The excuse for the Gophers and Pitino not being able to recruit any top player from Minnesota is a bunch of ----. If that is the attitude we have, we will never be anything more than a middle to bottom of the B1G team. I hope Pitino doesn't feel that way, and if he does, I hope the next guy we hire as coach doesn't. If the Gophers were to melt down and replace Pitino after this year, I would think that a new coach would have just as good of a chance to land any Minnesota kid in the 2020 class, including Suggs and Garcia, as Pitino does...especially if we land a good coach who can recruit.
About Macura, he was a late bloomer, but going into his senior year his stock was raising quickly. Pitino, at the time, thought he could shoot higher than him, and recruited him that way. It was a mistake that hurt him later on with Reuvers. The problem is that after 6 years, we've really only gotten two or three players who were as good or better than Macura. We also seem to be missing a lot of those top guys from the state who would greatly help the team. I'm not even talking about the Jones's, Trent and Vaughn....but the other guys. We are the only division 1 team in the state, and we have had lots of good players the last few years. We should be doing better.
Last year Pitino had a good class. Oturu and Coffey are both great recruits from Minnesota. I wish we had more of them. I don't think we will replace Pitino after this year unless we totally melt down or have an off court situation that calls for it. I'm not really a Pitino fan, and one reason for that is because what I expect from him, is what we have gotten from him for the last 6 years. in my opinion that isn't good enough. Marquette and Wisconsin are getting as many top Minnesota basketball players as the Gophers.
