Larry Fitzgerald column: Pitino "has taken the program into a gopher hole."

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BleedGopher

BleedGopher

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per Fitzgerald:

Richard Pitino, in year three of the Kaler-Teague experiment, now has taken the program into a gopher hole. Teague of course is long gone now and disgraced as a predator, fired last year on sexual harassment charges. Before he left, he gave Pitino a nice $7 million buyout of his current contract.

It’s amazing what can happen when you do the wrong thing for absolutely no reason at all. All hell can break loose and your athletic program starts sinking.

Minnesota should be ashamed, and not just President Kaler — though it all starts with him — but all of the parrots on campus and around town, all those behind the scenes who fed the deception and went along with the decisions that have led to the Gophers program being in the toilet. It did not happen overnight; it took heavy doses of Minnesota Nice. Now you have a misguided program with no leadership and no one willing to accept responsibility.

http://spokesman-recorder.com/2016/03/09/minnesota-mens-basketball-mess/

Go Gophers!!
 

warm up the flame-throwers:

Larry Fitzgerald's theory of coaching:

black coach = good
white coach = not as good.

or to put it another way - hind-sight is always 20-20. It's easy to second-guess a move that doesn't work out, after the person who made that move has been disgraced for improper conduct.
 

short ornery norwegian said:
warm up the flame-throwers:

Larry Fitzgerald's theory of coaching:

black coach = good
white coach = not as good.

or to put it another way - hind-sight is always 20-20. It's easy to second-guess a move that doesn't work out, after the person who made that move has been disgraced for improper conduct.
Click to expand...
x2 What he is about always includes an agenda and it's not always about right or wrong.
 

short ornery norwegian said:
warm up the flame-throwers:

Larry Fitzgerald's theory of coaching:

black coach = good
white coach = not as good.

or to put it another way - hind-sight is always 20-20. It's easy to second-guess a move that doesn't work out, after the person who made that move has been disgraced for improper conduct.
Click to expand...

+1 in hindsight Tubby is a better coach then Pitino and probably always will be, but the time was right to make a move. You cant fault the U for that, and it is not a black vs white issue.
 



The first thing Teague does is fire men’s basketball coach Tubby Smith after six years and three NCAA appearances. For reasons I still don’t understand, many local media and fans bought into believing that Minnesota could overnight be Kentucky, North Carolina, Kansas, Duke, etc. All they needed was the right coach.

Well, Fitzgerald does identify the crux of the problem (possibly, he left out boredom; but still). And I do wish Goetz would address the Pitino buyout-its taken on a second life as a bludgeon.
 

Classic Larry Fitz Sr column on a classic Tubby Smith night
 


Ignatius L Hoops said:
The first thing Teague does is fire men’s basketball coach Tubby Smith after six years and three NCAA appearances. For reasons I still don’t understand, many local media and fans bought into believing that Minnesota could overnight be Kentucky, North Carolina, Kansas, Duke, etc. All they needed was the right coach.

Well, Fitzgerald does identify the crux of the problem (possibly, he left out boredom; but still). And I do wish Goetz would address the Pitino buyout-its taken on a second life as a bludgeon.
Click to expand...

6 years = overnight I guess. What's being patient mean to Fitzgerald? 25 years?
 



We all knew going into the season that this would be the down year. I know, it was even worse than anticipated but we were really in a lot of our big ten losses too. Then an injury and several off the court issues came up and now everyone is acting like they expected an NCAA tournament appearance this year.

Maybe I'm wrong but I still believe the team will make the tournament next year, and Pitino will turn the program around.
 


We need to hire Jeremy Lin to replace Pitino. No way an Asian coach would settle for an "F" season grade. ;)
 

shaggith said:
We all knew going into the season that this would be the down year. I know, it was even worse than anticipated but we were really in a lot of our big ten losses too. Then an injury and several off the court issues came up and now everyone is acting like they expected an NCAA tournament appearance this year.

Maybe I'm wrong but I still believe the team will make the tournament next year, and Pitino will turn the program around.
Click to expand...

When I have tried to defend Tubby on here before Gopherhole Rubes ripped me. I said, Tubby was a good recruiter but he couldnt prevent Royce White from punching assaulting security guard while stealing jeans and allegedly stealing a laptop. It wasnt Tubby's fault Devoe Joseph allegedly was suspended for the year for weed so he chose to transfer. The Gophers were ranked I believe 11th in the nation before Al Nolen got hurt and Hoffarber had to play PG and season fell apart. Gophers would've been tough if Trevor didnt tear his ACL that year. Not Tubby's fault others like Cobb transferred because that is common these days in NCAA.

Rubes told me Tubby needs to recruit players with better character who don't get in trouble. Rubes told me you cant blame injuries because it happens to all teams and you should have backups in place so Hoffarber didnt have to play PG. Rubes told me players hated playing for Tubby so they transferred.

Everything I got ripped for has now happened to Pitino, injuries, suspensions, transfers, yet I hear people backing Pitino still making excuses for him and I dont understand why.

I know Tubby isn't coming back, but lets face it Pitino was not a good hire.
 



Bleed - I'm in agreement with you about the injuries/off the court issues. I think the average fan/media put all of the blame on coaches when in reality these players are all adults. They cannot be monitored 24/7 and injuries happen, it's the way it goes.

I was honestly disappointed when Tubby was fired. I hated his offense but he was a good coach and our team was close to a break through on a few occasions before injuries/transfers/suspensions derailed them. That being said, he is gone. If you were willing to look past the injuries/transfers/suspensions for Tubby, why don't you for Pitino?
 

bleedgold said:
When I have tried to defend Tubby on here before Gopherhole Rubes ripped me. I said, Tubby was a good recruiter but he couldnt prevent Royce White from punching assaulting security guard while stealing jeans and allegedly stealing a laptop. It wasnt Tubby's fault Devoe Joseph allegedly was suspended for the year for weed so he chose to transfer. The Gophers were ranked I believe 11th in the nation before Al Nolen got hurt and Hoffarber had to play PG and season fell apart. Gophers would've been tough if Trevor didnt tear his ACL that year. Not Tubby's fault others like Cobb transferred because that is common these days in NCAA.

Rubes told me Tubby needs to recruit players with better character who don't get in trouble. Rubes told me you cant blame injuries because it happens to all teams and you should have backups in place so Hoffarber didnt have to play PG. Rubes told me players hated playing for Tubby so they transferred.

Everything I got ripped for has now happened to Pitino, injuries, suspensions, transfers, yet I hear people backing Pitino still making excuses for him and I dont understand why.

I know Tubby isn't coming back, but lets face it Pitino was not a good hire.
Click to expand...
+1



Sent from my SM-N910V using Tapatalk
 



shaggith said:
Bleed - I'm in agreement with you about the injuries/off the court issues. I think the average fan/media put all of the blame on coaches when in reality these players are all adults. They cannot be monitored 24/7 and injuries happen, it's the way it goes.

I was honestly disappointed when Tubby was fired. I hated his offense but he was a good coach and our team was close to a break through on a few occasions before injuries/transfers/suspensions derailed them. That being said, he is gone. If you were willing to look past the injuries/transfers/suspensions for Tubby, why don't you for Pitino?
Click to expand...

+1. When Tubby was fired I felt the same about him as I do about Pitino now. They should get 1 more year to prove themselves but I would understand if they are fired. Difference is with the administration in shambles instead of a new AD i think Pitino gets that.
 

I think pitino is a winner !

Even the stock market has lows in good times. I think the negative people including sportswriters and other so called experts think building a strong program is easy and should happen immediately. I think most of them have agendas , are usually synical and negative, and have never tried to build something on their own.
Richard Pitino is recruiting players at a level we have not seen for years. This surely includes Tubby Smith.
I say quit being Chicken Littles and have some trust that things are going in the right direction, even if it's very difficult for now.
Try to see what improvements are coming , as early as next year. Pitino can coach when he has some players.
 

bleedgold said:
When I have tried to defend Tubby on here before Gopherhole Rubes ripped me. I said, Tubby was a good recruiter but he couldnt prevent Royce White from punching assaulting security guard while stealing jeans and allegedly stealing a laptop. It wasnt Tubby's fault Devoe Joseph allegedly was suspended for the year for weed so he chose to transfer. The Gophers were ranked I believe 11th in the nation before Al Nolen got hurt and Hoffarber had to play PG and season fell apart. Gophers would've been tough if Trevor didnt tear his ACL that year. Not Tubby's fault others like Cobb transferred because that is common these days in NCAA.

Rubes told me Tubby needs to recruit players with better character who don't get in trouble. Rubes told me you cant blame injuries because it happens to all teams and you should have backups in place so Hoffarber didnt have to play PG. Rubes told me players hated playing for Tubby so they transferred.

Everything I got ripped for has now happened to Pitino, injuries, suspensions, transfers, yet I hear people backing Pitino still making excuses for him and I dont understand why.

I know Tubby isn't coming back, but lets face it Pitino was not a good hire.
Click to expand...

I get what you're saying here. He was a good recruiter early on, but the recruiting fell off significantly the last few years. He did have a lot of unlucky things happen (injuries, transfers, suspensions), but at the same time some of these things started to become a trend. We saw multiple good/great players transfer under him (Joseph, Cobb, Iverson, White).

It may be a little unfair to Tubby, but I think the expectations were significantly higher when he was hired as opposed to Pitino just because of his previous success.
 

GophersInIowa said:
It may be a little unfair to Tubby, but I think the expectations were significantly higher when he was hired as opposed to Pitino just because of his previous success.
Click to expand...

You mean because he won a National Championship with Rick's recruits?
 


Otis said:
You mean because he won a National Championship with Rick's recruits?
Click to expand...

I think it was because he went to 14 straight NCAA Tournaments with three different schools and lost in the first round once
 

Tubby was like the Gophers football team under Coach Kill. He had great defensive schemes to make every game competitive, but he "Limegrovered" the hell out of the offense. Had he brought in an assistant who could get ball movement in the offense, Tubby would still be here and we would be talking about Sweet Sixteen and Great Eight runs. Those are all wet dreams and reality is we just witnessed the greatest sh!t storm in the history of Gopher basketball.
 

short ornery norwegian said:
warm up the flame-throwers:

Larry Fitzgerald's theory of coaching:

black coach = good
white coach = not as good.

or to put it another way - hind-sight is always 20-20. It's easy to second-guess a move that doesn't work out, after the person who made that move has been disgraced for improper conduct.
Click to expand...
Boy did you nail that.
 


short ornery norwegian said:
warm up the flame-throwers:

Larry Fitzgerald's theory of coaching:

black coach = good
white coach = not as good.

or to put it another way - hind-sight is always 20-20. It's easy to second-guess a move that doesn't work out, after the person who made that move has been disgraced for improper conduct.
Click to expand...

It's not hindsight or second-guessing if you knew that it was a bad move before it even happened.
 

surpher said:
Even the stock market has lows in good times. I think the negative people including sportswriters and other so called experts think building a strong program is easy and should happen immediately. I think most of them have agendas , are usually synical and negative, and have never tried to build something on their own.
Richard Pitino is recruiting players at a level we have not seen for years. This surely includes Tubby Smith.
I say quit being Chicken Littles and have some trust that things are going in the right direction, even if it's very difficult for now.
Try to see what improvements are coming , as early as next year. Pitino can coach when he has some players.
Click to expand...

I think I'm with you for the most part, but you do realize that even the stock market has good and even great years right? We've had a few OK years over the last 20 years, sprinkled in a one or so good years, but haven't even sniffed a "great" year in 19 years. So not sure the stock market analogy works here.

Go Gophers!!
 


surpher said:
Even the stock market has lows in good times. I think the negative people including sportswriters and other so called experts think building a strong program is easy and should happen immediately. I think most of them have agendas , are usually synical and negative, and have never tried to build something on their own.
Richard Pitino is recruiting players at a level we have not seen for years. This surely includes Tubby Smith.
I say quit being Chicken Littles and have some trust that things are going in the right direction, even if it's very difficult for now.
Try to see what improvements are coming , as early as next year. Pitino can coach when he has some players.
Click to expand...

+1
 

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