February

In the past 3+ Big Ten regular seasons, we are now 7-22 in February. In Jan. and March, we are 19-21.

Luckily, February is the shortest month of the year.

I wanted to look into just how bad it's really been:

Average score in losses: Gophers 57, Opponent 66
Road games: 3-11
Home games: 4-11

By team
Ohio St: 0-4
Michigan St: 0-3
Illinois: 0-3
Purdue: 0-1
Michigan: 0-1
Penn St: 0-1
Wisconsin: 1-3
Northwestern: 1-2
Indiana: 2-2
Iowa: 2-2
Nebraska: 1-0

So we essentially haven't beaten half the conference, in February, in over three plus seasons.

Going back to the Monson/Molinari year, the Gophers are 17-and-42 in the month of February. That's a winning percentage of .288%. I don't have time to figure it out, but that has to be the worst in the Big Ten for the month of February in that stretch.

"90 percent of the game is half mental."
-Yogi Berra

The other thing that I think is going on is fatigue. Both Tubby and now Pitino are good coaches and pushy coaches. They push hard and demand a lot. It gets to be this point of the season, and the gas tank is running low. There hasn't been enough talent or star power on any of Tubby's teams - and now Richard's - to overcome that. It's still remarkable to me that, in all his time here, Tubby never recruited a player who has ended up playing one minute in the NBA. Ultimately, Richard's success will hinge on whether he can get the program back to where it was in Clem's time, where Haskins averaged recruiting about one player a year who ended up having at least a cup of coffee in the Association.