Category: RICHARD PITINO

 

Road trip.

Family and basketball brought my wife and me to Sioux Falls last weekend. Jeanne’s brother, Steve Gilbertson, has Down Syndrome and is a life-long South Dakota resident. With the Gophers playing Vanderbilt at the Sanford Pentagon arena Saturday night, the past weekend was an opportune time to visit Steve and see Minnesota against an SEC opponent.

Steve’s mental and physical skills have slowed the last couple of years. He has always been a sports fan and I used to tease him about his loyalties, but I don’t any more. The Vikings have long been No. 1 on his list of sports favorites. For years I kidded him about how “I love the Packers.”

“Oh, come on, Dave,” Steve answered back. “Why would you want to say that?”

Sometimes he would be so disgusted he could hardly spit the words “Packers” out of his mouth. It was at moments like that I realized it was time to back off.

Whenever we met up with Steve over the years—whether it was in Sioux Falls or Minneapolis—bowling was always on the agenda. During the car ride to the bowling alley Steve was likely to talk about his prowess in knocking down the pins. He might recall a recent outing and remember his score this way: “I bowled a 300.”

I am not going to doubt my brother-in-law, but my recollection is that no one in our little group broke 150. And by the way, God bless Steve for introducing me to alleys with guard rails. Those things will help pump up your score and ego!

For years Steve bagged groceries at a Sioux Falls Hy-Vee. He made a lot of friends at the grocery store and also wherever else he went. There were weekly Kiwanis luncheons and Sundays ushering at a large Lutheran church. None of Steve’s sibs were surprised years ago when he earned his Eagle Scout badge. A few years ago the Argus Leader even published a feature story about Steve and his life at age 60. It has been a remarkable journey for this good-natured man who used to do public speaking about people with disabilities.

Steve is something of a celebrity in his hometown. I realized this years ago after the three of us had a dinner in downtown Sioux Falls. As we walked the streets and browsed in shops, lots of people greeted us and said, “Hi, Steve, how are you?” Often Steve knew the person’s name and replied back. Almost always he knew the face. Perhaps it was someone he had helped at Hy-Vee, assisted at church, or inspired with a talk about his life.

We didn’t get Steve to the basketball game on Saturday night. He has mobility and attention issues now, but I told him about the game on Sunday morning. He’s not a big Gophers guy and said, “Oh, they’re all right.”

Well, I was more impressed than Steve and the rest of today’s column is my basketball report from Sioux Falls:

Minnesota finished up an important week by defeating Vanderbilt, 56-52. The Gophers’ 7-1 nonconference record is a surprise to most everyone—probably even players and coaches. Although the Gophers have a reshuffled starting lineup and roster from last season (2-16 Big Ten record), I didn’t expect this much improvement.

After Saturday night’s game, point guard Nate Mason said he’s excited about the team but is trying to keep emotions under control, and comments brief. “Hopefully have a big year,” he said.

This Minnesota team is without a star right now and has different standouts from game to game, but there’s a bond with these guys after eight games. They play together and for one another. “We really enjoy each other’s company,” said power forward Jordan Murphy. “We’re really good people.”

Murphy had 14 rebounds and 16 points in the win Saturday night. Both totals led the Gophers. He and teammates made up for a struggling night on Monday at Florida State when the Gophers got pushed around and lost to one of the most physically imposing teams in America. Minnesota is a young group but at the end of the Florida State game the Gophers didn’t play like they were intimated as they rallied late and lost 75-67.

Poise was evident Saturday night, too. The Gophers didn’t want to let a one-game losing streak become two. They didn’t and earned their seventh victory with a schedule that already includes three wins over major college teams—Arkansas, St. John’s and Vandy. And guess what? The sum of their work over eight games has landed the Gophers at No. 10 in one of the national RPI rankings, ahead of the Big Ten’s other 13 teams. (See RPI at Teamrankings.com).

The conference schedule starts December 27 and coach Richard Pitino said the way his team closed the game against Vandy will be needed in the Big Ten. The Gophers trailed 45-44 with about seven minutes remaining and continued to stay close, tying the score at 50-50 before going on to win.

Minnesota did miss eight free throws in the game and the coach also didn’t like the team’s turnovers, but said his club made winning plays. “That’s something we talk about a lot. We did that.”

The Gophers impressed with their defense, holding Vandy to only seven points in the last seven minutes. Pitino described Vanderbilt as “very gifted offensively” and liked seeing his team limit the Commodores to 30.2 percent on field goal attempts and 32 percent on three point shots.

Pitino wouldn’t bite on whether he would have been surprised before the season at a predicted 7-1 start. But there was no doubt he was pleased after the win on Saturday night.

“It’s a lesson to our guys,” he said. “You defend and you rebound, you’ll be in any game.”

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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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