of trouble, and I assume he'll graduate. He represented the Gophers well but still a punchline for jerks.
 


Agree. Bakary had passion and tried hard just not a great player. He represented the U quite nicely. Say what you want he is better than Alex Illkainen.
 


Something about this doesn't add up. A guy leaves a position at a better basketball program, working for a better coach who is practically a god at his school, a team he was a fan of growing up, and his home state/lifelong residence to come to a school with poor basketball history and work for a coach with questionable job security. Maybe he got a huge pay raise - but I doubt it.
 

dpodoll68 said:
Something about this doesn't add up. A guy leaves a position at a better basketball program, working for a better coach who is practically a god at his school, a team he was a fan of growing up, and his home state/lifelong residence to come to a school with poor basketball history and work for a coach with questionable job security. Maybe he got a huge pay raise - but I doubt it.
Click to expand...
Not that it applies here but I have wondered if Marshall can be a tough guy to work with.
 

dpodoll68 said:
Something about this doesn't add up. A guy leaves a position at a better basketball program, working for a better coach who is practically a god at his school, a team he was a fan of growing up, and his home state/lifelong residence to come to a school with poor basketball history and work for a coach with questionable job security. Maybe he got a huge pay raise - but I doubt it.
Click to expand...

I was also curious about pay. Gregg Marshall makes a ton of money, more than every Big Ten coach except Izzo and maybe 1 or 2 others. I figured his assistants would be paid well too.

Seems like solid hire on the recruiting front too. Seems to fit with my speculation that Jeter was more of a replacement for Johnson as far as local/Midwest recruiting and this guy will help replace Kimani Young’s out of state connections.
 




What is his on court specialty? O or D?

I can envision Marshall being a difficult guy to work for. It's also obvious Pitino has a history with him in recruiting at least two of his guys at Sunrise very hard (Tum and Bakary). This isn't just plucked out of thin air.
 


dpodoll68 said:
Something about this doesn't add up. A guy leaves a position at a better basketball program, working for a better coach who is practically a god at his school, a team he was a fan of growing up, and his home state/lifelong residence to come to a school with poor basketball history and work for a coach with questionable job security. Maybe he got a huge pay raise - but I doubt it.
Click to expand...

You may categorize Minnesota basketball history as. simply “poor”, very easy to do, I’m sure many here might agree. I however can’t help but look at it as “interesting and mostly not boring”. My”era” begins with Musselman to the present. A roller coaster ride of ups and downs, too many downs but also some indisputable great runs that get fans excited and wanting more. I want more.
Simply dismissing Gopher hoops as “poor” is a odd take. I’m sure we don’t agree. I can live with that.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 

Holy Man said:
What is his on court specialty? O or D?

I can envision Marshall being a difficult guy to work for. It's also obvious Pitino has a history with him in recruiting at least two of his guys at Sunrise very hard (Tum and Bakary). This isn't just plucked out of thin air.
Click to expand...

Plus they have a big time recruit they are working on out of Sunrise...Malik Hall.
 



Regarding Lindsted, I agree it doesn't make much sense. But, there is this possibility too...he has the sense Marshall is never leaving. He won't become the head coach at Wichita any time soon. So, he is going to expand his resume, increase his contact network working in the Big Ten in hopes of making himself more attractive and increase possibilities to become a head coach.
I highly doubt money is a motivator. It is not to most coaches. The majority have no time to spend it.

Regarding Gopher basketball history as poor...IF we have to include the scandals, I guess it probably is. If we ignore the scandals, there have been lots of highlights to Gopher basketball. We do have a long list of "bad stuff" though.
https://www.upi.com/Archives/1982/03/09/Former-University-of-Minnesota-basketball-player-Mark-Hall-says/8589384498000/ One of the many incidents you can't make up. We even had phone issues way before cell phones.
 


bga1 said:
Plus they have a big time recruit they are working on out of Sunrise...Malik Hall.
Click to expand...

Regarding Malik Hall....it seems odd of 25 big time offers that one would not be from Wichita with the Sunrise connection. https://247sports.com/Player/Malik-Hall-94278

He may be a 100% Kansas guy as predicted or maybe there is conflict between Marshall and Lindsted on pursuing him. Or it has no bearing on anything... but interesting...thanks bga1
 

As down as I am on Pitino right now, I love him shaking up his assistants like this. Some great hires this spring. Hopefully they are around for a few years after a nice bounce back season this year.
 

dpodoll68 said:
Something about this doesn't add up. A guy leaves a position at a better basketball program, working for a better coach who is practically a god at his school, a team he was a fan of growing up, and his home state/lifelong residence to come to a school with poor basketball history and work for a coach with questionable job security. Maybe he got a huge pay raise - but I doubt it.
Click to expand...
Not saying that's the case here, but Minneapolis > Wichita could very well be a factor.

Sent from my SM-G950U using Tapatalk
 

I did some research on Lindsted and WSU and here is what I found. WSU has had 4 kids decide to transfer after this season and are currently set to bring in a recruiting class of...EIGHT! One of the 5 transfers is a kid named Austin Reaves who has a number of B1G schools involved in his recruitment now including Michigan (so he could very well be the kid Ryan James was hinting at being the priority for Michigan over Carr).

I browsed one of the WSU message boards and some of their fans seemed concerned about losing Lindsted due to his ties to the University, it reminds me very much of Pitino losing Ben Johnson in that regard. Their fans seem to uniformly agree that Lindsted's primary value is as a recruiter though it wasn't unanimous that he was the "top" recruiter. His ties to Sunrise Christian were mentioned frequently in the posts I read.

As for why Lindsted would leave? My main theory is that he's trying to make his mark as a recruiter and WSU hasn't landed a top 150 high school kid since 2015 (landed two guys) and those were the only top 150 kids to choose WSU since at least 2012 (as far back as I've looked). If Lindsted wants to get noticed to improve his standing, he likely needs to land some higher profile recruits to move up beyond the "recruiter" role on a staff. While WSU has certainly been more successful on the court than the Gophers have been recently, it also is a challenge to get big recruits to go play at Wichita with limited TV exposure. Obviously, not landing "bigger fish" could be a reason why Marshall could possibly have suggested Lindsted look around though that hasn't been suggested by anybody.

For what it's worth, since Lindsted joined the staff WSU has added JUCO players, 4 prep school players, and 5 high school player (4 in this 2018 class) in the past 3 classes. I would assume, if his hiring becomes official, that Lindsted would be heavily involved with the prep school scene with the Gophers. One former Sunrise Christian player, Isaiah Chandler, has signed with WSU as part of the 2018 class.
 

Another factor for the move may be that it's tough to get a train out of Wichita:
 


dpodoll68 said:
Something about this doesn't add up. A guy leaves a position at a better basketball program, working for a better coach who is practically a god at his school, a team he was a fan of growing up, and his home state/lifelong residence to come to a school with poor basketball history and work for a coach with questionable job security. Maybe he got a huge pay raise - but I doubt it.
Click to expand...

An assistant coaching job on a B1G team is a big deal. WS has had success lately, but it is a small fish in a small pond. If Pitino makes Minnesota a top tier B1G school, than it will open up many more opportunities for him.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
 

MinnesotaNice said:
Not saying that's the case here, but Minneapolis > Wichita could very well be a factor.

Sent from my SM-G950U using Tapatalk
Click to expand...

This. Let's pretend this isn't a job in sports...I would take the similar job in Minneapolis versus any city in Kansas in a heartbeat.
 


dpodoll68 said:
Something about this doesn't add up. A guy leaves a position at a better basketball program, working for a better coach who is practically a god at his school, a team he was a fan of growing up, and his home state/lifelong residence to come to a school with poor basketball history and work for a coach with questionable job security. Maybe he got a huge pay raise - but I doubt it.
Click to expand...

Is there a wife/kids in the picture? I could see Minneapolis being a much more desirable place to work than Wichita for non-basketball related reasons. That combined with a small pay bump could be enough to convince someone to work for a lesser program/coach.
 

alchemy2u said:
An assistant coaching job on a B1G team is a big deal. WS has had success lately, but it is a small fish in a small pond. If Pitino makes Minnesota a top tier B1G school, than it will open up many more opportunities for him.
Click to expand...

Wichita St. is a small fish in a small pond? Are you high? First of all, Wichita St. is a vastly superior basketball program to Minnesota - it isn't close. Second, they have dedicated more resources to their basketball program than has Minnesota - Gregg Marshall is among the top 15 highest-paid basketball coaches in the country. Thirdly, Wichita St. moved to the American Athletic Conference prior to last season. They had 3 bids compared to the Big Ten's 4 - and that was with schools like UConn and Memphis suffering down periods. If and when those schools get righted, the AAC will be (at worst) marginally inferior to the Big Ten. Finally, Gregg Marshall is leaps and bounds ahead of Richard Pitino in terms of respect among other coaches; there is nothing that Richard Pitino could do for anyone that Gregg Marshall couldn't do, and do much better.

Nothing in your post makes any sense.
 

GopherHomer said:
This. Let's pretend this isn't a job in sports...I would take the similar job in Minneapolis versus any city in Kansas in a heartbeat.
Click to expand...

But it is a job in sports - you can't pretend that it isn't. Assistant at Wichita St. is a better-to-much-better job than assistant at Minnesota, not to mention holding much greater job security. This is putting aside the fact that he was born and raised just outside of Wichita and has spent (I believe) his entire life living there.
 

Sometimes I wonder if I’m on a minnesota Board.

That, and it seems we have at least one fan with Aspergers or some similar issue affecting self awareness and social skills.
 

WanderingGopher said:
Sometimes I wonder if I’m on a minnesota Board.
Click to expand...

Because it's a Minnesota fan board, I'm supposed to pretend that Minnesota is a better basketball program than Wichita St.? Sorry, not going to happen - even insinuating this anywhere else would get you laughed out of the room. Here, some want to pretend that it's true for some bizarre reason.

WanderingGopher said:
That, and it seems we have at least one fan with Aspergers or some similar issue affecting self awareness and social skills.
Click to expand...

Once again - attack the poster rather than the argument when you know you have nothing. You know that you've already lost when you do this. Also, good job attempting to make fun of people with Asperger's - you do an exceptional job of marginalizing people who actually suffer from a horrible condition, attempting to belittle me because I don't fall in line with your ridiculous homer takes.

Here's an idea - try actually refuting the argument. It makes you a better poster and also prevents you from looking like a huge doosh.
 

Add the opportunity to have a head coaching job should current head coach be terminated...
Golden_Sloth said:
Is there a wife/kids in the picture? I could see Minneapolis being a much more desirable place to work than Wichita for non-basketball related reasons. That combined with a small pay bump could be enough to convince someone to work for a lesser program/coach.
Click to expand...
 

You must log in or register to reply here.



Top Bottom