FSN: Preseason expectations not met, but Gophers still have a lot to play for

per FSN:

With just three regular-season games remaining, it's safe to say those expectations haven't been met by Richard Pitino's team in his second year at the helm. Minnesota enters Thursday's game at Michigan State with a 16-12 overall record and just a 5-10 mark in the Big Ten. The NCAA tournament, which was an expectation of many, seems unlikely for the Gophers. Even a trip back to the NIT is by no means a guarantee, either.

Perhaps Minnesota did overachieve a bit in Pitino's first season. They won a school-record 25 games, including the NIT championship that secured the banner that now hangs at Williams Arena. For a number of reasons, though, year two under Pitino has played out much differently than year one.

"Any time you go into a first year, you kind of get a free pass a little bit with everyone, and it's just kind of the honeymoon stages," Pitino said. "To do what we did in that first year, I didn't really have a whole lot of expectations. So to get to that, I was excited about it. Having a lot of guys back, I knew a lot of those guys. We had to improve because expectations would be higher."

http://www.foxsports.com/north/stor...n-gophers-still-have-a-lot-to-play-for-022515

Go Gophers!!

With a likely 6-12 finish this year, its oddly only two games worse than last year...However, it feels a lot worse because the future of the program is looking pretty bleak...Other than Mason, everyone coming back will not have a significant impact on wins and losses and the new recruits are a crapshoot...Look for another subpar B10 record next year and a make or break 2016/2017 season for Pitino and staff.