I have been going to Gopher games since the Musselman era. I know fully the difficulties Clem faced coming into this. However, he was given one gift by Dutcher - a really good frosh recruiting class (Burton, Newbern, Schick). That is something that Pitino did not get from Tubby (zero recruits). That's why the trouble started in year three and not in year one. I would take the no pressure hand Clem was dealt every time. He got to start over with a giant grace period. And to his credit he did a great job of it.
Pitino's problems started early when he tried to win too fast and took some reach players like Gaston, Konate, McNeil and others after missing on wild swings at 5 star guys from the east coast.
Pitino has done a pretty good job with this squad. I think all of us would have taken it prior to the start of the year if we were told they would finish 7th, get into the tournament and have 21 wins despite being one of the poorest shooting teams in memory. For Pete's sake they just went on a nice tournament run and beat Purdue twice in a little over a week, yet people cannot stop whining about him.