Fire Pitino

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Pitino has the worst conference record of any gopher bball coach since the 1940s. I mean really i think that is all we need to say right? Maybe a loss here or there has been unlucky sure, but over 7 years he has just been bad.
 

I was more upset that the entire second half we didn't clear out and post up Oturu on Smith knowing he couldn't foul. At some point doesn't an assistant speak up and ask what are we doing?
 

I've been a Pitino supporter. After last night I just think it's time to move on. Dont know if we replace pitino how the next couple of years will be, but maybe the transition will be better than what we think. I agree that I dont care where the recruit comes from, but right now attendance is down and it appears that pitino's relationship with minnesota high school coaches and AAU programs are not good. At this point I'm just going to trust coyle and see where this goes!
 

USAF said:
It's time to move on no matter who they hire. It might be time to move on again, 7 years from now, but that has zero to do with moving on today.
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How many times are you going to repeat yourself... you say the same thing over and over. we all understand your position. good for you.
 

Gopherbbdude said:
How many times are you going to repeat yourself... you say the same thing over and over. we all understand your position. good for you.
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You are in a Fire Pitino thread. There seems to only be three options. (1) Fire Pitino; (2) Don't Fire Pitino; (3) F#ck Wisconsin.
 


Cayman said:
I’m pretty sure that winning close games is something that very few teams, if any, are able to consistently do in the long run. Winning close games is not a skill, it’s a matter of chance. Sometimes you make the big play, and sometimes your opponent does.
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If you are ahead in the last 3 minutes, the difference between winning and losing is coaches. It is 100% coaching. Sure the players are usually exhausted because he only plays about 5 of them...that's coaching. (It is very hard to shoot 3's if you are exhausted). Inbounds plays are coaching and they are not hard to create and execute. Shooting is coaching as it is a skill that practice makes better. I have not called for Pitino to be fired before, but this was the last straw. If you can't win with Carr and Oturo...awesome players in the two most important positions...time to go. The last 3 minutes is not luck. It's coaching.
 

GopherCountry said:
Kevin Williard is at the top for me
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Kevin Willard already has a better job that probably pays him more and is in an area close to where he grew up and has spent the bulk of his coaching career.
 

Bob_Loblaw said:
This is just it. The fact is that even if all of these horrific meltdowns are on the players, doesn't that mean we need to fire the person who brought all of them in? This wasn't one game that went sideways against a hot team, it was a typical meltdown.
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Those GD inbounds "plays" were killing me last night. Reminded me of Tubby's reign. Set some picks or something! What is Pitino drawing up during the timeouts?
 

Cayman said:
I’m pretty sure that winning close games is something that very few teams, if any, are able to consistently do in the long run. Winning close games is not a skill, it’s a matter of chance. Sometimes you make the big play, and sometimes your opponent does.
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The problem is last night shouldn't have been a close game. Maryland didn't play great offensively but somehow they got back into the game. This was a 15-20 point game for a majority of the first half.

Winning close games is actually a skill, although sometimes the ball takes a different bounce or just isn't your night. I would take the skilled team over team that is going to rely on chance.
 
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ole1710 said:
So Pitino leaves, what does team look like next year? Gabe, Carr, Willis, Omersa, Curry? Ihnen, Freeman, Williams, and (Greenlee) probably gone, Mashburn (coming because of connection with Pitinos) and Mitchell likely gone, Oturo gone for sure (more than likely anyways). If he comes back he has a great core even better if Oturo does shock us and come back. And the year after that we only lose Willis. Pitino took some time to figure things out but this looks like a promising core going forward. If he is gone we start all over with another unknown. Just because guys are promising like Craig Smith and Niko doesn't mean they are going to be a homerun here. Look at Texas with Shaka, Indiana with 5 coaches since Knight (some success, some not), USC with Enfield. I could keep going. Firing and hiring is high risk, sometimes high reward, sometimes low reward move. Pitino was probably not the best hire 7 years ago (I agree some bumps along the road) but we are finally starting to see some sort of depth and roster construction going into next year and you want to blow it up? I have a feeling most people on there first job were great in the first couple years and took sometime to master it. Bet most of you are glad your boss didn't fire you just because you were raw but showed flashes of potential.
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And at one point every Gopher football player was going to leave. It was too bad when Antoine Winfield left when Tracy Claeys was fired - would have have been fun to see what he would have done under Fleck.

Some players will leave, some will stay. It is what it is.
 

CoMn said:
If you are ahead in the last 3 minutes, the difference between winning and losing is coaches. It is 100% coaching. Sure the players are usually exhausted because he only plays about 5 of them...that's coaching. (It is very hard to shoot 3's if you are exhausted). Inbounds plays are coaching and they are not hard to create and execute. Shooting is coaching as it is a skill that practice makes better. I have not called for Pitino to be fired before, but this was the last straw. If you can't win with Carr and Oturo...awesome players in the two most important positions...time to go. The last 3 minutes is not luck. It's coaching.
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Agree 100%. This season has shown a combination of Pitino deficiencies. First, his coaching in the last 5 minutes this Big Ten season has been horrible. There's too many mental errors. Second, his recruiting (lack of) shows up in all these games. Not one of the freshman is ready to contribute significant minutes to help the starters on top of not having a junior or senior to help in the last few minutes.
 

McPeePants said:
Those GD inbounds "plays" were killing me last night. Reminded me of Tubby's reign. Set some picks or something! What is Pitino drawing up during the timeouts?
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I say Conrad drawing things up during one timeout/pause in the game.
 




CoMn said:
If you are ahead in the last 3 minutes, the difference between winning and losing is coaches. It is 100% coaching. Sure the players are usually exhausted because he only plays about 5 of them...that's coaching. (It is very hard to shoot 3's if you are exhausted). Inbounds plays are coaching and they are not hard to create and execute. Shooting is coaching as it is a skill that practice makes better. I have not called for Pitino to be fired before, but this was the last straw. If you can't win with Carr and Oturo...awesome players in the two most important positions...time to go. The last 3 minutes is not luck. It's coaching.
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it is not 100% coaching. Coaches can't make FTs that is a fact
 

Even the really good programs and coaches experience these kind of games once in a while. I remember the Edmonton Oilers losing a conference title game 7 when their defenseman scored into his own goal. I've seen worse than that. It's a part of sports.

If Pitino is ultimately dismissed it's not going to be because of one game or even one season; it's going to be a body of work that's long enough now that we know what we're dealing with. If anyone thinks that Richard is suddenly going to turn some sort of corner and be a solid program builder, roster composer, and fundamentals coach from this point forward after consistently struggling at those things for 7 years... If anyone thinks that he's going to end up retiring from here many years from now with a distinguished career, conference championships, and deep NCAA runs... If people think the key to the program realizing its potential is continuing doing the exact same as the last 7 years and expecting markedly different results...

When you fire someone and hire his replacement--as the Gophers did with Tubby Smith and Richard Pitino respectively--you do so with the intention of improving the situation. I really don't know how many ADs or fan bases would look at 7 years of poorer team performance than the predecessor coach and think that the experiment was a success and propose letting the situation ride.
 

Gophs24 said:
unreal! my wife told me to relax when I was yelling at the dang TV....what did they let them do that....at least 3 times....one of them with 45 seconds left let them roll it to the 3 point line picks it up and drives and Gabe fouls them....1 second came off the dang clock! 1!!

inexcusable is 100% correct!
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Really?

If this is true they should have fired Pitino on the spot.
 

Basketball is an interesting game because it seems like a single missed front end of a 1-in-1 free throw can lose a game, but there are many other situations like that which compile and make a 14 point game an 11 point game. A 10 point game a 8 point game. A 5 point game a 2 point game.
Eventually all of those little mistakes cause a loss instead of a win.

I remember shortly before Tubby was fired, he couldn't run in-bound plays either.
 

Well, we can't fire players. We can fire the coaches who prepare players to perform. Consistent failure to perform falls on the coaches. One moment of failure falls on the player(s).
With 3 epic meltdowns in a row, at home, the failure to perform falls on the coaches.
Coyle ?, makes the decision on who gets to coach these players in the future. His decision on this will effect his own grade by those who evaluate him. Choose wisely oh snake ?.
 

Although there was plenty blame to go around with coaches decisions, I'm not gonna blame Pitino for missed free throws. You had 2 guys on the line that have shown they are very capable of making those and have shown in the past they can make them. Gabe has had no confidence this year. That free throw proved that. Carr's free throw hit back iron and gabe's was just a choke job.
 

gophereric30 said:
Although there was plenty blame to go around with coaches decisions, I'm not gonna blame Pitino for missed free throws. You had 2 guys on the line that have shown they are very capable of making those and have shown in the past they can make them. Gabe has had no confidence this year. That free throw proved that. Carr's free throw hit back iron and gabe's was just a choke job.
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We're past the point of this thing with Gabe being a slump. Something is seriously wrong. This is the first year since he's been a known commodity back in middle school that he hasn't improved his game and production.
 

Gold Rush said:
Be patient. You can be pretty sure Coyle is working behind the scenes to find the right guy. He has a pretty good track record of coming up with the right people for coaching changes but he does it quietly and behind the scenes.

The loss last night solidifies the decision to make a change. I like Pitino and kept waiting for him to pull it together but it just never happened. He has had 7 years and we continue to be in the NCAA basketball wasteland.

It's time to move on but only if we can get the right guy.
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If AD Coyle waits too long they will be playing to an empty arena like the hockey team did after waiting too long to replace Lucia.
 
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Bad Gopher said:
We're past the point of this thing with Gabe being a slump. Something is seriously wrong. This is the first year since he's been a known commodity back in middle school that he hasn't improved his game and production.
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I've been saying starting new with a different coach might be the best thing. A new coach might be best thing for gabe too.
 

jamiche said:
There's no talent to preserve by keeping Pitino. My guess is that his players have tuned him out by now and might be receptive to a new voice.
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Yes and Yes.
 

sbanyai said:
At some point doesn't an assistant speak up and ask what are we doing?
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I've had a theory that Pitino may have been insecure because of his youth and his relative lack of experience and accomplishments. Insecure people tend to feel more threatened when challenged so maybe his assistants are a little more wary of challenging his decisions or lack of.
 

Gopherbbdude said:
How many times are you going to repeat yourself...
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As many times as I read "Only fire Pitino if we hire the right guy."

That's not a valid position, for obvious reasons, for anyone with the brains to think past the end of his nose.

Either you want to keep Pitino, or you want a new coach.
 

I agree we should never been in the spot last night to lose, but after reading how with some our missed free throws are somehow Pitino's fault and coaching, I have to I guess question chambers coaching after last night, when penn state had 1 point lead with like 30 seconds to go and Lamar Steven's missed both free throws and Rutgers came down to take 1 point lead, until penn state won at end. Would chambers be blamed for bad coaching at end, because Steven's missed 2 free throws if they lost.? Must be the coaching if guy misses free throws when he shoots 73% from the line.
 

BarnBall said:
I don’t think Pitino needs to take all the blame for this loss. You have two guys that missed the front end of a one on one to seal the deal and they can’t make it happen. Such a disappointing loss. I hope they can learn from this and win the NIT. Go Gophers
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I agree that this loss is on the players who did not play well. However, the lineup and lack of backups after seven years on the job does fall on the coach. No need for any rush firing, but, IMHO, it is time for a change at the best moment. I would add that it is time now, as in the next game, to play Demir less as there is the future to start building towards.
 

USAF said:
As many times as I read "Only fire Pitino if we hire the right guy."

That's not a valid position, for obvious reasons, for anyone with the brains to think past the end of his nose.

Either you want to keep Pitino, or you want a new coach.
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This is a big decision - you don't just rush in and hire anyone off the street. This is the perfect time to fire Pitino and move on plus you have a low 2 million dollar buyout. But let's weigh in on all the options out there and make the best decision possible. You need to get someone better than Pitino, not just anyone not named Pitino.
 

CoMn said:
If you are ahead in the last 3 minutes, the difference between winning and losing is coaches. It is 100% coaching. Sure the players are usually exhausted because he only plays about 5 of them...that's coaching. (It is very hard to shoot 3's if you are exhausted). Inbounds plays are coaching and they are not hard to create and execute. Shooting is coaching as it is a skill that practice makes better. I have not called for Pitino to be fired before, but this was the last straw. If you can't win with Carr and Oturo...awesome players in the two most important positions...time to go. The last 3 minutes is not luck. It's coaching.
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Completely disagree with your silly 100% thinking. The players had the chance to make the plays and they did not. They are his players certainly. He brought THEM here and did not bring in more and/or better players, but the coach can not make the plays for the players. They are adults and they are responsible for their failures just as he is responsible for his failures in recruiting.
 

Bad Gopher said:
We're past the point of this thing with Gabe being a slump. Something is seriously wrong. This is the first year since he's been a known commodity back in middle school that he hasn't improved his game and production.
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I think he's asked to do too much. We also don't have an offense that has a firm grasp on spacing. We see it at times, especially when Ihnen is in the game and is comfortable in the corners. I think our staff mistakenly associates just shooting more threes with a modern offense. There is an element to spacing that just still don't understand. A lot of our shots from Willis, Gabe and Carr aren't horrible shots, but they aren't the wide open looks you see from other teams. It's why so many of them come from the elbow extended. Watch the Rockets/Warriors/Nuggets and notice the spacing.

It's why Pitino constantly says "they're great shooters in practice". He mistakenly believes that they're just missing in games. It's that they aren't ideal shots (even if they aren't bad shots).

There is also the bit that Gabe should be playing about 28 minutes per game. He is always defending the best player on the other team.
 

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