All Things Pitino rumor mill thread

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bga1 said:
Please illuminate me DoubleB - what are the bad signs that he doesn't know enough about coaching a Big Ten team?
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his time outs are one easy one to point to and when questioned he states he wanted his players to learn on their own. funny how well respected coaches still use time outs late in games to make sure their players know what to do at least as they leave the huddle.

I still think he was not coaching for the 2014 season and his handling of Deandre and Elliot as seniors really point to the fact that Richard wanted to play younger players for the future and not for 2014. I do believe (and it is my right to think and draw conclusion on what i see) he did not play the best two bigs on the team, I owe nothing to Elliot but watched him play his career at the U. Konate may be a good player down the road but he was not very good this season and was not at the level of Elliot last year or the year before, but Elliot did not fit into Richards plans. it could not be for lack of trying or lack of basketball smarts because the two freshman bigs actually made such bad decisions in games that i would say they lost a couple of game son their own.

his lack of running an offense at times was mind boggling. his players making bad decisions does fall back to his leadership.

his pressure defense has made every big ten team change the way they got the ball up the court (it did make our guys more tired later in the games)

the defense against three pointers was horrible all year and it showed up when you lose games by less than 10 points if the defense was a little better it would produced a few more wins.

the fact that as a whole the team played worst in 2014 than in 2013 with only Hollins leaving as a big differential. If your coaching causes the players to get worst it might say a few things about your ability.

His comments in the press about lack of heart is not one that i believe should be brought into the public, but rather in the locker room.

hey if you want to re-watch the season and look for the things i mentioned then get back to me. its my opinion that he has not proven his coaching ability AS OF YET. that doesn't mean he is done learning and he could be a good coach someday. it means at this point in time he has not shown signs of being a coach that has a handle on the competition level of the big ten,

WE got exactly what we paid for. an up and coming coach. he is yet to get to up and coming so don't read too much into my assessment of his ability to date. it is just my opinion.

I hope by next season he can turn it around and "with" his players lets hope they preform better.
 

Only Hollins leaving from last year? He was the only good perimeter defender on the team and the only guy who did not make bone head plays at the and of games. In fact he was the only complete player on the team.
I have no problem with benching seniors who only want to play part of their responsibilities. They have had five years to figure out to do some things they don't like to do and still won't do them. If you are a veteran and you make it easy to replace you with a freshman, that is not the coach's fault.
 

DoubleB said:
his time outs are one easy one to point to and when questioned he states he wanted his players to learn on their own. funny how well respected coaches still use time outs late in games to make sure their players know what to do at least as they leave the huddle.

I still think he was not coaching for the 2014 season and his handling of Deandre and Elliot as seniors really point to the fact that Richard wanted to play younger players for the future and not for 2014. I do believe (and it is my right to think and draw conclusion on what i see) he did not play the best two bigs on the team, I owe nothing to Elliot but watched him play his career at the U. Konate may be a good player down the road but he was not very good this season and was not at the level of Elliot last year or the year before, but Elliot did not fit into Richards plans. it could not be for lack of trying or lack of basketball smarts because the two freshman bigs actually made such bad decisions in games that i would say they lost a couple of game son their own.

his lack of running an offense at times was mind boggling. his players making bad decisions does fall back to his leadership.

his pressure defense has made every big ten team change the way they got the ball up the court (it did make our guys more tired later in the games)

the defense against three pointers was horrible all year and it showed up when you lose games by less than 10 points if the defense was a little better it would produced a few more wins.

the fact that as a whole the team played worst in 2014 than in 2013 with only Hollins leaving as a big differential. If your coaching causes the players to get worst it might say a few things about your ability.

His comments in the press about lack of heart is not one that i believe should be brought into the public, but rather in the locker room.

hey if you want to re-watch the season and look for the things i mentioned then get back to me. its my opinion that he has not proven his coaching ability AS OF YET. that doesn't mean he is done learning and he could be a good coach someday. it means at this point in time he has not shown signs of being a coach that has a handle on the competition level of the big ten,

WE got exactly what we paid for. an up and coming coach. he is yet to get to up and coming so don't read too much into my assessment of his ability to date. it is just my opinion.

I hope by next season he can turn it around and "with" his players lets hope they preform better.
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First off don't act like gas and konate played starter minutes they had minor roles off the bench at best. Cannot say they cost a couple of wins each. Coach gave we plenty of chances we didn't really see konate or gas until February. Second pitini made the heart comment in the locker room and Mathieu blabbered to the press and if you were at the game you would've seen a gutless team that took their opponent for granted. Pitino threw no one under the bus
 

bemidjigopher said:
First off don't act like gas and konate played starter minutes they had minor roles off the bench at best. Cannot say they cost a couple of wins each. Coach gave we plenty of chances we didn't really see konate or gas until February.
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How many close games did the Gophers lose this year? How many of those close games would a few more defensive stops or rebounds have made a potential game-winning difference? That's his point, and it's a good one.

Moreover, his point about EE is bigger. There are two major differences from last year to this year:
(1) Loss of Austin Hollins
(2) Increasingly diminished playing time of Elliott Eliason.

You can choose to say that all of the difference between last year and this was on Austin Hollins vs. his replacements. You shouldn't.
 

DoubleB said:
his time outs are one easy one to point to and when questioned he states he wanted his players to learn on their own. funny how well respected coaches still use time outs late in games to make sure their players know what to do at least as they leave the huddle.

I still think he was not coaching for the 2014 season and his handling of Deandre and Elliot as seniors really point to the fact that Richard wanted to play younger players for the future and not for 2014. I do believe (and it is my right to think and draw conclusion on what i see) he did not play the best two bigs on the team, I owe nothing to Elliot but watched him play his career at the U. Konate may be a good player down the road but he was not very good this season and was not at the level of Elliot last year or the year before, but Elliot did not fit into Richards plans. it could not be for lack of trying or lack of basketball smarts because the two freshman bigs actually made such bad decisions in games that i would say they lost a couple of game son their own.

his lack of running an offense at times was mind boggling. his players making bad decisions does fall back to his leadership.

his pressure defense has made every big ten team change the way they got the ball up the court (it did make our guys more tired later in the games)

the defense against three pointers was horrible all year and it showed up when you lose games by less than 10 points if the defense was a little better it would produced a few more wins.

the fact that as a whole the team played worst in 2014 than in 2013 with only Hollins leaving as a big differential. If your coaching causes the players to get worst it might say a few things about your ability.

His comments in the press about lack of heart is not one that i believe should be brought into the public, but rather in the locker room.

hey if you want to re-watch the season and look for the things i mentioned then get back to me. its my opinion that he has not proven his coaching ability AS OF YET. that doesn't mean he is done learning and he could be a good coach someday. it means at this point in time he has not shown signs of being a coach that has a handle on the competition level of the big ten,

WE got exactly what we paid for. an up and coming coach. he is yet to get to up and coming so don't read too much into my assessment of his ability to date. it is just my opinion.

I hope by next season he can turn it around and "with" his players lets hope they preform better.
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I'm happy we have Pitino for a coach and not you.
 


DoubleB said:
I still think he was not coaching for the 2014 season and his handling of Deandre and Elliot as seniors really point to the fact that Richard wanted to play younger players for the future and not for 2014. I do believe (and it is my right to think and draw conclusion on what i see) he did not play the best two bigs on the team, I owe nothing to Elliot but watched him play his career at the U. Konate may be a good player down the road but he was not very good this season and was not at the level of Elliot last year or the year before, but Elliot did not fit into Richards plans. it could not be for lack of trying or lack of basketball smarts because the two freshman bigs actually made such bad decisions in games that i would say they lost a couple of game son their own.

his lack of running an offense at times was mind boggling. his players making bad decisions does fall back to his leadership.
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The other things I either disagree with or have no opinion on, but the two above I can agree with.

People get so worked up if someone makes only 1 of 2 free throw attempts.. but they don't care when flippin BK and GD are out there together letting dudes score and/or turning over the ball when you have a very solid fifth-year senior ready to play just sitting on the bench. Every possession is important and frankly I thought Pitino threw a lot away with his personnel choices with regard to EE.

As for the offense.. every now and then it appeared he was going to reign guys in, especially Morris.. but that would last for a few minutes and that's it. A lot of early, bad shots. Most teams do this, but it got real obvious at times... I do not think McNeil was a big loss, but perhaps as just another body to throw on the court he could have helped.. sometimes guys got away with brutal shot selection too much.

These types of things are correctable.. will he 'correct them' in the future? Don't know. But, I think Pitino can be just fine. Need to look at where the program is in 2016-17, including the status of recruiting...

...if he's still here.
 


HOOP DREAMS said:
lol! Yeah, that's what happened.
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Warrior is spinning yarns again. Konate played 4 minutes total in our first 5 losses, all in the Purdue game. Gaston played zero minutes while we went 0-5. The choice, while the team had a pulse, was made between Mo Walker and EE and EE lost that battle decisively. Warrior claimed early in the year that EE was the better player and he could never get over the fact that he was wrong. When BK started playing Big Ten minutes in any serious way the die had been pretty much cast on our season. Any sensible coach in Pitino's situation would have done the same thing (try Konate).
 

Joey King being on this team is a not a problem. He's a legit B1G player. Joey King starting and playing 30 minutes is a problem. But that's not Joey King's fault.
 



howeda7 said:
Joey King being on this team is a not a problem. He's a legit B1G player. Joey King starting and playing 30 minutes is a problem. But that's not Joey King's fault.
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Joey King starting is not even a problem. Joey King as a power forward playing 30+ minutes a game is a problem. There's nothing seriously wrong with Joey King playing the third forward and playing 30 minutes a game.
 

howeda7 said:
Joey King being on this team is a not a problem. He's a legit B1G player. Joey King starting and playing 30 minutes is a problem. But that's not Joey King's fault.
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This.

It is idiotic to bitch about a player who would be a very, very good 6th of 7th man, but is forced into a critical role because there is nobody better. IT'S NOT HIS FAULT.

You are the same people who were bitching about how bad a PG Blake was when Tubby idiotically put him in that role.
 

GopherJake said:
This.

It is idiotic to bitch about a player who would be a very, very good 6th of 7th man, but is forced into a critical role because there is nobody better. IT'S NOT HIS FAULT.

You are the same people who were bitching about how bad a PG Blake was when Tubby idiotically put him in that role.
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Was the freshman Maverick Ahanmisi an obviously superior choice to Blake?
 

bemidjigopher said:
First off don't act like gas and konate played starter minutes they had minor roles off the bench at best. Cannot say they cost a couple of wins each. Coach gave we plenty of chances we didn't really see konate or gas until February. Second pitini made the heart comment in the locker room and Mathieu blabbered to the press and if you were at the game you would've seen a gutless team that took their opponent for granted. Pitino threw no one under the bus
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nope never said they took starting minutes away but the few they did play in they were so out played that it mattered and with as close as those games were it could have meant a couple more wins. Would that have gotten us into the big dance? probalby not but surely the NIT where Kon and Gas could have gained a little more experience.

here are observations on Kon and Gas
they were out of position on defense that led to several very easy baskets often when they were in the games(almost every game they played in you can go back and re-watch).
teammates didn't know where they were going to be playing and it made rotations impossible to figure out making others look bad as well
throwing up shots that were so ugly they would have been benched on Hopkins team. why either of them would shoot a three point shot is beyond comprehension yet they did several times.

I have said Gas and Kon have athleticism but lack skill. everyone that bashes EE say he lacks skill. I guess if i wanted to win games in 2014 i would have played the senior more. If i had thrown in the towel then sure play the young guys and one that wasn't even able to practice until January. not the guy who three years ago started and played major minutes.

but I dont want this to lead into a EE vs Kon and Gas discussion.

I think there was a lot more to the down year than most all of us know. there are things that might have happened in practice or in the locker room that we will never fully know. Its Richards team and we pay huge money to go see them play but the quality of play this year was sub par and instead of buying pizza for the few students that showed up for the games Pitino should give the season ticket holders some of their money back.
 



Cayman said:
Was the freshman Maverick Ahanmisi an obviously superior choice to Blake?
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I thought it was if you factor in that Mav at PG also meant we got Blake back at SG. If you look at just the point guard position in isolation it was a pretty close call, but it felt like we were sacrificing having a great SG in Hoffarber just to get what was at best a very modest upgrade at PG.
 

Cayman said:
Was the freshman Maverick Ahanmisi an obviously superior choice to Blake?
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bleeds answered this adequately, but I agree, my point could be served better by replacing the word "idiotically" with "felt forced to" or "decided to."
 

I disagree

DoubleB said:
his time outs are one easy one to point to and when questioned he states he wanted his players to learn on their own. funny how well respected coaches still use time outs late in games to make sure their players know what to do at least as they leave the huddle.

I still think he was not coaching for the 2014 season and his handling of Deandre and Elliot as seniors really point to the fact that Richard wanted to play younger players for the future and not for 2014. I do believe (and it is my right to think and draw conclusion on what i see) he did not play the best two bigs on the team, I owe nothing to Elliot but watched him play his career at the U. Konate may be a good player down the road but he was not very good this season and was not at the level of Elliot last year or the year before, but Elliot did not fit into Richards plans. it could not be for lack of trying or lack of basketball smarts because the two freshman bigs actually made such bad decisions in games that i would say they lost a couple of game son their own.

his lack of running an offense at times was mind boggling. his players making bad decisions does fall back to his leadership.

his pressure defense has made every big ten team change the way they got the ball up the court (it did make our guys more tired later in the games)

the defense against three pointers was horrible all year and it showed up when you lose games by less than 10 points if the defense was a little better it would produced a few more wins.

the fact that as a whole the team played worst in 2014 than in 2013 with only Hollins leaving as a big differential. If your coaching causes the players to get worst it might say a few things about your ability.

His comments in the press about lack of heart is not one that i believe should be brought into the public, but rather in the locker room.

hey if you want to re-watch the season and look for the things i mentioned then get back to me. its my opinion that he has not proven his coaching ability AS OF YET. that doesn't mean he is done learning and he could be a good coach someday. it means at this point in time he has not shown signs of being a coach that has a handle on the competition level of the big ten,

WE got exactly what we paid for. an up and coming coach. he is yet to get to up and coming so don't read too much into my assessment of his ability to date. it is just my opinion.

I hope by next season he can turn it around and "with" his players lets hope they preform better.
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I don't know what you are referring to but in your first paragraph...one instance?...what? on the whole we came out of timeouts and ran a play that almost always got a good shot, sometimes we made the shot, sometimes we threw the ball away and sometimes we missed an open gimmee. If you feel that's the coaches fault...well, ya it is...he needs better players. Defensively, we mixed it up and confused teams out of timeouts...and sometimes we didn't execute and it resulted in the other team scoring but I liked the strategy, but not the execution. Commentators even voiced several times that was a nice piece of coaching. The Gophers coming out of timeouts was a strength. It was good coaching. I definitely saw a plan each time and it was good strategy almost every time.

I'm curious, have you ever been a head coach at the high school level? An assisant coach at the college level?
Did you have any success? I ask because I disagree with all your points. I know it's your opinion and that's all mine is too but I value mine more through experience. :cool:
 

DoubleB said:
nope never said they took starting minutes away but the few they did play in they were so out played that it mattered and with as close as those games were it could have meant a couple more wins. Would that have gotten us into the big dance? probalby not but surely the NIT where Kon and Gas could have gained a little more experience.

here are observations on Kon and Gas
they were out of position on defense that led to several very easy baskets often when they were in the games(almost every game they played in you can go back and re-watch).
teammates didn't know where they were going to be playing and it made rotations impossible to figure out making others look bad as well
throwing up shots that were so ugly they would have been benched on Hopkins team. why either of them would shoot a three point shot is beyond comprehension yet they did several times.

I have said Gas and Kon have athleticism but lack skill. everyone that bashes EE say he lacks skill. I guess if i wanted to win games in 2014 i would have played the senior more. If i had thrown in the towel then sure play the young guys and one that wasn't even able to practice until January. not the guy who three years ago started and played major minutes.

but I dont want this to lead into a EE vs Kon and Gas discussion.

I think there was a lot more to the down year than most all of us know. there are things that might have happened in practice or in the locker room that we will never fully know. Its Richards team and we pay huge money to go see them play but the quality of play this year was sub par and instead of buying pizza for the few students that showed up for the games Pitino should give the season ticket holders some of their money back.
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EE certainly helped us win the St. Johns game.........
 

Cayman said:
Was the freshman Maverick Ahanmisi an obviously superior choice to Blake?
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Yes. Even Tubby later admitted that he should have started Mav. The better of two awful choices.

It's not so much that Mav was better than Blake, but having Blake, Rodney, Trevor and Ralph ALL play out of position was a terrible idea.
 

60's Guy said:
I don't know what you are referring to but in your first paragraph...one instance?...what? on the whole we came out of timeouts and ran a play that almost always got a good shot, sometimes we made the shot, sometimes we threw the ball away and sometimes we missed an open gimmee. If you feel that's the coaches fault...well, ya it is...he needs better players. Defensively, we mixed it up and confused teams out of timeouts...and sometimes we didn't execute and it resulted in the other team scoring but I liked the strategy, but not the execution. Commentators even voiced several times that was a nice piece of coaching. The Gophers coming out of timeouts was a strength. It was good coaching. I definitely saw a plan each time and it was good strategy almost every time.

I'm curious, have you ever been a head coach at the high school level? An assisant coach at the college level?
Did you have any success? I ask because I disagree with all your points. I know it's your opinion and that's all mine is too but I value mine more through experience. :cool:
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DeathClutch said:
EE certainly helped us win the St. Johns game.........
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60s guy, well said. Some folks may think that Pitino isn't running an offense because they can't see a pattern. All this means is that those folks don't know or understand a "Motion" offense, which is predicated upon reading the defense and following a few set rules after the initial movement of the ball. Pitino is very good at getting players an open look at the basket. I thoroughly enjoy the movement he gets out of his offensive sets. No complaints other than I wish this years team would have valued their possessions more than they did.

DeathClutch, that made me laugh. Indeed, that series of "Stooge-like" ineptitude down the stretch was one for the decade. Rarely do you see one man single-handedly snatch defeat from the jaws of victory like Elliot did that evening. Thanks for dragging that debacle back from the recesses of my "Block that thought out" section of the memory bank.
 


Reading blogs and the top Google stories, they're all expecting Tom Crean to get fired from IU and land in Bama.
 



60's Guy said:
I don't know what you are referring to but in your first paragraph...one instance?...what? on the whole we came out of timeouts and ran a play that almost always got a good shot, sometimes we made the shot, sometimes we threw the ball away and sometimes we missed an open gimmee. If you feel that's the coaches fault...well, ya it is...he needs better players. Defensively, we mixed it up and confused teams out of timeouts...and sometimes we didn't execute and it resulted in the other team scoring but I liked the strategy, but not the execution. Commentators even voiced several times that was a nice piece of coaching. The Gophers coming out of timeouts was a strength. It was good coaching. I definitely saw a plan each time and it was good strategy almost every time.

I'm curious, have you ever been a head coach at the high school level? An assisant coach at the college level?
Did you have any success? I ask because I disagree with all your points. I know it's your opinion and that's all mine is too but I value mine more through experience. :cool:
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Apparently I should be clearer, Pitino when he called time outs his team performed but earlier this season in 1 or 2 games where most coaches would have called a time out with time running out he elected to let his team figure it out on their own. and I remember the kids looking at Pitino expecting a TO and it never came and Richard explained as he wanted his guys to learn on their feet. makes those 3 pointers shot by Kon and Gas more explainable.

his overall strategy for managing the game late in close games was not great and I believe he is learning on the job but he needs to pick up the pace of his learning or he will be outside looking in.

as for my coaching resume verses yours? we can agree to disagree on styles as i am sure all coaches do not have the same view point or there would be no need to replace coaches. But i have coached and officiated at many levels with a variety of success.
 

DoubleB said:
Apparently I should be clearer, Pitino when he called time outs his team performed but earlier this season in 1 or 2 games where most coaches would have called a time out with time running out he elected to let his team figure it out on their own. and I remember the kids looking at Pitino expecting a TO and it never came and Richard explained as he wanted his guys to learn on their feet. makes those 3 pointers shot by Kon and Gas more explainable.

his overall strategy for managing the game late in close games was not great and I believe he is learning on the job but he needs to pick up the pace of his learning or he will be outside looking in.

as for my coaching resume verses yours? we can agree to disagree on styles as i am sure all coaches do not have the same view point or there would be no need to replace coaches. But i have coached and officiated at many levels with a variety of success.
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Utohf misses a shot, add .1 second more to the clock, Joey knocks down a couple threes, Mo catches a pass and finishes an "and one" or two and we make a few free throws late and Pitino's late game management goes from a coach that lost 6 close games (whatever the number is) to a guy that won 6 close games.

You're grasping at straws with your arguments. Just leave it at that your opinion is that he's unable to handle a Big10 team as you've got nothing other than subjective observations and very little detail to support your claims.

I wouldn't disagree that his utilization of time outs is a conversation point, but to point to it as a reason he is not ready to handle a Big10 team? Please.
 

Winasota Gopher said:
Utohf misses a shot, add .1 second more to the clock, Joey knocks down a couple threes, Mo catches a pass and finishes an "and one" or two and we make a few free throws late and Pitino's late game management goes from a coach that lost 6 close games (whatever the number is) to a guy that won 6 close games.

You're grasping at straws with your arguments. Just leave it at that your opinion is that he's unable to handle a Big10 team as you've got nothing other than subjective observations and very little detail to support your claims.

I wouldn't disagree that his utilization of time outs is a conversation point, but to point to it as a reason he is not ready to handle a Big10 team? Please.
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Might add Mason makes a free throw and especially Andre makes a 3 pointer. I sort of chalk up those close losses to just one of those years. Lost a couple games early and their confidence took a hit. It's the overall trend that makes me uneasy. Disappointing this year. Potential is certainly there for a poorer year next year. Hard enough to recruit the elite players now; 3 years in a row of not making the NCAA and Richard might miss on Trent and Coffey.

BTW, I didn't hear it live but Barreiro replayed Teague's interview at the end of his show yesterday. Wouldn't expect anything different, but Norwood certainly was dismissive of Pitino going anywhere.
 

<script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

Go Gophers!!
 

BleedGopher said:
<script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

Go Gophers!!
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Ahh. Minnesota beat writer manufacturing news. Marcus should be better than that. That is more of a Doogie-like tweet.
 

Winnipegopher said:
Ahh. Minnesota beat writer manufacturing news. Marcus should be better than that. That is more of a Doogie-like tweet.
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There may be some circumstantial, speculative logic to it - due to Richard's and his staff's eastern connections - but unless Marcus knows something he shouldn't use the word "likely."
 

Winnipegopher said:
Ahh. Minnesota beat writer manufacturing news. Marcus should be better than that. That is more of a Doogie-like tweet.
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two un-named sources about one situation is clearly enough info to infer a speculation into it long before it even happens. That's just today's journalism. It's all about the clicks, not the truth.
 

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