Pitino coming back

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Gopherfan1000 said:
I am okay with ONE more year of Pitino, but if it doesn't result in an NCAA bid and a couple of wins in the Tourney he needs to go. He needs to prove he can win, period and in critical games. Depth has always been a concern and he must figure out how to win with who he's recruited.
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Why not just say he has to win the NCAA title or you will favor firing him? Makes as much sense.
 

KyGopherfan said:
Pitino is surely granted a lot of privilege and I think it's due to his last name. I've never seen a coach that hasn't done squat for so long get so many chances to make things right w/out losing his job as Richard Pitino. His leash is as long as the Mississippi River. I've never seen anything like it in a power 5 job. Coaches are normally on the hot seat after 3 years if they don't produce. Ol' Rick Pitino must've found some dirt on Coyle or something.
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His name (or, more precisely, his father's connections to other coaches - for example, Billy Donovan) helped him get his assistant and head coaching jobs. An idiot former athletic director helped him retain his job longer than he should have because of an inexplicable contract extension that made him too expensive to fire for about three years. To his credit, he had a couple of good seasons that have also contributed to his tenure lasting seven years. Now, he is getting an 8th year thanks to the virus and an abrupt and unprecedented change to the economy, travel, and the college basketball environment in the uncertain, chaotic, and fear laden period our country is experiencing now. In short, a number of things have contributed to his longer than expected tenure.

I've often said this guy has led a charmed life but I'm beginning to think that, like the proverbial cat, he has nine lives. What will happen next year? Will he have a good enough season to be retained for a 9th year? Or, will he have another bad year but Coyle falls into a deep coma right before the end of the season and Richard is defaulted into a 9th year?
 
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It seems to me with how little buzz we heard from Coyle leading up to the announcement yesterday, he was likely doing his due diligence on other options and was left unimpressed.

Would people prefer to make a move to make a move and be left with a sixth or seventh choice as it appears happened with the Pitino hire? Or go one more year and re-evaluate performance and options next March? Purely speculative obviously, but it doesn't seem like this job has people lining up to take it.
 

golfing18now said:
Would people prefer to make a move to make a move and be left with a sixth or seventh choice as it appears happened with the Pitino hire?
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Well, personally, I think a 6th or 7th choice probably would be better than Pitino. Having said that I understand why he wasn't fired in this environment and I'm at peace with that.
 

cjbfbp said:
Well, personally, I think a 6th or 7th choice probably would be better than Pitino. Having said that I understand why he wasn't fired in this environment and I'm at peace with that.
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It very well could be a better option. You are right. The worst case scenario for me would be making the wrong hire and then we wait out another five years only to find we are in the same place we are today. Perhaps there might be better options next year or perhaps Pitino takes a step forward. The environment will be a tough one though.
 


golfing18now said:
The worst case scenario for me would be making the wrong hire and then we wait out another five years only to find we are in the same place we are today. Perhaps there might be better options next year or perhaps Pitino takes a step forward.
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I mean ... G-D dude ... can't this exact same argument be made every single year?

At some point, you just gotta pull the trigger and see what happens, don't you?
 

MplsGopher said:
I mean ... G-D dude ... can't this exact same argument be made every single year?

At some point, you just gotta pull the trigger and see what happens, don't you?
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Not if you don't think the options are better than what you have.
 

MplsGopher said:
I mean ... G-D dude ... can't this exact same argument be made every single year?

At some point, you just gotta pull the trigger and see what happens, don't you?
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Why do you think Coyle didn't make a move? Do you think he is that enamored with Pitino or do you think he didn't like his options?

We are going to see far less movement this year than most given the current circumstances. It would be almost impossible for a new coach to come in and not be able to make any recruiting visits, etc. etc. It's a bad time.
 

My hope is that the whole works won't just be shitcanned for the whole year. My hope is that things are just going to be frozen here for about a month, maybe two.

When we see new cases falling sharply, that will be the bat signal that people can crawl out from under their houses and return to normal life. And they will.

And then it will be time to get back to work!
 



golfing18now said:
Why do you think Coyle didn't make a move? Do you think he is that enamored with Pitino or do you think he didn't like his options?
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I think it had to do with the environment. Take away this current environment and replace it with a normal one and I think the odds of termination would have increased considerably.
 

MplsGopher said:
I mean ... G-D dude ... can't this exact same argument be made every single year?

At some point, you just gotta pull the trigger and see what happens, don't you?
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Athletic director steps up to the mic and says:

"You know, I really didn't like Pitino. We don't have a guy lined up so I decided this morning to just pull the trigger and see what happens. Wish us luck as we hunt for a coach. If we miss, we can always do it again!"
 


MplsGopher said:
Fake narrative.

As is correct: Craig Smith would've come running instantly.

Coyle simply never planned on asking.
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Maybe Smith isn't the guy he wants. If so, do you think that Coyle is a lousy AD?
 




Makes you wonder if maybe Pitino had a chip in his back pocket that he pulled out and put on the table, for one more year. I'll leave it at that, but you wouldn't have to dig back too many years to get at what I'm saying .........
 

Assuming that we do get a 2020-2021 season, Pitino will be on the hottest of the hot seats for a coaching change. I agree that in the current environment a coaching change would have had very bad optics and would not have played well.
 

MplsGopher said:
Makes you wonder if maybe Pitino had a chip in his back pocket that he pulled out and put on the table, for one more year. I'll leave it at that, but you wouldn't have to dig back too many years to get at what I'm saying .........
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Let's hear it
 

MplsGopher said:
It fits exactly with the theme of hiring Fleck.
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You are saying that Smith = Fleck? I guess I don't see that, but I don't know Smith other than that he has done a solid job. What Fleck did was off the charts, amazing. Plus he has a special charisma.
 

bga1 said:
You are saying that Smith = Fleck? I guess I don't see that, but I don't know Smith other than that he has done a solid job. What Fleck did was off the charts, amazing. Plus he has a special charisma.
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G5/mid-major, high level success. Young. Bald.

I don't know Smith as a salesman/charisma guy. He may be, just don't know. I doubt many are going to match Fleck there.
 


LakevilleBro said:
JP Macura was in that class also.
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That was a crazy year because we were in transition between coaches, if I recall correctly. The feeling was that Tubby wasn't going to get any of them anyway.
 


MplsGopher said:
Makes you wonder if maybe Pitino had a chip in his back pocket that he pulled out and put on the table, for one more year. I'll leave it at that, but you wouldn't have to dig back too many years to get at what I'm saying .........
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Let us know what the chip was?
 

stocker08 said:
I was kind of against bringing him back.....but after a few days to cool down......I think it's probably the right move. Sure....we lose Oturu which is going to hurt....but we also lose Demir. Carr should take a step forward and Ihnen has the makings of an impact player. It's too bad that Pitino didn't get Freeman some more playing time this year....because we're going to need him to play major minutes. And who knows what Mashburn will do as a true freshman. But there's little doubt that he came here because of Pitino.
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Had to chuckle after reading your second sentence.
 

LakevilleBro said:
Let us know what the chip was?
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You're all capable of googling Gophers basketball news from the last few years.

That is all. Pure, wild, probably inappropriate speculation on my part. Carry on
 

cjbfbp said:
I think it had to do with the environment. Take away this current environment and replace it with a normal one and I think the odds of termination would have increased considerably.
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Yeah probably. But I still wonder if Coyle had the guy he wanted more of less lined up, he may still have still pulled the trigger. I gotta believe those conversations may have taken place. Hard to know. Such an unprecedented set of circumstances.
 



cjbfbp said:
I think it had to do with the environment. Take away this current environment and replace it with a normal one and I think the odds of termination would have increased considerably.
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If that is the case, Coyle isn’t the star everyone says.
 

BarnBurner said:
Guess Coyle can’t get anyone better to come to Mn.
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Makes perfect sense.

He wasn't able to hire Fleck. We had to stick with Claeys, because there just wasn't anyone better worth hiring that would want to come way up here to the frozen tundra.

(y)
 

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