***MINNESOTA VS OKLAHOMA STATE IN TULSA IN-GAME THREAD!!!***

you have to trust the AD will make a change if he doesn't see progress (and he is looking at it differently than the "overall conference record").
That sounds nice on paper. I don't trust it. I'm a pessimist.

Remember, this AD fired the football coach after a winning season.
Sorry but this is a cop out -- he was only able to fire him because of the scandal and the way Claeys publicly supported the boycotting players. If he hadn't done that, Coyle wouldn't have been able to fire him.

Doubt Coyle is going to get that "easy button" with Pitino. My opinion
 

this may be a goofy analogy, but:

it's like you're in a relationship. you like the other person a lot, but you're not sure if he she is your true soul-mate and partner for life.

So, you have to ask yourself - do you stay with what you know, which may be good but not perfect - or do you decide to go for broke, walk away from the comfortable and try for something better - which you may or may not find.

That is how I see the Gopher Men's BB program at this point. I like Pitino, but I don't see him ever taking the Gophers to a conference title or a long run in the NCAA. If you change coaches, there is no guarantee you will wind up in a better place. (see Brewster, Tim...) So you have to decide - is being good good enough, or do you want to roll the dice, walk away from something ok and try for something better.
 

So what am I supposed to do with this season now???

I either want:
- the Gophers to be solidly in the top 5 of the Big Ten, earning an NCAA bid and a nice seed
OR
- the Gophers to play poorly enough to get Pitino fired, so that a new coach could be brought in with a new hope


It seemed they were well on their way to the latter. But suddenly, now this.

I'm worry that this won't end up resulting in the former. Rather, that they'll end up playing poorly enough to not have any post-season or make it to a low level tourny, but well enough that Pitino doesn't get fired. That's the worst outcome, IMO.


this is a horrendous take.... wanting, at any point, for your team to do bad so they fire the coach..... Are you kidding me... horrible really
 

this is a horrendous take.... wanting, at any point, for your team to do bad so they fire the coach..... Are you kidding me... horrible really

Agreed. And remember you most certainly lose both recruits for next year if Pitino is fired. Mashburn Jr. is the true PG that gets this team over the hump as I think Carr is more of a 2 guard. This will be a very good team next year with his addition and the returning talent.
 

Anyone know if there might be a replay of this game on TV coming up. I missed it as I was down in southern Iowa for a wedding. I forgot to record it.
 


Anyone know if there might be a replay of this game on TV coming up. I missed it as I was down in southern Iowa for a wedding. I forgot to record it.
Most of it here


 


That sounds nice on paper. I don't trust it. I'm a pessimist.


Sorry but this is a cop out -- he was only able to fire him because of the scandal and the way Claeys publicly supported the boycotting players. If he hadn't done that, Coyle wouldn't have been able to fire him.

Doubt Coyle is going to get that "easy button" with Pitino. My opinion

Coyle gets paid tons of money to make tough decisions. You really think he’d be strung up had he not retained Claeys even if the whole boycott thing didn’t happen? Same with Pitino. It’s not like he’s firing or not retaining a legend. Coyle has had unlimited power to make decisions. It was part of the deal for him coming here. So it’s not a cop out.
 

Anyone know if there might be a replay of this game on TV coming up. I missed it as I was down in southern Iowa for a wedding. I forgot to record it.
Should be able to watch it at espn.com/watch
 




Coyle gets paid tons of money to make tough decisions. You really think he’d be strung up had he not retained Claeys even if the whole boycott thing didn’t happen? Same with Pitino. It’s not like he’s firing or not retaining a legend. Coyle has had unlimited power to make decisions. It was part of the deal for him coming here. So it’s not a cop out.
It is a cop out. Coyle had an easy button with Claeys, as I explained. It allowed him to fire Claeys after a successful, bowl-winning season. It would've been impossible for Coyle to fire Claeys otherwise, if the scandal had never happened. And thus we would've missed out on Fleck.

I don't think it's asking too much for you to be able to recognize that.

And I think it's dishonest for you to claim that it's on Coyle to supposedly still be able to fire a major sport HC, no matter what, if he perceives a better coach is available. The world is not so simple and easy as that, I'm afraid.

This is all my viewpoint, all my opinion. I've been wrong lots of times before, but I have no problem at all putting myself out there and letting people bash me and point out where I'm dumb. At the end of the day, if we can have respectful discussion, even disagreement, that is a win and what the board should be for.
 

Anyone wanting us to do poorly this season so Pitino gets fired are shitty fans, simple as that.

On another note watching back some of the Okst. game Ihnen doesn't look ready to play any sort of substantial minutes YET. I think he will develop into a very nice player potentially by next year. I assume Pitino evaluated Greenlee and Freeman the same way. Personally, I don't have a problem with it as we shouldn't expect all of our freshman to be studs out of the gate.

Tre Williams has been a very pleasant surprise out of the 2019 class. I think as long as we get one freshman per class that can give us some decent minutes we'll be alright. Reminds me of how Nate Mason also looked pretty good his freshman year... you can tell he'll be quality starter all 4 years here barring injury.
 




What about if you hope we do well, but that Pitino gets fired anyway?
Interesting question lol but if they do well no way he gets fired. This is his year to prove how good of a coach he is. If he wins with essentially a brand new group of guys nobody picked to finish in the top half of the B1G, how can you fire him? It would have to be quite a big name lined up to do that...
 



It is a cop out. Coyle had an easy button with Claeys, as I explained. It allowed him to fire Claeys after a successful, bowl-winning season. It would've been impossible for Coyle to fire Claeys otherwise, if the scandal had never happened. And thus we would've missed out on Fleck.

I don't think it's asking too much for you to be able to recognize that.

And I think it's dishonest for you to claim that it's on Coyle to supposedly still be able to fire a major sport HC, no matter what, if he perceives a better coach is available. The world is not so simple and easy as that, I'm afraid.

This is all my viewpoint, all my opinion. I've been wrong lots of times before, but I have no problem at all putting myself out there and letting people bash me and point out where I'm dumb. At the end of the day, if we can have respectful discussion, even disagreement, that is a win and what the board should be for.

I appreciate your banter and being willing to back your viewpoints up as well as keep up the discussion.
No doubt Claeys backing the players made it easy for coyle to say bye bye. Something I truly believe and we will never be able to prove either way is that I also believe Claeys was gone no matter what as Coyle was dialed in on Fleck. Coyle said as much that he believed the program was stagnant with Claeys and donations and support were down.
I think he truly will move on from Pitino if he feels the same way. Of course it’s easier when the team has an abysmal season. Of course he needs the support of president and it has to be approved, but Coyle has plenty of data and again even if they win, if donations and ticket sales are down he has plenty of justification. I don’t think that it is that hard to believe either.
Now if Pitino gets this team to the NCAAs this year and with a decent class this year and in good position with strong recruits for other future classes, it would seem the program is on an upward trend imo. That has nothing to do with this years win loss record alone. That’d be off his last four years and the bar would have to continue to rise.
 




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