MN Daily: Gone are the days of mismanaged games and a lack of player development

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BleedGopher

BleedGopher

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per a column from the Daily:

Pitino needed just one year to establish himself as a better developer of talent than his predecessor, Tubby Smith.

I don’t think it will take long for fans to see a difference in recruiting, either.

So rejoice, Gophers fans.

Gone are the days of mismanaged games and a lack of player development. Pitino brought in a new style of coaching and a fresh personality, that’s already paying dividends with recruits.

And it all started on Friday with Johnson.

http://www.mndaily.com/sports/mens-.../column-landing-johnson-just-beginning-pitino

Go Gophers!!
 


Our resident curmudgeon and Tubby defender must not be out of bed yet. Going to get my popcorn ...
 


"Last year, Gophers fans watched three extraordinarily talented players from Minnesota announce that they would be heading to greener pastures to play college basketball."

I take issue with that statement. I think Macura makes it four. Those four guys plus a decent center could've won a national championship in a few years.
 


WanderingGopher said:
"Last year, Gophers fans watched three extraordinarily talented players from Minnesota announce that they would be heading to greener pastures to play college basketball."

I take issue with that statement. I think Macura makes it four. Those four guys plus a decent center could've won a national championship in a few years.
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I take issue with the "greener pastures" comment. Certainly Duke would seem like a "greener pasture" but no guarantee that Xavier, Stanford or UNLV will provide a better pasture than the U.

Go gophers!!
 

Haha. There will be people that eat this up, but there is not a single fact or piece of substance in that article. Tubby's first 2 years here were outstanding; on the recruiting trail and player development. The kid that wrote this article was 11 or 12 years old at the time, so he probably has no idea what shape the program was in when Tubby took over. He has no idea how much of a success those first 2-3 years of Tubby's tenure were.

If we are comparing first years in the program, and first 2 recruiting classes, Tubby and Pitino both have done excellent jobs. It'd be hard to separate the two. I'm happy with where we're at now, but this article is so off base it's hilarious.
 

Whether or not you agree with the firing, it's hard to argue that it wasn't a good hire.
 

BleedGopher said:
I take issue with the "greener pastures" comment. Certainly Duke would seem like a "greener pasture" but no guarantee that Xavier, Stanford or UNLV will provide a better pasture than the U.

Go gophers!!
Click to expand...

Yeah, that too. In a year or two I think there's a good chance we'll be saying "how in the bloody h*ll did we lose an elite in-state recruit to Stanford, UNLV or Xavier."
 



Gold Vision said:
Haha. There will be people that eat this up, but there is not a single fact or piece of substance in that article. Tubby's first 2 years here were outstanding; on the recruiting trail and player development. The kid that wrote this article was 11 or 12 years old at the time, so he probably has no idea what shape the program was in when Tubby took over. He has no idea how much of a success those first 2-3 years of Tubby's tenure were.

If we are comparing first years in the program, and first 2 recruiting classes, Tubby and Pitino both have done excellent jobs. It'd be hard to separate the two. I'm happy with where we're at now, but this article is so off base it's hilarious.
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I do give the kid credit for not signing off with "ya feel me?".
 

No one knows my stance on this issue and it's probably best to keep it that way.:cool02:
 


the future

Top 20 national players rarely ever stay home you can do the research the last 5 years nationwide or longer. Also saying those players would have been a national championship team in a few years ignores the fact that about half the top 20 players will play 1 year and leave. Losing out on Reid and JP really hurt those are the type of non top 20 players the local universities can grow with for 4 years. FYI JP is the 4th highest graded recruit for Xavier he may regret moving on.


WanderingGopher said:
Yeah, that too. In a year or two I think there's a good chance we'll be saying "how in the bloody h*ll did we lose an elite in-state recruit to Stanford, UNLV or Xavier."
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Gold Vision said:
Haha. There will be people that eat this up, but there is not a single fact or piece of substance in that article. Tubby's first 2 years here were outstanding; on the recruiting trail and player development. The kid that wrote this article was 11 or 12 years old at the time, so he probably has no idea what shape the program was in when Tubby took over. He has no idea how much of a success those first 2-3 years of Tubby's tenure were.

If we are comparing first years in the program, and first 2 recruiting classes, Tubby and Pitino both have done excellent jobs. It'd be hard to separate the two. I'm happy with where we're at now, but this article is so off base it's hilarious.
Click to expand...

Fact is this- The Pitino we see is a lot more fun, active in recruiting and showing more in player development than the outgoing version of Tubby did in his final few years here. Tubby started well but finished like an old jalopy in terms of enthusiasm and drive. The fact that Pitino gives us a lot more upside than the departing Tubby is no reflection on Tubby's excellent career and decency as a human being. His time simply had passed. It's okay to be excited about the comparison.

So it's a fine article by a college kid- he's already writing at Strib level.
 

I like Tubby. You can't say squat about player development as he took a 5 win squad and turned it into a 20 win squad with the same personnel in his first year.

He recruited better in his first three years than any coach at Minnesota in the recent era. I define better as more players with a higher rating as it is quantitative. I define recent era to begin with Dutcher. He really only had one bad class (Oto, Ahanmisi...I have a headache already). The other classes were great, just couldn't keep them in school.

That being said, I enjoyed the first year of Pitino more than any under Tubby. In addition, aside from 1997, I have never been more excited about Gophers hoops.

In short, quit whining about Tubby he was above average. But for some reason I just like Pitino more.


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gopherlaney said:
I like Tubby. You can't say squat about player development as he took a 5 win squad and turned it into a 20 win squad with the same personnel in his first year.

He recruited better in his first three years than any coach at Minnesota in the recent era. I define better as more players with a higher rating as it is quantitative. I define recent era to begin with Dutcher. He really only had one bad class (Oto, Ahanmisi...I have a headache already). The other classes were great, just couldn't keep them in school.

That being said, I enjoyed the first year of Pitino more than any under Tubby. In addition, aside from 1997, I have never been more excited about Gophers hoops.

In short, quit whining about Tubby he was above average. But for some reason I just like Pitino more.


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Completely agree. I just think you can voice your enthusiasm for Pitino without bashing the previous regime.

I'm just not thrilled with some 18 year old freshman writer talking about the entire Tubby era being a flop filled with mismanagement of players and lackluster recruiting. Thinking back to the start of 2008-2009, I had the same amount of enthusiasm and feelings of upward trajectory that Pitino has with me now. Tubby completely renewed my passion for Gopher Hoops after the post scandal years, but it was time for us to move on with some young blood.
 



bga1 said:
Fact is this- The Pitino we see is a lot more fun, active in recruiting and showing more in player development than the outgoing version of Tubby did in his final few years here. Tubby started well but finished like an old jalopy in terms of enthusiasm and drive. The fact that Pitino gives us a lot more upside than the departing Tubby is no reflection on Tubby's excellent career and decency as a human being. His time simply had passed. It's okay to be excited about the comparison.

So it's a fine article by a college kid- he's already writing at Strib level.
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I agree with all of this.
 

I liked Tubby. He really turned the program around at a bad time, and set us up for Pitino to be able to build. His first three years here were great, and he had some exceptional early recruiting classes. Unfortunately, a combination of horrendous luck and terrible assistant coaches (in my opinion) meant that he ran out of steam. So I had no problem with Tubby. That said, I'm fully behind Pitino. I love what he's done at the beginning here, and hopefully he'll be able to bring us to the next level. I'm confident that we're on the right track.
 


jmag21 said:
I liked Tubby. He really turned the program around at a bad time, and set us up for Pitino to be able to build. His first three years here were great, and he had some exceptional early recruiting classes. Unfortunately, a combination of horrendous luck and terrible assistant coaches (in my opinion) meant that he ran out of steam. So I had no problem with Tubby. That said, I'm fully behind Pitino. I love what he's done at the beginning here, and hopefully he'll be able to bring us to the next level. I'm confident that we're on the right track.
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Horrendous assistant coaches.


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I grew up a gopher fan and went to games my entire life. Born in 1985 so guys like Voshon Lenard and Bobby Jackson are my heroes.

I also had the misfortune of attending the U during the Monson regime. I couldn't run from it like some of you, I had to ensure it with the 5 other people in the student section.

God bless Tubby.


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gopherlaney said:
I grew up a gopher fan and went to games my entire life. Born in 1985 so guys like Voshon Lenard and Bobby Jackson are my heroes.

I also had the misfortune of attending the U during the Monson regime. I couldn't run from it like some of you, I had to ensure it with the 5 other people in the student section.

God bless Tubby.


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Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 






Sparlimb said:
In the immortal words of John McEnroe "You cannot be serious!"
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Serious that a starting lineup consisting of three former 5* recruits and a 4* recruit (whom some 'experts' think will be as good as the 5* guys) "could" win a championship if they stuck around a few years? Uh, yeah. Absolutely.
 

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