The group with the most votes is "8-9" wins. Is this hopeful/wishful/make-yourself-feel-good thinking or objective decision making? It seems to me, every (and I mean every) BIG 10 team would've been up by at least 25 at half over Bemidji. Bemidji is projected to finish at or near the bottom of a DII conference. How can that not concern you even if we were missing Mason? I know far less than all of you about our competition and the vagary of outcomes of collegiate basketball games, and I'm passionate about Gopher athletics, but I rarely see the optimism that most of you share. Without trying to be mean, I honestly do not believe Richard Pitino could out coach any of our seasoned, successful high school coaches in Minnesota and I'm confused what evidence you have that shows Richard has much of a Basketball IQ. Sure he knows the vernacular of the game and how to tell his players to drive hard to the basket and rebound. But what have you seen in our offense or defense to demonstrate that this guy can really coach? Forget about all of the crap for a moment surrounding Bobby Knight, I know he's a tough guy to like, but when you watched his teams play it looked liked sound, fundamental and disciplined basketball. To my eyes, Pitino teams look almost uncoached. Like a pick up team at the Y. Bemidji and the South Dakota's for that matter seemed better coached, to me. I just wish I could see what so many of you see in our Gophers.