Ben Johnson to complete Gophers staff with Richmond assistant Marcus Jenkins

Donate To GopherHole
So all is right (that he's usually wrong) with Doogie...?
 


My questions on the assistant coaches would be - what are their specific duties?

I know they will all recruit, but is one an "offensive" coach or a "defensive" coach? does one work with the guards or the big men?

I don't know if I ever heard that spelled out for Pitino's staff.

And, as far as having a plan - everyone has a plan until they get punched in the mouth.

I hope this staff has the ability to adjust during a game. if plan A doesn't work, have plan B ready. I never saw that from Pitino - ever!

Because - a coach can say 'we want to do this, and we want to do that,' but if the other team tries to prevent them from doing this or that, what happens?
 

PMWinSTP said:
So all is right (that he's usually wrong) with Doogie...?
Click to expand...
Can't believe I'm defending Doogie's honor...he confirmed the other two hires, but said he could not confirm McNeilly

 

eker0016 said:
Can't believe I'm defending Doogie's honor...he confirmed the other two hires, but said he could not confirm McNeilly

Click to expand...

Didn't get McNeily and company, oh well. It is what it is and next year we're simply going to bite the bullet and look for victories where we can find them, as long as they play hard, I'll all in.
 


UpAndUnder43 said:
This is one of the most insane things I’ve ever read on Gopherhole. Maybe go hire a bunch of D3 coaches who work multiple jobs to make ends meet. Think about their scratching. And clawing. They have a bunch of coaches who were unable to win at higher levels. Thorson and Johnson were former gopher failures. Johnson went to a flailing Xavier (record got worse every year he was there IIRC). I know a ton of unsuccessful high school and college coaches. Let’s hire them! They are so hungry (literally, they need food) and will outwork opponents. They’ll lose a ton but man will they claw.
Click to expand...
You’re more of a glass 90% empty than 10% full kind of person, huh?
 






CoMn said:
Pitino was weak in so many ways...both game day coaching, teaching rebounding and shooting and recruiting. He was lazy just going to the big name high schools and offering top recruits instead of realizing there were high 3-star and low 4-star recruits in his own backyard who would have given us a solid foundation for a winning team. Now we have a guy who is well-respected and well-liked in Minnesota, understands the value of recruiting those high 3-stars and low 4-stars instead of offering 5-stars and high 4-stars and coming up empty every year and having to grab whomever he could in May and June. And we have at least one coach on staff who knows how to coach extremely well. I'd rather watch a group of well-coached high 3-stars play the game well that watch higher ranked players play the game poorly. So I agree with you MennoSota.
Click to expand...
I don’t think Pitino’s flaw was going after guys that were rated too highly. His first year, he landed Mason after being in the final 3 of a few five star guys. Mason was not even option D. Most of the other guys that strung him along over the years were in the 30-50 range (e.g. Garcia), but Pitino usually pulled in a decent transfer during the spring period. Plus, recruiting communication limits are not what they used to be... everyone can work through contingencies in real time.

I would agree though that Pitino failed to develop any upperclassmen role players that were recruited as freshman. Sooo many guys left that could have been adequate bench players later on. The fact that our staff will be focusing on 3 stars is not something to celebrate, tough. They need to sign the right players and develop them. That’s a lot of work. The fact remains to be seen if the staff can actually do any of what the optimists of the board are saying they will.

Also, not pointing at you specifically, CoMn, but where does this narrative that Pitino was lazy come from??? Is this word through MN bball circles? Was he actually lazy or did instate circles get less attention than what they wanted? Does anyone honestly have any information on how hard he worked, as a whole, or is this just slang for “my friends in lakeville wanted to be gophers but had to go to Wisconsin because Pitino didn’t suck up enough?”
 

bc2211 said:
I don’t think Pitino’s flaw was going after guys that were rated too highly. His first year, he landed Mason after being in the final 3 of a few five star guys. Mason was not even option D. Most of the other guys that strung him along over the years were in the 30-50 range (e.g. Garcia), but Pitino usually pulled in a decent transfer during the spring period. Plus, recruiting communication limits are not what they used to be... everyone can work through contingencies in real time.

I would agree though that Pitino failed to develop any upperclassmen role players that were recruited as freshman. Sooo many guys left that could have been adequate bench players later on. The fact that our staff will be focusing on 3 stars is not something to celebrate, tough. They need to sign the right players and develop them. That’s a lot of work. The fact remains to be seen if the staff can actually do any of what the optimists of the board are saying they will.

Also, not pointing at you specifically, CoMn, but where does this narrative that Pitino was lazy come from??? Is this word through MN bball circles? Was he actually lazy or did instate circles get less attention than what they wanted? Does anyone honestly have any information on how hard he worked, as a whole, or is this just slang for “my friends in lakeville wanted to be gophers but had to go to Wisconsin because Pitino didn’t suck up enough?”
Click to expand...
I think you both have good points. I think Pitino failed to see how the sum of the parts could be greater than the whole. He may have been star struck. I think that he may do better in NM because he KNOWS that he can't get the 4 and 5 star recruit there so he has to find the pieces that complement one another.

Pitino was not a lazy recruiter but simply spent too much time chasing after Miss World when he could have had Miss America had he focused his efforts there. He ended up with an assemblage of pieces that he struggled to fit together versus filling specific needs in the system.
 

bc2211 said:
I don’t think Pitino’s flaw was going after guys that were rated too highly. His first year, he landed Mason after being in the final 3 of a few five star guys. Mason was not even option D. Most of the other guys that strung him along over the years were in the 30-50 range (e.g. Garcia), but Pitino usually pulled in a decent transfer during the spring period. Plus, recruiting communication limits are not what they used to be... everyone can work through contingencies in real time.

I would agree though that Pitino failed to develop any upperclassmen role players that were recruited as freshman. Sooo many guys left that could have been adequate bench players later on. The fact that our staff will be focusing on 3 stars is not something to celebrate, tough. They need to sign the right players and develop them. That’s a lot of work. The fact remains to be seen if the staff can actually do any of what the optimists of the board are saying they will.

Also, not pointing at you specifically, CoMn, but where does this narrative that Pitino was lazy come from??? Is this word through MN bball circles? Was he actually lazy or did instate circles get less attention than what they wanted? Does anyone honestly have any information on how hard he worked, as a whole, or is this just slang for “my friends in lakeville wanted to be gophers but had to go to Wisconsin because Pitino didn’t suck up enough?”
Click to expand...
What about 3 stars that out play 4-5 stars ! He was not gifted as a teacher, not really a impressive presence . No idea if he was lazy or not. What can he do if recruits and families do not want to tall to him. Seemed to try hard. Just not very good at the work he was hired to do. Very rare to see someone worse at the building the foundation part. The new staff will lose a lot to start but they will build a foundation and establish a identity that they can sell a vision to.
 

bc2211 said:
I don’t think Pitino’s flaw was going after guys that were rated too highly. His first year, he landed Mason after being in the final 3 of a few five star guys. Mason was not even option D. Most of the other guys that strung him along over the years were in the 30-50 range (e.g. Garcia), but Pitino usually pulled in a decent transfer during the spring period. Plus, recruiting communication limits are not what they used to be... everyone can work through contingencies in real time.

I would agree though that Pitino failed to develop any upperclassmen role players that were recruited as freshman. Sooo many guys left that could have been adequate bench players later on. The fact that our staff will be focusing on 3 stars is not something to celebrate, tough. They need to sign the right players and develop them. That’s a lot of work. The fact remains to be seen if the staff can actually do any of what the optimists of the board are saying they will.

Also, not pointing at you specifically, CoMn, but where does this narrative that Pitino was lazy come from??? Is this word through MN bball circles? Was he actually lazy or did instate circles get less attention than what they wanted? Does anyone honestly have any information on how hard he worked, as a whole, or is this just slang for “my friends in lakeville wanted to be gophers but had to go to Wisconsin because Pitino didn’t suck up enough?”
Click to expand...
I could be wrong but I heard that he recruited from the private basketball high schools where guys go to concentrate on basketball and he wasn't the lead recruiter on lots of the top targets. It's pretty lazy to go to the top name academies, offer the solid players and go home. A lot harder to evaluate, evaluate, evaluate. Look how Fleck got Bateman over the SEC schools....taking the time to evaluate, going early, and working hard. Have you ever heard a guy say I hear from Pitino all the time. It's certainly not the my friends wanted to be a gopher...I am way, way too old to have friends who are looking for scholarships.
 



ecoperson said:
I think you both have good points. I think Pitino failed to see how the sum of the parts could be greater than the whole. He may have been star struck. I think that he may do better in NM because he KNOWS that he can't get the 4 and 5 star recruit there so he has to find the pieces that complement one another.

Pitino was not a lazy recruiter but simply spent too much time chasing after Miss World when he could have had Miss America had he focused his efforts there. He ended up with an assemblage of pieces that he struggled to fit together versus filling specific needs in the system.
Click to expand...
I agree with this 100%. I think his dad just had to show up places and got in doors and could recruit those players. That's from whom he learned. He also had everything in life pretty much handed to him so is it a big reach to think he might just be lazy too because he never had to work hard for anything?
 

CoMn said:
I could be wrong but I heard that he recruited from the private basketball high schools where guys go to concentrate on basketball and he wasn't the lead recruiter on lots of the top targets. It's pretty lazy to go to the top name academies, offer the solid players and go home. A lot harder to evaluate, evaluate, evaluate. Look how Fleck got Bateman over the SEC schools....taking the time to evaluate, going early, and working hard. Have you ever heard a guy say I hear from Pitino all the time. It's certainly not the my friends wanted to be a gopher...I am way, way too old to have friends who are looking for scholarships.
Click to expand...
I don’t want to haggle over nuance, but I’m glad that you have a rational on the laziness factor. I just see the word thrown out a lot on here about his recruiting and I feel like it’s often a false narrative. My complete speculation is that he may have done things stylistically that didn’t jive with folks around here (and that would be on Norwood), but IMO I have a hard time calling him “lazy”.

and for sure, my age group is donating to scholarship funds, not seeking them haha. Just to be clear, that comment was a mashup of like 6 years of collective opinions posted on here and printed in the newspapers.. wasn’t implying you felt that way.
 

Shooter chimes in:

Good get: Marcus Jenkins, the Richmond associate head coach and respected recruiter who left for the Gophers last week, was on the staff that knocked Kentucky out of the top-10 with a 76-64 victory at Rupp Arena last season.

www.twincities.com

Charley Walters: Wild owner Craig Leipold hoping for 10,000 home fans for playoffs

Minnesota Wild owner Craig Leipold is hoping his team gets approval to increase attendance in St. Paul from 3,000 to about 10,000 for playoff games later this month.
www.twincities.com www.twincities.com

Go Gophers!!
 

builtbadgers said:
What about 3 stars that out play 4-5 stars ! He was not gifted as a teacher, not really a impressive presence . No idea if he was lazy or not. What can he do if recruits and families do not want to tall to him. Seemed to try hard. Just not very good at the work he was hired to do. Very rare to see someone worse at the building the foundation part. The new staff will lose a lot to start but they will build a foundation and establish a identity that they can sell a vision to.
Click to expand...
builtbadgers said:
What about 3 stars that out play 4-5 stars ! He was not gifted as a teacher, not really a impressive presence . No idea if he was lazy or not. What can he do if recruits and families do not want to tall to him. Seemed to try hard. Just not very good at the work he was hired to do. Very rare to see someone worse at the building the foundation part. The new staff will lose a lot to start but they will build a foundation and establish a identity that they can sell a vision to.
Click to expand...
For sure. I’m hopeful that the new crew can establish a system that can grow. The old guys failed miserably in that aspect.
 

You must log in or register to reply here.



Top Bottom