this may be simplistic, but
if you are NOT one of the blue bloods that can refill its roster every year with 4* and 5* players, then it comes down to this:
if you want to have a winning program, you need the right coaching staff, right roster, right chemistry, avoid injuries and have a little luck.
if all of those things fall into place, you can have a good season. the real trick is putting 2 or 3 good seasons together in a row.
But, if you miss on a couple of recruits, have a couple of injuries, or the chemistry isn't right, then it's easy to yo-yo from good season to down season. that is what really separates the upper echelon from the average programs.
and like it or not, the Gopher men's basketball program has been an average or slightly below-average program for quite a while.
So, it's not a question of "Pitino was a bad coach." As I see it, it's more of a question of "Pitino wasn't a good enough coach to overcome all of the issues he encountered." You can get mad at Pitino, or feel sorry for him, but it comes down to the same thing: he wasn't a great coach, and the Gophers needed him to be a great coach.