If Eric Musselman was our coach

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MaxyJR1 said:
This is wrong. He wanted the job when Teague hired Pitino. He has no HC experience at that time and was an assistant at Arizona State. He had an interview set up and Teague canceled it.

In 2019 I don't think Muss was truly interested as he was looking for more money from Arkansas and MN wasn't going to pay that. Of course $$$ talks.
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Par for the course. No wonder the wins come hard here.
 

Cayman said:
Do you think Amir Coffey waiting until the last minute to declare for the draft maybe had an impact too? Feel like it would have been weird to have Pitino’s continued employment hinge on whether Coffey leaves or not, and that of course hamstrung us from finding another player to fill his scholarship. Coffey likely would have been a preseason All Big Ten player if he had stayed, then add in Marcus Carr and Daniel Oturu on top of that. That team wasn’t even bad by the metrics as it was, finishing #27 in Kenpom, just every game that came down to the wire, they lost. For comparison, Wisconsin is going to hang a Big Ten Championship banner with a team that is currently ranked #34.
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I don't think so.. Coyle is a smart guy, if he had the green light to move on from Pitino, he would have done so in March. He wasn't given the green light and like you point out, to people on the outside there were signs of potential (young players, tourney win, etc.).
 

MaxyJR1 said:
This is wrong. He wanted the job when Teague hired Pitino. He has no HC experience at that time and was an assistant at Arizona State. He had an interview set up and Teague canceled it.

In 2019 I don't think Muss was truly interested as he was looking for more money from Arkansas and MN wasn't going to pay that. Of course $$$ talks.
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Eric Musselman had no college head coaching experience, he already had two different stints coaching in the NBA. He had quite a bit of college basketball experience as an assistant, he had two stints as an NBA coach and a ton of experience coaching national teams and experience coaching D-League, CBA teams.

As for 2019, I don't think we would have just been leverage for Muss at Arkansas. I think your last sentence is true, he would have been really interested in whoever brought more money. He didn't exactly destroy the bank, his first contract at Arkansas as $2.5 million. I think we are in the conversation if we would have offered that amount.

In 2021, we had absolutely zero chance. He was building/had built something special in Arkansas. I think Minneapolis had a good chance of winning out over Fayetteville when you are picking a city brand new, but he wasn't going to leave a city he just moved, move his family, leave the program he built for a slightly worse job.

I believe we would have had a shot in 2019 with the right offer but that ship has firmly sailed.
 

Bob_Loblaw said:
Eric Musselman had no college head coaching experience, he already had two different stints coaching in the NBA. He had quite a bit of college basketball experience as an assistant, he had two stints as an NBA coach and a ton of experience coaching national teams and experience coaching D-League, CBA teams.

As for 2019, I don't think we would have just been leverage for Muss at Arkansas. I think your last sentence is true, he would have been really interested in whoever brought more money. He didn't exactly destroy the bank, his first contract at Arkansas as $2.5 million. I think we are in the conversation if we would have offered that amount.

In 2021, we had absolutely zero chance. He was building/had built something special in Arkansas. I think Minneapolis had a good chance of winning out over Fayetteville when you are picking a city brand new, but he wasn't going to leave a city he just moved, move his family, leave the program he built for a slightly worse job.

I believe we would have had a shot in 2019 with the right offer but that ship has firmly sailed.
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I was thinking 2019 as 2021. I agree 2019 was our shot.
 

GopherWeatherGuy said:
It was easy to fire him after 8 years, that's when he was fired.

We are talking about firing him after 6 years and coming off of a NCAA tournament win, when they just fired the last coach after 6 years and coming off of a NCAA tournament win.

That's a tough sell at a bottom dwelling basketball program like Minnesota.
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When you're a "bottom dwelling basketball program" it should be an easy sell. And if not, do it anyway.

They were at the bottom BECAUSE of the coach, not in spite of. And were obviously going nowhere.
 


USAF said:
When you're a "bottom dwelling basketball program" it should be an easy sell. And if not, do it anyway.

They were at the bottom BECAUSE of the coach, not in spite of. And were obviously going nowhere.
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They're at the bottom because of multiple coaches over the last 40 years. Like it or not, the Gophers are one of the worst jobs in the B1G.

If you're trying to hire the next big coach with multiple suiters, how are they going to feel when they see the last two coaches were fired after winning NCAA tournament games at an already extremely difficult job? Not good about their future job security.

The Gophers also haven't proven they are willing to pay what it takes to make up for that.
 

MaxyJR1 said:
I was thinking 2019 as 2021. I agree 2019 was our shot.
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You have to be willing to pay the money and also pick up the phone. 2021 was also possible but they weren’t willing-Muss never got a call….
We almost always think small.
 







MaxyJR1 said:
I was thinking 2019 as 2021. I agree 2019 was our shot.
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Muss was married to a woman who wanted no part in living in a northern climate by then. In some cases the spouse may not matter, but it does in this one
 

Hire Muss instead of Pitino in 2013. That would have been interesting. Things could have been different. But who knew Pitino wouldn’t get it done? Five years from now maybe we are so happy we have Johnson. He might surprise us all. He surprised me this last year.
 




kg21 said:
His wife will come around. At that stage in his life, his wife won't let him take the job he has the strong ties, too. I think not.
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Disagree. No big deal. I will wager a large sum of money that he never has the job here. What strong ties ? His father cheated here. Plus he has a better job .
 

builtbadgers said:
Disagree. No big deal. I will wager a large sum of money that he never has the job here. What strong ties ? His father cheated here. Plus he has a better job .
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Selective recollection on coaches that cheat.
 

GopherWeatherGuy said:
They're at the bottom because of multiple coaches over the last 40 years. Like it or not, the Gophers are one of the worst jobs in the B1G.

If you're trying to hire the next big coach with multiple suiters, how are they going to feel when they see the last two coaches were fired after winning NCAA tournament games at an already extremely difficult job? Not good about their future job security.

The Gophers also haven't proven they are willing to pay what it takes to make up for that.
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I guess I was misled. I thought the practice facility was all we needed to become a powerhouse. I guess we didn't need that after all.
 


builtbadgers said:
Not according to his agent and his wife.
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That's kind of what agents do. As far as his wife, who cares?

I don't think there is any chance he comes here but I wouldn't put too much stock into the words of his wife and agent.
 


MaxyJR1 said:
This is wrong. He wanted the job when Teague hired Pitino. He has no HC experience at that time and was an assistant at Arizona State. He had an interview set up and Teague canceled it.

In 2019 I don't think Muss was truly interested as he was looking for more money from Arkansas and MN wasn't going to pay that. Of course $$$ talks.
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i don’t understand how people see how cheaply we hired and then say we could’ve gotten a guy that would’ve probably required the gophers to pay a top 10-20 salary in hoops to get him to move.

4 million for sure IMO
 


Nice thing about BJ as Gopher coach we don't have to continually read that other schools are interested in hiring him away.
 


Unfortunately “what could have been” is our reality as we are long long way from the sweet 16…I don’t think anyone can even see it on the horizon…
 


Some guy said:
i don’t understand how people see how cheaply we hired and then say we could’ve gotten a guy that would’ve probably required the gophers to pay a top 10-20 salary in hoops to get him to move.

4 million for sure IMO
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Yes it would have taken that and yes there would have been people who would have helped cover that cost. This is a huge University. It boils down to wanting to.
 


PhiloVance said:
Nice thing about BJ as Gopher coach we don't have to continually read that other schools are interested in hiring him away.
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After we make the tournament next year, Northwestern will be backing up the brinks truck to bring him home. :cool:
 


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