Pitino coming back

This is 100% right. Bringing him back will make things pretty tough on him.

Here's to hoping for the following:
Carr takes another step up;
Ihnen takes a big step up;
We land a helpful grad transfer;
Gabe takes the next step;
Omersa becomes serviceable offensively.

Those things happen and we're in the NCAA tournament.
This is as useful as saying “if we make the NCAA tournament, then we’re in the NCAA tournament”.
 

This is 100% right. Bringing him back will make things pretty tough on him.

Here's to hoping for the following:
Carr takes another step up;
Ihnen takes a big step up;
We land a helpful grad transfer;
Gabe takes the next step;
Omersa becomes serviceable offensively.

Those things happen and we're in the NCAA tournament.

I seriously doubt we make the tournament next year even if all of those things happen. Losing Oturu is too big a of a hole to fill.

On the flip side: Carr may leave early and go play in Europe or the G-League. I think Gabe has reached his potential. He's not a great athlete and I think he's pretty much peaked as a basketball player. I don't think we'll ever see Omersa score outside of 5 feet. And our last 2 grad transfers have been horrible.

Am I missing anything?
 

I am okay with ONE more year of Pitino, but if it doesn't result in an NCAA bid and a couple of wins in the Tourney he needs to go. He needs to prove he can win, period and in critical games. Depth has always been a concern and he must figure out how to win with who he's recruited.

Bullcrap. Anything .500 or above in conference play and a NCAA berth is far above the historical average for Gopher basketball. Good enough for me.
 


I seriously doubt we make the tournament next year even if all of those things happen. Losing Oturu is too big a of a hole to fill.

On the flip side: Carr may leave early and go play in Europe or the G-League. I think Gabe has reached his potential. He's not a great athlete and I think he's pretty much peaked as a basketball player. I don't think we'll ever see Omersa score outside of 5 feet. And our last 2 grad transfers have been horrible.

Am I missing anything?

Yes, you forgot to mention your glass is 20% full.
 



Hahaha to all you trolls always calling for the coach to get canned. All I got to say.
 








What other coach, in any sport, could be 34 games below .500 in their conference and get an 8th year?
To further this, can you imagine what some of these people would do if we hired Danny Manning who has a similarly poor record at Wake Forest, there would be absolute outrage (and rightfully so). But apparently since Pitino is our coach now we might as well stick with him because who doesnt love below average at best every season!
 




I just wonder how close this team was, Pitino thinks they were on the doorstep, Coyle must think the same.
Really close. They were in pretty much every game. Ken Pom has them at #27 in the Country? 27!!! Too many people are just looking at the record. I'm upset that they didn't do better. Coyle knows what he wants and he seems to like his coach right now.
 

So, Galty, what does this say about your AD? The MN BB job?
It's a cold dish of reality for all of us. Either Coyle couldn't get a guy that he wanted or he really likes Pitino. Neither option is good for the University of Minnesota basketball program.
 

If Oturu goes to the NBA, I don't see how he makes it past next year. There will be no more excuses at that point (at least I can't think of any now but I'm sure some will pop up).
Let’s wait and see how the roster looks this fall before we make these assumptions
 

It's hard to see Pitino ever being very successful here, but the Gophers will likely be better in 2020-21 with him than without him.
Personally I would like to see Coyle work the backchannels a bit while this whole weird virus ending shakes out. See who he might be able to get. I'm a lot more in favor of sacking Pitino if what we think is a Grade A hire is waiting.
 

What other coach, in any sport, could be 34 games below .500 in their conference and get an 8th year?

Like I've said multiple times before, the guy has led a charmed life.
 


This is 100% right. Bringing him back will make things pretty tough on him.

Here's to hoping for the following:
Carr takes another step up;
Ihnen takes a big step up;
We land a helpful grad transfer;
Gabe takes the next step;
Omersa becomes serviceable offensively.

Those things happen and we're in the NCAA tournament.
Things will be tough on Pitino unless he gets it going early. I wonder how much better people would feel this summer even if he just lands Walton and a couple of transfers that fit.
 

After a Top 27 Ken Pom...only a complete imbecile would expect him to get canned
 


Marcus chimes in:

Richard Pitino will return as Gophers men's basketball coach next season, team sources told the Star Tribune on Friday.

Pitino, 37, is 127-108 in seven seasons at Minnesota, including 48-82 in the Big Ten, and took the program to the NCAA tournament in two of the last four seasons.

The Gophers (15-16) won their last two games of the season, including against Northwestern in the first round of the Big Ten tournament Wednesday before the rest of the college hoops season was canceled by the NCAA.

"Coach Pitino and I met today," Gophers athletic director Mark Coyle said in a statement. "Richard understands my high expectations for our program, which is to compete at a championship level."


Go Gophers!!
 

Everyone said the same thing after losing Murphy and Coffey. If this team doesn't choke at the end of games this season, they would have been better than last season's team.
They shot terribly this year with a dominant inside presence....They will not have that next year
 


I seriously doubt we make the tournament next year even if all of those things happen. Losing Oturu is too big a of a hole to fill.

On the flip side: Carr may leave early and go play in Europe or the G-League. I think Gabe has reached his potential. He's not a great athlete and I think he's pretty much peaked as a basketball player. I don't think we'll ever see Omersa score outside of 5 feet. And our last 2 grad transfers have been horrible.

Am I missing anything?
Where did the notion that Carr is not coming back originate? Several have mentioned this on GH, but there is no indication he will not play here through his senior year. If he blows up next year, maybe after that?
 

I seriously doubt we make the tournament next year even if all of those things happen. Losing Oturu is too big a of a hole to fill.

On the flip side: Carr may leave early and go play in Europe or the G-League. I think Gabe has reached his potential. He's not a great athlete and I think he's pretty much peaked as a basketball player. I don't think we'll ever see Omersa score outside of 5 feet. And our last 2 grad transfers have been horrible.

Am I missing anything?

You tend to miss a lot.

I was saying those were the things that I hoped for not the things I expected.
 

They shot terribly this year with a dominant inside presence....They will not have that next year

They made nearly 80 more 3's this season at a slightly higher percentage. You don't know what our inside presence will look like next season. No one does.
 

I like Coach Pitino...great guy and a quality human being. However, there isn't a business owner on the planet that would accept his success rate. He has an Overall Winning percentage of 54.0% (includes all the cupcake NC opponents) and a putrid 36.9% in Big 10 play. Make any argument or excuse that you want because you like Coach Pitino personally but that simply is not acceptable for a coach in a P5 program. The decision to retain Coach Pitino was a poor one from this fan's perspective but I'll always support the squad regardless of who the Coach is. Everyone stay safe and healthy...Go Gophers!
 




Top Bottom