FanPost

Minnesota Basketball: Fast-Forward to 2019-20

Geoff Burke-USA TODAY Sports

GoAUpher note: Bumping this up to the front page because there's no better time to dream about a happy Gophers future than the offseason!

After a breakout season for the University of Minnesota men's basketball team, the future certainly looks bright. And, with today's news of a contract extension for Richard Pitino that will make him the head coach through the 2021-22 season (an extension I had hoped would have been through at least 2023), there is hope for Gophers fan everywhere that even bigger things could be coming for the U.


A season ago, things looked bleak. Yes, Coach Pitino and his staff remained positive and confident about the future, but many questioned if Pitino would even have a future with Gopher basketball. The 8-win season of 2015-16 was the lowest victory total in the modern history of the program. And, the .258 win percentage was the sixth lowest in the now 122 season history of University of Minnesota men's basketball. Like I said, things looked bleak.

But, in the midst of turmoil off the court and incompetency on the court, Coach Pitino & Co. kept building, recruiting like crazy and pushing (sometimes seemingly dragging and pleading) for their players to develop, Pitino encouraging his Gophers to use every failure as motivation.

Once the season was over, the roster was flipped.

Exit Kevin Dorsey (and his camera phone), Charles Buggs (and his "potential"), Carlos Morris (due to every fan's favorite explanation: conduct detrimental to the team), and fan favorite, albeit fairly limited as a player, Joey King. Enter Amir Coffey, Akeem Springs, Reggie Lynch, and Eric Curry. The stage was now set for a big turnaround. But, no one thought it would be this big.

Freshman Amir Coffey started all 33 games in which he played and earned a spot on the Big Ten All-Freshman Team. Reggie Lynch earned the honor of Big Ten Defensive Player of the Year, swatting away a school-record 114 shots on the season, the third highest total in the nation this year. And those guys that were a part of arguably the worst season in school history? Nate Mason returned to earn first team All-Big Ten. Jordan Murphy, who reportedly had to be re-recruited to stay at Minnesota after last year, returned and earned third team All-Big Ten.

Richard Pitino was named the Big Ten Coach of the Year for leading the turnaround.

To me, the most impressive part of this turnaround is not in the turnaround itself. Pitino himself had been saying for years that Year 3 was expected to be a bit of a drop-off. To me, the most impressive aspect of it all is the caliber of players Pitino and his staff were able to sign and develop, time and time again, in the midst of turnover and turmoil.

Amir Coffey was rated as a top-50 player by 247sports.com and had offers from almost everywhere. Arizona, Baylor, Michigan State, Texas, and Wisconsin to name a handful. And, had Fred Hoiberg not left Iowa State for the Chicago Bulls, Coffey, by many reports, was headed to Ames. Eric Curry had offers from Oklahoma State, SMU, and Arkansas. And, despite everything going on with the Gopher men's basketball team, they still committed, a huge testament to Pitino.

Then, during the 2016-17 season, Isaiah Washington (New York's Mr. Basketball) and Jamir Harris committed. Add to that the presumed return of versatile and experienced forward Davonte Fitzgerald from injury last preseason, and next year's Gophers team looks like it could be even better than this season's 24-10 record and first-round NCAA Tournament exit.

Now, to the point of why I'm writing. Yes, 2017-18 projects to be very, very good. But, in my mind, 2019-2020 could be even better.

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With the new facilities (pictured above) on the horizon, an extension for the coach, and improved play this year and hopefully in the next couple of years, 2020 COULD (if only there were more of an emphasis than uppercase italics) be the year the Gophers legitimately compete for a national championship!

Look at the names.

Amir Coffey and Eric Curry will be a seniors. Isaiah Washington and Jamir Harris will be juniors. Daniel Oturu will be a sophomore, along with [possibly, at this point in time] Tre Jones, Race Thompson, and Gabe Kalscheur. And, [juuuuuuust maybe] Matthew Hurt and Kofi Cockburn will be freshmen. That team is stacked!

Pitino has already signed three of the top six Gopher basketball recruits in school history (again, according to 247sports.com). Amir Coffey, Isaiah Washington, and Daniel Oturu being numbers three, five, and six, respectively. The others: Kris Humphries (back in 2003), Royce White (who never actually played for the U), and Rodney Williams. None of them played together in college. But, Coffey, Washington, and Oturu will all play together in two years. Plus, tenth-ranked commit Eric Curry, fifteenth-ranked Dupree McBrayer, and nineteenth-ranked Jordan Murphy.

If Pitino can continue the progress he has made in his time with the Gophers, land another couple prospects like the ones mentioned previously, he can, before he even reaches 40-years-old, become the greatest basketball coach in the history of the University of Minnesota.

Congratulations on the extension, Coach Pitino. I sincerely hope you are a Gopher for life!

[historical records and player stats courtesy of sports-reference.com]

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