1976-77/1996-97/2016-17...........

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DeathClutch

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The 76-77 and 96-97 teams are the two best in gophers history, could this team join them as the 3rd best? I know I am reaching here ALOT, so bear with me. :D
 

The 82 Big 10 Champs were better.

Sent from my SM-G900V using Tapatalk
 

I definitely think this team is good, but, I also believe we are benefitting from a down year overall in the conference with injuries having a big part to do with that.
 

The '72, '73, '75, '82, '90, '94, teams were all better as well IMO. I would say this team measures up with the '89 and '05 teams, teams that weren't expected to do much and were pleasant surprises. Season's not over though
 

DeathClutch said:
The 76-77 and 96-97 teams are the two best in gophers history, could this team join them as the 3rd best? I know I am reaching here ALOT, so bear with me. :D
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Nah. The 1996-97 team won zero games. Hard to count them as among the best when they had zero victories.
 




bemidjigopher said:
Lol, that's like saying the Fab Five never happened
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Not sure what that has to do with the 1996-97 Gophers, but it's not at all the same thing, because many of the records from the Fab Five period (both with and without Webber) are still in effect.
 

The John Kundla team with Clark, Yates, Hudson , Mel Northway, and Wes Martin's was pretty good.. Unfortunately Michigan in those years had Cazzie Russell, Bill Buntin, and Oliver Darden.
 



dpodoll68 said:
Nah. The 1996-97 team won zero games. Hard to count them as among the best when they had zero victories.
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I've got about 10 games from 96-97 on DVD, will be happy to loan them to you if you want a quick refresher on the dominant nature of that team
 

Yeah, I was at pretty much every game in the 96-97 season. Can verify. It happened.
 

Zeppelin Gopher said:
I've got about 10 games from 96-97 on DVD, will be happy to loan them to you if you want a quick refresher on the dominant nature of that team
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Sure, it's really easy to be "dominant" when the other teams have to actually be students and you can focus on nothing but basketball all day every day.
 

dpodoll68 said:
Sure, it's really easy to be "dominant" when the other teams have to actually be students and you can focus on nothing but basketball all day every day.
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Anybody who doesn't think what was going on at Minnesota was going on at 75% of the other d-1 basketball programs, and all of the successful ones, is of a remarkably credulous nature, in my opinion.
 



jmag21 said:
Anybody who doesn't think what was going on at Minnesota was going on at 75% of the other d-1 basketball programs, and all of the successful ones, is of a remarkably credulous nature, in my opinion.
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You're suggesting that 75% of programs had widespread, institutionalized systemic academic cheating occurring over multiple years? Yeah, I don't buy it. Regardless, we know for a fact that it happened here. Talking about what happened elsewhere is a red herring. It should be a shameful period in our history talked about only in hushed corners in darkened rooms, and so many of you want to glorify cheating. It's disgusting.
 

dpodoll68 said:
Sure, it's really easy to be "dominant" when the other teams have to actually be students and you can focus on nothing but basketball all day every day.
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Carolina has been doing it for 40 years. All you gotta do is right a one paragraph essay about how Rosa Parks done didn't want t move to the back of the bus and you have a BS in Afro-American Studies. Under Dirty Dean and slick Roy, the BS really does stand for bull ****. Until UNC is punished with the death penalty, we need to re hang our banners, and put Bobby and Sam in the rafters of Williams Arena.
 

dpodoll68 said:
You're suggesting that 75% of programs had widespread, institutionalized systemic academic cheating occurring over multiple years? Yeah, I don't buy it. Regardless, we know for a fact that it happened here. Talking about what happened elsewhere is a red herring. It should be a shameful period in our history talked about only in hushed corners in darkened rooms, and so many of you want to glorify cheating. It's disgusting.
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I'm not suggesting that cheating is appropriate. I do think the NCAA is fairly self-evidently fraudulent on a lot of their so-called ideals of amateurism and student-athletics, especially with regard to big money programs who are the NCAA's cash cow. I don't know who thinks that places like Alabama, in football, whose students drive insanely expensive cars, or Michigan, who hires high-profile recruits' parents, or North Carolina, or any of these places, is on the up and up. It just so happens that an ambitious sports reporter in town decided to make a name for himself here. I'm not attacking the concept that it would be nice if student athletes were devoting themselves to academic achievement. I'm suggesting that the playing field was by no means skewed in favor of the Gophers, as a result of the overly helpful tutors they employed.
 

jmag21 said:
I'm not suggesting that cheating is appropriate. I do think the NCAA is fairly self-evidently fraudulent on a lot of their so-called ideals of amateurism and student-athletics, especially with regard to big money programs who are the NCAA's cash cow. I don't know who thinks that places like Alabama, in football, whose students drive insanely expensive cars, or Michigan, who hires high-profile recruits' parents, or North Carolina, or any of these places, is on the up and up. It just so happens that an ambitious sports reporter in town decided to make a name for himself here. I'm not attacking the concept that it would be nice if student athletes were devoting themselves to academic achievement. I'm suggesting that the playing field was by no means skewed in favor of the Gophers, as a result of the overly helpful tutors they employed.
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So the issue isn't that they were the only ones cheating, it's that they were stupid enough to get caught! Yes, I can see how that's so much better! Let's celebrate it!
 

Why don't you just get it out of your head that these are amature players, that's the real joke. NCAA maintains this charade for $$.
 

Someone should make a banner and unhurl it during a TV timeout from the second deck, that would get the crowd pumped up.
 

Wally said:
Why don't you just get it out of your head that these are amature players, that's the real joke. NCAA maintains this charade for $$.
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The NCAA maintains this "charade" because they have no competition. What's their incentive to change their model when theirs is, by far, the best in existence in the U.S. for players 1 year out of high school in basketball and 1-3 years out of high school in football? If there were money to be made paying 19-year-old basketball players domestically, such a business model would exist. It doesn't because there isn't.
 

ANYHOO...........

It's difficult to compare apples-to-apples, due to players leaving early. No doubt, McHale and the some-a-them other boys would have been long gone back then, no?
 

teams

I think we compare well to the 09-10 team.
73 ppg, 36 rpg, 17 ass, 8 stls, 6 blks, 46%FG, 70% FT, 40% from 3.
16-17:
75 ppg, 40 rpg, 15 ass, 6 stls, 7 blks, 43% FG, 70% FT, 35% from 3.

09-10 team was deeper, our starting 5 is better. They could shoot it better, we play better defense and rebound better.











DeathClutch said:
The 76-77 and 96-97 teams are the two best in gophers history, could this team join them as the 3rd best? I know I am reaching here ALOT, so bear with me. :D
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Nolen, Westbrook, Hoff, D Johnson, Sampson. Bench of Devoe, Carter, Colt, and Rodney.
 

Someone must have an alert for any thread that might possibly mention the 97 team. In addition, someone must have an obsession with controlling the dialogue about said year/team. Some people might want to ignore this.

Vincent Grier's first year was the last time we had this much fun. I keep thinking one of these nights, everyone is going to have a great night and that could be amazing. This team still isn't firing on all cylinders. It's exciting to think about how much we have returning for next year.
 


dpodoll68 said:
Not sure what that has to do with the 1996-97 Gophers, but it's not at all the same thing, because many of the records from the Fab Five period (both with and without Webber) are still in effect.
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dpodoll, I love it when you go all Communist history on us.
It's as though no kids suited up for the Gophers that season in your revisionist history book.
 


It's been fun, but I think you're a year early before talking about this team being ranked with the really good Gopher teams. I do apologize profusely for hijacking this thread back from the usual suspects.
 

If none of the rest of you noticed it, the OP was simply pointing out that the increasingly favorable resume for this season's squad just happens to be happening 20 years after our 97 Final Four squad, which happened 20 years after our 77 squad that went 24-3 and beat eventual Natl Champs Marquette on the road.

Those were arguably our two best squads in modern Gopher history.

And if you read the OP, you would have noticed that he was hesitant to claim this years team WAS one of the top 3 teams, and seemed more than anything to be "hoping" that they could end up being one of the top 3 teams.

Think about it, if they somehow won another 5, 6 maybe 7 games before the tourney, they'd probably go in as a #4-6 seed and could be in the position to get to the Elite 8, and then who knows, maybe everyone or almost everyone has a good game and somehow they end up in the Final Four?!

Then whether or not another season had better or more talented individuals on it, or more depth, or a better coach, or whatever, could any other team show evidence in the form of post season success to show that they were better???



But, saying all that, the one reason I'm ok with not needing this season's Gophers to reach the Final Four, is because that 20 year pattern might not be the best thing for this program. The 77 team didn't get to compete in the NCAA tourney because they were banned from the tournament, and the 97 team's season was stripped after the fact, so exactly 20 years later, this year, maybe it would be better if that pattern was broken.


And the team or season this year's team reminds me of the most is the 1989 squad, and not necessarily in every way, or because of the individuals on the team remind me of the individuals on the 89 squad, but just because of the general feeling of optimism I felt in 1989, about the 89 team itself, but also about the next season's potential even moreso.

89 - no one was 100% sure the team would get in the tourney, but they did, and surprised people by getting to the Sweet 16.
2017 - no one was 100% at the beginning of the season that this team would even make the tourney, but now its looking like they will.

Lets hope they surprise us like the 89 team did.


90 - expectations were higher, team did somewhat better and got further, to the Elite 8 and a missed last second shot away from the Final Four.
2018 - same as in 90, the vast majority of the team returns and should be better and should go further in the Big Dance.
 

I'm really torn over the 1996-1997 Gophers. That's when I first starting watching college basketball and when I started liking the Gophers. I was 11 at the time, and where I was living(south central PA) there were always Big 10 games on ESPN+, which we somehow got even with just our antenna(If any of you can remember that?) It felt like they were on every single weekend(there was usually a double or triple header). Bobby Jackson is still my favorite all-time Gopher even though I can only recollect what he did in that season. I remember the Clemson and UCLA games in the tournament, as well as the loss to UK in the FF. What happened on the eve of the 1999 tournament still really bums me out. I was really excited for that game against Gonzaga, and even after everything came out I still was. I guess being so young at the time, I didn't really understand the implications this would have on the Gophers for the next 5 years or so.

The reason I'm torn is because that 1996-1997 is the reason I'm still a Gophers fan to this day, and I wouldn't trade all the ups and downs of the program for anything. Because of that I am grateful for the 1996-1997 Gophers team, because if they wouldn't have had the success they did, they may have not been on TV as much as they were. But at the same time, they had guys playing that could have been ineligible.

Because of that I appreciate the success the 1996-1997 team on the court, but I can't count it towards anything.
 

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