With all respect, none of that matters if he shows he can coach and win.
Top Minnesota recruits will be more interested if the team is successful. That's just the way it works. He didn't get many and a big reason is because he wasn't successful. A lot of them threw him a bone because it was the local school, but in the end, his results spoke for themselves and it was therefore an easy decision to go elsewhere. Getting top local kids is always going to be tough with bluebloods sniffing around. It's even harder when the local team is totally irrelevant nationally.
As it relates to transfers, he was literally filling up his roster with them due to not having won many significant recruiting battles. And the the transfers he did get haven't changed the on-court product much, if at all. If those transfers had suddenly lifted the program into contention, there would be no complaints whatsoever. As it is, they haven't and didn't. So getting transfers isn't the issue. Not being competitive with the transfers is the problem. Win more than 25 games every year and finish in the top 25 yearly and nobody cares about transfers or where the recruits come from.
As to that "best team since 1997" squad, he brought in Reggie Lynch, who was a transfer, local product and sexual predator. That's not bad luck. He was one of your guys. The "whoopsie, we recruited a sexual predator" angle is fine, but doesn't fully explain the full context of that season. After Lynch was booted, the squad completely tanked. If they truly were the "best team since 1997", they should have been able to absorb that loss and stay relevant. Instead, it was a complete free-fall.
As to the Wisconsin and Marquette angle, I'm not sure why it matters how many Minnesotans started for them and that they got throttled. Almost every team in the country loses several games a year. With the Gophers, they get throttled on the regular whether there are Minnesotans on the roster or not, so I don't understand the point. Is he inferring there isn't that much instate talent? It didn't matter he didn't get those kids because they aren't very good anyway? Honestly, I don't get it.
Which leads me to this; Pitino's undoing has nothing to do with the Minnesota basketball community as a whole. It has to do with him not getting it done on the court, period. If the team is successful, all that complaining becomes a moot point and he has a better shot at getting more top in-state talent. As it is, he didn't and therefore hasn't.
Trust me, people won't care one bit about any of that if the next coach starts winning consistently. Pitino never came close, even under the best of circumstances and Gaard knows that, which is why he took the entire issue in another direction, preaching to the Minnesota basketball community.
