Done Deal! - MINNESOTA HIRES NIKO MEDVED!!

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Scottsdale Gopher said:
Coyle's ability to get this done without any drawn out "search" is additional evidence he was not given full autonomy last time.
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This one played out just like the Fleck hire. He identified the coach he wanted and went out and got him. Definitely provides more evidence that others were influencing/pulling the strings during the last basketball hire.
 



No idea if this will work out long term, but hard to ignore the success he has had the last four years. You win at the level you coach at. He's done that in the MWC. Now will it translate?

Watching his team play and listening to what he has had to say.....one work comes to mind and that's competence. I'm excited for the future for a change.
 



MNVCGUY said:
This one played out just like the Fleck hire. He identified the coach he wanted and went out and got him. Definitely provides more evidence that others were influencing/pulling the strings during the last basketball hire.
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I don't feel the need to rehash, I personally don't think it's true

I think they gambled on a UMN Alumn that was well liked by MN HS coaches and the hope being he'd keep MN kids home. Coyle did same with Whalen. Both moves backfired, and he appears to have learned his lesson with both sports.

But time to move on to Niko, where we got the important MN connection and this time established HC chops, no more learning on the job
 





salzie said:
I don't feel the need to rehash, I personally don't think it's true

I think they gambled on a UMN Alumn that was well liked by MN HS coaches and the hope being he'd keep MN kids home. Coyle did same with Whalen. Both moves backfired, and he appears to have learned his lesson with both sports.

But time to move on to Niko, where we got the important MN connection and this time established HC chops, no more learning on the job
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You could be right you could be wrong....but I agree fully that it is time to move on and put the Ben Johnson years in the rear view mirror. In the long run they will probably be viewed very much like the Tim Brewster year's in football.
 


The University needs to support him. Pitino did an interview the other day and talked about how U of M doesn't give enough support to the program. Niko also is going to have to work his ass off to get NIL money. We wont turn things around if we don't step it up from every angle. Tired of the U seeming like a lesser option. LETS GO!
 

Mulligan said:
Was really torn last night watching CS play Maryland. They were the classic underdog playing really hard and really well. Cheering for them, but at the same time was glad that they lost. I didn't want this to drag out until next weekend.
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I was thinking the same thing
 



What a massive upgrade. I'm curious what his salary will be. From what I've read he was making $1.7m this past season. Guessing we doubled that if not more.
 




Obi-Wan Okogie said:
The University needs to support him. Pitino did an interview the other day and talked about how U of M doesn't give enough support to the program. Niko also is going to have to work his ass off to get NIL money. We wont turn things around if we don't step it up from every angle. Tired of the U seeming like a lesser option. LETS GO!
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I think the "one of us" angle matters most for NIL. I think it makes it easier to raise funds (not easy) if everything else is equal. That said, CBJ was one of us, and it didn't happen (due to lack of effort from what I hear, not from what I know).
 

Obi-Wan Okogie said:
The University needs to support him. Pitino did an interview the other day and talked about how U of M doesn't give enough support to the program. Niko also is going to have to work his ass off to get NIL money. We wont turn things around if we don't step it up from every angle. Tired of the U seeming like a lesser option. LETS GO!
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The U is tricky financial situation at the moment as is state

we'll need some corporate donors if we want to replace Barn
 

salzie said:
I don't feel the need to rehash, I personally don't think it's true

I think they gambled on a UMN Alumn that was well liked by MN HS coaches and the hope being he'd keep MN kids home. Coyle did same with Whalen. Both moves backfired, and he appears to have learned his lesson with both sports.

But time to move on to Niko, where we got the important MN connection and this time established HC chops, no more learning on the job
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People have tried to draw parallels between the Johnson and Whalen hires for years, but there's really no comparison. Neither had the resume to support them as a Big Ten head coach hire, but at least Whalen was legendary as a player and had a history of winning at all levels. Johnson was completely anonymous outside a small subset of dedicated Gophers followers, and after winning at De La Salle (where everyone wins), he was a career loser. He lost as a player at multiple schools, he lost as an assistant (at schools that historically win, nonetheless), and in completely predictable fashion, he lost as a head coach in record-setting fashion.

If the goal was to hire an alum and someone well-liked in the local community, there were many, many better options, including Medved himself. It was 100% Gabel and/or the Regents wanting to hire a black coach in the fallout of the George Floyd incident and everything associated with it. That has always been obvious, and this is additional supporting evidence.
 

MNVCGUY said:
This is great news for the short term future of this forum. Medved seems like a pretty popular choice so we might even see some positivity around here for a change. If he can bring a few players with him and make some nice portal additions we might even see.....optimism start to creep back in.....

The basketball board might actually be fun again..... :)
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At the very least he isn’t as polarizing as Ben was. There was a strong contingent of posters that never thought Ben deserved the job and some like myself that never got past the wait and see attitude. With Medved he at least has a good resume everyone can get behind.
 

Mulligan said:
Was really torn last night watching CS play Maryland. They were the classic underdog playing really hard and really well. Cheering for them, but at the same time was glad that they lost. I didn't want this to drag out until next weekend.
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I don't think CSU would have been any more impressive than they were if they managed to pull out the win. One thing I liked seeing was that CSU had 53 player minutes and 18 points off the bench. In contrast, Maryland had 21 minutes and 2 points from their bench. Maryland is a strong team but they got less production from their bench than the Gophers usually did.

I hope that, unlike our last two coaches, our new coach will recruit, develop, and trust a bench so that the team isn't running out of gas as the season winds down.
 


Ski-U-Ham said:
I think the "one of us" angle matters most for NIL. I think it makes it easier to raise funds (not easy) if everything else is equal. That said, CBJ was one of us, and it didn't happen (due to lack of effort from what I hear, not from what I know).
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CBJ got stale quickly and it's hard to open a wallet for someone that you don't believe in. Now that NIL is so prominent and completely off the ground, I fresh start was needed.

Medved is local, alum, coached and is tied to the most successful era of Gopher Basketball, even if he might have written papers for players.

3 NCAA tournaments in 4 years at CSU is going to get wallets open.
 

Obi-Wan Okogie said:
The University needs to support him. Pitino did an interview the other day and talked about how U of M doesn't give enough support to the program. Niko also is going to have to work his ass off to get NIL money. We wont turn things around if we don't step it up from every angle. Tired of the U seeming like a lesser option. LETS GO!
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What else is Pitino going to say? "They gave me everything I needed, I just suck at coaching, so I lost anyway." It's human nature to blame external factors for one's failure to succeed. This isn't to say that the U couldn't do more (they definitely could), but he needs to look in the mirror for the main cause of his shortcomings.
 

dpodoll68 said:
What else is Pitino going to say? "They gave me everything I needed, I just suck at coaching, so I lost anyway." It's human nature to blame external factors for one's failure to succeed. This isn't to say that the U couldn't do more (they definitely could), but he needs to look in the mirror for the main cause of his shortcomings.
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Pitino said that the new coach needs to find one person that will be the biggest supporter of the program and help drive things. Whether that is inside or outside of the program, I don't know.
 

Came to the board to see if anything had been announced because I just saw a charter flight pop up on FlightRadar24 going from Minneapolis to Ft. Collins. :p
 

Scottsdale Gopher said:
Coyle's ability to get this done without any drawn out "search" is additional evidence he was not given full autonomy last time.
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Coyle's job is to hire the best coach, and he failed in 2020 regardless of the administration's undocumented requirements and obstacles. Medved was towards the top of the list in 2020 too. Still think Coyle failed with CBJ hire in 2020 and with the L Whalen on the woman's side. Coyle needs to feel the hot seat until men's bb is turned around, ie they're selected for NCAA tourney.
 

salzie said:
I don't feel the need to rehash, I personally don't think it's true

I think they gambled on a UMN Alumn that was well liked by MN HS coaches and the hope being he'd keep MN kids home. Coyle did same with Whalen. Both moves backfired, and he appears to have learned his lesson with both sports.
....
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I agree. There was a very vocal local basketball crowd that vented about how they were ignored by the U under Pitino. So the local crowd got their way with local celebrities as coaches at the U. The local basketball powers clearly did not delivery on their promises and it showed just how little influence that they really had on local players.

Remember that Jalen Suggs and Chad the Unicorn's families were very close friends with Ben. I think part of the hope was to attract Suggs and Chad to the U, but they both chose that mythical school Gonzaga. It was a gamble that Coyle made in order to jump start the recruiting, but it failed.

So, Pitino was proven right when he didn't give overweighted emphasis to local players that never intended to play for the U.
 

salzie said:
I have honored my commitment, I signed up for Dinkytown athletes
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