Alarming facts and stats inside Richard Pitino's 30-58 conference record

EG#9

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I think we can all agree that Richard Pitino's conference record is both pathetic and unacceptable regardless of whether or not we believe he deserves a sixth season. Here are two aspects of his tenure here that are alarming that go beyond his overall record (and losing home record).

1. Richard Pitino is now 14-27 in "close" (I used two possessions or OT to define close) and 8-14 in games decided by one possession or OT during conference play. During his tenure, the Gophers have had a winning record in close conference games just one time, last season, and that was just a 5-4 mark. This year, the Gophers are 1-4 in close conference games and 1-2 in games decided by one possession or OT. This doesn't even count the Northwestern game where the Gophers ended up losing by 8 despite certainly having their chances to win that one.

2. Excluding his first year, Richard Pitino has had a conference losing streak of 5(!) or more games in each season. Once his teams get in a funk, it takes an inordinate amount of time to right the ship. In most seasons, this type of streak requires his team to play at a near elite level (10-3) the rest of the way just to sneak in to the NCAA's.

The sample size on both of these issues is getting pretty large and the program cannot be successful if either of them continues, much less both.
 

At some point hopefully you could use your criteria. But until he gets a roster with 7 quality healthy players for a season I don't think we can tell for sure.
Whose fault is it we don't have a roster of 7 quality healthy players? Answer: Richard Pitino but that's a different issue. Last year we had 6. Right now we have three.

It's hard to compete with limited spare parts. Your options are drastically diminished and your studs get worn done mentally and physically the longer the game goes. They have no help. They get limited rest during the game and even if they do, they can't relax worrying about the subs burying your chances.
 

Hard to win a lot of close games when you lose a lot of games. His winning percentage in close games is nearly identical to his overall record.

Not sure what your angle is lately EG. no one in their right mind is happy with where the team is at. I highly doubt he gets canned this year. But I don’t think anyone would be too surprised. I personally think there is more upside to allowing him another run unless Coyle has a Fleck like hire lined up.
 

I think we can all agree that Richard Pitino's conference record is both pathetic and unacceptable regardless of whether or not we believe he deserves a sixth season. Here are two aspects of his tenure here that are alarming that go beyond his overall record (and losing home record).

1. Richard Pitino is now 14-27 in "close" (I used two possessions or OT to define close) and 8-14 in games decided by one possession or OT during conference play. During his tenure, the Gophers have had a winning record in close conference games just one time, last season, and that was just a 5-4 mark. This year, the Gophers are 1-4 in close conference games and 1-2 in games decided by one possession or OT. This doesn't even count the Northwestern game where the Gophers ended up losing by 8 despite certainly having their chances to win that one.

2. Excluding his first year, Richard Pitino has had a conference losing streak of 5(!) or more games in each season. Once his teams get in a funk, it takes an inordinate amount of time to right the ship. In most seasons, this type of streak requires his team to play at a near elite level (10-3) the rest of the way just to sneak in to the NCAA's.

The sample size on both of these issues is getting pretty large and the program cannot be successful if either of them continues, much less both.
No...we don't all agree

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I think we can all agree that Richard Pitino's conference record is both pathetic and unacceptable regardless of whether or not we believe he deserves a sixth season. Here are two aspects of his tenure here that are alarming that go beyond his overall record (and losing home record).

1. Richard Pitino is now 14-27 in "close" (I used two possessions or OT to define close) and 8-14 in games decided by one possession or OT during conference play. During his tenure, the Gophers have had a winning record in close conference games just one time, last season, and that was just a 5-4 mark. This year, the Gophers are 1-4 in close conference games and 1-2 in games decided by one possession or OT. This doesn't even count the Northwestern game where the Gophers ended up losing by 8 despite certainly having their chances to win that one.

2. Excluding his first year, Richard Pitino has had a conference losing streak of 5(!) or more games in each season. Once his teams get in a funk, it takes an inordinate amount of time to right the ship. In most seasons, this type of streak requires his team to play at a near elite level (10-3) the rest of the way just to sneak in to the NCAA's.

The sample size on both of these issues is getting pretty large and the program cannot be successful if either of them continues, much less both.

What do you think you are going to gain here? Pitino is going to be the coach here next year. I personally cannot wait to see him have a great year!
This would be a good post by you if we had the squad we started the year with or even close and had this record. 4 of the top 6 players have been eliminated in full or part. Had the squad stayed intact we might be looking at a 40-50 record right now which would put him in statue territory for this program.

He's a good coach, a good recruiter and he's only going to get better. Hang in there. Pitino is here to stay a while. It might be better if our fans didn't give up so easy.
 

What do you think you are going to gain here? Pitino is going to be the coach here next year. I personally cannot wait to see him have a great year!
This would be a good post by you if we had the squad we started the year with or even close and had this record. 4 of the top 6 players have been eliminated in full or part. Had the squad stayed intact we might be looking at a 40-50 record right now which would put him in statue territory for this program.

He's a good coach, a good recruiter and he's only going to get better. Hang in there. Pitino is here to stay a while. It might be better if our fans didn't give up so easy.

"Not sure what your angle is lately EG."

"What do you think you are going to gain here?"

F'in A - does anybody understand that this is a conversation board? What the F do YOU have to gain posting and reading here, bga?! Sheesh! I've never understood people posting on a conversation board for people to stop saying things. I just don't get it.
 



It might be better if our fans didn't give up so easy.

I wouldn't say that we're giving up that easily. He's been here five years. He had one year that truly surpassed expectations (last year). He had one year (his 1st) where we did pretty well (an NIT championship) with a veteran team of Tubby's players. The other three years have ranged from disappointing to absolutely abysmal. If we have a good year next year (NCAA tournament) followed by two disappointing years, will it have been worth it to have him here for 8 years? I'm not sure I can say "yes."

As I've said before, you gotta be good and/or lucky. Pitino's overall career here hasn't shown a lot of either quality.
 

What do you think you are going to gain here? Pitino is going to be the coach here next year. I personally cannot wait to see him have a great year!
This would be a good post by you if we had the squad we started the year with or even close and had this record. 4 of the top 6 players have been eliminated in full or part. Had the squad stayed intact we might be looking at a 40-50 record right now which would put him in statue territory for this program.

He's a good coach, a good recruiter and he's only going to get better. Hang in there. Pitino is here to stay a while. It might be better if our fans didn't give up so easy.

+1. I don't think anybody is happy with the results, but it's not a simple equation here. Everybody wants to simplify everything one way or another. There have been so many complications over the past four seasons, that we can't honestly say what we have here with Pitino. Next year appears to be a nice roster, and we shouldn't have problematic characters around, although you can never say for sure. I think most people are going to arrive at their judgment after next season, myself included.
 

"Not sure what your angle is lately EG."

"What do you think you are going to gain here?"

F'in A - does anybody understand that this is a conversation board? What the F do YOU have to gain posting and reading here, bga?! Sheesh! I've never understood people posting on a conversation board for people to stop saying things. I just don't get it.

I’ll have a conversation. As I stated in my post, I don’t know what the conversation is. Just amazing facts? A bad team loses close games at the same rate it loses not close games? It’s just complaining. Not conversing. For me, I’d love to have conversation. Eg used to be great at that, lately he’s part of the noise.
 

If Pitino was a better coach, Curry would have never torn his ACL, Lynch wouldn't have gotten suspended/expelled, Coffey wouldn't need shoulder surgery, McBrayer would have a healthy leg, and the ref would have called that obvious foul against Mason. FIRE PITINO!!!!

This year sucks. Next year will be great if people stay healthy. Next season cannot come soon enough.
 



I can't find stats for basketball, but at least in football, there really aren't any teams that consistently win a high percentage of close games, so I'm not sure it's a sign of a coaching problem, could just be our opponents hit the big shot more often than we do and we're just weirdly unlucky.

Last year we had great 3pt% defense, a stat that has been said to have little to do with how well your team plays defense, and more just whether your opponents are hitting open looks or not. Maybe last year was the year we actually caught some breaks, won some close games, our opponents shot unnaturally poorly against us, and we had a nice season for once.
 

Hard to win any conference games with the number of starters out due to injuries and Lynch being history.

Patience is virtue. Pitino will get this team back on track next season.
 

What do you think you are going to gain here? Pitino is going to be the coach here next year. I personally cannot wait to see him have a great year!
This would be a good post by you if we had the squad we started the year with or even close and had this record. 4 of the top 6 players have been eliminated in full or part. Had the squad stayed intact we might be looking at a 40-50 record right now which would put him in statue territory for this program.

He's a good coach, a good recruiter and he's only going to get better. Hang in there. Pitino is here to stay a while. It might be better if our fans didn't give up so easy.
+1, Next year when the Gophers are headed towards another NCAA tournament berth the same people that are so disappointed with Pitino now will be worrying about who is going to try to hire Pitino away and if we can keep him.
 

I don't have an agenda, other than I really struggle to see a path to success under him after 5 years at the helm. It's going to be difficult to win consistently if we drop 2 out of every 3 close games. This year, at the end of the Indiana game, Nate Mason took a long 3 and Jordan Murphy ended up with the ball and took a terrible shot. In interviews after the game, Pitino said that Murphy "lost his mind". With the Wisconsin game, Pitino's group allowed a direct in bounds pass to the post to Wisconsin's best player. Allegedly, the plan was to foul (?) up two and hope that Happ missed one? Regardless of what you think of that plan (I think it's borderline insane), his team didn't execute said plan (you can argue that either Diedhiou or Murphy fouled Happ on the play, but neither fouled him in a way that would have prevented a shot and forced a whistle). Even in the PSU game, they were up 11 with under 7 minutes to play, and up 3 with 10 seconds left. Pitino criticized Dupree post game for his defense on Carr on the game tying 3 that forced OT. So in all 3 of those games, Pitino blamed his players for not executing something he asked them to do. At some point when players don't execute something that has little to do with talent and a lot to do with being prepared, you have to consider whether you expect change to be likely.

Something is wrong when you lead most of the second half (against Michigan and Wisconsin), and you feel like a loss is still more likely than a win. We consistently do not execute on either end of the floor in the waning minutes of close games almost regardless of roster construction. We didn't execute with Andre Hollins and Mo Walker and we don't execute with Nate Mason and Jordan Murphy.

Tubby Smith was 38-50 after 5 years in conference play after taking over for Dan Monson(!) and had gone to 2 NCAA tournaments and also dealt with more than his share of bad luck and injuries. Tubby had a year where he was missing both Royce White and Trevor Mbakwe, another year where he lost Devoe Joseph to a mid year transfer and Al Nolen to academics, and a 3rd year where he lost Trevor to an ACL in that 5 year span. During his tenure, the state of Minnesota really went through a drought of producing high major prospects as well: from 2010 to 2013 the best recruit out of Minnesota was Joe Coleman (others in that time frame that were at the top of their class Kevin Noreen, Sanjay Lumpkin, and Riley Dearring). None of this is to say Tubby did a good job, just that I find it extremely interesting that this board seemed much more frustrated with Tubby than they do with Pitino at a similar point in their tenures at Minnesota. That could obviously be do to age/experience and/or a feeling or perception that Pitino is working harder than Tubby did (which very well could be true). I personally struggle to see an argument that that this particular Minnesota team should be 3-13 (only 1 win shorthanded) while this particular Wisconsin team is 6-10 (all 6 wins shorthanded). We both are relying on a PG to handle a ton of minutes, but their's is a true Freshman who wasn't a big time recruit and we both are relying on one talented post player to carry the inside game. Last night the Gophers played 8 guys, and the Badgers played 9 (including 2 former walk-ons). Everything points to me (only my opinion) to a team that should have been able to win a few more games this year.

This post is entirely my feelings and perceptions: I perceive Pitino to be being out-coached regularly down the stretch of games where his team fails to get open looks on offense and fails to prevent open looks on defense. I see his team as being far more likely than the opposition to commit a silly foul or a bad turnover than the opposition. I see a much more coherent plan (especially offensively) from his counterparts in late game situations to get a good look for their top player(s) than I do from coach Pitino. These are just my feelings and people can agree or disagree and I am perfectly ok with that. The original post was just factual.
 

Hard to win a lot of close games when you lose a lot of games. His winning percentage in close games is nearly identical to his overall record.

Not sure what your angle is lately EG. no one in their right mind is happy with where the team is at. I highly doubt he gets canned this year. But I don’t think anyone would be too surprised. I personally think there is more upside to allowing him another run unless Coyle has a Fleck like hire lined up.
I thought Tino was a Fleck-like hire...
 


If Pitino was a better coach, Curry would have never torn his ACL, Lynch wouldn't have gotten suspended/expelled, Coffey wouldn't need shoulder surgery, McBrayer would have a healthy leg, and the ref would have called that obvious foul against Mason. FIRE PITINO!!!!

This year sucks. Next year will be great if people stay healthy. Next season cannot come soon enough.
What will make next year great? I need more than wishful thinking.
 


The original post was just factual.

He loses close games at the exact same clip he loses not close games.

Whats the point?

The record is terrible. We all agree.

The conversation is quite simple, do you give Pitino a pass for the roster issues or not? Some do, some don't. Your "Facts" are true, but they add nothing to the story as they aren't unordinary.


Who thought Pitino was a Fleck like hire? Pitino was hired before Fleck and widely viewed as a head-scratcher.

Pitino is like Bakary Konate, come to think of it.
 

What do you think you are going to gain here? Pitino is going to be the coach here next year. I personally cannot wait to see him have a great year!
This would be a good post by you if we had the squad we started the year with or even close and had this record. 4 of the top 6 players have been eliminated in full or part. Had the squad stayed intact we might be looking at a 40-50 record right now which would put him in statue territory for this program.

He's a good coach, a good recruiter and he's only going to get better. Hang in there. Pitino is here to stay a while. It might be better if our fans didn't give up so easy.

As far as a good coach not one school in the B1G would trade their coach for him. Doubt being the worse coach in a 14 team league means a whole lot.
 

I'm hoping losing close games will change next year - as we will have a better, healthier squad. Maybe that fact alone will keep us from having so many close games (more large margin wins for us?). That is the one troubling thing for me - the amount of close games we don't win - that has to change next year. I'm optimistic as hell though for our 2018-19 season. Give Washington more playing time this year, PLEASE!
 

Every year there has been a lot of issues, injury and otherwise, but if we need to have everything go perfect for us to be competitive than what exactly sets Pitino apart from any other coach?
 

What will make next year great? I need more than wishful thinking.

Oturo Stockman
Murphy Curry Thomas
Coffey Hurt
McBrayer Kalshauer
Washington Harris
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Oturo Stockman
Murphy Curry Thomas
Coffey Hurt
McBrayer Kalshauer
Washington Harris
Spring signees(2)

I guess a potential NIT run could be considered great.
 

I think it's possible that next year will be better - but it is also possible that it won't be better.

For all the talk of injuries, this is still a D1 basketball program in a major conference. The head coach is responsible for the team he puts out on the court. And - even with the limitations of the current group - I see a lot of mistakes and missed execution that has almost nothing to do with talent. defensive positioning - boxing out on rebounds - making good passes - good shot selection - running an offense that doesn't wind up with guys jacking up bad shots with :02 left on the shot clock. That is not because of injuries - it's because of execution. Which is on the players - but it's also on the coaching staff.

At the risk of sounding cynical - if Pitino is a good coach when he has a healthy, talented team, then anyone is a good coach in that situation. You learn more about a team by watching how they handle adversity. In the Pitino era, the Gophers have not done a good job of handling adversity. I don't think that's a coincidence.
 

Hard to win a lot of close games when you lose a lot of games. His winning percentage in close games is nearly identical to his overall record.

Not sure what your angle is lately EG. no one in their right mind is happy with where the team is at. I highly doubt he gets canned this year. But I don’t think anyone would be too surprised. I personally think there is more upside to allowing him another run unless Coyle has a Fleck like hire lined up.

Agree with all of this. I expected those stats to be more surprising than they were. Pitino has had a horrible conference record most years ... we know that. I think most fans have only been happy with Pitino's first season and last season. This year a lot happened that was out of his control, but obviously Pitino's depth has been very disappointing. With all that said, I'm still very excited about the roster we have for next season, and hopefully we will have some high-impact additions ... mainly at pg. If we have another disastrous season next season and aren't bringing in great recruits, I'll definitely start leaning toward firing Pitino unless he's got a commitment from Hurt. It would be a huge mistake to not give him next season unless we somehow are able to get a homerun hire ... which we've never really done.
 

+1, Next year when the Gophers are headed towards another NCAA tournament berth the same people that are so disappointed with Pitino now will be worrying about who is going to try to hire Pitino away and if we can keep him.

Sorry, but that's unlikely. By next season, people will finally be giving Nate Mason the appreciation he deserves as being one of the great scoring point guards in program history. Without him and with a freshman starting at center, the team will almost certainly not make the NCAAs. Even the NIT won't be a certainty. Best case scenario is that we're sitting the following year, in year 7, scratching for the second NCAA appearance in Richard's tenure. As has been discussed, if that's what people had in mind when the U hired him, they had lower expectations than I had.
 




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