Pitino to Minnesota....
- Thread starter psycln11
- Start date
I thought this same thing. I guess I just don't understand how the AD is going to sell this to the fan base. Yes he has learned from the best and did fairly well at FIU, but why you fire a guy that took you to 3 straight tournament bids is beyond me. Maybe it was the second half meltdown that his team had this year. Who knows and even though I am not a Gophers fan, nor will I ever be, I have not agreed with the firing of Tubby at all.
It's a good face saving move for the program after they whiffed on their first four choices. Whether or not he can coach doesn't matter much right now. For the time being they can sell him to the fanbase and recruits as a young up and coming coach with name recognition.
Really not comparable. There are very few, if any, situations that compare to what we get/got with Fred.
I am not sure about recruits want to come play for him just because he is little Pitino. Look how well that worked for Sean Sutton and Pat Knight. Your dad being a great coach does not guarantee you for anything.
My bad, I read my info wrong. Still Tubby had 3 in 5 years. There previous tournament bids go clear back to 98-99 and 04-05. Didn't appear to me that Tubby was doing horrible there.
Face save is a good way to describe this. They fired Tubby saying they wanted to go after someone with "fresh eyes". They couldn't possibly go after some guy like a 56 year Bruce Weber or 59 year old Tim Floyd.
So they wanted someone young. But the high achieving young guys like Shaka Smart and Fred Hoiberg didn't care for the job.
So then they were down to young guys who have not achieved that much. But hiring a young guy that has not achieved much would be a problem. The fan base would be livid.
So hire a young guy who has not achieved much, but has a brand name.
And thus we have Little Pitino.
Can't argue that. Those who defend Tubby, however, must not have watched much Gopher basketball this year. They just stood around on offense, didn't seem to have any plan. They should have been much better.
I think Rich Pitino has the energy and relentless recruiting focus that Tubby didn't.
But yes, if his last name wasn't Pitino, he would not have been hired.
Not very comparable. Those were situations of nepotism and taking over for legends that were somewhat dated. Minn can sell this as hiring a young head coach who is bringing the same "exciting" system that has his dad currently in the biggest spotlight.
I am going to bet this ends up very Drew at Baylor like. I bet he can recruit his *** off. He will use his last name and he has a lot of energy and a good style. However, I bet he never gets it really going before another school likes his recruiting and will hire him away.
