Caryn Sullivan: Former Gophers coach Pam Borton perfects the pivot

per Sullivan:

Pam Borton put everything she had into the University of Minnesota women’s basketball program for a dozen years. She worked holidays and weekends, guided immature teenage girls into confident women and collegiate competitors. With both wins and losses, she took flak from media and fans. But she was at the top of her game and she loved it.

The average tenure for a college basketball coach is five to seven years. As she stockpiled successes, mentors and friends counseled Borton to make a move. Go out on top.

Though the job crowded out almost everything else in her life, the woman who grew up on an Ohio pig farm was not ready to walk away from the program she had tweaked and transformed repeatedly.

https://www.twincities.com/2018/03/...-gophers-coach-pam-borton-perfects-the-pivot/

Go Gophers!!

She certainly hasn’t been given enough credit for recruiting Zahui B, Banham and Carlie. I was in New Orleans in 2004 for the Final Four and truly respected her!

Number one, I will only ever give her 1/2 credit on getting Banham and Wagner. Both were home town kids who grew up wanting to be gophers. In my honest opinion, they were going gophers no matter who the coach was. Especially banham with her history of her grandfather being on the university police force back in the day. I will say yes Zahui B was a good get. Although reminder, she messed up the paperwork leading to Amanda sitting out for a half a season when she didn't have to.

Number two. if this women is so respected, what happened to cause 5 kids to run screaming from her in 2006? I have actually had a conversation face to face with Natasha Williams and her quote was "I had no desire to get up. Everything didn't seem worth it and no part of the basketball was fun". Broback HATED borton and didn't even transfer, just quit basketball all together. Borton should of been fired then and there.

Number three: Its hard to give her recruiting props when she missed out on Hill, Alexander, Dahlman, Coffey, Starr, Bell (even decommitted from the gophers), Seanna Johnson, Doolittle, and etc. The list literally could take an hour to write if you wanted to remember all the kids Borton missed. lets also remember, she missed them to Wisconsin, Iowa, Northwestern, Michigan, etc. Not schools we should be missing out on. she had lost the state and no big time recruit who didn't have deep hometown ties or love for the program was going to look at her as a coach.

Number four: she went 5 straight seasons including 3 with banham that she couldn't get the team near an NCAA tournament.

Next, in terms of the Final Four year, Whalen, Anderson and Mccarville were already here when she got here. Brenda Freese (oldfield at the time) recruited Bolden/Schonrock. So the starting 5 had nothing to do with borton and then the three freshman off the bench (Broback, Podominck and Roysland). once again, Brenda had already offered Podominick and Broback. The ONLY one of the 8 player rotation borton can take credit for was Roysland.

Lastly, she was a horrible user of players/people. Look at players such as Fox, Loberg, Riche, Bri Mastey, who looked worse as seniors then they do as freshman. they looked burned out. borton was lucky that she got an under the table extension as Maturi was walking out. Borton was gifted a program and final four team she didn't deserve and ran it into the ground.

samloupete said:

She certainly hasn’t been given enough credit for recruiting Zahui B, Banham and Carlie. I was in New Orleans in 2004 for the Final Four and truly respected her!

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For some, maybe "absence makes the heart grow fonder", but as b-ball astutely pointed out, Borton's teams after Whalen and McCarville were woeful offensively, she didn't instill confidence in her players, many of her players did not improve as they became upperclassmen, and she wasn't getting enough of the Minnesota high school players that were going elsewhere. Although I am certainly not a defender for Stollings, it should be pointed out that she certainly knows how to coach offense, she has been able to instill confidence in at least some of her players, and some players (ie.--Bell and Wagner) certainly improved from year to year. Defense and Minnesota recruiting are still open to question with Stollings, but I for one am not longing for the Borton days.

The Good Old Days. Great song! It even has Minnesota references.