Richard Pitino Gophers Press Conference Notes

Donate To GopherHole
GopherHole Staff

GopherHole Staff

GopherHole Admin
Staff member
Joined
Nov 3, 2008
Messages
5,172
Reaction score
1,386
Points
113
Full notes from Nadine Babu:

http://www.gopherhole.com/news_article/show/244694?referrer_id=331171

Here are my notes on the press conference. Will post when they send out the transcript:
Teague:
• Teague wanted a Relentless recruiter, someone to develop our student athletes, and manage and build this program - Coach Pitino fits all of those.
• Timeframes, it went very well, we were very pleased with the search
• These things take time, it's a search, you meet with people, you talk to people (for Sid's questions on if you're such a genius, why did it take so long).
• I've been fortunate enough to be involved in Billy Donovan's coaching tree. He told me a funny story about Richard's preparation...he said there's 2 people that Rick Pitino that he's put an immense amount or pressure on, himself and Richard. That's why he's so prepared.
• I'm not going to talk about any specific candidates, the search really went well. I didn't have a timeframe from the beginning. We wanted to find the right fit.
• It's important not just for me, but our fans, our student body and student athletes. I didn't look at it like it's a huge deal for me, it's a huge deal for the University.
• One thing I can control, is the relationship Richard and I have. We're going to be attached at the hip. I want him here a long time.
Pitino:
• I'm extremely excited about this opportunity. MN has one of the best traditions in college bball, one of the best home courts, a great fan base
• We're going to press on every possession on every make. It's going to be a style that the kids love to play. We're going to by physically and mentally in shape. It's going to be a great brand of basketball.
• When the opportunity to be the coach at the U came up, I was extremely excited about it. I know how great this place is. He is one of the best athletic directors in the country (on Norwood Teague). The people is what makes the job, that's what makes this job so special.
• I see so many opportunities, this is such a passionate fanbase. I think sky's the limit for this place. We have to do a good job of recruiting, it always starts with that. We have a great experience to sell.
• I've been fortunate to learn under 2 of the best coaches that have coached this game.
• I don't think it was as much myself selling myself to Norwood, or him selling himself. With him, it was more, we've got to get the right fit, and we need to work together. I was more excited that I had an opportunity to talk to him.
• I have so much respect for Tubby Smith, he left us a very solid program here.
• I'm very proud of my father. It's not tough to be Rick Pitino's son, I'm proud of it. He's a legend, he's changed the game in many, many ways. I embrace it very much. I think it's fun, to coach last year, and run my own program...when you work under Rick Pitino and Billy Donovan, I had to figure out what worked for me.
• I never really thought about it (being a HC at his young age) - I was excited about what I was building at FIU. The fact that I'm sitting here right now is a dream come true.
• I believe this is one of the best jobs in college basketball.
• We're looking to get the right fit (for scholarships), we'll watch a lot of film over the next few days. We'll go out recruiting, and see if someone fits those needs.
• When you take over a program, you take it day by day. I'll take it one day at a time, that's the way you build a program. If these guys reach the goals, acting the right way, doing the things in the classroom, those things take care of themselves.
• I certainly embrace the fact that I'm young, I don't try to hide from it. I have great relationships with my players.
• I don't try to be Rick Pitino or Billy Donovan, I just try to be myself and embrace it.
• I think he said "are you crazy?" - we didn't need to talk much over, there wasn't much thinking.
• What do you look for in a coaching staff? When you build a staff, I want to have guys that are hopefully better than me. Live and die with this program. Recruiting is a very important piece to this. Guys that will work extremely hard.
• The practice facility will come, and when it does, it will be great. Right now, we have so much to sell at Minnesota. One of the best schools, arenas, etc. We'll sell what we have right now, and worry about what we don't have later.
• Everyone calls me different things, so whatever works for you.
• Do you view this as a final destination? That would be tremendous. This is absolutely the place I want to be. We hope to be here for the rest of our lives.
• It always takes time when you introduce a new style of play. Anytime you implement a whole new system, it will take some time.
• I'm looking forward to building a great staff, it's extremely important to me. We'll hopefully meet with some guys this weekend.
• Teague just got here 9 months ago, you're looking at one of the top AD's in the country, I have zero doubt in my mind that he'll get a practice facility done. We have enough to sell in Williams Arena right now.
• GH question - as one of the youngest coaches in the country, what challenges do you face. Every job is challenging. I'm very confident that I can walk into one of these homes, and sell a lot.
• I've met with the players earlier today, we spent about 15 minutes together. I'm looking forward to meeting with these guys individually. I haven't been able to do that too much just yet.
• I am very familiar with the quality of AAU basketball in this state, these kids are going to be well coached and well prepared at the college level. I'm excited to get out and meet these coaches better.
• I have not talked to Tubby about the job. I'm extremely excited to go head to head with my Dad, hopefully he fights fair. He's a legend, he's changed my life in so many ways, he's one of the best. If I'm not going against him, I'm hoping he's helping us.
• Our 1st game at FIU - we probably had 100 people there, and we continued to pack the place. I think they've only been around for 30 years, so they are really building. I was very fortunate to work there.
• I look at how excited I am to go against Big 10 teams. I watched IU play, that's extremely fast paced. I want to impose our style on other programs.

I would like to set up a home and home with Louisville, but I'll wait until he loses a few of those players!
 

I for one was very impressed and I'm very excited about our new coach ! Ski - U - Mah
 

I was pleasantly surprised by the turnout. There was a decent amount of people there.

Richard certainly has a lot of his dad's mannerisms, has his savvy, sounds a lot like him, too. Was hard not to be impressed by him. Sounds like a guy that wants to get to work. Anxious to see what he can do.

Most encouraged by the fact that his brief conversation with his father ended with his father saying, "Are you nuts?" in reference to whether he should take the job. That tells me that (A) his dad believes he's ready for this and (B) Rick Pitino knows Minnesota is a good job.

Also chuckled at his his answer when he was asked about how the fan base at FIU viewed him when he was first hired. He basically said the fan base was his wife and daughter.

Couldn't help but notice everyone just kind of laughed when Sid used his "genius" reference toward Teague while asking his one and only question, if you could call it a question.

Damian Johnson was there, among other former players.

Pam Borton was there, too. Couldn't help but think there will be another press conference next year at this time where Pam won't be in attendance.
 

Great first impression. Let's get a look at the practice facility plans and get it moving!
 

SelectionSunday said:
I was pleasantly surprised by the turnout. There was a decent amount of people there.

Richard certainly has a lot of his dad's mannerisms, has his savvy, sounds a lot like him, too. Was hard not to be impressed by him. Sounds like a guy that wants to get to work. Anxious to see what he can do.

Couldn't help but notice everyone just kind of laughed when Sid used his "genius" reference toward Teague while asking his one and only question, if you could call it a question.

Damian Johnson was there, among other former players.

Pam Borton was there, too. Couldn't help but think there will be another press conference next year at this time where Pam won't be in attendance.
Click to expand...

It was well set up, good to see all the players sitting there in the front. I get the feeling they are pumped. I am. Pitino said all the right things without painting himself into any corners in terms of expectations. He is very sharp, I could hardly be more impressed.

Also- something I heard on the radio on the way home really impressed me: " I want my players to play freely. I don't want my guard coming up court looking at me for what they are going to run. I want them to know where they need to be on court and play freely." (paraphrase but close) This should be music to these guys' ears.
 


Other than the poor PA system - it was a great start for Richard! Great to see Andre smiling on the court and to see Rodney there too!
 


bga1 said:
It was well set up, good to see all the players sitting there in the front. I get the feeling they are pumped. I am. Pitino said all the right things without painting himself into any corners in terms of expectations. He is very sharp, I could hardly be more impressed.

Also- something I heard on the radio on the way home really impressed me: " I want my players to play freely. I don't want my guard coming up court looking at me for what they are going to run. I want them to know where they need to be on court and play freely." (paraphrase but close) This should be music to these guys' ears.
Click to expand...

The comment about the guards looking at the coach are clearly an indication that Coach P has been well informed about the frustrations of the players during the Tubby era.

Teams often go in opposite directions from the previous coach when they fire a staff - we've clearly done that here. Let's hope it works out. I for one am fired up and I am excited about the youthful enthusiasm that has been injected into the program overnight.

Go Gophers!!
 

book said:
Other than the poor PA system - it was a great start for Richard! Great to see Andre smiling on the court and to see Rodney there too!
Click to expand...

I didn't think it was bad in person. Was it bad on TV?
 



BleedGopher said:
The comment about the guards looking at the coach are clearly an indication that Coach P has been well informed about the frustrations of the players during the Tubby era.

Teams often go in opposite directions from the previous coach when they fire a staff - we've clearly done that here. Let's hope it works out. I for one am fired up and I am excited about the youthful enthusiasm that has been injected into the program overnight.

Go Gophers!!
Click to expand...


It has also injected youthful enthusiasm into old farts like me, Bleed.
 

BleedGopher said:
The comment about the guards looking at the coach are clearly an indication that Coach P has been well informed about the frustrations of the players during the Tubby era.


Go Gophers!!
Click to expand...

Good point. It is interesting that he mentioned that. A good selling point for both current players and recruits.

On that note, basketball is a very instinctful game. To be worried about what the coach constantly wants does not allow a player to played at the speed necessary.
 

I was very pleased that he spoke in complete sentences.
 

BleedGopher said:
The comment about the guards looking at the coach are clearly an indication that Coach P has been well informed about the frustrations of the players during the Tubby era.

Teams often go in opposite directions from the previous coach when they fire a staff - we've clearly done that here. Let's hope it works out. I for one am fired up and I am excited about the youthful enthusiasm that has been injected into the program overnight.

Go Gophers!!
Click to expand...

Agreed.
 



jamiche said:
I was very pleased that he spoke in complete sentences.
Click to expand...

And succinctly. Rather than 50 loosely related. Well, that reminds me. Up-tempo. Dre Hollins. We worked on that. Rodney Williams. How you play in March. Areas to improve. Elliot.
 

I couldn't help but notice when Pitino made his first reference to playing up-tempo, pressing after every made basket, creating offense off your pressure defense, that about 4 or 5 guys in the upper reaches of Section 101 clapped enthustiastically while everyone else remained silent. My hunch is they were not fans of Tubby's half-court offense/sets.
 

SelectionSunday said:
I couldn't help but notice when Pitino made his first reference to playing up-tempo, pressing after every made basket, creating offense off your pressure defense, that about 4 or 5 guys in the upper reaches of Section 101 clapped enthustiastically. My hunch is they were not fans of Tubby's half-court sets.
Click to expand...

Tubby actually had "sets"? I thought it was stand around til Dre had to force up a shot. Wouldn't really call them sets.
 

SelectionSunday said:
I was pleasantly surprised by the turnout. There was a decent amount of people there.

Richard certainly has a lot of his dad's mannerisms, has his savvy, sounds a lot like him, too. Was hard not to be impressed by him. Sounds like a guy that wants to get to work. Anxious to see what he can do.

Most encouraged by the fact that his brief conversation with his father ended with his father saying, "Are you nuts?" in reference to whether he should take the job. That tells me that (A) his dad believes he's ready for this and (B) Rick Pitino knows Minnesota is a good job.

Also chuckled at his his answer when he was asked about how the fan base at FIU viewed him when he was first hired. He basically said the fan base was his wife and daugther.

Couldn't help but notice everyone just kind of laughed when Sid used his "genius" reference toward Teague while asking his one and only question, if you could call it a question.

Damian Johnson was there, among other former players.

Pam Borton was there, too. Couldn't help but think there will be another press conference next year at this time where Pam won't be in attendance.
Click to expand...


LOL on the Borton comment. I think her protected status just ran out. Still can't believe how much we are paying somebody to lose money. That program should be able to turn a small profit and not be a financial drag on the dept.

Excited about the hire and being able to watch a fun style of ball.
 





Winning The Press Conference

So many people have the idea that the introductory press conference isn't important. That every new hire "wins" that one. Not true. Brewster and Childress certainly lost theirs. Ruesse in particular keeps patting himself on the back on how he knew both guys would be failures based on their first press conference. Mason won his. Kill won his too. It was amazing how many people who were ticked-off in a major way that we didn't get our 1st, 2nd or 3rd choice for Head Coach were completely won over after Jerry's first chance to "meet the press." Just read these boards and people are talking about what a "successful" hire that was even though the jury should "still be out" on it.

If reports are correct, including from Billy Donovan, Pitino wasn't the 1st, 2nd or 3rd choice either, but like Kill, Pitino definitely won that dang Press Conference. Like the hire or not nobody can watch that Press Conference and say that they think the "kid has no idea what he's doing" or that he only got the job because of his last name.

Who knows whether he's going to end-up doing a great job or not? There should be no question though that he knows what he wants to do and will work very hard to get it done.
 

Iceland12 said:
So many people have the idea that the introductory press conference isn't important. That every new hire "wins" that one. Not true. Brewster and Childress certainly lost theirs. Ruesse in particular keeps patting himself on the back on how he knew both guys would be failures based on their first press conference. Mason won his. Kill won his too. It was amazing how many people who were ticked-off in a major way that we didn't get our 1st, 2nd or 3rd choice for Head Coach were completely won over after Jerry's first chance to "meet the press." Just read these boards and people are talking about what a "successful" hire that was even though the jury should "still be out" on it.

If reports are correct, including from Billy Donovan, Pitino wasn't the 1st, 2nd or 3rd choice either, but like Kill, Pitino definitely won that dang Press Conference. Like the hire or not nobody can watch that Press Conference and say that they think the "kid has no idea what he's doing" or that he only got the job because of his last name.

Who knows whether he's going to end-up doing a great job or not? There should be no question though that he knows what he wants to do and will work very hard to get it done.
Click to expand...

Well written. Agree 100%
 

Iceland12 said:
So many people have the idea that the introductory press conference isn't important. That every new hire "wins" that one. Not true. Brewster and Childress certainly lost theirs. Ruesse in particular keeps patting himself on the back on how he knew both guys would be failures based on their first press conference. Mason won his. Kill won his too. It was amazing how many people who were ticked-off in a major way that we didn't get our 1st, 2nd or 3rd choice for Head Coach were completely won over after Jerry's first chance to "meet the press." Just read these boards and people are talking about what a "successful" hire that was even though the jury should "still be out" on it.

If reports are correct, including from Billy Donovan, Pitino wasn't the 1st, 2nd or 3rd choice either, but like Kill, Pitino definitely won that dang Press Conference. Like the hire or not nobody can watch that Press Conference and say that they think the "kid has no idea what he's doing" or that he only got the job because of his last name.

Who knows whether he's going to end-up doing a great job or not? There should be no question though that he knows what he wants to do and will work very hard to get it done.
Click to expand...
Brewster lost his press conference? I respectfully disagree. When it was announced that the Gophers had hired some no name NFL tight ends coach with zero head coaching experience named Tim Brewster people were rather upset and very skeptical. No one around here had even heard of him. It wasn't until AFTER his press conference that people got really excited about this energetic coach who talked about raising expectations at the U by playing great teams in non-conference and talking about taking us to the Rose Bowl. The only thing Brewtser did right was his press conference actually. It was all down hill from there.
 

beatles said:
Brewster lost his press conference? I respectfully disagree. When it was announced that the Gophers had hired some no name NFL tight ends coach with zero head coaching experience named Tim Brewster people were rather upset and very skeptical. No one around here had even heard of him. It wasn't until AFTER his press conference that people got really excited about this energetic coach who talked about raising expectations at the U by playing great teams in non-conference and talking about taking us to the Rose Bowl. The only thing Brewtser did right was his press conference actually. It was all down hill from there.
Click to expand...

I was in the student section at the basketball game where he spoke at halftime, was a day or two after he was introduced. He absolutely killed that speech, the entire stadium was as excited as can be. I think that was probably the peak of his tenure.
 



At the risk of sounding negative, I had the opposite reaction to the press conference. I heard somebody trying to blow smoke up my backside.

Look, I realize that a new coach wants to sound optimistic, but he also needs to be realistic.

Pitino said several times that the U is "one of the top jobs in the country." Sorry, that is just not true. It may have the potential to be a top job - but it is not one right now. I don't have to quote the stats on conference standings, NCAA victories, etc. He also talked about Teague being "one of the top AD's in the country." Based on what?

Based solely on listening to the press conference on the radio, my initial reaction is that this guy is a BS artist. He sounded like Eddie Haskell giving compliments to June Cleaver.
 

short ornery norwegian said:
At the risk of sounding negative, I had the opposite reaction to the press conference. I heard somebody trying to blow smoke up my backside.

Look, I realize that a new coach wants to sound optimistic, but he also needs to be realistic.

Pitino said several times that the U is "one of the top jobs in the country." Sorry, that is just not true. It may have the potential to be a top job - but it is not one right now. I don't have to quote the stats on conference standings, NCAA victories, etc. He also talked about Teague being "one of the top AD's in the country." Based on what?

Based solely on listening to the press conference on the radio, my initial reaction is that this guy is a BS artist. He sounded like Eddie Haskell giving compliments to June Cleaver.
Click to expand...

All coach speak. What else is he supposed to say? He's complimenting the school, program, and the AD. Nothing more, nothing less.
 

MadtownGopher said:
I was in the student section at the basketball game where he spoke at halftime, was a day or two after he was introduced. He absolutely killed that speech, the entire stadium was as excited as can be. I think that was probably the peak of his tenure.
Click to expand...

Brewster lost his press conference? I respectfully disagree

No problem. It's an opinion not "fact". Some people found him way to slick and "phony" others loved the enthusiasm. Thought he was slick and enthusiastic but thought he wasn't a phony. Thought that enthusiasm was who he was. People without an ax to grind, like parents, players and his NFL bosses, said the same thing. Even Patrick grudging admitted it a number of times on the RADIO, not in print. That was before he went on to re-writing history himself. He just turned out to be a bad coach.

I would disagree on the "peak" of Brewster's tenure. Hard not to think it was when they were 7-1 in his second year. All downhill from there.IMHO of course.
 

You must log in or register to reply here.



Top Bottom