Which is it? Does Pitino not recruit well enough to win or does he not coach well enough to win? I think you can make arguments for both. It's really tough to argue that Wisconsin has more talent than Minnesota, yet they basically have a tournament spot wrapped up at this point and could finish top 4 in the conference. If you look at our neighbors, Wisconsin, Marquette, Iowa, and Iowa State all basically have NCAA tournament bids wrapped up and are playing for seeding right now. That's completely unacceptable to me and it's especially unacceptable when we are in year 6 of the Pitino era and the overall record is what it is.
Personally, I don't think he has done either well enough consistently which is really the only way you get to the type of conference record he has at this point. He missed on so many guards over the last year and a half or so that would have been huge for him. In hindsight, he should have taken Halliburton (Iowa State) instead of waiting on Hunter who chose Purdue. He then missed on a bunch of guys who could have helped this past Spring from a Freshman like McGowens to a grad transfer like Crandall. He literally has not won a single recruiting battle for a non-Minnesota prep since Isaiah Washington.
Then you have roster management: He's had a terrible record on sit out transfers: Lofton, Fitzgerald, Lynch, Stockman. That's 1-4 and and a total of 1 1/3 impact seasons and a bunch of terrible press to go with it. I don't believe he's ever had 12 players available for a season and certainly never had a full roster. He took Stockman in a season where the expectations were Sweet 16 and he was already carrying guys like Gaston on the roster who he knew couldn't play. With his job on the line this season, he took not one but two sit out transfers when he knew he had a bunch of guys who could play a limited role at best (Hurt, Stockman, Omersa)
Then you have the coaching. The offense is an abomination and has been through much of his tenure. If Jordan Murphy wasn't a fantastic offensive rebounder the scoring offense would look even worse. Zones have been a problem for him through much of his tenure. One thing that really bothers me is the he consistently allows the opposition to dictate style of play. A perfect example of this is home games against Iowa and Wisconsin. Iowa's best chance to win is an up and down game with a lot of possessions where they can use their depth and their defense deficiencies are less important. The last two times the Hawkeyes have come to the Barn, that's exactly the type of game that has been played. Wisconsin wants to play a slug fest where possessions are limited and their limited athletes are not exposed either by space on the floor or pace of play. That's exactly the type of game the Gophers have played against Wisconsin in both opportunities this year. Is it really a surprise that Pitino has lost FOUR straight home games to Wisconsin something that has not previously happened in most of our lifetimes? They would have been better served to play a game against Iowa that ended in the 50's or 60's and a game against Wisconsin that finished in the 80's. Neither happened and you didn't really see an effort to dictate pace in any of the three games. His teams have also responded terribly to runs by the opposition. There was no reason for the Pudue, Michigan, and even Iowa runs to get as out of hand as they did. Against Illinois, he put Stockman, Hurt, and Omersa on the court together at the same time in the first half which was a huge reason why a big deficit became an insurmountable one. I haven't seen it this year, but both in year 3 and in year 5 I have seen Pitino teams flat out quit. I can specifically point to at Northwestern last year as a recent example. We are in year 6, and I am still not sure what type of team Pitino wants to have. He prioritized ball pressure guards early in his tenure and had Mathieu, Johnson, Dorsey etc and now he's trying to make Amir a point guard and has just one small guard on his roster. He's prioritized athleticism in the front court, but this recruiting cycle has looked at bigs that would fit a Wisconsin style of play. Omersa and Hurt are clear examples of guys who both are 4's (if they can play at this level) who fit totally different styles of play.
