FanPost

Minnesota Basketball: Make No Mistake, This Season is a Disappointment

Evan Habeeb-USA TODAY Sports

GoAUpher: Yup. Still needed bumping though.

As the final buzzer blared throughout a seemingly cavernous Bryce Jordan Center, those danged Golden Gophers had done it again. They had lost to a Big Ten opponent on the road. The saddest thing might have been that Penn State was missing it's second best player therefore weakening a team already considered one of the dregs of the conference. Or maybe it was the fact the Gophers had just turned the ball over 15 times against a defense ranked 98th in defensive efficiency in the country. Perhaps it was because they had just lost their 6th conference game by 5 points or less.

To me, the saddest thing was the obvious display of insanity displayed by both the players and the head coach of the 2014-2015 Golden Gophers.

Someone once said, "Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again, but expecting different results." Pitino and his squad have either not heard this quote or completely ignored it in their quest to plow through the conference schedule so steadfastly stubborn to change their approach that they don't realize the road to perdition they are on has been paved with asinine pushing of tempo and poorly executed offense. What is the point of screening the wing if you literally have no intention of ever, EVER passing to the roll on the screener? What is the point of screening the wing if the person setting the screen goes about it in a half-a***d way that makes Jay Cutler looks as competitive and heartfelt as Tom Brady? What is the point of forcing turnovers and pushing tempo when you just turn the ball back over with terrible passes, awful choices in transition, and a complete lack of finishing around the rim?

Most alarmingly, what is the point of continuing to do all these things exactly the same way when loss after loss after loss continues to pile up?

I don't want to individually attack anyone. Everyone is to blame. While the amounts of blame may be different, everyone has a hand in this precarious situation. Why does there seem to be no ability to draw up a play for your hottest offensive player in Andre Hollins, not at the end of the game but during one of the numerous scoring droughts you have encountered throughout the duration of every conference game this season? Why does DeAndre Mathieu continue to make the same mistakes over and over again? Why does Carlos Morris think he is LeBron James? Doesn't he know he's probably a junior college transfer for a reason? Why has Mo Walker seemingly regressed in his ability to pass out of the block when a double team comes? Why haven't the coaches targeted this in practice?

Don't get me wrong, the people saying that Pitino inherited a mess and doesn't have the talent to compete at this level honestly don't know what the heck they are talking about. First off all, Pitino inherited a team coming off its best post-season appearance in 14 years. And he showed that this was the case, barely missing the tournament the next year and winning the NIT. The squad this year returned 4 starters. They upgraded the athleticism up and down the roster. They've avoided major injury. They're playing in a much weaker Big Ten than the past 4 years or so. It makes no sense that they are in this position. If they weren't talented enough, Ohio State would have mopped the floor with them. But they didn't. The Gophers took them to overtime and lost on a last possession jumper.

There's a myriad of reasons and there's no way I can put them all into coherent thought in this fanpost. But this season has been an utterly disappointing mess. It appears there is no strong leadership, which may contribute to the lack of ability to close tight games. This makes me disappointed in Pitino, who is both responsible for leadership and for establishing a player to be a leader on the floor. This makes me disappointed in the Dres, because I truly believed they were going to be good on-court leaders through both their play and their intangibles. This makes me disappointed because I really believe there isn't enough of a talent-gap to explain the discrepancy in conference record between us and say Iowa or Purdue or Michigan.

This season was supposed to be another stepping stone in asserting the program as one on the rise. The second season is when good coaches show their worth. Tim Miles took a 12-18 tire fire at a school that most people don't even know has a basketball team and turned them into a tournament team in 2 years (in much more challenging Big Ten)! Chris Holtmann, who didn't even really get 2 years, has Butler in the top 25 again this year and well on their way to the tournament after inheriting a 14-17 post-Brad Stevens program. This isn't supposed to be an indictment of Pitino as much as it's just overall frustration with the long-term term development of one of our revenue sports.

Make no mistake, this season is an outright disappointment. There have been glimpses of quality play amid the quagmire that most of this season has become. The fact that the team is capable of overcoming large deficits, both on the road and at home, illustrate that there just might be a diamond underneath all the coal dust. But the inability to show any kind of adjustment, both between games and in-game, is really starting to make no sense. Both the players and the coaching staff need to start thinking unconventionally if they wish to make the last 9 conference games mean something.

I know there's not much left to play for, because most people probably wouldn't be inspired to play for a NIT bid, but at the least I hope the players don't quit on the season. I'd like to see them take their shots at some of the ranked teams they'll be playing at the end of the season. I'd like to see them scrap throughout the Big Ten Tournament. I'd like to see them make things miserable for a team who thought they'd have an easy Big Ten victory when they see the Gophers walking onto the court. But I'm probably just setting myself for more let downs.

Because disappointment has been the theme this season and that theme doesn't show any sign of changing.

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