2022-2023 Season.

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Take 1 on this season;
The 4 active freshman will get on the job training, Oberg will be a big body in the middle and has Rose developed going into her 2nd year?
You can't win with just talented players, this is a team game and it feels like every year MN experiments with a new offense, a new defense, I don't think they have established the type of team they want to be.
On the defensive end all kinds of visible issues last year, but what I will say is the defense was bad not because individual players were bad, it was the lack of defensive cohesiveness, discipline and just being in the wrong spot or taking the wrong angle.
For example - mn played a 3-2 defense a lot with Helgren, which meant in Helgrens role she had to get out and cover the corner 3, we got exposed so many times, because Helgren wasnt a kid that should be running to a corner to defend. Can you imagine us playing that again and having Oberg run to the corner to defend?
Coaching; you can say Whalen this or Whalen that, but to me her biggest hurdle she has is that she hasnt surrounded herself with alpha coaches, especially for 'practice'. That was Carly last year to a certain extent, although Carly was too young in age to demand that ultimate respect - with her gone now, I'm not sure the new guy is going to come in and play that alpha role, considering Shimmy was promoted to Associate head coach. Shimmy was a post coach last year, is she the type to run practice?
Why do I talk about practice, this is where great teams are built - its tough love, its correcting mistakes, its influencing your style.
What is our style? Last year for sure it was 3 pt shooting, did we recruit the new kids to play that style - I dont believe so. I predict we end up bottom 2 or 3 in 3 pt shooting, so what will our style be this year. I think they want to pound the ball inside to Rose and Oberg, that seems a little old school.
Bottom line, hopefully the 3 freshman and Katie can give us enough to where we see growth, discipline and how this team will look for the next 4 years.. If the freshman struggle, its going to be an uphill battle in the BIG
 

MNGirlsHoops said:
Take 1 on this season;
The 4 active freshman will get on the job training, Oberg will be a big body in the middle and has Rose developed going into her 2nd year?
You can't win with just talented players, this is a team game and it feels like every year MN experiments with a new offense, a new defense, I don't think they have established the type of team they want to be.
On the defensive end all kinds of visible issues last year, but what I will say is the defense was bad not because individual players were bad, it was the lack of defensive cohesiveness, discipline and just being in the wrong spot or taking the wrong angle.
For example - mn played a 3-2 defense a lot with Helgren, which meant in Helgrens role she had to get out and cover the corner 3, we got exposed so many times, because Helgren wasnt a kid that should be running to a corner to defend. Can you imagine us playing that again and having Oberg run to the corner to defend?
Coaching; you can say Whalen this or Whalen that, but to me her biggest hurdle she has is that she hasnt surrounded herself with alpha coaches, especially for 'practice'. That was Carly last year to a certain extent, although Carly was too young in age to demand that ultimate respect - with her gone now, I'm not sure the new guy is going to come in and play that alpha role, considering Shimmy was promoted to Associate head coach. Shimmy was a post coach last year, is she the type to run practice?
Why do I talk about practice, this is where great teams are built - its tough love, its correcting mistakes, its influencing your style.
What is our style? Last year for sure it was 3 pt shooting, did we recruit the new kids to play that style - I dont believe so. I predict we end up bottom 2 or 3 in 3 pt shooting, so what will our style be this year. I think they want to pound the ball inside to Rose and Oberg, that seems a little old school.
Bottom line, hopefully the 3 freshman and Katie can give us enough to where we see growth, discipline and how this team will look for the next 4 years.. If the freshman struggle, its going to be an uphill battle in the BIG
Click to expand...
Whalen surrounded herself with former HCs and a then Carly. I don’t know how you can throw Lindsey’s faults on them. I don’t know how you call them soft
 

Gopherfan84 said:
Whalen surrounded herself with former HCs and a then Carly. I don’t know how you can throw Lindsey’s faults on them. I don’t know how you call them soft
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Not proven winning head coaches there is a difference. Coach Johnson has a proven winner on the mens bench. I don’t care at what level, but of the coaches she has had who is a proven winner?
 


Belzx009 said:
Not proven winning head coaches there is a difference. Coach Johnson has a proven winner on the mens bench. I don’t care at what level, but of the coaches she has had who is a proven winner?
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Proven winning head coaches typically are still head coaches.
Carly came from a winning program. Kelly has won at places. I know MIAC coaches that spoke highly of her work at MAC. I think Lindsey’s learning curve to being a HC was just a lot more than many anticipated and we keep finding reasons to excuse her failures.
 
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MNGirlsHoops said:
Take 1 on this season;
The 4 active freshman will get on the job training, Oberg will be a big body in the middle and has Rose developed going into her 2nd year?
You can't win with just talented players, this is a team game and it feels like every year MN experiments with a new offense, a new defense, I don't think they have established the type of team they want to be.
On the defensive end all kinds of visible issues last year, but what I will say is the defense was bad not because individual players were bad, it was the lack of defensive cohesiveness, discipline and just being in the wrong spot or taking the wrong angle.
For example - mn played a 3-2 defense a lot with Helgren, which meant in Helgrens role she had to get out and cover the corner 3, we got exposed so many times, because Helgren wasnt a kid that should be running to a corner to defend. Can you imagine us playing that again and having Oberg run to the corner to defend?
Coaching; you can say Whalen this or Whalen that, but to me her biggest hurdle she has is that she hasnt surrounded herself with alpha coaches, especially for 'practice'. That was Carly last year to a certain extent, although Carly was too young in age to demand that ultimate respect - with her gone now, I'm not sure the new guy is going to come in and play that alpha role, considering Shimmy was promoted to Associate head coach. Shimmy was a post coach last year, is she the type to run practice?
Why do I talk about practice, this is where great teams are built - its tough love, its correcting mistakes, its influencing your style.
What is our style? Last year for sure it was 3 pt shooting, did we recruit the new kids to play that style - I dont believe so. I predict we end up bottom 2 or 3 in 3 pt shooting, so what will our style be this year. I think they want to pound the ball inside to Rose and Oberg, that seems a little old school.
Bottom line, hopefully the 3 freshman and Katie can give us enough to where we see growth, discipline and how this team will look for the next 4 years.. If the freshman struggle, its going to be an uphill battle in the BIG
Click to expand...
I would disagree that the team will be in bottom 2-3 of 3-point shooting. I think they are going to be a smarter 3-point shooting team. Not just launch and launch. Yes at times Scalia could get hot but look at games like UNC. Close loss that Sara and Jaz just kept shooting and some were not great shots. Heyer, Braun, Borowicz, Battle, Gradwell all are solid/strong outside shooters. I dont think they will launch 8-10 a game individually but we still could make 7-12 makes a game and have it be more spread out. I think the offense will likely be look inside for "easy" buckets but if oberg/rose covered or team's sagging in, kick out to the guards for shots or letting them create attacks off the bounce. I think we likely will be averaging between 65-71ish points a game and will be up to the defense to try and hold teams down below that.
 

I'm hoping the team can nail threes; but I'm doubtful that they can match last year's club just by being basketball brains:

In B1G games:

Scalia made 64 threes for a .424 clip
Winters 42 (.396)
Hubbard 28 (.378)

We've hoped to see some offensive spacing during the last four seasons; maybe, the fifth one's the charm
 

I think we will still see a lot of 3s, but I believe we will see them in different capacities. The Gophers now have guards that can penetrate and kick out to shooters as well using the posts to get touches and kick out to shooters. I kick out 3 is an easier shot then what Scalia was putting up last year. Now Hubbard usually scored on kick outs which is probably a part of the reason she shot a high percentage.
 



www.worldexposurereport.com

Hawkeyes Earns Top Spot in Big Ten Women's Basketball WER Preseason Poll

Iowa was tabbed as the WER preseason favorite in the Big Ten women's basketball, taking home the top spot in the 2022-23 WER preseason poll as voted on by the WER Poll Committee. The Hawkeyes return a plethora of talent from a year ago including all five starts that led the team to the Big Ten To
www.worldexposurereport.com www.worldexposurereport.com

Wow, Gophers picked 11th (behind Wisconsin 👀) and not a single freshmen picked on the Freshman watch list. If that ain’t motivation i don’t know what is.
 

adamj95 said:
www.worldexposurereport.com

Hawkeyes Earns Top Spot in Big Ten Women's Basketball WER Preseason Poll

Iowa was tabbed as the WER preseason favorite in the Big Ten women's basketball, taking home the top spot in the 2022-23 WER preseason poll as voted on by the WER Poll Committee. The Hawkeyes return a plethora of talent from a year ago including all five starts that led the team to the Big Ten To
www.worldexposurereport.com www.worldexposurereport.com

Wow, Gophers picked 11th (behind Wisconsin 👀) and not a single freshmen picked on the Freshman watch list. If that ain’t motivation i don’t know what is.
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Especially when there is a Minnesota kid on that list with Hake making it!!
 

Pretty sure that WER person is the one who said Angel Reese and Ashley Owusu are going to South Carolina. Then also said there’s no chance Owusu is going to Virginia Tech… and well that’s where she went! Seems like a tool.
 

Belzx009 said:
Especially when there is a Minnesota kid on that list with Hake making it!!
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Donnie Woods is who owns WER and hes a Nebraska guy, from Omaha I believe. Had Chuck Love as big tens best assistant before last season, woops. Woods has a very questionable reputation.
 
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It’s all good. I’ll take the Gopher freshman class. 4 recruits all in the top 100. (I’m officially putting Borowicz in this class since Holloway is injured)

I just hope this team is better the Borowicz’s brothers football team that came to town on Friday…. Because yikes.
 

Belzx009 said:
Especially when there is a Minnesota kid on that list with Hake making it!!
Click to expand...
I do agree this list is questionable. Hake won't see meaningful minutes this year, she will need to adjust to the speed and length first. You have to put a MN freshman on the list just because they are going to play 25 min+ a game, c'mon do your homework.
 

bball_craz_26 said:
I would disagree that the team will be in bottom 2-3 of 3-point shooting. I think they are going to be a smarter 3-point shooting team. Not just launch and launch. Yes at times Scalia could get hot but look at games like UNC. Close loss that Sara and Jaz just kept shooting and some were not great shots. Heyer, Braun, Borowicz, Battle, Gradwell all are solid/strong outside shooters. I dont think they will launch 8-10 a game individually but we still could make 7-12 makes a game and have it be more spread out. I think the offense will likely be look inside for "easy" buckets but if oberg/rose covered or team's sagging in, kick out to the guards for shots or letting them create attacks off the bounce. I think we likely will be averaging between 65-71ish points a game and will be up to the defense to try and hold teams down below that.
Click to expand...
Hopefully your right, but the hardest thing to do as a young player is shoot 3's because of the close out speed and length at the next level, especially for kids that didn't shoot 3's in HS. Heyer was a back to the basket kid, although really working on her 3 game, Battle didn't shoot a lot - more of a slasher, Braun can be lights out and Borowicz will launch them.
I like the chemistry MN is building, I do agree with an earlier post that the hangover of the Pitts era is behind us.
They do have a soft schedule which will help, unless you lose to one of those softies :_
 

Any word on scrimmages or exhibition games this season? Eager to get this season started!
 

Next Sunday is an exhibition game against UW-River Falls (open to the public). I have not heard about any private scrimmages.
 







How did the closed scrimmage go? anybody get any insight.. We havent had a good record in these closed scrimmages over the years.
 

Surprised Gradwell started ahead of Battle. Hope she’s not injured
 



MNMaroonMom said:
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She is an interesting player on paper. Nice stats on the JC level made me think she might have a big impact but there was no buzz about her so I suspect she was down on the depth chart. Anyone else here anything on how she was doing in practices.
 

Ragnor said:
She is an interesting player on paper. Nice stats on the JC level made me think she might have a big impact but there was no buzz about her so I suspect she was down on the depth chart. Anyone else here anything on how she was doing in practices.
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Just based on the practice I saw, I dont think she was gonna play much at all but this basically leaves them with no depth up front with Holloway and now Zie out. Rose, Heyer and Oberg were gonna play the majority of minutes at the 4/5 anyway with gradwell and maybe Hammond and Czinano playin some small ball 4. So I really dont think this affects much but leaves them really thin depth wise.
 

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