All Things Pitino rumor mill thread

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I have no idea where these "rumors" keep popping up from. I will say this, Minnesota fans (pro and college) have shown more latitude to a coach who is losing than most fan bases, but at the same time, we also take it personally when we perceive that our coach/player doesn't want to be here. Richard won't always be able to "help it" if his name gets thrown into the list of names of an opening and its not his responsibility to respond to every tweet. In this day in age of Twitter, reporters will throw out a few names to appease fans or sound smart. Many of these are just names, but a tweet turns into "interest" and another reporter then turns it into an article and before you know it, a single tweet from Tuscaloosa turns into a distraction. That being said, if someone in the Pitino "camp" (hate that word, but it was used to Goodman) is behind this (agent, "camp member" etc.) then the fans will turn quickly. There are many examples of coaches and players who have had our fans turn on them much quicker from the perception they didn't want to be here than being turned on because they weren't producing.

Go Gophers!!
 

alchemy2u said:
It is everyone on this board that is too blame for the ridiculous rumors. 37 pages and counting about a new coach that has stated emphatically that he would like to stay here for a long time.
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Sure - because Coaches are always honest - coaches always say exactly what they think - coaches never use the media to promote their own image.

Look- Pitino may be honest as Abe Lincoln - but there is also a chance that he is telling the media one thing, while behind the scenes, he's telling his agent to "get me the bleep out of here." There have been at least a few suggestions that Pitino is not as happy in MN as he claims to be. Rich may be the exception, but my gut tells me that most coaches have a price tag on loyalty. They're loyal to their current job until someone comes along with a better job or a bigger paycheck.
 

Your probably right: most of them. Find the guy that this the perfect fit. Bennett stays at UVA for less than 80 % of the coaches in the ACC. He actually structured his upside in performances. Coach of the year, conference championships, Advancing in the NCAA. For example the conference title is worth 250,000. Coach of the year 250,000, final 4 250,000, NCAA title 500, 000. What fan does not love that ? Then when his name comes up for truly big jobs he takes himself out immediately. Come on Pitino, stay here and earn your way by winning. Minnesota gave you the chance of a lifetime.
 

millions2spare said:
I agree with Reusse and Baraero that Norwood needs to put this to rest within 24 hours. The longer this festers, the least likely we are to
get Ellis or some other recruits the program desperately needs. If he is gone, good riddance as it will make it much more difficult for him
to get established in Bama. His best opportunity to compete for a "Big Job" is to have success in Minnesota. I think he is a very good coach
and will be successful here, but it is going to take at least 3 more years.
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Ha, what are you Richard's agent?
 


A few opinions on different thoughts expressed in this thread.

"Our" media driving the Pitino rumors: It's not the local media doing the "driving" it's concerning that guys like Goodman, Zagoria, Borzello, etc are the guys that have the Pitino name and are connecting it to various job openings. These are some of the most plugged in guys in college basketball circles and have a much better chance to be in the know than anyone local. There's a reason Pitino's name is out there and that he's basically the only high major coach whose name is being floated in this manner at the current time.

Leaving after two years reflecting poorly on Pitino: That is a valid point, but it also reflects very poorly on Teague. If Pitino is willing to leave after two years for a school like Alabama, then Teague made a major mistake in the hiring process or his people skills are lacking. Teague/Ellis were billed as college basketball insiders of sorts who would do a good job with the basketball program. If they (specifically Teague as he's the one with the A.D. title) weren't able to sniff out the possibility that Pitino wouldn't show any commitment to the job, then that doesn't give me great confidence in the ability to get this program up and running. If the issue is more that they couldn't make a coach with one year of experience at FIU happy, then that's an equally concerning issue.

Pitino "brand": I still think this is the largest issue at play here with Richard Pitino staring down the barrel of a 3rd straight losing season. This is the time for him to either move on before his "brand" is further damaged and he has to go back to the low/mid major level and work his way back up or to get more security at Minnesota (raise/extension) so that he feels secure in the amount of time he'll have to restore some luster. I think it's possible that his name is only in the rumor because Pitino (and more likely those associated with his father) want to keep the perception that Richard is a up and coming coach who is desirable on the market. I think Pitino has the potential to do some good things at Minnesota, but this year was terrible and hurt his momentum. If the focus can shift away from "why were you 6-12?" to "this young coach is wanted by other high major programs" it helps Pitino.

Future: If Pitino leaves, he's going to leave the program in awful shape. I think it's safe to assume that Dorsey and McBrayer will at least want to explore their options. I also think it's safe to assume that Nate Mason would at least consider a transfer as well. I think we'd be in a spot where we'd have at least 5 open scholarships and would probably be down 2-3 of our most promising players. If Pitino stays, I think he's underestimating the damage that having his name out there like this will do to his ability to win at Minnesota. A small, but noticeable number of fans are off the Pitino bandwagon after the team underachieved this year. If the perception becomes that he's not committed to Minnesota and will jump as soon as basically any shool in the Eastern time zone will take him then fans will have far less patience with another down year. Obviously it affects recruiting to some degree, but if the fan base comes to a consensus that the they'd rather push him off the cliff then wait for him to jump then things could get ugly.

The idea that other high majors wouldn't be interested in Pitino because of his record: This is flawed thinking in my opinion. Look around and see how rarely a high major coach leaves for another job in this era of college basketball. It has even become tough to get the top mid major guys to move to high major jobs. UCLA had to settle for Steve Alford, Tennessee had to settle for the Southern Miss coach last year (turned down by the La Tech coach), then took their version of Tubby this year. Missouri hired a 58 year old coach from DII Central Missouri last year. DePaul, admittedly not a great job, had to settle for Dave Leitao after they couldn't get Bobby Hurley to leave Buffalo. Pitino comes with youth, his last name, and an NIT title in his first year in high major basketball.
 

short ornery norwegian said:
Sure - because Coaches are always honest - coaches always say exactly what they think - coaches never use the media to promote their own image.

Look- Pitino may be honest as Abe Lincoln - but there is also a chance that he is telling the media one thing, while behind the scenes, he's telling his agent to "get me the bleep out of here." There have been at least a few suggestions that Pitino is not as happy in MN as he claims to be. Rich may be the exception, but my gut tells me that most coaches have a price tag on loyalty. They're loyal to their current job until someone comes along with a better job or a bigger paycheck.
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Pitino may have discovered a few more difficulties than he first thought, but he knows he has to put in his time. He would be a fool to walk away just as he has begun to put his footprints on the program. It would mark him as sleazy and unreliable.


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Gopher Warrior said:
Can the sun rise in Minnesota? Some relevant parties think not.
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I am amazed you blog hasn't caught on like Aaron Gleeman's for the Twins. Cryptic nothings like this are absolutely riveting.

Maybe someday you'll stoop to the level of an honest person and actually have something honest to say.
 

builtbadgers said:
Your probably right: most of them. Find the guy that this the perfect fit. Bennett stays at UVA for less than 80 % of the coaches in the ACC. He actually structured his upside in performances. Coach of the year, conference championships, Advancing in the NCAA. For example the conference title is worth 250,000. Coach of the year 250,000, final 4 250,000, NCAA title 500, 000. What fan does not love that ? Then when his name comes up for truly big jobs he takes himself out immediately. Come on Pitino, stay here and earn your way by winning. Minnesota gave you the chance of a lifetime.
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Sometimes it's better to be lucky than good. UVa had a deal with Tubby basically done and it got scuttled at the last minute. They back into Bennett. The Gophers seemingly had a deal with Randy Edsall that fell through and backed into Kill.

Tubby came close to departing after two years. IIRC, Monson almost left for Washington after the 2nd or 3rd year. Is there some sort of two year itch at MN that passes?
 



Man when lil Pitino was first hired I thought it was a slam dunk hire, and still think he can do well at the U. I am starting to question his in game decisions, however I think he will be a great recruiter. I will always compare him to a Josh Pastner at Memphis. Hopefully everything works out!
 

It's not impossible that Pitino would choose to go to Alabama. However, it seems improbable from the Alabama side. They just paid 4 million to buyout Grant and they are looking for a home run hire to excite the fans and win big. I personally believe that Pitino will be that guy someday and he can do so by winning at Minnesota. Today, he's just doesn't have that track record. I think at 3-4 million per year Bama is going to be able to swing pretty high and would have to miss pretty often before Pitino gets the job.

My hope is that this is just the agent shopping his guy around, as good agents do, in order to make the current school add to the contract a bit. Furthermore, it is my hope that Pitino is the kind of guy who wants to accomplish something at his first major stop and who believes in his ability to do so starting with this recruiting class.
 

Rumors of Pitino to Alabama now playing as a story on ESPN radio. Granted it is mentioned as per the star tribune. So. Amelia.
 

If Pitino leaves after two years, it says more about the job at Mn than it does about Rich P. Coach Pitino needs to squash the 'leaving' rumors asap or he will have a hard time recruiting and rumors following him for ever.
 



Now being talked about on the Right Time with Bomani Jones.

Bomani suggests it is likely an agent plug as being the source.

Says he doesn't watch enough MN to offer a great opinion on Pitino, but that Alabama should think high enough of themselves to at least get a coach with an NCAA tournament appearance.

MN went 18-15. Tubby at Minnesota won a tournament game at 21-13. And he is shocked that that would be who Alabama wants to hire. Maybe they just assume you are sort of getting Rick Pitino in that that's who Richard tries to be and model himself after.

Says it's dangerous for Richard to emulate Rick since it only will work if he's as good at his job as Rick is. That "you can't be Bobby Knight, unless you're as good as Bobby Knight" mentioned how many bobby knight imitators got fired because they didn't win like him.

Says Pitino's name will come up a lot too going forward since name recognition is huge in coaching.

Talked about how he expects Alabama and Texas to throw enough money around since they have it that they get a more highly regarded coach.
 

scher215 said:
Rumors of Pitino to Alabama now playing as a story on ESPN radio. Granted it is mentioned as per the star tribune. So. Amelia.
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It really is amazing that an AD hired mainly due to his VCU Basketball experience and history of organizing fundraising efforts had to settle for one Richard Pitino, a young man with no real track record other than his last name. The reality is he did not "have to" hire little Richie. This was a real bad hire based on that reality, even though he might have turned out to be a great hire, Norwood certainly had no way of knowing. Norwood made an extremely risky hire, the kind of decision that costs someone their job.

The risk of hiring young Richie was high for a number of reasons, and having him bolt after doing nothing of any importance at Minnesota, because some other power 5 school actually would pay big dollars to a guy who has accomplished nothing is not the end I expected.

This move, if it happens, is going to make everyone look incompetent or slimy. Beyond looking like a punk, the likelihood of RKII working out at a dead end job like Alabama is very low, so he loses. Having a few extra million to buy a big boat and house on the Gulf Coast probably makes things better for when he fails. For Norwood, this will be very bad, with a much worse general outcome not involving large houses on the salt water. Norwood had a chance to hire an up and coming coach with some actual evidence of success like the guy at No Iowa or Archie Miller at Dayton. If Norwood wanted to hire the son of someone, he could have hired Brian Dutcher or Eric Mussellman, both highly regarded recruiters who actually accomplished something not their last names.

I am pretty sure Thorson at De Lasalle,or Jim Russell the coach in Brainerd's Central Lakes CC had better backgrounds than Richard and might have done better, yet we hired a guy with zero experience of any importance other than his fathers name to be a coach in the Big Ten! I'm not suggesting that we should have hired Dave or Jim, but hiring Richard Pitino with his very slim resume was about the same thing.

Maybe we should have just hired Rick Adelman's son away from the Timberwolves, or maybe sent a private investigator out of find Pat Knight. Better yet, back up the Brinks truck and bring back Saul Smith! The money will rinse away all the bad blood over Tubby! These are great ideas, I need to ask Norwood for a job!
 

One of the weird things about these Pitino rumors (whether they have merit or not) is that it basically took us hiring him from lowly FIU for him to have his name thrown around for other high major jobs. His name wasn't mentioned at all at FIU for any job and only a few hours before the news broke did his name even get mentioned for our job. So two non-NCAA Tournament seasons later and he seems to be mentioned for every job that opens up (within reason). Unless he had taken FIU to the Tourney the last two years, he probably wouldn't be mentioned for these jobs like he is now.

Anyway, until I see otherwise, IAM4Goldy said it best to me this week: We need Richard Pitino and he needs us.

Time to dig in, recruit hard (as it appears he's doing), develop the Bigs we have and build a mutually beneficial NCAA Tournament resume.

Go Gophers!!
 


If Pitino leaves, just hire Ben Johnson. He pretty much has the same resume (minus Dad), attended better universities and played the game at a higher level than Richard. Just kidding but it shows what a reach Pitino was.
 

station19 said:
If Pitino leaves after two years, it says more about the job at Mn than it does about Rich P.
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I respectfully disagree. If he leaves after two years it would tell me he was nothing more than a slickster willing to jump at the first bag of cash thrown in his path. And I say this as someone who thinks it's unlikely he's going anywhere this early on.
 

Relax, not one of these points of interest is coming from the athletic directors. just agents and the media trying to inflate profile and in the media trying to fabricate news for the entertainment brand. ESPN is not a journalism hierarchy. It is a entertainment entity. This non story is so small that it is buried as they are showing spring MLB before they slip it in.
 

alchemy2u said:
It is everyone on this board that is too blame for the ridiculous rumors. 37 pages and counting about a new coach that has stated emphatically that he would like to stay here for a long time.

We have got to get out of this inferiority complex that has everyone thinking that we are just a stepping stone program. How many times do you have to be told that a good B1G program is a destination job! How many times do you have to be told that B1G coaches never leave. How many times do you have to be told that we have one of the best fan bases in the country. How many times do you have to be told that we have one of the best game atmospheres in the country. No, we are not a Duke, but we can easily be a MSU.

It is not healthy for the fan base to constantly be doubting and whining about being inferior.

Richard isn't going anywhere and stupid speculation by "reporter" means nothing.

We need to just laugh off these stupid rumors. And just shut up.


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+1
 

BleedGopher said:
One of the weird things about these Pitino rumors (whether they have merit or not) is that it basically took us hiring him from lowly FIU for him to have his name thrown around for other high major jobs. His name wasn't mentioned at all at FIU for any job and only a few hours before the news broke did his name even get mentioned for our job. So two non-NCAA Tournament seasons later and he seems to be mentioned for every job that opens up (within reason). Unless he had taken FIU to the Tourney the last two years, he probably wouldn't be mentioned for these jobs like he is now.

Anyway, until I see otherwise, IAM4Goldy said it best to me this week: We need Richard Pitino and he needs us.

Time to dig in, recruit hard (as it appears he's doing), develop the Bigs we have and build a mutually beneficial NCAA Tournament resume.

Go Gophers!!
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Good points, as usual, Bleed.

I know when Pitino was hired, everyone was so worried about this being a stepping stone. I was never worried, because I thought, for the 1st time in my life as a Gopher fan, if a coach got recruited away instead of getting fired, that'd mean we would have won, and would be in much better shape than he got us in. If he did leave now, that would not be the case. It would be crazy to get hired away after not accomplishing anything other than an NIT championship.

With that being said, I still think he will win here, maybe not next year, but in year 4.
 

Just for the record, I think the Richard to Alabama talk is just talk.

I know coaches don't like to address every rumor that is out there, but I think Richard should come out and say he isn't going anywhere. All these rumors can't help recruiting and program building. It's one of the many Tubby issues that got very annoying.
 

station19 said:
Just for the record, I think the Richard to Alabama talk is just talk.

I know coaches don't like to address every rumor that is out there, but I think Richard should come out and say he isn't going anywhere. All these rumors can't help recruiting and program building. It's one of the many Tubby issues that got very annoying.
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+1 Not to mention Glen Mason.
 


station19 said:
Just for the record, I think the Richard to Alabama talk is just talk.

I know coaches don't like to address every rumor that is out there, but I think Richard should come out and say he isn't going anywhere. All these rumors can't help recruiting and program building. It's one of the many Tubby issues that got very annoying.
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I get what you're saying but I am with the "you can't address every rumor out there" camp. On one level, you give it credence by addressing it. On another, it gives the impression you're paying attention to what the rumor mongers are saying and therefore making yourself subject to more rumors since you perpetuate the conversation by addressing it. So far, it does appear that Norwood has addressed at least indirectly. Not sure if Ellis has.

It appears Tubby and his agent manufactured many of his rumors, which is shameful, but so far we have no evidence Richard is pulling the same thing. I fear we will always be subject to this with a reasonably "name" coach because the basketball world does not consider this to be a good job and therefore anyone who thinks they can do better will have their name in the hopper for the latest "we think we can resurrect our program with a pile of cash" opportunity out there.

If I am Richard's career manager, I'm telling him his long term best interests (career wise not necessarily financial) are to build something up here before moving on. Whoever said, "we need each other" is absolutely correct. It is in our long term interests to improve the perception of the job and Richard has a chance to do that for us.
 

Figure the majority of people realize this is nothing more than talk. Pitino started out pretty fast by winning 25 games and the NIT in his first year at a high major and had his named brought up as a rising superstar in the coaching ranks by the likes of Dickie V. This year as someone else has called it his "brand" took a hit with how the season turned out. If all the talk about him as a candidate for the open jobs is coming from his camp it is probably an attempt to protect the "brand".
 

scools12 said:
Figure the majority of people realize this is nothing more than talk. Pitino started out pretty fast by winning 25 games and the NIT in his first year at a high major and had his named brought up as a rising superstar in the coaching ranks by the likes of Dickie V. This year as someone else has called it his "brand" took a hit with how the season turned out. If all the talk about him as a candidate for the open jobs is coming from his camp it is probably an attempt to protect the "brand".
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I think it's easier for outsiders to dismiss one bad season that it is for us fans who had to live through it. Rich has still had some impressive accomplishments, including that two of his three teams have overachieved.
 

Bad Gopher said:
I think it's easier for outsiders to dismiss one bad season that it is for us fans who had to live through it. Rich has still had some impressive accomplishments, including that two of his three teams have overachieved.
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Agreed. He has a stronger resume than when he arrived here: NIT championship, 3 years vs. 1 year of head coaching, a top 40 recruiting class to a program that has struggled recently in recruiting, and no losing seasons yet in three years.
 

There is truth to this or Pitino would have refuted the rumor. I hope norwood can use his relationship to keep him. I Would say there is a 60 40 chance he leaves. We should know by he end of the day.
 

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