Richard Pitino on the Sports Huddle.

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Gopher Men's Basketball Coach Richard Pitino was on "The Sports Huddle" on WCCO radio on Sunday, May 20th.

Dave Mona: talk about the transfers and what they add to the team?
RP: excited. added 2 really good pieces in Carr and Willis, who will sit out next year. they're both players who have performed at a high level. we need to find a way to not get young. next year, lose some important pieces (Murphy, McBrayer). need to make sure we don't get young. Marcus played a lot of minutes in ACC. Willis played a lot of minutes. they'll step in next year and be ready. Brock Stull added some versatility. he's performed well the last couple years.

Max: can Carr become eligible this year?
RP: I don't know. we're going to try to put the waiver in. there isn't a precedent. the transfer rules are changing over and over agin. Carr had his coach get fired. we're in uncharted territory.

Mona: Future of MN HS BB. looks like a run coming on good big players.
RP: It's important for us to recruit the state. We're the Only D1 BB program - got to close down borders. Twin Cities so important. If there's a player who makes sense for us, we're going to recruit them hard.

Sid: will the Injured players be healthy for next season?
RP: don't want to make excuses, but I can't remember a time where we got hit so hard by injuries. Dupree probably shouldn't have played, but they said he wasn't going to hurt it any worse by playing. the spring has been interesting, Amir, Dupree, Eric, did not practice. Oturu is out till fall. Dupree and Eric will be able to go after summer school. Amir and Oturu, we'll ease in in the fall.

Mona: depth at Point Guard?
RP: IW is the only pure point, and he did play some 2 for us as well. I think we can slide Dupree, Brock, Amir over there (point). I want guards to play multiple positions. It was important to add a player like Brock. IW will take a little bit of time.

Sid: why are you Losing coaches? Was it money?
RP: not money. Kimani - sometimes it's good to have change. Ben to Xavier- they were offering a raise. It was great to have both of those guys here for 5 years. Kimani is moving closer to home, back to his roots. It's been good for us -we added 2 really quality coaches. our staff with Rob, Kyle is in terrific spot. sometimes it's good to get fresh ideas.

Mona: the OK State game - is it a neutral site game?
RP: neutral site game for us from NCAA qualifying perspective. we will not lose a home game.

Sid: will you play any future games there at US Bank?
RP: open to doing different things. Look at it from a Regional standpoint (played in SD). If you can get a game close, that's beneficial. I'd be open to playing in Target Center or St. Paul. But it's tough to convince Gopher fans to step away from the Barn.

Sid: Murray's certificate.
 

Curry and Coffey still can’t play yet? Especially as it pertains to Curry, should we be concerned? Coffey was perhaps somewhat less of an injury relative to Curry. Obviously they both are under great medical care, should be a given I would expect. But one wonders what a long time off does to future performance.
 

Thanx, shorty. Really appreciate this.
 

Curry and Coffey still can’t play yet? Especially as it pertains to Curry, should we be concerned? Coffey was perhaps somewhat less of an injury relative to Curry. Obviously they both are under great medical care, should be a given I would expect. But one wonders what a long time off does to future performance.

Coffey had shoulder surgery at the end of Feb and had a 6 month timetable at that point. That slates him for a late August return. Curry tore his ACL at the end of August last year and had surgery at the end of September. That means he's only 8 months post surgery. It's not surprising at all that neither are practicing.
 

Curry and Coffey still can’t play yet? Especially as it pertains to Curry, should we be concerned? Coffey was perhaps somewhat less of an injury relative to Curry. Obviously they both are under great medical care, should be a given I would expect. But one wonders what a long time off does to future performance.

Would guess Pitino and the docs are playing it safe with them. We need both badly. Need both 100%.
 


The Gophers just needed a few breaks to come their way - avoid too many inopportune injuries and any sort of drama this season.

The Reggie Lynch thing really hurts.
 


Gopher Men's Basketball Coach Richard Pitino was on "The Sports Huddle" on WCCO radio on Sunday, May 20th.



Sid: why are you Losing coaches? Was it money?
RP: not money. Kimani - sometimes it's good to have change. Ben to Xavier- they were offering a raise. It was great to have both of those guys here for 5 years. Kimani is moving closer to home, back to his roots. It's been good for us -we added 2 really quality coaches. our staff with Rob, Kyle is in terrific spot. sometimes it's good to get fresh ideas.



Sid: Murray's certificate.
Is the Kimani comment ‘it’s good to have change,’ a comment that he wasn’t a fit? And I will add I have no idea who he even is-many if you may know him. Just curious about the comment that perhaps it tells us people are not just leaving Pitino, but taking care of themselves and there way of wanting to do things.
 

Didn't he say that Curry was practicing and looking really good at the end of the season? Now he says Curry isn't practicing? Hope there has been no further injury to him.
 



Didn't he say that Curry was practicing and looking really good at the end of the season? Now he says Curry isn't practicing? Hope there has been no further injury to him.

Pure speculation, but Curry could have been doing some non-contact type work towards the end of the season. I don't think he had crutches or anything of that nature at the end of the year. Him and Dupree being cleared towards the end of summer school for contact drills once again would seem like a reasonable timeline.
 

Curry is expected to be released to do full contact early June.
 

Didn't he say that Curry was practicing and looking really good at the end of the season? Now he says Curry isn't practicing? Hope there has been no further injury to him.

Pitino said something about him probably being able to play that everyone took seriously. Pretty sure Curry's mom tweeted that he was joking though.
 

I thought the Point Guard question was the most interesting part of the interview.

It sure sounds like Pitino is not worried about PG. And he mentioned Coffey as one of the players who could slide over and play the point if needed.

Tell you what, if I was playing against the Gophers, and I saw McBrayer or Coffey at the point, I would be double-teaming and pressing all over the place. Shoot, even when Washington is in the game, I would be pressing and trying to force turnovers.
 



I thought the Point Guard question was the most interesting part of the interview.

It sure sounds like Pitino is not worried about PG. And he mentioned Coffey as one of the players who could slide over and play the point if needed.

Tell you what, if I was playing against the Gophers, and I saw McBrayer or Coffey at the point, I would be double-teaming and pressing all over the place. Shoot, even when Washington is in the game, I would be pressing and trying to force turnovers.

I don't know if I would press against a guy who excels at beating guys off the dribble and making things happen in transition.
 

It's a gamble, we are short on ball handlers, but have improved 3pt shooters. IW can be turnover prone. Can he beat a press and set up others or will he force things without numbers.
 

It's a gamble, we are short on ball handlers, but have improved 3pt shooters. IW can be turnover prone. Can he beat a press and set up others or will he force things without numbers.

So fun watching Washington's penetration and passing skills end of last season. Hopefully he can play under control more and he'll be deadly. Also needs to improve his leadership skills - take control of the team like Mason did. If he doesn't take the next step, it will really hurt and will make it very difficult for us to get back toward the top of conference.

Pretty safe to say that of all our returning players, Washington better be the one who improves the most.
 

So fun watching Washington's penetration and passing skills end of last season. Hopefully he can play under control more and he'll be deadly. Also needs to improve his leadership skills - take control of the team like Mason did. If he doesn't take the next step, it will really hurt and will make it very difficult for us to get back toward the top of conference.

Pretty safe to say that of all our returning players, Washington better be the one who improves the most.

agreed
 

sounds like Pitino is operating under the assumption Carr will not play this year. He only addressed the chances of him playing in a followup question. Didn't bring it up himself
 

sounds like Pitino is operating under the assumption Carr will not play this year. He only addressed the chances of him playing in a followup question. Didn't bring it up himself

He’s underselling Carr for this year but between his appeal and possible NCAA rule changes, stranger things have happened.


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He’s underselling Carr for this year but between his appeal and possible NCAA rule changes, stranger things have happened.


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If our backcourt won't have any injuries, then Im okay with Carr sitting. I like our rotations.
 

So fun watching Washington's penetration and passing skills end of last season. Hopefully he can play under control more and he'll be deadly. Also needs to improve his leadership skills - take control of the team like Mason did. If he doesn't take the next step, it will really hurt and will make it very difficult for us to get back toward the top of conference.

Pretty safe to say that of all our returning players, Washington better be the one who improves the most.
Bigs with hands capable of catching passes while also having a feel for moving with IW as he penetrates will be the biggest deciding factor for IW and I believe the Gophers as a whole.

Healthy Curry, improved Murph, Matz, and the freshman frontcourt players can hopefully provide that.

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