Justin Gaard on KFAN

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Section2 said:
New coach might not get the top local recruits, but I guarantee he will work harder at it than Pitino. Fleck outrecruited Suggs vs Pitino. Pitino is a lazy recruiter. He gives up too easily. You only have to recruit 2-3 kids most years and Fleck works harder at it than you for a kid who’s a long shot to play football? That really says it all.
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I don't know if you're right, but I agree with you that it certanly feels that way when I view his recruiting. I think bobloblaw summed it up well. It's always going to be a challenge to land the top-drawer kids, especially given the one (sometimes two)-and-done, but we seem like we are just automatic outs with most of these players. I'm not one of those "Minnesota kids should always stay home" guys, but there's no question we have to strengthen our local presence.

I think the bigger issue is that we've been putting tire patches on tire patches for the last couple of decades and it has really become disheartening to watch.

I caught snippets of Gaard and he's not in the easiest of spots. Pitino has been an engaging personality and certainly up front about the team throughout his tenure. That said, there's no GM or ownership to shift the blame to in the college game. Responsibility falls on the coach to a greater extent at the college level because of recruiting.
 

tjgopher said:
For clarity's sake, Tubby's team that lost Al Nolen and Devoe Joseph (2010-11) got as high as #13 in December with a 11-1 record, but lost those two guys and lost 9 of its last 10 games to finish 6-12 in the Big Ten. That team had plenty of talent with Trevor, Rodney, Ralph, Hoffarber, Austin, Colton, and Mo. But, it went south fast when Al got injured because they had no PG depth.

Two years later, Tubby had a team ranked #8 in the country in January (2012-13), started 15-1 (including a 3-0 start in Big Ten), only to lose 10 of its last 15, finish 8-10 in the Big Ten, lose to a terrible Illinois team in the BTT opening game, limp into the NCAA tourney, beat a disinterested UCLA team, lose to Florida and Tubby got fired. That team had Trevor, Rodney, Andre, Austin, etc.



They were ranked for all of November and most of December and were 13-3 (2-1 in Big Ten) when all hell broke loose. They proceeded to go 2-14 after that. Reggie got booted, Amir missed time and played hurt with a shoulder, Dupree played hurt and missed time with a leg, and Mason played hurt with a hip all year.


There are some similarities to the 2010-11 and 2017-18 teams.
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Thanks, I did look it up and Minnesota was last ranked on 12/4 of the 17-18 season at 14. The losses to Nebraska and Arkansas knocked them out and they were unranked on 12/11. I was personally pretty worried about that team before Lynch was booted. I guess you could say that they were playing poorly because they knew of the Reggie situation and maybe they would have turned it around if the case had a different result (and Coffey didn't get hurt).
 



Bad Gopher said:
I've always felt that Richard undervalued local/regional talent. Not the elite guys but the 3- and 4-star guys. It took Ben Johnson to convince him to go after Kalscheur. We were later than we should have been on Will Tschetter and Eli King. The list is long, so I won't go on and on, but you can make a pretty good team by starting locally. Aside from the 5-stars, the players around here are usually undervalued. A coach with an eye for talent and who knows what they want and need will find this a good hunting ground.
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I just don't know whether he's a particularly in-depth talent evaluator. Sometimes it just seems as if he takes whatever well regarded players he can get without having a clear idea of their best talents and how to use them within the team. Then he gives up too easily once his players start struggling and/or seem confused about their roles. You mentioned something recently about how Gach and Ihnen seem to be flailing out there despite the fact that they aren't players without talents. We've seen that so often during Richard's tenure.
 

MaxyJR1 said:
His second segment hit on Pitino today and he acknowledged he is biased because of his job. However I think he did a great job explaining why the Minnesota basketball community needs to look in the mirror a bit and get with the times.

Recruiting: Listed the number in state recruits Fleck has gotten each year. Says Fleck lives and breathes recruiting and still kids leave. Basically Minnesotans feel entitled that all MN kids should get their first offer from MN.


Transfers are here to stay. 1000 kids transferred (3 per team) last year. Even Fleck gets it and is “living in the portal”. So realize the next basketball coach will too get transfers

Luck: Pitino has had some bad luck and that skews win percentage. He had the best team since 1997 and off the court issues took it down. Injuries have taken this season down.

He got two top MN kids to stay and they both left early to NBA, and that’s hardly talked about.

Just yesterday. Wisconsin starts 3 Minnesotans and got handled by Illinois. Marquette starts two Minnesotans and is under .500 in the Big East and got throttled yesterday.
He understands change is coming and understands it, but people need to realize that a new coach will work many of the same ways.
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Gaard's bias makes his input virtually useless. I am not questioning why he is biased or whether he should be. It's his job. But the fact that he so clearly is, makes it his comments irrelevant.
 

cjbfbp said:
I just don't know whether he's a particularly in-depth talent evaluator. Sometimes it just seems as if he takes whatever well regarded players he can get without having a clear idea of their best talents and how to use them within the team. Then he gives up too easily once his players start struggling and/or seem confused about their roles. You mentioned something recently about how Gach and Ihnen seem to be flailing out there despite the fact that they aren't players without talents. We've seen that so often during Richard's tenure.
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This. Thank you.
 




I read in the Star Tribune today about a young man in rural MN who sounds like a terrific kid as well as being a very good basketball player was first offered by MI, went to the campus, liked the coach and committed to what is going to be the #1 recruiting class in the country.
MI seemed to have decent teams after the Fab Five scandal but were not world beaters.
Now they have a coach that unless he leaves will have MI as the dominant BIG team for a long time.
Finding the right coach makes all the difference.
If Gard's teams continue stumble at WI in the next few years you can be sure he will be made redundant.
Pitino has had eight years of mediocrity and worse.
It is time for a change.
 

tjgopher said:
For clarity's sake, Tubby's team that lost Al Nolen and Devoe Joseph (2010-11) got as high as #13 in December with a 11-1 record, but lost those two guys and lost 9 of its last 10 games to finish 6-12 in the Big Ten. That team had plenty of talent with Trevor, Rodney, Ralph, Hoffarber, Austin, Colton, and Mo. But, it went south fast when Al got injured because they had no PG depth.

Two years later, Tubby had a team ranked #8 in the country in January (2012-13), started 15-1 (including a 3-0 start in Big Ten), only to lose 10 of its last 15, finish 8-10 in the Big Ten, lose to a terrible Illinois team in the BTT opening game, limp into the NCAA tourney, beat a disinterested UCLA team, lose to Florida and Tubby got fired. That team had Trevor, Rodney, Andre, Austin, Joe Coleman, Julian Welch, Mo, etc.



They were ranked for all of November and most of December and were 13-3 (2-1 in Big Ten) then all hell broke loose. They proceeded to go 2-14 after that. Reggie got booted, Amir missed time and played hurt with a shoulder, Dupree played hurt and missed time with a leg, and Mason played hurt with a hip all year.


There are some similarities to the 2010-11 and 2017-18 teams.
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Illinois was a 7 seed in the NCAA tournament that year. They were 8-10 in the Big Ten that year alongside us, but had a neutral site win over 6 seed Butler and a road win over 1 seed Gonzaga out of conference. From what I recall, we were tied with them in the final seconds, and Brandon Paul hit a jumper at the buzzer to beat us. I was at that game. Illinois actually hasn't been to the tournament since that season. Obviously they'll make it this year, and they likely would have made it last year too if the tournament had happened.

Further parallels between Tubby and Pitino are a couple of poor seasons that I was willing to somewhat chalk up to extenuating circumstances (lack of PG depth in 2010-11 due to Justin Cobbs transferring in the offseason, then losing Devoe Joseph and Al Nolen during the season, losing Mbakwe early in the 2011-12 season. A weak 2012 recruiting class from Tubby, Zach Lofton and DaQuein McNeil getting kicked off the team, Josh Martin transferring like 5 games into his career leaving a dearth of upperclassmen talent on the 2015-16 team, and I think Carlos Morris was also kicked off the team late that season for good measure, and then Coffey, Curry, and McBrayer getting injured along with the suspension of Lynch in 2017-18). But then in the 2012-13 and 2020-21 seasons, where there wasn't much in the way of significant personnel losses, we still couldn't beat anyone on the road and collapsed in the second half of the season.

I still think both Tubby and Pitino were capable of bigger things if they just caught some breaks earlier on. Pitino absolutely could have made the tournament in his first season if they'd been able to add Rakeem Buckles as planned, or if Andre Hollins hadn't gotten injured against Wisconsin, not to mention almost landing Reid Travis.
 

The pandemic canopy gave Pitino a cover for this season. Mediocrity will flush him out. He is no Rick Pitino. I don't know which will come down first - Pitino or the canopy. Wasn't he Mega Tongue's Villa 7 hire?

He is a likable guy, but he is soft on recruiting. Waiting until May will hurt recruiting for the next coach.

They need to start bringing fans to the Williams Arena when the pandemic is over. I have fond memories of the place rocking. I won't replace Williams Arena. I'd upgrade it.
 

cjbfbp said:
What are you talking about? Did we have to earn the right to recruit Jordan Murphy from Texas and Nate Mason from Georgia? Did Fleck have to earn the right to recruit Tanner Morgan from KY and Mo from the Baltimore area?

Focusing so much on New York and New Jersey? How many recruits did Pitino get from New York and New Jersey? Off the top of my head I can think of only Washington from New York and McBrayer and Jamir Harris from New Jersey.

"This isn't just a Gopher fan thing, look at recruiting classes across college athletics and you'll find that the majority of classes are made up largely by kids within a certain mile radius of the particular University."

You mean the majority of that talent Gonzaga gets comes from the Spokane area?

That was a genuinely idiotic rant by someone who seems obsessed by regional bigotry.

Numerous others on this page have stated the bottom line issue correctly: Wherever Pitino has recruited players from, he seldom managed to mesh them as a team effectively.
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You're misinterpreting what I'm saying lol. My point was that if you want good players from other parts of the country, often times you have to prove you can develop your own (kids from your region) before recruits from other parts of the country show interest. It's a lot easier pulling an Oturu/Coffey level talent from within your region than it is signing a 4* from outside of Big Ten country. The Gophers don't get Steven Ortiz from the West Coast without the development and success of Winfield Jr. Bateman did a ton of research on Fleck, his program and his development of WRs prior to even talking to him, if Corey Davis wasn't a top 5 pick, is that interest there? Even Isaiah Washington who didn't have a ton of interest outside of the U and I want to say St. John's, likely picked the Gophers in part because of the success Mason was having (He also had a strong relationship with Kimani Young). The sensible approach to recruiting is to establish relationships in your region then branch out nationally imo.

To the point about NY and NJ, Pitino offered and put effort into recruiting tons of kids from the Northeast early in his tenure and came out of it with Washington, Harris, Dupree and Ahmad Gilbert. Kimani leaving for UCONN really shifted Pitino's staff to being more Midwest centric and he hasn't said it publicly but I think it was an acknowledgement of the mistakes they made in their recruiting approach. Recruiting focus has shifted since then with the hires of Ed Conroy from Iowa, Rob Jeter from Pittsburgh but heavy upper Midwest ties (obviously has left), Kyle Lindsted from Kansas/Sunrise Christian and Jeff Mailhot from Minnesota. I think that commitment was really going to pay off in the 2022 class actually. Obviously a loaded in-state class but Joe Hurlburt from North Dakota and Tamin Lipsey from Iowa had pretty high interest in the Gophers.

I made the point that Gonzaga was an exception to my belief further down the page due to the amount of international guys they recruit but in looking through some of their recruiting classes, even their rosters through the Few years have been pretty Washington, Oregon and California heavy. Dan Dickau (Oregon), Adam Morrison (Montana), Austin Daye (California), Robert Sacre (British Columbia), and Kelly Olynyk (from Ontario but went to HS in British Columbia) paved the way for them to land the Zach Norvells, Jalen Suggs, Chet and so on. Started regionally then branched out.

Finally, Howard Schnellenberger (the first head coach of the Miami Hurricanes football dynasty) came up with the idea of recruiting only "The State of Miami" which was explained in the ESPN 30 for 30 "The U". In short, it was a focus on keeping the best players from South Florida home to then expand into the Southeast region and then going national. My point was always to apply a similar approach in establishing pipelines in the Midwest and then expanding nationally. That's how you build a sustainable program.
 
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MaxyJR1 said:
Luck: Pitino has had some bad luck
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He sure has... and there's never been a sign that his luck is going to change. For whatever reason, fate has decreed that Richard Pitino is doomed to fail at Minnesota. I'm not willing to sacrifice a goat to appease the basketball gods and lift the curse, though. Unless someone else can figure out how to change Pitino's luck, we might as well face the fact that he's got to go. A change of scenery might do him and the University of Minnesota both a world of good.

I hope the basketball gods smile upon Richard at his next stop.
 

Justin Gaard has been connected to the U for years. He is not unbiased and I don’t expect him to be. But we can’t give Pitino another year.
 

GopherNuts said:
You're misinterpreting what I'm saying lol. My point was that if you want good players from other parts of the country, often times you have to prove you can develop your own (kids from your region) before recruits from other parts of the country show interest. It's a lot easier pulling an Oturu/Coffey level talent from within your region than it is signing a 4* from outside of Big Ten country. The Gophers don't get Steven Ortiz from the West Coast without the development and success of Winfield Jr. Bateman did a ton of research on Fleck, his program and his development of WRs prior to even talking to him, if Corey Davis wasn't a top 5 pick, is that interest there? Even Isaiah Washington who didn't have a ton of interest outside of the U and I want to say St. John's, likely picked the Gophers in part because of the success Mason was having (He also had a strong relationship with Kimani Young). The sensible approach to recruiting is to establish relationships in your region then branch out nationally imo.

To the point about NY and NJ, Pitino offered and put effort into recruiting tons of kids from the Northeast early in his tenure and came out of it with Washington, Harris, Dupree and Ahmad Gilbert. Kimani leaving for UCONN really shifted Pitino's staff to being more Midwest centric and he hasn't said it publicly but I think it was an acknowledgement of the mistakes they made in their recruiting approach. Recruiting focus has shifted since then with the hires of Ed Conroy from Iowa, Rob Jeter from Pittsburgh but heavy upper Midwest ties (obviously has left), Kyle Lindsted from Kansas/Sunrise Christian and Jeff Mailhot from Minnesota. I think that commitment was really going to pay off in the 2022 class actually. Obviously a loaded in-state class but Joe Hurlburt from North Dakota and Tamin Lipsey from Iowa had pretty high interest in the Gophers.

I made the point that Gonzaga was an exception to my belief further down the page due to the amount of international guys they recruit but in looking through some of their recruiting classes, even their rosters through the Few years have been pretty Washington, Oregon and California heavy. Dan Dickau (Oregon), Adam Morrison (Montana), Austin Daye (California), Robert Sacre (British Columbia), and Kelly Olynyk (from Ontario but went to HS in British Columbia) paved the way for them to land the Zach Norvells, Jalen Suggs, Chet and so on. Started regionally then branched out.

Finally, Howard Schnellenberger (the first head coach of the Miami Hurricanes football dynasty) came up with the idea of recruiting only "The State of Miami" which was explained in the ESPN 30 for 30 "The U". In short, it was a focus on keeping the best players from South Florida home to then expand into the Southeast region and then going national. My point was always to apply a similar approach in establishing pipelines in the Midwest and then expanding nationally. That's how you build a sustainable program.
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UVA built it with players from all over, he did the same at WSU.
 

Plato said:
I read in the Star Tribune today about a young man in rural MN who sounds like a terrific kid as well as being a very good basketball player was first offered by MI, went to the campus, liked the coach and committed to what is going to be the #1 recruiting class in the country.
MI seemed to have decent teams after the Fab Five scandal but were not world beaters.
Now they have a coach that unless he leaves will have MI as the dominant BIG team for a long time.
Finding the right coach makes all the difference.
If Gard's teams continue stumble at WI in the next few years you can be sure he will be made redundant.
Pitino has had eight years of mediocrity and worse.
It is time for a change.
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Gard has not stumbled that badly. They just won the conference last year !
 

laazrakit said:
He sure has... and there's never been a sign that his luck is going to change. For whatever reason, fate has decreed that Richard Pitino is doomed to fail at Minnesota. I'm not willing to sacrifice a goat to appease the basketball gods and lift the curse, though. Unless someone else can figure out how to change Pitino's luck, we might as well face the fact that he's got to go. A change of scenery might do him and the University of Minnesota both a world of good.

I hope the basketball gods smile upon Richard at his next stop.
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Sacrificing a goat might have worked. Why didn't you suggest that sooner?!
 

Marky Dit said:
Justin Gaard has been connected to the U for years. He is not unbiased and I don’t expect him to be. But we can’t give Pitino another year.
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Of all the local sports reporters/broacasters tied to a team due to a network's or station's broadcast connections, I actually think Gaard is quite balanced.

Pitino has impressed me as a stand-up coach. He's personable and doesn't sugarcoat things, but that only goes so far. The program just seems to continue down this aimless path.
 

I like Justin Gaard a lot.
I'm sure he likes his relationships with the Pitino and Fleck so it's good for him to defend them.

But that's part of the business you are in with media. People will change roles, and you need to cover it when it happens.

Not many are saying Richard is a bad guy or not likeable, or that he didn't have teams that almost looked like they could win some tournament games. Nothing much ever came of it though.

In the end it comes down to: "Just win, baby".
 

Obviously recruiting is paramount. However, what I am most disappointed in with Pitino is that his teams are soooo predictable. Never is there a change in defenses. There are times when a zone would be very effective if nothing else just to confuse the opponent. Offensively and inbounds plays there is zero creativity. It's been very frustrating and painful to watch. Looking forward to a change.
 


GopherNuts said:
Finally, Howard Schnellenberger (the first head coach of the Miami Hurricanes football dynasty) came up with the idea of recruiting only "The State of Miami" which was explained in the ESPN 30 for 30 "The U". In short, it was a focus on keeping the best players from South Florida home to then expand into the Southeast region and then going national. My point was always to apply a similar approach in establishing pipelines in the Midwest and then expanding nationally. That's how you build a sustainable program.
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Florida is the 3rd most populous state in the nation with four times the population of Minnesota. It is also adjacent to Georgia, a state twice as populous as Minnesota.

Good players, like good business, come from wherever you find them. There isn't just one way to recruit players to build a solid foundation. Yes, winning and the exposure that comes with that contribute more than anything to successful recruiting (everybody knows that!) but Pitino didn't fail to win sufficiently because of where he recruited his players.

Now please spare me any further ramblings.
 

Face The Facts said:
In the end it comes down to: "Just win, baby".
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Yes, the ultimate commandment. I'll add a corollary:

If you're going to lose a little too often, then at least don't lose because of the same damn reasons year after year! Show a little innovation. At least people will think you're trying to address issues.
 

WoodburyTim said:
Gaard's bias makes his input virtually useless. I am not questioning why he is biased or whether he should be. It's his job. But the fact that he so clearly is, makes it his comments irrelevant.
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The guy who interviews and has connections to the program has virtually useless input? He stated his bias and said he understands the change that is likely to happen. He simply stated that the same issues that Pitino has (in-state recruiting/transfers) will still be things that the new coach battles. Thing is you can even have a losing win % in the Big Ten and still make the NCAA tournament every year.

Here's my issue with in-state recruiting. Each roster has 13 scholarship positions. That's 3 per year. The math alone says in-state recruiting is going to be tough.
 

Gopher73 said:
Obviously recruiting is paramount. However, what I am most disappointed in with Pitino is that his teams are soooo predictable. Never is there a change in defenses. There are times when a zone would be very effective if nothing else just to confuse the opponent. Offensively and inbounds plays there is zero creativity. It's been very frustrating and painful to watch. Looking forward to a change.
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100% on the lack of adjustment. In the Nebraska game they were getting layups time and again against our man. They are a terrible 3 point shooting team (like us). Why not zone them for a while? Did we play zone once this year? It would be understandable if our man defense was consistently solid- but it isn't and hasn't been since we started 4-4 against the "tough part" of our schedule.

The repeated theme of Pitino has been minimal bench, play the starters big minutes, poor shooting percentages, suffer late season injuries and tank. This year he had enough players to avoid that.

I have supported him because this is a very tough job, he was hired before he was ready and he seems to be a very solid human being. But he just has not been able to turn the corner despite what appeared to be a semi- miraculous assembling of a solid roster this year in the wake of losing Oturu early. Time to move on!
 

cjbfbp said:
Florida is the 3rd most populous state in the nation with four times the population of Minnesota. It is also adjacent to Georgia, a state twice as populous as Minnesota.

Good players, like good business, come from wherever you find them. There isn't just one way to recruit players to build a solid foundation. Yes, winning and the exposure that comes with that contribute more than anything to successful recruiting (everybody knows that!) but Pitino didn't fail to win sufficiently because of where he recruited his players.

Now please spare me any further ramblings.
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I frequently quote what Lou Holtz said when he took the job here: "The heart and soul of this program will come from Minnesota, but the arms and legs are going to have to come from somewhere else." That's always been true of football, but these days it's less true of basketball. You look at our Final Four team: where would the team have been if it hadn't been for John Thomas, Sam Jacobson, and Trevor Winter? Not the Final Four; I'll tell you that. But the bulk of the talent came from out of state. Nowadays that proportion can be somwhat different, but you still have to travel to get talent.
 

builtbadgers said:
Gard has not stumbled that badly. They just won the conference last year !
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there are Wi fans that want him gone, which I think is ludicrous

there are some legit gripes about Gard. A team that has a starting line up practically same age as the chicago bulls starting line up being out of top 4 in B1G isn't a great look. They're also 0-5 or 0-6 vs top 5 teams

but they're one year removed from winning the b1g (I don't think they were the best team in the b1g, but hey) and will be dancing again.
 

cjbfbp said:
Florida is the 3rd most populous state in the nation with four times the population of Minnesota. It is also adjacent to Georgia, a state twice as populous as Minnesota.

Good players, like good business, come from wherever you find them. There isn't just one way to recruit players to build a solid foundation. Yes, winning and the exposure that comes with that contribute more than anything to successful recruiting (everybody knows that!) but Pitino didn't fail to win sufficiently because of where he recruited his players.

Now please spare me any further ramblings.
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Not really sure what I said that triggered this reaction from you but much of what I was talking about is basic recruiting strategy and that’s talked about across college athletics. I probably needed to be more specific in the point I was making so I appreciate the reply.
 
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builtbadgers said:
Gard has not stumbled that badly. They just won the conference last year !
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Entire team back & pre season top 10 and likely finishing 9th in big ten. Rough year with empty cupboards coming.

And things might get really bad if what you were alluding too earlier comes to fruition with trouble brewing in mad
 

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