Two great wins. Another 30 something to go to get back to .500.Doesn't sound like the last three wins has softened your stance on Pitino, eh?
Ask me then.
Two great wins. Another 30 something to go to get back to .500.Doesn't sound like the last three wins has softened your stance on Pitino, eh?
You make an interesting point on the lesser players. Many of the players you cite were from pretty early on during his tenure -- Eliason, Matthieu, Morris, and Konate. Washington was a complete whiff but likely on the player too in that particular case. But Pitino hasn't had many guys that looked like projects but became quite serviceable by the time they graduated, Miles Tarver types. Players that soak up four years of scholarship with little return (Diedhiou/Hurt/Konate) put so much added pressure on getting your other scholarships filled productively and/or lead to real depth concerns.
Two great wins. Another 30 something to go to get back to .500.
Ask me then.
That is true: most of his biggest failures in player development were earlier in his career (Michael Hurt excepted). It's certainly possible that his coaching staff may improve on this dimension in the near future. This year Pitino was admirably successful in pursuing a strategy that can overcome weaknesses in player development: recruiting battle ready transfers. If he can keep that up in the future, he finally may be able to reach a level of consistent quality.
Holberg did it as ISU. Its fun for fans, players, etc but there will be some duds. This crop of transfers has been really nice, amazing if you include Carr.
Recruiting transfers like he did this year presents a much lower risk of duds than traditional recruiting of prep players. Pitino definitely benefited from the new laxer rules on transfers and, to his credit, took advantage of that more than most coaches. I was pretty confident that none of the three newest transfers would be duds and they have performed every bit as well as my optimistic hopes for them. Even some of his less successful transfers were not duds. I didn't think at the time that Willis and Stockman were worth recruiting as sit out transfers but they weren't complete duds. Stockman actually was a pretty decent defensive center. Of his transfers, only two were duds: Fitzgerald because of health issues and Stull (but at least he was only around for one year).
I meant as a team. If you don’t get impact transfers consistently its hard to win that way consistently. Pitino has done great in the secondary market. Wish he had more hits in traditional recruiting but he has done well enough.
Lynch was a big time transfer too.
Demir was likely a dud.
I meant as a team. If you don’t get impact transfers consistently its hard to win that way consistently. Pitino has done great in the secondary market. Wish he had more hits in traditional recruiting but he has done well enough.
Lynch was a big time transfer too.
Demir was likely a dud.