Pitino era is over, start the search now.

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bleedsmaroonandgold said:
And if the coach has enough here success that Kentucky and Kansas want him, if consider that a successful outcome and we would be in a good position for whoever the next coach his. If the worst thing that happens with a coaching hire is that they do so well a better job poaches them away, that's a win in my book.
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Exactly, who cares if they leave for a better job. That means they did well in this one. It's a compliment. I'd take Dayton or Butlers success right now.
 


What are the odds the coaches mentioned above can match or exceed Holtmann, Gard, McCaffery, Turgeon, Miller at UM? 50-50? Less? Much less?

I know that Pitino's big ten record is low hanging fruit, but also true that his tourney appearances/success the last three seasons compare favorably with other conference programs. As well, this season we have been right there despite rebuilding and being in the toughest league. Pitino's teams play hard.

Coyle knows that if a new hire isnt up to the standard of the above big ten coaches, the blame will fall on his own shoulders for the hire.

As other posters have noted, comes down to Coyle's view of the current program going forward versus his confidence that the new coach can succeed in a very difficult conference.
We'll see.
 

ltf said:
What are the odds the coaches mentioned above can match or exceed Holtmann, Gard, McCaffery, Turgeon, Miller at UM? 50-50? Less? Much less?

I know that Pitino's big ten record is low hanging fruit, but also true that his tourney appearances/success the last three seasons compare favorably with other conference programs. As well, this season we have been right there despite rebuilding and being in the toughest league. Pitino's teams play hard.

Coyle knows that if a new hire isnt up to the standard of the above big ten coaches, the blame will fall on his own shoulders for the hire.

As other posters have noted, comes down to Coyle's view of the current program going forward versus his confidence that the new coach can succeed in a very difficult conference.
We'll see.
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Not always the toughest league.
 

ltf said:
What are the odds the coaches mentioned above can match or exceed Holtmann, Gard, McCaffery, Turgeon, Miller at UM? 50-50? Less? Much less?

I know that Pitino's big ten record is low hanging fruit, but also true that his tourney appearances/success the last three seasons compare favorably with other conference programs. As well, this season we have been right there despite rebuilding and being in the toughest league. Pitino's teams play hard.

Coyle knows that if a new hire isnt up to the standard of the above big ten coaches, the blame will fall on his own shoulders for the hire.

As other posters have noted, comes down to Coyle's view of the current program going forward versus his confidence that the new coach can succeed in a very difficult conference.
We'll see.
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LOL.

Coyle is afraid the new guy will be as bad as the current guy??

Incredible.
 


skiumah1 said:
he's getting it done with the majority of guys that he inherited at Utah State. 1 or 2 guys giving minor minutes that he has brought into the program. I don't know if he can sustain success with recruiting at a high level program.
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This is, on paper, pretty much the only "knock" on Smith, correct? No one knows for sure if he'll be able to bring his own guys in to a program, at a high level, and still win?

Not saying it is not an important concern.

But otherwise ... in two years at South Dakota, and then two years at Utah St ... he looks pretty damn good.
 

GopherPoke said:
I'm a fairly new Gopher fan, and a Wyoming grad/fan. I know you don't base hires off one game, but Medved and CSU lost last night to a Wyoming team that might have the least talent in program history and quite possibly the worst coach in D1. I don't know much about the guy, but this has to raise eyebrows.
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Saw that this morning.

Has to be a disappointing exit, for the #6 seed losing to the #11 seed. Especially with a pretty strong improvement in year two.

Sometimes you just have an off night.
 

MplsGopher said:
This is, on paper, pretty much the only "knock" on Smith, correct? No one knows for sure if he'll be able to bring his own guys in to a program, at a high level, and still win?

Not saying it is not an important concern.

But otherwise ... in two years at South Dakota, and then two years at Utah St ... he looks pretty damn good.
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He was at USD 4 years so he had a chance to get all his own kids. He also left that program full too.

He also has plenty of guys with MN connections would be willing to be assistants here for him. Gameli Ahelegbe is one, but there are others that'd come along for sure. This isn't my number 1 priority as I want an assistant staff that develops and teaches, but he'd be fine.
 

MplsGopher said:
Saw that this morning.

Has to be a disappointing exit, for the #6 seed losing to the #11 seed. Especially with a pretty strong improvement in year two.

Sometimes you just have an off night.
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Losses happen, they will continue to get better at CSU.
 



manderson1984 said:
Losses happen, they will continue to get better at CSU.
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Interesting from a recruiting angle on Medved- he has one recruit lined up for 2020- Isaiah Riviera a kid who was interested in the Gophers but did not end up getting an offer. Medved also offered Martice Mitchell who signed with the Gophers.

He did get a really solid class - four 3 stars the year before and three of them are starting as frosh. One of them is David Roddy who is averaging about 11 points, even though he is shooting 19.5% from 3 point range. The team shoots the 3 really well overall 36% and they shoot a ton of them. 22 per game. Oddly - they are bad at free throws- 67%
 

bga1 said:
Interesting from a recruiting angle on Medved- he has one recruit lined up for 2020- Isaiah Riviera a kid who was interested in the Gophers but did not end up getting an offer. Medved also offered Martice Mitchell who signed with the Gophers.

He did get a really solid class - four 3 stars the year before and three of them are starting as frosh. One of them is David Roddy who is averaging about 11 points, even though he is shooting 19.5% from 3 point range. The team shoots the 3 really well overall 36% and they shoot a ton of them. 22 per game. Oddly - they are bad at free throws- 67%
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he also signed Jacob Jennison from Sauk Centre in the 2020 class. 6'-11" kid.
side note on him......he unfortunetly blew out his knee and also broke his leg I believe earlier in the year.
 

USAF said:
LOL.

Coyle is afraid the new guy will be as bad as the current guy??

Incredible.
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I see your incredible and raise it with one of my own.
Incredible your perspective is so narrow.
You be you, I guess.
 

ltf said:
As other posters have noted, comes down to Coyle's view of the current program going forward versus his confidence that the new coach can succeed in a very difficult conference.
We'll see.
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Unless the downside risk is very large (it isn't here), fear of the future is a terrible logic for inaction and I hope the leader of our athletic department would not be paralyzed by that.

After 7 years, we know the coach we have now isn't good enough and, if he is retained, that will result in little more than disillusionment among the dedicated fans. On the other hand, a new coach will have the hopes of the fans with him for at least a couple of years.

Yes, we could get a coach who is no better than Pitino (although I would hope at least than we know enough not to hire a completely unproven 31 year old this time). Or, maybe we could get a coach like Steve Pikiell who labored at the illustrious Stony Brook prior to arriving at Rutgers. He's the type of coach that no one would have thought of around here. He took over a horrible program that had 10 straight losing seasons before he arrived and hadn't been in the NCAA tournament since 1991. He wasn't an instant success but, by his third season, people started worrying about playing Rutgers. He will win 20+ games this year by the time his season is done and his team is still listed as probable for the NCAA tournament.
 



cjbfbp said:
Unless the downside risk is very large (it isn't here), fear of the future is a terrible logic for inaction and I hope the leader of our athletic department would not be paralyzed by that.

After 7 years, we know the coach we have now isn't good enough and, if he is retained, that will result in little more than disillusionment among the dedicated fans. On the other hand, a new coach will have the hopes of the fans with him for at least a couple of years.

Yes, we could get a coach who is no better than Pitino (although I would hope at least than we know enough not to hire a completely unproven 31 year old this time). Or, maybe we could get a coach like Steve Pikiell who labored at the illustrious Stony Brook prior to arriving at Rutgers. He's the type of coach that no one would have thought of around here. He took over a horrible program that had 10 straight losing seasons before he arrived and hadn't been in the NCAA tournament since 1991. He wasn't an instant success but, by his third season, people started worrying about playing Rutgers. He will win 20+ games this year by the time his season is done and his team is still listed as probable for the NCAA tournament.
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Will disagree with your certainty of Pitino's ineptitude. Have given reasons for this in other posts so wont bore you by repeating those. Concern would be recruiting going forward and would think Coyle has a sense of that either way.
 
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MplsGopher said:
This is, on paper, pretty much the only "knock" on Smith, correct? No one knows for sure if he'll be able to bring his own guys in to a program, at a high level, and still win?

Not saying it is not an important concern.

But otherwise ... in two years at South Dakota, and then two years at Utah St ... he looks pretty damn good.
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My guy Medved just got booted early in the Mountain West Tournament. No good. Smith does have a great track record. He does look like the better hire on paper.
 

manderson1984 said:
That's awesome that he was your roommate. Does a great job promoting HS basketball for the state.
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To be precise: floor mates as freshmen; apartment mates as sophomores.

That dude--he's got sports and coaching in his blood. His dad was an accomplished coach in Britton, SD.
 



Hopefully Coyle will replace both head basketball coaches. I sure don’t see anything positive with Whalen. The leading scorer transferring pretty much tells you everything you need to know about Whalen.
 

Pete smith said:
Hopefully Coyle will replace both head basketball coaches. I sure don’t see anything positive with Whalen. The leading scorer transferring pretty much tells you everything you need to know about Whalen.
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Not to totally derail, but seriously guy? Whalens got two five stars coming in next year.
 

Pete smith said:
Hopefully Coyle will replace both head basketball coaches. I sure don’t see anything positive with Whalen. The leading scorer transferring pretty much tells you everything you need to know about Whalen.
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Whalen is not getting fired two years in. Good lord.
 

I know Craig Smith gets the 'one of us' bump but is he actually a hot coaching candidate around the country? Utah State popped up big last year and has been decent this year if maybe a bit disappointing (due to injuries which we never use as an excuse).

What's he good at? What's his style? I've heard of him a lot but I don't know what his teams do well? They've got an awesome player in Sam Merrill who would be our best player, but what does Smith do well as a coach? I don't care about him keeping the hometown kids home - what's his strength as a coach?
 

Biggsohnasty said:
I know Craig Smith gets the 'one of us' bump but is he actually a hot coaching candidate around the country? Utah State popped up big last year and has been decent this year if maybe a bit disappointing (due to injuries which we never use as an excuse).

What's he good at? What's his style? I've heard of him a lot but I don't know what his teams do well? They've got an awesome player in Sam Merrill who would be our best player, but what does Smith do well as a coach? I don't care about him keeping the hometown kids home - what's his strength as a coach?
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Sam Merrill would be our best player? Better than Oturu? Carr? hmmm You have to think about the competition he faces game after game.
 

manderson1984 said:
Exactly, who cares if they leave for a better job. That means they did well in this one. It's a compliment. I'd take Dayton or Butlers success right now.
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Better job? Who cares?

A lot of folks would care deeply, if there was sustained success. The MN job needs to be a destination, not a stop.
 

BarnBurner said:
Better job? Who cares?

A lot of folks would care deeply, if there was sustained success. The MN job needs to be a destination, not a stop.
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Sure that's fine for a goal, but it many times does not work that way. My point is that if we'd lost a coach 3 times this century to better jobs, I'd be a pretty happy fan cause we'd been quite successful.

Speaking of Xavier coaches, I wonder if Thad is ready to come back. He'd be worth a look.
 

manderson1984 said:
Sure that's fine for a goal, but it many times does not work that way. My point is that if we'd lost a coach 3 times this century to better jobs, I'd be a pretty happy fan cause we'd been quite successful.

Speaking of Xavier coaches, I wonder if Thad is ready to come back. He'd be worth a look.
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The general feeling I get regarding the lack of success at MN is the poor coach hiring decisions, historically. The last piece is now in place, with the practice facilities. Historically, MN has had all kinds of trouble getting the top candidates to say "yes". Correct?

Big 10 university, major metro area, lots of resources, great AD (according to a lot of folks). Trying to find reasons this is not a great job. A job that a successful coach would want to be at long term, not sniffing out the next one.
 

Bad Gopher said:
To be precise: floor mates as freshmen; apartment mates as sophomores.

That dude--he's got sports and coaching in his blood. His dad was an accomplished coach in Britton, SD.
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That almost always works!! :)
 

BarnBurner said:
Better job? Who cares?

A lot of folks would care deeply, if there was sustained success. The MN job needs to be a destination, not a stop.
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How many successful coaches leave a B1G job, or any big conference job for another one? The only one I can think of is Bill $elf leaving Illinois for Kansas, and he's dirty anyways. That was after Roy Williams left Kansas of all places for UNC. So even Kansas wasn't immune to that.

This happens so rarely yet Minnesotan's get worked up about it in every coaching search. It should be the least of anyone's concerns. And if a coach did leave, it would mean the Gophers had more success on the court than I've seen in my lifetime.
 

Pete smith said:
Hopefully Coyle will replace both head basketball coaches. I sure don’t see anything positive with Whalen. The leading scorer transferring pretty much tells you everything you need to know about Whalen.
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It's like you're having a constant competition with yourself to see how bad your posts can be.
 

GopherWeatherGuy said:
How many successful coaches leave a B1G job, or any big conference job for another one? The only one I can think of is Bill $elf leaving Illinois for Kansas, and he's dirty anyways. That was after Roy Williams left Kansas of all places for UNC. So even Kansas wasn't immune to that.

This happens so rarely yet Minnesotan's get worked up about it in every coaching search. It should be the least of anyone's concerns. And if a coach did leave, it would mean the Gophers had more success on the court than I've seen in my lifetime.
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You make my point. Thank you.

If your boy PJ left, you would be so hurt gwg. Admit it.
 

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