Hartman: Gophers' Pitino brings his own team to the Garden

For Richard Pitino, taking the Gophers basketball team to New York's Madison Square Garden to face Florida State in the NIT semifinals Tuesday has to be a dream. As a young kid and a young coach, he spent a great deal of time there with his father, Rick Pitino, who coached the NBA's New York Knicks and led Louisville into several Big East tournaments there.

"My dad was the head coach of the Knicks [from 1987-89] and an assistant coach for the Knicks [1983-85]," Richard said. "We had great moments [when I was] an assistant coach [at Louisville]. We won some Big East tournaments. There's no better place in all of college basketball to play than Madison Square Garden. … We're going to play in Madison Square Garden next year [for the preseason NIT], but there is something about earning a spot to get to the Garden that is pretty special."

Pitino also has some bittersweet non-basketball memories from being in New York.

"When I was growing up, my family and I would always go to New York for the summer," Pitino said. "My uncle, Bill, who we lost on 9/11, was like a second father to me and we would visit him every summer."

Pitino said the things he'll miss most about senior guard Austin Hollins, who had maybe the best game of his career in scoring 32 points in an 81-73 victory over Southern Miss on Tuesday, are his attitude and work ethic.

"He was struggling in the middle of the [season]," Pitino said about Hollins. "He wasn't making shots, and he had gone cold for a while. He just kept going with it. He didn't give up no matter what. When we went on the road and he was just awful — when he came back here the next day in practice and he could easily have tried to hide — and he was the loudest guy, the most vocal guy.

"I think we're going to miss him, basketball aside — and there's a thousand-point scorer and when he's rolling, he's really, really good — but just the intangible part of it. When he walks into the gym, and not that the other guys are really bad, but you know he's going to bring it."

"These guys work so hard every single day," Pitino said. "Maverick, and I said it from Day 1, he didn't play, but he kept working hard. The normal thing to do would have been to somewhat revolt, but instead he saw the big picture and now he is playing well and he wants to keep playing. Joey King is like Austin in the work ethic category, and he's starting to play well and get great confidence. It's twofold because those guys that are going to be here next year, you want them to end on a good note."

What would it mean to win the NIT?

"This is Year 1, and I'm putting in a whole new stamp and a whole new culture and it's just different," Pitino said. "It doesn't mean the old way was bad and my way is right, but as you continue to build in Year 1, to get to 23 wins and to have an opportunity to play in the Garden [and] to continue to try to hopefully win a championship with a lot of guys back next year is huge for our program."

Brian Dutcher, son of former Gophers basketball coach Jim Dutcher, was the subject of an article in the Los Angeles Times a week ago in which he was described as a "basketball genius."

Dutcher, now an assistant to San Diego State head coach Steve Fisher, was also an assistant for Fisher at Michigan from 1989-1997 when they took three Wolverines teams to the NCAA finals and won the title in 1989.

His contract guarantees him the San Diego State head coaching job when Fisher, 69, decides to retire.

• Even when the Twins didn't have good teams over the years, they were still pretty much able to dominate Kansas City in the AL Central. But according to USA Today, the Royals could be a pennant contender this year. From June 1 until the end of last season, the Royals had more wins (64) than any team in baseball except for the Dodgers.

• Anthony Anderson, the running back who sparked Eden Prairie to three consecutive Class 6A titles, is going to attend Iowa Western Community College and then will likely join the Gophers in 2015.

• Once California lost to SMU 67-65 on a three-pointer by Nic Moore with 6.5 seconds left in an NIT quarterfinal Wednesday, the Gophers missed a chance to play against former Gopher Justin Cobbs, who scored 18 points on 8-for-11 shooting against the Mustangs and averaged 15.6 points per game this season. SMU's coach is Larry Brown, the only coach in history to win an NCAA title (with Kansas in 1988) and an NBA title (with the Pistons in 2004).

• New Rivals.com ratings for high school basketball players in the class of 2015 included Alex Illikainen, a 6-9 forward from Grand Rapids, at No. 82 and Jarvis Johnson, a 6-1 guard at DeLaSalle, at No. 84. Both are being recruited hard by the Gophers.

• Senior All-America Zach Siegmeier of the Gophers track team was named the Big Ten Field Athlete of the Week after clearing 5.40 meters in the pole vault at the Baldy Castillo Invitational at Arizona State last week. The mark is the second-best vault in the nation so far this season.

• The Gophers baseball team is scheduled to play the first game at new Siebert Field on Saturday against Michigan State at 2:05 p.m., when the temperature is expected to be 45 degrees. The Gophers pitching staff is led by junior righthander Ben Meyer, who has a 1.24 ERA in his past four starts. He has given up four runs in his past 29 innings.