RandBall: As transfer portals close, Gophers basketball is thriving

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BleedGopher

BleedGopher

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Per RandBall:

Let’s look a little more closely at the start of today’s 10 things to know:
  • Plitzuweit landed her biggest portal commitment so far on Monday, with 6-6 Penn State center Gracie Merkle announcing she is coming to the Gophers. Merkle averaged 19.2 points for Penn State last season and is a ready-made replacement for graduating senior Sophie Hart. Merkle has one year of eligibility left; point guard Leah Harmon from Central Florida and 6-3 power forward Tayla Thomas from Northwestern are also incoming transfers. They both just finished their sophomore seasons.
  • Medved’s transfers are arriving from basketball powers. Malick Kordel, a 7-2 center, and 6-6 guard/forward Winters Grady played sparingly a year ago for national champion Michigan. Former Orono standout Nolan Groves, a 6-5 guard, is transferring after playing limited minutes at Texas Tech as a freshman. Kyan Evans, a 6-2 guard, played for Medved at Colorado State but most recently played at North Carolina last season.
  • The Gophers women’s team looks stacked next year when factoring in returning players, incoming freshmen and portal additions. A repeat trip to the Sweet 16 should be a reasonable goal, and achieving it would put Minnesota on a path to sustained success.
  • The men’s team should be poised to take a step forward. Competing for a .500 record in the Big Ten and a possible NCAA berth are achievable goals and could put Medved’s team on a path to sustained success as well.

Go Gophers!!
 








Madison. Com breaking news. Badgers lock up star senior for upcoming season…Nolan Winter. His dad was in the NBA.
 

Here I thought Niko pulled in a Penn State transfer that averaged 19.2 ppg last year
 




Is the men’s team really thriving? Women’s had a major pickup. I’m just not sold on the talent and production upgrade the men’s team has gotten so far…time will tell I guess
 

BleedGopher said:
Per RandBall:

Let’s look a little more closely at the start of today’s 10 things to know:
  • Plitzuweit landed her biggest portal commitment so far on Monday, with 6-6 Penn State center Gracie Merkle announcing she is coming to the Gophers. Merkle averaged 19.2 points for Penn State last season and is a ready-made replacement for graduating senior Sophie Hart. Merkle has one year of eligibility left; point guard Leah Harmon from Central Florida and 6-3 power forward Tayla Thomas from Northwestern are also incoming transfers. They both just finished their sophomore seasons.
  • Medved’s transfers are arriving from basketball powers. Malick Kordel, a 7-2 center, and 6-6 guard/forward Winters Grady played sparingly a year ago for national champion Michigan. Former Orono standout Nolan Groves, a 6-5 guard, is transferring after playing limited minutes at Texas Tech as a freshman. Kyan Evans, a 6-2 guard, played for Medved at Colorado State but most recently played at North Carolina last season.
  • The Gophers women’s team looks stacked next year when factoring in returning players, incoming freshmen and portal additions. A repeat trip to the Sweet 16 should be a reasonable goal, and achieving it would put Minnesota on a path to sustained success.
  • The men’s team should be poised to take a step forward. Competing for a .500 record in the Big Ten and a possible NCAA berth are achievable goals and could put Medved’s team on a path to sustained success as well.

Go Gophers!!
Click to expand...
Who says Niko is done, as he has 2 spots open. If we've all forgotten, Niko picked up Tyson on June 1st last year. I'll trust Niko's talent assessment as you can't hold him responsible for injuries.
 

Anyone surprised Niko went with young, unproven players in 3 of his transfer pickups, with the outlier being his former player in Sr to be Evans? Shows he is confident in his system, and if the players are healthy, they are likely to stick around. I like it for the long-term potential more than an improvement for next year (I hope there is still). There may be but the unknowns on how ready those three are will be big. Having to replace Tyson and Reynolds. More likely to replace what Tyson brought by the eye test, then Reynolds. We are less athletic for sure, unless Niko has a late signee.

Great shooters: Durkin, Evans, Nolen Anderson, Grady
Great high school scorers: Grove, Tomes

In addition, JCJ shooting can pull big men away from the basket. Asuma fired up too many and was fatigued last year, he shot a respectable 36% as a freshmen, but he could be better.

Addes size with Mpoyi and Kordel. Positional size with Grady and Groves.
Above average defenders: Asuma, JCJ, and possibly Grady and Groves.
 



Taking a step back here... Isn't it striking that we're at a status with this program that a local journalist is referring to it as "thriving?" We can debate whether the men's program is actually thriving yet, but Rand's perception does reflect a huge change in perception in the local community. In one season under Medved, it's gone from a smoldering pile of rubble with no perceived hope to be competitive in the foreseeable future to an unbiased reporter saying it's thriving. I tell you what, this makes me feel good.
 

gopherbadgerman said:
Is the men’s team really thriving? Women’s had a major pickup. I’m just not sold on the talent and production upgrade the men’s team has gotten so far…time will tell I guess
Click to expand...

Frankly, I don't know how anyone could be "sold" on it.

With the exception of Evans who does have a collegiate record of some accomplishments, these portal acquisitions are all "potential" and Evans' history doesn't scream "star."
 

TwistingMyMelon said:
Frankly, I don't know how anyone could be "sold" on it.

With the exception of Evans who does have a collegiate record of some accomplishments, these portal acquisitions are all "potential" and Evans' history doesn't scream "star."
Click to expand...
It must be miserable for you to be a Gopher fan. I feel for you buddy.
 

Bad Gopher said:
Taking a step back here... Isn't it striking that we're at a status with this program that a local journalist is referring to it as "thriving?" We can debate whether the men's program is actually thriving yet, but Rand's perception does reflect a huge change in perception in the local community. In one season under Medved, it's gone from a smoldering pile of rubble with no perceived hope to be competitive in the foreseeable future to an unbiased reporter saying it's thriving. I tell you what, this makes me feel good.
Click to expand...
It was a low bar to clear

before Niko, there was the annual CBJ dumpster dive into the portal to sign guys we never heard of and nobody else wanted (except Dawson G).
Niko is signing guys from P4 schools, 2 from a National Champ team and another from Texas Tech, who is spending like they are trying to buy one also. At a minimum we don't have the "who is this guy?" question. And we can see how they new guys playing style fit into a system.

In comparison to the past overmatched coach, we could claim "thriving" is a valid statement (until Niko misses the tourney next March)
 

WHB Brewer said:
It was a low bar to clear

before Niko, there was the annual CBJ dumpster dive into the portal to sign guys we never heard of and nobody else wanted (except Dawson G).
Niko is signing guys from P4 schools, 2 from a National Champ team and another from Texas Tech, who is spending like they are trying to buy one also. At a minimum we don't have the "who is this guy?" question. And we can see how they new guys playing style fit into a system.

In comparison to the past overmatched coach, we could claim "thriving" is a valid statement (until Niko misses the tourney next March)
Click to expand...
Johnson brought in a handful of decent portal guys beyond just Garcia, but he was never able to keep any sort of roster continuity and obviously the team failed to find any sort of success on the court as well.

Thriving might not be the right word, especially as far as the men are concerned, but both the men's and women's programs seem to be trending in the right direction at least.
 

TwistingMyMelon said:
Frankly, I don't know how anyone could be "sold" on it.

With the exception of Evans who does have a collegiate record of some accomplishments, these portal acquisitions are all "potential" and Evans' history doesn't scream "star."
Click to expand...
Not sold on anything, but I'm very optimistic on the Gopher program under Niko. A big reason is having watched his Colorado State team in the tournament before he came here. Even I, who never played beyond 8th grade, could see they were well-coached; they played hard on defense, they never stopped moving on offense, and they would get a lot of open looks and layups. You could see some of the same things his first year here. The second reason is because of all the injuries. He put a competitive team on the floor despite losing multiple players. Easy to think with a full team it's going to be even more fun. Finally, the guys who actually were able to get the floor, I think all improved as the season went on. He knows what he wants and is able to mold them into a real team. Yes, it would be nice to get a guy there are big buck bidding wars over, but not going to happen, so very happy with the present situation.
 

Mulligan said:
Not sold on anything, but I'm very optimistic on the Gopher program under Niko. A big reason is having watched his Colorado State team in the tournament before he came here. Even I, who never played beyond 8th grade, could see they were well-coached; they played hard on defense, they never stopped moving on offense, and they would get a lot of open looks and layups. You could see some of the same things his first year here. The second reason is because of all the injuries. He put a competitive team on the floor despite losing multiple players. Easy to think with a full team it's going to be even more fun. Finally, the guys who actually were able to get the floor, I think all improved as the season went on. He knows what he wants and is able to mold them into a real team. Yes, it would be nice to get a guy there are big buck bidding wars over, but not going to happen, so very happy with the present situation.
Click to expand...
My hope is that he gets to the tournament this year and the success begins to rally more financial backing. Use it to get and retain really good HS recruits -which is key to his system and then to grab the right portal fits to bring us to the next level. I'd like to see him follow something close to the Purdue model, which seems to be as close to real college sports as possible, while achieving success.
 

TwistingMyMelon said:
Frankly, I don't know how anyone could be "sold" on it.

With the exception of Evans who does have a collegiate record of some accomplishments, these portal acquisitions are all "potential" and Evans' history doesn't scream "star."
Click to expand...
Agreed.. tis the season for hope however...
 

Mulligan said:
Not sold on anything, but I'm very optimistic on the Gopher program under Niko. A big reason is having watched his Colorado State team in the tournament before he came here. Even I, who never played beyond 8th grade, could see they were well-coached; they played hard on defense, they never stopped moving on offense, and they would get a lot of open looks and layups. You could see some of the same things his first year here. The second reason is because of all the injuries. He put a competitive team on the floor despite losing multiple players. Easy to think with a full team it's going to be even more fun. Finally, the guys who actually were able to get the floor, I think all improved as the season went on. He knows what he wants and is able to mold them into a real team. Yes, it would be nice to get a guy there are big buck bidding wars over, but not going to happen, so very happy with the present situation.
Click to expand...

Look, I watched the entire season (almost anyway, I missed a game or two). There's no question that when his scheme was working, it was a thing of beauty. But, I'm going to throw out a quote from one of the most venerable coaches in college basketball history, Dean Smith, who reflected back on his career with his characteristic modesty:

"I'd call a time out and diagram a play. Now, whether the ball went in the hoop or not, well, that's where recruiting came in."

I have to admit that I'm underwhelmed by the offseason acquisitions. Sure, there's potential there but we lost two guys who produced 31.2 points per game between them and picked up 3 guys who combined for 5 points a game last season. Then, we picked up a player who has some record of accomplishment and started for Niko before but I don't think he's likely to do as much as either of the two players we lost.

This can work but this isn't the way most high major coaches are approaching the transfer portal.
 

TwistingMyMelon said:
Look, I watched the entire season (almost anyway, I missed a game or two). There's no question that when his scheme was working, it was a thing of beauty. But, I'm going to throw out a quote from one of the most venerable coaches in college basketball history, Dean Smith, who reflected back on his career with his characteristic modesty:

"I'd call a time out and diagram a play. Now, whether the ball went in the hoop or not, well, that's where recruiting came in."

I have to admit that I'm underwhelmed by the offseason acquisitions. Sure, there's potential there but we lost two guys who produced 31.2 points per game between them and picked up 3 guys who combined for 5 points a game last season. Then, we picked up a player who has some record of accomplishment and started for Niko before but I don't think he's likely to do as much as either of the two players we lost.

This can work but this isn't the way most high major coaches are approaching the transfer portal.
Click to expand...
I feel for you buddy. It must be really hard for you to find any hope.
 


Bobek said:
That’s a fair point! The Strib has really dropped the ball in covering the men’s team, and probably the women too.
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They’ll pick it back up for the Tommies. Strib went silent following the hiring of Ben. Reusse never said a peep during Ben’s sht years.
 


TwistingMyMelon said:
Look, I watched the entire season (almost anyway, I missed a game or two). There's no question that when his scheme was working, it was a thing of beauty. But, I'm going to throw out a quote from one of the most venerable coaches in college basketball history, Dean Smith, who reflected back on his career with his characteristic modesty:

"I'd call a time out and diagram a play. Now, whether the ball went in the hoop or not, well, that's where recruiting came in."

I have to admit that I'm underwhelmed by the offseason acquisitions. Sure, there's potential there but we lost two guys who produced 31.2 points per game between them and picked up 3 guys who combined for 5 points a game last season. Then, we picked up a player who has some record of accomplishment and started for Niko before but I don't think he's likely to do as much as either of the two players we lost.

This can work but this isn't the way most high major coaches are approaching the transfer portal.
Click to expand...
I love the move of picking up two young guys off of Michigans loaded roster. Both would have been unattainable to us out of HS or as in Kordel's case- out of Europe. Consider that Michigan played 9 deep through to Tschetter and Gayle was their 7th or 8th guy.
 

TwistingMyMelon said:
Frankly, I don't know how anyone could be "sold" on it.

With the exception of Evans who does have a collegiate record of some accomplishments, these portal acquisitions are all "potential" and Evans' history doesn't scream "star."
Click to expand...
I'm not betting on any of the kids we picked up in the portal, but I'm betting on the Coach and his track record of success. I'm betting the guy who watches tape and brings in guys for workouts is a better talent evaluator than anyone on this site.
 


Bobek said:
That’s a fair point! The Strib has really dropped the ball in covering the men’s team, and probably the women too.
Click to expand...
That’s true of the twin cities sports media in general. WCCO used to be the flagship of gopher sports but now they rarely get a mention on radio or the local network newscasts.
 

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