RICHARD PITINO – Page 10 – David Shama's Minnesota Sports Headliners

U Hit Bulls-Eye with “Greek Rifle”

Posted on March 30, 2020March 30, 2020 by David Shama

Ryan Burns has 10 years of experience as a journalist covering University of Minnesota football recruiting. In that time he has never been more impressed with a high school quarterback verbally committed to the Gophers than Athan Kaliakmanis.

Kaliakmanis, an Illinois native who has one more season of eligibility for Antioch Community High School, is referred to by Minnesota coaches as the “Greek Rifle.”

Burns, the publisher of the popular GopherIllustrated.com, can see why. “I know from watching Athan live last summer (at camp) what he was able to do at 15 years old,” Burns said. “He’s a legitimate 6-3, 6-4. He runs well and he’s got an absolute cannon for an arm. All the physical attributes in what you would look for in a Big Ten quarterback are there.”

Kaliakmanis is so far the only four-star recruit in Minnesota’s five-player class for 2021. Burns said Shakopee defensive end Devin Eastern, now rated a three-star recruit, is on the edge of moving up.

“He is the epitome of what a Big Ten defensive end should look like,” Burns said. “He is a legitimate 6-5. He is legitimately 265 pounds and he has been on a tear in the weight room over the last four months. He has been working out with former Viking long snapper Mike Morris, who is his trainer.”

Also part of the 2021 class is Dino Kaliakmanis, the brother who is 14 months older than Athan. Dino is expected to play wide receiver or linebacker for the Gophers, per Burns. Other 2021 verbal commits are Annandale offensive tackle Logan Purcell and New Lenox, Illinois (Providence Catholic) tight end Jameson Geers. The three players are three-star recruits.

The 2021 class is rated No. 19 nationally by 247Sports. Burns expects the class to eventually have about 20 players, and he mentioned a few who the Gophers are pursuing including a coveted four-star running back in Mar’Keise Irving from Hillcrest High School in Country Club Hills, Illinois. He told Burns Minnesota “is in a very good position” in his recruitment.

Burns said the Gophers are in a “pretty heated battle” with Iowa for Totino-Grace offensive tackle Joe Alt. The three-star recruit’s dad is former Columbia Heights star John Alt who played for Iowa when Hawkeyes current head coach Kirk Ferentz was the offensive line coach.

Other players the Gophers are chasing include a pair of four-stars in Chicago Simeon offensive lineman Cameron James and cornerback Steven Ortiz from Desert Edge High School in Goodyear, Arizona.

Worth Noting

An anonymous Gopher basketball season ticket holder—weary of the present era—emailed the following about the departure of All-Big Ten center Daniel Oturu for the NBA Draft: “Not a big surprise. Fortunately our roster is loaded with talent.”

Nbadraftnet.net projects Oturu being the No. 8 first round selection of the Charlotte Hornets. The last Gopher to be selected in the first round was Kris Humphries in 2002, drafted No. 14 by the Utah Jazz.

The same website had Duke point guard Tre Jones going in the first round earlier in the season but now has the former Apple Valley star being selected No. 54 in the second round by the Sacramento Kings.

Rumors have 2019 Minnesota Mr. Basketball Matthew Hurt transferring from Duke where he started 22 of 31 games, with five teammates playing more minutes. The Rochester John Marshall alum and prep All-American was fourth on the team in scoring at 9.7 points per game. Hurt is back home with his family in Rochester.

With no Minnesota natives among his top assistants, fans may wonder if head coach Richard Pitino will hire someone with state ties now that assistant Rob Jeter has accepted the head coaching job at Western Illinois.

In these uncertain times, it’s a good guess the Wilf ownership group will not extend the one-year contracts of general manager Rick Spielman and head coach Mike Zimmer.

Among inductees at the Mancini’s St. Paul Sports Hall of Fame Banquet on May 11 will be Cretin-Derham Hall’s Chris Weinke and Central’s Dave Winfield, according to Dick Jonckowski who emcees the annual gathering with Charley Walters.

Jonckowski (October 22) and NBA Hall of Famer Rick Barry (March 28) call each other on their birthdays. Jonckowski said the coronavirus pandemic has led to a long list of cancelled appearances for him as an emcee, speaker and public address announcer.

Hopkins girls basketball coach Brian Cosgriff, who has won seven state titles, remains undecided about retiring and not returning to lead the Royals’ program. His daughter Brooke, a reserve on this year’s team, will attend UW-Eau Claire, but won’t play basketball. “She is genetically cursed,” Cosgriff said with humor. “Her mom is a 4-foot-10 Asian, and I am a slow 6-foot white guy.”

Former Gopher running back Barry Mayer emailing after he read Wednesday’s column detailing my back spasms: “The last one I had was so bad at first I was afraid I was literally going to die…and then I was afraid I wouldn’t!”

Minneapolis sportscaster and entrepreneur Lea B. Olsen will be the 2021 “head coach” of the Twin Cities Dunkers organization that dates back to 1948. In that volunteer role, Olsen will arrange program speakers.

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Why Pitino Return May Have Happened

Posted on March 18, 2020March 18, 2020 by David Shama

Did circumstances caused by the coronavirus prompt Golden Gophers athletic director Mark Coyle to announce last week that basketball coach Richard Pitino will return for another season?

A sports executive, asking for anonymity, told Sports Headliners a couple of weeks ago he heard Coyle had decided to fire Pitino, who was completing his seventh season leading the Gophers. Another source, with close ties to the University of Minnesota, said rumors this winter were Coyle had reached out to potential replacements.

As of last week, developments from the coronavirus had the University anticipating $50 million or more in new expenses. It could be that Coyle, in consultation with school president Joan Gabel, decided against giving Pitino the $2 million buyout his contract demands.

Critics would have pounced hard on University leaders for spending $2 million during such difficult times at the U and throughout the state of Minnesota. Fault-finders wouldn’t care the $2 million probably would have come from the largely self-supporting athletic department, and not from tax dollars out of the University’s general fund.

Gabel and Coyle may well have sized up the situation and seen that the practicality and the perception of changing basketball coaches just now was not the way to go. “Richard was (probably) spared by the pandemic,” said the source with close ties to the U.

Was it the right decision? For years there has been a chorus of Pitino critics, speaking with conviction that the program has underperformed. This winter the noise level jumped with loud complaining and second-guessing from the fan-base. There were blown leads in games and close defeats, including to border rivals Iowa and Wisconsin. The emotions of this winter became combined with too many past seasons of frustrations that even involved misbehavior by players.

Wisconsin had five Minnesotans on its roster this year and some played key roles in helping the Badgers tie for the 2020 Big Ten championship. Next season the Badgers add two promising Minnesota prep players in Ben Carlson and Steven Crowl. The roster in Madison is expected to have seven Minnesotans for 2020-2021.

For 20 consecutive Big Ten seasons the Badgers have produced better records than the Gophers! And often Minnesotans were major contributors. Part of that Wisconsin success story the last 20 years includes five Big Ten regular season titles and two Final Four appearances. Impressive results for the Badgers who represent a state and school that is demographically, culturally and geographically similar to Minnesota.

Critics have been outspoken for a long time about the Gophers not recruiting more quality Minnesota prep players. A former Big Ten coach told Sports Headliners there were more than a dozen Minnesotans playing for other NCAA basketball teams this winter that could have helped the Gophers. Pitino’s two most recent recruiting classes have no Minnesotans—and he and his staff have come up empty on three of the last four classes.

This year’s Gopher team had five Minnesotans on the roster, with two of them starters. Sophomore center Daniel Oturu was named an All-American and is likely to depart for the NBA in the spring. Sophomore guard Gabe Kalscheur was also a starter and the team’s most active three-point shooter. Forwards Michael Hurt and Jarvis Omersa played limited minutes off the bench, and guard Brady Rudrud hardly at all.

Fans have an expectation that the high caliber and large number of talented prep players in the state will translate into success for the Gophers. Minnesota has become a hotbed of talent, and a regular recruiting stop for college coaches from other places including prominent names like Tom Izzo of Michigan State, Bill Self from Kansas and Mike Krzyzewski of Duke.

Pitino’s seven-year Big Ten record is 48 wins, 72 losses. Only once, in 2016-2017, have his teams won more conference regular season games than they have lost. That 11-7 record was a pleasant surprise and resulted in Pitino being selected the league’s Coach of the Year.

The 2016-2017 team made the NCAA Tournament where the Gophers lost their opening game. Pitino’s team last year also made the tournament and had an impressive upset win over Louisville before losing to Michigan State. In the coach’s first season, 2013-2014, Minnesota won the National Invitational Tournament.

Qualifying for the 68-field NCAA Tournament has become a popular measure of success in the college basketball world, but it shouldn’t be seen by fans or administrators as meaningful as being a conference title contender most seasons. In a statement last week Coyle expressed his expectations for Pitino to compete for championships. (While more detail was sought, Coyle declined to be interviewed for this column.)

Next fall and winter the pressure on the coach and Coyle could increase even more. If Oturu departs, it’s difficult to speculate how the returning players and incoming freshmen (two four-star recruits from out of state) will produce and with what results.

Those results weren’t so good this year with the Gophers finishing in 12th place in the 14-team Big Ten. Minnesota’s record was 8-12 in the conference and 15-16 overall. Home attendance had an announced average for 16 games of 10,232. That is the lowest since the program had an average of 8,395 during the 1970-1971 season. (Announced attendance means tickets distributed.)

The Gophers had one sellout all season when 14,625 was announced for the February 16 Iowa game. Fan apathy has been a reality for years and this offseason indifference is likely to grow. Certainly Coyle sees this and may well have considered how a change in leadership could have jump-started expectations and revenues including season tickets and donations. The right coach could make up the $2 million buyout in short order.

Coyle is a savvy administrator and has impressed with his coaching selections since becoming athletic director in 2016. His hires include football coach P.J. Fleck who in year three at Minnesota led the Gophers to a final A.P. ranking of No. 10 in the nation. That was the highest ranking for the program at the end of a season since 1962. For decades Gopher football mostly struggled against Big Ten opponents, but last year Minnesota had a 7-2 record. The seven wins tied a school record. Fleck’s teams are 15-4 in their last 19 games.

If the football program—requiring large numbers of players—can become a quick success story at Minnesota, then surely basketball can rebound, too. The rise of football should mute the apologists who say Gophers basketball can’t do much better than land in the lower portion of the Big Ten standings.

Pitino was hired in 2013 by infamous U athletic director Norwood Teague who had been unable to convince other candidates to accept the job. Pitino, then 30 years old, had one season of head coaching experience at Florida International where his record was 18-14. The job at Minnesota has been rewarding financially with a current salary base of about $2 million and millions more earned over seven years including through bonuses. Not so rewarded are the Gopher loyalists who have invested their money, time and emotions in the program with minimal return for years.

Teague showed patience with Pitino, and so, too, has Coyle who is on record as personally liking the coach. I like Richard, too, but coaches are hired to win and there has been too little of that for most of the last seven seasons.

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Interesting Times at Williams Arena

Posted on March 9, 2020March 9, 2020 by David Shama

I headed to Williams Arena Sunday morning hoping to see my friend and Harrison Ford look-a-like Fred Hoiberg, the former Timberwolves guard and first-year coach of the Nebraska Cornhuskers. Traffic was a breeze, and parking in the mostly empty Oak Street Ramp was even easier.

I engaged a Gopher fan on my walk to the arena. I asked him if he thought Richard Pitino would return next season as the University of Minnesota’s men’s basketball coach. “I am not one for firing coaches,” he answered. “I’d give him another year.”

Pitino’s job status is a hot topic of late and the fan’s response surprised me. A Daily Gopher story last week said only six percent of respondents in a fan poll thought the program is headed in the right direction. When it was mentioned to the fan that Pitino’s Big Ten regular season record is 48 wins and 80 losses, he seemed to backtrack in his conviction. Maybe this week’s poll goes to five percent approval.

Seconds after entering the arena, guess who I encountered? Minnesota athletic director Mark Coyle. I smiled. We made eye contact. I asked, “Can I talk to you for a few minutes?”

“Nope,” he answered, adding to my intrigue and that of everyone else regarding the status of Pitino who is finishing up his seventh season leading the Gophers.

I met a media colleague in the concourse who I hadn’t seen in awhile. I told her I had been out of town a couple times, escaping the Minneapolis winter. She said I looked tan and rested, and not frustrated with the Gopher season.

Correct on two counts.

Prior to the game the Gophers honored three seniors and their families with an on- court ceremony. Alihan Demir, Michael Hurt and Brady Rudrud were playing their last home game for the Gophers, who have experienced a disappointing season with under .500 records overall and in the Big Ten.

Demir, a first-year transfer from Drexel, has been a regular but Hurt’s playing time has been spotty during his career, and Rudrud has seldom known game action. Demir and Hurt were in the staring lineup, with the latter scoring a surprising five early points to help the Gophers to a 13-5 lead.

By the 7:40 mark in the first half I was losing focus in the game. The Barn was predictably quiet for a game involving two teams resting at or near the bottom of the Big Ten standings.

The lady and kids sitting behind me seemed to be having a good time, though. I suspect they were first time visitors to The Barn. “This is kind of a weird floor,” mom pronounced regarding the famous raised court. “The coaches sit on bar stools.”

Demir had nine points (he was averaging 6.7) with about four minutes to play in the first half. He was Minnesota’s second leading scorer as his team moved to a 41-29 lead in a game the Gophers controlled almost from the beginning.

Daniel Otruru, the sophomore center who likely played his last home game before heading to the NBA Draft this spring, started slow in one of the few games the Gophers didn’t need a dominant performance from him to have a chance to win. The 6-foot-10, 240-pound Otruru woke up the crowd late in the half with a dunk and also wowed fans with a behind the back dribble driving to the basket. By halftime the game seemed over, with Minnesota holding a 52-37 lead over the smaller and less talented lads from Lincoln.

In the early minutes of the second half I was most entertained during timeouts when the video screen showed clips of Gophers responding to the question of what planet they would most want to visit. Jarvis Omersa opted for Neptune.

“I don’t know why,” he said. “Just sounds good.”

With 12:20 left in the game, Minnesota led 75-48 and it clearly felt like Rudrud time. As of Sunday morning, he had played a grand total of 3:28 in Minnesota’s 29 games and had yet to score a point.

Nope, Pitino would make us wait for Rudrud’s appearance.

Rudrud finally checked into the game with 5:48 remaining, and almost immediately was urged by fans to “SHOOT!” About a minute later the fans oohed when his three point attempt from the corner almost went down.

But Rudrud wasn’t done because with 3:58 to go in the game the Eden Prairie point guard made a three-pointer. Seconds later the none too bashful crowd favorite let loose with another three point miss. Before going to the bench with about minute left in the game he made a nifty open court pass to freshman forward Isaiah Ihnen for a dunk.

The crowd roared during the closing minutes including when seldom used junior point guard Hunt Conroy entered the game. While he missed on two field goal attempts, he did make a free throw to the crowd’s delight.

After the game Pitino spoke to the fans about his three seniors who had a day they will never forget. Of course he praised all three and referred to Hurt as “the classiest kid I’ve coached.”

Maybe half of the modest crowd (announced attendance of 9,984) stayed after the game ended to hear Pitino and the three seniors speak and express appreciation for their careers. In what sounded like a shout-out to encourage more Minnesota prep players to attend the U, Hurt said, “When we’re winning here with Minnesota kids it makes things special.”

Rudrud played almost five minutes Sunday while Hurt played over 20 and scored five points. Demir, the only starter among the three for most of the season, scored a Minnesota career best 19 points.

Sophomore shooting guard Gabe Kalscheur led the Gophers in scoring with 26 points, tying a school record with eight three-point conversions. Minnesota made a Gopher record 18 three-point field goals in the game.

It was a long day for Hoiberg who is rebuilding the Nebraska program with new players on the way. In the 107-75 defeat, the Huskers lost their 16th consecutive Big Ten game. At the postgame news conference the thoughtful Hoiberg praised both the Gophers and Pitino. Then on his departure from the news conference he said, “It’s good to see you, David.”

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