Minnesota coach Richard Pitino will be back at the helm of the Golden Gophers next season, according to Stadium’s Jeff Goodman. Pitino’s team went 15-16 this past season.

That’s not to say that Minnesota didn’t have encouraging moments. Nine games into Big Ten play, the Golden Gophers sat at 5-4, with a two-game season sweep of Ohio State and wins over Michigan and Penn State as well. Three games later brought another big win — this one over Wisconsin — but two more losses, dropping Minnesota to 6-6 in league play.

And that’s when things went off the rails. The Golden Gophers won just two of their final eight regular season games, with those wins coming over Big Ten cellar-dwellers Northwestern and Nebraska. And while Minnesota won its lone Big Ten Tournament game (also against Northwestern), there wasn’t much to indicate that Pitino’s club had a much deeper run in them. In a macro sense, that meant that — in a league likely destined to send double-digit teams to the dance — Minnesota was one of the few teams that wasn’t headed dancing.

The son of former Louisville coach Rick Pitino, Richard has now gone 127-108 in his seven years with the Gophers, including a 48-82 mark in conference play.

Pitino came to Minnesota via FIU, where he went 18-14 and 11-9 in the Sun Belt in his lone season on campus. And his first Minnesota team won 25 games and the NIT championship. The next year saw a dip to a 6-12 mark in the Big Ten, and the Golden Gophers plummeted to an 8-23 record and a 2-16 showing in league.

But Minnesota was awarded for its diligence the next season, with Minnesota going 24-10, put up a winning record in the Big Ten for the only time in Pitino’s tenure and reaching the NCAA Tournament. Two years after that, in 2018-19, Pitino’s squad went 22-14 and 9-11 in the Big Ten, reaching the NCAA Tournament again and garnering Pitino’s first NCAA Tournament win.

That set up this season, and Pitino appeared to have the pieces for another potential run to the NCAA Tournament. Center Daniel Oturu was among the Big Ten's best players; he was named both second-team All-Big Ten and to the Big Ten All-Defensive Team after the season concluded. Averaging 20.1 points, 11.3 rebounds and 2.5 blocked shots per game, there was certainly an argument to be made for him on the first team as well. And Marcus Carr, who was an honorable mention pick by the Big Ten media, could swing games in the Gophers' favor as well. He averaged 15.3 points, 5.3 rebounds and 6.6 assists per game as well.

Both players were sophomores and now have decisions to make; the starting lineup also included another sophomore in Gabe Kalscheur, who had a down shooting year, but could be a reliable parter as a junior. Pitino is also bringing in the No. 48 recruiting class, including a 247Sports Composite top 100 player in Jamal Mashburn Jr. Should the right combination of players return, and Mashburn provide some immediate boost, Pitino should be under more pressure to produce in 2020-21.