Per Marcus - Former Gophers center Matz Stockman is returning to team

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die hard gopher said:
Again, I'll share what I posted in another thread about what I heard from a source close to the program.

When Geno decided to transfer, he told Pitino he wanted to be a gopher. Pitino told him we don't have room. Geno told him if you make room, i'll commit. Pitino told him he'll have to do some work but was able to make room. Geno was all set to commit but then his dad started to get in his ear and strongly pushed him to Gonzaga and away from the gophers saying you'd be crazy to play for the U when you can play on a top 5 team. Geno then commits to Gonzaga. The way they described it to me, it sounded as if his dad didn't even let him commit to the gophers and made him go to GU but I think he meant strongly influenced.
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I've heard similar things but there was a couple others that had a big influence too.
 

EG#9 said:
This might not be a positive for the program, but it is certainly not a negative given when the return of Stockman occurred. The opportunity cost of having him on scholarship this year is almost nothing. I do like that Matz was in practice all last year so unlike every other late addition, he shouldn't have an adjustment period. Welcome back Matz, it really is like you never left!
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+1
 

For the people saying that this will affect Pitino's future employment here, there is no way that the transfer/recruitment of a backup center (with no major discipline/recruiting violation issues) will enter into Coyle's decision making. The only way this matters is the extent to which it helps/hurts Pitino's ability to have some postseason success this year, and that is what he will (and should) be judged on.
 

This is excellent news. The grad transfers left were absolute dregs that would not have helped our team. And while a sit-out transfer would have been better than nothing, I think this is very important for our team depth.

Still a very strange situation of which I have never seen the like.
 

Couple housekeeping notes:

Is he going to have to re-sign here?

Are we going to see a “welcome back Matz” post from the Gopher basketball twitter account?

Pitino has to address this right?
 


This is great news!

We have now good depth at the 5! He is big, will spread out the minutes between Curry and Oturu.
 

bleedsmaroonandgold said:
For the people saying that this will affect Pitino's future employment here, there is no way that the transfer/recruitment of a backup center (with no major discipline/recruiting violation issues) will enter into Coyle's decision making. The only way this matters is the extent to which it helps/hurts Pitino's ability to have some postseason success this year, and that is what he will (and should) be judged on.
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Agreed, this has no influence on Coyle evaluating Pitino. Winning 31 of 90 CONFERENCE GAMES and having bad characters in the program will sink any coach. Win 60 % of your conference games from here on out and no more knuckleheads in the program and he will have job security. Hell, around here you only need to be .500 in the conference for the fan base to think your a legend.
 

builtbadgers said:
Agreed, this has no influence on Coyle evaluating Pitino. Winning 31 of 90 CONFERENCE GAMES and having bad characters in the program will sink any coach. Win 60 % of your conference games from here on out and no more knuckleheads in the program and he will have job security. Hell, around here you only need to be .500 in the conference for the fan base to think your a legend.
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No kidding Captain Obvious. No knuckleheads in a basketball program is a near impossibility. No coach since Bill Musselman has come even close to .500 in conference during their whole tenure. Since 1975 there have been only 5 years at .600 in conference or more and 6 of them if you add the Final Four year.
 




die hard gopher said:
Again, I'll share what I posted in another thread about what I heard from a source close to the program.

When Geno decided to transfer, he told Pitino he wanted to be a gopher. Pitino told him we don't have room. Geno told him if you make room, i'll commit. Pitino told him he'll have to do some work but was able to make room. Geno was all set to commit but then his dad started to get in his ear and strongly pushed him to Gonzaga and away from the gophers saying you'd be crazy to play for the U when you can play on a top 5 team. Geno then commits to Gonzaga. The way they described it to me, it sounded as if his dad didn't even let him commit to the gophers and made him go to GU but I think he meant strongly influenced.
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1) Pitino's mistake was making him wait to commit. Should have taken the commitment right there and told Stockman he was to announce his transfer, and figure out the details later.

2) Crandall isn't a 17 year old high school kid any more, he's a 22 year old college graduate, why is his dumb-*ss father still trying to tell him what to do? So frustrating. As a parent I'd never do that to my kid, and moreover, I'd strongly argue that his father's choice was NOT the best choice for him overall, for a number of reasons.
 

eker0016 said:
This is excellent news. The grad transfers left were absolute dregs that would not have helped our team. And while a sit-out transfer would have been better than nothing, I think this is very important for our team depth.

Still a very strange situation of which I have never seen the like.
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Why do people keep saying this? Read the thread. It's very clear what happened and isn't that surprising. Crandall was supposed to be coming so we cleared the spot. Then Crandall screwed us over. Getting Stockman back in that circumstance is a good thing.
 

bga1 said:
No kidding Captain Obvious. No knuckleheads in a basketball program is a near impossibility. No coach since Bill Musselman has come even close to .500 in conference during their whole tenure. Since 1975 there have been only 5 years at .600 in conference or more and 6 of them if you add the Final Four year.
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That is my point, one mediocre coach after another. As for no knuckleheads, dozens and dozens of very successful programs have none.
 

bga1 said:
No kidding Captain Obvious. No knuckleheads in a basketball program is a near impossibility. No coach since Bill Musselman has come even close to .500 in conference during their whole tenure. Since 1975 there have been only 5 years at .600 in conference or more and 6 of them if you add the Final Four year.
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Dutcher was above .500 in conference. 31-59 is a horrific conference record.
 



manny77 said:
I didn't say he was going to be fired at the end of the day. If he doesn't get to the ncaa this year, this will be a part of the decision whether to keep him or not.
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I don't think you know what "final nail in the coffin" means.
 

builtbadgers said:
Dutcher was above .500 in conference. 31-59 is a horrific conference record.
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He was .444 officially. However, he did go 15-3 in a disallowed year with Mussy's players and indeed that would put him over .500
 

builtbadgers said:
That is my point, one mediocre coach after another. As for no knuckleheads, dozens and dozens of very successful programs have none.
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Maybe the coaches have been mediocre and maybe not. The institution has been beset by several issues:

-A non-stop run of scandals
-Presidents and ADs that really didn't much care about athletic success in the major sports
-crappy facilities (no commitment by the top brass)
-Years of weak local talent - until recently
-no commitment to win and the teams have never gotten defended by the University (see Reggie, see Royce White) like they do at other successful universities

I think there is a bright future that is possible here and Pitino could be part of that...or perhaps not. But to date this has NOT been an easy job to handle. The coach here always runs against the tide. Maybe that is about to change.
 

Hope it's true that he'll be on the team. I've been looking forward to seeing him play for over a year now.
 

WanderingGopher said:
1) Pitino's mistake was making him wait to commit. Should have taken the commitment right there and told Stockman he was to announce his transfer, and figure out the details later.

2) Crandall isn't a 17 year old high school kid any more, he's a 22 year old college graduate, why is his dumb-*ss father still trying to tell him what to do? So frustrating. As a parent I'd never do that to my kid, and moreover, I'd strongly argue that his father's choice was NOT the best choice for him overall, for a number of reasons.
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2) having a father that makes you break your word doesn’t reflect positivity on either of them. If this is true, the U bent over backwards to accommodate this kid and he spit in their face. He for one will not be finding a job in the Twin Cites when he graduates. Very hard to trust him.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 

bga1 said:
Maybe the coaches have been mediocre and maybe not. The institution has been beset by several issues:

-A non-stop run of scandals
-Presidents and ADs that really didn't much care about athletic success in the major sports
-crappy facilities (no commitment by the top brass)
-Years of weak local talent - until recently
-no commitment to win and the teams have never gotten defended by the University (see Reggie, see Royce White) like they do at other successful universities

I think there is a bright future that is possible here and Pitino could be part of that...or perhaps not. But to date this has NOT been an easy job to handle. The coach here always runs against the tide. Maybe that is about to change.
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A ton of truth to what you said. Coaches have played a role in the scandals by recruiting low character kids. I do think the AD's were poor and support from the top as well. I supported Pitino returning but it is time to win something meaningful, like a conference title. That is what great coaches do, they rock out big conference records year after year.
 

alchemy2u said:
2) having a father that makes you break your word doesn’t reflect positivity on either of them. If this is true, the U bent over backwards to accommodate this kid and he spit in their face. He for one will not be finding a job in the Twin Cites when he graduates. Very hard to trust him.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
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Now Stockman....he can get any job he wants around the Twin Cities!!
 

builtbadgers said:
A ton of truth to what you said. Coaches have played a role in the scandals by recruiting low character kids. I do think the AD's were poor and support from the top as well. I supported Pitino returning but it is time to win something meaningful, like a conference title. That is what great coaches do, they rock out big conference records year after year.
Click to expand...

And man I would love to see it. However, I think we need to be real on the expectations. Pitino is starting to recruit at a solid middle of the pack or better rate and that is good. Now he has to have another upper tier finish - top six or better. Then he has to build on that. He needs to have a 5 plus year streak of winning 8+ games in conference with at least 3 of those years in the 10 plus win category and 2 of those years making a run for the Big Ten championship. Winning a Big Ten championship at this point would be a big, big bonus. For now- solid improvement to get the momentum going would be great.

Our history is to fail to support a coach and then to fire him and then claim we will support the next great coach. In a couple of years everyone is sharpening their axes again. We reached for Pitino, few others with high potential wanted the gig. He was a long term play and we need to understand it. He's going to be a GREAT coach somewhere. I hope it is here.
 

I'm excited for Stockman.

He is left handed, has a really trendy haircut and is absolutely the tallest player on the team.
 

bga1 said:
And man I would love to see it. However, I think we need to be real on the expectations. Pitino is starting to recruit at a solid middle of the pack or better rate and that is good. Now he has to have another upper tier finish - top six or better. Then he has to build on that. He needs to have a 5 plus year streak of winning 8+ games in conference with at least 3 of those years in the 10 plus win category and 2 of those years making a run for the Big Ten championship. Winning a Big Ten championship at this point would be a big, big bonus. For now- solid improvement to get the momentum going would be great.

Our history is to fail to support a coach and then to fire him and then claim we will support the next great coach. In a couple of years everyone is sharpening their axes again. We reached for Pitino, few others with high potential wanted the gig. He was a long term play and we need to understand it. He's going to be a GREAT coach somewhere. I hope it is here.
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Hope your right but what makes you think he will be a great coach. There is a great deal of history that shows great coaches win a conference title or get to a final 4 in the first 5 years of their tenure. Of course the word great means different things to different people. I just do not want any more mediocre teams.
 

I for one would like to thank Richard Pitino for giving me all this off-season entertainment but still not changing the team at all
 

WanderingGopher said:
Why do people keep saying this? Read the thread. It's very clear what happened and isn't that surprising. Crandall was supposed to be coming so we cleared the spot. Then Crandall screwed us over. Getting Stockman back in that circumstance is a good thing.
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Yes, it is overall a good thing for the team. And agree with people saying that filling the open spot with him is, at worst, not a bad thing, as he can at the very least be a competent practice squad player.

But I absolutely disagree that the previous sentence means that Gopher fans and the general public are therefore disallowed from criticizing Pitino for what happened, if that is indeed what happened. As if Pitino was just a helpless pawn in the Crandall family chess game. Please
 


WanderingGopher said:
My guess is George Washington, Benjamin Franklin, and Alexander Hamilton.
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Well, maybe this is the answer to your 2nd question in post #70?

Maybe the dad was going back and forth between rich boosters for Gonzaga and Minnesota, asking who was willing to pony up the most cash in exchange for his son? Really wouldn't surprise me at all if something dirty like that was the reason the dad suddenly pushed the son over to Gonzaga. We have no proof, of course. It's all speculation ...
 

fraternity2017 said:
I for one would like to thank Richard Pitino for giving me all this off-season entertainment but still not changing the team at all
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Disagree:

Health . . . . .Curry, Coffee, Dupree will all be 100% going into 2018/2019/
Brock Stull averaged 13 points a game the last two seasons, will help a ton.
The Freshman will help.
Stockman will add size and depth at center.
No more Fitzgerald, Konaté, Diedhiou.
 

bga1 said:
And man I would love to see it. However, I think we need to be real on the expectations. Pitino is starting to recruit at a solid middle of the pack or better rate and that is good. Now he has to have another upper tier finish - top six or better. Then he has to build on that. He needs to have a 5 plus year streak of winning 8+ games in conference with at least 3 of those years in the 10 plus win category and 2 of those years making a run for the Big Ten championship. Winning a Big Ten championship at this point would be a big, big bonus. For now- solid improvement to get the momentum going would be great.

Our history is to fail to support a coach and then to fire him and then claim we will support the next great coach. In a couple of years everyone is sharpening their axes again. We reached for Pitino, few others with high potential wanted the gig. He was a long term play and we need to understand it. He's going to be a GREAT coach somewhere. I hope it is here.
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MAKE MINNESOTA GREAT AGAIN
 

builtbadgers said:
Hope your right but what makes you think he will be a great coach. There is a great deal of history that shows great coaches win a conference title or get to a final 4 in the first 5 years of their tenure. Of course the word great means different things to different people. I just do not want any more mediocre teams.
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He recruits well. He deals with the public well (which will help future recruiting big time if he starts winning). He has over performed in two years IMO and his bad years were when he was beset with bad circumstances/rosters. We have not had the margin that great /deep teams have to overcome setbacks. He is young and will get better and has been mentored by two HOF coaches. Some coach here is going to benefit from a growing Minnesota crop of talent. I think he could be that guy. I admit- he has to win this year- no less than 9 conference wins to build some momentum.
 

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