Chicago Tribune: 5 College Basketball Coaches on the Hot Seat (Pitino #4)

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Richard Pitino, Minnesota

Sixth season, 90-78, 31-59 Big Ten

The Golden Gophers appeared to be on the upswing in 2016-17, when they made it to the NCAA tournament. But they crashed back to earth with a disappointing 15-17 season. They return double-double machine Jordan Murphy and reliable scorer Amir Coffey, which could make them a pleasant surprise in the Big Ten. It doesn’t help Pitino’s cause that several players during his tenure have had off-court issues.

https://www.chicagotribune.com/spor...sketball-coaches-hot-seat-20181030-story.html
 

Am I in the minority that doesn't feel like he is on the hot seat at all?
 

UpAndUnder43 said:
Am I in the minority that doesn't feel like he is on the hot seat at all?
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I think he's on the hot seat in the sense that, if we have another season where we're around .500 overall, missing both the NCAA tournament and NIT, even if it's due to yet another string of injuries, it wouldn't be a shock to see Pitino get fired after the season. You could argue that he's not on the seat in the sense that, while he could get fired after another bad season, you're confident that we won't have a bad season, we'll make the tournament, and Pitino will be here awhile longer.

I think the national perspective from people who aren't very familiar with our team is that last year sucked, we lost Nate Mason, we're probably going to suck again, and that'll be the end for Pitino at Minnesota. As you can see, the quip quoted in the OP doesn't mention any of the injuries last year or even the Lynch suspension, which I thought was fairly big news in college basketball. I can't totally blame them for not knowing the full details of our injury troubles, as I personally couldn't tell you much about injuries suffered by other Big Ten teams last year, though I'm pretty sure no one had it worse than we did, with Wisconsin maybe being the only team in the conference that could make an argument.
 

My guess is anything short of a NCAA Tourney bid and Pitino will be fired.


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Cayman said:
I think he's on the hot seat in the sense that, if we have another season where we're around .500 overall, missing both the NCAA tournament and NIT, even if it's due to yet another string of injuries, it wouldn't be a shock to see Pitino get fired after the season. You could argue that he's not on the seat in the sense that, while he could get fired after another bad season, you're confident that we won't have a bad season, we'll make the tournament, and Pitino will be here awhile longer.

I think the national perspective from people who aren't very familiar with our team is that last year sucked, we lost Nate Mason, we're probably going to suck again, and that'll be the end for Pitino at Minnesota. As you can see, the quip quoted in the OP doesn't mention any of the injuries last year or even the Lynch suspension, which I thought was fairly big news in college basketball. I can't totally blame them for not knowing the full details of our injury troubles, as I personally couldn't tell you much about injuries suffered by other Big Ten teams last year, though I'm pretty sure no one had it worse than we did, with Wisconsin maybe being the only team in the conference that could make an argument.
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That is how I feel.
 


I will say I feel like losing out on Tray Jackson hurts Pitino's job security a bit.

You can always sell hope to the fans and administrators when you have quality talent coming in the next season even if you had some rough previous seasons. It really helped Pitino after the dreadful 2015-16 season being able to say he is bringing in Coffey, Curry, Springs and Reggie and Fitzgerald. I also think Tubby could have maybe survived if his last two classes weren't Buggs, Ellenson, Foster and Ellis.
 


scools12 said:
My guess is anything short of a NCAA Tourney bid and Pitino will be fired.


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No. I could come up with 20 different extenuating circumstance in which that would not be the case and another 20 situations which the team shows progress but misses the tournament. That said, I'll be disappointed if they don't make the tournament.
 




I should also say I'll be very disappointed if we fire Pitino. I'm a fan and want him here long-term. Stability within a program is a novel concept at the University of Minnesota.
 

If we miss the tourney, he should absolutely be gone. Even if we make it and go one and done, he would have a fire-worthy body of work here, but it would be silly to bring him back him after last year only to fire him after making the tournament this year.
 

die hard gopher said:
I will say I feel like losing out on Tray Jackson hurts Pitino's job security a bit.

You can always sell hope to the fans and administrators when you have quality talent coming in the next season even if you had some rough previous seasons. It really helped Pitino after the dreadful 2015-16 season being able to say he is bringing in Coffey, Curry, Springs and Reggie and Fitzgerald. I also think Tubby could have maybe survived if his last two classes weren't Buggs, Ellenson, Foster and Ellis.
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I agree with this. He desperately needs to land some recruits for next season. I have no issue with what happened last year, bad luck. There are two things you can control as a coach, recruiting and x's and o's. Up to this point I've been very happy with his recruiting/player development. One bad year can really screw you in the sports world and a combination of bad performance and bad recruiting would certainly be enough to cost him his job. I think this team will be good with Murphy, Coffey, and McBrayer leading the way, but one more injury to our front court and we're basically back to where we've been. I'm sad about the Curry news, hopefully he makes a quick full recovery.
 

UpAndUnder43 said:
Stability within a revenue program is a novel concept at the University of Minnesota.
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FIFY.

And the reason we haven't had stability in a revenue program is that we haven't had very many good coaches. Stability isn't inherently a good thing, particularly when you're stable under poor leadership. The Pitino book is still being written, but he has to produce. He has potential, but at some point potential has to turn into results. The "he's young and learning" excuse rings hollow after six years as a Big Ten head coach. I can't say for sure what the "cut line" is that would cause him to be fired, but he is most definitely on the hot seat.
 



Anyone who thinks his seat isn't at least a little bit warm has their head in the clouds.

Anyone who thinks his seat is scorching hot (like he'll be fired mid-season if we start slow) is also nuts.

He needs to have a good year. NIT bid might be enough to keep his job, but if that's all he gets then his seat will be similarly warm going into the 2019-2020 season.
 

bizzle22 said:
Anyone who thinks his seat isn't at least a little bit warm has their head in the clouds.

Anyone who thinks his seat is scorching hot (like he'll be fired mid-season if we start slow) is also nuts.

He needs to have a good year. NIT bid might be enough to keep his job, but if that's all he gets then his seat will be similarly warm going into the 2019-2020 season.
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If he keeps his job after an NIT bid, then our standards have plummeted in the last decade.
 

Cayman said:
I think he's on the hot seat in the sense that, if we have another season where we're around .500 overall, missing both the NCAA tournament and NIT, even if it's due to yet another string of injuries, it wouldn't be a shock to see Pitino get fired after the season.
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If he doesn't make either tournament, he probably should be fired. Tubby was fired after six years with a far better record.

If he makes either tournament, he shouldn't be fired. Recall from Nebraska's season last year that a team could have a good record and not make the NCAA tournament. Nebraska had a 22-9 regular season. Although I don't expect this to happen two years in a row, if the conference performs poorly in the non-conference, they may not take more than four or five teams in the NCAA tournament. It's certainly possible that the Gophers may not get picked for the NCAA tournament if they finished with a 20-11 regular season but they would still have a good season and Pitino shouldn't be fired after a season like that.
 

cjbfbp said:
If he doesn't make either tournament, he probably should be fired. Tubby was fired after six years with a far better record.

If he makes either tournament, he shouldn't be fired. Recall from Nebraska's season last year that a team could have a good record and not make the NCAA tournament. Nebraska had a 22-9 regular season. Although I don't expect this to happen two years in a row, if the conference performs poorly in the non-conference, they may not take more than four or five teams in the NCAA tournament. It's certainly possible that the Gophers may not get picked for the NCAA tournament if they finished with a 20-11 regular season but they would still have a good season and Pitino shouldn't be fired after a season like that.
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I would tend to agree with this. I basically think we need to at least be a bubble team. But with the way the NIT is now, you have to be a bubble NCAA team to make it. Although if we stay healthy and only make the NIT, and his recruiting class is a dud, I think he's still in trouble.
 

howeda7 said:
I would tend to agree with this. I basically think we need to at least be a bubble team. But with the way the NIT is now, you have to be a bubble NCAA team to make it. Although if we stay healthy and only make the NIT, and his recruiting class is a dud, I think he's still in trouble.
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Agreed. With all the NIT automatic qualifiers from lowly conferences, the NIT is harder to make for a power conference team these days. But, yes, I think he needs to make at least that tournament.

I don't think we'll be able to judge fully his recruiting class until spring or early summer. We'll have four players departing. With what we have coming back, a recruiting class composed of a good grad transfer, a good freshman or junior college transfer, and a couple of good sit out transfers may turn out to be a pretty good class. The following year we would have only two players departing (three with a grad transfer).
 

watertown 1987 guy n said:
No. I could come up with 20 different extenuating circumstance in which that would not be the case and another 20 situations which the team shows progress but misses the tournament. That said, I'll be disappointed if they don't make the tournament.
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If the Gophers miss the tournament Pitino should be fired as soon as the season ends.

He would’ve had 6 full seasons as head coach. It would be time to move on.


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I don’t feel he is or should be if he contends, players (well, cept Curry) stay healthy, contend most games, and finish above .500 in the Big Ten but miss the tourney. I expect better, much better, but if only what I describe happens, anyone can see the team talent wise is getting stronger and will possibly be much better next year even after losing the two senior studs. Now a sub .500 Big Ten record, whole different matter. That would speak to coaching skill.
UpAndUnder43 said:
Am I in the minority that doesn't feel like he is on the hot seat at all?
Click to expand...
 

Let's put it this way...the Snake [emoji216] has a list...
 

scools12 said:
If the Gophers miss the tournament Pitino should be fired as soon as the season ends.

He would’ve had 6 full seasons as head coach. It would be time to move on.


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C’mon. Keep your oars in the water.


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His seat is warm, but not hot. Barring some sort of repeat of last year, he's not going anywhere. Pitino has plenty of talent, and once Curry is back, there's no reason this squad can't finish top 4 in the Big 10 and make the second weekend of the Dance. Especially if Carr is eligible.

Oturu is set to make an immediate impact, and if Stockman can do what he did in the scrimmage against somebody in another jersey, you have something there. There's all kinds of talent and depth this year. Here's to hoping for a special season, and worrying about seeding instead of being a bubble team on Selection Sunday.
 

cjbfbp said:
If he doesn't make either tournament, he probably should be fired. Tubby was fired after six years with a far better record.

If he makes either tournament, he shouldn't be fired. Recall from Nebraska's season last year that a team could have a good record and not make the NCAA tournament. Nebraska had a 22-9 regular season. Although I don't expect this to happen two years in a row, if the conference performs poorly in the non-conference, they may not take more than four or five teams in the NCAA tournament. It's certainly possible that the Gophers may not get picked for the NCAA tournament if they finished with a 20-11 regular season but they would still have a good season and Pitino shouldn't be fired after a season like that.
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Anything short of the tourney is a complete failure in year 6. It is actually hard to do worse between conference record and off the court issues. I do not think it will matter as i expect this team to do no worse than 13 conference wins and no worse than third. In researching mediocre programs that rose to prominence all of them either had a deep tourney run or conference titles by year 5. We are past that point already. 31-59 is incredibly inept. Lets get it done now. Some fans on here act he is a accomplished and highly sought after top 40 type coach and that only gets earned by winning. The off court stuff has also been poor. Lets demand and expect more. Being on a job a long time and achieving so little is not acceptable. Young ! younger coaches have done more than this.
 

UpAndUnder43 said:
I should also say I'll be very disappointed if we fire Pitino. I'm a fan and want him here long-term. Stability within a program is a novel concept at the University of Minnesota.
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I agree. Pitino is the real deal and he is just hitting his stride. Again, we have lived with the growing pains of a young coach that gave him a longer leash than a typical hire. Many have had a chip on their shoulder against him since he was hired.


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alchemy2u said:
I agree. Pitino is the real deal and he is just hitting his stride. Again, we have lived with the growing pains of a young coach that gave him a longer leash than a typical hire. Many have had a chip on their shoulder against him since he was hired.


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A few have had a chip since he was hired. For most of us, the chip grew along with the length of that leash. At some point he has to be accountable for results:

1 NCAA tourney appearance (0 wins)
1 NIT appearance (won title)
3 years with no tourney or NIT (this was the same as the number of times Monson missed both tournaments in 8 years, including the year where he was fired 7 games in, despite dealing with the Haskins era sanctions)
3-5 BTT record (.375 winning percentage) (includes two losses in the Wednesday 11 through 14 games, one trip to semifinals, one trip to quarterfinals)
31-59 Conference record (.344 winning percentage) (worse than Monson despite sanctions, worse than Tubby)
90-78 overall record (.536 winning percentage)

This is an atrocious five year record. It will still be a bad six year record even with good sixth year (barring something miraculous). Like I said earlier, we should keep him if he makes the tournament, but "longer leash than a typical hire" is quite the understatement.
 

I'd prefer we keep him, but

numbers dont lie, people do.

Pitino's 5 year big ten record: 31 and 59
Tubby's 5 year bt rec: 38 and 52.

Pitino has a worse big ten record than tubby!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I'm shocked.

Tubby couldnt draw up an out of bounds play. We'd have to chuck the ball out to half court when the ball was under our basket!!!

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

Win some games in the conference Rich!
 

alchemy2u said:
I agree. Pitino is the real deal and he is just hitting his stride. Again, we have lived with the growing pains of a young coach that gave him a longer leash than a typical hire. Many have had a chip on their shoulder against him since he was hired.


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I supported him being brought back but what is your criteria for him being the real deal ? He has been worse than Monson. Many young coaches did far better by year 5.
 

builtbadgers said:
Anything short of the tourney is a complete failure in year 6. It is actually hard to do worse between conference record and off the court issues. I do not think it will matter as i expect this team to do no worse than 13 conference wins and no worse than third. In researching mediocre programs that rose to prominence all of them either had a deep tourney run or conference titles by year 5. We are past that point already. 31-59 is incredibly inept. Lets get it done now. Some fans on here act he is a accomplished and highly sought after top 40 type coach and that only gets earned by winning. The off court stuff has also been poor. Lets demand and expect more. Being on a job a long time and achieving so little is not acceptable. Young ! younger coaches have done more than this.
Click to expand...

Agreed. If we can’t get into the tourney with this team we should be disappointed and Pitino should be fired. I’ll be surprised if we don’t make it with the talent we have. That said, if we don’t and there’s not significant injuries there are no excuses. Gotta coach up at some point.

And if we have another season with off the court turmoil consider him cooked.
 

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