I wouldn't have fired Tubby Smith in the first place, particularly not after the school's best season in 23 years. But putting that aside, I wouldn't have hired a 30-year-old with 1 year of head coaching experience to be a head coach in the Big Ten. But putting that aside, now that he's here, if he doesn't make the Tournament by the end of 2015-16, he should be gone in my book. You don't fire a coach with 3 tournament appearances in 6 years (never before done at this school) and Tournament appearances in his 2nd and 3rd years to keep a coach who can't make one (let alone two) in 3 years. People hated Tubby so much and wanted him gone so badly that they couldn't see how firing him set his successor up for unrealistic expectations.
I wouldn't have fired Tubby Smith in the first place, particularly not after the school's best season in 23 years. But putting that aside, I wouldn't have hired a 30-year-old with 1 year of head coaching experience to be a head coach in the Big Ten. But putting that aside, now that he's here, if he doesn't make the Tournament by the end of 2015-16, he should be gone in my book. You don't fire a coach with 3 tournament appearances in 6 years (never before done at this school) and Tournament appearances in his 2nd and 3rd years to keep a coach who can't make one (let alone two) in 3 years. People hated Tubby so much and wanted him gone so badly that they couldn't see how firing him set his successor up for unrealistic expectations.
Here's how I see it. Tubby was fitted for how the big ten season went the last three years. Every coach should get five Yeats IMO. So will see where this program is at when mason kotate and juju are seniors. I like the recruits were bringing in next year. Hurt will be good. Hopefully we land Coffey and Trent.Those are the type of recruits that win conference titles and go on deep tourney runs. I like what pitino is doing who he's bringing in. I think the majority of the players are developing. King and no have improved. Morris has gotten better during the season. Mason has great poise for a frosh. Konate is taking baby steps. Mac Neil was getting better but no need to go there. I think pitino is trying to run his system more this year and some guys on the roster sent cut out. Next year will be rebuild probably a 7-11 type year. I still think this team can get hot. Hit some free throws and take care of the ball.
Just a hint, your argument would be stronger if you got rid of the bolded part... trying to convince people that we should have kept a coach who might go 0-18 in the Big 12 this year isn't the best way to win an argument.
I think Pitino is a Robert Frost guy- doesn't fancy Yeats.
Smith's predecessor was 3-15 in the Big 12. Pitino's was 8-10 and won an NCAA Tournament game.
Get out a piece of graph paper. Draw a flat horizontal line on it and you have described Tubby's future path as a basketball coach. The results with Pitino in the short term may look like a sine wave but in the longer term with a little patience I think we will see a really nice trend line.
I know it's not popular on gopherhole but I agree with Dpo when it comes to Tubby. I never thought Tubby deserved to be fired, especially with our program's history. Not sure how anyone to this point can say firing Tubby for Pitino was the right decision? We didn't make the NCAA Tourney last year and we aren't making it this year. If Pitino doesn't make it next year his seat is going to get extremely hot imo.
I wouldn't have fired Tubby Smith in the first place, particularly not after the school's best season in 23 years. But putting that aside, I wouldn't have hired a 30-year-old with 1 year of head coaching experience to be a head coach in the Big Ten. But putting that aside, now that he's here, if he doesn't make the Tournament by the end of 2015-16, he should be gone in my book. You don't fire a coach with 3 tournament appearances in 6 years (never before done at this school) and Tournament appearances in his 2nd and 3rd years to keep a coach who can't make one (let alone two) in 3 years. People hated Tubby so much and wanted him gone so badly that they couldn't see how firing him set his successor up for unrealistic expectations.
Tubby should have gotten 1 more year. But we are now 2 years removed from that. Will people move the f*** on from that?
Exaggerate much? Very few people here (much less Gopher fans in general) 'hated' Tubby. Personally, I was on the fence about firing him. He wasn't fired for 'only' getting us to the second round. He was fired because it was very difficult to see them getting better from there. His last two fall recruiting classes did not show a positive trend. It seemed awfully likely that no matter how long he stayed, 2012-2013 would probably be his 'best' season. Going 8-10 in the B1G, squeaking into the NCAAs and winning a game is OK in any given year. But it's not OK for that to be the ceiling.
If we're throwing out conjecture, Pitino might go 1-17 in the Big Ten this year. Smith's predecessor was 3-15 in the Big 12. Pitino's was 8-10 and won an NCAA Tournament game. Who's doing a worse job relative to their predecessor?
I know it's not popular on gopherhole but I agree with Dpo when it comes to Tubby. I never thought Tubby deserved to be fired, especially with our program's history. Not sure how anyone to this point can say firing Tubby for Pitino was the right decision? We didn't make the NCAA Tourney last year and we aren't making it this year. If Pitino doesn't make it next year his seat is going to get extremely hot imo.
Quit being so bullheaded, I'm agreeing with half of your point. You can make the argument that Pitino wasn't experienced enough for the job. You can't make an argument that the program was going anywhere under Tubby. Just like Texas Tech isn't.
Agreed. I think Pitino only took King because he was desperate for a PF and he could play right away because of his family situation. I doubt he'd recruit King out of HS.Interesting take given that Pitino recruited King...
It wasn't the present that Teague was focused on- it was the future. Tubby looked tired of it, the recruiting, the whole thing. Texas Tech has the proof.
If Pitino doesn't look like he has accumulated the talent to make a run in the future- his seat will be hot. If everybody is looking at what we have and says- "man, wait until next year when these guys have a year under their belt and the 2016 guys (Hurt and company) come in"- then he has no problem. 16-17 is when a failure heats his chair up, 15-16 just has to look promising.
I suspect there's a some middle aged men here who can't stand that some snot-nosed kid of 30 got this job 'based on his name'.
Kill looked like a disaster.
I'm 34. Does that count as middle-aged? I "can't stand" that he got the job because I don't want my school to be paying a 7-figure salary for his OJT while piling up conference losses and missing the NCAA Tournament.
When was this? The team has gotten appreciably better, both by record and the "eye test", each and every season. Pitino's team has regressed, hard, in his second season. Also, Kill was a DII walk-on and earned every opportunity he's had in his life, and has been paid for his coaching services almost as long as Pitino has been alive. It would be difficult for the two to be more dissimilar.
Teague went for the next big thing in coaching before he was the next big thing. As stated reasonably in this thread, our real question isn't will Pitino be successful but will he be successful here. Its not an issue of faith but timing.
As someone else reasonably stated, we've been in every game, and in position to win a bunch of games save for effective execution. So we're not crap. This team closed out games pretty well last year. Not this year.
Pitino inherited a guy like Buggs who we could never find a word about during his recruitment and accomplished something last week I've never seen happen before: a lane violation on his own freethrow attempt. Huh? He's kind of adorable, but do I have faith in his development? Uh, no. (Bret Lawson was a better bet and who saw that coming?) And Joey is excelling to the limit of his ability. These are our seniors, plus Squirrel who certainly has the most potential upside.
I suspect there's a some middle aged men here who can't stand that some snot-nosed kid of 30 got this job 'based on his name'. Bet you've seen it happen before and it bugs the hell out of you.
Kill looked like a disaster. Now he's not. Let things unfold, and support the team through this - or give up if thats who you are.