Doogie says some boosters have reached out to coaching candidates to gauge interest

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BleedGopher

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Per Doogie on his latest “Scoops” Podcast - he said there are some boosters with a good amount of money who are now just “fed up” with the Gopher basketball program. He said that boosters have reached out to some available coaches to gauge their interest in coaching at the U. Doogie said these boosters are trying to be proactive in trying to buy out Pitino. Doogie said he sees Richard Pitino here and he sees him winning next year here.

Doogie said the audit story about the travel budget was “planted” with the Star Tribune. Doogie said someone is out to get Richard Pitino.

If this is true, this is just crazy that boosters would do this (presumably on their own).

http://www.1500espn.com/author/darren-wolfson/

Go Gophers!!
 


CentralGopher said:
Sounds like way too many cooks in the kitchen.
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It's just so weird. So so weird. What is different about Pitino than any of his failed predecessors?

It was rumored "boosters" wanted Tubby out, then Monson was a colossal failure, Clem had the biggest cheating scandal in NCAA history (except for the UNC WBB one :)) and yet it is Richard Pitino who they not only want gone, but seem to have this personal vendetta against. Like he kicked their dog. It's just weird. I get its their money and fully support they can do what they want with it, I'm just so lost as to why now? Like this program had been a ray of sunshine until Pitino came. Boosters of one variety or another have been unhappy with MBB for years. Except for when it was at its all time high levels of cheating. I just don't get it. Pitino hasn't been great by any stretch, but he at least has some positive outlook for next year.

As much as people want to bash Tubby (and I was okay with firing him) he was the most successful coach of the last 20 years or so and "boosters" wanted him gone as well.

Agree with Doogie though, think Pitino has a solid year next season and these guys all eat their words.

Would also be a positive step of Coyle addressed this and said Pitino is here this season and will coach the team this season. And will be evaluated at the end of the year like all coaches at the U. Just to hopefully stop some of this.
 

scher215 said:
It's just so weird. So so weird. What is different about Pitino than any of his failed predecessors?

It was rumored "boosters" wanted Tubby out, then Monson was a colossal failure, Clem had the biggest cheating scandal in NCAA history (except for the UNC WBB one :)) and yet it is Richard Pitino who they not only want gone, but seem to have this personal vendetta against. Like he kicked their dog. It's just weird. I get its their money and fully support they can do what they want with it, I'm just so lost as to why now? Like this program had been a ray of sunshine until Pitino came. Boosters of one variety or another have been unhappy with MBB for years. Except for when it was at its all time high levels of cheating. I just don't get it. Pitino hasn't been great by any stretch, but he at least has some positive outlook for next year.

As much as people want to bash Tubby (and I was okay with firing him) he was the most successful coach of the last 20 years or so and "boosters" wanted him gone as well.

Agree with Doogie though, think Pitino has a solid year next season and these guys all eat their words.

Would also be a positive step of Coyle addressed this and said Pitino is here this season and will coach the team this season. And will be evaluated at the end of the year like all coaches at the U. Just to hopefully stop some of this.
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Good idea.
 

Especially considering too Pitino also has the Gopher record for most wins in a season. Which if you blame him for having the most losses in history, it's inly fitting to give him credit for the most wins in history as well.

And that's of course you consider Clem's vacated seasons as going 0-0 instead of 0-30 or whatever it would be.
 


scher215 said:
. ... And that's of course you consider Clem's vacated seasons as going 0-0 instead of 0-30 or whatever it would be.
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31-4, but who's counting?:drink:

Oddly, I can remember every loss, and the order they occurred. ... @ Alabama, @ Illinois (early in Big Ten season?), @ Wisconsin (final game of regular season), vs. Kentucky. I'm in my early 50s. Is it possible I'll get to experience another season like that assuming I live 'til about 85? Hoping so (minus the cheating, of course).
 

Meddling with the coach by boosters is a little above us isn't it?

I mean this only happens at places like Alabama, Auburn and LSU in football and Indiana, Kentucky and UCLA in basketball. Or do we have boosters which suffer from delusions of grandeur?
 

Otis said:
Meddling with the coach by boosters is a little above us isn't it?

I mean this only happens at places like Alabama, Auburn and LSU in football and Indiana, Kentucky and UCLA in basketball. Or do we have boosters which suffer from delusions of grandeur?
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lol our whole state suffers from delusions of grandeur. We are what we are and we need to build from that into something great. Football and basketball have not been great in 30+ years(except for 1 or 2 seasons in basketball that were vacated)
 

scher215 said:
Especially considering too Pitino also has the Gopher record for most wins in a season. Which if you blame him for having the most losses in history, it's inly fitting to give him credit for the most wins in history as well.

And that's of course you consider Clem's vacated seasons as going 0-0 instead of 0-30 or whatever it would be.
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I believe it goes in the books as 0-4 since the losses stay and only the wins are vacated.
 



i didn't know we had boosters until this week.... Glad they finally showed up.

And anytime someone says "too many cooks" I have to share this.

Enjoy GH.... Watch it all the way through. Imagine watching this at midnight inebriated by some sort of mentality alteration mechanism.

 


My sources tell me that the boosters have reached out to Mike Grant but he is unsure if he can make the switch to basketball.

Unlike the southern schools, Minnesota's boosters seem to a unfortunate combination of cheap, poor (one of Shama's boosters is dropping tickets because of the donation) and vocal/ entitled. Bad combination.
 

Doogie says some boosters have reached out to coaching candidates to gauge in...

Unreal. This offseason and all the bull **** from people that are not part of the basketball program are really may make me reconsider where I put a lot of my emotion and day to day investment. So many old impatient white dudes trying to leave there mark are destroying what I enjoy about the sport. Planting stories in the newspaper to fire a coach. Terrible f'ing idea to fire a coach in the summer, and all this meddling makes this job look like the worst one in the country. I grew up in another state and have degrees from other universities. I have no problem reordering my focus order if some stubborn assholes continue to ruin this program because they think that they deserve more managerial control.

Edit: Maybe an overreaction, but come on!!

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 



This is ridiculous. Either go to Boston with your private jet and checkbook and bring Brad Stevens to Coyle's door with a check for $7 million or put a sock in it until next March. Leaking BS audit stories to the Star Tribune is not how to go about it.
 

Obviously, this is media looking for clicks, readers, and viewers, but there is unrest and dissatisfaction that I think is greater right now than at the time Monson got fired. How much is media-driven I can't say; but some is also very genuine. Whoever said Coyle should address this had a good idea. Wordsmiths at the U can craft it so you can say he's coaching next year with the implied that he better win and the blackeyes better be done.
 

Mulligan said:
Obviously, this is media looking for clicks, readers, and viewers, but there is unrest and dissatisfaction that I think is greater right now than at the time Monson got fired. How much is media-driven I can't say; but some is also very genuine. Whoever said Coyle should address this had a good idea. Wordsmiths at the U can craft it so you can say he's coaching next year with the implied that he better win and the blackeyes better be done.
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None of our boosters donate close to enough to have a say in coaching decisions. Unbelievable how entitled some of these guys are. Want to choose the next coach? Pick up the rest of the tab for the practice facility. Then you can have some say.
 

This isn't really surprising. The general perception of Pitino from casual fans in the market is at a really low level, the sort of level that would be close to impossible for him to recover from in the next couple of years. Last year could easily be considered the worst on the court in the lifetime of most fans, in addition to the scandals. Most think the only reason Pitino is going to be here next year is because we owe him too much money and we didn't have a permanent AD during the coach hiring season.

And it's not going to get any better. He's now the primary whipping boy for the local media. Molitor is the only other coach they can really attack right now, and he's one of us. Everyone else besides Zimmer is too new, and Zimmer is really well liked by everyone. Even if Pitino could turn the program around I would be very surprised if he gets the chance. I can't think of a single coach in this market who had such a low approval from fans and kept their job for more than a year. Maybe Dennis Green, but he also had a fair amount of success early in his tenure to fall back on.
 

GG Allen said:
Most think the only reason Pitino is going to be here next year is because we owe him too much money and we didn't have a permanent AD during the coach hiring season.

I can't think of a single coach in this market who had such a low approval from fans and kept their job for more than a year. Maybe Dennis Green, but he also had a fair amount of success early in his tenure to fall back on.
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1.) Thank you Kaler

2.) Thank you Kaler. hahaha
 

GG Allen said:
This isn't really surprising. The general perception of Pitino from casual fans in the market is at a really low level, the sort of level that would be close to impossible for him to recover from in the next couple of years. Last year could easily be considered the worst on the court in the lifetime of most fans, in addition to the scandals. Most think the only reason Pitino is going to be here next year is because we owe him too much money and we didn't have a permanent AD during the coach hiring season. And it's not going to get any better. He's now the primary whipping boy for the local media. Molitor is the only other coach they can really attack right now, and he's one of us. Everyone else besides Zimmer is too new, and Zimmer is really well liked by everyone. Even if Pitino could turn the program around I would be very surprised if he gets the chance. I can't think of a single coach in this market who had such a low approval from fans and kept their job for more than a year. Maybe Dennis Green, but he also had a fair amount of success early in his tenure to fall back on.
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If Pitino makes the tournament next year I think public opinion changes greatly. A tournament team with only 2 seniors? One of which likely isn't a key cog. Man. That's tough not to be optimistic about.

You're probably right the media would still kill him, but that would be a pretty incredible turnaround tough to ignore.
 

Golden_Sloth said:
None of our boosters donate close to enough to have a say in coaching decisions. Unbelievable how entitled some of these guys are. Want to choose the next coach? Pick up the rest of the tab for the practice facility. Then you can have some say.
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Well, in addition to my ST fees I wrote a check for $38.75 in support of the program last season, so I'm obviously invested and expect to be heard. Rest assured I'll be phoning the AD office, as soon as Coyle settles in, with my recommendations for personnel changes.
 

It would most likely have to be the greatest single season turnaround in program history to make the NCAAs. At minimum, you're likely looking at 13 more wins. That's a pretty tough bar for him to clear.
 

GG Allen said:
This isn't really surprising. The general perception of Pitino from casual fans in the market is at a really low level, the sort of level that would be close to impossible for him to recover from in the next couple of years. Last year could easily be considered the worst on the court in the lifetime of most fans, in addition to the scandals. Most think the only reason Pitino is going to be here next year is because we owe him too much money and we didn't have a permanent AD during the coach hiring season.

And it's not going to get any better. He's now the primary whipping boy for the local media. Molitor is the only other coach they can really attack right now, and he's one of us. Everyone else besides Zimmer is too new, and Zimmer is really well liked by everyone. Even if Pitino could turn the program around I would be very surprised if he gets the chance. I can't think of a single coach in this market who had such a low approval from fans and kept their job for more than a year. Maybe Dennis Green, but he also had a fair amount of success early in his tenure to fall back on.
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Winning cures all
 

bc2211 said:
Unreal. This offseason and all the bull **** from people that are not part of the basketball program are really may make me reconsider where I put a lot of my emotion and day to day investment. So many old impatient white dudes trying to leave there mark are destroying what I enjoy about the sport. Planting stories in the newspaper to fire a coach. Terrible f'ing idea to fire a coach in the summer, and all this meddling makes this job look like the worst one in the country. I grew up in another state and have degrees from other universities. I have no problem reordering my focus order if some stubborn assholes continue to ruin this program because they think that they deserve more managerial control.

Edit: Maybe an overreaction, but come on!!

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
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Leaking information from the University Athletics department like this in this manner without authorization for release (especially to publicly smear a current coach's reputation) should be a firable offense.

Speaking of a dysfunctional Athletics Department, this is something that Coyle must reign in.
 

In this case, Whistleblower laws would likely protect anyone who leaked anything since it was an alleged misuse of University funds.
 

On "The Sports Show" last Sunday, Reusse also made the point that the travel expense story was leaked to the Strib by someone with an agenda. Reusse also noted that Pitino has made himself much more available to the media to try and improve relationships.

In order for Pitino to stay beyond next year, he needs to have a really good season on the court - and zero off-court incidents. If there is another player incident during the season, especially one that is sex-related, Pitino is toast, no matter how many games the team wins.
 

If he is not going to make it out of this hole, the best thing is to let him coach, get the new players in school and into a year of eligibility, and then make decision at end of season.

This buys time for Coyle to try and work things out. I'm not sure Pitino can save his job at this point.
 

Honestly - who are the Golden Dunkers these days? In their Heyday they were a big deal, but I haven't heard anything about them for years. Maybe they still have a presence on the football side but I've been a BB season ticker holder for almost 20 years and I haven't heard anything from them since they gave away a moped to a student years ago.
 

GG Allen said:
It would most likely have to be the greatest single season turnaround in program history to make the NCAAs. At minimum, you're likely looking at 13 more wins. That's a pretty tough bar for him to clear.
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Ya, he will probably have to to win 10 or 11 out of conference, that's plus 4 or 5. Than nine or ten in conference, plus seven or eight from the two wins last year. throw in a win or two that would be needed at the conference tourney. I am with you 20 or 21 wins will be the magic number, depending on where those wins come from, our RPI etc
 

Are all of the men's basketball boosters also parents of a Pee Wee B2 hockey player?
 

Moonlight said:
Honestly - who are the Golden Dunkers these days? In their Heyday they were a big deal, but I haven't heard anything about them for years. Maybe they still have a presence on the football side but I've been a BB season ticker holder for almost 20 years and I haven't heard anything from them since they gave away a moped to a student years ago.
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This is so true, and the moped comment made me laugh. Good memory.

The Goal Line Club (the football equivalent) is much more prevalent and active.

Go Gophers!!
 

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