Bye bye little Ricky

From the Athletic………

Minnesota parted ways with men’s basketball coach Richard Pitino on Monday, the school announced.

Pitino’s eighth season at Minnesota ended with a 79-75 loss to Ohio State in the Big Ten tournament on Thursday. The Golden Gophers went 14-15 in 2020-21 and finished 13th in the Big Ten, losing eight of their final nine games.

Pitino, 38, led Minnesota to a 141-123 record and 54-96 record in conference play. The Golden Gophers made two NCAA Tournament appearances in eight years, most recently in 2019, when they advanced to the second round.

Dam tricked me. I thought they got rid of Bricky Rubio.

Not the coach !! Lose by four points against Ohio State
and tell him to hit the road.. pathetic.

Perhaps Clem Haskins, Tubby Smith or Eric Musselman are
available.
Good Luck Rickard Pitino !

61orbt wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>jime wrote:</div>
Not the coach !! Lose by four points against Ohio State
and tell him to hit the road.. pathetic.

Tough not to lose his job after having the team look as flat as they have over the last several weeks, especially on the road.

Hopefully his replacement is NCAAB’s version of PJ, right Dutchy?

It’s basketball T, It wouldn’t matter to me if they brought in Mike Jordan.

They had some big wins this year but couldn’t just figure it out on the road. I wonder if on a normal year and some less injuries how they would of done this year.

After 8 years you think he would of been able to do better but just couldn’t get the instate recruits to stay which is the biggest problem.

Dutchboy wrote:

led Minnesota to a 141-123 record and 54-96 record in conference play. The Golden Gophers made two NCAA Tournament appearances in eight years, most recently in 2019

The big ten record is pathetic. Its not like the big ten is the juggernaut of basketball conferences either. That tells me they beat up on non-conference cup cakes like they do in football and when the conference play begins, they can’t compete. Maybe its time to start scheduling better competition.

2 NCAA tournament appearances in 8 years is also very poor. Its not unreasonable to expect them to at least qualify for it almost every season. Wisconsin does, Minnesota should too.

The Big 10 put 9 teams in the NCAA’s this year which is the most from any conference. Time will tell how far they get.

muskie-tim wrote:

The Big 10 put 9 teams in the NCAA’s this year which is the most from any conference. Time will tell how far they get.

Which is why Little Ricky had to go.

I actually think his last name bought him more time than he deserved.

Bring in the next sap.

Dutchboy wrote:

Which is why Little Ricky had to go.

Thank you.

Dutchboy I think its time to start a college hockey thread. There are two conference championships tonight with St Cloud vs North Dakota and Minnesota vs Wisconsin. Must see TV

gimruis wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>Dutchboy wrote:</div>
Which is why Little Ricky had to go.

Thank you.

Dutchboy I think its time to start a college hockey thread. There are two conference championships tonight with St Cloud vs North Dakota and Minnesota vs Wisconsin. Must see TV

You can start one, although since they went for the $$$ finding the games is hard and lots of people lost interest. Casual fans aren’t very interested in the U sports anymore. Much harder to find them on TV.

Pro teams will face the same thing if they don’t get the Fox Sports North thing cleaned up.

Everybody knew he was on thin ice which is why he is interviewing at every D1 school that has an opening.

Some of the big names have been floated for the job. If you didn’t like Pitiino because of the “good family name” thing, then you probably aren’t going to love the next guy either. It would be interesting to see what they can do. I would think the choice has already been made and it’s just a matter of waiting for a respectable period before naming him.

I really loved watching Gopher basketball back in the early 1980s. As a kid I could identify with those guys a lot more than pros and of course, MN had no pro team back then anyway. And as Dutchboy says, the games were actually watchable on network TV.

Has there been any rumors on who will replace him at this point?

Lots of rumors. Likely a white guy with a sub .500 coaching record. Maybe Flips kid eh?

Not sure if its true but Ryan Saunders name is already being thrown around.

Also yes big hockey game on tonight but still unfortunate that Big Ten killed college hockey around here for the average fan. Go Bucky!

Pitino is going to New Mexico.
Pete Najarian would like Jared Nuness to get the job. He is from here and 11 years on Baylor’s coaching staff. 4 years as a special assistant & director of player development. Pete said he gets recruits from MN.

Netguy wrote:

Pete Najarian would like Jared Nuness

Hadn’t heard that, but that would be the most likely pick if true, Pete has a ton of influence at the U. I’ve heard Eric Musselman often too. Anyone has to be a better in game coach than Pitino, he was terrible at adjustments, offensive systems, getting points out of timeouts among many other things. And only decent in recruiting, spelled the end of his run. More surprising he lasted as long as he did. And I actually liked him as a personality, pretty funny and self-depricating.

TheFamousGrouse wrote:

MN had no pro team back then anyway.

I didn’t know they ever had one – Do They ????

He’s there already.

New Mexico hires Richard Pitino after his firing by Gophers
The news came less than 12 hours after the Gophers announced they were parting ways with Pitino.
By Marcus Fuller Star Tribune MARCH 16, 2021 — 10:13AM

So this whole thing was done before they fired Lil Ricky. So now the question becomes how much did Lil Ricky get for a buy-out from from Uncle Coyle & the U?

They said on the news they wanted him to take the job before firing him cause it would save 1.75 million.

AnotherFisherman wrote:

Has there been any rumors on who will replace him at this point?

What about Dutchers kid from I believe San Diego State. Heard he even has an opt out of his contract if the U of M comes calling.

When you hire someone at age 30 with ONE year of experience at a lesser program, you cannot expect it to always work out. His name wasn’t enough. Luckily it looks like the wording of his contract will have the U of M off the hook for his buyout.

There are quite a few names being thrown around. Those in the know likely already have off the record offers presented or discussed with candidates.

Candidates I Like:
-Brian Dutcher (San Diego State) has carved out a nice program in recent years. He’d bring a fresh look while still having the Minnesota connection to hopefully set up roots.

-Craig Smith (Utah State) would bring a refreshing look and has had success without world class facilities or a destination type college community.

Candidates I Don’t Like:
-Ryan Saunders (recently fired Timberwolves coach) would be in a position where the headlines were writing themselves about 2 basketball jobs in MN before it even started. If things start to slip, his head would be called for quickly. I’m not sure why he’d be interested as he seems like a great bench coach for the NBA level with far less work to see success in his role.

-Eric Musselman (Arkansas) really reminds me of PJ Fleck with some of his mannerisms. Arkansas has a pretty wide open system with a lot of shooting and up and down play under a “players’ coach.” Pitino’s calling card was the lack of any rigidity or adjustments on offense and rarely run scripted sets. The Big 10 schedule is a gauntlet of depth. I just don’t see a run and chuck system working for the long haul against the more established programs.