BleedGopher
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per Judd:
A year ago, Richard Pitino’s challenge was convincing his players that things would and could be different. The Gophers men’s basketball program was coming off a season in which it had gone 8-23 overall, 2-16 in the Big Ten and won only two games after Christmas.
If Pitino’s contract hadn’t contained a massive buyout, the feeling was that the Gophers’ atrocious record, and a few off-the-court incidents, would have been enough to get him fired after only three seasons as Minnesota’s coach.
Pitino has a much different issue as he prepares for his fourth season. Having to build up his players is no longer the issue. This time it’s making sure that overconfidence doesn’t creep in.
Coming off a season in which the Gophers went 24-10 overall, 11-7 in the conference and lost in the first round of the NCAA tournament to Middle Tennessee, Minnesota has been picked to finish third in the Big Ten media preseason poll behind Michigan State and Purdue. The Gophers were selected 15th in the USA Today National coaches poll.
“You don’t want to say (expectations are) irrelevant because certainly it’s there,” Pitino said Saturday during the Gophers’ media day at Williams Arena. “But I tell our guys, ‘No disrespect to the people who pick, the fans, media, but we were picked 13th last year and we showed that all that talk is irrelevant.’ Well, it’s the same thing this year.
“At the end of the day, if we let our play do the talking, none of it will really matter. But that is hard and I’ve worked very, very hard to show them examples in the offseason about human nature.”
Lynch sat out the Gophers’ eight-win season as a redshirt, but he knows going from that type of year, to the success of 2016-17 and now having expectations for 2017-18, will make things different.
“It is human nature after having a really successful season you start feeling like you can do it again with no effort,” he said. “After you have a season like we did last year you just feel like, ‘Now we’ve got to gear up and prove everybody wrong.’ Obviously, there’s a mindset change from last year and this year, but I feel like we’re very conscious of it and aware of the fact we can’t let it creep into our minds. (We’ll) take it day-by-day, like we took it last year.”
https://www.1500espn.com/gophers-2/...richard-pitino-deal-expectations-time-around/
Go Gophers!!
A year ago, Richard Pitino’s challenge was convincing his players that things would and could be different. The Gophers men’s basketball program was coming off a season in which it had gone 8-23 overall, 2-16 in the Big Ten and won only two games after Christmas.
If Pitino’s contract hadn’t contained a massive buyout, the feeling was that the Gophers’ atrocious record, and a few off-the-court incidents, would have been enough to get him fired after only three seasons as Minnesota’s coach.
Pitino has a much different issue as he prepares for his fourth season. Having to build up his players is no longer the issue. This time it’s making sure that overconfidence doesn’t creep in.
Coming off a season in which the Gophers went 24-10 overall, 11-7 in the conference and lost in the first round of the NCAA tournament to Middle Tennessee, Minnesota has been picked to finish third in the Big Ten media preseason poll behind Michigan State and Purdue. The Gophers were selected 15th in the USA Today National coaches poll.
“You don’t want to say (expectations are) irrelevant because certainly it’s there,” Pitino said Saturday during the Gophers’ media day at Williams Arena. “But I tell our guys, ‘No disrespect to the people who pick, the fans, media, but we were picked 13th last year and we showed that all that talk is irrelevant.’ Well, it’s the same thing this year.
“At the end of the day, if we let our play do the talking, none of it will really matter. But that is hard and I’ve worked very, very hard to show them examples in the offseason about human nature.”
Lynch sat out the Gophers’ eight-win season as a redshirt, but he knows going from that type of year, to the success of 2016-17 and now having expectations for 2017-18, will make things different.
“It is human nature after having a really successful season you start feeling like you can do it again with no effort,” he said. “After you have a season like we did last year you just feel like, ‘Now we’ve got to gear up and prove everybody wrong.’ Obviously, there’s a mindset change from last year and this year, but I feel like we’re very conscious of it and aware of the fact we can’t let it creep into our minds. (We’ll) take it day-by-day, like we took it last year.”
https://www.1500espn.com/gophers-2/...richard-pitino-deal-expectations-time-around/
Go Gophers!!