A few have had a chip since he was hired. For most of us, the chip grew along with the length of that leash. At some point he has to be accountable for results:
1 NCAA tourney appearance (0 wins)
1 NIT appearance (won title)
3 years with no tourney or NIT (this was the same as the number of times Monson missed both tournaments in 8 years, including the year where he was fired 7 games in, despite dealing with the Haskins era sanctions)
3-5 BTT record (.375 winning percentage) (includes two losses in the Wednesday 11 through 14 games, one trip to semifinals, one trip to quarterfinals)
31-59 Conference record (.344 winning percentage) (worse than Monson despite sanctions, worse than Tubby)
90-78 overall record (.536 winning percentage)
This is an atrocious five year record. It will still be a bad six year record even with good sixth year (barring something miraculous). Like I said earlier, we should keep him if he makes the tournament, but "longer leash than a typical hire" is quite the understatement.
Guys, I am sounding like a broken record repeating the defense of Pitino is so many threads where the same group of GH's think he should be fired. His record at Minnesota is not good and if you just look at the record I can see why some people want to say he should be fired. Having a good win/loss record and competing for B1G titles are the ultimate goal, but I think you have to take a deeper look at the details to get a better picture of Pitino as a coach. I will try to go into a few of the details where I think is shows that he is a good coach:
- Pitino has proven he can develop players. Mo Walker was transferred into a major presence on the inside (how much weight did he lose?). The radio announcers mentioned how much of a change took place in the practices in how professional and fast pace they were. Practices included individual player development. Look how Mason became one of the best guards in the B1G. Murphy has become an animal, Lynch changed from a foul machine into defensive player of the year, etc, etc, etc...
- Pitino made mistakes in has early recruiting that hindered the team for years (no depth, dead roster spots, lack of talent, etc..). He has learned from that and has gotten top rated classes that last couple of years. The current roster is very deep and full of versatile player that can switch positions on the fly.
- Pitino can handle the spotlight. He has been a good representative for the U and is one of the most straight forward coaches in the game. He seems to be a genuine good guy and I like his sense of humor.
- Pitino is a players coach. His style is evolving into a free flowing, fast paced approach that gives players freedom to play. This is an advantage in recruiting.
- Pitino is a good game planner. He was responsible for game planning while at Louisville and Florida. He had a drop off last year (that may have lead to the coaching changes), but he know what it takes.
- Pitino is a good game coach. He showed it in the U's run for the NIT title, in his first year at FIU and many of his match up with the top coaches in the country (B1G). Also, when he switched to the all freshman lineup in that very bad year.
His early recruiting woes caused him to not have teams where players were actually playing in their correct positions (remember the walk-on as the starting PG and the holes in the middle). The roster problems manifested themselves into a majority of those losses on his record. Pitino has been one of the first to admit that he was given the job very early in his career. He didn't have 4 years at a MAC school to learn that just because 5 star players have you in their top 3/5 doesn't mean they will come to your school, or that even when you open a spot for a local kid that promises to play for you.... We were a mid level P5 BB school, the only way you are going to catch a potential star coach is to grab him early before he is ready. I think Pitino is going to be a very good coach and I don't want to throw him away by counting all of his learning curve against him.
In summary, I think that Pitino has shown that he knows all of the little things that make a program good and that he is just starting to hit his stride. I don't want him fired because he lost too many games when he was learning.