John Shipley: Fire Gophers’ Richard Pitino? It’s not that cut and dried

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BleedGopher

BleedGopher

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per Shipley:

Would they all return if Coyle retains their coach? Who knows? But they clearly didn’t quit on Pitino; though they lost two of their last three games, they rallied to force overtime against Rutgers and pulled within one of the Buckeyes, a team they had no business beating, in the final minute on Thursday.

Eight years with only one NCAA tournament victory, and one winning Big Ten Conference record, is good enough reason to move on from a coach, especially when that buyout has fallen to a more manageable $1.75 million and Pitino is owed a $400,000 retention bonus on April 30.

On the other hand, Pitino is signed through 2023 and certainly not owed an extension. A new coach will be more expensive, require a longer contract and will be starting from scratch.

This isn’t as cut and dried as everyone is making it.

www.twincities.com

John Shipley: Fire Gophers’ Richard Pitino? It’s not that cut and dried

After eight years we have probably seen the last of the Gophers’ basketball coach. He can’t say he never had a chance.
www.twincities.com www.twincities.com

Go Gophers!!
 



Again unfortunate injuries upended the last few games. If Kalscheur and Robbins were still playing we may have been on a 5 game winning streak and a tournament lock.
 

Disagree with Shipley on this one. It is time to move on and try something different. Coyle inherited Pitino and has been patient with him but time to go see if he can find a better option the way he did with Fleck for football.
 


BleedGopher said:
per Shipley:

Would they all return if Coyle retains their coach? Who knows? But they clearly didn’t quit on Pitino; though they lost two of their last three games, they rallied to force overtime against Rutgers and pulled within one of the Buckeyes, a team they had no business beating, in the final minute on Thursday.

Eight years with only one NCAA tournament victory, and one winning Big Ten Conference record, is good enough reason to move on from a coach, especially when that buyout has fallen to a more manageable $1.75 million and Pitino is owed a $400,000 retention bonus on April 30.

On the other hand, Pitino is signed through 2023 and certainly not owed an extension. A new coach will be more expensive, require a longer contract and will be starting from scratch.

This isn’t as cut and dried as everyone is making it.

www.twincities.com

John Shipley: Fire Gophers’ Richard Pitino? It’s not that cut and dried

After eight years we have probably seen the last of the Gophers’ basketball coach. He can’t say he never had a chance.
www.twincities.com www.twincities.com

Go Gophers!!
Click to expand...
The paragraph I bolded makes me suspicious that Shipley follows or has familiarity with college sports/coaches at the high level. If Pitino were to come back without an extension, there's absolutely no way that he or his staff are getting into the living rooms of high school juniors and seniors and procuring commitments-if they could even get into the living rooms in the first place. He'd be patchworking a roster together with one year transfers and preps not ready for the Big 10.
Where's the program at next year at this time, good or bad? Assuming everyone comes back (which we know is not happening) you have five seniors leaving the program, so you have Mashburn, Williams, Ihnen, Freeman, Mitchell and who else? Do you extend Pitino at that time and for how long, realizing that it's likely the team is going to swing downward in the standings once again, for at least one season?

If moving on from Pitino at this time isn't cut and dried, there will never be a time. I really wish it would have worked for him here, for so many different reasons, but it didn't. It's time to start anew.
 






It would be interesting to know what goals Coyle laid out for the program. If it was only based on win/loss record than Pitino is most likely gone. What about things like graduation rates, how well the players represent the university and community, player feedback, etc.
 

Bottom line is wins and losses. Pitino returning for another year would result in average attendance of around 5,000.
 

BleedGopher said:
per Shipley:

Would they all return if Coyle retains their coach? Who knows? But they clearly didn’t quit on Pitino; though they lost two of their last three games, they rallied to force overtime against Rutgers and pulled within one of the Buckeyes, a team they had no business beating, in the final minute on Thursday.

Eight years with only one NCAA tournament victory, and one winning Big Ten Conference record, is good enough reason to move on from a coach, especially when that buyout has fallen to a more manageable $1.75 million and Pitino is owed a $400,000 retention bonus on April 30.

On the other hand, Pitino is signed through 2023 and certainly not owed an extension. A new coach will be more expensive, require a longer contract and will be starting from scratch.

This isn’t as cut and dried as everyone is making it.

www.twincities.com

John Shipley: Fire Gophers’ Richard Pitino? It’s not that cut and dried

After eight years we have probably seen the last of the Gophers’ basketball coach. He can’t say he never had a chance.
www.twincities.com www.twincities.com

Go Gophers!!
Click to expand...
Lost TWO OF THE LAST THREE??? Try 8 of their last 9 Mr Shipley.
 

those last 4-5 games the team certainly gave up....put up a nice fight for 2 games in the tourney....but this team mailed it in on Pitino 2-3 weeks ago.

great guy and wish him well at his next job....

Shipley is way off on this
 



Shipley only comes in to write a crappy column about the U when there is something controversial going on. He really doesn't know much about what's going on.
 


bobnix said:
Bottom line is wins and losses. Pitino returning for another year would result in average attendance of around 5,000.
Click to expand...

That may be the case regardless of who the Coach is, way too much unknown.

- Attendance was tracking down in general for all College basketball
- Will there be indoor restrictions in the fall?
- How many fans are that eager to attend indoor events period or want to stay away from crowds?
- I don't really see any of the names being mentioned as moving the needle substantially, especially if there is going to be a rebuild year

Case in point PJ Fleck with the energy around his hire, attendance stayed flat in Year 1 (actually up a modest +500 per game). Year 2, down 8000 per game and the lowest average crowds at TCF Bank.

Year 3 with the success on the field there were a few sellouts, but still the attendance was lower than any year prior to Claeys.

I realize there are other factors (Stadium was new, Scholarship seating etc), just saying the fanbase is going to need to see actual results on the court before buying in.

All-Time Attendance Records - University of Minnesota Athletics

Memorial Stadium Attendance Capacity: 52,809 / 56,652 (1970-81) Year At...
gophersports.com gophersports.com
 

bobnix said:
Bottom line is wins and losses. Pitino returning for another year would result in average attendance of around 5,000.
Click to expand...
Can you imagine what the home crowds would have been like down the stretch if fans were allowed in this year? It would have been ugly with the way the team was playing and the boo birds would have been flying.
 

I am proud of our team. They fought hard in the tournament. And I greatly respect Coach Pitino. He is a decent man who has had to deal with an inordinate amount of adversity. Not just this year, but over the course of his 8-year tenure at Minnesota. I would love to see him continue on and achieve the kind of success that we all want. But I recognize that a change might be needed to restore fan support. I have confidence in Coyle to make the right decision. And regardless of the outcome, I wish Pitino the very best.
 

jblass said:
It would be interesting to know what goals Coyle laid out for the program. If it was only based on win/loss record than Pitino is most likely gone. What about things like graduation rates, how well the players represent the university and community, player feedback, etc.
Click to expand...
Given history and probably because of history academics and graduation is an important metric for athletics
 

coolhandgopher said:
The paragraph I bolded makes me suspicious that Shipley follows or has familiarity with college sports/coaches at the high level. If Pitino were to come back without an extension, there's absolutely no way that he or his staff are getting into the living rooms of high school juniors and seniors and procuring commitments-if they could even get into the living rooms in the first place. He'd be patchworking a roster together with one year transfers and preps not ready for the Big 10.
Where's the program at next year at this time, good or bad? Assuming everyone comes back (which we know is not happening) you have five seniors leaving the program, so you have Mashburn, Williams, Ihnen, Freeman, Mitchell and who else? Do you extend Pitino at that time and for how long, realizing that it's likely the team is going to swing downward in the standings once again, for at least one season?

If moving on from Pitino at this time isn't cut and dried, there will never be a time. I really wish it would have worked for him here, for so many different reasons, but it didn't. It's time to start anew.
Click to expand...
What about Gabe ?
 

I guess Shipley wants another season with no fans at the barn bc that’s what you’ll have if Pitino is retained for another season.
 

At this point, I don't see how he could have any success recruiting - even if the U doesn't make a change. I'll eat my Marion Barber hat if he's not let go.
 

Gophs24 said:
those last 4-5 games the team certainly gave up....put up a nice fight for 2 games in the tourney....but this team mailed it in on Pitino 2-3 weeks ago.

great guy and wish him well at his next job....

Shipley is way off on this
Click to expand...
It was nice to see them fight yesterday but the reality is they gave up in the 2nd half of the home game against Illinois, which was weeks ago. That is when things started sliding dramatically. IF they had the respect for Pitino that Shipley feels they have, they wouldn't have tossed in the towel at that point.

They fought yesterday knowing it was THEIR last chance... not for Pitino but for their own respect and pride in themselves and who they are as people and athletes. I frankly don't think it had anything to do with Pitino as they clearly let that ship sail weeks ago.
 

WriterGoph said:
Shipley only comes in to write a crappy column about the U when there is something controversial going on. He really doesn't know much about what's going on.
Click to expand...
This.

Clickbait opinion piece.

I did not click on it.
 


Actually, it seems very cut and dried. Coyle has seen what highly succesful college basketball programs look like. Remember, he was at Syracuse.

Right now, this is closer to a dumpster fire than a highly successful college basketball program.

Not being able to defeat Penn State, Rutgers, or Nebraska and being barely competitive with Northwestern will clinch Pitino's fate more than any other single factor.

Also would like a college basketball coach who shows ability to make in-game adjustments.
 

MNVCGUY said:
Can you imagine what the home crowds would have been like down the stretch if fans were allowed in this year? It would have been ugly with the way the team was playing and the boo birds would have been flying.
Click to expand...
Agreed. If there was ever a year to have a clunker, this was it.
 

MplsGopher said:
This.

Clickbait opinion piece.

I did not click on it.
Click to expand...

Exactly. I don't know why people on this page are making an effort to argue why this "closer call than you think" piece is faulty. Is there anyone posting here regularly who thinks this decision is a close call? It's like making a speech to the Politburo about about why claims that capitalism will be the savior of the world are faulty.
 

vagopher said:
I am proud of our team. They fought hard in the tournament. And I greatly respect Coach Pitino. He is a decent man who has had to deal with an inordinate amount of adversity. Not just this year, but over the course of his 8-year tenure at Minnesota. I would love to see him continue on and achieve the kind of success that we all want. But I recognize that a change might be needed to restore fan support. I have confidence in Coyle to make the right decision. And regardless of the outcome, I wish Pitino the very best.
Click to expand...
I agree with the pride, decency and success for both the team and Pitino. Not completely sold on the adversity faced, though.

We make our own luck. Luck happens when you have a plan and are prepared- for both the best and the worst.

Whether it is recruiting the wrong guys, not adjusting style of play for the players that you do have, not developing specific player skills for specific plays, finding or developing replacement players for the future and/or injuries, that is totally on the coach.

I think Richard is a GREAT guy. Humorous, good role model, entertaining, family man- the list goes on.

Unfortunately, he has not created his own luck as a coach.
 

Gophs24 said:
those last 4-5 games the team certainly gave up....put up a nice fight for 2 games in the tourney....but this team mailed it in on Pitino 2-3 weeks ago.

great guy and wish him well at his next job....

Shipley is way off on this
Click to expand...
I actually hope he goes into broadcasting. I think he would be great and could become one of the top national analyst for college BBall.
 

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