Haskins came into a situation that was totally different than Pitino. I'm not saying that Pitino should be fired....I actually think he will make it now....but to compare Pitino's and Haskin's first few years isn't really a fair comparison because of the situation Haskins came into. Also, in the late 80's, the B1G was really good and only a 10 team league. Nebraska, Penn State and Rutgers weren't in the league at that time, and Indiana, Illinois, Iowa, Michigan and Ohio State were all very strong teams. Granted Wisconsin and Northwestern weren't strong teams, but the rest of the conference was really good.
Yes, Haskins did come into a different situation, his cupboards were more bare than Pitino's. But that enabled him to more quickly get his players into the program and probably bought him more time before he was expected to start winning, hence less pressure.
Pitino on the other hand had to try to do something with a mix of players he inherited and players he had to bring in at the last minute, just to try to have a semblance of a winning team. He made an effort to hit the ground running, sort of speak, by bringing in some transfers and jc players instead of loading up with freshman that we'd be stuck with for 4-5 years. It bought him some time to get a full recruiting class or two in before those older players left the program, in hopes that those recruits would turn out better than most thought they would. It was a gamble that, as far as wins and losses go, did not pan out, BUT, if you look at it from a recruiting standpoint, by not starting out like Haskins did, losing right away with a ton of frosh and sophomores, its very possible that helped him with his recruiting as every single class looked better than the class before, and in the long run, its probably going to pay off incredibly well.
Thing is, if you look at Haskins approach, there was a big drop after his initial group of recruits left, and he had to rebuild. Granted recruiting slowly got better as the 96, 97, 98 & 99 squads had much better talent than the 91, 92, 93 & 94 teams had, but we DID have to rebuild and suffer through those 5-6 years from 91-95 or 96 before we finally had another great season, the 97 season, but again in 98, we had to rebuild again, granted it didn't take as long as 99 was looking like it had the possibility to make a run in the tourney, but we all know how that ended up.
What I am seeing from Pitino is a balance in the classes. We are only going to lose one significant contributing player after this year, but will bring in a good recruiting class, then each year we'll be graduating a little better class than the year before and bringing in our best recruiting class yet to replace them, or at least that is the pattern so far. So instead of rebuilding, at the current pace, we are just going to get better and better and better as each year goes by, and not only because of increased talent, but because of our young coach learning more and more and becoming a better and better coach as every year goes by. Now there is always the possibility that he pulls in a bad recruiting class or some scandal loses us some players and throws things off, but there is always the JC ranks to help with that, but hopefully he never needs to go that route every again.
So maybe Haskins came into a different situation, but the situation Pitino came into could have been far more difficult and risky. Remember, we fired a coach that had just recently gotten us into the NCAA tourney, and now we just fired a fb coach that got us to a 9-4 record. What Pitino did was a risky way of going about things, and I'm sure he never dreamed last season would be so bad, but it would have been a horrible move to have fired Pitino after last year and it would be an even worse move to fire him after this season, no matter how the season finishes out, with the exception of finding out something horrible about Pitino, that is, like that he's following in Haskins cheating ways, for example.
Right now I think that if colleges were stocks, I'd sell everything I own and buy stock in Minnesota. We hired the youngest major conf bb coach and he's really starting to bring in great recruiting classes, so the future looks very bright and with his age and the momentum and other factors like the new facilities, it could just keep getting brighter and brighter, and now we've hired the youngest major conf fb coach, and he's a proven winner and he's got energy and charisma and a vision and I believe we are finally going to move up into the upper echelon of cfb programs, too. And now look at how the Men's Hockey team is doing. Lots of youngsters driving this team, and other B1G teams helping their PWR rankings instead of dragging them down. Not sure how the season will finish out or how the future will go for the hockey team, but we do have a Natl Title winning coach and the best facilities and good recruiting, so the future should be bright for the hockey team, too.
And all of that is going on while the Dance teams continues to win Natl Titles, the Women's Hockey team continues to produce championship caliber teams, and the VB team still continues to roll, and the Softball team is becoming a staple at the top of the Conf, and the Soccer team just won a Big Conf Title, and the CC teams and the S&D teams and the Gymnastic teams consistently finish between #5 and #32 in the rankings or in NCAA tournaments almost every single year. The Wrestling team is at least still in the Top 10 and the track teams are still producing great individual athletes and the Baseball team is also continuing to thrive.
What haven't I mentioned? The Men's Tennis team is undefeated so far, and the Golf programs just received a one million dollar gift, so we could see them improve in the future?
Oh, I didn't mention the women's bb team. They are struggling this season, but 5 of the top 6 scorers are coming back next season, and 7 of the Top 9, so it's possible they could improve come next season, and if recruiting goes well, the 2020 season could be a banner season.
Getting back to the comparison between Pitino and Haskins, Haskins got the team to the Sweet 16 or beyond in year 3, 4 and year ELEVEN.
Pitino may need more time to get to the Sweet 16 the first time, but I'd bet a large amount of money that he'll have gotten us there more than 3 times in his first 11 seasons, and if you include Haskins last 2 seasons, then it would be 3 times in 13 years. I could see Pitino getting the Gophers to the Sweet 16 in years #5 and #6, and then possibly almost every year after that, IF recruiting continues on the same pattern as its been on or at least does not get worse.
