I like and think Pitino will be back, but who would you most like to replace him...

Next Gopher Basketball coach is?

  • Eric Musselman

    Votes: 51 54.8%
  • Ryan Saunders

    Votes: 7 7.5%
  • Fred Hoiberg

    Votes: 34 36.6%
  • Steve Alford

    Votes: 1 1.1%

  • Total voters
    93
I know this first hand. Hoiberg despises recruiting. He absolutely despises.

Going into a home and begging the kid to come play is the last thing Hoiberg wants to do.
 

I know this first hand. Hoiberg despises recruiting. He absolutely despises.

Going into a home and begging the kid to come play is the last thing Hoiberg wants to do.

If you're begging someone, you're doing it wrong.
 

Prediction:

Matthew does not come here and his brother transfers next year from the gophers to be with the brother.

Wherever Matthew ends up is not going to want Michael wasting a spot on the end of their bench, particularly since he wouldn't even be eligible.
 

i am going with Eddie Sutton or Bill Walton. Both would be better than Alford and the jury is out on Fred unless the U of M gives him the wide berth ISU gave him to get players eligible.

Regarding the living or sane candidates, I have always like Musselman, but I think he will get a bigger offer after this year, and sentimental connection to the U of M is far down is list.
 

Wherever Matthew ends up is not going to want Michael wasting a spot on the end of their bench, particularly since he wouldn't even be eligible.

If you graduate early, can you grad. transfer?

I'm just asking.
 




Prediction:

Matthew does not come here and his brother transfers next year from the gophers to be with the brother.

100% agree with this. They will both be at Kansas next basketball season.
 

The problem is, how many coaches can play great defense without great talent? Seems like Bo Ryan found the formula as illustrated by his coaching tree, but it is hard to know if even the blue blood coachs’ exemplary defensive efficiency numbers are due to coaching or talent? If Izzo, K, Self, etc. were coaching the gophers would our defensive efficiency ranking (I believe about 50) be much better than it is now? There are 350 division 1 coaches, the fact that so few of those teams have consistently great defensive efficiency numbers seems to indicate that it is extremely difficult to play great defense without great talent. This would also lead to the point that if we move on from Pitino, the chances are extremely remote that we find a defensive coach like Bo Ryan or his protégés.

Meant this as a question for Builtbadgers, but hit the wrong button. Hopefully you see it.
 
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Izzo , K and Self would all have great defensive rankings here with this roster. Are you counting Tony Bennett on the Bo Ryan coaching tree ? He comes from the Dick Bennett coaching tree and the inventor of the Pack Line defense. He came up with it precisely to compete and defeat teams with far greater talent. All his teams play great defense no matter the talent level. In fact his best defenses were with his lowest rated recruits. Ben Howland did it at Pitt. Beard did it at Texas Tech before he got his best player. Look at the top 30 in Kenpom and most of them are not filled with high school all americans. Go back through all the years and you will be shocked at the absolute no names that were on great defensive teams that were winners. It takes way less talent to play great defense than great offense in the way talent is scouted . Defense is scouted very differently because it is played so poorly and taught worse in AAU. The best coaches teach it in college and stress it. Jay wright talked at his clinic about how he has to teach it and how he built his program and then got better players and taught them too. Ryan did it with classes ranked outside the top 50 in recruiting rankings but never outside the top 20 in defense or the polls. Bennett is 12 games better than Duke over the last 5 years with far inferior players. Guess what, K is stressing defense again. We do not have to move on from Pitino. We need to play defense every night like we did when we beat the Badgers last week.
 

Izzo , K and Self would all have great defensive rankings here with this roster. Are you counting Tony Bennett on the Bo Ryan coaching tree ? He comes from the Dick Bennett coaching tree and the inventor of the Pack Line defense. He came up with it precisely to compete and defeat teams with far greater talent. All his teams play great defense no matter the talent level. In fact his best defenses were with his lowest rated recruits. Ben Howland did it at Pitt. Beard did it at Texas Tech before he got his best player. Look at the top 30 in Kenpom and most of them are not filled with high school all americans. Go back through all the years and you will be shocked at the absolute no names that were on great defensive teams that were winners. It takes way less talent to play great defense than great offense in the way talent is scouted . Defense is scouted very differently because it is played so poorly and taught worse in AAU. The best coaches teach it in college and stress it. Jay wright talked at his clinic about how he has to teach it and how he built his program and then got better players and taught them too. Ryan did it with classes ranked outside the top 50 in recruiting rankings but never outside the top 20 in defense or the polls. Bennett is 12 games better than Duke over the last 5 years with far inferior players. Guess what, K is stressing defense again. We do not have to move on from Pitino. We need to play defense every night like we did when we beat the Badgers last week.

Excellent stuff, Built. Your last statement says it all.

"We need to play defense every night like we did when we beat the Badgers last week."

Defense travels, and gives a team a chance to grind out wins like the Gophers had last week vs. UW.
 

Izzo , K and Self would all have great defensive rankings here with this roster. Are you counting Tony Bennett on the Bo Ryan coaching tree ? He comes from the Dick Bennett coaching tree and the inventor of the Pack Line defense. He came up with it precisely to compete and defeat teams with far greater talent. All his teams play great defense no matter the talent level. In fact his best defenses were with his lowest rated recruits. Ben Howland did it at Pitt. Beard did it at Texas Tech before he got his best player. Look at the top 30 in Kenpom and most of them are not filled with high school all americans. Go back through all the years and you will be shocked at the absolute no names that were on great defensive teams that were winners. It takes way less talent to play great defense than great offense in the way talent is scouted . Defense is scouted very differently because it is played so poorly and taught worse in AAU. The best coaches teach it in college and stress it. Jay wright talked at his clinic about how he has to teach it and how he built his program and then got better players and taught them too. Ryan did it with classes ranked outside the top 50 in recruiting rankings but never outside the top 20 in defense or the polls. Bennett is 12 games better than Duke over the last 5 years with far inferior players. Guess what, K is stressing defense again. We do not have to move on from Pitino. We need to play defense every night like we did when we beat the Badgers last week.


Just trying to educate myself because you have obviously really looked into this. In the top 30 defense, I see Texas Tech, VCU, Okla., Kansas St., Georgia Tech, Tennessee, Cinc., Va Tech, Penn St., Loyola Chic., Clemson, Iowa St., Nevada, Indiana. (Villanova is 69). These strike me as teams that do not have consistently top defense and the list gets even more sketchy for #31-50. I just listed 15 teams out of the top 30 that dont seem to be perennial dwfensive powerhouses, which leaves 15 out of 350 coaches that consistently put up top defensive numbers and most of those 15 have overwhelming talent. What am I missing?
 

Just trying to educate myself because you have obviously really looked into this. In the top 30 defense, I see Texas Tech, VCU, Okla., Kansas St., Georgia Tech, Tennessee, Cinc., Va Tech, Penn St., Loyola Chic., Clemson, Iowa St., Nevada, Indiana. (Villanova is 69). These strike me as teams that do not have consistently top defense and the list gets even more sketchy for #31-50. I just listed 15 teams out of the top 30 that dont seem to be perennial dwfensive powerhouses, which leaves 15 out of 350 coaches that consistently put up top defensive numbers and most of those 15 have overwhelming talent. What am I missing?

Go back 5 years, all 5 years and you see that out of the top 30 teams in wins you will find 15 teams that do not have great talent that play great defense and win . You do get it. I did not say it is easy, nothing great is easy. Most staffs recruit to offense and are poor defensive coaches and try to play equal offense to the talented blue blood recruits and their programs fail miserably. Find one non blue blood program in a power 5 conference that built sustained success on a offensive emphasis. To make it even worse is the defensive savants also teach offense better ! Bo Ryan had ultra efficient offensives and so does UVA. This is reflected in multiple conference titles, 30 win seasons and on and on. When your 33-61 or whatever you better be scratching and clawing on every possession, every game and that should have been done day one, year one.
 



Go back 5 years, all 5 years and you see that out of the top 30 teams in wins you will find 15 teams that do not have great talent that play great defense and win . You do get it. I did not say it is easy, nothing great is easy. Most staffs recruit to offense and are poor defensive coaches and try to play equal offense to the talented blue blood recruits and their programs fail miserably. Find one non blue blood program in a power 5 conference that built sustained success on a offensive emphasis. To make it even worse is the defensive savants also teach offense better ! Bo Ryan had ultra efficient offensives and so does UVA. This is reflected in multiple conference titles, 30 win seasons and on and on. When your 33-61 or whatever you better be scratching and clawing on every possession, every game and that should have been done day one, year one.


So 15 out of 338, 4.4%, of schools have found their defensive guru (I didnt include top 15 perennial winner schools.). Out of those 15, could some have been fortunate to recruit a year or two of under rated 3 star type players? Are we sure the success of these 15 schools is repeatable for 10, 15 years?
Even granting that these 15 coaches have found the secret formula, that is only 4.4%. Just seems that we are insisting on a job requirement for Pitino that very few have met. Then,
after tossing Pitino aside we'll have the same perhaps unrealistic defensive standard for the next coach.

Maybe I'm not looking at this correctly, but how it seems to me. I think part of it is that in this day of super scouting and sharing of information it's difficult for me to see how a small group of coaches could be way ahead of all other coaches in defensive acumen. Bo Ryan seems to have accomplished this on the other hand and you mentioned a couple other coaches, credit to them.

Given the numbers, seems chances are remote to the extreme that the gophers could ever acquire one of these defensive aces. In this, we're no different than the vast majority of other schools.
 

Excellent stuff, Built. Your last statement says it all.

"We need to play defense every night like we did when we beat the Badgers last week."

Defense travels, and gives a team a chance to grind out wins like the Gophers had last week vs. UW.

x 2

I think Maryland exploited their main weakness, having a defender stop penetration
 

No chance whatsoever Hoiberg is still on the market in spring. He will have a number of NBA coaching, gm and front office opportunities in addition to college coaching ones.

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I don't think that is true.

Besides our home town team, don't think there will be a ton of interest in Hoiberg across the NBA. He'll be in much higher demand in the college game.
 

I don't think that is true.

Besides our home town team, don't think there will be a ton of interest in Hoiberg across the NBA. He'll be in much higher demand in the college game.

There is already interest (depending on who you believe) for him as both coach and gm/front office. Either way he is in demand and not likely to be there in spring.


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So 15 out of 338, 4.4%, of schools have found their defensive guru (I didnt include top 15 perennial winner schools.). Out of those 15, could some have been fortunate to recruit a year or two of under rated 3 star type players? Are we sure the success of these 15 schools is repeatable for 10, 15 years?
Even granting that these 15 coaches have found the secret formula, that is only 4.4%. Just seems that we are insisting on a job requirement for Pitino that very few have met. Then,
after tossing Pitino aside we'll have the same perhaps unrealistic defensive standard for the next coach.

Maybe I'm not looking at this correctly, but how it seems to me. I think part of it is that in this day of super scouting and sharing of information it's difficult for me to see how a small group of coaches could be way ahead of all other coaches in defensive acumen. Bo Ryan seems to have accomplished this on the other hand and you mentioned a couple other coaches, credit to them.

Given the numbers, seems chances are remote to the extreme that the gophers could ever acquire one of these defensive aces. In this, we're no different than the vast majority of other schools.

That is what makes great coaches so special. They know how to teach great defense and practice it day after day. You get 20 hours per week and it takes great ability on how to use that time. The Gophers showed it can be done for one half against UW. Doing it all the time takes great concentration and great toughness mentally and physically. It is a culture you establish on day one and players have some of these traits as your scouting them. Recruiting is tough, teaching at a high level even tougher. We have really good talent but several of them have not bought in to team defense. Do it all the time and this is a top of conference contender. If i knew why they do not by in then i would tell you but it always goes back to coaching. I do not think that some were fortunate to find those underrated guys, they find them all the time. Several of them build programs that win year after year. Yes, it is a special gift. Super hard to find those guys and that is the job of the AD.
 

That is what makes great coaches so special. They know how to teach great defense and practice it day after day. You get 20 hours per week and it takes great ability on how to use that time. The Gophers showed it can be done for one half against UW. Doing it all the time takes great concentration and great toughness mentally and physically. It is a culture you establish on day one and players have some of these traits as your scouting them. Recruiting is tough, teaching at a high level even tougher. We have really good talent but several of them have not bought in to team defense. Do it all the time and this is a top of conference contender. If i knew why they do not by in then i would tell you but it always goes back to coaching. I do not think that some were fortunate to find those underrated guys, they find them all the time. Several of them build programs that win year after year. Yes, it is a special gift. Super hard to find those guys and that is the job of the AD.


Here's to hoping the gophs success so we dont have to go down the new coach path anyrime soon. Thanks.
 

Here's to hoping the gophs success so we dont have to go down the new coach path anyrime soon. Thanks.

Thats what i am hoping for as well. If it does not work out then i hope we go about the search in a real way.
 


There is already interest (depending on who you believe) for him as both coach and gm/front office. Either way he is in demand and not likely to be there in spring.


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I don't doubt that he would be able to find a position before April if he really wanted to, but don't forget that he likely received a substantial severance package and can afford to wait for a preferred position and take his time in selecting one.
 

Big fan of Hoigberg. Don’t know other two as well.
Dislike Alford.
 

Hopefully this got this of everyone’s system. Pitino is here to stay.


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This seems like the kind of statement to make after we punch our ticket to the sweet 16.

Agreed. Yesterday was a nice win at home and the game really fun to watch, but... this team has to have a good season (not great) for the coach to keep his job I think.
I hate coaching changes, but it would be warranted if the team does not make the tourney.
 

This seems like the kind of statement to make after we punch our ticket to the sweet 16.

No! It is a statement from someone who has a little faith and backs the coach instead of speculating on when he will be fired every time a player misses a free throw. We have some of the most unsupportive fans around. How many times have we had this type of discussion on GH? How about how many times just this year so far? It is a constant drumbeat from the same group that doesn’t realize that every program has ups and downs, and if we are up they just talk about when it is going to crash. Of course people are going to have varied opinions about the team, but when someone says they want Tim fricking Miles, it is ridiculous! It seems like a good pocket of “fans” suffer from Reusse syndrome.


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No! It is a statement from someone who has a little faith and backs the coach instead of speculating on when he will be fired every time a player misses a free throw. We have some of the most unsupportive fans around. How many times have we had this type of discussion on GH? How about how many times just this year so far? It is a constant drumbeat from the same group that doesn’t realize that every program has ups and downs, and if we are up they just talk about when it is going to crash. Of course people are going to have varied opinions about the team, but when someone says they want Tim fricking Miles, it is ridiculous! It seems like a good pocket of “fans” suffer from Reusse syndrome.

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Since I am the Tim Miles backer on this thread, I'm assuming you meant me. I've been one of and still is one Pitinos biggest backers on here and backed your posts as well. This was a hypothetical question which required my personal thoughts which I back up with logic on why they'd be good fits. I still have hope for Pitino and think he will be fine. People can have conversations while still being supportive, but please don't ever compare to the piece of troll trash that is Ruesse. Blind loyalty is better suited for Trumpites and Sandershuggers.
 

I don't doubt that he would be able to find a position before April if he really wanted to, but don't forget that he likely received a substantial severance package and can afford to wait for a preferred position and take his time in selecting one.

True. I just think his preferred position is in the nba and likely to happen before spring.


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