Agree on most of your points.
On Pitino getting a third year: I think Pitino would have gotten a third year pretty much regardless of what happened in the first two record-wise. I mean, he got a 4th year with that same exact winning percentage in his first 3 years. Don't know why it would have been different after 2.
On Butler: 100% correct. That thing has been building for some time. Interesting fact: Holtmann is the first guy to be HC who was not a former Butler player since before Collier.
On Larranaga: A coach earns quite a bit of leeway when he goes 29-7, wins a conference title, and makes the Sweet Sixteen all in his second season. If any coach came to MN and did that I would give them a pass on their third year. Lots of people are giving Pitino a pass on his 8-23 third year and his first two years were not nearly as good as Larranaga's first two at Miami.
I agree 100% with this. Especially the Larranaga part. My point was that even the best case situations that were thrown out as examples they either aren't as nice as we remember or the program in which it has happened had a richer recent history than the gophers have had(unfortunately).