Every trait you said there is characteristic of players choking. Been there, done that myself. It sucks. It has nothing to do with coaches. If you want to blame Pitino for anything tonight, the big mistake down the stretch was not getting the ball into Oturo's hands on the inbounds where MD was fouling. Oturo was the only one consistently making FTs tonight. Gabe had just alligator-armed the previous, Carr the same. The ball should have gotten to Oturo. Still, as a coach, you have to have confidence that your starting guards will hit FTs. To not show that confidence might, to me, suggest a negative attitude by the coaching staff. But that simply wasn't the case. A couple of pretty good players choked. They will continue to be pretty good in the future, and will be on the good side of all of this in future games. It sucks to be a player, a coach, a fan of this, but I'm not sure what else could/should have been done. Further, a low-end shooter on MD made a 1000-foot contested 3 to end the game, one which hit the side rim. The D there was about perfect. Possession prior to that, their best player missed a long 3 that bounced straight into the hands of MD's only rebounder near the hoop. D was good there too (but someone needed to box out Smith). Sometimes it's just better to be lucky. End of story.
It wasn't all that long ago that a team led by some pretty decent football coach blew yet another big lead, this time in a bowl game. To cap the loss, the other team's kicker had to make a 52-yard FG, or the Gophers would have won. Of course he made it, and the next thing you know, the Gophers hired Tim Brewster and the football program went from pretty decent into the ditch. Am I comparing this situation to that? I guess so. Be careful what you all wish for. We all wish the basketball program was better, and of course part of that lies on the coach. But I'm not sure there is a PJ Fleck available out there to lead the bball program to the top. Maybe. The program has as much chance to fall as rise with a coaching change. I'm indifferent at this point. I'll cheer for them regardless.