***OFFICIAL MARYLAND AT MINNESOTA IN-GAME THREAD!!!***

Actually it was a little worse. It wasn't Schilling, it was a kid named Foster and yes, as you are hinting neither came here, but Ellis became a role player for MSU in his third and fourth year. Pitino did a great job that year though, took 50 pounds off of Mo, made him into a good center and got a lot out of a limited squad. Tubby hadn't really recruited for two years by then.
Pitino did do a great job his first year. Which makes years 2, 3, 5, 6 and 7 all the more frustrating.
 


After the loss tonight I couldn't help but think of Mason's last football game. We were ahead big time at half against Mike Leach's Texas Tech team. The 2nd half was a nightmare and we lost. Mason was gone shortly after that.

Grant it Maryland is a great team and they have a history of somehow winning games. There is apart of me that wants Pitino to stay as he is refreshing and brutally honest. I really like him. Yet a part of me tells me how do we keep going down the road we do? Is it next year we have the break out year? Would we have won if Coffey was around? Are we going to struggle again if Danny O leaves? On and on it goes.
This. The Gophers weren't favored to win that Bowl Game. And they weren't favored to win tonight, or were by 1 at most. But the way you lose matters, especially when it's part of a pattern.
 


Indiana was begging to beat most of that game also....Second half was putrid....It was a very winnable game if they had shot the ball just a little better....I am sensing a pattern here.
Players not making plays. Poor Richard.
 


Players not making plays. Poor Richard.
Right....Even the most successful coaches have players tank it for them in close games...it happens....A coach should be judged by W/Ls in the long term......."Lucky" wins and tough losses tend to even out for those coaches......It's the other games that determine a successful tenure......Pitino has failed to win enough games here in 7 years....It is that simple.....Why there are some posters on here that do not get that is beyond me?...He has been well compensated, move on.
 

Gabe did a fantastic job tonight defensively. As he has done all year. Maybe he needs to be thought of as a defensive weapon that also shoots 3s, instead of a 3 point shooter that also plays good defense.
 

Gabe is very good on defense. The stats don’t lie. The people he defends have bad games.

But how can a guy be a good shooter, have the look of somebody who wants to shoot late game pressure free throws and clank them that badly? Shooters don’t miss free throws that ugly.

I guess it is similar to his threes...they are air balls, off the back board, wide left, wide right, short etc. Guys who have nice strokes don’t do that! I haven’t charted it to know if on the 3’s he struggles from certain areas? But free throws for a shooter gotta be money.
 

I haven’t read the thread...shoot me...Jess Settles said the Gophers needed to go inside the 2nd half and get the fourth foul on Smith.
Seemed obvious, seemed like basketball 101...was there ever any emphasis by the Gophers to post up anybody Smith
was guarding? Nope.

Settles, also said the game was over if he got an early 4th foul. I’d also agree with that. And yet we ignored the obvious?
 



How players play in pressure situations is absolutely a reflection on their coach imo

Gabe and Oturu have two years under Richard as do Willis and Carr. That’s long enough to instill confidence in pressure situations. It’s all a mindset. What you demand, what you expect, what you will tolerate...that happens in practice. You set up time and score on the scoreboard and you win over and over. There are consequences if you do not. You convince them they win close games!!!
Show them how! Underline what’ll get you beat. Get it right! Do it again.
 

Pitino did do a great job his first year. Which makes years 2, 3, 5, 6 and 7 all the more frustrating.

I'd say he did a good job his first year. But, other than power forward, that probably was his deepest team.
 

11-0 run by Iowa to end the game

11-1 run by Maryland to end the game

So you are saying it's the players. Well then, recruit smarter, better players.

You don't have much that the coach is responsible for. You might as well hire yourself as coach for 300,000. We save the U big money and it will never be your fault.
Maybe the main guys are just too gassed at the end to defend well.
 




There are people who enjoy being making others miserable more than the sport they watch. Some of them, like Goldteam and USAF would continue to come here. If we get a new coach and are good, they would likely disappear.
Wait...I want a new coach, you want to keep Pitino.

Which one of us wants to make others miserable?
 


can't play Cowan that far up the court... nobody on the team is fast enough
Oh good lord, did you really just write this?? Is there NOTHING Pitino bears any responsibility for???

Maryland is trying to extend the game. A common method of doing that is to not accept in-bounds passes until forced to do so. Every person in the western hemisphere knows this. Richard Pitino knows this.

Every other coach, from Jr High on up, would have a guard or two apply some token pressure across midcourt, so as to, you know, limit the ability of the other team to extend the game. With zero risk...nobody's asking for extended full court pressure. Just make them pick up the GD ball.

Pitino, on the other hand, can't think past the end of his nose. Maryland rolls the ball to the opposite end's 3 pt line, and no Gopher has the idea to force someone, anyone, on the other team to pick it up and start the clock.

That is not accidental. That is not unavoidable. That is not random.

That is coaching. Simple, easy, conventional, everyone-else-has-thought-of-this-100-years-ago coaching.

Or in Pitino's case, the lack thereof.
 

It was a classic situation in which the better team came in with no respect for their opponent. MD played a miserable first half on offense and defense while the little regarded opponent rained threes down on them.
The worm turned in the second half and angst and fatigue played a significant role in MN missing free throws and in general poor play.
The coach put MN in a place where they could have won. The players could not finish the deal. If the coach has any real blame it is having a very weak bench. The MN starters could not keep up the tempo that MD forced on them.
It was a vert bad loss for a win would have kept the NCAA hopes alive-if barely.
 

This might be a poorer take than BG insisting Pitino bears no responsibility for last night's loss.

Maryland is trying to extend the game. A common method of doing that is to not accept in-bounds passes until forced to do so. Every person in the western hemisphere knows this. Richard Pitino knows this.

Every other coach, from Jr High on up, would have a guard or two apply some token pressure across midcourt, so as to, you know, limit the ability of the other team to extend the game. With zero risk...nobody's asking for extended full court pressure. Just make them pick up the GD ball.

Pitino, on the other hand, can't think past the end of his nose. Maryland rolls the ball to the opposite end's 3 pt line, and no Gopher has the idea to force someone, anyone, on the other team to pick it up and start the clock.

That is not accidental. That is not unavoidable. That is not random.

That is coaching. Simple, easy, conventional, everyone-else-has-thought-of-this-100-years-ago coaching.

Or in Pitino's case, the lack thereof.
I really didn't mention Pitino in my post. I was talking about one play. do what you do man
 




Actually it was a little worse. It wasn't Schilling, it was a kid named Foster and yes, as you are hinting neither came here, but Ellis became a role player for MSU in his third and fourth year. Pitino did a great job that year though, took 50 pounds off of Mo, made him into a good center and got a lot out of a limited squad. Tubby hadn't really recruited for two years by then.

I was perfectly fine with us moving on from Tubby, so I hate even getting into this back and forth.

But, even Tubby "not recruiting" wasn't much different from Pitino.

Tubby's 2011: Andre Hollins & Joe Coleman (both highly rated, both contributed)
Tubby's 2012: Buggs and Ellenson

So - going forward, I assume you believe Buggs was a bust. So that's our bar going forward.

Pitino's 2013: Dre and McNeil
Pitino's 2014: Konate, Gaston, Morris, Martin, Mason

Of Pitino's 6 recruits, 3 of them turned out (I'll give you Morris, even though he was kicked off the team).

The recruiting was pretty similar. Mason was great. Hollins was very good.
 

Maybe the main guys are just too gassed at the end to defend well.
The defense isn't as much of a problem as the offense. They do this stall offense and then have to jack up a bad shot just before the shot clock expires. Should just be running their offense. No reason to not try to get it to Oturu on every possession.

0 points in the last 5 minutes against Iowa
3 points in the last 4 minutes against Indiana
9 points in the last 9 minutes against Maryland

That's 12 points in 18 minutes.
 

Wait...I want a new coach, you want to keep Pitino.

Which one of us wants to make others miserable?
I said a number of times in the thread- he's is gone. As for that particular game- he had them in a position to win, they failed to make free throws. Period. He has lost too much and that one sealed the deal.
 


can't play Cowan that far up the court... nobody on the team is fast enough
they don't need too! get close enough for him to pick up the ball and then turn and sprint back and wait for him. still horrible coaching for them to let the ball roll like that.....

by this point in the game we know who throws the ball in after a make....at the very least have the guy guarding the throw in guy be up there so they cant roll it!
 

I mean isn’t pitino responsible for Maryland being 2/19 on threes by coaching his players to defend them? You can blame him for the bad but then need to give credit for good. That’s how this works.
Exactly. There has been more bad than good. The record reflects exactly what he has built. Last night I loved the way the team was prepared and he can not make free throws for the players. my only quibble was not having Jarvis in the game while game shot free throws for the possibility of a rebound as well as more length on defense. If you watch the great shot Morsell made it appears to be contested but it was late and the close came after the eye -rim sequence and provided no bother.
 

they don't need too! get close enough for him to pick up the ball and then turn and sprint back and wait for him. still horrible coaching for them to let the ball roll like that.....

by this point in the game we know who throws the ball in after a make....at the very least have the guy guarding the throw in guy be up there so they cant roll it!
Yep. So simple.
 

The coach is going to get fired because he hasn't won I am not arguing that. The players blew this game. Sorry, that's just a plain fact. Those were the people missing the free throws. You are a small person that is looking to blame someone you can't stand.
bga, that is not a plain fact. You cannot cite something as fact that is not a fact. An example of a fact is Carr had 19 points (indisputable). So are you saying the coach got them a 17 point lead and the players lost it? You cannot have it both ways. This is simply your opinion disguised as a fact.

There are little things on the court and off the court to tip the scales in your favor. Each of them independently are not big, but collectively they make a big difference. Some are visible to the fans, some are not.

I wish for the success of all, but there are certain things you need to do to earn said success. Let's hope the Gophers can finish strong. I wish people would lay off the players. The coach is *more* fair game (it is a tough, but well compensated gig), but the players are not professionals. I think everyone can show a little class to coach and players alike. Opinions are great, but they don't have be tainted with vitriol.
 

Exactly. There has been more bad than good. The record reflects exactly what he has built. Last night I loved the way the team was prepared and he can not make free throws for the players. my only quibble was not having Jarvis in the game while game shot free throws for the possibility of a rebound as well as more length on defense. If you watch the great shot Morsell made it appears to be contested but it was late and the close came after the eye -rim sequence and provided no bother.

Correct. This is right. Jarvis didn't play in the 2nd half which I don't get but whatever. The free throws are on the players. Plenty of blame on Pitino for this year and other years. IF he is retained, I am curious to see how Coyle spins it. Really depends on who else is out there.
 




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