What is the benefit to allowing Pitino to finish the season?

I'll admit there are some things that a coach can't control. In this case though the team has shot 4-27 all year. They suck at shooting. That's either Pitino's fault for not recruiting shooters, not coaching players how to shoot, or not figuring out that his team is horrible at shooting 3's after 340938 games of launching them over and over and developing a better offensive strategy.

There are times when players fail in a perfectly planned offensive strategy and there are times when teams play lights out defense...then there are the gophers who try the same thing over and over and over again with the same terrible results.
To play devil's advocate (I think we need a new coach), this team is the only one to beat Michigan so far and they beat ohio and iowa as well. It's that schizophrenia that is bothersome. Jekyll and Hyde personality.
 

The scary thing is, is that Nebraska has been playing undoubtedly better. Not too be the doomsayer but I think we have little chance to win on Saturday. Take a fire to this messageboard after that.
 

To play devil's advocate (I think we need a new coach), this team is the only one to beat Michigan so far and they beat ohio and iowa as well. It's that schizophrenia that is bothersome. Jekyll and Hyde personality.
Ha I know I've been one of the ones saying that all year too...don't forget Purdue, a rising Michigan St, and St. Louis (even though they've fallen off a bit).

I think it's safe to say at this point though that the team got fairly lucky a few games and got some decent wins when reality is they're one of the worst in the Big Ten.
 

You never know who leave from the roster or goes. I think Gabe, maybe mash, stay around. I'm fine with bottoming out. The only problem is the 2022 state of Minnesota is loaded with probably 9 guys I would want for the gopher roster. You better make the right hire with local connection and start convincing local guys to stay. The name is escaping me but played for the gophers, coached North High and moved to BSM I think.
 

So who's fearful Pitino is going to save his job by not firing him now? LOL. Let him finish the season, its a weird world right now, the players dont need to deal with a firing right now
 


Tim Miles is probably the #1 guy without a job who would consider this job before the end of the season. Roster is going to need an overhaul. Assume Mashburn Jr. and Carr are gone. Freeman, Ihnen, and Mitchell will politely be asked to leave. It’s a major rebuild.
I am going to assume Mashburn Jr is staying. as long as its not a third tier hire like Pitino was, i think the new coach will be able to sell him on the idea able to take the keys from Carr and take over a big ten team.....that still means something.....to him
You never know who leave from the roster or goes. I think Gabe, maybe mash, stay around. I'm fine with bottoming out. The only problem is the 2022 state of Minnesota is loaded with probably 9 guys I would want for the gopher roster. You better make the right hire with local connection and start convincing local guys to stay. The name is escaping me but played for the gophers, coached North High and moved to BSM I think.
Damian Johnson
 

So who's fearful Pitino is going to save his job by not firing him now? LOL. Let him finish the season, its a weird world right now, the players dont need to deal with a firing right now

It might free them them up so they don't go on 0-16 3-brick stretches. Fire his ass now!
 

No, they keep abusive and justifiably fireable professors around a lot longer than RP. The whole Psych dept scandal spanned a dozen years, if not more. Your reading comprehension skills need work.
Blame tenure.
 

Typically, you hold on to a old coach out of respect and let them play the string out.

Richard is a pretty well liked guy so waiting is a respectful option.

However, if the administration feels that the team has quit on him like many of you suggest, firing him now may allow for one of the assistant coaches to rally the players into some admirable performances from a team that has been capable of beating some pretty damn good teams in the not too distant past.

Holding onto RiP at this point is most likely going to yield similar results to last night.

So do you allow him to walk off the Barn floor with his head held high next week or do you dismiss him in hopes of having a more competitive team in what is now a wasted season and just wait for the For Sale sign to go up in front of his house?

Coyle will wait.
 




So who's fearful Pitino is going to save his job by not firing him now? LOL. Let him finish the season, its a weird world right now, the players dont need to deal with a firing right now
You are right about all of that. However, the idea Bleed has is to be ready with a new coach and hit the ground running when the season is done. The new coach will have to recruit and also re-recruit the existing players and choose from those he wants.
 

Only reason I can think of: firing him before March Madness selection all but guarantees they won't select us.

There is still a tiny, small chance they could back in, particularly if Robbins can get health and contribute. So they don't want to risk that.


Assume it's going to be a mid-major coach and that they've already been talking for a while. Perhaps a soft offer is already under the table. So in that case, it doesn't hurt anything to wait.
 

Say we fire RiP after the Nebraska loss.

Interim coach is Robbins Uncle. Who I've heard is defensive minded?

Let's say he uses his four days to whip this guys into shape and they put together some solid efforts and pull off wins @PSU and Rutgers.

Then we go into the B1G tourney and win 2 or 3 games upsetting a ranked team or two in the process.

They would most likely back in to the tournament even with an interim coach.

It's not like they aren't capable of pulling this off. Just not with the current coach most likely.
 



You never know who leave from the roster or goes. I think Gabe, maybe mash, stay around. I'm fine with bottoming out. The only problem is the 2022 state of Minnesota is loaded with probably 9 guys I would want for the gopher roster. You better make the right hire with local connection and start convincing local guys to stay. The name is escaping me but played for the gophers, coached North High and moved to BSM I think.

Only 2 of the 9 have a "warm" for MN in 2022, I think we'll be fine, perhaps even maybe better depending on who we bring in
 

Should he be fired guys I'd like to stay are Mashburn, Ihnen cuz I like his length and has been more active on the boards, Mitchell, Freeman cuz he rebounds more. On the fence with Treyton but want Pohto to stay committed. Others can stay or go imo and wouldn't make big deal. I suppose you could argue for Robbins to be pretty valuable to keep on roster.
 

So who's fearful Pitino is going to save his job by not firing him now? LOL. Let him finish the season, its a weird world right now, the players dont need to deal with a firing right now
He can't save his job. It's done folks. Take a deep breath and realize Coyle knows it is time to move on. I think Pitino knows it is time to move on. It should be done at the end of the season. No need to take the last couple of weeks away from the team.
 

Only 2 of the 9 have a "warm" for MN in 2022, I think we'll be fine, perhaps even maybe better depending on who we bring in
If we gutted the program.
Hired Beilien.

Would he have a chance at 7 of the 9 MN kids in 22?
 


No need to fire RP right now. He's not the one who shot 4-27 from beyond the arc (2 of those makes coming in the last minute).
He is responsible for player attitude and effort, but those kids were the ones bricking shots.
Coyle may have to wait a week into the dance before he can officially get his guy and having assistants coaching now would be useless.
If you put them on the court you are responsible for them.
 

He can't save his job. It's done folks. Take a deep breath and realize Coyle knows it is time to move on. I think Pitino knows it is time to move on. It should be done at the end of the season. No need to take the last couple of weeks away from the team.

Agree, at this point I don't think there is anything that can save Pitino. I guess you could say a run in the Big Ten tournament but given what we are seeing from this team that seems highly unlikely to happen.

Have listened to the post game news conferences and it is so frustrating to hear Pitino say the team is taking too many 3s and they are emphasizing going to the basket more. Yet game after game they just keep jacking up bricks. If the coach is telling them not to take so many 3s and they keep doing it then there is clearly an issue with respect between the players and coaches.

Let Pitino finish out the season but if Coyle doesn't make a change after it ends, it would be a massive mistake. Still can't figure out how this team can look so bad and yet somehow they found a way to blow out Michigan. It just doesn't make sense.
 

Agree, at this point I don't think there is anything that can save Pitino. I guess you could say a run in the Big Ten tournament but given what we are seeing from this team that seems highly unlikely to happen.

Have listened to the post game news conferences and it is so frustrating to hear Pitino say the team is taking too many 3s and they are emphasizing going to the basket more. Yet game after game they just keep jacking up bricks. If the coach is telling them not to take so many 3s and they keep doing it then there is clearly an issue with respect between the players and coaches.

Let Pitino finish out the season but if Coyle doesn't make a change after it ends, it would be a massive mistake. Still can't figure out how this team can look so bad and yet somehow they found a way to blow out Michigan. It just doesn't make sense.


Only thing I can think of is we got Michigan, Ohio, St, and Iowa on bad days when we played our very best. Don't think there is much else you can say as good teams don't go 3-10 after a win like that.
 

No reason to wait 3-4 weeks for a decision that is likely already made.

I am sure Mark Coyle and the President are considering the PR side of it. They were excoriated for cutting sports during the pandemic, and they will undoubtedly get criticism for paying Pitino’s buyout in a time of tight budgets and a pandemic. However, the criticism might be ever so slightly less after 3-4 more weeks of news about more vaccines, economic recovery, and the slow return to normalcy.
 

I don't see any benefit to firing him with three games left in the regular season, other than the fact we're all extremely upset. This team has been straight-bad for going on six weeks now, so even If RP was relieved of his duties tomorrow, I'd have a real hard time believing an interim coach is gonna step in and turn things around by Saturday, or next week. This team to me looks done, and maybe they should be.

Absent some kind of scandal, the thing about firing a coach in-season is that there's a real stigma attached to that, as in tit gives the unmistakeable impression that hings are so bad or so out of control that there is simply no other option than to fire your coach and turn things over to an interim. Far moreso than firing a guy after the season, that kind of thing tends to stick to a coach for awhile, as it's embarrassing and humiliating to be let go before your season has even finished, and I wouldn't wish to do that to Pitino. I bear him no personal animosity or ill-will at all, in fact I wish him nothing but success wherever he might go. He seems quite the likeable guy, he's got a young family, young children, and other than the results on the basketball court, I feel he's represented this university this university quite well. He's just not been a very good basketball coach for us, that's all. And honestly, it's not his fault that he wasn't let go years ago. That's on the administration which chose to retain him in spite of all the struggles.

So let him finish it out, spend these last few weeks with his team, and then move on to a fresh start for all parties. That's at least what I would like to see.

I hear you but he is a millionaire. Don't feel too bad for him. He can do little to nothing the rest of his days and still live a lot better off than all of us here. Simply because of his last name. Definition of priviledge there.
 

Don't cry for me I am a Pitino,
I'll get hired again
Schools won't keep their distance.

He's a young former NIT champion Coach of the Year. Of course some smaller scale college will hire him.

Sleep well once we fire Pitino.
 

Preferring an amicable and respectful parting of ways is not being sympathetic to Richard's feelings. If you're going to twist anyone's post into a different meaning, don't reply.
I am not twisting your post. I am trying to understand your rationale. So what you are saying is that we should not fire him now because it would be disrespectful?
 

They were excoriated for cutting sports during the pandemic, and they will undoubtedly get criticism for paying Pitino’s buyout in a time of tight budgets and a pandemic. However, the criticism might be ever so slightly less after 3-4 more weeks of news about more vaccines, economic recovery, and the slow return to normalcy.

This is a question of retaining or firing a bad coach. The buyout is set by contractual terms that existed before the pandemic. Why would the U be excoriated more for firing a coach who doesn't deserve to continue in the job and paying a $1.75 million contractual buyout than for retaining the coach and paying him $2.2 million per year even though he is bad at his job?

The fact of the matter is that most people who care about U of M basketball want him gone and would welcome the firing. The people who don't care about U of M basketball might be mildly irritated for a brief moment and then they'll move on to something else.
 

Breaking News....Statement From Mark Coyle....
 

I am not twisting your post. I am trying to understand your rationale. So what you are saying is that we should not fire him now because it would be disrespectful?
You've seen it in other posts. There's an aspect to it that would be a bad look, and it's pulling the rug out from under someone. Even when we fired Monson mid-season, there was an amicable parting of ways, and that's ideally how you want something to end. You maintain a better relationship, not just with the former coach and everyone in his network, but with the entire coaching fraternity as well. Unlike someone like Brewster, Pitino hasn't been an ass, and he hasn't been a total disaster.
 

It was a huge mistake to hire RP in the first place. He wasn't even the best coach in the Sun Belt Conference. Just because his father was a good coach doesn't mean that RP will be a good coach. There is no gene for coaching. The Big Ten is not the place for a coach to get on-the-job training. We have given him too many years to learn how to coach. Minnesota should be hiring a coach who has proven himself in a major conference.
Exactly...Example? Saul Smith.
 





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