Pitino Deserve's A Raise

Donate To GopherHole
alchemy2u said:
Why? Why would he bolt and to where? There is no way he goes to Louisville, he has no affiliation with them other than he was an assistant for a few years, and he would constantly be "Little Richard" and have to appease a spoiled fan base. He wants to build his own legacy just like Billy Donavan at Florida. He has the chance to be the Izo of Minnesota. Think about the whole picture and it doesn't make any sense to jump, he is already in the best conference going up against the best coaches. He has the chance to be a legend at Minnesota, not just the son of a hall of fame coach.
Click to expand...

Maybe if Alford falls short at UCLA that might be a possibility. It doesn't appear that will happen anytime soon. But with the emergence of the states AAU programs, Minnesota will have strong HS recruiting opportunities for years to come. And if we get the backing for the facilities upgrades, it would be awfully tough for a great coach to give that up.
 

BarnBoy said:
Everything you say is true and there are many reasons to stay.

But, since you asked, this is what I think.

We are not a top 25 program. (budget, facilities)
The weather stinks (yes, it does)

Those two worry me...
Click to expand...

And this helps change that because...
 

BarnBoy said:
Everything you say is true and there are many reasons to stay.

But, since you asked, this is what I think.

We are not a top 25 program. (budget, facilities)
The weather stinks (yes, it does)

Those two worry me...
Click to expand...

Look here, the man sez he loves The Barn; so do I. I'm staying and I think he will too.
 

Alford left on his own at Iowa, but he was starting to feel a little heat. Alford did a better job at Iowa than he's given credit for. That's a tough place to win and he did much better than Tubby did here (3 Winning conference seasons, including a tie for 2nd place, 2 Big Ten tournament championships and another Big Ten tournament finals appearance). He left Iowa because he felt like all the resources were going to the football program and wanted to go to a school where basketball was a priority.
 

The worry about our coaching bolting for a more premier program is encouraging. It means we have a coach. I don't think Pitino considers moving on until the real big programs come calling. We can compete financially with anyone except the big time programs. If we ever get to a point where we are worried about Kentucky taking our coach, we've had one helluva ride. So I'll gladly cross that bridge when we get there.

As far as the weather, yep, it stinks. That doesn't concern me about Pitino, he seems like he's probably inside watching tape all winter. It would concern me with his wife, but Mpls is a coach's wife's dream. I don't normally play into the draw of Mpls compared to smaller college towns (not for college kids, they want to get drunk and party with college girls, there are plenty of them in small college towns). However, for a wife in her 30's, it'd be hard to talk her into giving up dinners at La Belle Vie and tickets to the Orpheum for a college town. I realize it's kind of a frivolous thing, but it's as much of a draw for her as the weather is a disadvantage.

As for Pitino, I was happy with the hire and I am shocked at how good of a coach he is. I can't think of a single time I've complained to the TV or the court about something to do with Pitino. Not that my opinion means anything, but even for an opinionated fan who gets mad and fashions himself an expert, he hasn't done a single thing I've complained about. His players love playing for him. The improvement he's gotten out of EE, Mo and Oto has been incredible. I liked EE, but I didn't imagine this. I wrote off Oto and Mo, I never expected much out of them. He locked up this shrimpy little JuCo PG who I thought might fight with Mav for PT, and he's been HUGE for us. Everyone on the sidelines seems engaged, he answers the questions the right way. I was happy the hire at the time and I'm shocked how good he is.
 


All of us are hating this cold, but the normal high this time of the year is in the 20's. Also, Richard and Jill are from Boston, they are not afraid of winter.

As a B1G program we have plenty of revenue and an athletic director that is not going to ignore basketball. After we compete the facilities plan, we will be on par with anyone.
 


brucekaupa said:
Before y'all get too worried, riddle me this...

Name 10 Big Ten coaches in the last 40 years who left under their own power (without being forced out and without fleeing coming NCAA shakedowns...) for other head coaching positions.

I sure can't think of many.
Click to expand...

Gary Williams left Ohio State for Maryland.

Bill Frieder left Michigan for Arizona State. Pretty famous one. Remember he accepted the job before he got canned by Bo.
 

I think its more likely he'd go to Florida to succeed Billy Donovan than he succeeds his dad at Louiville. Just a gut feeling.
 



cncmin said:
This. Particularly in bold. He has a job with much less pressure than at a tank top school, and at the very least can mold his skills here with less pressure against some of the best competition in the world. His success has already earned him a job at many other places, and that is unlikely to dissipate.

True success for a man with the potential ego of the Pitino bloodline doesn't want to remake a powerhouse program into a powerhouse, they want to build their own powerhouse. Except for the practice facility (which can't be that far off), he has all the tools right here to do that, including an amazing in-town recruiting base with little area competition.
Click to expand...
I agree, people might counter with the elder Pitino coached Kentucky, but if memory serves me correctly Kentucky was a mess of a program on probation and facing the death penalty. He also had a rebuild project at Louisville. My guess is our Pitino would bolt for the NBA
 

Holy Man said:
Gary Williams left Ohio State for Maryland.

Bill Frieder left Michigan for Arizona State. Pretty famous one. Remember he accepted the job before he got canned by Bo.
Click to expand...

Was that the whole aMichigan man will coach Michigan crap?
 

Gophers7NatTitlesBadgers0 said:
Maybe if Alford falls short at UCLA that might be a possibility. It doesn't appear that will happen anytime soon. But with the emergence of the states AAU programs, Minnesota will have strong HS recruiting opportunities for years to come. And if we get the backing for the facilities upgrades, it would be awfully tough for a great coach to give that up.
Click to expand...

- Alford and UCLA are married for quite some time. Well constructed contract.

- "strong HS recruiting opportunities for years to come" - there are some great top talents currently.. but it's one or two guys that make the difference. Whether there will be such players every year is unknown and not something you can 'bank on'.

- Money shouldn't be an issue. Gradually keep bringing him up; give him what he needs. I think Pitino would be fair and reasonable in this area, as would Minnesota.

- What would make him leave? Probably something no one is thinking of. There are so many relationships, so many personal preferences and these can all change any given year/month/week/year. I don't think we can sit here and reasonably rationalize it... it's often not an objective decision.

For now, Minnesota has a very good coach & I think the U is a good place for Pitino to grow.
 

BarnBoy said:
Everything you say is true and there are many reasons to stay.

But, since you asked, this is what I think.

We are not a top 25 program. (budget, facilities)
The weather stinks (yes, it does)

Those two worry me...
Click to expand...
I think we can be a top 25 program. I believe Erik Kaler and Norwood Teaque are committed to improving our facilities and that it will get done.

The weather stinks in the winter, but it tends to be very nice the majority of the year. (Plus they play basketball indoors). The Metro area, moreover, is prosperous, culturally rich, and has good schools. There aren't many that offer a better quality of life.
 



The carrot that MN dangles for Pitino is the chance to own his own program. The Gophers last had Clem who had the chance but put the program in a hole. As an example, Izzo and Ryan are god-like figures for their respective programs. Sure, Dick Bennett and Judd Heathcoat started the rebuilding process and brought their programs out of the dulldrums but Izzo and Ryan brought them to where they are today. If Pitino continues his success, he has to recognize the chance to be a Brad Stevens or Billy Donovan type figure and be the face of a program.

Why settle to be in the shoes of individuals like Roy Williams or Steve Alford and always live in the shadows of your predecessor? Make a program yours and live like a king in what you've developed. That's what I believe makes this program so enticing. I'm not blind to the recruiting advantages that programs like UNC or UCLA offer but taking a program from the mediocre and making them recognizable and successful can be extremely rewarding. The allure of accomplishing success at MN hopefully will motivate him to stay. He has the ability to do something special for MN and put himself and MN on the college hoops map.
 

joshvanklomp said:
I think its more likely he'd go to Florida to succeed Billy Donovan than he succeeds his dad at Louiville. Just a gut feeling.
Click to expand...

Billy Donovan will be the coach at Florida for another 15 years. I'm not too worried about that one.
 


Meanwhile back to the raise. What's more important; paying more, extending or increasing the buyout. I believe the buyout is only 1/2 a MIL. That ain't much if someone comes calling.
 

What's most important is fixing the apostrophe in the title of this thread.
 





alchemy2u said:
Guys, we have ourselves a COACH. Early, smurly, the job he is doing is outstanding. It is obvious that he knows how to coach basketball, all the change up of styles, defenses, how he sets up to attack the weakness of each opponent. Look how much he has transformed several players on the team (Mo, Elliot, Otto, etc., even Dre), and he has turned obvious holes in the team into major contributors. The players are playing with confidence, not fear of failure.

And please stop all this nonsense of him moving on. Why would he want to? He has already developed home court advantage and got the barn rocking. With that, you start the season with a 500 B1G record, win the away games you should, and pick off a few others on the road and you are contending for the title and a very high seed in the tourney. His recruiting will pick up next year now that he has a track record in the B1G and he will get some top players. He can quickly turn this program into big deal nation wide and build his own legacy. Why would he want to deal with following in the footsteps of another coach and deal with the inflated egos of another team's fan base. Here he can be his own Izo, where the man makes the program and not the program makes the man.
Click to expand...
bga1 said:
I expected a great recruiter. His coaching ability is advanced beyond my dreams at this stage. This is going to be a fun ride. It won't be long before local players start making his recruiting job a little easier as well. Seriously, I think they would be wise to sit down with him at the end of the year (providing they finish it with an NCAA berth) tear up the contract and lock him up for a longer, sweeter deal to show him the commitment on the U's side.
Click to expand...
Great basketball minds.
 




I'm not going to fault anyone for having been excited about a coach in year 1. It is also healthy reminder that we should wait to see the banners start hanging before building the statute, rather than breaking ground at the first sign of potential.
 

Ah yes.
The honeymoon period.
Oh well.
Nobody ever gets married thinking it will run off the rails. But sometimes things do work out (working on 38 years myself).
So I choose to be an optimist, just as I was with every previous coach. I also have remained thankful for past coaches-for the upsets and highlights and ended up more disappointed with the results when they were let go rather than angry and hateful towards them.
 

Spaulding!No! said:
Some here have had temp bans for reviving old threads.
Click to expand...

Well, that might be justified in some cases. This petty practice happens far too often around here. It seems like the main function of this type of exercise is to give posters with nothing better to do with their time an opportunity to point and jeer at other posters for their former expressed views. Anyone can be premature or outright wrong with sentiments expressed in a former time.

If the motivation for digging up a 8 year old thread was to serve as a reminder to avoid getting overly excited about a coach before he demonstrates success over a sufficient period of time, that could have been done without resurrecting a thread that dates from the 6th year of the Obama administration.
 

Looking back on it, I thought Pitino did a really go job in his first year of piecing the roster together, but also improving the offensive games of the players who returned under Tubby. Pre injury this may have been Andre Hollins best year, Mo dropped 70 pounds and was a new player, EE had his best offensive year, Oto found his shooting stroke, even Mav was a competent bench scorer, but the thing about Tubby's players were they were so fundamentally sound on defense and i think the issue going forward with Richard and it started to show the following replacing Austin Hollins with Carlos Morrie is he was never able to teach defense, or even recruit it on a consistent basis, his best team had Reggie Lynch in the paint and Akeem Spriggs was a good defender who transferred in. I think the one thing that's different about Ben is he pretty much constructed this entire roster, even with Eric Curry I believe was the primary assistant who recruited Eric when he signed, but even this staff will have challenges going forward. Next year, it'll be more of a mix of freshman to go with returnees and transfer, so that will present different challenges. I'm sure all gopher teams will play hard under this staff, but this team has a rare combination of veteran experience, leadership, hoops IQ and intrinsic motivation, the work ethic is uncommon, it's special and as fans we really need to appreciate it. I think they will have more talent next year, but it's a different group and there going to need to learn different lessons, but I trust this staff in there evaluations. As for Pitino now, watched a couple of Lobos games, Mashburn and Arizona State transfer are a nice one, two combo in the back court and I like Applehans, the wing he recruited in 2022, really good shooter, but not quite the athlete to play in the big ten, but ironically the type of shooter he lacked when he was here, however if we is going to make a dent in the Mountain West, needs to get some pieces in the front court, it's year one, but there are some very good coaches in that league between Niko, Dutcher, Miles, Alford, Pitino will need to develop a bench and quite frankly a culture to be successful. I don't doubt that he can assemble enough pieces, but my doubts with him at his current role are if he actually learned from his mistakes at Minnesota. Mountain West isn't the big ten, but the coaches are good enough in that league where he isn't going to be able to just out talent people
 

You must log in or register to reply here.



Top Bottom