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

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howeda7 said:
Every AD should have a short list at all times. Discussing who should be on it does not = hating the current coach. He should have one for football too. Doesn't mean we want it to have to be used.
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You can be a critic of Pitino and not be hating.
 

Every single AD has a wish list and a short list. A huge part of his job is hiring great coaches. That helps him immensely in raising funds. There are newcomer programs that have become elite that charge 250,000 donation for court side seats !
 

Parcival said:
Yes.

I see from your username you took offense to me calling Air Force a bad team. Doesn't disprove the fact that I'm proposing an alternative scenario to all the negative ones going around on this board.

A lineup of:
Carr / Greenlee / Mashburn Jr.
Kalscheur / Walton
Willis / Omersa
JUCO 4 / Ihnen / Mitchell
Oturu / Freeman

would absolutely be the frontrunner to win the B1G next year. Are you high?
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Respectfully, no they would not be the favorite. If we’re playing the “every underclassmen comes back” game, Illinois, Iowa, and Michigan State certainly would all be picked ahead of the Gophers. I can think of a couple others that probably would be, Rutgers and perhaps Indiana.
 

builtbadgers said:
Every single AD has a wish list and a short list. A huge part of his job is hiring great coaches. That helps him immensely in raising funds. There are newcomer programs that have become elite that charge 250,000 donation for court side seats !
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I agree with you but I would change the wording somewhat to "hiring (or firing) coaches is a small part of the job that has a huge impact." The primary part of the job is the other thing you mentioned: raising funds (and general business operations). I think some fans (I'm not talking about you) think of college ADs like they're professional GMs. My guess is that most ADs don't want to fire and hire coaches unless they feel that is required by the circumstances (Minnesota's idiot former AD would be the exception).

Iowa's AD, Gary Barta, has been criticized by fans over the years because of the very long contracts (with hefty buyouts) he's given to their football and basketball coaches. In retrospect, his strategy of opting for a consistent level of quality instead of the pursuit of greatness looks pretty good and those coaches' salaries end up being relatively modest in the latter years of those contracts.
 

Barta knows he has the best they can get at Iowa. They are aiming for greatness. Losing and empty seats and lower donations speak loudly.
 


builtbadgers said:
Barta knows he has the best they can get at Iowa. They are aiming for greatness. Losing and empty seats and lower donations speak loudly.
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I certainly would agree that Iowa could not expect to hire another football coach who could exceed Ferentz's overall level of performance. However, they've had two long-tenured coaches in a row in that sport who have performed at a high level. They have been lucky in those hires but I'm not sure all of their fans understand that. Long periods of relative success have a way of erasing fan memories of the potential for darker times. Similarly, Wisconsin fans probably have forgotten that they weren't always so good in football (basketball, too; coaches like Bo Ryan don't just appear whenever you need them).

Their basketball history is a little different. McCaffrey is good enough but Iowa has had coaches like Ralph Miller, Lute Olson, and Tom Davis in the past. McCaffrey had the good fortune of following the failure of Todd Lickliter who followed the so-so Steve Alford so Iowa fans do have some memory of how things could be worse.
 

SelectionSunday said:
Respectfully, no they would not be the favorite. If we’re playing the “every underclassmen comes back” game, Illinois, Iowa, and Michigan State certainly would all be picked ahead of the Gophers. I can think of a couple others that probably would be, Rutgers and perhaps Indiana.
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Yeah I suppose having the best player in the B1G in Oturu and likely the best pg after Winston leaves wouldn't be enough to be frontrunners. ?
 


Angry said:
Howie and Bad always think the sky is falling. Don’t listen. This was a great game. Turning point! Watch!
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Don't be a stalker. I actually thought they competed well under the circumstances, missing Willis, etc. Their energy has been declining, though, compared with earlier in the season. The lack of bench catches up to you.
 



Parcival said:
Utah State got beat by 20 by Air Force...
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Yes, their 19 point loss at Air Force is the only bad loss this season. And then they came back and beat them at home by 25.

Need to sweep UNLV and Boise St at home this coming week, to avenge earlier road losses to those middling MWC teams.

Regardless, does not seem that USU will be as good as they were last year. Swept by #4 SD St, not sure if that proves that, but regardless they lost to them 68-77 at home and now 68-80 at SD.

As I mentioned before, the only other losses are to two WCC (ie "West Coast Big East") tournament teams, St Marys and BYU, away from home.
 

Parcival said:
Yes.

I see from your username you took offense to me calling Air Force a bad team. Doesn't disprove the fact that I'm proposing an alternative scenario to all the negative ones going around on this board.

A lineup of:
Carr / Greenlee / Mashburn Jr.
Kalscheur / Walton
Willis / Omersa
JUCO 4 / Ihnen / Mitchell
Oturu / Freeman

would absolutely be the frontrunner to win the B1G next year. Are you high?
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I suppose there is always a chance that Curry comes back next year, lean and mean, and fully recovered? Might not be a big chance, but who knows?
 

Lose to Wisconsin at home and I would imagine the heat being applied to Pitino will increase exponentially, tough to make the NCAA when 5-7 a this point and very real chance of going 8-12.
 

MplsGopher said:
I suppose there is always a chance that Curry comes back next year, lean and mean, and fully recovered? Might not be a big chance, but who knows?
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His injury to this knee is allegedly much less severe than the first injury, supposed to be recovered by july this time
 



jovs said:
Lose to Wisconsin at home and I would imagine the heat being applied to Pitino will increase exponentially, tough to make the NCAA when 5-7 a this point and very real chance of going 8-12.
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Yeah would require some serious winning they havent proven they can do yet
 

howeda7 said:
That's also why you don't want to go INTO Spring with 2 open scholarships. You'll almost always end up with 1-2 more and now you're scrambling trying to fill 4 scholarships in the Spring which is hard to do. And then you end up with one going to Greenlee who is probably out of his league and another is unused.
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That is fair Howie. Ideally you don't want four open scholarships in the spring.

I don't mind if we have a sit out transfer or two. In fact, I probably prefer them to a freshman that is a borderline recruit. I guess it depends on how you want to spend your 12th and 13th scholarships.
 

Actually enjoyed the Illinois game a great deal. Tremendous intensity and effort. Poor shooting makes any team look bad but the reality is we played well and fought hard, really dug in and that often results in a win. Play to that grade of defense and we will win a lot of games.
 

builtbadgers said:
Actually enjoyed the Illinois game a great deal. Tremendous intensity and effort. Poor shooting makes any team look bad but the reality is we played well and fought hard, really dug in and that often results in a win. Play to that grade of defense and we will win a lot of games.
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What does "a lot" translate to, in numbers? And is that number large enough to save Pitino's job?
 

MplsGopher said:
What does "a lot" translate to, in numbers? And is that number large enough to save Pitino's job?
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Easily enough to save his job for next year. They play that D and it's not unreasonable to see them have 11 B1G wins at the end of the season. This team is close to breaking out in my opinion. I truly believe shots will start to fall.
 


manderson1984 said:
Easily enough to save his job for next year. They play that D and it's not unreasonable to see them have 11 B1G wins at the end of the season. This team is close to breaking out in my opinion. I truly believe shots will start to fall.
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Agree.
 

manderson1984 said:
Easily enough to save his job for next year. They play that D and it's not unreasonable to see them have 11 B1G wins at the end of the season. This team is close to breaking out in my opinion. I truly believe shots will start to fall.
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I share your optimism to an extent in that Gabe will progress to the mean and Willis will hopefully regain his health. That said, there's a lot of miles on these starters for being at this point in the season.
 

Bad Gopher said:
I share your optimism to an extent in that Gabe will progress to the mean and Willis will hopefully regain his health. That said, there's a lot of miles on these starters for being at this point in the season.
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This is a very good time for a "mini-break." Not playing this weekend will benefit this team come Wednesday. The Gophers played hard at Illinois, but they also looked tired at times too. Illinois capped arguably the toughest part of our Big Ten schedule. Obviously the league is deep, but there are victories to be had coming up. Play defense like we did in Champagne, and start hitting some buckets. This season is still up for the taking.
 

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