Andy Katz has Gophers at #26 in his Power 36

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SelectionSunday

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Other B1G teams in his Power 36:

#15 Michigan State
#16 Nebraska
#17 Michigan
#20 Purdue
#22 Indiana
#25 Wisconsin

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Nice to see!

26. Minnesota: Coach Richard Pitino could have his deepest and most talented team since he’s been at Minnesota. It was supposed to be last season but injuries and a major suspension derailed a once-promising season. The Gophers have one of the top double-double players in the country in Jordan Murphy. Amir Coffey, Eric Curry and Dupree McBrayer give the Gophers a crew that can be as potent as any in the Big Ten. If this team can finally stay healthy, there is no reason the Gophers can’t be in the thick of the race for the conference title.

Go Gophers!!
 

Right or wrong, Andy Katz is always the first to give the Gophers some love.

Other than health, I think the most important key to the season is if Oturu can be a good defensive center. If so, the Gophers will be at least the 26th best team in the country. I have confidence in every position other than center. Maybe Curry has grown and can play it. Murphy is too small to play center, and if stockman were a rim protector, he would have gotten more clock at lousiville
 

JimmyJamesMD said:
Right or wrong, Andy Katz is always the first to give the Gophers some love.

Other than health, I think the most important key to the season is if Oturu can be a good defensive center. If so, the Gophers will be at least the 26th best team in the country. I have confidence in every position other than center. Maybe Curry has grown and can play it. Murphy is too small to play center, and if stockman were a rim protector, he would have gotten more clock at lousiville
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You may be right but I think the season rides on IW. If he can run the team, we could have a good yr. If not, things could end with Jeter as interim.
 

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Go Gophers!!
 


I'm very surprised with this ranking considering our question marks with the back court going into the season. However......Katz contributed coverage to the Big Ten after being let go from ESPN.....so I'm sure he saw the potential with our returning players and the hardships that fell upon the team last year.
 

Would put us no worse than #19 if we are healthy and IW improvement.
 

Obviously, he didn’t consult the experts on GH!


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Looks like pac12 really hurting next year. According to Katz, seven big ten teams would win the pac12.
 



ltf said:
Looks like pac12 really hurting next year. According to Katz, seven big ten teams would win the pac12.
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I saw a preseason prediction today that I think had UCLA 3rd and Arizona 5th. Arizona is usually stacked with talent, so I was surprised to see them picked so low. I know they lost Shareef O'Neal and Jahvon Quinerly from their 2018 class after some of the FBI stuff, but I figured they would have enough returning to at least contend for the conference title.
 

We're in the 27th percentile! LET'S PARTY!!! [emoji14]

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Ewert86PC said:
We're in the 27th percentile! LET'S PARTY!!! [emoji14]

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Not sure I follow you here. The 27th percentile team is a very good team when the sample space is the top 36.
 

JimmyJamesMD said:
Right or wrong, Andy Katz is always the first to give the Gophers some love.

Other than health, I think the most important key to the season is if Oturu can be a good defensive center. If so, the Gophers will be at least the 26th best team in the country. I have confidence in every position other than center. Maybe Curry has grown and can play it. Murphy is too small to play center, and if stockman were a rim protector, he would have gotten more clock at lousiville
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Curry played center as a true freshman. I see no reason why he couldn't do it now with two additional years of maturity.
 



ltf said:
Not sure I follow you here. The 27th percentile team is a very good team when the sample space is the top 36.
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Well let's see... First, being #26 puts us out of the Top 20/25 polls. Second, there are six Big Ten teams ahead of us. It smacks of being in the middle of the pack, not being an elite program.

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JimmyJamesMD said:
Right or wrong, Andy Katz is always the first to give the Gophers some love.

Other than health, I think the most important key to the season is if Oturu can be a good defensive center. If so, the Gophers will be at least the 26th best team in the country. I have confidence in every position other than center. Maybe Curry has grown and can play it. Murphy is too small to play center, and if stockman were a rim protector, he would have gotten more clock at lousiville
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This is correct.

2 years ago - 21st in the nation in defensive efficiency.

Last year - 207th in the nation in defensive efficiency. 49th in the nation before losing Lynch.

Obviously more things happened that Lynch being gone relatively early in the year, but this is a huge, huge deal. We aren’t built to win in other ways. We need a good defense and Lynch was basically the sole reason it was good.
 

Thomasthetank said:
You may be right but I think the season rides on IW. If he can run the team, we could have a good yr. If not, things could end with Jeter as interim.
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Yep. I think between Curry, Oturu and Stockman, we'll be fine at center. Not amazing or anything but good enough. Aside from everyone staying healthy, the success of this team all depends on if Isaiah takes the next step which I think he can considering his improvement from last year and his skills he showed in HS. If he improves just a little from last year and everyone stays healthy, I think we get like an 11 seed in the tourney. If he has a breakout year and does more than just show some improvement than I think we could have a great year.
 

JimmyJamesMD said:
Right or wrong, Andy Katz is always the first to give the Gophers some love.

Other than health, I think the most important key to the season is if Oturu can be a good defensive center. If so, the Gophers will be at least the 26th best team in the country. I have confidence in every position other than center. Maybe Curry has grown and can play it. Murphy is too small to play center, and if stockman were a rim protector, he would have gotten more clock at lousiville
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Jimmy, having a rim protector is one way to construct a basketball team. Or at the very least there are different ways defensively to protect the rim. Sound defense does not have to have a rim protector. Against Happ, we need a post defender. Rim protector and a post defender are not the same thing. A 5'8" guy can take a charge and be a rim protector. On and on.... We'll find a way if we have a healthy roster.
 

60's Guy said:
Jimmy, having a rim protector is one way to construct a basketball team. Or at the very least there are different ways defensively to protect the rim. Sound defense does not have to have a rim protector. Against Happ, we need a post defender. Rim protector and a post defender are not the same thing. A 5'8" guy can take a charge and be a rim protector. On and on.... We'll find a way if we have a healthy roster.
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We had a horrible defense last year without Lynch. Could we change up the strategy a bit if Oturu isn’t dominant right away? Yes. Do we have a team that is great in other departments to be a very good team? We’d need a leap from some players.

As of now we are a below average defense with talented offensive players but not a great 3P shooting team. Plenty can change if Washington turns into a great 3P shooter or something of that nature, but I just think we are more on the bubble unless some players surpass my expectations.
 

A lot of assumptions being made on some players. Im not convinced one way or the other, but assuming that Curry will just stroll in and play big minutes at C in the B1G and be great could be a dangerous assumption.

I the feel the same about Washington taking the leap every seems to think is a given. That's something I'll have to see.

Sure, this could be a very good team, it may not be. I'm not sure the floor is as low as last season, solely because they'll be able to absorb injuries a little better. Bird I'm not really convinced the ceiling is higher than it was last year.
 

RickDornsby said:
We had a horrible defense last year without Lynch. Could we change up the strategy a bit if Oturu isn’t dominant right away? Yes. Do we have a team that is great in other departments to be a very good team? We’d need a leap from some players.

As of now we are a below average defense with talented offensive players but not a great 3P shooting team. Plenty can change if Washington turns into a great 3P shooter or something of that nature, but I just think we are more on the bubble unless some players surpass my expectations.
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Washington's numbers improved toward the end of last season. Of the 12 times he scored in double digits last season, 7 of those instances occurred in his last 9 games. 6 of his 8 highest scoring totals of last season came in those last 9 games. He also shot 35.4% from 3 in conference last year, but, similar to Dupree McBrayer's freshman year, his 3 point shooting in the non-conference of his first season was dreadful (I think I counted 6-40 for 15%) bringing his season average to 24%. 35% isn't spectacular, but it's serviceable. Stull and Hurt should be good shooters off the bench too, possibly better than McBrayer and Coffey.
 

Cayman said:
Washington's numbers improved toward the end of last season. Of the 12 times he scored in double digits last season, 7 of those instances occurred in his last 9 games. 6 of his 8 highest scoring totals of last season came in those last 9 games. He also shot 35.4% from 3 in conference last year, but, similar to Dupree McBrayer's freshman year, his 3 point shooting in the non-conference of his first season was dreadful (I think I counted 6-40 for 15%) bringing his season average to 24%. 35% isn't spectacular, but it's serviceable. Stull and Hurt should be good shooters off the bench too, possibly better than McBrayer and Coffey.
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I don't think IW's scoring is the most important stat we need out of him. Keeping turnovers to a minimum would be excellent if he can drive and feed Stull and others for open looks.
 

Cayman said:
Washington's numbers improved toward the end of last season. Of the 12 times he scored in double digits last season, 7 of those instances occurred in his last 9 games. 6 of his 8 highest scoring totals of last season came in those last 9 games. He also shot 35.4% from 3 in conference last year, but, similar to Dupree McBrayer's freshman year, his 3 point shooting in the non-conference of his first season was dreadful (I think I counted 6-40 for 15%) bringing his season average to 24%. 35% isn't spectacular, but it's serviceable. Stull and Hurt should be good shooters off the bench too, possibly better than McBrayer and Coffey.
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I don't think IW's scoring is the most important stat we need out of him. Keeping turnovers to a minimum would be excellent if he can drive and feed Stull and others for open looks.
 

Cayman said:
Washington's numbers improved toward the end of last season. Of the 12 times he scored in double digits last season, 7 of those instances occurred in his last 9 games. 6 of his 8 highest scoring totals of last season came in those last 9 games. He also shot 35.4% from 3 in conference last year, but, similar to Dupree McBrayer's freshman year, his 3 point shooting in the non-conference of his first season was dreadful (I think I counted 6-40 for 15%) bringing his season average to 24%. 35% isn't spectacular, but it's serviceable. Stull and Hurt should be good shooters off the bench too, possibly better than McBrayer and Coffey.
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IW took some time to adjust. It appeared that he wanted to make a splash right out the gate. He got a taste of it against Providence when Raftery was singing his praises and he continued to force shots when he had no business doing so. It didn't help he was leading a 2nd unit of complete incompetence when it came to shot creating and shot making. If Oturu can catch and finish above the rim and Curry can refine his game around the rim (I remember a bit differently than most, I recall Curry being vertically challenged and missed quite a few bunnies) IW's ability to create will have increased quite a bit just by having someone to pass to at the block or above the rim for an alley oop when the help comes. Those things simply didnt exist outside of Murphy last year.

I'll be watching bad shots from IW, if he takes the approach of I'll lead this team rather than pull this team to success we're in for some fun basketball. If he decides the ball belongs in his hand and everyone else can wait for me to pass it to them, we're in trouble as we've seen some suspect shot selecting from IW in the past and Pitino will need to reign that in.
 

Otis said:
I don't think IW's scoring is the most important stat we need out of him. Keeping turnovers to a minimum would be excellent if he can drive and feed Stull and others for open looks.
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Agreed. He averaged about 1.5 turnovers in his last 9 games at around 27 minutes per game, so he definitely improved there. I think his assist numbers will go up too with big guys who are better at catching and finishing. I could see him averaging like 14 and 5 next season. I'm just hoping his FG% will be over 40. If he puts up those type of numbers, we will be in for a great season.
 

Ewert86PC said:
Well let's see... First, being #26 puts us out of the Top 20/25 polls. Second, there are six Big Ten teams ahead of us. It smacks of being in the middle of the pack, not being an elite program.

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Got it. Thought you were basing your argument on the 27th percentile - my bad.
 

Isaiah has every opportunity to make himself a national name this season. Which should be great motivation for him. If he can be average to above average we’re going to be trouble...


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A lot will fall on Isaiah’s shoulders for the reasons a lot of you have pointed out. I think the defense has a chance to be better than last year though even with Lynch. The athleticism and versatility that comes with that will make this team a lot harder to play against. Lynch was an all world shot blocker but would get killed defending PnRs, Fitz didn’t have the foot speed after the injuries, Konate tried but just wasn’t a good enough player. A big part of what made Curry so good as a freshman was his ability to defend PnRs. Oturu should be similar while having natural ability as a shot blocker, Omersa has the athleticism to be switched onto a guard and not panic while Stockman’s more in the Lynch mold though he looks a relatively fluid athlete for a guy his size.

The questions are how good of a defender is Stull? Has Hurt continuted to take steps forward on that end? Gabe was a solid defender in HS, how quickly will that translate? Can Washington stay in front of his man? Through what we hear from summer workouts and eventually in the scrimmage we’ll get some of those answers. Maybe it’s the heat frying my brain but the potential with this team is exciting. So pumped to have what seems like playable depth.
 

RatherBeGolfing said:
Not only just with health but with production as well. There's a lot of questions that have to be answered in my mind for this to become reality.
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This.

Gophers have potential to surprise. So do a lot of other Big Ten teams. ... Iowa, Maryland, Northwestern, Ohio State, Penn State, Purdue, Wisconsin, etc. Gophers need to finish ahead of most if not all of these if they want to sniff the double-bye. I'm still in "ceiling of 5, basement of 13" mode, which probably explains why I currently have Gophers pegged for 9th.
 

Ewert86PC said:
Big Ten teams ahead of us. It smacks of being in the middle of the pack, not being an elite program.
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Haha, if we were to finish the 26th best team in the nation and securely in the NCAA Tourney you would be upset. Okay.
 

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