Shama: Give Teague Credit for Pitino Hire

per Shama:

It took courage for first-year athletic director Norwood Teague to dismiss Tubby Smith as Gophers basketball coach last March. Then Teague stuck his neck out further by hiring 30-year-old Richard Pitino as Smith’s successor.

Smith faltered at Minnesota, unable to win even half of his Big Ten games, but because of his stature as a basketball icon the firing was criticized locally and nationally. Teague, though, believed he could find individuals more capable of leading the Gophers’ program.

Whether Pitino can ultimately make the Gophers a conference and national power will be determined by recruiting. But Benedict said the “recruiting piece” is probably his least area of concern. Pitino polished his recruiting as an assistant coach working for two former national championship coaches, his father Rick Pitino at Louisville and Billy Donovan at Florida.

Benedict said Pitino’s recruiting network, relationships, experience and work ethic will result in success. Identifying Mathieu and Smith as potential contributors and bringing them to Minnesota are early indicators of Pitino’s promise as a recruiter. “We didn’t have any question whether Richard was going to be able to recruit,” Benedict said.

http://shamasportsheadliners.com/

Go Gophers!!

The clamoring for Flip sure was fun.

It was a lucky hire, remember? He offered everyone possible before Richard.....

BballJones said:

It was a lucky hire, remember? He offered everyone possible before Richard.....

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For sure. If Teague would have followed the advice of the media and GH'ers, he would have hired about 57 Head Coaches.

Dr.Don said:

For sure. If Teague would have followed the advice of the media and GH'ers, he would have hired about 57 Head Coaches.

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In fairness, if we had hired 57 other coaches, we could have one recruiting in every state, one in D.C., one in Puerto Rico, one in Guam, one in the U.S. Virgin Islands, one in Canada, one in Australia, and one just doing interviews.

My wife just spotted Shaka at the Bruegger's on 6th street downtown.