An 8-23 season for Minnesota is bad enough. A No. 223 finish -- one spot behind St. John's -- in the KenPom.com adjusted efficiency rankings is insult aplenty. Having a tearful senior, half-thrilled and half-exhausted, explaining the importance of winning at least one conference game as the highlight of your season is rough.
But when the president of the university greets your newly hired athletic director with interjections like this ...
"Frankly, this has been a tough week and a tough couple of months for our men's basketball program. I'm profoundly disappointed in the continuing episodes, poor judgment, alleged crimes, and it simply can't continue," Eric Kaler said.
... then, yeah, it's a mess.
The Minnesota Golden Gophers have not had the best 12 months, which is what prompted Kaler's comments. That no good, very bad period more or less began with revelations about former athletic director Norwood Teague, who resigned amid sexual harassment allegations, including inappropriate touching and graphic text messages involving two university employees (at least).
Naturally, an eight-win season from the men's basketball program -- which finished 25-13 in Richard Pitino's first season, and 18-15 in 2014-15 -- didn't bring much relief. But off-court issues were the most disconcerting for UM brass, which this Associated Press paragraph sums up fairly economically:
Not only did the Gophers finish with an 8-23 record, but guards Kevin Dorsey, Nate Mason and Dupree McBrayer were suspended for the final four games after a sex video appeared briefly on Dorsey's social media accounts. Dorsey has left the program with the intent to transfer. Mason and McBrayer were reinstated.
Which, again: Bad enough. Then, this spring, center Reggie Lynch was arrested on suspicion of criminal sexual conduct. He was suspended indefinitely.
Then, a few days later:
According to an internal audit acquired by the Star Tribune, Pitino has exceeded his allotted budget for private jet travel by $175,000. Say it again to yourself. One. Hundred. Seventy-Five. Thousand. Dollars. The school gave him $50,000 per year or $150,000 total for private travel during his first three seasons. Pitino spent $325,000 during that stretch.
In the wake of Kaler's comments, Pitino acknowledged that things have to change.
"When you win eight games and you have some off-the-court issues, that responsibility lies on me. It doesn't lie on anybody else. So we've got to get it right," he said. "I certainly understand where he's coming from."
Getting it right means waging a multifront campaign. One or two off-court issues could be dismissed as uncontrollable folly; Minnesota is perceptually past that point. Worse, for as promising as Pitino's first two season were, and as clued-in to the game as he seems in the abstract, this is not a program, or a coach, with a long track record of success. Gophers fans were dissatisfied with Tubby Smith. How must they feel about this?
On the floor, the path back will be arduous. One hope is that the Gophers' top incoming prospect, Amir Coffey, ESPN's No. 7 small forward in the 2016 class, can bring some Big Ten-ready talent straight away. This was one of the worst-shooting teams in the country at any distance; a versatile scorer and playmaker operating off the wing should offer a boost.
Most of last year's team was young, and Joey King (he of the emotional post-Maryland interview) will genuinely be missed because he was, among other things, a sneakily efficient scorer. But there is a raft of young personnel and opportunity here.
The problem is cleaning all of these things up -- the off-court issues and the sheer ugly basketball -- at the same time.