Destiny PItts: Transfers to Texas A&M (All Things Suspension and Transfer Related)

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Whalen has been average at best whicjh is ok people!! It’s ok to admit she is a young inexperienced coach
 


Her coaching has been average. Love Scalia but she would of took a U offer no matter who the coach was. She was a 3*** recruit. My point is it is ok to praise Whalen when deserving but let’s be honest when she stinks. Gophers turn the ball over a lot and in crunch time and they have faltered. She has been out coached more then once and she would tell you that
 

Might be time to reconsider the gophersports.com banner ad with images of Lindsay, Destiny and Tayiye, which just now is still the one that welcomed me to the women's bball page on the site.
 

thatjanelpick said:
Might be time to reconsider the gophersports.com banner ad with images of Lindsay, Destiny and Tayiye, which just now is still the one that welcomed me to the women's bball page on the site.
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Just an oversight by the department. I suspect it will be gone by tomorrow, thanks to your reminder.

That same or similar picture has been purged from their Twitter site. Replaced by a picture of the audience at a home game featuring Blanket Lady.

Of course Destiny is gone from the roster just as Mercedes Staples is. Ironic that Staples, who left due to a bleak outlook for playing time, might have gotten more playing time than she thought. And we could use her height, and some hard work with a shooting coach could have fixed her shot (which for some reason went south this year).

Destiny (and Mercedes) were photoshopped off the game intro video. And Scalia now urges us to cheer.

The roster is now down to 12 players, of which Sissoku is not eligible. Cumming and Ross have not played and thus presumed recovering from a nagging injury. We thus have 9 active players to field against the Big Ten. We’ve only been going 7 or 8 deep anyway. But that gives us precious little reserve against foul-outs or injuries.

I wonder out loud - is there such a thing as a grad transfer that (say) graduated in December and is immediately eligible for 5th year play for a half season starting January?
 


GameDay said:
Wow... after learning more about the situation from those close to the team, Whalen REALLY messed up. She can thank her lucky stripes that several other Lady Gophers are still on the team after this debacle. There were other players ready to bolt/quit as well before family stepped in. That's as much as I'm willing to share but this program easily could have crumbled under Whalen if not for the resolve and character of some of the girls on the team in the face of adversity. Also, sounds like Destiny had a legitimate gripe... (again, this is coming from someone with no bias, who hopes Whalen succeeds here, but just telling it as it is).
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Just heard a podcast where Patrick Reusse stated that Pitts flipped the coach off when pulled from the game. If this is true she deserved to be suspended and any teammate who would support that behavior is in the wrong and subject to discipline. That is conduct that is detrimental to the team.
 

GrampaGopher said:
Just heard a podcast where Patrick Reusse stated that Pitts flipped the coach off when pulled from the game. If this is true she deserved to be suspended and any teammate who would support that behavior is in the wrong and subject to discipline. That is conduct that is detrimental to the team.
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So far, anyone who has ever said this has admitted not seeing it for themselves, but they heard it from somebody else. How about Reusse? Did he see it for himself? I doubt that he went to the game.
 

thatjanelpick said:
That makes no sense. She has five years to complete four years of eligibility, 2 1/2 of which she has completed, apparently. You think she'd like to play next season at a new school and then only the first half of the season after that?
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Div 1 is not by semester for eligibility determination so she has two years left to play her one remaining year. If she plays the 2nd semester next season she is done with college hoops, it counts as a full year.

Bryanna Fernstrom is an example, she transferred from Iowa State to the Gophers at the semester (in a move nobody at ISU had a hint was going to happen FWIW).

2014-15 Freshman, played 31 games for Iowa State
2015-16 Sophomore, played 15 games for Iowa State, left ISU at semester break, enrolled at UofM.
2016-17 Junior, became eligible at the semester break and played 15 conference games for Gophers
2017-18 Senior, played 32 games for Gophers and her 4 years of competition were done.

Pitts can (1) appeal for a waiver and maybe get to play all of next season if NCAA approves (2) sit out one year and be eligible for 2nd semester play at another school and be done (3) redshirt next year and play a full slat of games in 2021-22 using her full 5 years to play 4.
 
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GrampaGopher said:
Just heard a podcast where Patrick Reusse stated that Pitts flipped the coach off when pulled from the game. If this is true she deserved to be suspended and any teammate who would support that behavior is in the wrong and subject to discipline. That is conduct that is detrimental to the team.
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She did not flip her the bird, she did stick her hand up like do not talk to me or a brush away to the coach as she was heading to the bench at the Northwestern game she did not flip her the bird. I was at the game and on that sideline, I saw the yelling and the hand up gesture but it was not up in one finger salute motion like has been stated or repeated. I don't think there is any video evidence that it was the middle finger either. I do remember the hand going up but I distinctly remember the coach being really pissed that she was brushing her off by putting her hand up, I don't recall seeing her flip her the bird.
 
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CutDownTheNet said:
Just an oversight by the department. I suspect it will be gone by tomorrow, thanks to your reminder.

That same or similar picture has been purged from their Twitter site. Replaced by a picture of the audience at a home game featuring Blanket Lady.

Of course Destiny is gone from the roster just as Mercedes Staples is. Ironic that Staples, who left due to a bleak outlook for playing time, might have gotten more playing time than she thought. And we could use her height, and some hard work with a shooting coach could have fixed her shot (which for some reason went south this year).

Destiny (and Mercedes) were photoshopped off the game intro video. And Scalia now urges us to cheer.

The roster is now down to 12 players, of which Sissoku is not eligible. Cumming and Ross have not played and thus presumed recovering from a nagging injury. We thus have 9 active players to field against the Big Ten. We’ve only been going 7 or 8 deep anyway. But that gives us precious little reserve against foul-outs or injuries.

I wonder out loud - is there such a thing as a grad transfer that (say) graduated in December and is immediately eligible for 5th year play for a half season starting January?
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I too wish there was a grad transfer with imeditate eligibility. If so they would need to transfer soon and be added to the roster ASAP as school is about to start this week. You have to get admitted and be in school realistically to be added to the roster this week to even make a difference but the team sure could use a little depth at the forward position.
 

Shades said:
So far, anyone who has ever said this has admitted not seeing it for themselves, but they heard it from somebody else. How about Reusse? Did he see it for himself? I doubt that he went to the game.
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In addition to Reusse living in Florida this time of year, I doubt he could pick Destiny Pitts out of a lineup with Brad Pitt and William Pitt.
 

Ignatius L Hoops said:
In addition to Reusse living in Florida this time of year, I doubt he could pick Destiny Pitts out of a lineup with Brad Pitt and William Pitt.
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I don’t suppose anybody can fish up this podcast? I’d like to know who he heard it from.
 

Good one, Iggy. Maybe I'm showing my age, but do people of the younger generation even flip the bird these days? One other question of a more serious nature: We've criticized Whalen, Pitts, the Athletic Department. Where was Whalen's coaching staff during this entire fiasco? Not the stuff that happened on the court, but the stuff that happened behind the scenes. Most good coaches have assistant coaches who can act us buffers between head coach and players when problems like this arrive. I've heard before that Chris Dailey has been a buffer for Geno in the past. Was there no one on the staff who could diffuse the situation and act as a mediator? I'm still of the belief that neither the head coach or the player wanted it to go this far. IMO, the both lost. Every coaching staff needs a buffer.
 



gopherdudepart2 said:
She did not flip her the bird, she did stick her hand up like do not talk to me or a brush away to the coach as she was heading to the bench at the Northwestern game she did not flip her the bird. I was at the game and on that sideline, I saw the yelling and the hand up gesture but it was not up in one finger salute motion like has been stated or repeated. I don't think there is any video evidence that it was the middle finger either. I do remember the hand going up but I distinctly remember the coach being really pissed that she was brushing her off by putting her hand up, I don't recall seeing her flip her the bird.
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Pitts did not flip the bird.... bad 'fake news' journalism at its best.
 



BarnBall said:
It should’ve never gotten to this point anyway. If you can’t sit down behind closed doors one on one and figure out a resolution that’s a sad day for all involved
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As some other poster commented, there seemed to be something wrong after the first half of the PSU game. MN had a huge lead at the half, but played very disorganized the whole second half. After that they came out flat vs. OSU before a sizable home crowd and fell behind. They played badly, I felt, against Nebraska, too, being outrebounded by a Nebr. center who stood flatfooted most of the game. A person would think airing the problem out in plain sight and repairing it would be better than banishing the best player and then trying to move on with not a word said by anyone, including the AD and coach.....
 

gopherdudepart2 said:
She did not flip her the bird, she did stick her hand up like do not talk to me or a brush away to the coach as she was heading to the bench at the Northwestern game she did not flip her the bird. I was at the game and on that sideline, I saw the yelling and the hand up gesture but it was not up in one finger salute motion like has been stated or repeated. I don't think there is any video evidence that it was the middle finger either. I do remember the hand going up but I distinctly remember the coach being really pissed that she was brushing her off by putting her hand up, I don't recall seeing her flip her the bird.
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Thank you for sharing an honest perspective of what was done.

Any negative gesture to the coach is good. Now what warrants a suspension is and has been debated here. I coached 15 years and wouldn't tolerate that either. I also did work previously to build relationships and would follow up afterwards. Whalen has said to be working on that on building relationships, but it obviously wasn't quick enough for Pitts. Happens plenty in college ball. Heck with grad transfers it happens when the relationship is good. The idea that not one person followed up from the staff is unbelievable and makes me feel like a lot of this was a misunderstanding. No way they don't attempt some form of communication
 

gopherdudepart2 said:
She did not flip her the bird, she did stick her hand up like do not talk to me or a brush away to the coach as she was heading to the bench at the Northwestern game she did not flip her the bird. I was at the game and on that sideline, I saw the yelling and the hand up gesture but it was not up in one finger salute motion like has been stated or repeated. I don't think there is any video evidence that it was the middle finger either. I do remember the hand going up but I distinctly remember the coach being really pissed that she was brushing her off by putting her hand up, I don't recall seeing her flip her the bird.
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This is what I observed @ the game as well. Pitts was definitely raising her voice in frustration back @ Whalen. I remember thinking how bad it looked and that there had to be a lot of issues behind the scenes leading up to this episode. Again, I have no direct information about the behind the scenes issues and still believe none of us will ever have all the information from both parties.
 

tripledouble said:
And to those people who are placing Bobby Knight as someone who should be looked up to as the guru of discipline in today's world, that's silly also. It may have been successful in that era, but it's not going to play with today's athletes...and even then it wasn't right for everyone.
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No one called Bobby Knight the guru of discipline.
What I said about Bobby Knight is that he had a system he believed in and he expected his players to execute his system. If you didn't want to do what he required, you didn't play and you were told to leave.
He, like all humans, is flawed, but players became better human beings and excellent basketball players.
Coach Whalen runs her program her way and no player tells her how to run that program. You work within the system or you leave or you sit the bench.
Where do people think they are entitled to equity with the boss? That's just silly thinking. You fulfill your role and you do what you are signed to do.
 

MenneSota, when you say the Whalen runs her program her way and no one tells her how to run it, I don't think she's been coaching long enough yet to know how she runs her program. You've compared coaches to bosses before and that's fine, but with any boss, losing a key employee can have a negative impact on the entire company and if a boss keeps losing key employees, the company is eventually going to "lose" the boss because the boss will be dismissed. I'd prefer to liken a basketball team to a family, with the coach as a parent. In my household, I never would have dismissed one of my kids from the family due to a lack of good judgment. Yes, discipline would have been involved, but we would have hopefully worked out an agreement with a face to face meeting, whether it took 30 minutes or 3 hours. And I never would have asked a kid of mine to sign a document that said they'd be booted out of the family if there was another infraction. Admittedly, this was a University thing, not a Whalen thing, but I don't like the idea of a "signed document". If Pitts said she was willing to sit out the determined time and if she was willing to make the necessary adjustments, I would have trusted her. No documents for me. Her word would have been good enough, But if she ever went back on the word, she would be gone. I view the written document as a CYA (cover your tail) document from the university and as I have said and many others have said, it never should have got that far.

And one other quick thing about night. I personally view him as a bully and a jerk. But then you listen to guys like Wittman and Buckner and no one can deny that his style made him a molder of men. Then you see what he did to a guy like D. Bailey and you realize that he was great for some; terrible for others.
 

manderson1984 said:
Thank you for sharing an honest perspective of what was done.

Any negative gesture to the coach is good. Now what warrants a suspension is and has been debated here. I coached 15 years and wouldn't tolerate that either. I also did work previously to build relationships and would follow up afterwards. Whalen has said to be working on that on building relationships, but it obviously wasn't quick enough for Pitts. Happens plenty in college ball. Heck with grad transfers it happens when the relationship is good. The idea that not one person followed up from the staff is unbelievable and makes me feel like a lot of this was a misunderstanding. No way they don't attempt some form of communication
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Thank you for perspective as a coach. Lindsay Whalen as a newbie without experience has to learn on the job. She needs to do it quickly.

She and her coaching staff need to re-calibrate and establish protocols. It is all about the kids. In my heart of hearts, I believe Whalen thinks the same way.

Relationship building in any organization is critical to success. This situation with Destiny Pitts their best scorer and leader could have been de-escalated before it came to a head. It became personal between Whalen and Pitts.

I just can't believe that they cannot salvage any relationship and reconcile differences. The idea that you threatened to have somebody expelled for any future infractions unless one signs a paper agreeing to it is too draconian. You have a strong willed player who made a huge mistake out of frustration.

Mark Coyle should review what happened and change the WBB team protocol. Whalen should have an intermediary on her staff to act as a buffer to help de-escalate and let cooler heads prevail.

Let's hope that Whalen and the team can recover quickly. It seems like Whalen wants to establish more team defense which apparently they did really well against Purdue.

They definitely need more team defense and ball movement. IMHO, getting the whole team involve in both offense and defense is critical to a teams success. Not just focusing on one or two people doing all the scoring.
 

hungan1 said:
Thank you for perspective as a coach. Lindsay Whalen as a newbie without experience has to learn on the job. She needs to do it quickly.

She and her coaching staff need to re-calibrate and establish protocols. It is all about the kids. In my heart of hearts, I believe Whalen thinks the same way.

Relationship building in any organization is critical to success. This situation with Destiny Pitts their best scorer and leader could have been de-escalated before it came to a head. It became personal between Whalen and Pitts.

I just can't believe that they cannot salvage any relationship and reconcile differences. The idea that you threatened to have somebody expelled for any future infractions unless one signs a paper agreeing to it is too draconian. You have a strong willed player who made a huge mistake out of frustration.
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Right now we have one person who said that's what happened. It was their interpretation of the situation. We don't know exactly what this contract was. High school players and other colleges make kids signs code of conducts. Is that draconian too?

hungan1 said:
Mark Coyle should review what happened and change the WBB team protocol. Whalen should have an intermediary on her staff to act as a buffer to help de-escalate and let cooler heads prevail.
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Again how do we know this didn't happen? How do we know what has happened in the past? We have 2.5 years of knowing Pitts. We have 15 years of watching and seeing Whalen. We have over 3 years of Mark Coyle. I just find it hard to believe that a player the level of Pitts would be totally excluded from the team without prior issues. Now obviously it's quite clear that Pitts didn't feel there were previous issues. Whalen could be new and inexperienced as a basketball coach, but coaches talk and advise all the time. If we see a bunch of assistants and Whalen's recruits leave, then we know we have more of an issue and an inproper protocol. If it truly went down as it's being portrayed then yes, drastic measures needs to be made and I guarantee you Coyle is on it.

hungan1 said:
Let's hope that Whalen and the team can recover quickly. It seems like Whalen wants to establish more team defense which apparently they did really well against Purdue.

They definitely need more team defense and ball movement. IMHO, getting the whole team involve in both offense and defense is critical to a teams success. Not just focusing on one or two people doing all the scoring.
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Amen on the basketball part. Teaching defense and offensive continuity is hard and hopefully we see some growth on that end.
 

manderson1984 said:
How do we know what has happened in the past? We have 2.5 years of knowing Pitts. We have 15 years of watching and seeing Whalen. We have over 3 years of Mark Coyle.
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Oh brother.... check out this clip. Is this something you would expect from Whalen in your 15 years of knowing her?


manderson1984 said:
If it truly went down as it's being portrayed then yes, drastic measures needs to be made and I guarantee you Coyle is on it.
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He’s the one that thought having a person with no coaching experience was a great idea in the first place. We’re supposed to think he’s on top of things? Let’s face it. The women’s programs are not a priority. They lose money. They need Title IX to exist. Women’s programs are handled differently than the men’s.
 

Shades said:
Oh brother.... check out this clip. Is this something you would expect from Whalen in your 15 years of knowing her?

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Oh brother what? You think that's the first coach to not be upfront about those things? If anything it was protecting them. PJ Fleck will not talk about those things either. He also lies weekly to media over an injury report. Would you have rather had a no comment instead or a no? If anything she protected the Bello sisters to the media by saying no.


Shades said:
He’s the one that thought having a person with no coaching experience was a great idea in the first place. We’re supposed to think he’s on top of things? Let’s face it. The women’s programs are not a priority. They lose money. They need Title IX to exist. Women’s programs are handled differently than the men’s.
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The choice to hire Whalen is something that is fair to debate, but to mean you think that makes him fully incompetent is not fair either. He also gave Whalen a budget to hire 3 full time assistants which she used and hired 2 former college head coaches. So are women's programs handled differently? Sure, but go look at the U's list of Associate AD's and their administrative staff. It's plenty deep and to truly believe that they were not somehow involved in this is crazy.
 

manderson1984 said:
He also gave Whalen a budget to hire 3 full time assistants which she used and hired 2 former college head coaches.
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O'Banion's career record as a college head coach (at Kent State) is 28-91.
Curry's career record as a college head coach (at Macalester) is 30-70.

In the world of sports, you are what your record says you are. O'Banion and Curry must be TREMenDOUS resources for Whalen to lean on as a brand new head coach at any level... especially in terms of building winning cultures...
 

baller4life said:
O'Banion's career record as a college head coach (at Kent State) is 28-91.
Curry's career record as a college head coach (at Macalester) is 30-70.

In the world of sports, you are what your record says you are. O'Banion and Curry must be TREMenDOUS resources for Whalen to lean on as a brand new head coach at any level... especially in terms of building winning cultures...
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So they didn't gain any experiences through those losing? Does that mean they have no experience as a head coach? Should they not ever be hired again and are they bad basketball coaches now? Not like Kent State and Macalester has a huge history of winning. I'm not saying Whalen is a good or perfect, she's not close, but to as completely ignorant as some say on here is crazy until we see more facts.

We have one person's tweet/Instagram post.
 

manderson1984 said:
We have one person's tweet/Instagram post.
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No we don't. We have Whalen and the University lying about the relationship between the Bellos' absence and Destiny's. We have a coach who is largely embarrassed in the Big Ten and absolutely chokes in any crunch time situations. Who doesn't know how to use timeouts. Whose team offense is regularly stalled out against inferior teams playing zone. Whose only adjustment in a year in a half is a full court trap. Man to man defense everywhere! All of the time! You want to know why you show a simple zone defense once or twice in the first half? So a team wastes X% of its halftime talk going over that. At the minimum, you do it out of another team's timeouts, so they have to spend every timeout against you going over at least two plays (vs. man, vs. zone).

Every good basketball coach on planet Earth knows all of the above. And yet, here we are a year and a half into this experiment, and you are still defending her performance as a coach?

But hey... let's not forget her two assistants with head coaching experience, both of whom have abysmal records as leaders... they are FOR SURE the reason why Whalen has good advice! It's why she handled this Pitts situation so well! They are going to turn things around guaranteed!

For what it's worth:
A. Whalen should have disciplined Pitts.
B. Whalen should not have handled all of this the way she did, and it speaks to her inexperience and the poor input she gets from inferior coaches who have their positions out of loyalty rather than merit.

A and B can both be true.

Lindsay Whalen is here to fill as many seats as possible because of her name. That's it. Want proof? I can't be at Williams arena without seeing her name, face, or hearing about how the next game is "Lindsay Whalen free ___ Night." I've never heard of any coach, of any sport, having a "Coach's Name here" Night once, let alone all the time.

A. Lindsay Whalen had a decorated career as a student athlete at Minnesota and as a professional women's basketball player in the WNBA.
B. She's in way over her head right now.

A and B can both be true.
 

baller4life said:
No we don't. We have Whalen and the University lying about the relationship between the Bellos' absence and Destiny's. We have a coach who is largely embarrassed in the Big Ten and absolutely chokes in any crunch time situations. Who doesn't know how to use timeouts. Whose team offense is regularly stalled out against inferior teams playing zone. Whose only adjustment in a year in a half is a full court trap. Man to man defense everywhere! All of the time! You want to know why you show a simple zone defense once or twice in the first half? So a team wastes X% of its halftime talk going over that. At the minimum, you do it out of another team's timeouts, so they have to spend every timeout against you going over at least two plays (vs. man, vs. zone).

Every good basketball coach on planet Earth knows all of the above. And yet, here we are a year and a half into this experiment, and you are still defending her performance as a coach?

But hey... let's not forget her two assistants with head coaching experience, both of whom have abysmal records as leaders... they are FOR SURE the reason why Whalen has good advice! It's why she handled this Pitts situation so well! They are going to turn things around guaranteed!

For what it's worth:
A. Whalen should have disciplined Pitts.
B. Whalen should not have handled all of this the way she did, and it speaks to her inexperience and the poor input she gets from inferior coaches who have their positions out of loyalty rather than merit.

A and B can both be true.

Lindsay Whalen is here to fill as many seats as possible because of her name. That's it. Want proof? I can't be at Williams arena without seeing her name, face, or hearing about how the next game is "Lindsay Whalen free ___ Night." I've never heard of any coach, of any sport, having a "Coach's Name here" Night once, let alone all the time.

A. Lindsay Whalen had a decorated career as a student athlete at Minnesota and as a professional women's basketball player in the WNBA.
B. She's in way over her head right now.

A and B can both be true.
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Since we are going to try and trash the assistants, maybe lets give them a fair look.

Roysland was on the staff that recruited Wagner and Banham so she has plenty of big ten and D1 college experience having been an assistant twice. O'Banion and was an assistant on the gophers final four team. Carly TD was on the staff of two final four teams at Mississippi State and helped recruit their guards. I'd say that experience if more than you have commenting on a board. Unless you are a D1 coach? Guessing not.

and acting as not having success at one place means you cant be a good coach is ridiculous. Kelly Harper flopped at NC state, went to Missouri Stated and got them to a sweet 16 and rolled that into now being the head coach at Tennessee. but shes a bad coach cause one stop she struggled?
 

Devil's Advocate time.

Maybe stories are convoluting and locker room behavior is being remembered as being pulled during the game.

Whether or not, you believe Women's basketball is a priority, the current athletic department seems to want to stick it out with the Men's coach, so why dump the Women's coach so soon?

Nothing will happen with this, not even an EOAA investigation.
 

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