A ray of hope for the future

[Breakin' The Plane]

Yeah, it sucks being a 5 seed and losing to a 12, but there's not much you can do about it. I am going to happily grasp at straws and look at the last two Big Ten teams that dropped their first round game to 12 seeds. Both teams finished 4th in the conference. Purdue was a 5 seed last year when they lost to Little Rock. They lost more players than the Gophers are going to lose and went on to win the Big Ten this year and are still alive in the tourney.
They prior Big Ten 5th seed that lost to a 12 happened in 2013, when Wisconsin lost to Mississippi. That team came back and went to back-to-back Final Fours and was a half of Tyus Jones' heroics away from winning a National Championship.
All is not lost. Learn from this, build on this and come back hungry in November.

 

[Bad Gopher]

Go back a little further, and Wisconsin got unceremoniously dumped in 1999 as a 5-seed by SW Missouri State. I remember that game, and the Badgers played their worst game of the season, scoring only 32 points. The next year they went to the Final Four and suddenly knew how to play well in the NCAA's. Sports are funny.

 

[goldy93]

Yeah, it sucks being a 5 seed and losing to a 12, but there's not much you can do about it. I am going to happily grasp at straws and look at the last two Big Ten teams that dropped their first round game to 12 seeds. Both teams finished 4th in the conference. Purdue was a 5 seed last year when they lost to Little Rock. They lost more players than the Gophers are going to lose and went on to win the Big Ten this year and are still alive in the tourney.
They prior Big Ten 5th seed that lost to a 12 happened in 2013, when Wisconsin lost to Mississippi. That team came back and went to back-to-back Final Fours and was a half of Tyus Jones' heroics away from winning a National Championship.
All is not lost. Learn from this, build on this and come back hungry in November.

Difference in depth. Purdue lost Hammons, but had Haas and Swanigan as depth players who were able to step in this year. They lost a guard (don't remember the name), but added Albrecht as a transfer. We are losing Springs and are hoping that a freshman is going to step in and perform like a senior. Likewise, we have no depth coming in to help us at the bigs, unless we are counting on Fitz to be that guy. That being said, we should be right in the mix of things again next year in the B1G, which will likely be down again next year. However, just like this year, we will be so thin that we are literally one injury away from failure. If either Murphy or Mason go down with an injury for any length of time ... I don't want to even think about it.

 

[gopherdiehard]

It's more than a ray of hope our future is very very bright we return everyone and our next two recruiting classes are going to be very good it's about adding depth now we are adding two guards and fitz next year and already have oturu for 18. This tournament we will be better for.. the program is back on track and I'm looking forward to a bright future

 

[bga1]

It's more than a ray of hope our future is very very bright we return everyone and our next two recruiting classes are going to be very good it's about adding depth now we are adding two guards and fitz next year and already have oturu for 18. This tournament we will be better for.. the program is back on track and I'm looking forward to a bright future

This. If we keep Pitino and there are no scandals- I see us in a run of 5+ straight NCAA appearances. The recruiting is only going to get better with success. It's a fun brand of ball to watch and we have just started to break through. Incoming recruit Washington has the type of personality and ability to add that little bit extra to a team with plenty of talent and put it over the top.