“compete for championships”

Coyle: “The expectation for our program is to compete for championships, and unfortunately, we have not done that in the last four years [in fact we only have 1 top 3 conference finish in the last 40 years.]”

Not a fan of press release BS. How ‘bout “our goal at this point is to regularly make the NCAA tournament.”

BigTenGuy said:

Coyle: “The expectation for our program is to compete for championships, and unfortunately, we have not done that in the last four years [in fact we only have 1 top 4 conference finish in the last 40 years.]”

Not a fan of press release BS. How ‘bout “our goal at this point is to regularly make the NCAA tournament.”

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I'm good with competing for championships. It means that you have a goal. (Hang the 1997 Final Four banner!)

You get to championships by making the tournament.

BigTenGuy said:

Coyle: “The expectation for our program is to compete for championships, and unfortunately, we have not done that in the last four years [in fact we only have 1 top 4 conference finish in the last 40 years.]”

Not a fan of press release BS. How ‘bout “our goal at this point is to regularly make the NCAA tournament.”

Click to expand...

We could never win a B1G title and still get to the tourney every year and get knocked out first round. We need to be a contender every year in the B1G and go deep into the tourney here and there. We can win a conference tourney and get knocked out by middle tennessee in the first round, etc

BigTenGuy said:

Coyle: “The expectation for our program is to compete for championships, and unfortunately, we have not done that in the last four years [in fact we only have 1 top 4 conference finish in the last 40 years.]”

Not a fan of press release BS. How ‘bout “our goal at this point is to regularly make the NCAA tournament.”

Click to expand...

Every AD says this. Can you find me one that said "our goal is to be a bit above average!"

BigTenGuy said:

Coyle: “The expectation for our program is to compete for championships, and unfortunately, we have not done that in the last four years [in fact we only have 1 top 4 conference finish in the last 40 years.]”

Not a fan of press release BS. How ‘bout “our goal at this point is to regularly make the NCAA tournament.”

Click to expand...

Pretty sad that this is what we are reduced to, but I completely agree. Just being relevant at this point is a win and unfortunately, that is a (an admittedly low one) bar that we can't seem to crawl over.

BigTenGuy said:

Coyle: “The expectation for our program is to compete for championships, and unfortunately, we have not done that in the last four years [in fact we only have 1 top 4 conference finish in the last 40 years.]”

Not a fan of press release BS. How ‘bout “our goal at this point is to regularly make the NCAA tournament.”

Click to expand...

Such a MN thing to say. Let's set a goal of being relevant. So dumb. St. John's went 40 years with nothing, and in second year won a conference championship with a new coach. We won't get Rick Pitino like they did, but there AD didn't say, "Let's shoot for a winning record." It doesn't have to take forever in basketball.

See if Jeff Bezos is interested in the job...

Coach (Total Win%/B10 Win%)
Jim Dutcher (62.7%/52.4%)
Clem Haskins (59.0%/49.8%)
Dan Monson (52.7%/39.3%)
Tubby Smith (60.5%/42.6%)
Richard Pitino (53.4%/36.0%)
Ben Johnson (44.1%/27.8%)

So, only Dutcher technically had a winning percentage in conference play. By the numbers, the Tubby era represented a small resurgence. Unfortunately, the Pitino and Monson eras yielded similar results. Strangely, both went on to enjoy more prosperity elsewhere after being shown the door here. For Iowa, you could put Steve Alford in that bucket.

The BJ era did represent "capitulation of sorts." That is the most frustrating thing. A difference in an additional winning percentage of 15-20% (5 total wins per annum / 3 to 4 conference wins) might not mean a lot but over a number of years, it yields tournament eligible seasons and most importantly, fan interest. Very little of that seems to be here now.

I think the Monson/Pitino observation demonstrate that a "then-current" quality coaching candidate was challenged here. This was echoed by Tubby Smith as he talked about a new practice facility for some time. I recall reading a post from another Gopherholer referencing a conversation had with Tubby Smith in the past. As I recall, climate is a bigger recruiting challenge than I ever thought.

Having gone to 100s of Gopher hoops games and growing up a Gopher basketball fan in the eighties, I always saw us as a 600 team (20 wins over 32-33 games) and 45% in Big Ten with a strong home-court advantage. This was good enough to fill the barn for years and it was truly fun and hopeful.

howeda7 said:

Every AD says this. Can you find me one that said "our goal is to be a bit above average!"

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All I have to say is next year is a dumpster fire before the season even begins no matter who the coach will be. The fact that all the NIL transfers for this season have no remaining eligibility puts the 2025-26 season in jeopardy. Which brings me to this conclusion. Coyle needs to be fired for allowing this roster disaster. Even the most rudimentary demographic analysis of the roster would show how distorted and disastrous this impacts the future.

In line with the OP, thought it would be interesting to see which teams won big 10 tourney championships over the least 25 yrs. (Tourney runnersup are in parenthesis.)

MSU. 6 (1)
OSU. 5 (5)
Illin. 4 (4)
Wisc. 3 (5)
Iowa. 3 (1)
Purdue 2 (3)
Mich. 2 (2)
PSU. (2)
Minn. (1)
Indiana. (1)

A few thoughts: I thought Purdue and Michigan had a few more. Not particularly fun to be reminded again how well the Badgers have done and will add to their total tomorrow. Notable how the Hoosiers have slipped. Among original 10 teams, NW only team with zero appearances in championship game.
Disclaimer: Of course league championships and NCAA tourney appearances carry more significance.

ShushPush said:

All I have to say is next year is a dumpster fire before the season even begins no matter who the coach will be. The fact that all the NIL transfers for this season have no remaining eligibility puts the 2025-26 season in jeopardy. Which brings me to this conclusion. Coyle needs to be fired for allowing this roster disaster. Even the most rudimentary demographic analysis of the roster would show how distorted and disastrous this impacts the future.

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A pile of NIL money is needed soon to correct that issue for this year. I am not sure the revenue sharing agreement is going to be in time unless the big time players hold out to see what the schools have. It appears that they can't offer the money until the decision is finalized in April?

ShushPush said:

All I have to say is next year is a dumpster fire before the season even begins no matter who the coach will be. The fact that all the NIL transfers for this season have no remaining eligibility puts the 2025-26 season in jeopardy. Which brings me to this conclusion. Coyle needs to be fired for allowing this roster disaster. Even the most rudimentary demographic analysis of the roster would show how distorted and disastrous this impacts the future.

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Worked for Louisville, Missouri. Let’s see who is on the team before making this assumption.

minnyrules11 said:

Worked for Louisville, Missouri. Let’s see who is on the team before making this assumption.

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First, I would argue that my point qualifies as an inference because it is grounded in demographic evidence. Inferences rely on reasoning and observable data, as is the case here, rather than being a belief taken at face value.

Second, an assumption involves accepting something as true without requiring proof. It is a presumption that may not rely on evidence. I am not suggesting that my point is definitively true but rather presenting it as a possibility with a high probability of occurring. Similarly, I take your reference to Louisville and Missouri at face value as my own assumption—meaning I have no reason or need to challenge its validity. I simply accept it as your truth.

Do you see the difference?

I see Louisville and Missouri as outliers. Otherwise, it would occur much more universally, which we both know cannot happen, as it defies wins and losses being equally distributed. It is with this universal truth and fact that I hold to my original opinion that the odds do not favor Minnesota having an immediate successful season unless we become the outlier. Hope we do. I believe our odds are less than 1% that that will occur.