STrib: Richard Pitino says Gophers program can progress even without Daniel Oturu

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per Marcus:

Pitino felt strongly that if the coronavirus pandemic hadn’t ended the season prematurely, that his team would’ve made a run in the Big Ten tournament in Indianapolis earlier this month. The Gophers clobbered Northwestern but weren’t allowed to play Iowa in the second round. Now Oturu is gone.

What will life be like without him? It hasn’t completely settled in yet for Pitino, who fully supported Oturu’s decision, as he did when leading scorer Amir Coffey left early for the NBA last year.

The Gophers’ draft drought likely will end with Oturu becoming the first U player selected in the NBA draft since Kris Humphries in 2004. That’s a positive step for the program, Pitino said.

Pitino likes the pieces coming back, especially All-Big Ten guard Marcus Carr. But not having his All-America center return makes the Gophers’ potential next season hard for Pitino to predict right now.

“It’s a bit of a double-edged sword,” Pitino said. “If Daniel came back, we probably get picked top four in the league. So, if you’re taking a step back and evaluating the program, it’s in really, really good shape. What we need to do is get [big man] Eric Curry healthy whenever we’re allowed to get back to work. Develop [big men] Jarvis Omersa and Sam Freeman. Go recruit a big guy who can step in right away and see big minutes and opportunity right there. And continue to evaluate the way that we play.”

www.startribune.com

Richard Pitino says Gophers program can progress even without Daniel Oturu

The Gophers coach says Oturu's NBA draft prospects signal a positive step for program.
www.startribune.com www.startribune.com

Go Gophers!!
 

Didn't really seem like a team that was prepared for a big run in the tournament. Nice 2nd half against Northwestern but I wouldn't have said they were clicking at the right time. You never know but...idk about that. Of course he'll say that though with his job in jeopardy. Top 4 if Oturu comes back? Oh boy...Gophers wouldn't be voted to finish top 4 if we still had Coffey and Oturu. No love based on our history.
 

I am not a Pitino fan, but I find it interesting that we seem to get leads on good teams, and then lose it in the 2nd half of many games. Maybe he is doing something right to get those leads early in games?
 

Gophers would have likely beaten Iowa, IMO. Illinois and beyond? Hard to say. The ONLY team in the league they really did not match up with was MSU, which always seems to be the case for Pitino-coached teams
 



This article is just Pitino saying what he has to say. He is going to have to do it and he knows that. I am comfortable with the idea that he knows he needs perhaps his best year ever despite Oturu going pro.
It will be interesting to see how it all develops.
 

Yep. Pitino is very charming, very well-spoken, very media-savvy and smart. He's a salesman. And a lot of folks will eat up all that he is selling when it comes to 'a missed shot here, a free throw there...injuries, youth, etc. etc.' and I'm just not all that interested in hearing it at this point.

I think there's a place for nuance and context. If the team had promising freshmen or high-end recruits (that are going to help the team next season) and looked like they were headed in a good direction, I'd be more inclined to buy some of the excuses. But it will be year 8 next year. It's time to put up or shut up.

He's got a tough road ahead. They very badly need to acquire a starting big man somehow. Banking on Curry is a fool's errand. They very badly need Williams, Ihnen and Freeman to take massive steps in development. They have a lot of, what looks at this point like, wasted scholarships. They need to hit on the available scholarships they have this spring because unless there is an inordinate amount of development unseen, this team will not be better than it was last year.

And unlike this year, where expecting to be bad is apparently a reason not to move on from the coach, not being competitive should result in changes.
 

Biggsohnasty said:
Yep. Pitino is very charming, very well-spoken, very media-savvy and smart. He's a salesman. And a lot of folks will eat up all that he is selling when it comes to 'a missed shot here, a free throw there...injuries, youth, etc. etc.' and I'm just not all that interested in hearing it at this point.

I think there's a place for nuance and context. If the team had promising freshmen or high-end recruits (that are going to help the team next season) and looked like they were headed in a good direction, I'd be more inclined to buy some of the excuses. But it will be year 8 next year. It's time to put up or shut up.

He's got a tough road ahead. They very badly need to acquire a starting big man somehow. Banking on Curry is a fool's errand. They very badly need Williams, Ihnen and Freeman to take massive steps in development. They have a lot of, what looks at this point like, wasted scholarships. They need to hit on the available scholarships they have this spring because unless there is an inordinate amount of development unseen, this team will not be better than it was last year.

And unlike this year, where expecting to be bad is apparently a reason not to move on from the coach, not being competitive should result in changes.
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Big man transfer market is still plentiful and will only grow. Not fair to totally knock the roster until we know we end up with. Could be a Demir level guy which would probably lead to trouble. Could be a Springs level guy. Still have open scholarships to fill. Will be an interesting spring considering coaches and players can’t travel
 




The team folded toward the end of many games because the starters played too many minutes in a very physical conference.
There was little depth that Pitino had faith in to spell the regulars.
Poor recruiting and poor player development are hard to overcome.
If next year mimics the this year he should go.
 

manderson1984 said:
Big man transfer market is still plentiful and will only grow. Not fair to totally knock the roster until we know we end up with. Could be a Demir level guy which would probably lead to trouble. Could be a Springs level guy. Still have open scholarships to fill. Will be an interesting spring considering coaches and players can’t travel
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Recruiting from the hot seat is very difficult. The advantage of grad transfers is that it's only one year and that should not be as big an issue. Incoming Freshman are another story. I'm curious what the non-grad transfers will do. Do they make a decision and hope they will be eligible or do they wait until the rule is changed hoping for higher offers. In a lot of ways this spring is a mess.
 

Holy Man said:
Recruiting from the hot seat is very difficult. The advantage of grad transfers is that it's only one year and that should not be as big an issue. Incoming Freshman are another story. I'm curious what the non-grad transfers will do. Do they make a decision and hope they will be eligible or do they wait until the rule is changed hoping for higher offers. In a lot of ways this spring is a mess.
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Originally it was going to be voted on at the final four to allow a free transfer. I still think that will happen. Very few were denied last year Unless the school denies/doesn’t support it. As far as spring HS recruiting you are right in it being a crapshoot, but Richard has done decent in that area compared to others so we will see.
 

manderson1984 said:
Originally it was going to be voted on at the final four to allow a free transfer. I still think that will happen. Very few were denied last year Unless the school denies/doesn’t support it. As far as spring HS recruiting you are right in it being a crapshoot, but Richard has done decent in that area compared to others so we will see.
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Curious about that compared to others part. Do you have any examples. Seems to me we have recruited as well or better than many and get crushed in the win loss, accomplishment measure.
 



Richard - other than a few of the faithful on GH, no one was going to pick you in the top half of the B1G next year, yet alone the top 4.

But nice job keeping the faithful excited about “next year.”
 

Pitino is a dead man walking, and he knows it.

Possibly the only man in America who has his job solely due to Covid19.

He'll be gone after another dismal B1G season next year.
 


builtbadgers said:
Curious about that compared to others part. Do you have any examples. Seems to me we have recruited as well or better than many and get crushed in the win loss, accomplishment measure.
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It’s probably not a fair to compare because it goes to what you’ve said many times about having a recruiting plan or purpose. Many schools don’t have to spring recruit because they identify early and fill their classes. Takes some time to get to the Point of being able to do that. Just gophers have gotten some good spring guys imo like Murphy, Ihnen, and transfers like Willis, Carr, and Springs.

We both have agreed that we have talent here and that we have not coached them to d up well and that has been the main reason for his teams not winning consistently.
 

John Galt said:
Richard - other than a few of the faithful on GH, no one was going to pick you in the top half of the B1G next year, yet alone the top 4.

But nice job keeping the faithful excited about “next year.”
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Good thing predictions are relatively worthless. Let’s see what the rosters are in September and go from there
 

Bordergopher said:
Thanks for cheering up my day. Enjoy your breakfast of moldy toast, rotten eggs, and bile juice!
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You're welcome!

Your problem is in thinking I'm the problem. I'm not the problem.

You'll be having rotten eggs for breakfast every season as long as the Gophers employ a coach not equipped to win in the B1G.

That, and fans who enable it, is the problem.
 

USAF said:
You're welcome!

Your problem is in thinking I'm the problem. I'm not the problem.

You'll be having rotten eggs for breakfast every season as long as the Gophers employ a coach not equipped to win in the B1G.

That, and fans who enable it, is the problem.
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Fans who support Pitino on a message board are not a problem just like trolls on a message board are not either.
 

manderson1984 said:
Fans who support Pitino on a message board are not a problem just like trolls on a message board are not either.
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Confused,who decides which ones are trolls in either group ? He is still our coach so I support him, hope he wins huge but I am not afraid to post facts or have a discussion with how poorly he has done and never include excuses.
 

builtbadgers said:
Confused,who decides which ones are trolls in either group ? He is still our coach so I support him, hope he wins huge but I am not afraid to post facts or have a discussion with how poorly he has done and never include excuses.
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Utter Fraud BADGER
 

builtbadgers said:
Confused,who decides which ones are trolls in either group ? He is still our coach so I support him, hope he wins huge but I am not afraid to post facts or have a discussion with how poorly he has done and never include excuses.
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I'm one who's in the camp that you are not a troll. My main point was that people come on here and say that people who choose to support retaining Pitino are a problem for the fanbase. They are not. Neither are trolls. Trolls are more or less a waste of time as they bring no relevant discussion to a "discussion board". I find it crazy currently if you are not critical of Pitino's record. Whether you choose to believe he can improve that or not is fair, but it's nice when you bring logic, data, and reasoning to the debate instead of name calling and blame.
 

manderson1984 said:
I'm one who's in the camp that you are not a troll. My main point was that people come on here and say that people who choose to support retaining Pitino are a problem for the fanbase. They are not. Neither are trolls. Trolls are more or less a waste of time as they bring no relevant discussion to a "discussion board". I find it crazy currently if you are not critical of Pitino's record. Whether you choose to believe he can improve that or not is fair, but it's nice when you bring logic, data, and reasoning to the debate instead of name calling and blame.
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I'll push back on the troll argument here. There's little work to do beyond worry right now, anyway. I think there is a difference between a troll and someone who simply doesn't add anything to the discussion. Someone with little insight contributes little (I suspect I may be in that category for some), but a troll deliberately tries to poison the well pretending to be interested in the well-being of what is at hand. I think we do have some trolls and they are not helpful to the discussion. We may in goodwill disagree who they are, but they are here and they are not helpful and at times poisonous.

For the record, I think I have only called out one poster on the board as a troll in all my years. I try to avoid them and not feed them.
 


Biggsohnasty said:
Yep. Pitino is very charming, very well-spoken, very media-savvy and smart. He's a salesman. And a lot of folks will eat up all that he is selling when it comes to 'a missed shot here, a free throw there...injuries, youth, etc. etc.' and I'm just not all that interested in hearing it at this point.

They very badly need Williams, Ihnen and Freeman to take massive steps in development. They have a lot of, what looks at this point like, wasted scholarships. They need to hit on the available scholarships they have this spring because unless there is an inordinate amount of development unseen, this team will not be better than it was last year.
Click to expand...

Amen to the first paragraph especially the "not all that interested in hearing it at this point!"

One wasted scholarship did move on. I don't know enough about Freeman yet to call him a wasted scholarship. On the surface, playing very little looks bad, but Pitino played Isaiah Washington far less than he should have during his second year. Williams has good athleticism but it's hard to see him progressing much beyond a good defensive and rebounding player. Greenlee probably is a wasted scholarship. Let's remember that some veterans (especially Gabe) also need to show significant improvement next year.
 

cjbfbp said:
Amen to the first paragraph especially the "not all that interested in hearing it at this point!"

One wasted scholarship did move on. I don't know enough about Freeman yet to call him a wasted scholarship. On the surface, playing very little looks bad, but Pitino played Isaiah Washington far less than he should have during his second year. Williams has good athleticism but it's hard to see him progressing much beyond a good defensive and rebounding player. Greenlee probably is a wasted scholarship. Let's remember that some veterans (especially Gabe) also need to show significant improvement next year.
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Every program i follow has two or 3 guys on scholarship that play very little. Those programs do better than we do with the guys that do play. Every coach has misses in the sense that it is a projection for the most part. They also do a much better job of managing redshirts.
 

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