To be perfectly honest, I was trying to offer an olive branch to the Pitino supporters. I didn't want to sound too harsh, so I was trying to find something nice to say about Pitino. I should have just left that sentence out of the post.
That's the thing about Pitino - for every plus, there's a minus. And that makes him harder to evaluate. Every time I think he's showing progress, there seems to be a step backwards. He has landed some decent players. He also also swung and missed on some players. For all the hype, Washington IMHO didn't live up to his billing until the last few games of the season.
The three incoming FR need to come through. If they can play, that certainly helps Pitino's standing as a recruiter. But - and we don't talk about this enough - how much of that is due to the assistant coaches, and how much is due to Pitino?
Next year is going to be pivotal for Pitino and for the Gopher program. we'll see what happens.