What did Tubby do that was so damaging to the program?
Did he tell the MN AAU and high school coaches that they knew nothing about basketball?
Did he try to sleep with female members of the administration?
I don't think so. I think the only thing he did wrong was believing the administration was going to upgrade the athletic training facilities while he was here. The amount of avoidance and foot dragging on this project is unbelievable. Tubby actually believed this was going to happen, but the administration had no intention of giving in to the demands of a mere coach.
It took Tubby's departure and the insistence of Jerry Kill on that the U follow through on upgrading athletic training facilities to make the administration realize that they were going to be held accountable for promises made to coaches.
I don't believe Tubby was fired for the performance of the basketball team. I believe that he was fired because he kept arguing with administrators about how important it was.
The energy around building the Athletic Village did not intensify until the promise made to coaches had been out in public for over five years.
In-state athletes know this info and thanks to social media and the internet, it spreads further than expected.
Pitino's recruiting success has mirrored the progress of actualizing better training facilities for the athletes. I don't see his recruiting classes improving solely from his efforts at recruiting at all.
PJ Fleck would not have come here without the Athletic Village being under condtruction. The same is true of athletes as it is coaches. That is the type of proof that people need to see from an administration which claims to support their athletic department.
You can look at Pitino's coaching skills and wonder about a lot of things. The ones that stand out most are the inconsistent play of his junior & sophomore players and why it takes the team to light a fire under themselves to play better when it is something that the coach should do?
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I can agree with SOME of what you are pointing out.
First of all, Tubby was getting old, and I'm guessing the administration hoped that his coming here would have a greater impact on recruiting than it did, and then after not having the big impact they wanted early on, then his recruiting was getting worse. A lot of fans thought that Tubby was becoming a lazy recruiter, and though opinions were divided amongst the fans, the administration apparently did not see things getting better if Tubby stayed.
And the new Facilities taking so long had NOTHING to do with how much individual coaches did or didn't bug the Admin.
It had far more to do with it taking longer than they had hoped to raise the funds.
The University of Minnesota is an incredibly school, and the Twin Cities is a great place to live and hang out, we Minnesotans who are used to freezing cold winters know these things. But when you are trying to get coaches or high school recruits to consider coming here, the weather aspect is a negative. If all other factors are equal, it's hard to get past the weather thing.
As far as the inconsistent play of Juniors and Sophomores, well, the Juniors were Pitino's first and worst ranked recruiting class, so there are not going to be a lot of fans who are surprised if they are not superstars. Hopefully the experience they are gaining will help them become more consistent, and the sophomores are only a season and a half in, so is it that hard to believe that their performances will improve as this season goes on and again next year?
And you thinking players would go to a school with good facilities DESPITE the coach, shows how little you know about what you are talking about. Pitino is a YOUNG coach with lots of potential, and a great last name and I believe that the recruits are liking what they hear from Pitino and what they experience on their visits.
As for Pitino maybe not being the greatest coaching mind ever, yeah, I can buy that. But like I've said many times before, with better talent will come more wins and they will make it much easier for Pitino to coach them.
And one last thing, the coach DOES NOT play the game for the players, the players are the ones that shoot the ball and pass the ball and dribble the ball and are the ones who have to play the defense, SO, having or wanting players who coach themselves, is what winning teams need. So who cares if the players had a team meeting and then won. They had already won TWO road games against Top 25 ranked programs BEFORE the team meeting, so its quite possible that having the team meeting wasn't the only reason that they were able to finally win a game.
But the best thing, is that YOU don't have any say on whether or not they fire Pitino or give him another year.
