Lindsay (The Legend) Just Not A Good Coach

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MennoSota

MennoSota

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At what point does Mark, the Snake, Coyle look at the hire of Lindsay Whalen and admit that she isn't ready for this level of coaching?
This Gopher team continues to underperform and lose to teams a B1G school should never lose to. If Lindsays record were the men's team record, people would be calling for a change. Are we at that point with our women's program?
 

It has been a very disappointing year so far but this is her 4th year (3rd non covid year). Their schedule has been very difficult but still disappointing they don't have a couple more wins. Team is still overall quite young, they will only really miss Winters and Hubbard next year but Hubbard has taken a bit of a step back. With the recruiting momentum she got this year. I don't think you can even consider a coaching change for another 2-3 years. Not to say I don't have my doubts about her coaching ability creaping into my mind, but I realize more time is needed, especially given the covid year being in the mix.
 


I don’t follow BB that well, but given her recruiting class next year, I would think the pressure will be on. Several high end recruits coming in.
 

I am all about being patient and definitely would not fire her HOWEVER let’s be honest she has been bad and it’s comical the excuses that have been made for her…
 


Roland Brooks said:
I am all about being patient and definitely would not fire her HOWEVER let’s be honest she has been bad and it’s comical the excuses that have been made for her…
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I think the key thing to remember is that Lindsay is not the one making excuses.
 

I wouldn't fire her this year. But the seat gets warm next year.
 

I don’t think she should quit or get fired this year. The recruits coming in next year obviously want to play for her, however if I were Coyle , I would make Lindsay hire a more experience coach on staff that has had success to help mentor. I have no idea want this team’s identity is. It’s definitely not defense and not sure what the offense is supposed to be running. What’s the one thing that they can hang their hat on or stop another team’s run-anybody? They have some pieces, it’s just not meshing this year.
 

I saw a quick interview with Lindsay on KARE 11 Sports last night, after the game. She sounded beaten and deflated and ready to hang it up. The clips of the game showed a team that was defensively porous and incredibly lazy.

Either Lindsay has to suck it up, design a system that works for these players and then teach it, or she needs to resign the fact that she was a hell of a player, but not a coach. Coaching is a different beast. Not everyone is cut out for it and it's especially hard if you are in a program that requires a lot of teaching. Is Lindsay a teacher? The current results tell us she is not.

Sometimes the best thing to do is to say thanks for giving me a shot and then move on to do something that you love an are gifted at doing. Coaching may not be what Lindsay is good at.
 



MennoSota said:
I saw a quick interview with Lindsay on KARE 11 Sports last night, after the game. She sounded beaten and deflated and ready to hang it up. The clips of the game showed a team that was defensively porous and incredibly lazy.

Either Lindsay has to suck it up, design a system that works for these players and then teach it, or she needs to resign the fact that she was a hell of a player, but not a coach. Coaching is a different beast. Not everyone is cut out for it and it's especially hard if you are in a program that requires a lot of teaching. Is Lindsay a teacher? The current results tell us she is not.

Sometimes the best thing to do is to say thanks for giving me a shot and then move on to do something that you love an are gifted at doing. Coaching may not be what Lindsay is good at.
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Not trying to be mean but golly...I did not feel she had the people skills to be a coach when she was hired. I must admit I have only watched a couple clips on here but the defense seems worse than Marlene and the offense is all about chucking up threes in the clips with no design apparent.
 


It is interesting that she played for a (Lynx) coach that stressed defense, rebounding, and toughness all the things that her team seems to lack. Our inside play has basically been non-existant in any of those phases since her hire. She has not been able to recruit that big, like McCarville, that provides those necessary qualities for a top team. I hope she can figure it out, but the clock is ticking.
 




I mentioned this a couple years ago, the Destiny Pitts saga set this program back at least 3-4 years. The reason why is that she was the leader of this team as an upper classman that all the kids respected and she held players accountable. Remember, we were like 11-0 to start that season (easy non conf sch) and were in the top 20.. after 2 conf games the Pitts dilemma surfaced after two hard, close losses, she gets removed from the team and the remainder of that season was all down hill and hasnt been the same since. This was different then a kid getting hurt or transferring, this impacted a very young team at the time.
 

MNGirlsHoops said:
I mentioned this a couple years ago, the Destiny Pitts saga set this program back at least 3-4 years. The reason why is that she was the leader of this team as an upper classman that all the kids respected and she held players accountable. Remember, we were like 11-0 to start that season (easy non conf sch) and were in the top 20.. after 2 conf games the Pitts dilemma surfaced after two hard, close losses, she gets removed from the team and the remainder of that season was all down hill and hasnt been the same since. This was different then a kid getting hurt or transferring, this impacted a very young team at the time.
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I agree. Things fell into mysterious disrepair about that time & have been hard to repair. Gophers were convincingly trouncing a lowly PSU squad (as I recall), but then nearly blew that game after half time. Then at home they were beating a good OSU team before a huge home crowd, only to lose it at the end, pretty much falling apart.The Pitts saga started about then, but the U seemed to prefer keeping the true nature of the problem shrouded in secrecy. Didn't the AD pretty much defend the coach & blame the player(s)? I'm reciting all this from memory. Correct me if I'm wrong.
 

Hrothgar said:
I agree. Things fell into mysterious disrepair about that time & have been hard to repair. Gophers were convincingly trouncing a lowly PSU squad (as I recall), but then nearly blew that game after half time. Then at home they were beating a good OSU team before a huge home crowd, only to lose it at the end, pretty much falling apart.The Pitts saga started about then, but the U seemed to prefer keeping the true nature of the problem shrouded in secrecy. Didn't the AD pretty much defend the coach & blame the player(s)? I'm reciting all this from memory. Correct me if I'm wrong.
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no need to rehash old wounds, but your assumptions look to be right from what I recall. That was a wasted year of turmoil and emotions
 

Maybe, it was 100% Lindsay's fault that Destiny left. Maybe, it was 100% Destiny's fault. Maybe, it was 50-50 or 60-40. I don't think any of us know. Things happen. But, if Lindsay is such a bad apple, I don't think so many players would have come back for this season after last season.
 

I don’t know, I haven’t been able to watch them much this year but what I have seen they just don’t play very good defense. Other teams get in the lane to easy off the dribble which just causes way to many problems. If you can’t stop initial penetration then it’s very difficult to rotoate and get help defense. I think they need to focus on defense and work something out that works for them. Whether that’s some sort of zone or whatever they need to up the pressure.
 

MNGirlsHoops said:
I mentioned this a couple years ago, the Destiny Pitts saga set this program back at least 3-4 years. The reason why is that she was the leader of this team as an upper classman that all the kids respected and she held players accountable. Remember, we were like 11-0 to start that season (easy non conf sch) and were in the top 20.. after 2 conf games the Pitts dilemma surfaced after two hard, close losses, she gets removed from the team and the remainder of that season was all down hill and hasnt been the same since. This was different then a kid getting hurt or transferring, this impacted a very young team at the time.
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this happened then CVOID happened... Lindsay IMHO has had one "normal" year as HC since taking over the program.. it also looks like CVOID will rear it's ugly head again this season.. as we haven't played since the 24th and who knows when we will play our next game..

the 2022 are excited to come to the U and play for Whalen.. if you fire Whalen I'm guessing there a good shot we lose a few of the 22' or all of them..
 

It was an extremely lazy hire by Coyle, an easy way to drum up interest. It is *very* hard to learn how to run an organization, which head coaching is. Whalen would have been much better off starting as an assistant and learning the ropes, here or elsewhere.

Lindsay gets two more years. One, because she has a great recruiting class coming in. Two, because it's women's basketball and the leash is longer. Three, because unless she was a coaching prodigy, she was always going to require more time.

I think she is smart enough to know how her roster is lacking, the question is if she's able to fix it.
 

Chicago Gophers said:
It was an extremely lazy hire by Coyle, an easy way to drum up interest. It is *very* hard to learn how to run an organization, which head coaching is. Whalen would have been much better off starting as an assistant and learning the ropes, here or elsewhere.

Lindsay gets two more years. One, because she has a great recruiting class coming in. Two, because it's women's basketball and the leash is longer. Three, because unless she was a coaching prodigy, she was always going to require more time.

I think she is smart enough to know how her roster is lacking, the question is if she's able to fix it.
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Lazy is a little strong. Coyle has proven that he is willing to try new approaches- see Ben Johnson on the men's side. Whalen was known as a fierce competitor and leader as a player and Coyle banked on her replicating this as a coach.

We all know that leading peers (floor general/teammate relationship) is much different than leading a team of subordinates (coach/player relationship). Whalen has likely encountered some growing pains in this area. With Shimmy Gray-Miller added this summer, Whalen finally has that experienced and reputable assistant coach to work with and recruit bigs who can help move this team forward. Let's see what happens over the next recruiting cycle.
 

ecoperson said:
Lazy is a little strong. Coyle has proven that he is willing to try new approaches- see Ben Johnson on the men's side. Whalen was known as a fierce competitor and leader as a player and Coyle banked on her replicating this as a coach.

We all know that leading peers (floor general/teammate relationship) is much different than leading a team of subordinates (coach/player relationship). Whalen has likely encountered some growing pains in this area. With Shimmy Gray-Miller added this summer, Whalen finally has that experienced and reputable assistant coach to work with and recruit bigs who can help move this team forward. Let's see what happens over the next recruiting cycle.
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I think we should stop analyzing Coach Whalen, no doubt she is learning on the job, coaching is a different animal then playing.
Lets not even discuss how many years this and that, she is going to get a real long leash, many more years unless it falls apart with turmoil..
 

walleye said:
Maybe, it was 100% Lindsay's fault that Destiny left. Maybe, it was 100% Destiny's fault. Maybe, it was 50-50 or 60-40. I don't think any of us know. Things happen. But, if Lindsay is such a bad apple, I don't think so many players would have come back for this season after last season.
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This incident happened in early 2020 and the fact that both the Bello sisters (Taiye and Kehinde) sat out the following game against Illinois in support of Destiny Pitts says a lot about whose side the players were on. Whatever happened to Destiny Pitts? Oh yea. She transferred to Texas A&M, her team went 25-3, and made it to the NCAA tournament sweet 16 last year.
 

To date Whalen has not been a good coach her teams make the same mistakes over and over…… and…… yes over. Hopefully she gets better.
 

I had the chance to watch this team up close in the Bahamas. They are a tight knit group who get along very well. See the same thing at practices I've been able to attend. I don't think we'll see a Pitts situation every again as it was a learning experience for Whalen and others. I'm more worried at this point about what the Omicron variant is going to do to games in 2022.
 

MOGopher said:
This incident happened in early 2020 and the fact that both the Bello sisters (Taiye and Kehinde) sat out the following game against Illinois in support of Destiny Pitts says a lot about whose side the players were on. Whatever happened to Destiny Pitts? Oh yea. She transferred to Texas A&M, her team went 25-3, and made it to the NCAA tournament sweet 16 last year.
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The Pitts incident happened in 2019. The Bello sisters sat out 1 game. They returned to play the remainder of the year and played their senior season for Whalen. No other players joined them in their protest. So, I don't think your comment regarding who the players sided with, is valid.
 

Gopher68 said:
The Pitts incident happened in 2019. The Bello sisters sat out 1 game. They returned to play the remainder of the year and played their senior season for Whalen. No other players joined them in their protest. So, I don't think your comment regarding who the players sided with, is valid.
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It's a little more complicated. The STrib gathered some of her teammates tweets wishing Pitts well and thanking Destiny for her positive impact during their time at Minnesota.

www.startribune.com

If you're wondering how the Gophers are responding to Destiny Pitts' deciding to transfer...

www.startribune.com www.startribune.com
 

Ignatius L Hoops said:
It's a little more complicated. The STrib gathered some of her teammates tweets wishing Pitts well and thanking Destiny for her positive impact during their time at Minnesota.

www.startribune.com

If you're wondering how the Gophers are responding to Destiny Pitts' deciding to transfer...

www.startribune.com www.startribune.com
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That's true. I remember their support for her. Yet, none of them followed suit. They all stayed with the program. It seems that it was an issue isolated between Pitts and Whalen. Players publicly wished Destiny well, but stuck with Whalen.
 

Gophers112233 said:
this happened then CVOID happened... Lindsay IMHO has had one "normal" year as HC since taking over the program.. it also looks like CVOID will rear it's ugly head again this season.. as we haven't played since the 24th and who knows when we will play our next game..

the 2022 are excited to come to the U and play for Whalen.. if you fire Whalen I'm guessing there a good shot we lose a few of the 22' or all of them..
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Covid is no excuse for bad execution on the court. Well coached and well disciplined teams are still that way irregardless of Covid.
My concern is that there is no development of players taking place. No clear process developed and executed by the coaching staff.
Hindsight says Lindsay needed to cut her coaching chops at lower levels before she was given a B1G head coaching position.
 


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