Richard Pitino said when he took the Gophers men's basketball coaching job in 2013, he sat down with some of his new bosses and looked at what success — and failures — he could expect in his first few years.
Year 3 always felt like a rebuilding season — but the extent to which the Gophers have struggled this season caught even Pitino off guard.
"I thought that we would definitely take a step backwards in order to take a major step forward," he said Friday. "I didn't think it would be this bad. I'd be lying if I said I did."
Pitino inherited a team that won an NCAA tournament game in Tubby Smith's final season. In Pitino's first season, one of the things that caught the new coach's eye was the eight juniors and seniors on the roster after he added a couple of transfers in Malik Smith and DeAndre Mathieu.
"I thought, 'We've got to build around this team a little bit,' " Pitino said. "I thought we had some pieces and we could sneak into an NCAA tournament with that. Obviously I thought we were extremely close the first year, and I still don't think we were that far away [last year], and I told those guys, I think we're going to rebuild big-time in Year 3."
Instead, the trajectory has led to a deeper-than-expected tumble. After winning the NIT title in Pitino's first season and missing any postseason invitation a year ago, this season the Gophers are 6-11 and have started the Big Ten slate 0-5 after getting crushed by 25 points in back-to-back games.
In the most recent defeat, an 84-59 loss at Nebraska on Tuesday, the Gophers started three freshmen and two sophomores with a clear eye toward the future. Pitino said that group communicates well and is "the most confident together" and added Friday that he expects to use the same starting five in Saturday's home game against Indiana.
That lineup — freshmen Dupree McBrayer, Ahmad Gilbert and Jordan Murphy and sophomores Nate Mason and Bakary Konate — actually helped the Gophers jump to an 8-4 lead against Nebraska.