Poll: Should the Gophers look for a new bball coach?

[Spaulding!No!]

The recruiting is not what it should be after 7 years

 

[Gopherbbdude]

We don’t need a home run hire. I’d settle for a walk-and-stolen-base hire.

This is not at all what is needed... settling ... holy crap no

 

[golfing18now]

A few of you have said no to Ryan Saunders. Why? I'm curious as I would think he would be a good hire.

What makes you think he would be a good hire? If his last name wasn't Saunders but he was still the head coach of an NBA team with an awful record and had no experience leading an NCAA program, would you still be interested?

 

[Frank Grimey Grimes]

I think some people are talking the "having somebody lined up" way too literally. I fully understand that we won't offer the job to someone before Pitino is out the door.

But if Coyle is as good at his job as I think, he will use his connections to prod around and see what the market will look like. He will use his connections to find out if some of the names mentioned here are even interested in leaving their job at all. Coyle has said it himself, he has a short list of candidates and I'm sure he keeps tabs on those on the list. If his intial research shows that nobody in his top 5 would ever come here, then he should keep Pitino.

I get that we can't possibly know how a new coach will do, but we sure as hell can manage our risk here and get an idea on whether or not we can land our target coaches. Firing a coach and having no short list of interested new coaches is how we ended up with Pitino in the first place.

 

[Otis]

Let's double down and hire Rick Pitino! That way Richard could stay on staff.

 

[Powder]

What makes you think he would be a good hire? If his last name wasn't Saunders but he was still the head coach of an NBA team with an awful record and had no experience leading an NCAA program, would you still be interested?

Agreed. If Saunders name is being thrown around, why not David Joerger? At least Joerger has had coaching stops where he's won.

 

[Spaulding!No!]

April 10 is End Of The Line for Pitino.

 

[Spottedmuskie]

Beating Lousivlle is keeping Pitino around longer

 

[Ope3]

A few of you have said no to Ryan Saunders. Why? I'm curious as I would think he would be a good hire.

Virtually zero NCAA experience and his NBA jobs (as HC & AC) do not include a lot of winning.

 

[howeda7]

It's either time to move on or it isn't. The idea that Coyle has to have secretly negotiated a deal with a replacement before he moves on Pitino is absurd. He has a general list of replacements (or he should) and has a reasonable idea of who he can get. But there are no guarantees. There are a list of 5-8 coaches who would would all be upgrades, IMO. I've quite confident we can get one of them.

 

[Gopherbbdude]

36.8% and dropping the more people that vote

 

[gopher8190]

There are multiple threads on this subject and a lot of energy. Its likely this board is a pretty good representation of the opinions of the true Gopher fans - those that attend games, are passionate, and keep the lights on.

I couldn't disagree more. I realized the make-up of this board at the end of the 2018 football season. There was a poll about PJ years asking about the current status of the program after a strong finish including wins at Wisconsin and a bowl game. I was shocked that he vast majority of votes voiced disappointment in the progress PJ had made. Despite this, I'm enthused that 63% want to keep Pitino (unless there is a mythical replacement). [For what it's worth, I supported getting rid of Tubby, but want to continue with Pitino. I kind of feel like I did with Clem after the disappointing 1995-96 season. I felt/feel the team underperformed, but I could see pieces in place and a path to success. This team isn't that far along, but Pitino hasn't been around as long as Clem was at that point either. I see long term progress and believe it will continue. It is not time to tear it down and restart the climb when I still see us ascending.]

 

[Ope3]

My gut feeling is Pitino will be back. He got a 2 year extension last April, and this season is being played out to what the general expectations were once Coffey decided to stay in the draft (10th - 12th in the Big 10). Most likely they are going to be within 1 Big 10 regular season win of where they finished last year.

 

[Flash30]

To the no crowd. I wish I had a job where my performance has been below average, and management wants to continue to give me another year or retain me altogether. This program is not going to ascend with Pitino as coach.

 

[USAF]

Most likely they are going to be within 1 Big 10 regular season win of where they finished last year.

You say that like it's a good thing.

 

[Ope3]

You say that like it's a good thing.

Did not mean it as good or bad. It just is.

Though if you told me in May that's what their record be after losing McBrayer, Murphy, Coffey and later Curry, without having any idea what the new additions Carr, Willis and Demir would bring to the table...it is sort of a good thing. I was expecting 5-6 Big 10 wins.

 

[fair]

My gut feeling is Pitino will be back. He got a 2 year extension last April, and this season is being played out to what the general expectations were once Coffey decided to stay in the draft (10th - 12th in the Big 10). Most likely they are going to be within 1 Big 10 regular season win of where they finished last year.

This is what I’m feeling as well. Not saying I’m a fan of it, but based on how we were expected to be this year I feel like he gets one final chance. We know Coyle has the ability to pull the trigger if he knows his guy is out there, but I’m not quite sure there’s anyone that fits the bill.

Again, I’d personally like a change. We’ll know soon enough.

 

[Keyser Söze]

Wrong. 39% of us voting would like to move on from Pitino IF we replace him with an actual home-run hire. Replacing Pitino is going to cost us Mashburn Jr., Martice Mitchell, and maybe Tryeton Thompson so it better be a great f'ing hire.

I'd be really surprised if we lost Thompson. I do worry about losing Masburn and/or Mitchell though.

 

[cjbfbp]

LOOK!!!! THE MAN HASN'T PUT TOGETHER TWO CONSECUTIVE GOOD YEARS OVER A SEVEN YEAR TENURE!!!! Not even something like an NCAA tournament appearance followed by an NIT or vice versa. Hell, he hasn't even managed to put together two consecutive NIT appearances.

Year 1: NIT championship
Year 2: no postseason; weakling Wednesday
Year 3: historically awful year; another weakling Wednesday; of course, no postseason
Year 4: Best year and a pretty good one
Year 5: no postseason; another weakling Wednesday appearance
Year 6: a good year overall, finally won an NCAA tournament game
Year 7: likely losing season; likely another weakling Wednesday; very likely no postseason.

That's three good years out of seven. If Oturu stays next season (unlikely), maybe Pitino can get to a .500 mark (4 of 8) but will probably have another bad season the following year

 

[Parcival]

LOOK!!!! THE MAN HASN'T PUT TOGETHER TWO CONSECUTIVE GOOD YEARS OVER A SEVEN YEAR TENURE!!!! Not even something like an NCAA tournament appearance followed by an NIT or vice versa. Hell, he hasn't even managed to put together two consecutive NIT appearances.

Year 1: NIT championship
Year 2: no postseason; weakling Wednesday
Year 3: historically awful year; another weakling Wednesday; of course, no postseason
Year 4: Best year and a pretty good one
Year 5: no postseason; another weakling Wednesday appearance
Year 6: a good year overall, finally won an NCAA tournament game
Year 7: likely losing season; likely another weakling Wednesday; very likely no postseason.

That's three good years out of seven. If Oturu stays next season (unlikely), maybe Pitino can get to a .500 mark (4 of 8) but will probably have another bad season the following year

Hope you keep this same energy when Pitino and Oturu lead us to a sweet 16 next season.

 

[cjbfbp]

Hope you keep this same energy when Pitino and Oturu lead us to a sweet 16 next season.

That has about as much chance of happening as you getting the Nobel Prize.

 

[MennoSota]

Mashburn’s don’t grow on trees, especially not for our program.

Neither did Sampson's...and that was a coup...?

 

[Gopherbbdude]

Monson .. 1 NBA player by default
Tubby.... zero
Pitino... 1 now and another coming

Just saying

 

[builtbadgers]

It burns a ton of alumni that he has not finished ahead of UW even once in 7 years.

 

[USAF]

Hope you keep this same energy when Pitino and Oturu lead us to a sweet 16 next season.

You had them going 6-1 down the stretch this year, too, as I recall.

Next year you'll just pretend you didn't say this, but you'll be spouting off about 2022.

 

[Parcival]

You had them going 6-1 down the stretch this year, too, as I recall.

Next year you'll just pretend you didn't say this, but you'll be spouting off about 2022.

We'll see. I predicted 5-2 which, last I checked, is still possible if you have the mental capacity to count to seven. In the case that I'm wrong, I'm confident you'll give me a nice 'I told you so' - You seem to like doing that whenever our team underperforms.

 

[USAF]

We'll see. I predicted 5-2 which, last I checked, is still possible if you have the mental capacity to count to seven. In the case that I'm wrong, I'm confident you'll give me a nice 'I told you so' - You seem to like doing that whenever our team underperforms.

Actually, you weaseled. I looked it up. In the "predictions for the last 7 games" thread you said, and I quote, "6-1 or 5-2."

 

[MplsGopher]

The idea that Coyle has to have secretly negotiated a deal with a replacement before he moves on Pitino is absurd.

It's of course absurd to make some sort of demand that he must secure the replacement before he is allowed to fire Pitino, or else he must keep him. That just seems like a way to force him to keep Pitino.

But I would say that, in a more reasonable sense, it is likely that Coyle has (or will shortly) put feelers out to the agents of coaches on his short list. Maybe that happened long ago and there has been more advanced discussions beyond feelers.

 

[NotAFanOfBecky]

Hope you keep this same energy when Pitino and Oturu lead us to a sweet 16 next season.

Oturu is gone. He is a very good chance to be a lottery pick according to the draft gurus. Richard does not get a lot of love when it comes to the local coaches (and players for that matter) as many feel he didn't earn his way by playing the game and rode his dad's coat tails. That's according to a local coach and also a current players parent. Could only be their opinions but it does seem to hold some water.

 

[Holy Man]

Oturu is gone. He is a very good chance to be a lottery pick according to the draft gurus. Richard does not get a lot of love when it comes to the local coaches (and players for that matter) as many feel he didn't earn his way by playing the game and rode his dad's coat tails. That's according to a local coach and also a current players parent. Could only be their opinions but it does seem to hold some water.

I'm neutral and will trust the AD's assessment, but I do think Richard has been black balled by much of the local basketball community (hunch-no evidence), he was trashed within the department after Teague's true colors were exposed (real sources suggested that a movement to get rid of anyone connected to Teague was in motion), and then his dad going down in scandalous flames is a hat trick of mostly uncontrolables that haven't made life easy. The perception that he didn't earn the job doesn't help either.

I'm with Ope that this season, while disappointing, is at about expectations given Coffey being gone and Curry injured and not contributing. Sadly, the rising tide of the B1G hasn't lifted the Gophers' boat high enough, and next year's recruiting class isn't enough, by itself, to give him another year. I don't think an obvious hot seat year helps the program at all. Coyle has to know more about what's going on than we do. Hopefully he makes an analytic and not impulsive decision.