Doogie: I have every reason to believe Richard Pitino WILL be back as Gophers coach, there are just no signs

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BleedGopher

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In his latest Scoops Podcast (posted on Friday, prior to today's win), Doogie said, verbatim:

I have zero reason to believe that Richard Pitino will be fired. I have every reason to believe from digging enough that Richard Pitino will be back as Gophers coach, there are just no signs. I get it things can change its fluid, I get all of that but as of right now for a myriad of reasons, I have reasons to believe that Richard Pitino will indeed be back as Gophers coach.

www.skornorth.com

The Scoop – SKOR North

www.skornorth.com www.skornorth.com

Go Gophers!!
 

Judd agrees Pitino will be back:

RICHARD PITINO

This has been a disappointing season in what has been an up-and-down run for the Gophers men’s basketball coach. The Gophers crushed visiting Nebraska, 107-75, in their Big Ten regular-season finale on Sunday and are 14-16 overall and 8-12 in the conference. Nebraska (7-24, 2-18) is the worst team in the Big Ten and beating the Cornhuskers by 32 points doesn’t erase the negatives, or the fact the Gophers will open the Big Ten tournament on Wednesday as the 12th seed against 13th-seeded Northwestern.

A year after winning a first-round game in the NCAA tournament, the Gophers might be lucky to get a berth in the NIT. The Gophers have suffered some brutal losses this season, including ugly home defeats against Iowa, Indiana and Maryland. Complete meltdowns against the Hawkeyes and Terps had to leave a lasting impression on athletic director Mark Coyle.

So could Pitino be out after seven seasons? He would be owed a $2 million buyout and there are some who think that is too rich for a school that still is paying off plenty of bills. Coyle did not hire Pitino but he likes him and could give him a chance to follow a losing season with a winning one for the third time.

The biggest question facing Coyle is can he afford to keep Pitino based on fan interest? The Minneapolis-St. Paul market is incredibly competitive when it comes to the sports dollar and if Williams Arena is going to be empty next season that isn’t good for business.

The verdict: Pitino gets another season but it won’t be easy with star player Daniel Oturu expected to leave for the NBA draft.

www.skornorth.com

Zulgad: Surrounded by uncertainty: What does future hold for Zimmer, Pitino and Evason?

Some thoughts on the Minnesota coaching scene while heading to Fort Myers to cover one guy, Twins manager Rocco Baldelli, who currently has more job security than almost anyone in town. MIKE ZIMMER Is Zimmer going to get an extension or not? A year ago at the NFL Scouting Combine in...
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Go Gophers!!
 

Honestly anyone who thought the gophers would be better than this this year was kind of dreaming.

not saying it’s acceptable. Saying it was expected. I’m sure Coyle knew we would be around .500 this year and definitely bottom half of the conference.
I maintain if he was going to get fired for a season like this they would’ve fired him last year. Because everyone saw this coming.
in fact, we were better than I thought we would be
 


While on the subject of fan interest, our beloved Gopher hockey team average just a bit over 2000 fans for their playoff series with Notre Dame.

Lets be real, folks, an 8-12 B1G IU team would have filled their arena. Minnesota not an ideal fanbase.
 



Block M said:
While on the subject of fan interest, our beloved Gopher hockey team average just a bit over 2000 fans for their playoff series with Notre Dame.

Lets be real, folks, an 8-12 B1G IU team would have filled their arena. Minnesota not an ideal fanbase.
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Until it is, when you consistently win for 3 or 4 years in a row. Build up a base. Fans have hung around for quite a while after the Clem era, without that great of a brand of basketball. Averaged about 12,000 fans a game after just going to the NCAA tournament in 2017. You just gotta give us somethin.

Also watching the hockey game. I think Motzo is changing this program and hopefully in a couple years people are back in the seats. Rest of the Big 10 needs to keep getting better as well.
 


If true, then the rest of the league is safe for at least another year.
 



Some guy said:
Honestly anyone who thought the gophers would be better than this this year was kind of dreaming.

not saying it’s acceptable. Saying it was expected. I’m sure Coyle knew we would be around .500 this year and definitely bottom half of the conference.
I maintain if he was going to get fired for a season like this they would’ve fired him last year. Because everyone saw this coming.
in fact, we were better than I thought we would be
Click to expand...
I would agree this year just about met my expectations of what they would do. But even if Oturu comes back, I would probably expect about a 8-12 season next year. Freeman, Williams, Mitchell, Greenlee IMO all fall under the “project” category. Ihnen showed some promise at the end of the season, but there is a gaping hole at PF and backup PG. And C if Oturu leaves. Even with rose colored glasses, they are no better than .500 in conference next year. Is that good enough? Are you just going to can him next year? Just restart the process now instead of dragging your feet.

If we had a coaching vacancy, and Pitino was available, would we hire him now? There’s no way. That should tell you whether he should hang around or not.
 

Some guy said:
Honestly anyone who thought the gophers would be better than this this year was kind of dreaming.

not saying it’s acceptable. Saying it was expected. I’m sure Coyle knew we would be around .500 this year and definitely bottom half of the conference.
I maintain if he was going to get fired for a season like this they would’ve fired him last year. Because everyone saw this coming.
in fact, we were better than I thought we would be
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Most thought we would be a top 25 team with Amir back but when it was announced that Amir officially wouldn't be back it wasn't until later in May which is too late to fire a coach.

I think it would have been a lot easier to fire Pitino last year had we known for sure Amir wasn't coming back right away but many thought he would take his name out.
 

At this point I would be surprised if Pitino isn’t given another year where more than likely he is coaching for his job.

With the coaching hot seat he will be on its going to be tough recruiting.
 
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Some guy said:
Honestly anyone who thought the gophers would be better than this this year was kind of dreaming.

not saying it’s acceptable. Saying it was expected. I’m sure Coyle knew we would be around .500 this year and definitely bottom half of the conference.
I maintain if he was going to get fired for a season like this they would’ve fired him last year. Because everyone saw this coming.
in fact, we were better than I thought we would be
Click to expand...

So what are you expecting next year minus Oturu? I will go with worse than this year.

What say you?
 



scools12 said:
At this point I would be surprised if Pitino isn’t given another year where more than likely he is coaching for his job.

With the coaching hot seat he will be on recruiting going to be difficult.
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The problem i have with the one more year argument is what is good enough next year to keep his job?
Another 8-12 and an NIT invite...9-11 and NCAA tourney bubble?.....Without Oturu i dont see how it is possible the team next year is better than this one.
 

BleedGopher said:
In his latest Scoops Podcast (posted on Friday, prior to today's win), Doogie said, verbatim:

I have zero reason to believe that Richard Pitino will be fired. I have every reason to believe from digging enough that Richard Pitino will be back as Gophers coach, there are just no signs. I get it things can change its fluid, I get all of that but as of right now for a myriad of reasons, I have reasons to believe that Richard Pitino will indeed be back as Gophers coach.

www.skornorth.com

The Scoop – SKOR North

www.skornorth.com www.skornorth.com

Go Gophers!!
Click to expand...
Doogie obviously doesn't read tea bags...
 

forever a gopher said:
I would agree this year just about met my expectations of what they would do. But even if Oturu comes back, I would probably expect about a 8-12 season next year. Freeman, Williams, Mitchell, Greenlee IMO all fall under the “project” category. Ihnen showed some promise at the end of the season, but there is a gaping hole at PF and backup PG. And C if Oturu leaves. Even with rose colored glasses, they are no better than .500 in conference next year. Is that good enough? Are you just going to can him next year? Just restart the process now instead of dragging your feet.

If we had a coaching vacancy, and Pitino was available, would we hire him now? There’s no way. That should tell you whether he should hang around or not.
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I don't disagree with everything you said there, but I totally disagree with your assessment of our prospects next year if we had Oturu. 13-7 minimum. Oturu will get better,again. Carr will be better, Gabe will be better for sure. Ihnen who will be the PF, will be a full year player and a lot stronger. Mashburn adds depth and maybe Mitchell does as well. Freeman will be ready to play. We will add two or three more players. So the whole starting lineup back, subbing in Ihnen for Demir which will be an upgrade, more depth and you say we are going to be no better? I think that Willis will be a 6th man type- which would be an excellent role for him.
 

Well since Doogie is saying it odds are good Pitino will be gone (as they already were)

Some things said in this thread are absolutely ridiculous. "They met my expectations this year" If your expectations were 12th in the conference THAT'S THE PROBLEM.

Further, your "expectations" need to adjust with the league. The Gophers could have won the B1G this year. That's not a preposterous statement. Nobody projected Daniel Oturu to become one of the 2-3 best players in the entire conference and if they did they certainly weren't projecting the Gophers to finish F'ing 12th. If you lined up the Gophers and Badgers rosters, you'd take Oturu first and Carr second. The Badgers won a share of the conference title. There were 12 teams with a pulse in the B1G this year, all with significant flaws, the Gophers finished a clear 12th of that group.

Since Pitino got his extension, he basically thrown up all over himself (and this program)

1. He had FIVE scholarships in the Spring to give for the 2019-20 season to join Daniel, Gabe, and the rest of his returners. The best he did with those scholarships was Alihan Demir in terms of help for his team. I'd argue the actually would have been better off not even adding Demir and giving Ihnen and Omersa those minutes. He gave two scholarships to guys who will likely never play a meaningful minute of B1G basketball. He didn't use the third.

2. He had the worst in state recruiting season of any coach in my lifetime. Suggs? No. Garcia? No. Dainja? No. Carlson? No. Walton? Probably not. If you believe he wanted Crowl that's yet another one. None of these kids went to a blue blood, they all left the state and 4 or 5 of them are rated higher than Pitino's best recruit in this class.

3. He badly underachieved this season. Made a lot of excuses but couldn't win very easy games against Iowa and Indiana at home. Lost 3 straight home games as a favorite by giving Maryland their biggest comeback win in a decade to cap it off. The absolute worst this team should have been in conference play was 12-8 and they finished 8-12.

When you look at all the opportunities for the program over the past year and the failure to capitalize on any of it either on the floor or in recruiting it's really hard to come up with a more disappointing time period. To only go to the NIT the year after the Final Four was awful with Sam, Quincy and Eric on the team, but at least Clem signed Pryz for the next season. Tubby's last team underachieved horribly, but at least they made the NCAA's and won a game.
 

scools12 said:
At this point I would be surprised if Pitino isn’t given another year where more than likely he is coaching for his job.

With the coaching hot seat he will be on its going to be tough recruiting.
Click to expand...
Coyle isn't giving him another year unless he is confident in next year being solid (better than this year). That confidence would have to come from their conversations and Coyle's own research about who is returning, who we have coming in and how we stand to recruit to the holes we have. It will surely include and assessment by Coyle as to whether Pitino has the respect of the players and can get them to perform at a higher level.
 

Honest question: what would be the signs that Doogie is looking for?
 

GopherGangsta said:
The problem i have with the one more year argument is what is good enough next year to keep his job?
Another 8-12 and an NIT invite...9-11 and NCAA tourney bubble?.....Without Oturu i dont see how it is possible the team next year is better than this one.
Click to expand...
I would move on from Pitino if it was my decision. I believe we have seen enough. I don’t believe the program is going anywhere with him leading it no matter how many more years he might get.

Just have the feeling he gets next year. I would think a NCAA Tourney bid is the minimum he would need next season to have any chance of staying beyond that.
 

bga1 said:
Coyle isn't giving him another year unless he is confident in next year being solid (better than this year). That confidence would have to come from their conversations and Coyle's own research about who is returning, who we have coming in and how we stand to recruit to the holes we have. It will surely include and assessment by Coyle as to whether Pitino has the respect of the players and can get them to perform at a higher level.
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7 years of past performances is not enough?...He will never recruit or coach at a high level.
 

bga1 said:
Coyle isn't giving him another year unless he is confident in next year being solid (better than this year). That confidence would have to come from their conversations and Coyle's own research about who is returning, who we have coming in and how we stand to recruit to the holes we have. It will surely include and assessment by Coyle as to whether Pitino has the respect of the players and can get them to perform at a higher level.
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Exactly why I said if Pitino is given next year he is most than likely coaching for his job. If given the chance and next year isn’t better than this season he isn’t coming back for the 2021.
 
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Bad Gopher said:
Honest question: what would be the signs that Doogie is looking for?
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Maybe there are none because Coyle keeps his cards close to the vest. Were there obvious signs that Tubby was going to be fired? I didn't pay attention to internet forums, columnists, or radio jocks at the time but I was surprised.
 


LakevilleBro said:
This is a perfect example of the old saying "The definition of insanity, is doing the same thing over and over again, and expecting different results"
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I wouldn't form a conclusion based on some media person not having anything. If Coyle intends to fire Pitino, he likely doesn't want to talk about it until the moment when he delivers the news.
 

As I have stated a few other times, if they don't fire Pitino at the end of the year you will end up firing him at the end of NEXT year. What's the point - you might as well rebuild with a different coach then just throw away next season. You will lose another 10-20 per cent of your season ticket holders while we wait.......
 

Accepting mediocrity doesn’t sound like a great plan. I have seen enough to conclude that he is not the long term answer. I will be disappointed if the don’t make a move.
 


No idea what Mr. Coyle will do. That is they way it should be. He has not tipped his hand to far more connected media than Wolfson. There are several boosters that are out if he stays but Coyle can not please them unless he can get who they want. He knows if he gets who he wants the winning will bring back everyone and more.
 

Either fire him or extend him.

"One more year" makes zero sense.

If you're happy with the program, extend.

It's not going to change. We know who Pitino is.
 

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