Chip: Mark Coyle's hiring of Ben Johnson is rebuke of Richard Pitino's tenure

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BleedGopher

BleedGopher

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per Chip:

Johnson seems to love that part of the job though, which is critical. He noted that he began making recruiting calls the moment his plane landed in Minnesota on Monday evening.

"Recruiting is nonstop," he said.

It can't even pause. Not with this program and its needs. This is why Coyle hired Johnson and brought him home.

www.startribune.com

Mark Coyle's hiring of Ben Johnson is rebuke of Richard Pitino's tenure

The athletic director pulled a classic "hire the opposite" move and went with the best recruiter of Minnesota talent he could find.
www.startribune.com www.startribune.com

Go Gophers!!
 




The point of the article is that - allegedly - Johnson will make recruiting MN kids his #1 focus.

One of the biggest knocks on Pitino was that he did not make recruiting MN kids a priority.

That is what Chip means by a "rebuke" of Pitino - meaning, a different approach.
 



cjbfbp said:
Part of me did wonder if Johnson and Coyle bonded over taking shots at Pitino.
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I would guess that Johnson said some things about how he wanted to succeed in his exit interview with Coyle that stuck with Coyle. He may well not have slammed Pitino because slamming others doesn't usually sell with employers. If he did slam Pitino then Johnson lied in the presser. (I don't think he lied).

I actually think Coyle believed Pitino was a pretty decent coach who did not assemble a roster very well and left himself without margin when things went bad.

Once Robbins and Gabe went down and Johnson was hobbled, the roster simply did not stack up. It happened too often with Pitino and he got the axe.
 

short ornery norwegian said:
The point of the article is that - allegedly - Johnson will make recruiting MN kids his #1 focus.

One of the biggest knocks on Pitino was that he did not make recruiting MN kids a priority.

That is what Chip means by a "rebuke" of Pitino - meaning, a different approach.
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That's not a rebuke, that's simply a new strategy (and I know it was Chip's word, or at least his editor's in the headline, and not yours).
 

Pitino was out in the open about not wanting any MN talent on his teams??

Then no, it's not a rebuke, at all.
 



MplsGopher said:
Pitino was out in the open about not wanting any Mtalent on his teams??

Then no, it's not a rebuke, at all.
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the word around town is Pitino wasn't active with local community at times, it was often assistants

When wisconsin is sending Greg Gard and we're sending Johnson/Conroy, etc, it's not same
 

bga1 said:
I would guess that Johnson said some things about how he wanted to succeed in his exit interview with Coyle that stuck with Coyle. He may well not have slammed Pitino because slamming others doesn't usually sell with employers. If he did slam Pitino then Johnson lied in the presser. (I don't think he lied).

I actually think Coyle believed Pitino was a pretty decent coach who did not assemble a roster very well and left himself without margin when things went bad.

Once Robbins and Gabe went down and Johnson was hobbled, the roster simply did not stack up. It happened too often with Pitino and he got the axe.
Click to expand...

My comment wasn't intended to be serious. I just played on the "rebuke to Pitino" theme.
 

cjbfbp said:
Part of me did wonder if Johnson and Coyle bonded over taking shots at Pitino.
Click to expand...
"Take shots" probably not. "Tell me what you would do differently" almost certainly.
 

BleedGopher said:
per Chip:

Johnson seems to love that part of the job though, which is critical. He noted that he began making recruiting calls the moment his plane landed in Minnesota on Monday evening.

"Recruiting is nonstop," he said.

It can't even pause. Not with this program and its needs. This is why Coyle hired Johnson and brought him home.

www.startribune.com

Mark Coyle's hiring of Ben Johnson is rebuke of Richard Pitino's tenure

The athletic director pulled a classic "hire the opposite" move and went with the best recruiter of Minnesota talent he could find.
www.startribune.com www.startribune.com

Go Gophers!!
Click to expand...
Seemed like he recruited both Walton and Garcia extremely hard and they just chose other schools, seemed to come down to the wire on their decisions though. Seemed like he was very committed to local prospects especially after 2018, but probably too late at that point. The big ones we probably let get away were Roddy and Wright. They could definitely have been effective and contributed serious minutes for us. Hurt/Jones Bros/Suggs/Holmgren we were never going to sign with Pitino regardless because it was Pitino. According to Built they would not play for "pee wee" because they had access to far greater coaches. Jarvis never got to play. Anyone really upset about Crowl? Carlson also could have helped but he never took to Pitino either, but he never did have much luck with the suburban players. Will Ben be able to sign the suburban players as well? Treyton Thompson still remains to be judged on how good of a signing that was. No one seems too high on him though.
 




GopherBlood666 said:
Seemed like he recruited both Walton and Garcia extremely hard and they just chose other schools, seemed to come down to the wire on their decisions though. Seemed like he was very committed to local prospects especially after 2018, but probably too late at that point. The big ones we probably let get away were Roddy and Wright. They could definitely have been effective and contributed serious minutes for us. Hurt/Jones Bros/Suggs/Holmgren we were never going to sign with Pitino regardless because it was Pitino. According to Built they would not play for "pee wee" because they had access to far greater coaches. Jarvis never got to play. Anyone really upset about Crowl? Carlson also could have helped but he never took to Pitino either, but he never did have much luck with the suburban players. Will Ben be able to sign the suburban players as well? Treyton Thompson still remains to be judged on how good of a signing that was. No one seems too high on him though.
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It is a fact that they had choices of far better coaches than Pitino. There are a ton of people close to the game that have known for a long time that he was not even close to average. One practice anyone could tell if you saw how well others were run. Pee wee is what several boosters and some parents called him. I called him coach Pitino.
 

builtbadgers said:
It is a fact that they had choices of far better coaches than Pitino. There are a ton of people close to the game that have known for a long time that he was not even close to average. One practice anyone could tell if you saw how well others were run. Pee wee is what several boosters and some parents called him. I called him coach Pitino.
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Of course they had choices far better than Pitino. Won’t that also be the case with Johnson? If that’s the issue, then Johnson won’t sign any of those local guys either. It sounds to me like the issue was more that the boosters and parents just didn’t like Pitino. That could be different with Johnson, giving him a chance to sign guys even though they still have choices with better coaches.
 

Bordergopher said:
Of course they had choices far better than Pitino. Won’t that also be the case with Johnson? If that’s the issue, then Johnson won’t sign any of those local guys either. It sounds to me like the issue was more that the boosters and parents just didn’t like Pitino. That could be different with Johnson, giving him a chance to sign guys even though they still have choices with better coaches.
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Johnson is smarter and has humilty. Cool combination.
 

The way the U is spinning this is lame. I feel like it is basically a slap in the face to us. Just because the loud minority of fans (and of course the media) only know how to discuss the Minnesota kids angle, doesn’t mean the majority of us don’t understand and want better X’s & O’s. The worst run businesses, sports franchises, etc. overreact to philosophies and go from one extreme to another. Coyle is being so short minded with going for the Minnesota kids angle. Let’s be honest, we care about winning first and then hope that some hometown kids are a part of that consistent winning. Pitino landed good talent over the years, but he obviously couldn’t coach the X’s & O’s. Shocker, the real magic happens when you have a coach that balances recruiting and coaching ability.
At a time when almost everyone was excited about the coaching candidates right now, Coyle hires a guy without any head coaching experience, who doesn’t even know if his style of play can be successful. It is just like Ryan Saunders and the Wolves. ”Feel Good” hire that is about 5-10 years too early and will most likely end in failure because it is not the right time.
Thanks a bunch for being so short minded Mark Coyle.
 

I'm 61, been a fan of Gopher B-ball since 1969. It strikes me that I have seen a lot of coaches come and leave, for whatever reason. I think we wait, and see how Johnson plays out.

I know that Coach pitino's act had worn really thin with me this season. You should have a better response to a Gopher Coach, watching him at a Press Conference, than "would you shut the f$%# up!"
 


builtbadgers said:
Johnson is smarter and has humilty. Cool combination.
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No idea if Johnson will be successful but my limited high school coaching contacts and AAU coaching contacts are all saying the same thing. He genuinely cares about MN high school basketball and AAU basketball. Coaches and athletes want to talk to him because he is a real dude.

Pitino seems like a good dude on radio. But the take from my coaching contacts is that Pitino was always half in on Minnesota kids and looking for the next best thing. Which is fine if he had landed enough of the next best things. I think they appreciated honesty from Pitino but didn’t like the disinterest until he was out of other options.


I’m extremely disappointed with the hire on paper but I wasn’t going to be satisfied unless we spent big money on a Beilein/Matta/Musselman/etc that got me excited....which it seems like was never in the cards
 

restovich said:
I'm 61, been a fan of Gopher B-ball since 1969. It strikes me that I have seen a lot of coaches come and leave, for whatever reason. I think we wait, and see how Johnson plays out.
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Good advice!
 

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