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


https://www.twincities.com/2020/01/25/charley-walters-wilfs-must-decide-whether-to-spend-or-rebuild/
Charley Walters, Pioneer Press:
"A little birdie says Gophers women’s basketball coach Lindsay Whalen showed exceptional patience before finally suspending now-transferring leading scorer Destiny Pitts. It won’t be surprising if Pitts ends up at Texas Tech."

That "exceptional patience" birdie may have flown by here too...

He probably listened to Ruesse’s podcast for that nonsense. He’s off on the Texas Tech thing too.
 

It is time to move on from Destiny Pitts and focus on the rest of the season and on recruiting.

I know Lindsay Whalen is enamored with guard play. Even in the pros, you need bigs. She has to aggressively recruit post or tall guard/forward combo players to compliment the excellent guards that are here or are coming.

May be a quick bandaid is to aggressively look for transfers/grad transfers like a Janel McCarville type post player who can rebound and open up ball movement and guard play.
She definitely needs to get post players. It might help if she were to hire an assistant that actually has played the post - maybe someone like McCarville or Brunson?
 

https://www.twincities.com/2020/01/25/charley-walters-wilfs-must-decide-whether-to-spend-or-rebuild/
Charley Walters, Pioneer Press:
"A little birdie says Gophers women’s basketball coach Lindsay Whalen showed exceptional patience before finally suspending now-transferring leading scorer Destiny Pitts. It won’t be surprising if Pitts ends up at Texas Tech."

That "exceptional patience" birdie may have flown by here too...
So, regarding that “exceptional patience birdie” ...

Apparently Whalen lost that “exceptional patience” when she yelled and screamed at Pitts for several minutes straight on-camera in front of national TV coverage of the Northwestern game, after she benched Pitts for what was arguably a silly playing mistake (but one that other players had committed a couple times earlier in the season without being benched).

I believe that it’s highly probable that the “gesture” given by Pitts to Whalen was simply a sign by Pitts that “No, Coach, it’s better that we talk about this later when we’re both more calm and less emotional.” In other words (with very high probability) that sign was not only *NOT* a flipping of the bird *NOR* in any conceivable way disrespectful, but rather an indicator that Pitts was trying to take “the high road” and avoid public conflict.

Unfortunately, after many minutes of Whalen yelling at and bating Pitts, Destiny fell back to the “low road” and engaged in some yelling too. And for that she was suspended indefinitely. Leading to Destiny being ground up and spit out by an atrocious Athletic Department disciplinary system that left her with no choice but to quit and move on.

We could have had a much better result for the team and fans and the won-loss record (not to mention for Destiny herself) if (a) Destiny had been simply suspended for a single game (with no other consequences other than that she would also be sentenced to actually sitting down and having a heart-to-heart talk with her Coach) for “conduct unbecoming to a player”; and (b) Lindsay had also been suspended for a single game for “conduct unbecoming to a coach” (and similarly directed to talk to her player, perhaps with moderators if needed).
 
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So, regarding that “exceptional patience birdie” ...

Apparently Whalen lost that “exceptional patience” when she yelled and screamed at Pitts for several minutes straight on-camera in front of national TV coverage of the Northwestern game, after she benched Pitts for what was arguably a silly playing mistake (but one that other players had committed a couple times earlier in the season without being benched).

I believe that it’s highly probable that the “gesture” given by Pitts to Whalen was simply a sign by Pitts that “No, Coach, it’s better that we talk about this later when we’re both more calm and less emotional.” In other words (with very high probability) that sign was not only *NOT* a flipping of the bird *NOR* in any conceivable way disrespectful, but rather an indicator that Pitts was trying to take “the high road” and avoid public conflict.

Coaches get to coach players. Some respond to certain styles better than other and not all treatment is the same. Your best player gets treated differently and has different expectations than your bench players. This is also true in life.

Either way, Pitt's taking the "high road"? No it's her not willing to listen to what has been told to her. This isn't a situation that just happens once for a coach to be that upset. It also isn't setting an example of how other players should respond to coaching. If they don't like the manner it's being given to them in they can continue to talk to the coaching staff about that. It's not like Whalen is a raging lunatic out there.

Unfortunately, after many minutes of Whalen yelling at and bating Pitts, Destiny fell back to the “low road” and engaged in some yelling too. And for that she was suspended indefinitely. Leading to Destiny being ground up and spit out by an atrocious Athletic Department disciplinary system that left her with no choice but to quit and move on.

We could have had a much better result for the team and fans and the won-loss record (not to mention for Destiny herself) if (a) Destiny had been simply suspended for a single game (with no other consequences other than that she would also be sentenced to actually sitting down and having a heart-to-heart talk with her Coach) for “conduct unbecoming to a player”; and (b) Lindsay had also been suspended for a single game for “conduct unbecoming to a coach” (and similarly directed to talk to her player, perhaps with moderators if needed).

Coaches do get suspended for conduct. Lindsey's "berating" wasn't even close to that.
 


So, regarding that “exceptional patience birdie” ...

Apparently Whalen lost that “exceptional patience” when she yelled and screamed at Pitts for several minutes straight on-camera in front of national TV coverage of the Northwestern game, after she benched Pitts for what was arguably a silly playing mistake (but one that other players had committed a couple times earlier in the season without being benched).

I believe that it’s highly probable that the “gesture” given by Pitts to Whalen was simply a sign by Pitts that “No, Coach, it’s better that we talk about this later when we’re both more calm and less emotional.” In other words (with very high probability) that sign was not only *NOT* a flipping of the bird *NOR* in any conceivable way disrespectful, but rather an indicator that Pitts was trying to take “the high road” and avoid public conflict.

Unfortunately, after many minutes of Whalen yelling at and bating Pitts, Destiny fell back to the “low road” and engaged in some yelling too. And for that she was suspended indefinitely. Leading to Destiny being ground up and spit out by an atrocious Athletic Department disciplinary system that left her with no choice but to quit and move on.

We could have had a much better result for the team and fans and the won-loss record (not to mention for Destiny herself) if (a) Destiny had been simply suspended for a single game (with no other consequences other than that she would also be sentenced to actually sitting down and having a heart-to-heart talk with her Coach) for “conduct unbecoming to a player”; and (b) Lindsay had also been suspended for a single game for “conduct unbecoming to a coach” (and similarly directed to talk to her player, perhaps with moderators if needed).
Again, you along with all the rest of the GH posters do not and will never have all the facts from both sides of the story. I have played and supported women's basketball since the 70's and I am very happy that the game continues to improve and be more popular. Your post makes some assumptions that you can not confirm. I am saddened by the loss of an outstanding player like Pitts but also believe Whalen will learn from this experience and be a better coach in the future.
 






I don't mean to drag this thread further and I don't mean to drag a men's basketball story into the women's thread, but there are so many likenesses to what happened with Pitts at Minnesota and what happened with the Badgers second leading scorer Kobe King. Both players left mid-season, both players had disagreements with the coach, both coaches seemed surprised when the players left the team mid-season, both players received some support from fellow teammates, and both coaches now facing some questions I'm sure they'd prefer not to have to answer. I'm wondering if players leaving mid-season is becoming more of a trend. When that happens, not only do the coaches take some heat, the players often receive criticism for quitting on their teams.

 


A semi-update from Arizona:

Barnes said Wednesday that she still hopes to add a transfer—possibly former Minnesota guard Destiny Pitts, who visited last weekend—and a grad transfer before next season.

“The problem is it’s slim pickings, and we’re all going after fifth-years,” Barnes said. “Because if you look at Louisville, Baylor, that’s what’s helped them win. You take a fifth-year, it just helps you win and gives you another guard or post or wherever you’re deficient in.”
 

So, regarding that “exceptional patience birdie” ...

(b) Lindsay had also been suspended for a single game for “conduct unbecoming to a coach” (and similarly directed to talk to her player, perhaps with moderators if needed).

Haha, suspending the coach a game for yelling at a player. What a dunce. Definitely in the running for D-Bag of the month.
 

Haha, suspending the coach a game for yelling at a player. What a dunce. Definitely in the running for D-Bag of the month.
> @LesBolstad: Haha ...

Well, in spite of @LesBolstad (and perhaps others) saying haha, I suspect they didn’t get the joke.

In the interest of brevity, I had phrased the last paragraph of my last post in the form of a conditional expression, but incorporating a joke. Not a funny-ha-ha joke (as I find none of what the Athletic Department inflicted on Destiny to be funny at all).

Rather, a sarcastic joke (https://www.vocabulary.com/articles/chooseyourwords/irony-satire-sarcasm). The (b) part of my (a)/(b) clauses was intended to be the sarcastic part. Obviously, nobody is going to suspend Whalen for a game for yelling at her player. That would be ridiculous.

The point I was trying to make via sarcasm, was that it is equally if not more ridiculous, for an athletic department to effectively suspend a player (e.g., Destiny Pitts) for the rest of the season, for “bad body language.”

Sorry I didn’t spell it out more clearly - maybe I was being a bit too clever. But if you explain the punchline in detail, then it ruins the joke.

The other part that I made too tricky, was that my entire last paragraph was in the form of a hypothetical conditional expression that was in essence a thought experiment about what better outcome might have resulted if things had been handled differently by the Athletic Department. As such, the only thing you can agree with or dispute is the hypothetical conditional statement per se. You can’t lambast the author of the clauses-within-the-conditional for merely including them within the hypothetical, because the author is not asserting those clauses unconditionally.

In fact, the author (me) does not believe that (b) would be a good idea; although I could potentially support (a) = the idea that Coach and Athletic Department might have suspended Destiny for one game in order to make their point.

In fact, I wish that had happened. If a one-game suspension had happened, instead of what really happened, namely an indefinite suspension coupled with refusal by Athletic Department and/or Whalen and/or Coyle to rationally discuss the matter with Pitts in spite of her multiple efforts to do so, then I believe with about 99.9% certainty that Destiny Pitts would still be with the Team (and that Pitts and Whalen would be on good terms). I simply cannot believe that Whalen’s original goal in attempting to apply some discipline to Pitts, was to effectively boot her off the team. That’s just not the Whalen I’m familiar with.

I’ll briefly restate my conjecture, that I can’t be certain of since we mostly have only probabilistic facts that only have a probability of being true or false (and we can agree to disagree on the probabilities). I conjecture that with very high probability, the Athletic Department (along with its apparently horrible disciplinary system, and perhaps even mismanagement by Coyle himself) is about 90% responsible for the eventual result of Destiny being put between a rock and a hard place with no reasonable way out, other than to quit via the transfer portal. I’ll let the rest of you argue about how to split the remaining 10% of culpability between Destiny Pitts and Lindsay Whalen.

A key premise in my argument has always been what is better expounded by @polli’s niece in post #258 in this thread. I believe that premise to be true with very high probability. What convinces me of that is Destiny Pitts trying unsuccessfully for three days to talk to Whalen (and I take Destiny on her word on that one - she has little to gain and everything to lose by lying). I can’t imagine Whalen being so cruel as to turn hard-hearted and absolutely refuse to talk with Pitts. The only alternative is that the disciplinary-system process per se forbad Lindsay from talking to Destiny (until, for instance, she signed an inherently unsignable document that took away what little rights she was granted in the first place). As @polli’s niece and I more or less conjecture, Whalen probably had no idea that by turning the discipline over to “the formal disciplinary system,” she was launching a runaway freight train effectively leading unavoidably to the ejection of Pitts from the team. On paper, Destiny’s leaving was a free-will choice by her. But I call it an effective ejection, because Destiny was left no other viable choice by the system, other than entering the transfer portal.

My best analogy is: Destiny was the spark. Lindsay was the fuse, which was lit by Destiny’s spark. Once the fuse was lit, Lindsay took it to the Athletic Department and asked what she should do to administer discipline. They told her to plug the lit fuse into the keg of disciplinary dynamite sitting in the corner. Boom. And Destiny is gone, after several days in a row of her acting maturely by making genuine (but unsuccessful) efforts to talk to, and work things out with a juvenile-acting Athletic Department that accused her of “bad body language.”
 
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A semi-update from Arizona:

Bendu Yeaney takes last 2020-21 scholarship at Arizona per Raoul
 

Are you trying to say there’s no room for Pitts at Arizona? Is there enough room if McDonald decides to enter the WNBA draft?
 


Yeaney's addition could prove to be an important one for the Wildcats amid some uncertainty about the future. UA currently has four seniors – Dominique McBryde, Lucia Alonso, Tee Tee Starks, and Amari Carter – that it could lose barring the NCAA deciding to grant winter sports athletes an extra season of eligibility. In addition to that, UA star point guard Aari McDonald could leave school a year early to pursue professional options.

The Indiana transfer will join incoming star dual-sport newcomer Lauren Ware, who is one of the top recruits in the 2020 class, plus international players Marta Garcia and Derin Ergodan as the newest Wildcats next season.
 

Are you trying to say there’s no room for Pitts at Arizona? Is there enough room if McDonald decides to enter the WNBA draft?
Aari attended their Senior Day and got engaged Brunson-style, on camera, although not part of the official program https://www.google.com/amp/s/tucson...b03039ae-60ef-11ea-9deb-b7b91ebe1e2a.amp.html

She graduates in May and wanted to “walk” Senior Day with her fellow seniors per https://www.google.com/amp/s/tucson...5788d236-4f9a-5721-af44-63ef022049f2.amp.html

The fact that she did so is completely separate from the question of whether or not she might jump early to, say, the WNBA Draft.

A related question: Is there going to be a WNBA season at all? And if not, does it make any sense to jump ship to a non-existent WNBA, who might just hold your signing rights but not get to play?

Not trying to start any rumors (this is just a thought experiment), but if she really wanted a change of scenery, she might better grad transfer to Minnesota where there’s at least a chance that the coronavirus mess might be over by Big-Ten season, whereas it seems doubtful there will be any WNBA season.

On the other hand, there is no in-person recruiting right now, so entering the (grad) transfer portal is like joining Destiny Pitts in transfer limbo-land.
 
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Is there any news on Destiny Pitts?
 


Could Destiny Pitts possibly enter the WNBA draft?
 

Are we even sure there's going to be a WNBA draft/season? She could certainly enter the draft, but I doubt that she would be drafted. I'm thinking that her game doesn't translate all that well to the WNBA, as she was primarily a 3-point shooter and a lot of those opportunities go away with the added length of the WNBA perimeter players.

On another note, I do find it interesting that Destiny has yet to commit to another college. Another thing I find interesting is that the Gophers have yet to lose any players to post-season transfer. Now, that could still happen, but it is possible that Whalen will not lose any players to transfer. When Pitts left the team, many people thought, myself included, that the Gophers were likely to lose some additional players as fallout to that incident. That hasn't happened yet, and if it doesn't happen, will that mean that the remaining players understood the way that problem was handled? (Doesn't mean it was handled correctly, but could mean that the other players on the team realized that there was a problem that needed to be handled.) Just a thought.
 



The deadline for declaring was April 7.
The only definitive news I see about the 2020 WNBA Season is on the Wiki of the latter title, which says ...

On April 3, 2020, the WNBA announced that the start of its own schedule would also be postponed, although there were few details on what the revised schedule might look like. The 2020 entry draft will proceed as originally scheduled on April 17.


The preseason games are all annotated with "postponed." So no idea yet whether there will or will not be a 2020 (postponed) season. I imagine it's play-it-by-ear like everything else per coronavirus.

Although they're having the draft, I don't think it's a good time for anybody (Destiny included) to opt out for the draft. Since there's a good chance there may be no season, in the event of the latter, I would think that the teams just retain the draft rights, and then next year you have not 36, but 72 draftees. It's hard enough to make a team, but almost impossible (if you're not a first-rounder, say) if you're competing against 71 other would-be rookies.

On a side note, there's an article somewhere online that notes that Sydney Wiese (a popular player I think in her soph WNBA season) caught the COVID-19, and details her experience with it,
 

Although they're having the draft, I don't think it's a good time for anybody (Destiny included) to opt out for the draft.

Three prominent juniors have declared for the draft: Satou Sabally, Chennedy Carter, and Megan Walker.
 

Three prominent juniors have declared for the draft: Satou Sabally, Chennedy Carter, and Megan Walker.
Perhaps they're worried about whether their senior college seasons will happen, and figured may as well jump now. If no WNBA season, then the WNBA will have to figure out, how much do we pay our team members for "not playing." Or maybe they will play "straight to video."

This C-19 mess also impacts Rachel Banham's return home to play for the Lynx. Was so looking forward to that, but now that's in limbo too, I suppose. Haven't checked her tweets lately, but I doubt she knows anything either.
 

I've been thinking: Why would a player enter the draft when there is a better option? Going to the WNBA could mean no season and no money (or only a token payment ). Transferring to another school would get the player free room & board, for sure, no risk -- and, more free education. Seems to me getting drafted now was a bad decision. I'll be surprised if the WNBA plays.
 

I've been thinking: Why would a player enter the draft when there is a better option? Going to the WNBA could mean no season and no money (or only a token payment ). Transferring to another school would get the player free room & board, for sure, no risk -- and, more free education. Seems to me getting drafted now was a bad decision. I'll be surprised if the WNBA plays.
I agree. They're just signing up to compete against 71 draftees in 2021 to make a team.

The draft was held virtually on the 17th and of course Sabrina went #1.

Here's some links on the results ...

 

I've been thinking: Why would a player enter the draft when there is a better option?

It’s up to each player to decide what’s the best option

Going to the WNBA could mean no season and no money (or only a token payment ).

That hasn’t been decided yet.

Transferring to another school would get the player free room & board, for sure, no risk -- and, more free education.

Why would they need to transfer? Could be all these players have already earned their degrees and are more than ready to start earning that money. Even if there is no WNBA, for sure there will be overseas leagues. South Korea is already starting some sports. Getting drafted into the WNBA is VERY good for the overseas resume. Don’t let anybody convince you otherwise.
 

It’s up to each player to decide what’s the best option
Oh, thanks for cluing me in -- I thought it was their mom & pop that decided.
That hasn’t been decided yet.
> WNBA season decision < I would have thought every GopherHoler would already know that.
Why would they need to transfer?
I didn't think Oregon, Baylor, Princeton, South Carolina & the NCAA would let them play another year without transferring.
> earned their degrees < there is additional education available in Grad school.
> for sure < I said "could mean" and I'm not as sure as you about the availability of sports, anywhere in the world before Thanksgiving.
Don’t let anybody convince you otherwise.
I fully agree that a selection into the WNBA is VERY valuable. No one will convince me otherwise.
 




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