Ranking the Big Ten's Football-Basketball Coaching Duos (#12 Minnesota, Fleck/Pitino)

BleedGopher

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12. Minnesota
Football: P.J. Fleck
Basketball: Richard Pitino

Fleck, who rose to prominence for his work at Western Michigan, went 5–7 overall and 2–7 in the Big Ten in his first season as a Power 5 head coach. He has brought new energy to a program that has been good — but hardly great — in recent seasons. Pitino broke through last season — his fourth at Minnesota — with a trip to the NCAA Tournament after an 11–7 record in the Big Ten. The Gophers were expected to contend for the league title this season but have been a major disappointment.

https://athlonsports.com/college-football/ranking-big-tens-football-basketball-coaching-duos-2018

Go Gophers!!
 

The numbers told the story this year. When Big Ten Football & Men's Basketball coaching duos are ranked: the numbers never lie and tell the whole story for that given year. Next season is a new season...and the numbers will tell the whole story and will rank the order of coaching duos again next season. This is the BEST way to rank the pecking orders and the most only rank to distinguish the GOPHER DUO from the NU DUO or wisky DUO or iowa DUO.

Then, if you really want to get down to the bottom line: add the salaries of the DUOs and see how much each school paid per combination of Big Ten Football wins and Big Ten Basketball wins for a given year. It then becomes a lot more interesting. SOME paid a lot more than others per win...and loss. I suppose one could also work the combined buy outs of contracts per duo as well. And, that becomes a great way to rank the Athletics Directors at each school. How do PJ, Dick and Mark rank compared to their Big Ten rivals and peers in cost per Big Ten win ? How efficient have Coyle's moves, hiring decisions, extensions, buy outs and firings been? Who made Coyle look the most brilliant? Perhaps his duo combo of TC & Dick gave him the biggest bang for the buck that he will see for quite some while. But, the beauty is that next year will give Dick and PJ a whole new opportunity to turn some heads and burn up the conference. Beat the stinking badger, GOPHER!
 

Know that I am going to get destroyed for this, but i feel there are only 3 big ten coaches that are clearly ahead of Pitino at this point: Izzo, Beilein, and possibly Turgeon.
Miles - hot seat before this season.
Gard - Badgers missing dance first time in forever
Collins - disappointing season
Painter - fan base has been unhappy for awhile before this year
Chambers - PSU maybe on upswing but hasn't really proven anything sustainable yet
Pikiell - Rutgers still long ways to go
McCartney - up and down. Hasn't sustained anything.
Underwood, Miller, Holtmann - too early to tell

I give Pitino a pass for injury/suspension years which I think is fair, I know some will disagree. Obviously, next year is huge for Pitino as well as his next recruiting class.
 

In 12 seasons (not including this year) Matt Painter is 127-85 in conference.
Has 9 NCAA tournaments
Has advanced beyond the first round 7 times.
Has 3 sweet 16s


I would be hard pressed to say Richard and his one first round loss is on that level.
 

In 12 seasons (not including this year) Matt Painter is 127-85 in conference.
Has 9 NCAA tournaments
Has advanced beyond the first round 7 times.
Has 3 sweet 16s


I would be hard pressed to say Richard and his one first round loss is on that level.


Facts are facts. I will give you Painter. Unhappiness of Purdue's fan base still stands, though.
 


Facts are facts. I will give you Painter. Unhappiness of Purdue's fan base still stands, though.

Yeah, and Indiana fired Tom Crean and his multiple big ten regular season titles.

I guess Richard is better than Crean too.
 

Yeah, and Indiana fired Tom Crean and his multiple big ten regular season titles.

I guess Richard is better than Crean too.

Just comparing to present coaches. Crean's first 3 years were awful. He did have 2 big ten titles in 9 years. Other years were nondescript if I'm correct.
 

Just comparing to present coaches. Crean's first 3 years were awful. He did have 2 big ten titles in 9 years. Other years were nondescript if I'm correct.


Interesting. Yet, in this thread, we are "tag-teaming" the men's hoops coach with the football coach from each school. I'd say that the year TC had in 2016 combined with Dick Pitino's season for the 2016/2017 men's season gave the Minnesota duo of TC & Dick a pretty reasonable showing for that time period. Much better than the showing of PJ & Dick P for the 2017 football season and this 2017/2018 hoops season. So: there IS that to consider. The Gopher AD looked much more competent in the 2016 football & 2016/2017 Men's basketball slots than he currently does using the 2017 football & 2017/2018 Men's hoops slots heading into an uncertain next season for both football and Men's Hoops. What shall he do? He can not afford to buy out either the men's hoops coach OR the football coach. He will be faced with needing to give one...or both extensions before he knows it. Already the men's hoops coach experts on this board are having interesting reactions, thoughts and passions regarding the men's hoops situation. And PJ MUST remember that BIG TEN WINS count even more after year zero than they did during his year zero. It is interesting stuff...
 

Since I've followed Gopher sports, I can't think of a time where the Gopher FB and Gopher BB coaches would have ranked in the top half of the conference on a list like this. You could possibly argue for last season, but I don't think Claeys and Pitino had enough of a body of work to both be ranked above more established coaches after one season of modest success (Claeys more modest than Pitino's). In fact, the only coach in either sport that was in the top half of Big Ten coaches in his sport during his time was Clem Haskins and that has been 20 years now (spare me the cheating nonsense, especially now). Since that time, every coach has had a solidly below .500 record in conference play in both sports.
 



Just comparing to present coaches. Crean's first 3 years were awful. He did have 2 big ten titles in 9 years. Other years were nondescript if I'm correct.

Crean’s first 3 years he was handed basically our 2015-2016 post-gangbang roster at the onset of the season.
 

Since I've followed Gopher sports, I can't think of a time where the Gopher FB and Gopher BB coaches would have ranked in the top half of the conference on a list like this. You could possibly argue for last season, but I don't think Claeys and Pitino had enough of a body of work to both be ranked above more established coaches after one season of modest success (Claeys more modest than Pitino's). In fact, the only coach in either sport that was in the top half of Big Ten coaches in his sport during his time was Clem Haskins and that has been 20 years now (spare me the cheating nonsense, especially now). Since that time, every coach has had a solidly below .500 record in conference play in both sports.



They only play the seasons one at a time. So, it is possible to see what the ranking is from season to season...and I don't believe that this "duo" ranking thing is meant to be more than a one season at a time check in to see what the results would be on a year to year time period. That is what makes something like this kind of fun. It would change greatly from year to year for the MIDDLE ranking teams of a given year. And that is why I would like to throw in the yearly salary of the coaching duos to see how much each win costs for the various schools. Probably a Big Ten win costs more at tOSU...Michigan and MSU than a cost per win would have cost Minnesota in that year with TC and Dick and in the 2017 football season & 2017/2018 Men's hoops, with Big Ten wins down and coaching salary for the football coach much higher, the cost per Minnesota win this past year is MUCH higher than the year before that. THAT is ALL that it is, a fun look at the high cost of Big Ten wins in football and Men's Hoops. Nothing more or less is implied. It is all just for fun. And, alas: cheating is cheating. Always has been and always will be. Time just doesn't change that kind of thing. Talk to Rick Pitino about his 2013 National Championship at Louisville. When you get caught...you stay caught.
 

Know that I am going to get destroyed for this, but i feel there are only 3 big ten coaches that are clearly ahead of Pitino at this point: Izzo, Beilein, and possibly Turgeon.
Miles - hot seat before this season.
Gard - Badgers missing dance first time in forever
Collins - disappointing season
Painter - fan base has been unhappy for awhile before this year
Chambers - PSU maybe on upswing but hasn't really proven anything sustainable yet
Pikiell - Rutgers still long ways to go
McCartney - up and down. Hasn't sustained anything.
Underwood, Miller, Holtmann - too early to tell

I give Pitino a pass for injury/suspension years which I think is fair, I know some will disagree. Obviously, next year is huge for Pitino as well as his next recruiting class.

Izzo,Beilein,Holtman,Painter,Miller,Turgeon,Gard,Collins and Miles at least work for schools that would not trade their coach for Pitino.
 

Izzo,Beilein,Holtman,Painter,Miller,Turgeon,Gard,Collins and Miles at least work for schools that would not trade their coach for Pitino.

Would probably agree with you. Although would still hold that there are only 4 coaches that are clearly ahead of Pitino at this point.
 



I'll give them 12 this year, but overall they are better than 12.
 

Know that I am going to get destroyed for this, but i feel there are only 3 big ten coaches that are clearly ahead of Pitino at this point: Izzo, Beilein, and possibly Turgeon.
Miles - hot seat before this season.
Gard - Badgers missing dance first time in forever
Collins - disappointing season
Painter - fan base has been unhappy for awhile before this year
Chambers - PSU maybe on upswing but hasn't really proven anything sustainable yet
Pikiell - Rutgers still long ways to go
McCartney - up and down. Hasn't sustained anything.
Underwood, Miller, Holtmann - too early to tell

I give Pitino a pass for injury/suspension years which I think is fair, I know some will disagree. Obviously, next year is huge for Pitino as well as his next recruiting class.


Painter is miles ahead of Pitino, like not even in the same league. Some would argue he is top 2. He's had some nice seasons there and has a final four caliber team this year. After that, I guess you could argue it, but when looking at the number, he surely comes in towards the bottom of the list, there is no doubt.
 

Izzo,Beilein,Holtman,Painter,Miller,Turgeon,Gard,Collins and Miles at least work for schools that would not trade their coach for Pitino.


I'd trade Pitno for: Mils, Izzo, Painter, and Beilein without question

Gard-Maybe. He inherited a top program and this year is first time the annual downward trend prediction happened, but I think next year there is a high % they're back to a tourney team. I agree Sconi doesn't trade him for Pitino, but I'm not sure I trade Pitino for him either. I could end up looking very foolish though

I like Pitino. But I'm tired of waiting. I can't keep going through program restarts either

god damnit, just an above average team..I'm not asking for Natty's here
 


Know that I am going to get destroyed for this, but i feel there are only 3 big ten coaches that are clearly ahead of Pitino at this point: Izzo, Beilein, and possibly Turgeon.
Miles - hot seat before this season.
Gard - Badgers missing dance first time in forever
Collins - disappointing season
Painter - fan base has been unhappy for awhile before this year
Chambers - PSU maybe on upswing but hasn't really proven anything sustainable yet
Pikiell - Rutgers still long ways to go
McCartney - up and down. Hasn't sustained anything.
Underwood, Miller, Holtmann - too early to tell

I give Pitino a pass for injury/suspension years which I think is fair, I know some will disagree. Obviously, next year is huge for Pitino as well as his next recruiting class.

I'd have a hard time saying that only three coaches are above a guy who has the 13th best winning percentage in B1G play during his tenure. Sure, injuries and suspensions have played a role, but every coach deals with that. The 13th best winning percentage out of 14 is still the 13th best winning percentage out of 14.
 

Based on most recent record alone fine but that isn't what they are ranking them on so a ways off imo.


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