BleedGopher
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per Bartholomew:
On Monday, Pitino couldn’t wait to talk to the crowd at the Elks Lodge in Winona. The Gophers Road Tour was making the first of eight stops in southern parts of the state, with Winona being the kickoff location of the three-day trip.
“It’s uncomfortable when you don’t have a great year and you have to go to these things,” Pitino said referring to the Gophers Road Tour last summer. “It was funny because last year the fans were so kind, it almost kind of rallied me a little bit. You’re down when you have a bad year, you’re embarrassed by it. But they (the fans) were loyal and supportive.
“Getting up in front of people now, it’s a lot more fun to talk about the great things we did this year versus the year before.”
Pitino led the Gophers to the best turnaround in college basketball this season, going 23-8, securing the first top-four Big Ten tournament seed in program history and locking up a fifth seed in the NCAA Tournament. Things didn’t end as Pitino or Gophers fans would’ve liked — 12th-seeded Middle Tennessee State bounced Minnesota in the tournament’s first round after the Gophers lost their top two guards to injuries.
Still, Pitino was named the Big Ten Coach of the Year, and earlier this month he reached a deal with Minnesota on a one-year contract extension that keeps him at the university through the 2021-22 season.
“Whenever you sign an extension, it helps recruiting to tell people you’ll be there for five more years,” Pitino said before the luncheon at the lodge. “I really feel like we’ve got an opportunity to turn the corner as a program.”
http://www.winonadailynews.com/spor...cle_1dc1b907-ffa1-5321-ba26-b703c22fe434.html
Go Gophers!!
On Monday, Pitino couldn’t wait to talk to the crowd at the Elks Lodge in Winona. The Gophers Road Tour was making the first of eight stops in southern parts of the state, with Winona being the kickoff location of the three-day trip.
“It’s uncomfortable when you don’t have a great year and you have to go to these things,” Pitino said referring to the Gophers Road Tour last summer. “It was funny because last year the fans were so kind, it almost kind of rallied me a little bit. You’re down when you have a bad year, you’re embarrassed by it. But they (the fans) were loyal and supportive.
“Getting up in front of people now, it’s a lot more fun to talk about the great things we did this year versus the year before.”
Pitino led the Gophers to the best turnaround in college basketball this season, going 23-8, securing the first top-four Big Ten tournament seed in program history and locking up a fifth seed in the NCAA Tournament. Things didn’t end as Pitino or Gophers fans would’ve liked — 12th-seeded Middle Tennessee State bounced Minnesota in the tournament’s first round after the Gophers lost their top two guards to injuries.
Still, Pitino was named the Big Ten Coach of the Year, and earlier this month he reached a deal with Minnesota on a one-year contract extension that keeps him at the university through the 2021-22 season.
“Whenever you sign an extension, it helps recruiting to tell people you’ll be there for five more years,” Pitino said before the luncheon at the lodge. “I really feel like we’ve got an opportunity to turn the corner as a program.”
http://www.winonadailynews.com/spor...cle_1dc1b907-ffa1-5321-ba26-b703c22fe434.html
Go Gophers!!