Justin Gaard wants MN to keep Pitino

[Cayman]

I saw a couple of preseason predictions projecting us as 12th in the conference. They didn't expect much from us and we delivered on that estimation.

I got the feeling that those predictions had us in the dregs of the conference, being just slightly less terrible than Northwestern and Nebraska, having no hope of competing with teams like Maryland or Ohio State, and not sniffing Tournament projections at any point over the course of the season, and that was also when Rutgers and Penn State were expected to be much worse than they ended up being.

 

[PMWinSTP]

Why do I keep coming back to this board filled with people asking clueless questions like this. I will add WoodburyTim to my ignore list like many others that have clearly irrational ideas. The problem is, this site is full of trolls that just want an outlet for meanness rather than have a discussion of opinions based on facts. I can respect people who believe we should get a new coach, but very few give good explanations why. For example, I disagree with BuiltBadgers grading, but at least he has a rationale. He doesn't ask questions like this one by Tim. We've made the tourney 2 of 4 years with a win (despite key post season injuries each tourney). That is more than a passing grade in my book for a program in frozen flyover country competing against teams closer to population and talent and decent weather. I see a long term upwards trend with a rebuilding blip (yes, opinions may vary). This team was young with all key talent returning (Oturu?) which historically means the best situation for improvement (got that, Tim?).

PS I live near Washington, DC. This week I listened to a radio interview where the Maryland beat writer admitted half the fan base has a problem with coach Turgeon. Yes, fans are crazy most everywhere. At least here in DC (and most every other B1G school except Minnesota, Nebraska, maybe Iowa and Wisconsin) there is plenty of talent nearby and more reasonable weather. If every coach in B1G performed the same, where would you expect the Gophers to finish? I'd say we'd be fighting Nebraska for the basement. Sure, there are coaches that could outperform and put us at the top, but how many would come here? How many "sure things" would actually fail (Tubby Smith was borderline considered this category). Yup, I want another year of Pitino with a young returning team and Mashburn and a young coach who is also learning. I strongly suspect there soon will be buyers remorse if we start over again.

So you don't think there's a chance other teams will improve too?

 

[short ornery norwegian]

I did not expect a lot from the Gophers coming into the season, so I am not shocked.

Going in, I said the one thing I wanted to see was a team that improved over the course of the season. And they did not.

The question is this: is this the best the program can do?

If you think that this is the best the program can do, then keep Pitino.

If you think that the program can be better, or should be better, then what makes you think Pitino can deliver on that?

Pitino has had 7 years, and we can all see the results.

 

[Gopherfan84]

I did not expect a lot from the Gophers coming into the season, so I am not shocked.

Going in, I said the one thing I wanted to see was a team that improved over the course of the season. And they did not.

The question is this: is this the best the program can do?

If you think that this is the best the program can do, then keep Pitino.

If you think that the program can be better, or should be better, then what makes you think Pitino can deliver on that?

Pitino has had 7 years, and we can all see the results.

We disagreed with our initial assessment of this years team, but we can agree on improvement through the season. This is the main reason why I've finally jumped to moving on free this season.

 

[skiumah1]

Completely agree with those pointing out and researching Pitino's records and the struggle that we've had winning games. It's not good enough over 7 years.

Unlike some though I actually believe in the talent we have here and the guys that Pitino has brought in. I actually think a good coach can come in next year and have us in NCAA tournament talk in year 1, as long as you only lose Oturu (obviously no mashburn or mitchell either). But I think you've got enough qualityish players in Carr, Willis, Gabe, Ihnen, Williams, Omersa, Greenlee and Freeman (You'd think incoming coach would add 1 or 2 guys getting minutes for depth). It doesn't look great when you talk about these guys this year but I'm thinking there is massive room for growth with Ihnen specifically, and then Tre Williams looks like he's got the skill to be a good player.

This is all hypothetical and most likely you lose a couple guys. I'm more so just wrapping up my non-belief in Pitino's coaching ability. You can't tell me this roster shouldn't be in the NCAA tournament. I get the expectations were low coming into the year, but then we immediately saw what some of these guys can do, specifically Carr. We got worse as the year went on, or the best you could say is we stayed the same. We didn't get any better. That is been a theme of Pitino teams.

I've always held out hope Pitino could get his talent to come together at the right time but I've continued to wait for that and it doesn't happen when I expect it to at the end of the year when you need to be playing your best basketball. So at this point I don't think he really has that ability. I really thought this roster had a chance to click again this year at the right time, but then we lose the critical home games to Iowa and Indiana due to bad execution and really just a lack of energy, both coaching focused. I don't know how guys aren't coming out playing hard, another recurring theme for Pitino's time here. Gotta make a change.

If we don't, I'll continue the hope and support the Gophs but 7 years is a decent sample size. Hopefully they make some noise this weekend.