All Things Former Gophers Thread

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60's Guy

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Richard Pitino, the guy most all GopherHole posters feel cannot coach at all...somehow has his New Mexico Lobos off to a 7 and 0 start. Pitino inherited virtually no players at a woeful New Mexico but with the addition of transfers and freshmen has his team off to a great start. Plays his dad and Iona in a couple weeks.
Jamal Mashburn Jr averaged 18 ppg last year and is averaging 16 this year with some more scoring help on the roster.

Marcus Carr is the second leading scorer for #2 ranked Texas. Carr leads the team in steals and assists.
 
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60's Guy said:
Richard Pitino, the guy most all GopherHole posters feel cannot coach at all...somehow has his New Mexico Lobos off to a 7 and 0 start. Pitino inherited virtually no players at a woeful New Mexico but with the addition of transfers and freshmen has his team off to a great start. Plays his dad and Iona in a couple weeks.
Jamal Mashburn Jr averaged 16 ppg last year and is averaging 12 this year with some more scoring help on the roster.

Marcus Carr is the second leading scorer for #2 ranked Texas. Carr leads the team in steals and assists.
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Mashburn averaged over 18 ppg last year and is over 16 ppg this year.
 





Don't worry. In 4 years everyone might say the same about Johnson and how bad of a hire Coyle made.
 


Pitino has a great mix of upperclassman! 7 of his top 8 guys are upperclassman and 5 of them are seniors!

looks like he finally built himself a roster with some offensive firepower
 

Gophs24 said:
Pitino has a great mix of upperclassman! 7 of his top 8 guys are upperclassman and 5 of them are seniors!

looks like he finally built himself a roster with some offensive firepower
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We all know that Pitino is capable of having a good year here and there. What he hasn't shown yet is the ability to have two or three in a row.

I hope we don't have to wait too long to see whether our current coach can produce one good year.
 



60's Guy said:
Richard Pitino, the guy most all GopherHole posters feel cannot coach at all...somehow has his New Mexico Lobos off to a 7 and 0 start.
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Whatever he does at New Mexico is irrelevant to the question of whether he should have been fired here. He had 8 years here, more than he would have gotten at most P6 schools.
 

Wait until they come crashing down to close out the year once they get all their fans hyped up, if it even takes that long.

Why do we care about Lobo basketball?
 

cjbfbp said:
Whatever he does at New Mexico is irrelevant to the question of whether he should have been fired here. He had 8 years here, more than he would have gotten at most P6 schools.
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Yes, and a surprise run to the NCAA tournament in '19 and COVID in '20 kept him here two years longer than he should have been.

But it's another example of a 2nd year coach who has completely overhauled his roster and appears to have things moving in the right direction while we appear to be getting worse. But we have to be patient here because it apparently takes 4-5 years to find 7-8 players who can make us competitive while it takes everyone else 2.
 

GopherWeatherGuy said:
Yes, and a surprise run to the NCAA tournament in '19 and COVID in '20 kept him here two years longer than he should have been.

But it's another example of a 2nd year coach who has completely overhauled his roster and appears to have things moving in the right direction while we appear to be getting worse. But we have to be patient here because it apparently takes 4-5 years to find 7-8 players who can make us competitive while it takes everyone else 2.
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Yeah, it doesnt make sense
 



Allshade said:
You probably know this, but Carr played 100% differently last year than he did at Minnesota. It was interesting to see. Granted, I only saw a couple games.
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Just shows that really good coaches know how to get the most out of talent. Play to players strengths.
 

Pitino has a really nice back court with Jaelen House and Jamal Mashburn Jr, both those guys would get a lot of high major offers if they went into the portal. Notice he added Moris Udeze as well, Udeze was on our radar here before Brandon Johnson came. I really liked Braden Appelhans, think Johnson kicked the tires there a little bit, but he's an end of the bench guy. Watch a few of their games last year, had a ginger freshman in the front court who looked solid as well. Overall has a couple of nice road wins over SMU and St.Mary's. I'll be curious to see how the board and 247 reacts if Pitino gets in this year or before Ben does. With that being said, he absolutely used his nine lives here, when you get to the point where you're not good and you can no longer sell hope, well that's when the winds of change blow in.
 

GopherWeatherGuy said:
Yes, and a surprise run to the NCAA tournament in '19 and COVID in '20 kept him here two years longer than he should have been.

But it's another example of a 2nd year coach who has completely overhauled his roster and appears to have things moving in the right direction while we appear to be getting worse. But we have to be patient here because it apparently takes 4-5 years to find 7-8 players who can make us competitive while it takes everyone else 2.
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I think MN is going about things completely different than what Pitino is doing. Johnson is building a program with young HS recruited talent. As they grow he has to be able to find a bonafide transfer or 2 that help take it to the next level.
 


On Pitino, he had to go, I could care less what his record is now. He is coaching at a lower level, some guys just do better there, maybe that is his sweet spot. He can pick up bigger name guys from P5 teams and be a good program. Whatever he was doing here wasnt working. Look at Monson hes doing just fine at LBSU, maybe just not cut out to be a P5 coach.

In the same way, what Thiam is doing is fairly pointless. High Point vs the B1G is not even close. Just like coaches, some guys cant hack it at the top level but are just a notch below. The term AAAA baseball player is a good one, some guys hit .350 at AAA, get to the bigs at hit .189 its just a different level. If you want a basketball comp, EJ Anosike dominated at Sacred Heart for 3 years, went up to Tennessee one year and was absolutely useless, went to Cal Fullerton his last year and was good again. Doesnt mean Barnes failed him at UT, just means he hit a certain level. Now the one caveat I will give to that, if 1 team, lets just say the Gophers, lose guys like that every year and then they play well at their next stop it likely signals a development issue. I don't think Thiam alone signals that but again if it happens a few more times it could be a concern.
 

cjbfbp said:
Whatever he does at New Mexico is irrelevant to the question of whether he should have been fired here. He had 8 years here, more than he would have gotten at most P6 schools.
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Water is wet. Hard to find somebody who didn’t think he should be fired at Minnesota.
However, there are very few who credit him with any coaching ability at all is my point.
 

MaxyJR1 said:
I think MN is going about things completely different than what Pitino is doing. Johnson is building a program with young HS recruited talent. As they grow he has to be able to find a bonafide transfer or 2 that help take it to the next level.
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Agreed. Will obj win enough, quickly enough to keep the high rated recruits on the team and coming to MN?
 

He's doing well cuz he doesn't have crap players like Charlie Daniels and Jarvis Omersa
 

I said this a month ago on another thread, but Pitino getting Allick from KC was a very underrated pick-up in the transfer portal. Good player.
 

60's Guy said:
Water is wet. Hard to find somebody who didn’t think he should be fired at Minnesota.
However, there are very few who credit him with any coaching ability at all is my point.
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He's definitely a better recruiter and coach than people give him credit for here. But he was still a failure. I wouldn't be surprised see him do well at New Mexico and get another shot at a P6 job.
 


GopherWeatherGuy said:
He's definitely a better recruiter and coach than people give him credit for here. But he was still a failure. I wouldn't be surprised see him do well at New Mexico and get another shot at a P6 job.
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He made some fatal mistakes early. His whole system was based on getting high end athletes. He shot for the moon on 5 stars his first year and missed on all and then had to settle on kids with varying character or that didn't fit his system. That class busted and then he got another class that had more talent but also some folks who were light on character. He passed over some locals to get them- sending the local influencers packing.

He lacked the patience here and drank his own kool-aide that he could get this done fast and took shortcuts. He wasn't a bad coach and he will win again somewhere.
 

What an odd thread (or at least title/premise). Pitino got more than enough time here and didn't cut it. He moved on, and so did Gopher fans (although apparently not all Gopher fans...). I wish him no ill-will, and would like to see him succeed at UNM or anywhere else. This permeates any time there is a coaching change - some have to hold on to it like their life depends on it. Just let it go; you'll feel better.

Also odd lumping Mash in on the thread, with the title how it is. I'm guessing about 95%+ of the people on here were really bummed when he transferred out. We could have very much used him last year and this year. Are you suggesting that people wanted him gone, too?
 

forever a gopher said:
What an odd thread (or at least title/premise). Pitino got more than enough time here and didn't cut it. He moved on, and so did Gopher fans (although apparently not all Gopher fans...). I wish him no ill-will, and would like to see him succeed at UNM or anywhere else. This permeates any time there is a coaching change - some have to hold on to it like their life depends on it. Just let it go; you'll feel better.

Also odd lumping Mash in on the thread, with the title how it is. I'm guessing about 95%+ of the people on here were really bummed when he transferred out. We could have very much used him last year and this year. Are you suggesting that people wanted him gone, too?
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There is a reason this comes up. Ben might be successful here- I see some good signs and I like him. However, the situation is comparable in that, with Pitino, we put a young, promising, but totally untested coach into the toughest job in the Big Ten other than NW, historically. He obviously failed and everyone wrote him off as a garbage coach. He can coach.

The job that has to be done here to win big is epic. Tubby Smith, HOF coach, couldn't do it. What is happening on this board is what I feared when he was hired. At the first sign of failure people bail, thinking that the young coach won't be able to get it done. No track record of having done so.
 


Gophs24 said:
Pitino has a great mix of upperclassman! 7 of his top 8 guys are upperclassman and 5 of them are seniors!

looks like he finally built himself a roster with some offensive firepower
Click to expand...
I remember him saying in the intro press conference for new mexico when asked what he would have done different here, he said “have better bench players”.

So he learned something
 

MaxyJR1 said:
I think MN is going about things completely different than what Pitino is doing. Johnson is building a program with young HS recruited talent. As they grow he has to be able to find a bonafide transfer or 2 that help take it to the next level.
Click to expand...
Interesting point. That sounds a bit old school, vs current climate with portal/nil. Never thought about that angle.
The good thing is he got some good local talent
 

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