At this point you are really just talking out of your ass. You have no idea if North Carolina was missing any players due to injury back then (had nothing to do with my point) and I know you didn't bother to actually look anything up. How so? Miami is no longer ranked. Nice assumption that only Washington shot poorly. (I'll give you a hint: most of the team/other guards did too.) You appear to be saying that the Gophers lost to Wisconsin because Springs was hurt. (Nice try on that. He wasn't.) And you make statements speaking as if Lynch and Coffey have been out all year. Also, completely ignoring the defensive problems this team has had even when they were only down Curry. Does no defense have to be played to win the Big Ten? We must not have watched the same team earlier this year.
Miami isn't ranked anymore? Maybe YOU are the one who needs to stop talking out of your arse.
Coaches Poll has Miami ranked. RPI has Miami ranked #15. And RPI DOES still get looked at. They only have 4 losses and play in the ACC???
And no, I didn't look up what was going on with UNC those 2 seasons. I have better things to do. I was ASKING YOU, but apparently you don't know either, and didn't look it up, either. But I did look up Miami's being ranked. Just because you only looked at the AP poll and no others is your own problem.
Was I wrong about Springs and the Wisconsin game? Maybe, but he WAS injured for the Michigan game, and the MTSU games, right? Yeah, that's what I thought. Not everyone, but a lot of Gopher fans felt we would have won both of those games had Springs been healthy.
And I said 2-3 of the Top 6 players. Curry obviously the constant ONE. Then combine the games McBrayer was out, with the games Coffey was out, AND of course Lynch, and that equals 2-3 players out for much of the season, at least the games we lost.
As for Washington, maybe I haven't kept on all of the players stats in a game by game way, I follow EVERY Gopher sports team, the Wild, the T-Pups, the Vikes and all of the Gopher alum playing in the NHL, but I remember somewhere near the end of the ooc part of the season, or maybe very early in conference play, I looked it up and the Gophers as a team were shooting something like 36 or 38 percent from 3 point land, but several Gophers individually were all in the 40+ percent range, but Washington was 2-28 or something like that. Might be an exaggeration, but my point is, that Washington, all by himself brought the entire team's 3 point shooting percentage down several percentage points.
Before Lynch and Coffey went out, he started shooting less and driving to the basket more and was making really good progress. But then those 2 went out. Defenses knew they could move out farther and pressure our gaurds more, and hence, now we have our gaurds feeling flustered and maybe desperate and taking more bad shots. It's not Pitino doing a bad job of coaching, its the other teams coaches knowing how to take advantage of our new found weakness. They can double team Murphy more, his scoring and rebounding has gone way down. They can pressure our gaurds more without having to worry because its just Konate or Gaston on the inside.
And YES, I know, it was Pitino's fault for recruiting those 2, and then for not pushing them off the team. Wow, guy maybe has principles? Those 2 didn't deserve to be treated badly? Just bad luck that Lynch and Coffey and McBreyer all take turns sitting out alongside Curry.
Tough for a team with a very short bench and no legitimate inside presence to play great basketball.
You claim that they weren't playing defense before? Lynch being Top 5 in the nation in blocked shots and being praised for doing that without sending the ball into the stands, but keeping it in play more than most shot blockers, and Murphy leading the nation in rebounding? Those are not good defense?
Maybe McBrayer being out some games, Coffey being injured and out some games, forced freshmen gaurds to do more than should have been expected and maybe they don't yet play stellar defense? That can't be coached in half a season, if it could every team would do it. Washington was a street ball kind of player, he needs time to develop discipline and defense, but no one else has his potential to get to the basket. In time Pitino will have him playing much better.
Everyone always like to blame the coach. But seems to me Murphy DEVELOPED while here. McBrayer developed while here and got better. Coffey has gotten better. Even Washington was getting better before Lynch and Coffey went out. Oh, and Lynch was developing as a player as well, he was fouling less than early last year. Our other new frosh was starting to have a few good games.
It's bs if people try to claim that he's not developing the players he's bringing in here. Gaston and Konate, when only needed for a few minutes were actually starting to contribute without looking as bad as they have in the past. But we found out over time that they were not going to become regular players.
Hurt was coming along as well. And last year Curry developed and improved over the season and fans were very excited about his potential come this season.
And Pitino's recruiting good players with lots of potential. ZERO one and doners, and I'm pleased about that. With the rare exception of a Minnesota native super star or two.
The National Perception of Minnesota basketball is that it's a joke, a dumpster fire of a program, that's NEVER done anything and probably never will.
Scandal after scandal, one of the worst, if not THE worst punishments every doled out to a basketball program. We're in the frozen tundra. It took decades for the school to start supporting bb and fb with proper facilities.
NO ONE wanted to coach here. Lie to yourselves and tell yourselves that they did, but they didn't. If Pitino was our 7th choice, it was because no one else wanted the job. Coaches come here to ruin their legacy or because we are the only program willing to take a chance on them. Tubby came here and got fired despite half way decent results, and the nation looked down on us for it. We hired Monson because no one else wanted the job. Haskins was a cheat. Sex Scandal before that. NCAA came down on Musselman, after the press massacred us for starting a race riot first. We have the fewest # of NCAA tourney wins in all of P5, or close to it.
I love the U of Mn. But those are just facts. There are good explanations behind most of that, but that's not what the outside world sees. They don't want to see it. They like us being bad.
I asked guys at CBSsports if they thought we should get rid of Pitino and they all said, NO WAY!!! And they would have told me if they didn't think Pitino was any good. They love running down bad coaches there. Pitino is not looked at as a bad coach. They know we've suffered injuries and suspensions to our best players and they feel sorry for us.