ESPN: 40 Under 40: We rank the best young coaches in college basketball (#6. Richard Pitino, Minnesota)

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BleedGopher

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per ESPN:

6. Richard Pitino, Minnesota (37)
Being named a high-major head coach at 30 years old is an achievement in itself, which outweighs some of the struggles Pitino has had during his seven-year stint with the Golden Gophers. He has been to two NCAA tournaments, and he won 18 games his lone season at FIU. Got his first college coaching job at 22 years old. -- Jeff Borzello

www.espn.com

40 Under 40: We rank the best young coaches in men's college basketball

College basketball's identity is tied closely to its coaches. These are among the game's most important names of the coming decades.
www.espn.com www.espn.com

Go Gophers!!
 




Talk about nonsense.

Borzello should be nominated for the preposterous statement tournament immediately for this one..

Just getting hired outweighs the struggles he's had while coaching? WTF? o_O

Boy, that Pitino name is serving Richard much better than I even gave him credit for.
 


MRJ said:
Talk about nonsense.

Borzello should be nominated for the preposterous statement tournament immediately for this one..

Just getting hired outweighs the struggles he's had while coaching? WTF? o_O

Boy, that Pitino name is serving Richard much better than I even gave him credit for.
Click to expand...

If you look at the actual list, his placement at #6 is more than reasonable. Most of the rest of the list below him are assistants or at much much smaller programs. The guys ahead of him are mostly promising at mid-majors
 

WriterGoph said:
If you look at the actual list, his placement at #6 is more than reasonable. Most of the rest of the list below him are assistants or at much much smaller programs. The guys ahead of him are mostly promising at mid-majors
Click to expand...

Two things to add here:

1. The fact that they rank mid-major coaches at UNC Greensboro and Furman better than Richard tells you a lot about his performance while he's been here. On top of that, they still rank him behind LSU's Will Wade, who has been literally caught on tape discussing illicit payments to recruits and their families. None of that is exactly a ringing endorsement of Rick's son.

2. The statement that getting hired outweighs his struggles as a coach is inherently stupid. The team is struggling on a regular basis under Pitino, but at least he can say he got hired? And it should be noted, he didn't get hired because he was such a great candidate. He got hired because Teague screwed the pooch on other coaches he wanted and was forced to take take a flier on an unproven coach with the last name Pitino. As a result, we were told/led to believe he would have to learn on the job.

To be honest, the entire article is just filling space with click bait for diehard college basketball fans. The entire premise is foolish. But the statements on Richard are laughably ridiculous.
 





Xavier’s Travis Steele at #2 is the one that jumped out at me. His two years at a strong, tradition-laden program have resulted in two bubble (or less) seasons. Very unimpressed with Steele so far.
 

So they praise him because he won 18 games in his only year at FIU and because he is young?
 

I am not a fan of ranking players/coaches/teams when you can't compare apples to apples. Different positions? Different eras? Different standards? Different rules (in some cases)?

How do you compare 7 years of B1G head coaching (number 6) against an assistant at Duke (number 9) against the first year head coach of Kennesaw State (number 19)? You kind of cannot rank Pitino any lower than Borzello did without implying "this guy absolutely sucks" which nobody ever does in the media for fear of burning bridges.
 

SelectionSunday said:
Xavier’s Travis Steele at #2 is the one that jumped out at me. His two years at a strong, tradition-laden program have resulted in two bubble (or less) seasons. Very unimpressed with Steele so far.
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Travis Steele took over a program that had just lost a lot of talent. His first year he was 19-16, then improved to 19-13 his 2nd year. He is heading in the right direction.
 



LakevilleBro said:
Travis Steele took over a program that had just lost a lot of talent. His first year he was 19-16, then improved to 19-13 his 2nd year. He is heading in the right direction.
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He took over a program that had appeared in 16 of the previous 18 NCAA tournaments. Expectations are quite a bit higher there than being a bubble team, which X has been 2 straight seasons. 50-50 at best they would’ve made tourney this year (though in fairness I had X “in”).
 

I will guess that Pitino will benefit from a “reset” whenever we decide to move on to a new coach and he outperforms at his next stop. I don’t think he is a bad coach, although he has been unsuccessful here. He has no track record and that probably hurts his ability to recruit against top tier coaches in the big ten. It feels like he’s caught in a cycle of instability and would benefit from the opportunity to build from ground zero, rather than always trying to plug unexpected holes each year. Anyways, I bet Minnesota won’t be his last high major gig.

Just a thought. Please let’s not argue over each of our definitions of “bad”.
 





Sid chimes in:

Jottings

• Richard Pitino has been the Gophers coach for seven years, making it hard to believe he is still only 37 years old. But earlier this month, ESPN ranked him as the sixth-best college basketball coach in the country under the age of 40.

www.startribune.com

Gophers football team doesn't sacrifice values while recruiting top talent

The football team's five four-star recruits stand out, but Fleck also looks for high character.
www.startribune.com www.startribune.com

Go Gophers!!
 

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