Pitino on Curry recovery

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Rich Pitino was on the Sports Huddle on Sunday. I didn't take notes, but I thought the most interesting thing was an update on Eric Curry.

Pitino said Curry is doing really well. Said, if necessary, he thinks Curry could be ready to play in a game by February. But, they won't do that because it would cost Curry a year of eligibility. Pitino said Curry is working out, lifting, doing some drills and looking good.

As far as this year's team, lot of recapping of current situation. Lot of talk about injuries - McBrayer, Coffey, etc. Lynch mentioned in passing, but nothing new on his situation.

Understatement of century - Pitino said Gas and Bakary are "limited on offense," but said they can contribute on defense.

Another interesting note - Dave Mona asked about Stockman. Pitino sounded optimistic. Said Stockman is a true 7-footer, and can add some dimensions on offense. Said he will definitely help team next year.

That's what I remember. (I was cooking some things in the kitchen, so only half-listening at the time.)
 

short ornery norwegian said:
Lot of talk about injuries - McBrayer, Coffey, etc. Lynch mentioned in passing, but nothing new on his situation.

Understatement of century - Pitino said Gas and Bakary are "limited on offense," but said they can contribute on defense.

Another interesting note - Dave Mona asked about Stockman. Pitino sounded optimistic. Said Stockman is a true 7-footer, and can add some dimensions on offense. Said he will definitely help team next year.
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I've said this before, and I'll say it again. The Bakary and Gaston signings were major blunders for the program and we've paid for that mistake for four years. Both have been model student athletes and we've never read that they've done anything but try hard and contribute. But to have 2 bigs on the same recruiting year that provide that little over the course of their careers was a major blow.

Pitino has compounded that mistake by dipping into transfers repeatedly to make his team even more short handed. It seems since he's been hired we've been young, inexperienced, thin or lacking leadership every season and have left the margin for error on recruting and injuries razor thin. Despite having 5 academic seniors on this team we've got only one who is contributing significantly, thats incredible. (please don't mix my words by saying Bakary isn't/hasn't contributed)

I wouldn't absolve Pitino of this fact, but I do discount the ceiling of the program under him quite significantly until we see a full roster. I repeatedly read comments about "year 6" and "how can you say wait till next year with a coach that long in the leadership", I agree, but I also think it's a mistake he made in year 2 that's just festered for 4 years. I'm interested in the next two years where he'll have much more full rosters (as long as he doesn't sign a non competing player again this upcoming spring). Next year we'll have essentially 4 (5 counting Lynch) more contributing bodies to play with as Gas and Bakary are just a problem on the offensive side of the ball that severely limits what this team could do. Here I type all that out and we'll be extremely thin in the 1 and 2 guard positions despite this fact.... <throw hands up>
 

short ornery norwegian said:
Rich Pitino was on the Sports Huddle on Sunday. I didn't take notes, but I thought the most interesting thing was an update on Eric Curry.

Pitino said Curry is doing really well. Said, if necessary, he thinks Curry could be ready to play in a game by February. But, they won't do that because it would cost Curry a year of eligibility. Pitino said Curry is working out, lifting, doing some drills and looking good.

As far as this year's team, lot of recapping of current situation. Lot of talk about injuries - McBrayer, Coffey, etc. Lynch mentioned in passing, but nothing new on his situation.

Understatement of century - Pitino said Gas and Bakary are "limited on offense," but said they can contribute on defense.

Another interesting note - Dave Mona asked about Stockman. Pitino sounded optimistic. Said Stockman is a true 7-footer, and can add some dimensions on offense. Said he will definitely help team next year.

That's what I remember. (I was cooking some things in the kitchen, so only half-listening at the time.)
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Lutefisk?
 

Winasota Gopher said:
I've said this before, and I'll say it again. The Bakary and Gaston signings were major blunders for the program and we've paid for that mistake for four years. Both have been model student athletes and we've never read that they've done anything but try hard and contribute. But to have 2 bigs on the same recruiting year that provide that little over the course of their careers was a major blow.

Pitino has compounded that mistake by dipping into transfers repeatedly to make his team even more short handed. It seems since he's been hired we've been young, inexperienced, thin or lacking leadership every season and have left the margin for error on recruting and injuries razor thin. Despite having 5 academic seniors on this team we've got only one who is contributing significantly, thats incredible. (please don't mix my words by saying Bakary isn't/hasn't contributed)

I wouldn't absolve Pitino of this fact, but I do discount the ceiling of the program under him quite significantly until we see a full roster. I repeatedly read comments about "year 6" and "how can you say wait till next year with a coach that long in the leadership", I agree, but I also think it's a mistake he made in year 2 that's just festered for 4 years. I'm interested in the next two years where he'll have much more full rosters (as long as he doesn't sign a non competing player again this upcoming spring). Next year we'll have essentially 4 (5 counting Lynch) more contributing bodies to play with as Gas and Bakary are just a problem on the offensive side of the ball that severely limits what this team could do. Here I type all that out and we'll be extremely thin in the 1 and 2 guard positions despite this fact.... <throw hands up>
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Agree. Pitino was optimistically in the running for a few high major players his first year, but realistically not because of his limited coaching experience. He fell back and reach on Gas and Bak. They seem to be really hard workers and good guys, but never developed into major D1 players. It was nice at the start of the year for Pitino to for once have players at their real positions, but it wasn’t very deep. We lost too many players and it hurts.


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Winasota Gopher said:
I've said this before, and I'll say it again. The Bakary and Gaston signings were major blunders for the program and we've paid for that mistake for four years. Both have been model student athletes and we've never read that they've done anything but try hard and contribute. But to have 2 bigs on the same recruiting year that provide that little over the course of their careers was a major blow.

Pitino has compounded that mistake by dipping into transfers repeatedly to make his team even more short handed. It seems since he's been hired we've been young, inexperienced, thin or lacking leadership every season and have left the margin for error on recruting and injuries razor thin. Despite having 5 academic seniors on this team we've got only one who is contributing significantly, thats incredible. (please don't mix my words by saying Bakary isn't/hasn't contributed)

I wouldn't absolve Pitino of this fact, but I do discount the ceiling of the program under him quite significantly until we see a full roster. I repeatedly read comments about "year 6" and "how can you say wait till next year with a coach that long in the leadership", I agree, but I also think it's a mistake he made in year 2 that's just festered for 4 years. I'm interested in the next two years where he'll have much more full rosters (as long as he doesn't sign a non competing player again this upcoming spring). Next year we'll have essentially 4 (5 counting Lynch) more contributing bodies to play with as Gas and Bakary are just a problem on the offensive side of the ball that severely limits what this team could do. Here I type all that out and we'll be extremely thin in the 1 and 2 guard positions despite this fact.... <throw hands up>
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I'm a big Pitino fan and can't really disagree with any of this.
 


I'm just wondering, all of this bitching about Konate and Gaston. I can think back to when they got brought into the program, and I don't remember a ton of bitching about it. In fact, as far as I can remember, there was a lot of people who thought one or both of these guys might turn out to become really good players. I think the word potential got thrown around a lot. Maybe some people questioned their recruitment, they were kind of unknowns, but they were tall and a lot of people felt they could be developed into good players.

So just because that potential didn't pan out, now everyone, with the knowledge of how things turned out, seem to act like they were such horrible recruiting decisions.

What a bunch of dishonest hypocrites.


THEY DIDN'T PAN OUT, it happens, it was his FIRST recruiting class. I mean, come on, the guy had what? 2 years of Div 1 coaching experience and was coming in to the ALMIGHTY GREATEST CBB PROGRAM EVER the University of Minnesota???? Are you kidding me, Minnesota has been a joke, maybe THEE JOKE, of major P5 cbb for decades, and somehow this young guy with barely any experience was supposed to bring in a super stellar class???


OMG, wake up people. He got what he could get, and they would have worked fine as deep bench backups had Curry not been injured and Lynch not been suspended. He did the honorable thing and let them finish out their careers here, and in todays environment where the win no matter what BS is coming back to haunt a lot of programs, what? we want to diss Pitino for keeping these 2 on the roster???


Man, sometimes I really wonder about the Gopher faithful. Not very often I am proud of them.
 

KillmeNow said:
I'm just wondering, all of this bitching about Konate and Gaston. I can think back to when they got brought into the program, and I don't remember a ton of bitching about it. In fact, as far as I can remember, there was a lot of people who thought one or both of these guys might turn out to become really good players. I think the word potential got thrown around a lot. Maybe some people questioned their recruitment, they were kind of unknowns, but they were tall and a lot of people felt they could be developed into good players.

So just because that potential didn't pan out, now everyone, with the knowledge of how things turned out, seem to act like they were such horrible recruiting decisions.

What a bunch of dishonest hypocrites.


THEY DIDN'T PAN OUT, it happens, it was his FIRST recruiting class. I mean, come on, the guy had what? 2 years of Div 1 coaching experience and was coming in to the ALMIGHTY GREATEST CBB PROGRAM EVER the University of Minnesota???? Are you kidding me, Minnesota has been a joke, maybe THEE JOKE, of major P5 cbb for decades, and somehow this young guy with barely any experience was supposed to bring in a super stellar class???


OMG, wake up people. He got what he could get, and they would have worked fine as deep bench backups had Curry not been injured and Lynch not been suspended. He did the honorable thing and let them finish out their careers here, and in todays environment where the win no matter what BS is coming back to haunt a lot of programs, what? we want to diss Pitino for keeping these 2 on the roster???


Man, sometimes I really wonder about the Gopher faithful. Not very often I am proud of them.
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There are some basics with Konate that you really have to question, how do you recruit a kid that can't catch a basketball, it is obvious they did no scouting, recruited him on say so without a spec of due diligence, that is on Pitino, at least Gaston can catch the ball but little or no basketball skills and has not developed much to speak of, I'll give him a pass on that but it blasts out lack of experience for Pitino, hopefully not the case anymore but there has been a big learning curve for Pitino.
 

jovs said:
There are some basics with Konate that you really have to question, how do you recruit a kid that can't catch a basketball, it is obvious they did no scouting, recruited him on say so without a spec of due diligence, that is on Pitino, at least Gaston can catch the ball but little or no basketball skills and has not developed much to speak of, I'll give him a pass on that but it blasts out lack of experience for Pitino, hopefully not the case anymore but there has been a big learning curve for Pitino.
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There is no doubt that konate and gas havent worked out for pitino. It was a mistake that he made four years ago. Pitino im sure has learned from it, but unfortunately were seeing the results now. If we were healthy we wouldnt have even needed to worry about it. It was a desperation move four years ago that im sure pitino regrets now, but its time to move on. Chalk it up as a learning experience. Obviously his recruiting has been good the last 3 years so we shouldnt have to worry about it again anytime soon.
 

great news on curry's recovery.
 



KillmeNow said:
I'm just wondering, all of this bitching about Konate and Gaston. I can think back to when they got brought into the program, and I don't remember a ton of bitching about it. In fact, as far as I can remember, there was a lot of people who thought one or both of these guys might turn out to become really good players. I think the word potential got thrown around a lot. Maybe some people questioned their recruitment, they were kind of unknowns, but they were tall and a lot of people felt they could be developed into good players.

So just because that potential didn't pan out, now everyone, with the knowledge of how things turned out, seem to act like they were such horrible recruiting decisions.

What a bunch of dishonest hypocrites.


THEY DIDN'T PAN OUT, it happens, it was his FIRST recruiting class. I mean, come on, the guy had what? 2 years of Div 1 coaching experience and was coming in to the ALMIGHTY GREATEST CBB PROGRAM EVER the University of Minnesota???? Are you kidding me, Minnesota has been a joke, maybe THEE JOKE, of major P5 cbb for decades, and somehow this young guy with barely any experience was supposed to bring in a super stellar class???


OMG, wake up people. He got what he could get, and they would have worked fine as deep bench backups had Curry not been injured and Lynch not been suspended. He did the honorable thing and let them finish out their careers here, and in todays environment where the win no matter what BS is coming back to haunt a lot of programs, what? we want to diss Pitino for keeping these 2 on the roster???


Man, sometimes I really wonder about the Gopher faithful. Not very often I am proud of them.
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That's not true. There was plenty of questioning him bringing in two apparent projects in the same year and same position, and once we saw them play the first time, questioning turned to criticism. That was true on this board as well as within our season ticket group.
 

KillmeNow said:
I'm just wondering, all of this bitching about Konate and Gaston. I can think back to when they got brought into the program, and I don't remember a ton of bitching about it. In fact, as far as I can remember, there was a lot of people who thought one or both of these guys might turn out to become really good players. I think the word potential got thrown around a lot. Maybe some people questioned their recruitment, they were kind of unknowns, but they were tall and a lot of people felt they could be developed into good players.

So just because that potential didn't pan out, now everyone, with the knowledge of how things turned out, seem to act like they were such horrible recruiting decisions.

What a bunch of dishonest hypocrites.


THEY DIDN'T PAN OUT, it happens, it was his FIRST recruiting class. I mean, come on, the guy had what? 2 years of Div 1 coaching experience and was coming in to the ALMIGHTY GREATEST CBB PROGRAM EVER the University of Minnesota???? Are you kidding me, Minnesota has been a joke, maybe THEE JOKE, of major P5 cbb for decades, and somehow this young guy with barely any experience was supposed to bring in a super stellar class???


OMG, wake up people. He got what he could get, and they would have worked fine as deep bench backups had Curry not been injured and Lynch not been suspended. He did the honorable thing and let them finish out their careers here, and in todays environment where the win no matter what BS is coming back to haunt a lot of programs, what? we want to diss Pitino for keeping these 2 on the roster???


Man, sometimes I really wonder about the Gopher faithful. Not very often I am proud of them.
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I'm assuming this is aimed at my post.

Gaston/Bakary's recruitment was met with wide spread head scratching. We all hoped Bakary was Giorgi Deng, because we were told it was that hope by Pitino himself and Bakary spent time with him in the offseasons. If you remember, Bakary was recruited by Louisville and there was 3 bigs in the conversation, Matz Stockman, Anas Mohmoud and Bakary Konate. Lousiville took the other two and we got Bakary we wondered if we won that battle.... Looking back, we got the leftovers.

There was a video of Gaston dunking on a (alledgedly) a 9 foot hoop that we all thought IF that's 10 wow did we possibly get a steal of an athletic gem? There was litterally nothing else to go on with Gas, nothing out there.

LOOKING at Gaston and Bakary it's easy to use the word potential. Bakary had a pretty decent Freshman year all things considered, it's just he hasn't gotten much more productive since then, same guy. Gas is showing this year he's pretty damn athletic, just doesn't really have some of the fine tools and they must not have been there the last 3 years either as he never saw the court.

You're right it didn't pan out.

And as my post said, that hurt.

I'm not hypocritcal at all if I say Bakary and Gas had potential and that those were recruiting mistakes. You don't know what hypocritical means if you think that.

You need to read the whole post if you don't understand that your last paragraph is almost exactly what I'm saying, those recruits left us razor thin and then he compounded that mistake by taking inellidgible players along the way, leaving no room for error. We almost got away with it this year and then now we didnt.
 

KillmeNow said:
I'm just wondering, all of this bitching about Konate and Gaston. I can think back to when they got brought into the program, and I don't remember a ton of bitching about it. In fact, as far as I can remember, there was a lot of people who thought one or both of these guys might turn out to become really good players. I think the word potential got thrown around a lot. Maybe some people questioned their recruitment, they were kind of unknowns, but they were tall and a lot of people felt they could be developed into good players.

So just because that potential didn't pan out, now everyone, with the knowledge of how things turned out, seem to act like they were such horrible recruiting decisions.

What a bunch of dishonest hypocrites.
Click to expand...

At my age, I've got to think sometimes if ate breakfast, but I remember there was quite a bit of debate about the two. This is GH so there are some that are naturally over-enthused, especially about a guy who is 7' tall. Remember the Gaston leaping over the chair video? Some thought it was impressive and some thought that might not transfer to a BIG game.

If Lynch and Curry were playing, it wouldn't be a glaring error. But there's nothing wrong with regretting the fact Pitino signed them and pointing it out it was a mistake of inexperience or desperation or whatever. Still pretty convinced he saw the success Dad had with Dieng and others at Louisville and that influenced him. My complaint is that he rolled the dice not once, but twice. I am glad Pitino hasn't run them off like some programs would have done. They seem like good guys who are supportive of their teammates and are always cheering and into the game. Can't say that about all the Gophers this year.

(Above was posted as I was typing--great minds think alike)
 

I think at that point no one had any clue about either player and had high hopes, and trust that Pitino knew what he was doing. Konate was being recruited by Louisville, that was a great sign. What bugs me the most about these 2 players is that they have progressed so little. It's unbelievable. They both still look as if they have 1 year of basketball under their belts. Always out of position, stupid fouls, bad hands, etc....
 



BballJones said:
I think at that point no one had any clue about either player and had high hopes, and trust that Pitino knew what he was doing. Konate was being recruited by Louisville, that was a great sign. What bugs me the most about these 2 players is that they have progressed so little. It's unbelievable. They both still look as if they have 1 year of basketball under their belts. Always out of position, stupid fouls, bad hands, etc....
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What bugs me the most is when Pitino jokes about them being at basketball. Ha ha. That feels to me like the height of arrogance.
 

The point of this thread was to be optimistic on Curry's recovery after what sounded like a major knee injury. ACLs are normally a 6-9 month recovery process, and he could be ready by next month? That's incredible and is a great sign for next season.

What we're forgetting here with Konate and Gas is that they were never expected to make major contributions or play major minutes. With the Lynch suspension and Curry getting hurt, even Coffey's injury, they were both forced into roles that they're not ready for and not capable of. But it is what it is. Like I've said in other threads, front court depth will feel ridiculous next year with Stockman, Murphy, Jarvis, Oturu and Curry, assuming they all stay healthy.

This is why the folks wanting Pitino gone should take a breath and wait for next year. I know that's frustrating, but the buyout is north of $5 million and he's not going anywhere. There's not a coach in college hoops who would succeed under Pitino's circumstances this year, and sure, he created some of it himself.

I'd be surprised if they didn't use the last scholly for 2018 on a veteran PG. Imagine the possibilities if you don't have to put all the duties on Jelly and just him play. I think the team next year can be better than the projections at the start of this year, but that's always why potential is a dangerous word.
 

NWMetroGopherFan said:
The point of this thread was to be optimistic on Curry's recovery after what sounded like a major knee injury. ACLs are normally a 6-9 month recovery process, and he could be ready by next month? That's incredible and is a great sign for next season.

What we're forgetting here with Konate and Gas is that they were never expected to make major contributions or play major minutes. With the Lynch suspension and Curry getting hurt, even Coffey's injury, they were both forced into roles that they're not ready for and not capable of. But it is what it is. Like I've said in other threads, front court depth will feel ridiculous next year with Stockman, Murphy, Jarvis, Oturu and Curry, assuming they all stay healthy.

This is why the folks wanting Pitino gone should take a breath and wait for next year. I know that's frustrating, but the buyout is north of $5 million and he's not going anywhere. There's not a coach in college hoops who would succeed under Pitino's circumstances this year, and sure, he created some of it himself.

I'd be surprised if they didn't use the last scholly for 2018 on a veteran PG. Imagine the possibilities if you don't have to put all the duties on Jelly and just him play. I think the team next year can be better than the projections at the start of this year, but that's always why potential is a dangerous word.
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Huh? Imagine a D1 head coach announcing - "well, we have signed two players to scholarships - but I don't expect they will make a major contribution or play major minutes." The immediate response from the media and fans would be - "then why the bleep are you giving them scholarships?"

If you're talking about a blue-chip program - KY, Duke, etc - they can afford to swing and miss on the occasional scholarship, because they have a roster full of top prospects. A program like MN cannot afford to swing and miss - let alone on 2 players at the same position in the same year.

Unless Pitino is nuts, he thought - or somebody thought, that Gas and Konate would at the very least develop into functional players by their 3rd year in the program. They haven't.

This gets back to one of the big issues that some people (including me) have with Pitino - roster management. You only have so many scholarships to use. Pitino has 3 scholarships tied up this year on big men - Gas, Konate, and Stockman - who have contributed virtually nothing. With Stockman, at least there's a chance he will make a contribution next year - but that doesn't mean squat for this year.

Granted, some of this year's problems are out of Pitino's control. But, some of them are definitely within his control. He doesn't get a pass on that.
 

KillmeNow said:
I'm just wondering, all of this bitching about Konate and Gaston. I can think back to when they got brought into the program, and I don't remember a ton of bitching about it. In fact, as far as I can remember, there was a lot of people who thought one or both of these guys might turn out to become really good players. I think the word potential got thrown around a lot. Maybe some people questioned their recruitment, they were kind of unknowns, but they were tall and a lot of people felt they could be developed into good players.

So just because that potential didn't pan out, now everyone, with the knowledge of how things turned out, seem to act like they were such horrible recruiting decisions.

What a bunch of dishonest hypocrites.


THEY DIDN'T PAN OUT, it happens, it was his FIRST recruiting class. I mean, come on, the guy had what? 2 years of Div 1 coaching experience and was coming in to the ALMIGHTY GREATEST CBB PROGRAM EVER the University of Minnesota???? Are you kidding me, Minnesota has been a joke, maybe THEE JOKE, of major P5 cbb for decades, and somehow this young guy with barely any experience was supposed to bring in a super stellar class???


OMG, wake up people. He got what he could get, and they would have worked fine as deep bench backups had Curry not been injured and Lynch not been suspended. He did the honorable thing and let them finish out their careers here, and in todays environment where the win no matter what BS is coming back to haunt a lot of programs, what? we want to diss Pitino for keeping these 2 on the roster???


Man, sometimes I really wonder about the Gopher faithful. Not very often I am proud of them.
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Classic case of mis- remembering. A lot of questions we’re flying about these two players. Pitino took a gamble and lost. I think it shows character as a coach to stand by his commitments and allow them both to get their degrees. How long do you think these players would have stayed at many of the top tier programs?


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alchemy2u said:
Classic case of mis- remembering. A lot of questions we’re flying about these two players. Pitino took a gamble and lost. I think it shows character as a coach to stand by his commitments and allow them both to get their degrees. How long do you think these players would have stayed at many of the top tier programs?


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I don't have any issue with keeping them around, but I also wouldn't have a problem with it if Pitino would have encouraged them to look elsewhere after their first two years. Maybe it wouldn't have been in a power conference, but I'm sure either could have found a landing spot in the MVC or at another school on scholarship. I guess we can throw around terms like "honoring their commitment" and whatnot, but college basketball is a business and we all know that. They still would have received two years of free education from a top notch university. Not a bad deal for them either.
 

KillmeNow said:
I'm just wondering, all of this bitching about Konate and Gaston. I can think back to when they got brought into the program, and I don't remember a ton of bitching about it. In fact, as far as I can remember, there was a lot of people who thought one or both of these guys might turn out to become really good players. I think the word potential got thrown around a lot. Maybe some people questioned their recruitment, they were kind of unknowns, but they were tall and a lot of people felt they could be developed into good players.

So just because that potential didn't pan out, now everyone, with the knowledge of how things turned out, seem to act like they were such horrible recruiting decisions.

What a bunch of dishonest hypocrites.


THEY DIDN'T PAN OUT, it happens, it was his FIRST recruiting class. I mean, come on, the guy had what? 2 years of Div 1 coaching experience and was coming in to the ALMIGHTY GREATEST CBB PROGRAM EVER the University of Minnesota???? Are you kidding me, Minnesota has been a joke, maybe THEE JOKE, of major P5 cbb for decades, and somehow this young guy with barely any experience was supposed to bring in a super stellar class???


OMG, wake up people. He got what he could get, and they would have worked fine as deep bench backups had Curry not been injured and Lynch not been suspended. He did the honorable thing and let them finish out their careers here, and in todays environment where the win no matter what BS is coming back to haunt a lot of programs, what? we want to diss Pitino for keeping these 2 on the roster???


Man, sometimes I really wonder about the Gopher faithful. Not very often I am proud of them.
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Thank you and Bravo.


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BballJones said:
I think at that point no one had any clue about either player and had high hopes, and trust that Pitino knew what he was doing. Konate was being recruited by Louisville, that was a great sign. What bugs me the most about these 2 players is that they have progressed so little. It's unbelievable. They both still look as if they have 1 year of basketball under their belts. Always out of position, stupid fouls, bad hands, etc....
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This x1000

They were both considered projects. It's okay to take a guy like that once in awhile. Not two guys in the same year at the same position.
 

BballJones said:
I think at that point no one had any clue about either player and had high hopes, and trust that Pitino knew what he was doing. Konate was being recruited by Louisville, that was a great sign. What bugs me the most about these 2 players is that they have progressed so little. It's unbelievable. They both still look as if they have 1 year of basketball under their belts. Always out of position, stupid fouls, bad hands, etc....
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What's truly remarkable is that not only has Konate not progressed, I'd argue that he's gotten worse, at least on offense. He would occasionally have games his freshman and sophomore years that gave you a sliver of hope. I can recall no such games this year. Some of that also falls on the Pitino and staff.
 

Thought this could be an interesting “jump-start” to your memories.

Here’s the write up on Konate:

http://blogs.twincities.com/gophers...ifth-commitment-with-6-11-post-bakary-konate/

His resume at the time he got recruited seemed pretty impressive. Papa Pitino said this guy has the abilities to be great.

I find it hard to believe all of the teams recruiting him failed to recognize he couldn’t catch the ball.

It’s also to be said that Bakary played in a more traditional slow paced half court offense and we had to convert him into a transition offense style big. Maybe that transition is harder to teach than we all thought.

For our type of offense getting an athletic big is the hardest position to fill and probably the most competitive.

Too bad Pitino missed on this, but oh well. Onward and upward!


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I think we should dwell on the BK and GD recruiting a bit more. NOT. He reached on a couple of dudes on his first year at MN.....it's over and done. he has recruited pretty solid players since.

Super Happy that Curry's recover is going well.
 

That is fantastic news about Curry. An ACL/Meniscus tear is a bad injury, and it can take a long time before feeling comfortable again, but it seems Curry is well ahead of schedule. I understand that we'll have Oturo and Stockman next year, but if Curry is 100% by the time the season starts (and it looks like he'll be way before that), I would like to see a starting lineup of:

Grad Transfer/IW
McBrayer
Coffee
Murphy
Curry

Murphy and Curry compliment each other so well. I hope Pitino plays them together a lot next year, even if he doesn't start Curry.
 

howeda7 said:
What's truly remarkable is that not only has Konate not progressed, I'd argue that he's gotten worse, at least on offense. He would occasionally have games his freshman and sophomore years that gave you a sliver of hope. I can recall no such games this year. Some of that also falls on the Pitino and staff.
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I would agree. Early in his sophomore season, Bakary looked like he was on his way to developing a pretty fair hook shot. He scored 11 against Temple and 14 against Nebraska Omaha a few games later. I've seen virtually nothing of that shot in the last two years.
 

KillmeNow said:
I'm just wondering, all of this bitching about Konate and Gaston. I can think back to when they got brought into the program, and I don't remember a ton of bitching about it. In fact, as far as I can remember, there was a lot of people who thought one or both of these guys might turn out to become really good players. I think the word potential got thrown around a lot. Maybe some people questioned their recruitment, they were kind of unknowns, but they were tall and a lot of people felt they could be developed into good players.

So just because that potential didn't pan out, now everyone, with the knowledge of how things turned out, seem to act like they were such horrible recruiting decisions.

What a bunch of dishonest hypocrites.
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You don't appear to have a firm grasp of the meaning of the word "hypocrite."

A hypocrite is someone who says one thing and does another or holds others to standards that he doesn't keep himself.


What you were describing above was a natural evolution of thought or opinion. People knew little or nothing about Bakary or Gas but knew they were big and older than usual freshmen. People also knew the team needed size after Mo and Elliot moved on. People hoped they would develop into decent big men but their development has been well under any reasonable expections and now people are saying that recruiting them was a mistake. Hard to argue with that I think.

Of course, nobody "bitched" at the time they were recruited. No one knew much about them.

I also chuckled at the term "dishonest hypocrites." Kind of redundant, don't you think?
 


NWMetroGopherFan said:
The point of this thread was to be optimistic on Curry's recovery after what sounded like a major knee injury. ACLs are normally a 6-9 month recovery process, and he could be ready by next month? That's incredible and is a great sign for next season.

What we're forgetting here with Konate and Gas is that they were never expected to make major contributions or play major minutes. With the Lynch suspension and Curry getting hurt, even Coffey's injury, they were both forced into roles that they're not ready for and not capable of. But it is what it is. Like I've said in other threads, front court depth will feel ridiculous next year with Stockman, Murphy, Jarvis, Oturu and Curry, assuming they all stay healthy.

This is why the folks wanting Pitino gone should take a breath and wait for next year. I know that's frustrating, but the buyout is north of $5 million and he's not going anywhere. There's not a coach in college hoops who would succeed under Pitino's circumstances this year, and sure, he created some of it himself.

I'd be surprised if they didn't use the last scholly for 2018 on a veteran PG. Imagine the possibilities if you don't have to put all the duties on Jelly and just him play. I think the team next year can be better than the projections at the start of this year, but that's always why potential is a dangerous word.
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Spot on. If Washington makes a big leap or we get a solid pg transfer, next year's team might not have quite as much star power, but I think the depth can make up for it if a few returning players progress substantially.

Killmenow, I don't see what's wrong with pointing out that Bakary, Gas, and having so many ineligible players hurt many rosters' depth, but that doesn't mean they think Pitino should be fired or isn't still the right coach for the program. Depth has undeniably hurt us several years and there's nothing wrong with pointing out recruiting decisions that didn't pan out. Inevitably some fans questioned the moves and some liked them--I'm not sure what is hypocritical about any of this.
 

cjbfbp said:
You don't appear to have a firm grasp of the meaning of the word "hypocrite."

A hypocrite is someone who says one thing and does another or holds others to standards that he doesn't keep himself.


What you were describing above was a natural evolution of thought or opinion. People knew little or nothing about Bakary or Gas but knew they were big and older than usual freshmen. People also knew the team needed size after Mo and Elliot moved on. People hoped they would develop into decent big men but their development has been well under any reasonable expections and now people are saying that recruiting them was a mistake. Hard to argue with that I think.

Of course, nobody "bitched" at the time they were recruited. No one knew much about them.

I also chuckled at the term "dishonest hypocrites." Kind of redundant, don't you think?
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Also spot on.
 

It's an interesting "what-if" to ponder...what if everything had gone right for this team from the start? Nobody got hurt or suspended...the good vibes from November were permanent. What if Minnesota was sitting where Purdue is right now and sizing up a major March/April run? Would you want Curry to return in February? If you were him would you give up a year of eligibility to do so?
 

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