Pitino thus far 6-4 at New Mexico

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I harbor no hard feelings towards Pitino; he seems like a good guy. He was a bad hire, but that’s not his fault. He had more than his share of bad luck with injuries, but he also failed to build a team to realistically compete in March, and made some poor recruiting decisions (like giving a scholarship to a player with a well-known cardiac issue). I hope things work out for RP in NM.
 



GopherVotary said:
I harbor no hard feelings towards Pitino; he seems like a good guy. He was a bad hire, but that’s not his fault. He had more than his share of bad luck with injuries, but he also failed to build a team to realistically compete in March, and made some poor recruiting decisions (like giving a scholarship to a player with a well-known cardiac issue). I hope things work out for RP in NM.
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The Jarvis Johnson situation was unfortunately sad, but it's not like that set the program back. He was still allowed a scholarship, but due to the medical situation it didn't count against the Gophers total.

For whatever reason, not landing McKinley Wright but instead going with Isiah Washington had a far greater downward impact on Pitino's Minnesota legacy. How much different would the success arc look with that trade alone?
 

Ope3 said:
The Jarvis Johnson situation was unfortunately sad, but it's not like that set the program back. He was still allowed a scholarship, but due to the medical situation it didn't count against the Gophers total.

For whatever reason, not landing McKinley Wright but instead going with Isiah Washington had a far greater downward impact on Pitino's Minnesota legacy. How much different would the success arc look with that trade alone?
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In this and other cases, I wonder if Pitino and his staff would have been able to develop and coach someone like Wright as well as the Colorado staff.
 


Bad Gopher said:
In this and other cases, I wonder if Pitino and his staff would have been able to develop and coach someone like Wright as well as the Colorado staff.
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Of course "as well" could always be up for debate, but Pitino's staff did develop Nate Mason & Amir Coffey to be solid ball handlers, so I am confident Wright would have been a huge Big 10 contributor had he chosen to stay home.

I should also add, just landing such a recruit as Wright probably isn't even half the battle. Keeping them for 4-5 years is another matter, with constant challenges of the Transfer Portal etc.
 
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The real interesting thing about Richard and Ben...both due to circumstances started with essentially all new players and went different routes. Ben chose mostly senior or experienced guys.
But, nobody expected them to be a solid team in their first dozen games. Richard went with transfers, recruits and kept some holdovers but mostly a pretty young team. Richard's team can't defend anybody.
The Gophers are being discussed as an NCAA team. I hope it's not true but Richard may not win any more games this season with the Lobos. It may get ugly for Richard. And life looks good for Ben right now.
Didn't see it like that, at least this dramatically a couple months ago.
 

Gopherfan84 said:
Lol guess I define calling people idiots on a fan board as a form of being an internet tough guy. I’ll stand corrected.
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If we put out a poll asking "Is jammer an idiot?" it would come back with an overwhelming "Yes."
 



60's Guy said:
The real interesting thing about Richard and Ben...both due to circumstances started with essentially all new players and went different routes. Ben chose mostly senior or experienced guys.
But, nobody expected them to be a solid team in their first dozen games. Richard went with transfers, recruits and kept some holdovers but mostly a pretty young team. Richard's team can't defend anybody.
The Gophers are being discussed as an NCAA team. I hope it's not true but Richard may not win any more games this season with the Lobos. It may get ugly for Richard. And life looks good for Ben right now.
Didn't see it like that, at least this dramatically a couple months ago.
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Nice post. I liked RP but it was time to move on. His in game adjustments were horrible. Was not wowed by BJ hire but, I was by his off season video team workouts. He seems to be a leader.
 

MennoSota said:
If we put out a poll asking "Is jammer an idiot?" it would come back with an overwhelming "Yes."
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Darn it, tiny! I'd hire the Board Barrister to sue you for slander but he's the only lawyer on the planet who'd lose the case.
 

Unless you are the guy taking over at Duke, no first year coach should be judged on his W/L record.
 

Bob_Loblaw said:
You think people have to have a public communication between them to have a "dynamic". LOL. You googled the word and landed on the first definition. LOL. Jam Jam, you're really searching for something here.

The "dynamic" is not between Ben and Pitino, you f'n moron LOL. It's a dynamic exists within the Gopher Men's basketball program. The dynamic is the shift from one coach to another. Notice how when I said "see", I pointed at another program.

Merriam-Webster: Dynamic: a force or factor that controls or influences a process of growth, change, interaction, or activity

A factor (switching coaches from Pitino to Ben) that influences a process of growth, change, interaction or activity.

I know you probably did really bad in school. But if a word works for one of the definition, you can use it. The internet exists, you have no excuse to be this f'n stupid.
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Taking the high ground as always.
 




Pitino's tenure could be summed up this way:

-Good dude, self deprecating and seemingly always had a smile when dealing with the media and the public.

-But was also a poor coach who was in over his head at a power five school.

With that said, I don't wish him ill at New Mexico. I'm just not sure how well he will do in Albuquerque.
 

MRJ said:
Pitino's tenure could be summed up this way:

-Good dude, self deprecating and seemingly always had a smile when dealing with the media and the public.

-But was also a poor coach who was in over his head at a power five school.

With that said, I don't wish him ill at New Mexico. I'm just not sure how well he will do in Albuquerque.
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I’ll say it. He’s not a good dude. Did Isaiah Washington dirty. He and Rick gave Jelly the pitino double pen and left him broken on the floor.
 

MaroonShaft said:
I’ll say it. He’s not a good dude. Did Isaiah Washington dirty. He and Rick gave Jelly the pitino double pen and left him broken on the floor.
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Could be. I don't know the details of Washington's time at the U.
 

MaroonShaft said:
I’ll say it. He’s not a good dude. Did Isaiah Washington dirty. He and Rick gave Jelly the pitino double pen and left him broken on the floor.
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Instagram sucked. Dick Pit overtly hated his lack of focus on the team. With good reason.
 

MaroonShaft said:
I’ll say it. He’s not a good dude. Did Isaiah Washington dirty. He and Rick gave Jelly the pitino double pen and left him broken on the floor.
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LOL could not be further from the truth. Jelly was a lazy fuck who was always late for practice and half assed it. He thought he was the shit and didn't want to put in the work. Only put up shots if he could get likes on the gram
 

MaroonShaft said:
I’ll say it. He’s not a good dude. Did Isaiah Washington dirty. He and Rick gave Jelly the pitino double pen and left him broken on the floor.
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Isaiah Washington was broken. He gave absolutely zero effort on the defensive end, he couldn't shoot, and he couldn't finish in the Big 10 and he turned the ball over about as often as made an assist. He couldn't even create the illusion of success in Pitino's dribble-happy iso system. He wasn't a good player.

Pitino's mistake was signing him, not benching him. He could never play for a system like Ben's.
 

Bob_Loblaw said:
Isaiah Washington was broken. He gave absolutely zero effort on the defensive end, he couldn't shoot, and he couldn't finish in the Big 10 and he turned the ball over about as often as made an assist. He couldn't even create the illusion of success in Pitino's dribble-happy iso system. He wasn't a good player.

Pitino's mistake was signing him, not benching him. He could never play for a system like Ben's.
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He was a great passer and playmaker, could create and dish as well as anyone I've seen, didn't play defense and was a mediocre scorer, in Pitino's offense he was worthless, another style of basketball who knows. Personality and dedication to the team I wouldn't know anything about.
 


meanwhile, UNM kick their center, Jethro, off the team. things might be tough at the Pit this year
 

jovs said:
He was a great passer and playmaker, could create and dish as well as anyone I've seen, didn't play defense and was a mediocre scorer, in Pitino's offense he was worthless, another style of basketball who knows. Personality and dedication to the team I wouldn't know anything about.
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I disagree. He was an atrocious playmaker. Even at long beach where he "flourished" he only averaged 1.3 assists for every TO (4.8/3.7). He could make some fancy passes, but he didn't have good vision, good timing and didn't set up his teammates.

He also wasn't a mediocre scorer. He was a terrible scorer. At MN, he was averaging more shots than points (that's atrocious). At LB and Iona, he improved to 1.17 points per shot. As a point of reference, EJ Stephens average 1.24 points/shot at Lafayette and Loewe averaged 1.36 points/shot at William and Mary. So he was an atrocious scorer at the Big 10 level and slightly less than average at a lesser level.

Even at Long Beach, he turned the ball over quite a bit, he didn't shoot well, and I doubt he played defense (I can't really speak to that).

Pitino's offense sucked. I hated it but ball dominant PGs could not have found an easier offense to flourish. I can't imagine how bad Washington would have been in an offense where he played off the ball. The only trait he had is that he could dribble. He couldn't make good decisions with the ball, but he could handle the ball. I don't think there are a lot of systems where a ball dominant guy who can't shoot, won't play defense, can't finish at the rim and turns the ball over will find success.

Pitino was absolutely lost as a coach, but Isaiah Washington would have even been worse with Ben Johnson. I don't think Johnson would have played him a minute.
 


alchemy2u said:
Taking the high ground as always.
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What I love is writing "did really bad in school," and then following it up by calling someone "f'n stupid." You would think someone that arrogant would know the difference between a verb and adverb instead of sounding like they lived in the West Virginia hills and dropped out of school in 6th grade.
 


Bob_Loblaw said:
I don't remember him ever making one, honestly.

Sometimes when we had a lead, we'd do the three man weave before we got into our dribble dribble dribble dribble shoot offense.
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Yeah a lot of just standing around...
 

MaroonShaft said:
I’ll say it. He’s not a good dude. Did Isaiah Washington dirty. He and Rick gave Jelly the pitino double pen and left him broken on the floor.
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How’d he do IW dirty? Gave him a scholarship? Come on man. He wasn’t good enough. There was a reason his offer list was bad.
That being said, he was not great at cultivating player relationships and is a lot more arrogant and entitled than many want to think cause he was “witty” in interviews.
 

Bob_Loblaw said:
I disagree. He was an atrocious playmaker. Even at long beach where he "flourished" he only averaged 1.3 assists for every TO (4.8/3.7). He could make some fancy passes, but he didn't have good vision, good timing and didn't set up his teammates.

He also wasn't a mediocre scorer. He was a terrible scorer. At MN, he was averaging more shots than points (that's atrocious). At LB and Iona, he improved to 1.17 points per shot. As a point of reference, EJ Stephens average 1.24 points/shot at Lafayette and Loewe averaged 1.36 points/shot at William and Mary. So he was an atrocious scorer at the Big 10 level and slightly less than average at a lesser level.

Even at Long Beach, he turned the ball over quite a bit, he didn't shoot well, and I doubt he played defense (I can't really speak to that).

Pitino's offense sucked. I hated it but ball dominant PGs could not have found an easier offense to flourish. I can't imagine how bad Washington would have been in an offense where he played off the ball. The only trait he had is that he could dribble. He couldn't make good decisions with the ball, but he could handle the ball. I don't think there are a lot of systems where a ball dominant guy who can't shoot, won't play defense, can't finish at the rim and turns the ball over will find success.

Pitino was absolutely lost as a coach, but Isaiah Washington would have even been worse with Ben Johnson. I don't think Johnson would have played him a minute.
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Ben Johnson would’ve never offered
 

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