Was firing Richard Pitino a panic move?

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roadrunner

roadrunner

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Hindsight, as they say, is 20/20, but let's look at Richard Pitino's accomplishments...
In 8 years at Minnesota, his teams had a .534 win pct, were ranked 24th, 12th and 16th in the country, won an NIT and made 2 NCAA tournaments. In 2 years at the outpost New Mexico, his teams have a .574 win pct, are ranked 21st in the country, and are currently 14-1.
More and more, a coach like Richard Pitino is looking like something to which to aspire.
 

roadrunner said:
Hindsight, as they say, is 20/20, but let's look at Richard Pitino's accomplishments...
In 8 years at Minnesota, his teams had a .534 win pct, were ranked 24th, 12th and 16th in the country, won an NIT and made 2 NCAA tournaments. In 2 years at the outpost New Mexico, his teams have a .574 win pct, are ranked 21st in the country, and are currently 14-1.
More and more, a coach like Richard Pitino is looking like something to which to aspire.
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Certainly not!!!!!
 



Pitino should have been fired, no question. Some will point out that his best chances at success were crushed by injuries, early draft departures, or scandals that rocked the team. But make no mistake, he had a long enough tenure and we were spinning our tires at that point. The U needed to trade up to move up.

Outside of his questionable coaching ability, he was an incredibly awesome interview and his weekly radio show was awesome…always had a few zingers on there
 



Wet_Blanket_Guy said:
Pitino should have been fired, no question. Some will point out that his best chances at success were crushed by injuries, early draft departures, or scandals that rocked the team. But make no mistake, he had a long enough tenure and we were spinning our tires at that point. The U needed to trade up to move up.

Outside of his questionable coaching ability, he was an incredibly awesome interview and his weekly radio show was awesome…always had a few zingers on there
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Pitino as a person was about as good as it gets!

i still find myself watching a few of his interviews now as well
 

roadrunner said:
Hindsight, as they say, is 20/20, but let's look at Richard Pitino's accomplishments...
In 8 years at Minnesota, his teams had a .534 win pct, were ranked 24th, 12th and 16th in the country, won an NIT and made 2 NCAA tournaments. In 2 years at the outpost New Mexico, his teams have a .574 win pct, are ranked 21st in the country, and are currently 14-1.
More and more, a coach like Richard Pitino is looking like something to which to aspire.
Click to expand...
No he got eight years, failed to make any post season 5/8 years, 4/7 minus the COVID year. Also appeared in weakling Wednesday five times and had a losing record there as well. Wasn't the worst coach ever but ultimately the program stalled and a change needed be made. Firing Pitino and then making potentially the wrong hire are two mutually exclusive events
 

roadrunner said:
Hindsight, as they say, is 20/20, but let's look at Richard Pitino's accomplishments...
In 8 years at Minnesota, his teams had a .534 win pct, were ranked 24th, 12th and 16th in the country, won an NIT and made 2 NCAA tournaments. In 2 years at the outpost New Mexico, his teams have a .574 win pct, are ranked 21st in the country, and are currently 14-1.
More and more, a coach like Richard Pitino is looking like something to which to aspire.
Click to expand...
His 54-96 record in the Big 10 is something we can only hope to re-create someday! That is 36% for those who love math.
 



No. We waited about the right amount of time- it was over. He is going to be a good coach but the uphill climb here was too much for a guy who was where he was at in his career.
 

Dupreefor3 said:
No he got eight years, failed to make any post season 5/8 years, 4/7 minus the COVID year. Also appeared in weakling Wednesday five times and had a losing record there as well. Wasn't the worst coach ever but ultimately the program stalled and a change needed be made. Firing Pitino and then making potentially the wrong hire are two mutually exclusive events
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This. Ben will have to stand on his own merits.
 

We've been through this a million times, but... Richard had his chance here. He'd alienated the local community--particularly local coaches--with an often poor quality of play and questionable recruiting decisions, notably involving local talent. I don't think he was ever going to recover from the hole he put himself in. The pipeline to Madison was solidified under his watch.

The Gophers had a golden opportunity to upgrade from Pitino, with Niko Medved, Brian Dutcher, and Craig Smith all interested and available. That Brian Coyle somehow missed that layup doesn't mean that we were wrong to move on from Pitino.
 




No. Even as a big fan of Richard Pitino the person, I finally had to acknowledge that keeping him on beyond 8 years would send a signal to your fanbase that winning conference games at a 35% clip in a half empty arena and 1 one tournament win in 8 years would be good enough for this program. Think Northwestern.

However, by hiring a guy with no head coaching experience that hasn't even really sat on the bench of a winning program, you have sent a signal to your fanbase that winning conference games at a 35% clip in a half empty arena and 2 tournament wins in 25 years IS good enough for this program. Frustrating.
 

golfing18now said:
No. Even as a big fan of Richard Pitino the person, I finally had to acknowledge that keeping him on beyond 8 years would send a signal to your fanbase that winning conference games at a 35% clip in a half empty arena and 1 one tournament win in 8 years would be good enough for this program. Think Northwestern.

However, by hiring a guy with no head coaching experience that hasn't even really sat on the bench of a winning program, you have sent a signal to your fanbase that winning conference games at a 35% clip in a half empty arena and 2 tournament wins in 25 years IS good enough for this program. Frustrating.
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Nailed it.
 

golfing18now said:
No. Even as a big fan of Richard Pitino the person, I finally had to acknowledge that keeping him on beyond 8 years would send a signal to your fanbase that winning conference games at a 35% clip in a half empty arena and 1 one tournament win in 8 years would be good enough for this program. Think Northwestern.

However, by hiring a guy with no head coaching experience that hasn't even really sat on the bench of a winning program, you have sent a signal to your fanbase that winning conference games at a 35% clip in a half empty arena and 2 tournament wins in 25 years IS good enough for this program. Frustrating.
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Pretty well said right here. Seeing the Barn today with the current state of attendance is just about all you need to know. A place I never, ever thought we would get to and yet here we are.
 

Dupreefor3 said:
No he got eight years, failed to make any post season 5/8 years, 4/7 minus the COVID year. Also appeared in weakling Wednesday five times and had a losing record there as well. Wasn't the worst coach ever but ultimately the program stalled and a change needed be made. Firing Pitino and then making potentially the wrong hire are two mutually exclusive events
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Like firing Mason and hiring Brewster are mutually exclusive events.
 

Gophs24 said:
Pitino left them with no choice

if im doing "hind site" we should have fired him sooner and got Musselman
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Our chance for Musselman was when we hired Pitino and with Teague as an AD. Muss would also be gone by now.
 

One of the biggest knocks on Pitino has been his conference winning %. 36% is abysmal. That would be ~57-103 over 8 years. Obviously awful. Cannot support that. Richard did make the tournament twice here which isn't an afterthought. He just needed to do more.

If Johnson begins his career 8-36 (that is matching last years record which is optimistic I think) he would only need to win at a 40% clip the next 6 years to match Richard. Seems very doable even with a terrible start to his tenure.
 

Bad Gopher said:
We've been through this a million times, but... Richard had his chance here. He'd alienated the local community--particularly local coaches--with an often poor quality of play and questionable recruiting decisions, notably involving local talent. I don't think he was ever going to recover from the hole he put himself in. The pipeline to Madison was solidified under his watch.
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100%. I can’t believe we are bored enough for this thread to even happen.
Bad Gopher said:
The Gophers had a golden opportunity to upgrade from Pitino, with Niko Medved, Brian Dutcher, and Craig Smith all interested and available. That Brian Coyle somehow missed that layup doesn't mean that we were wrong to move on from Pitino.
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Considering the lay ups here, it tells me there were other factors at play…. That being said, Ben really made a positive impression on Coyle when he was here. He also got positive recommendations from Ben Jacobsen and others. Ben did nail the interview with the vision. And yes before all the vultures start stalking; his resume didn’t deserve the interview in the first place.
 


It’s hard enough reading some of these threads and I only have myself to blame for this one.
 


We missed on almost every star in-state recruit and were plateauing. Just unfortunate that Mashburn is badly needed on the current team and left with Pitino
 

bga1 said:
No. We waited about the right amount of time- it was over. He is going to be a good coach but the uphill climb here was too much for a guy who was where he was at in his career.
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Kind of reminded me of the end of Monson, wasnt pulling in as many good recruits
 

Can we at least admit Pitino knew how to find guards? Nate Mason, Dupree McBrayer, Amir Coffee, Isaiah Washington, Marcus Carr, Payton Willis, and Jamal Mashburn would all be standouts on this year's team.
 

We could do worse than Pitino, but he should have been fired a year earlier. It wasn't a panic firing. He's 14-1 and lost to a team with a losing record last night. Mountain West is not B1G top to bottom.
 

rowdaboat said:
We missed on almost every star in-state recruit and were plateauing. Just unfortunate that Mashburn is badly needed on the current team and left with Pitino
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We weren’t plateauing we were going to sink and have another awful season. Carr, Gabe, Both, and probably Johnson were out the door. Would’ve left a roster of Mashburn and Robbins and whatever else we could fill with. Battle wouldn’t have been here with that staff.
 

roadrunner said:
Can we at least admit Pitino knew how to find guards? Nate Mason, Dupree McBrayer, Amir Coffee, Isaiah Washington, Marcus Carr, Payton Willis, and Jamal Mashburn would all be standouts on this year's team.
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Lol IW? No. Also give Ben credit on Payton and Coffey. Ben also has Halliburton ready to commit here and Pitino said no. I give him full props on Mason, Carr, and Mash though.
 

bga1 said:
No. We waited about the right amount of time- it was over. He is going to be a good coach but the uphill climb here was too much for a guy who was where he was at in his career.
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This. Pitino is not an awful coach, he just wasn't ready for a big ten job. One day he might be.
 

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