The difference is that Minnesota doesn’t play Wisconsin basketball. African American kids from Minnesota want to go to Minnesota.
Not sure where you're getting this. Pitino is roundly criticized here in the Twin Cities for failing to get many top players from the area. And, he's not just lost them to Wisconsin. Of course, there's the top-shelf which have gone to Duke (Jones bros, Hurt) , Gonzaga (Suggs), Mich St (longer ago), but he's really vulnerable by all the top 30-100 kids that have gone to Marquette, Texas, Baylor, Wisconsin, Indiana,...the few players he's kept are Coffey and Okuru. I'm probably forgetting one, but that seems to be about it.
On a different front, ISU is probably better off with Prohm being fully exposed, as Pitino isn't very beloved and seems to just eke out a decent year when he's likely to get canned. No identity in the program and little real success.
As far as so many folks having strong opinions on the "right" way to go, I'll admit that I have no idea. I just want a change and hope it works. Not sure how you can draw a pattern from things like:
> ISU's most successful recent coaches came from zero experience (Fred), Utah State (LE), and New Orleans (Floyd).
> Noted recent failures have come from UNI (McD - was widely considered an excellent hire; figured it out later at Creighton) and Murray State
> Looking around the conference - Self (we're not KU), Krueger (though, had his down seasons at some stops) and Huggins (alma mater) were probably considered as sure as could be when hired; others at the top: Drew (think he'd been at Valpo... was he head there or just assisting his dad?) and Beard (UA-LL)...Underwood, now at IL, came from S. Austin...heck, Smart was the hot thing and barely survived to this year to actually finally have a good season...Dixon, had had quite the success at Pitt but had faded some... TCU still not good...Weber - did nicely w/ Self's recruits at IL and has been a so-so re-tread at KS... meh
>So, not really sure what clear pattern one can draw from all this... certainly, look for past success and not simply having taken over for obvious success --> that would seem to be one learning from the Prohm experience... but, then you look at Fred and the lack of coaching experience and the chance JP took when hiring him -- lots of "wow, seems cool, but...." at the time -- and, ultimately, JP's going to have to feel bought-in on the person/philosophy and what he's learned from his experiences in hiring other coaches (please, find the CMC-equivalent for BB!); certainly, the more proof the better, but we won't be getting "proof" from a P5 job...so, it's going to be a projection for any hire
