Reusse: Pitino’s second season as Gophers coach was an unequivocal disaster.

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BleedGopher

BleedGopher

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per Pat:

I can guarantee that there was no one in the Williams Arena club room on that Monday – not one of us – who would have thought it was possible for the efficient, ball-stealing, 11-2 Gophers to become the stumbling, choke-in-the-clutch, 18-15 Gophers that would not be among an even 100 teams selected to participate in either the NCAA tournament, or the consolation NIT.

Rich Pitino’s second season as Gophers coach was an unequivocal disaster.

http://www.startribune.com/sports/blogs/296431031.html

Go Gophers!!
 

The truth sometimes hurt. You knew the article was going to surface at some point either by Patrick
or Souhan.
 


I think the soft pre-season schedule had bad effects.

1. It did not properly prepare the team for the Big Ten schedule.

2. The team was beating the cupcakes often by a wide margin, which led to an inflated opinion of how good the team was(both by the players and the fans) Problem was this year's cupcakes were much worse than previous year's cupcakes.
 



FSN: With no postseason tourney, Gophers underachieved in Pitino's second year

After winning the NIT tournament last year, the Gophers men's basketball team didn't know how to feel. It was nice to win it, sure, but an NIT banner isn't something teams normally brag about.

With the championship in hand as head coach Richard Pitino entered his second season, the expectations -- at least from those outside the program -- were raised. Many expected Minnesota to make a push for the NCAA tournament in 2015. Yet as the season wore on, that dream faded away as conference losses piled up.

Now, the Gophers won't even have the chance to defend their NIT title.

Minnesota finished 6-12 in the Big Ten and missed out on the 32-team field for the NIT, which was announced Sunday night after the 68-team NCAA tournament field was set. The Gophers entered the Big Ten tournament on the NIT bubble, but a win over Rutgers and a loss to Ohio State didn't do enough to bolster Minnesota's resume. After that loss to the Buckeyes, Pitino said the Gophers wouldn't accept an invitation to any tournaments below the NIT, meaning their season is now over.

http://www.foxsports.com/north/stor...-underachieved-in-pitino-s-second-year-031615

Go Gophers!!
 

The next-year NIT bounce is traditional for most teams who played in the finals the previous year. SMU loses their 5-star McDonald's All-American recruit to play in China, but Larry Brown still gets them to 27-6, winning the AAC regular season and tournament championships, and a 6th seed in the dance.

The season we had with a large part of our team returning from that championship over SMU makes it even more frustrating to see the divergent paths the two programs took this year, and look to be on for the foreseeable future.
 

The entire blog post is spot on.

What's worse, mistakes made are compounded. Lofton ate up a potential scholarship for Illikainen, and the PF who left creates another hole at PF for next season.

I am setting low expectations for the Gophers next year. The Gophers need Konate, Morris, and Mason to dramatically improve to make the NIT.
 

BleedGopher said:
per Pat:

I can guarantee that there was no one in the Williams Arena club room on that Monday – not one of us – who would have thought it was possible for the efficient, ball-stealing, 11-2 Gophers to become the stumbling, choke-in-the-clutch, 18-15 Gophers that would not be among an even 100 teams selected to participate in either the NCAA tournament, or the consolation NIT.

Rich Pitino’s second season as Gophers coach was an unequivocal disaster.

http://www.startribune.com/sports/blogs/296431031.html

Go Gophers!!
Click to expand...

LNH explained the steal/assist/offense issues on December 29. Read last several paragraphs HERE if interested.
 



Reusse is an unequivocal disaster. The Gophers were an equivocal disaster.
 

What made this season so frustrating was how close we were to having a pretty good season, in spite of our shortcomings. Just 8 more points total against OSU, Iowa and Penn St in The Barn and we would have been 9-9 in the B1G. 21-11 overall going into the B1G tourney. In fact, just 36 more points over the B1G schedule and we would have been 14-4, 26-6 overall with a double bye in the tourney.

It may take a few years, but I'm looking forward to seeing what results Richard can bring.
 

Norwood fires a Brother named Tubby after a NCAA win, keeps a white guy named Pitino after a horrible season
 

Well at least we have Peter King returning....Think I heard that name thrown out as a good returning player at least 4 times over the weekend and this morning by our 95 year old birthday boy :)
 





You know what's an unequivocal disaster? Reusse waistline.
 


indygopher said:
What made this season so frustrating was how close we were to having a pretty good season, in spite of our shortcomings. Just 8 more points total against OSU, Iowa and Penn St in The Barn and we would have been 9-9 in the B1G. 21-11 overall going into the B1G tourney. In fact, just 36 more points over the B1G schedule and we would have been 14-4, 26-6 overall with a double bye in the tourney.

It may take a few years, but I'm looking forward to seeing what results Richard can bring.
Click to expand...

We were also 1-4 against Nebraska, Penn State, and Northwestern. We should at least be able to win against those teams at home.
 

Not when your smaller than them and you are not turning them over.
 

I keep hearing we didn't have a scholarship or we could have had Illikanen. Is that for real? Was Wisconsin his second choice, i doubt it.
 

march madness said:
I keep hearing we didn't have a scholarship or we could have had Illikanen. Is that for real? Was Wisconsin his second choice, i doubt it.
Click to expand...

We had no available scholarships at the time Illikainen committed to Wisconsin. Lofton, Martin, and McNeil were all still taking up scholarships when he committed. I suppose it's debatable whether we would have gotten him if we had a scholly open, but I believe Wisconsin offered him pretty late, and he had eliminated Oregon and Creighton after they got commits from other players at his position, we were out of scholarships. I think his only other option when he committed was Iowa.
 

JMWZ said:
You know what's an unequivocal disaster? Reusse waistline.
Click to expand...
Nice ad hominem. I guess don't mind finishing in 11th place, losing to Northwestern and Penn State (twice!!) and missing both the real and consolation tournament? I do. It was an unequivocal disaster of a season.
 





4 conf wins from making the tourny. they were there to be had - so disappointed, but not a disaster. a couple of good road wins raised my hopes, dashed by a couple of home losses I thought we'd win. With two SR guards, thought this would be one last good year before a couple of building years
 


The craziest talk I have seen this year from Gopher fans - and a lot of them say it - some even in this thread - is "we were so close!" No. They were nowhere close. And there were a ton of super-close games. A lot of contested games, as you'd expect with so many teams near each other on paper.
 

Gopher Warrior said:
The craziest talk I have seen this year from Gopher fans - and a lot of them say it - some even in this thread - is "we were so close!" No. They were nowhere close. And there were a ton of super-close games. A lot of contested games, as you'd expect with so many teams near each other on paper.
Click to expand...

You're a craven, know-nothing, egotist.
 

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