TYSON TO GOPHERS

I've asked this prior but I don't remember anyone answering. What teams have quality, traditional centers that Turner 6'10" 265 and Vaihola 6'8" 245 can't adequately body up against?

It keeps being raised as a concern but I'm curious how many teams we need to be fearful of this dynamic? Genuinely asking as I don't know the rest of the B1G rosters.
Yeah I think it is a weak concern and also don't have a good gauge on the rest of the conferences bigs. I am an optimist about this upcoming season!
 

I've asked this prior but I don't remember anyone answering. What teams have quality, traditional centers that Turner 6'10" 265 and Vaihola 6'8" 245 can't adequately body up against?

It keeps being raised as a concern but I'm curious how many teams we need to be fearful of this dynamic? Genuinely asking as I don't know the rest of the B1G rosters.
I just know when we needed a C last season, we didn't have anyone who could muscle inside. There are a number of players to contend with.
 

We can hope Medved improves on the results from the last 25 years. Tubby Smith had better credentials than Medved and he had approximately a .500 b10 record with the gophers. If Medved goes .500 and makes the tourney every other year, I'll be satisfied.
I don't blame you for being a downer, the skepticism is well deserved.

That said, CBJ was hired on potential, then the entire landscape changed with NIL & CBJ was in over his head. Tubby was a big name, but had lost his fire & his best coaching years were behind him.

Nikko has a system, a winning track record, seems to understand NIL roster construction, is a local guy (bonus) & seems to be entering his peak coaching years. It seems like the best situation we could realistically ask for. I'd be happy with .500 in conference & a tourney every other year too.
 

I've asked this prior but I don't remember anyone answering. What teams have quality, traditional centers that Turner 6'10" 265 and Vaihola 6'8" 245 can't adequately body up against?

It keeps being raised as a concern but I'm curious how many teams we need to be fearful of this dynamic? Genuinely asking as I don't know the rest of the B1G rosters.
Everyone would like to have an athletic, skilled 7' big who can run the floor, but they're unicorns & they're not cheap.

Same way every team in football wants an athletic, 320lb nose tackle who can take on double teams & penetrate. There's like 20 of them in all of football, and the Gophers are unlikely to land one.

We have to make it work some other way.
 



I've asked this prior but I don't remember anyone answering. What teams have quality, traditional centers that Turner 6'10" 265 and Vaihola 6'8" 245 can't adequately body up against?

It keeps being raised as a concern but I'm curious how many teams we need to be fearful of this dynamic? Genuinely asking as I don't know the rest of the B1G rosters.
Looking at Torvik rosters, which are somewhat incomplete at this date (Turner, Tyson not listed at MN) the Big Ten post guys for each team look like this:
Purdue--Dan Jacobsen 7-4, Oscar Cluff 6-11
Michigan--Aday Mara 7-3
UCLA--Xavier Booker 6-11, Steve Jammerson II, 6-10
Illinois--Tom Ivisic 7-1, Zvon Ivisic 7-2
MSU--Carson Cooper 6-11, Jaxson Kohler 6-9
OSU--Christoph Tilly 7-0, Josh Ojianwuna 6-10
USC--Jacob Cofie 6-10, Gabe Dynes 7-3
WIS--Nolan Winter 7-0, Austin Rapp 6-10
MD--Pharrel Payne 6-9, Jafare Gapare 6-9
IOWA--Cooper Koch 6-8, Alvaro Folgueras 6-9, Cam Manyawu 6-9
IND--Reed Bailey 6-11
NEB--Reink Mast 6-10, Ugnius Jarusevicius 6-10
ORE--Miles Goodman 6-11, Kwame Evans, Jr. 6-9
WASH--Mady Traore 6-10, Lathan Summerville 6-10, Frank Kepnang 6-11
NW--Arrinten Page 6-11
MN--Nehemiah Turner 6-10, Rob't Vaihola 6-8
PSU--Yanic Niederhauser 7-0
RUT--Baye Fall 6-10, Emmanuel Ogbole 6-10
 


Looking at Torvik rosters, which are somewhat incomplete at this date (Turner, Tyson not listed at MN) the Big Ten post guys for each team look like this:
Purdue--Dan Jacobsen 7-4, Oscar Cluff 6-11
Michigan--Aday Mara 7-3
UCLA--Xavier Booker 6-11, Steve Jammerson II, 6-10, Biledeau,
Illinois--Tom Ivisic 7-1, Zvon Ivisic 7-2
MSU--Carson Cooper 6-11, Jaxson Kohler 6-9
OSU--Christoph Tilly 7-0, Josh Ojianwuna 6-10
USC--Jacob Cofie 6-10, Gabe Dynes 7-3
WIS--Nolan Winter 7-0, Austin Rapp 6-10
MD--Pharrel Payne 6-9, Jafare Gapare 6-9
IOWA--Cooper Koch 6-8, Alvaro Folgueras 6-9, Cam Manyawu 6-9
IND--Reed Bailey 6-11
NEB--Reink Mast 6-10, Ugnius Jarusevicius 6-10
ORE--Miles Goodman 6-11, Kwame Evans, Jr. 6-9, Bittle 7-0
WASH--Mady Traore 6-10, Lathan Summerville 6-10, Frank Kepnang 6-11
NW--Arrinten Page 6-11
MN--Nehemiah Turner 6-10, Rob't Vaihola 6-8
PSU--Yanic Niederhauser 7-0
RUT--Baye Fall 6-10, Emmanuel Ogbole 6-1

Looking at Torvik rosters, which are somewhat incomplete at this date (Turner, Tyson not listed at MN) the Big Ten post guys for each team look like this:
Purdue--Dan Jacobsen 7-4, Oscar Cluff 6-11
Michigan--Aday Mara 7-3
UCLA--Xavier Booker 6-11, Steve Jammerson II, 6-10
Illinois--Tom Ivisic 7-1, Zvon Ivisic 7-2
MSU--Carson Cooper 6-11, Jaxson Kohler 6-9
OSU--Christoph Tilly 7-0, Josh Ojianwuna 6-10
USC--Jacob Cofie 6-10, Gabe Dynes 7-3
WIS--Nolan Winter 7-0, Austin Rapp 6-10
MD--Pharrel Payne 6-9, Jafare Gapare 6-9
IOWA--Cooper Koch 6-8, Alvaro Folgueras 6-9, Cam Manyawu 6-9
IND--Reed Bailey 6-11
NEB--Reink Mast 6-10, Ugnius Jarusevicius 6-10
ORE--Miles Goodman 6-11, Kwame Evans, Jr. 6-9
WASH--Mady Traore 6-10, Lathan Summerville 6-10, Frank Kepnang 6-11
NW--Arrinten Page 6-11
MN--Nehemiah Turner 6-10, Rob't Vaihola 6-8
PSU--Yanic Niederhauser 7-0
RUT--Baye Fall 6-10, Emmanuel Ogbole 6-10
UCLA still has Biledeau, Dailey
ORE Nate Bittle returns also
 

We had muscle in Big Frank, he was just too short.
Big Frank was hurt much of the season, and didn't seem to work real hard on defense much of the time when he was healthy. That led to him being in poor defensive position. Being short, not a great leaper & consistently getting bad defensive position in the post is a bad combination.

Will Vaihola be any better? I don't know? I do know Nikko is familiar with Vaihola having played against him in the Mountain West, so at least he should know what's he's getting.
 



Looking at Torvik rosters, which are somewhat incomplete at this date (Turner, Tyson not listed at MN) the Big Ten post guys for each team look like this:
Purdue--Dan Jacobsen 7-4, Oscar Cluff 6-11
Michigan--Aday Mara 7-3
UCLA--Xavier Booker 6-11, Steve Jammerson II, 6-10
Illinois--Tom Ivisic 7-1, Zvon Ivisic 7-2
MSU--Carson Cooper 6-11, Jaxson Kohler 6-9
OSU--Christoph Tilly 7-0, Josh Ojianwuna 6-10
USC--Jacob Cofie 6-10, Gabe Dynes 7-3
WIS--Nolan Winter 7-0, Austin Rapp 6-10
MD--Pharrel Payne 6-9, Jafare Gapare 6-9
IOWA--Cooper Koch 6-8, Alvaro Folgueras 6-9, Cam Manyawu 6-9
IND--Reed Bailey 6-11
NEB--Reink Mast 6-10, Ugnius Jarusevicius 6-10
ORE--Miles Goodman 6-11, Kwame Evans, Jr. 6-9
WASH--Mady Traore 6-10, Lathan Summerville 6-10, Frank Kepnang 6-11
NW--Arrinten Page 6-11
MN--Nehemiah Turner 6-10, Rob't Vaihola 6-8
PSU--Yanic Niederhauser 7-0
RUT--Baye Fall 6-10, Emmanuel Ogbole 6-10
That's a nice list. How many of them play significant minutes? Jack Wilson was 6'11" 285lb, but wasn't of much use.
 

That's a nice list. How many of them play significant minutes? Jack Wilson was 6'11" 285lb, but wasn't of much use.
How much eligibility does Wilson have left? Could we hire him as a player coach to get Vaihola and Turner ready to play against the other bigs?
 

With that said what is everyone's opinion on why this team will be successful and why will they be unsuccessful.
Tough to answer that question because I'm not sure what would be considered successful in year one.

My hope is that Niko has assembled a roster that can be competitive in the Big Ten and if things break right maybe push for being at least a bubble team this year.

The big thing Niko has going for him that Johnson didn't is that Niko has a much more defined system and presumably knows what kind of players he needs to recruit to make his system work. On paper it is not a flashy roster but looks like a solid one without a ton of massive holes on it. But until we actually see these guys in action there really is no way to know what we have.
 

That's a nice list. How many of them play significant minutes? Jack Wilson was 6'11" 285lb, but wasn't of much use.

I posted this in the roster construction thread: https://gopherhole.com/boards/threads/niko’s-roster-construction.118089/post-3123206

Niko historically has not played very big lineups. While we generally expect that he will need to play bigger lineups in the B1G, I don't know that he feels a need to bring in another big man the way that many here do.
 



I posted this in the roster construction thread: https://gopherhole.com/boards/threads/niko’s-roster-construction.118089/post-3123206

Niko historically has not played very big lineups. While we generally expect that he will need to play bigger lineups in the B1G, I don't know that he feels a need to bring in another big man the way that many here do.
There's no money for another big whether Nikko wants one or not.

Eric Reader is 6'9". He's probably our 3rd big.
 

That's a nice list. How many of them play significant minutes? Jack Wilson was 6'11" 285lb, but wasn't of much use.
Good question. Other than the guys we all know, I only included juniors and seniors for the most part. Been following portal updates closely, but am not that familiar with a lot of those transfers.
 

How much eligibility does Wilson have left? Could we hire him as a player coach to get Vaihola and Turner ready to play against the other bigs?
He has no eligibility. He was a Grad student Big Man. I have no idea why Johnson brought him in since he gave him a very small amount of total minutes.
 




Grove has to be 6'8" or 6'9" as well. Not that I expect big things from him or Reader, but at least can give others a little rest.
Grove wasn't ready last year physically but I didn't think he looked out of place in the few preseason games. He could muscle up in the offseason and make a big jump. If he is serviceable or better for 10-15 minutes that would be a big help.
 

Grove has to be 6'8" or 6'9" as well. Not that I expect big things from him or Reader, but at least can give others a little rest.
I was surprised by Grove's athleticism in the minor minutes he got in the preseason games last year. He's got good size and looked like he belongs in the B1G based on that. I have no idea on his basketball skills but he is one guy that I hope sticks around. I doubt Reader ever plays meaningful minutes.
 





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