Richard Pitino sat in his office this week and talked to Sports Headliners about the future and past, including why he doesn’t give much thought to his job security as men’s head basketball coach at Minnesota. He was calm and upbeat speaking about his team that will have an intrasquad scrimmage open to the public at Williams Arena tomorrow following the Gophers’ football game against Rutgers.
Pitino’s Gophers play Bemidji State in a home exhibition game November 3 and then the nonconference schedule begins November 11 at Williams Arena against UL-Lafayette. “I can’t wait for the season to get started,” Pitino said Wednesday.
The beginning of any season is usually anticipated positively, but the months ahead present an unusual opportunity for Pitino, his staff and players to upgrade their collective image and brand. The last couple of years have been that troubling on the court and off.
The 2015-2016 team had a 2-16 Big Ten Conference record, the worst in program history. The season before, a group that stirred anticipation about qualifying for the NCAA Tournament lost too many close games and finished with a 6-12 Big Ten record. The program has also been embarrassed by off-court incidents and player suspensions including the sex video scandal earlier this year. Those details only begin to document the troubles Pitino has seen in two of his three years as head coach.
After Pitino’s team won the NIT Tournament in his first season of 2013-2014, fans expected more big victories but the coach said on Wednesday he knew year three would be difficult because of a roster short on experience. Heading into this fall and winter the Gophers are building a more veteran roster and everyone agrees the talent has been upgraded.
New players to the roster bring a welcome mix of experience and skills. Those players include senior transfer guard Akeem Springs, junior transfer center Reggie Lynch, and three freshmen—guard Amir Coffey, and forwards Eric Curry and Michael Hurt.
Minnesota’s roster consists of four freshmen, five sophomores, five juniors and two seniors. That’s more experience than last year’s team that mostly relied on freshmen and sophomores. “The way that you win in this league is old,” Pitino said. “You gotta be old, and you gotta be experienced.”
The offseason was spent doing more than practicing basketball. Pitino arranged for “seven or eight” speakers to talk with players about non-basketball subjects including sex education, how to handle the pressures of being student-athletes, and job skills to make them hirable after college. Players were also involved with community service work, and Pitino said his guys want to have “people talking good about Gophers basketball again.”
Among the motivational speakers were former Gophers Walter Bond and Richard Coffey (Amir’s dad). Other alumni reached out to help, too, including U alum and NBA player Kris Humphries who hosted the players at his house to talk about his experiences. Pitino said the Gophers were engaged as they listened to presenters. “To their credit they didn’t just go through the motions. They were taking notes. They’re eager to learn. They’re eager to grow and I think they did that this summer.”
Pitino won’t talk about a number of wins he expects his team to have. “We’ve been in more close games than a lot of teams, and now we gotta go win them,” he said. “We gotta be disciplined and we gotta work our butts off to do it. It’s (the Big Ten) one of the toughest basketball conferences in college basketball. We’ve gotta do our very, very best to hold it down at home, (and) steal a few on the road.”
The following is a Q&A with the Gophers’ 34-year-old head coach who had a busy offseason in multiple ways including adding a baby daughter to the family with wife Jill, and attending weddings of two siblings.
Q—Are you worried about job security?
A—You try not to worry about those things as a coach. You try to lock in on the things that you can control because there is so much that goes into coaching in today’s world because of social media. There’s so much scrutiny into everything that you do that you try to narrow your focus to your family, your friends and your team. I think I do a pretty good job of that.
Q—What does new athletics director Mark Coyle expect from you?
A—I think he expects us to do things the right way. Work our butts off. Be as transparent as we possibly can with him about where we think we’re going, what we may need from him. He’s been nothing but supportive. He’s been great. I’ve loved working with him.
Q—What was the off-season like for you personally?
A—I think the most challenging thing you go through is an off-season when you don’t have a good year. It weighs on you mentally, big time. You lose a game during the season, you go right back to work. But when you end not the way you want to, it takes awhile to get over.
For me it’s exciting to get back to work, and to get back into that fight. I think our guys are eager, too. We don’t like to let our words do the talking. We like to let our actions speak for them. I think we’re that type of program. I am not a boastful guy but we’re quietly very excited about where we’re at.
Q—The Gophers’ overall record last season was 8-23. What was learned?
A—I think more than anything you learn, you grow, you evolve as a person and as a coach. I think you learn more from losing than you do winning. I thought we’d take a step back in year three (inexperienced roster). We probably took a bigger step back than we needed to but we were young. …There were a lot of young guys playing a lot of big games.
My biggest thing was to keep the players positive. Don’t let negativity and doubt creep into their minds. I thought we did a pretty good job of that. I thought we were playing pretty well at the end (of last season). We just needed to win some close games, and hopefully we break through this year.
Q—Part of the disappointment in 2016 were off-court incidents involving players. What was learned in regard to that?
A—They’re young kids. You’ve got to hold them accountable if they make a mistake and you’ve also got to educate them. I believe we did. We even had to sacrifice some losses in doing that (suspended players), and it was difficult but I believe it was the right thing for them. I believe it was the right thing for the program. I think moving forward they learned from it.
We did a lot over the summer. It’s important for people to look at this program in a positive light. Regardless of wins and losses, it means a lot to me that people value the type of character that we have in this program. We really worked hard over this summer to improve that. They did a great job in the classroom. They did a great job in the community. We brought some speakers in here to educate them.
So that’s our job to do that, and to stick by them. To not abandon guys when they make mistakes, and hopefully our program is stronger from it. I think our guys are very, very eager to show people what they’re all about off the court as well as on the court.
Q—Did you misjudge the character of recruits?
A—You can always get better. It’s not an exact science. You’re always trying to evolve, trying to gather as much information as you possibly can in recruiting. We’ll continue to do that. If we gotta get better, we’ll do it. We don’t have all the answers, we try to find them. We’ll exhaust every option to do that.
Q—Is it realistic to think one day you can lock down the state regarding all the best high school players in Minnesota?
A—I am encouraged (for 2015-2016) because we got the two best players out of the state in Amir Coffey and Michael Hurt. …Reggie Lynch is (also) a local kid and transferred from Illinois State. He was one of their better players (but)…he wanted to come home and play for the state. It really had nothing to do with me.
I am encouraged by (guard) Jarvis Johnson, even though he hasn’t played yet (because of a medical issue). We recruited one of the best players out of the state (in Johnson, a freshman in 2015-2016).
…I love where recruiting is going. It’s important to recruit the state. It’s also important to recruit the best fit for your team at the time.
Q—Williams Arena opened in 1928. Does the building need to be renovated or replaced?
A—The Barn is an iconic building that I would never touch. When I got here we updated the locker room, (and) the players’ lounge. Things like that you can always improve. The building is terrific.
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