Reusse: Gophers put their faith in a kid coach

Donate To GopherHole
A photo montage of Reusse's fan following/intended audience...

critics.jpg

grumpy.jpg

mylawnlarge2.jpg

He's playing a bit role, just like these fellows right here.

Go Gophers!
 

stevedave23 said:
I love how he suggests/infers that gophers chose Pitino over Flip. Ah, Flip turned the job down.
Click to expand...

I'm done with the Flip deal and on board with RP. However, what you just said is not true. They gave him an offer he had to refuse. They always wanted to go another direction. I am now excited about this one.
 

SelectionSunday said:
I liked the first sentence of the last paragraph:

"The roster Pitino inherits at Minnesota is good enough to compete for an NCAA bid next season."

It's about time someone in the media pointed that out. Pitino isn't inheriting a dumpster fire. There's a decent chance he can hit the ground running and at least accomplish what we did this past season (NCAA bid and maybe a win).
Click to expand...

If Pitino can somehow land a nice fall recruiting class (just get good recrutits whoever they are) and get to the tourney in his first year - that will give him the momentum he needs. This is going to be a fun year to watch.
 

The Fat a@@ from Fulda and El Sid are old enough not to remember a 38 year old coach with two years experience at Indiana State. It was a different time a different era. But what did a west coast school with a rich athletic tradition see in this guy? Did the press chide him as the Kid, I imagine they did. When you select a young guy you are betting on pedigree, training, and who he learned from. And if you are honest Minnesota is not a plum job. But back to that 38 year old who spent nearly 5 decades at the school it was a great hire. Perspective, gentlemen. That 38 year old, with a couple years college experience, John Wooden.
 

Later, we started hearing Mick Cronin at Cincinnati, which would have allowed him to get out of the mess that remains of the former Big East … soon to be a league with the Bearcats, UConn and Memphis as the only schools of basketball prestige.

Teague-Ellis couldn’t even a land a guy whose conference is leaving him to take this job in what today stands as the best basketball league in the country.
Click to expand...

You're right Pat, any even halfway-decent program should be able to land Mick Cronin, and it's embarrassing that we didn't. I'm sure the guy really hates working at his hometown school and his alma mater, where he got his first assistant job in 1997 and is entering his eighth season as head coach. I'm sure he's just dying to leave, but Teague couldn't even get him to come.

I think this board can get a little over-the-top with Reusse hate, but this take is just so inane that it calls the question: Is he really that uninformed about the national college basketball landscape, or is he that pathetic that he blatantly ignores facts in a sullen attempt to knock the Gophers? A little of both, I'm sure, and either way, it has no place at a major newspaper.

I'm not asking for objective journalism from a columnist. Go ahead and be negative. But don't back up that negativity with horribly idiotic points that embarrass yourself much more than Norwood Teague, the guy you're trying to embarrass.
 


husker70 said:
The Fat a@@ from Fulda and El Sid are old enough not to remember a 38 year old coach with two years experience at Indiana State. It was a different time a different era. But what did a west coast school with a rich athletic tradition see in this guy? Did the press chide him as the Kid, I imagine they did. When you select a young guy you are betting on pedigree, training, and who he learned from. And if you are honest Minnesota is not a plum job. But back to that 38 year old who spent nearly 5 decades at the school it was a great hire. Perspective, gentlemen. That 38 year old, with a couple years college experience, John Wooden.
Click to expand...

True, UCLA took quite the gamble and got a good coach. Don't forget Sam Gilbert though. Without him Wooden probably would have won his share of games but there would have been no "Wizard of Westwood". Still very irritating that the Gophers had all those wins wiped out for term papers when UCLA was handing out cars, clothes and money to get and keep players at UCLA and they got to keep all those "purchased" titles.

No Gilbert or another "Sugar Daddy" is the main factor in UCLA's lack of major success since then.

You're far from alone husker70, nearly everybody forgets about Mr.Gilbert.

1981 Times investigative series, which interviewed 45 people connected with the basketball program, established Gilbert as "a one-man clearing house who has enabled players and their families to receive goods and services usually at big discounts and sometimes at no cost."

The paper quoted Brent Clark, an NCAA field investigator who said that, in 1977, he was told to drop his case in Westwood. "If I had spent a month in Los Angeles, I could have put them on indefinite suspension," he said of UCLA. An NCAA spokesman disputed this claim, saying that Clark was living a "fantasy world."


The Times established that Gilbert, during Wooden's heyday, helped players get cars, clothes, airline tickets and scalpers' prices for UCLA season tickets. Gilbert allegedly even arranged abortions for players' girlfriends.

One former UCLA All-American told The Times: "What do you want me to say? That's my school. I don't want to see them take away all those championships." Gilbert considered many NCAA rules arcane and silly.

Larry Farmer, who played for Wooden and later became head coach, remarked of Gilbert: "I saw him move mountains."

The Times' investigation concluded Gilbert probably committed several NCAA violations in his dealings with UCLA players.

Wooden, in 1981, told The Times: "There's as much crookedness as you want to find. There was something Abraham Lincoln said — he'd rather trust and be disappointed than distrust and be miserable all the time. Maybe I trusted too much."

-------

But facts are facts. And the fact is, Wooden was at UCLA for 15 years, from 1948-63, without winning an NCAA championship. And then from 1964-76 he won 10 titles in 12 years. What changed? Sam Gilbert's involvement changed.

Gilbert, a UCLA alum and wealthy contractor, opened his home and apparently his wallet to the Bruins, from Lew Alcindor to Lucius Allen to Bill Walton. When the best Bruins left school, Gilbert represented them as an agent, which is one of the most brazen unpunished NCAA violations in college sports history: Rich booster spoils the best players on campus, then becomes their agent. And the coach doesn't stop it. Doesn't even know about it.

Maybe Wooden didn't know. But his attention to detail was legendary. Wooden literally monitored how his players tied their shoes and how they wore their socks ... but he didn't know Gilbert -- the players called him "Papa Sam" -- was giving them cash and clothes and cars before becoming their agent? Maybe. More likely, Wooden didn't want to know. That's how he slept at night, and that's how he won 10 national titles.

But now Pete Carroll faces the same situation.

http://articles.latimes.com/2010/jun/08/sports/la-sp-0609-wooden-gilbert-20100609

http://www.cbssports.com/columns/story/11757857
 

Ok you want another former player who had two years of experience. And a connection to Rick Pitino his former coach. He gets a job at Florida and nobody noticed. The Swamp was the place to be. Today, that former Marshall coach is doing Fed Ex Commericals, has two NCAA Basketball Championships, and dis proved my theory that a school cannot be good in both basketball and Football. Florida won both. This coaching circle for Richard Pitino is complete. Billy The Kid Donovan played for Rick Pitino at Providence.
 

GopherinPhilly said:
I can't read the comments on that site...can't imagine what a zero life those people must have to write the same crap over and over on every freaking article. And Fat Pat needs to go...it just shows how dead journalism and newspapers are that he still has a job. Desperate who_res!
Click to expand...

Dam GopherinPhilly....I don't think you 'beat Anorexia!' You've lost weight and got all duded up.
 

SonOfTheVarsity said:
I think this board can get a little over-the-top with Reusse hate, but this take is just so inane that it calls the question: Is he really that uninformed about the national college basketball landscape, or is he that pathetic that he blatantly ignores facts in a sullen attempt to knock the Gophers? A little of both, I'm sure, and either way, it has no place at a major newspaper.

I'm not asking for objective journalism from a columnist. Go ahead and be negative. But don't back up that negativity with horribly idiotic points that embarrass yourself much more than Norwood Teague, the guy you're trying to embarrass.
Click to expand...

You're right, we can get overboard with the Reusse-hate, no doubt. I'm probably more guilty than most. But, as you point out he's negative without any solid factual basis. And it's not the first time. And it's not even just Reusse, as Souhan pulls the same nonsense. It's to the point where you cannot possibly value their opinions whatsoever when it comes to Gopher sports.

THAT'S where the over-the-top Reusse hate is sourced. Lather. Rinse. Repeat. It's an obnoxious cycle, but we didn't start it. We're just trapped in it now.
 



husker70 said:
Ok you want another former player who had two years of experience. And a connection to Rick Pitino his former coach. He gets a job at Florida and nobody noticed. The Swamp was the place to be. Today, that former Marshall coach is doing Fed Ex Commericals, has two NCAA Basketball Championships, and dis proved my theory that a school cannot be good in both basketball and Football. Florida won both. This coaching circle for Richard Pitino is complete. Billy The Kid Donovan played for Rick Pitino at Providence.
Click to expand...

Huh?

No, I'm just f-ing sick of Wooden getting all the praise for being such a saintly guy and wonderful coach. By all accounts he was a good guy, but he didn't win a damn thing at UCLA until Gilbert started buying him players.

The Times' investigation concluded Gilbert probably committed several NCAA violations in his dealings with UCLA players.

Wooden, in 1981, told The Times: "There's as much crookedness as you want to find. There was something Abraham Lincoln said — he'd rather trust and be disappointed than distrust and be miserable all the time. Maybe I trusted too much."

He left out "and win a boatload of championships."
 

BleedGopher said:
Reusse: Gophers put their faith in a kid coach

A week ago a lot of the talk was about Flip Saunders. Today we have Richard Pitino.

Tell me a week ago that the choice was Flip Saunders, a passionate Gopher with an outstanding resume, or a 30-year-old former student manager with little more than a famous surname to validate his candidacy, and I would have been standing in front of Williams Arena, acting as goofy as Larry Spooner at a Vikings’ stadium hearing, holding a sign and shouting, “Flip, Flip, Flip.’’

Teague and Ellis started this search as the two smartest guys in any basketball room. They return with a coach much more suspect than what poor old Northwestern managed in Chris Collins, an assistant but fully trained, rather than the nonfiction version of Billy Heywood.

http://www.startribune.com/sports/gophers/201367091.html

Go Gophers!!
Click to expand...

Someone should tell Fat Pat that our new kid coach has more college experience than Flip....
 


My problem with the Fat A$$ from Fulda, is his sense that he and he alone has any insight. He and he alone can engage in sarcasim, be the only cynic. He wants to be the only source of mockery, irony, scorn, and disdain. If he wants to hand it out, come on down. We have some for you.
 




Frod0 said:
Someone should tell Fat Pat that our new kid coach has more college experience than Flip....
Click to expand...


yes, cause if you coach in the nba its impossible to coach college lol

some of you people need to stop getting so butt hurt because people are questioning a risky hire. if you dont think its a risky hire you are blinded. hopefully young pitino shuts fat pat up, if not, it will get really ugly in the media for teague
 

The Fat A$$ from Fulda should be asked just how much do you know about Basketball? Surely he should be able to tell us its played with a round ball. Does he realize Judd Heathcote is no longer the head coach at Michigan State? He seems to remember Flip, but can he name 3 others Gopher Guards? Here is a comparison often used in SAT's Flip is to College Basketball as ? is to College Football. We went down this road two years ago. The closest The Fat A$$ ever got to a bench, was in a park somewhere. He can claim to have covered major sporting events, but must admit he never played, coached, or managed in one. Never hit a shot, never coached a minute. The Search took all of 9 days, in the day it probably took him that long to find his car. The only thing that is bigger than his waistline is his opinion of himself. And yet he blasts the hire and the overall opinion of Richard Pitino is overwhelmingly positive. Hey Fat Man, your out of step.
 



Speaking of Wooden, does anybody not know that the Gophers were talking to Wooden when UCLA hired him in 1948. Dave MacMillan had retired and the Gopher job was open. In his autobiography Wooden said he had an offer from MN, which he intended to accept because he was a midwest/Big 10 guy, but also one from UCLA. The MN offer was made by the AD who said he needed to get the final approval of the president, and he would call back. He never did, and so Wooden took the UCLA job. The MN AD later said he had been unable to call because a snowstorm had knocked out telephone service, but a little sleuthing shows that there was no snowstorm at the time.

The Gophers hired Ozzie Cowles instead and I would guess that they didn't call Wooden back because he was the back up. They really wanted Cowles. He was a Minnesota native, a Carleton grad, and had coached Dartmouth to the NCAA final in 1942. He then went to Michigan in 1948. The Wolverines had hardly had a winning basketball season in 20 years but finished 2nd in the Big 10 in Cowles 1st year. But he was dissatisfied because the AD was football coach Fritz Crisler and it was all football, football, football. In fact, Michigan got an invitation to the NIT that year and when Cowles and his team returned from 5 days in New York, Crisler stuck his head it Cowles' office and said, Hey Ozzie, haven't seen ya lately. Where ya been?

So anyway, the Gophers probably preferred Cowles anyway and that's why they didn't call Wooden back.
 

Buttcheeks McGaffigan said:
I wanna say Musselman was the second or third choice, but I'm not sure.
Click to expand...

He certainly left his mark by the time he went running off to San Diego to the ABA or what ever it was taking Mark Olberding with him following Mark's freshman season, I believe. Lots of excitement that ended in a "crash and burn..."
 




BleedGopher said:
Reusse: Gophers put their faith in a kid coach

A week ago a lot of the talk was about Flip Saunders. Today we have Richard Pitino.

Tell me a week ago that the choice was Flip Saunders, a passionate Gopher with an outstanding resume, or a 30-year-old former student manager with little more than a famous surname to validate his candidacy, and I would have been standing in front of Williams Arena, acting as goofy as Larry Spooner at a Vikings’ stadium hearing, holding a sign and shouting, “Flip, Flip, Flip.’’

Teague and Ellis started this search as the two smartest guys in any basketball room. They return with a coach much more suspect than what poor old Northwestern managed in Chris Collins, an assistant but fully trained, rather than the nonfiction version of Billy Heywood.

http://www.startribune.com/sports/gophers/201367091.html

Go Gophers!!
Click to expand...

What is wrong with you Bleed.....why do you post every Reusse column? Just noticed.....You're the king of threads - you start about four threads a day.
 

Parski1 said:
What is wrong with you Bleed.....why do you post every Reusse column? Just noticed.....You're the king of threads - you start about four threads a day.
Click to expand...

What is wrong with you Parski.....why do you comment on every Reusse column? Just noticed....You're the king of commenting on every article that you don't want posted- you do it about 4 times a day.
 

Parski1 said:
What is wrong with you Bleed.....why do you post every Reusse column? Just noticed.....You're the king of threads - you start about four threads a day.
Click to expand...

Bleed, keep up the good work.

Parski, go to bed.
 

lakesgopher said:
yes, cause if you coach in the nba its impossible to coach college lol

some of you people need to stop getting so butt hurt because people are questioning a risky hire. if you dont think its a risky hire you are blinded. hopefully young pitino shuts fat pat up, if not, it will get really ugly in the media for teague
Click to expand...

Not that risky. Downside is 9th-10th in the conference which is what we had with Tubster!!
 


GopherGod said:
What is wrong with you Parski.....why do you comment on every Reusse column? Just noticed....You're the king of commenting on every article that you don't want posted- you do it about 4 times a day.
Click to expand...

Shut your pie hole...stupid thread.
 

You must log in or register to reply here.



Top Bottom