Justin Gaard on KFAN

I don't think that it is just Gaard. I'm listening to the Noon to Two show try to talk about hoops. I realize this show commonly prides itself on lack of preparation, but the way they avoid addressing Little Ricky's imminent departure smacks of management directed willful ignorance.

Most of KFAN's shows turn a blind eye to the basketball abominations that they broadcast and struggle to get listeners tuned in to.
 

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

Where do you see 9th? Either way I dream of a winning record in the B1G for us, let alone a "stumble" at 10-8
 


The first bolded part is nonsense. The team Gaard is referring to in 2017-2018 lost at home to Miami 86-81, at Nebraska 78-68 and at Arkansas 95-79 before anything happened Lynch (not an injury) or Coffey went down. They were not even ranked.
Let me stop you right there. The were 13-3 before Lynch was suspended. They had a top 25 win vs Alabama (Collin Sexton game), and a road win @Providence (who finished 3rd in the Big East that year).
Road games are tough to win and Nebraska and Arkansas were GOOD that year. Both finished top four in their respective conferences. Miami was ranked ahead of the Gophers at the time (ended the season ranked #22), and Dupree was also out for this game as well. It was a close game that could've gone either way.
The 2017-18 starting 5 was the best we've seen in a long time. It was the same 5 returning from a 24-10 Gophers team that finished 4th in the Big Ten and made the tourney as a #5 seed.
 

So...I started thinking about this recruiting stuff. I don't know what any of this means, but it might be of interest.

Please forgive the crappy formatting, I was just pushing numbers around without the thought of actually posting them:

I did not spend even 1 second considering playing time, role on the team, etc.
TeamNumber of players listed on ESPN rosterPercent from Home State (rounded)
Illinois
17​
47%​
Indiana
17​
53%​
Iowa
16​
50%​
Maryland
16​
25%​
MSU
15​
40%​
Michigan
17​
41%​
Minnesota
13​
23%​
Nebraska
16​
19%​
Northwestern
14​
14%​
tOSU
15​
40%​
Penn St
16​
38%​
Purdue
15​
53%​
Rutgers
17​
24%​
wisconsin
17​
24%​

For this one, I only went back 3 years because I only have so much time to ignore my work in the office:

The numbers after the years are the number of players with a 247 "star ranking".
You would read the first line for Illinois as 1 (5 star *****) player, 1 (4 star ****), etc.
percentages are skewed a bit for the states that did not have 5 players ranked, so Iowa landed 1 of 9 ranked players, ergo the 11%.
StateYear# of Top 5 stayed in State% Went to home state B10 School
Illinois2020 1 5*, 1 4*, 3 3*1 (Illinois)
13%​
2019 1 4*, 4 3*2 (DaPaul, LUC)
2018 4 4*, 1 3*1 (Illinois)
Indiana2020 1 5*, 3 4*, 1 3*3 (Indiana (2), Purdue (1))
40%​
2019 1 5*, 3 4*, 1 3*2 (Indiana, Purdue)
2018 1 5*, 3 4*, 1 3*3 (Indiana)
Iowa2020 1 4*, 1 3*, 1 2*1 (ISU) (3 players listed)
11%​
2019 2 4*, 1 3*1 (coaches son, 3 players listed)
2018 3 4*, 1 3*2 (Iowa, Northern Iowa) (3 players listed)
Maryland2020 3 4*, 2 3*0
7%​
2019 1 4*, 4 3*0
2018 2 5*, 3 4*1 (Maryland)
Michigan2020 2 4*, 3 3*0
33%​
2019 1 4*, 4 3*0
2018 5 4*5 (MSU (3), Michigan (2)
Minnesota2020 1 5*, 4 4*0
20%​
2019 1 5*, 2 4*, 2 3*0
2018 1 5*, 1 4*, 3 3*3 (Minnesota)
Nebraska2020 2 3*0 (2 players listed)
33%​
2019 2 3*1 (Nebraska) (2 players listed)
2018 2 3*1 (2 players listed)
Pennsylvania2020 3 4*, 2 3*1 (Pitt)
0%​
2019 5 4*1 (Villinova)
2018 1 5*, 1 4* 3 3*1 (Pitt)
New Jersey2020 1 5*, 4 4*1 (Rutgers)
7%​
2019 3 5*, 2 4*0
2018 3 5*, 2 4*0
wisconsin2020 1 5*, 1 4*, 3 3*1 (wisconsin)
7%​
2019 5 3*0
2018 3 4* 2 3*1 (Marquette)

Oops...forgot Ohio:

Ohio2020 4 4* 1 3*1 (tOSU)
7%​
2019 1 5*, 1 4*, 3 3*0
2018 1 5*, 4 4*0
 
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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.
Part of his 'bad luck' is his lack of a bench. One injury, or suspension, derailed a team. Good recruiters are able to weather injuries. Tubby had the same issue here.
 

Part of his 'bad luck' is his lack of a bench. One injury, or suspension, derailed a team. Good recruiters are able to weather injuries. Tubby had the same issue here.

Every program that loses a lot of games has these exact same excuses.

If not flukey circumstances, Tubby may have had a Final 4/Elite 8 team.
 

Gard started his rant on the Pitino situation giving the recruiting breakdown of the top 10 MN fb recruits during Fleck's tenure. His point was that Fleck is not getting the top fb players in MN. But he failed to identify Pitino's recruits of MN. In a hotbed of high school basketball talent, MN is not known as a hotbed for football recruiting, how many times did Richard go 0 for MN kids? I agree with Gard that kids will go else where, that it is difficult to compete against the blue bloods, but to go 0fer on MN kids is glaring. In my research, in 5 of his 8 seasons he did not sign 1 MN recruit.
 

Gard started his rant on the Pitino situation giving the recruiting breakdown of the top 10 MN fb recruits during Fleck's tenure. His point was that Fleck is not getting the top fb players in MN. But he failed to identify Pitino's recruits of MN. In a hotbed of high school basketball talent, MN is not known as a hotbed for football recruiting, how many times did Richard go 0 for MN kids? I agree with Gard that kids will go else where, that it is difficult to compete against the blue bloods, but to go 0fer on MN kids is glaring. In my research, in 5 of his 8 seasons he did not sign 1 MN recruit.
I agree with the overall point but he wasn't 0 for. Coffey and Oturu are in the NBA. He got Gabe, say what you will he's been a decent player.

I'm not broken hearted about the guys that went to Wisconsin.

He didn't have time to develop a good enough relationship with Vaughn, Travis, and Jones I, but after that he missed on some big names.
 



Gard started his rant on the Pitino situation giving the recruiting breakdown of the top 10 MN fb recruits during Fleck's tenure. His point was that Fleck is not getting the top fb players in MN. But he failed to identify Pitino's recruits of MN. In a hotbed of high school basketball talent, MN is not known as a hotbed for football recruiting, how many times did Richard go 0 for MN kids? I agree with Gard that kids will go else where, that it is difficult to compete against the blue bloods, but to go 0fer on MN kids is glaring. In my research, in 5 of his 8 seasons he did not sign 1 MN recruit.

Yep, big difference between keeping top in-state talent home in football vs. basketball. There is a lot of top end talent right here in Minnesota for basketball and Pitino has not done a good job convincing many of those kids to stay home.

That said, while it would have been nice to see him have better success recruiting in-state guys, in the end his job is construct a solid roster regardless of where the players come from. And it has always seemed like we were seriously lacking in something. Some years it was depth, others it was shooting (this year for example). Early in this year it finally seemed like it might be coming together but that evaporated about a month ago.
 

Here’s my issue with Pitino. Good coaches have a system they believe in and recruit players who fit that system. RP doesn’t have one unless you call dribble in circles and launching an ill-advised shot his system. He’s recruited one serviceable freshman in the last 2 years and nothing this year. He’s misses constantly on local recruit and ends up with transfers, and freshman who can’t contribute. Also doesn’t just miss to blue-bloods, he misses to Marquette, UW, Colorado, Texas, etc. I don’t think about would be mad about having a team full of outstate players if he was winning. After 8 years he still looks overmatched in recruiting, on the sidelines, and his philosophy on how to build a program. He’s had his time and he’s become a rich man if he saved his money. It’s time to go
 

Trouble in Madison and Gaard is a Gopher honk.

Hmmm.

As long as he doesn't bring Davisson with him I'm ok with it.
 

Trouble in Madison and Gaard is a Gopher honk.

Hmmm.

As long as he doesn't bring Davisson with him I'm ok with it.
Trouble brewing in Madison because Brad Davison is bypassing extra year of eligibility to become Gophers next head coach. MYSTERY SOLVED :cool:
 






It will be interesting to see how Wisconsin plays tonight. Word is recently there were a couple player only meetings then the team had one with Gaard. I think they can bounce back but they have been struggling
 




It will be interesting to see how Wisconsin plays tonight. Word is recently there were a couple player only meetings then the team had one with Gaard. I think they can bounce back but they have been struggling
Sounding more and more like Gard is just an hardo that nobody likes
 



i see they look yet another L last night. free falling with a trip to Iowa this weekend. whatever is going on in Madison behind the scenes is sure something
Feels like I'm sticking up for them when I'm not but they are just not as talented as Illinois, Iowa, Ohio St, and Michigan. They're right at the level of Purdue so not surprising they lost a close one. The Big Ten is just loaded this year, but if they want to go through a world of hell over not being the best team (even though they're far from it) I welcome that and would feel pretty good about it.
 




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