All Things Richard Pitino Assistants UPDATED 4/4: Kimani Young reportedly on staff

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panolo said:
I thought Taylor should have been kept on when the staff was let just to keep in contact with all the recruits. I would be happy if he did get on Pitino's staff. He always seemed like a good recruiter and the go between.
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I agree. I thought it was odd Teague didn't have someone handle communication with the team and recruits during the search, and Taylor would've been a logical choice for the job. It appears that we lost Ellis because of this oversight on Teague's part.
 

Winasota Gopher said:
I would say that his recruiting track record does not agree with you. While I don't think our recruits have been horrible, they just don't wow me. They are the type of players a middling Big 10 team should get, nothing more, nothing less. If we keep Taylor, it better because of continuity with our current recruiting base (read big 3 and beyond) to create continuity with the current players, and because Richie likes him and feels he fits what he wants to do.
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There are lots of Taylor's out there. Pitino will quickly contact the Big 3 and make his impression and pitch why they should play for him. Tubby's staff is history and no longer relevant. Now it's all about young Rich and what he brings to the table for the Big 3..
 

Bayfieldgopher said:
There are lots of Taylor's out there. Pitino will quickly contact the Big 3 and make his impression and pitch why they should play for him. Tubby's staff is history and no longer relevant. Now it's all about young Rich and what he brings to the table for the Big 3..
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That may be true, but Taylor had already built a relationship with them, whereas someone else who Pitino brings in will be starting from scratch. It all depends on how well he'd fit into Pitino's system, but I think he could be a big help in recruiting the big three and potentially convincing Ellis to come back. That said, I think it's unlikely Taylor would want to come back with a different coaching staff after just getting fired.
 


I think the key point of the bio is that Young is very tied in with the AAU culture. If you want to compete for the top recruits, you have to be out there on the road, hitting the AAU tournaments and cultivating relationships with the top AAU coaches, who can help steer players your way. Young (in theory) bring the Gophs a coach who understands the AAU scene, knows a lot of the coaches, and can hopefully relate to today's players in a different (and more effective) way than Tubby did.

As far as Vince Taylor, I suspect that Teague & Co. want a clean sweep. If one of their big gripes with Tubby was that the staff didn't work hard enough, that would seem to include Taylor as well.
 


jaymil said:
I'd be fine with that. Keeping Taylor just makes too much sense. Lieberman is Pitino's right hand man, and Nuness has a local angle and experience with player development.
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Which is why we won't retain Taylor
 


Ironically, Rich Pitino is they type of assistant Tubby should have sought upon taking the job here. Instead, he brought the old lazy men who were pre-occupied with pointing to Rashad Vaughn behind the bench after Rodney's dunks (Taylor), schmoozing/boozing (Saul) and Who knows? (Jirsa)
 

balds said:
Ironically, Rich Pitino is they type of assistant Tubby should have sought upon taking the job here. Instead, he brought the old lazy men who were pre-occupied with pointing to Rashad Vaughn behind the bench after Rodney's dunks (Taylor), schmoozing/boozing (Saul) and Who knows? (Jirsa)
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It's funny, I have no idea what Jirsa brought to the table. Esposito was actually a decent scheduler which made him a fine bottom of the totem pole assistant. Taylor seemed to be the only decent recruiter. Saul was just along for the ride. What was Jirsa's story?
 



Jirsa made sure there were no table scraps left over.
 

I think it would be wise to let Richard choose his own staff. Seeing what he did at FIU, the man seems to have his stuff together so let him run the show here and not take on one of Tubby's retreads. And I for one am sick of hearing about how he got this job because of his last name. His Dad didn't help him turn around the Panthers in one year. What he did was amazing and I for one am thrilled to have him here.
 


Halsey Hall said:
I think it would be wise to let Richard choose is own staff. Seeing what he did at FIU, the man seems to have his stuff together so let him run the show here and not take on one of Tubby's retreads.
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I think people are only talking about Taylor because he knows the locals and he is originally a Pitino guy.
 



Halsey Hall said:
I think it would be wise to let Richard choose his own staff. Seeing what he did at FIU, the man seems to have his stuff together so let him run the show here and not take on one of Tubby's retreads. And I for one am sick of hearing about how he got this job because of his last name. His Dad didn't help him turn around the Panthers in one year. What he did was amazing and I for one am thrilled to have him here.
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Certainly let him choose his own staff, people are just saying he might be a good choice for Coach Pitino because he worked for his dad at Louisville and he already has relationships with a lot of the recruits here.
 


Everyone is assuming Taylor is still available. I'm assuming tubby will hire the same staff at TT.
 

burton34 said:
Everyone is assuming Taylor is still available. I'm assuming tubby will hire the same staff at TT.
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I don't think many people think he would actually come back. We're just saying he may be a good fit. You're probably right about him going to TT though.
 

I guess my question is does Teague delete the entire network, or attempt to keep (maybe too late as noted above) the one remaining staff member for continuity (Taylor) to mend fences with Ellis and build upon with the big three. Isn't it easier to have Vince Taylor walk into the living rooms of the big three parents as a known Minnesota resource and who then introduces his new boss, Rich Pitino? Recruiting is also about human relationships. Yes, the option exists to start completely new, but I prefer not to either give up on the big three or put it all on Pitino.

I think there is consensus on the board that Teague is well networked. Yet, appreciating the importance of communication, not just the preservation of privacy, is an essential skill.
 

Lieberman and K. Young do sound like great choices! Remember a former true Gopher point guard was from NYC. Mr. Eric Harris. Come on down to the Minneapple NYC.
 

I understand that the "Big 3" could be program changers, but I also don't really like the idea of hiring a guy just because of his relationship with 3 guys that may or may not come here. They also wouldn't necessarily stick around all that long once they got to college.

It kind of reminds of the way coaches offer scholarships to a friend of a superstar hoping they can sway them, even though they probably don't deserve a scholarship on their own merit (see JD Pride and Seantrel Henderson).

I'd much rather have Pitino hire the guys he wants to hire. I was annoyed with Teague allegedly giving Flip a list of acceptable assistants to choose from and I think this would be a similar move.
 

BOUNDOUTPASSDUNK said:
I guess my question is does Teague delete the entire network, or attempt to keep (maybe too late as noted above) the one remaining staff member for continuity (Taylor) to mend fences with Ellis and build upon with the big three. Isn't it easier to have Vince Taylor walk into the living rooms of the big three parents as a known Minnesota resource and who then introduces his new boss, Rich Pitino? Recruiting is also about human relationships. Yes, the option exists to start completely new, but I prefer not to either give up on the big three or put it all on Pitino.

I think there is consensus on the board that Teague is well networked. Yet, appreciating the importance of communication, not just the preservation of privacy, is an essential skill.
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Taylor was part of the problem and therefore shouldn't be part of the solution. No interest whatsoever
 

I completely appreciate your point of view eker = but I'm not advocating retaining Taylor as a mere sycophant artist. He seems like he was the one guy on staff to really develop relationships with people, and that is not something that is feigned. It applies to all of the recruits he has watched and developed relationships with to date, including the 2014/15 classes. Anyway, it may all be a moot point.
 

MadtownGopher said:
It's funny, I have no idea what Jirsa brought to the table. Esposito was actually a decent scheduler which made him a fine bottom of the totem pole assistant. Taylor seemed to be the only decent recruiter. Saul was just along for the ride. What was Jirsa's story?
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He drew up our out of bounds plays
 

I like Taylor, but the biggest loss of the previous staff is going to be Esposito. I credit him with two out of the three NCAA appearances based on scheduling alone.
 

eker0016 said:
I understand that the "Big 3" could be program changers, but I also don't really like the idea of hiring a guy just because of his relationship with 3 guys that may or may not come here. They also wouldn't necessarily stick around all that long once they got to college.

It kind of reminds of the way coaches offer scholarships to a friend of a superstar hoping they can sway them, even though they probably don't deserve a scholarship on their own merit (see JD Pride and Seantrel Henderson).

I'd much rather have Pitino hire the guys he wants to hire. I was annoyed with Teague allegedly giving Flip a list of acceptable assistants to choose from and I think this would be a similar move.
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Finally, someone gets it! Exactly the same idea why I was against hiring Flip.

This hire was about more than Tyus Jones, Rashad Vaughn, and Reid Travis. If we get them, sweet! If not, life goes on...
 

Pitino is at the final four this weekend. I'm sure he's there to cheer for his dad and Louisville, but if he works as hard as people say then there's no doubt he'll be talking to people about potential assistants and/or players that he's interested in. Hopefully the U gets some pub this weekend since Pitino's kid just got the job.
 

Would it be probable that even though Young is supposedly following Pitino to the Goph's Rich didn't mention him when asked about his staff, at the press conference, he wants to wait until the whole staff is announced.
I like the info posted on Young.
 

Mike Ellis is on Sid's show right now and he said Pitino does want to hire Young but that he has to "go through a process" at the U and the hire is not official yet. Ellis also echoed Teague's comment that they are very excited about who Pitino will look to add to the staff and that Pitino has conducted multiple interviews this weekend.
 

jaymil said:
Mike Ellis is on Sid's show right now and he said Pitino does want to hire Young but that he has to "go through a process" at the U and the hire is not official yet. Ellis also echoed Teague's comment that they are very excited about who Pitino will look to add to the staff and that Pitino has conducted multiple interviews this weekend.
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Good update jaymil. Thanks.

Coach has not been in the business long enough to have a "Good Old Boys Clique." He is going to infuse new blood. Nothing better than a transfusion of fresh new blood to excite a group of fans.
 

MadtownGopher said:
I would like Taylor to return, but I think it is pretty unlikely. Taylor probably doesn't want to work for an AD that fired him a couple of weeks ago and he probably wouldn't want to back stab (at least to a degree) Tubby by helping out the new coach. My guess is that he follows Tubby to TT.
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When the HC goes, the staff goes. If VT has a problem with that, he is in the wrong business. A staff can't just be recruiters, someone has to develop players.
 

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