2022 Transfer Portal Discussion

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Johnnyboy18 said:
You probably shouldn't assume anything about either player leaving early considering Fox has stated he wants to play for 2 years. Stop bullshitting.
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You can't "bullshit" about your opinion or expectation. Nowhere did I state that I knew anything about these players. As far as what Fox does, we'll see. Immediately after his soph season, Isaiah Washington said he was staying. I never believed that for a minute.
 

Bob_Loblaw said:
I've seen other folks type that and I could certainly be wrong, but in my head he looked more comfortable guarding 4s and 5s. I think he got eaten alive a little by Garza (Iowa) but everyone did.

In my head, he was a decent post defender, decent rebounder, threatened enough with his shot to make a traditional post uncomfortable defending him. That same player at the 3 is likely to rebound less, defend the perimeter and I don't think he's a massive threat offensively if he is playing the EJ Stephens role.
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I don't think playing the 3 on offense would be the best option for him, I doubt that happens. He can guard a 3 and play the 4 on offense though.
I also think you've got two stretch forwards in Battle and Garcia that could be dangerous offensively on the wing. Need two good ball handlers at the guard spots though if you go with that type of lineup.
 
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Bob_Loblaw said:
Oh boy. I really hope he doesn't really think what he is saying here. IMO, Isaiah can play the 4 or 5.
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I haven't seen anything from Ihnen to think he would be a good center. I think in general he would be a 3-4. He just doesn['t look comfortable next to the basket, particularly offensively. I do find it amazing how often you get these big guys who prefer to play on the perimeter.
 

Ragnor said:
I haven't seen anything from Ihnen to think he would be a good center. I think in general he would be a 3-4. He just doesn['t look comfortable next to the basket, particularly offensively. I do find it amazing how often you get these big guys who prefer to play on the perimeter.
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I think he has looked much better playing in the interior than he has on the perimeter. He has good length and quick reflexes. On a per minute basis, he was second on the team in rebounding to Liam Robbins as a sophomore. When he plays on the perimeter, he tends to think too much, doesn't have confidence in his ball handling, and ends up either passing off or jacking up a 3 point shot and usually missing. When he plays in the interior, he just reacts and good things more often come from that.
 

leib0039 said:
  • "I'm so excited to have Laye join the Gopher program," Johnson said. "He's such a gritty player who's been a proven winner at both the high school and junior college level (at Indian River State College in Florida). Laye is a good shooter, loves to compete and works extremely hard. I cannot wait to get him in the gym next week as he starts his Gopher career."
  • "He's just scratching the surface," Indian River State College coach Charlie Wilson said. "He's kind of a late bloomer. He's highly efficient. He's a high-level shooter with an unbelievable motor. "
I disagree with your statement bolded. There are a ton of reasons to say that, maybe the kid is lacking confidence and needs that to get going. Maybe its to push the guys in front of him. It is also 100% possibly he had a monster year of development and is going to be very good. Look at all the reviews of Thiam above, just a great shooter, so hard working all this and all that, 6 mo later he cant find a D1 school to take him. Its coach speak, its cliche, they all do it. You think when Kansas plays NW Montata St in Pueblo that they are actually worried about losing to them? Heck no but you get "well you know we watched the tape and we like a lot of the things they do and we are going to have to bring our best game to beat them" That isnt true, they know they are going to wax them by 40 but its just what you say. Again, I hope II (and everyone on the team) take a huge leap, but to say "well Ben said it he is 100% right and this is going to be great" is also naïve.
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We all know about coachspeak. But there's a big difference between Bill Self saying his guys can't go to sleep on NW Lower Central Montana St. and Ben offering Ihnen as a specific example of a guy he thinks is going to play well this year.
 


GopherPlaya said:
His injury didn't keep out of player development stuff. I think he can play spot 5 minutes but I think we are so focused on position that we are not seeing that we have the length and athleticism to play guys in multiple styles. I expect to see bigger lineups and zones this year.
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Payne will be starting at 5 and anchoring the interior by conference season. The post position worries are more about backup since they won't want to play Payne more than 25 minutes a game. Fox and Ihnen will need to be tough enough for that role.
 

cjbfbp said:
As an easterner living in the upper midwest for most of my adult life, I've never completely understood the cultural abhorrence to pessimism and cynicism. If you maintain a healthy level of pessimism and cynicism, you'll never be disappointed and your dreams will never be crushed because you don't have them anyway.
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Doesn't hurt the rest of us but can't be healthy for you.
 

Ragnor said:
I haven't seen anything from Ihnen to think he would be a good center. I think in general he would be a 3-4. He just doesn['t look comfortable next to the basket, particularly offensively. I do find it amazing how often you get these big guys who prefer to play on the perimeter.
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Yeah, I could certainly be remembering wrong but I thought he defended the post well and rebounded well. But yeah, I can't envision him being a scoring option near the hoop (except hopefully garbage points).
 

jovs said:
I don't think playing the 3 on offense would be the best option for him, I doubt that happens. He can guard a 3 and play the 4 on offense though.
I also think you've got two stretch forwards in Battle and Garcia that could be dangerous offensively on the wing. Need two good ball handlers at the guard spots though if you go with that type of lineup.
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That's exactly why I don't want Ihnen at the 3.

If Ihnen is in the game, you can move the bigger/clumsier post players to defend Ihnen. I think he sort of neutralizes the mismatches created by Battle and/or Garcia.

IMO, we want our opponents' big guys having to worry about defending Garcia and Battle in space.
 



Bob_Loblaw said:
Yeah, I could certainly be remembering wrong but I thought he defended the post well and rebounded well. But yeah, I can't envision him being a scoring option near the hoop (except hopefully garbage points).
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He did....
 

cjbfbp said:
As an easterner living in the upper midwest for most of my adult life, I've never completely understood the cultural abhorrence to pessimism and cynicism. If you maintain a healthy level of pessimism and cynicism, you'll never be disappointed and your dreams will never be crushed because you don't have them anyway.
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Thanks for sharing your eastern perspective... interestingly I think pessimism or cynicism must be among the most common of Minnesotan's middle names! Throw in a healthy dose of skepticism and passive aggressiveness and you almost have a Minnesotan's bingo!
 

ecoperson said:
Thanks for sharing your eastern perspective... interestingly I think pessimism or cynicism must be among the most common of Minnesotan's middle names! Throw in a healthy dose of skepticism and passive aggressiveness and you almost have a Minnesotan's bingo!
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Agreed. I think Minnesotans are overly pessimistic and stoic. We love to complain and be unhappy. Any showing of outward optimism turns off most Minnesotans, it seems to me.
 




tjgopher said:
Agreed. I think Minnesotans are overly pessimistic and stoic. We love to complain and be unhappy. Any showing of outward optimism turns off most Minnesotans, it seems to me.
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False. I along with many here have been optimistic, pre season, about many, many Gopher teams, only to be let down so often. These past few years have been a bottoming out experience where you have to temper expectations and move to reality a bit, in order to reduce disappointment.
 

tjgopher said:
Agreed. I think Minnesotans are overly pessimistic and stoic. We love to complain and be unhappy. Any showing of outward optimism turns off most Minnesotans, it seems to me.
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While I don't disagree with this, I don't think it's true of most Gopher fans. In some ways, it almost couldn't be true of us (we wouldn't have stayed fans). You can look at the optimism and excitement about the basketball in January or the football board in 2018. We will rally behind our teams and we are probably as big of homers as anyone. I mean that in a good way, being a homer is fun.

That said, we don't have the most successful programs and I do think sometimes we can have a bit of a chip on our shoulders where any slight or disagreement is perceived as an absolute trashing. I think, at times, we are overly protective of "our own".

For me, I liked a lot of what I saw in year 1 of CBJ. Despite the record, I am more excited about the future of our program after year 1 than I was when we hired him. He, at least partially, converted a skeptic in the middle of a last place season.

That said, I disliked how he handled our bench last year and I think we need to add more wings to this roster. I see those things as negatives so far and when I've articulated those things, there are folks on the board that react like I'm constantly trashing him.

I think supportive and positive fans can point out things they don't agree with or criticisms in general.

(PS: the same can be said about PJ, I think he's a great coach but I hate how he uses the RBs)
 


eker0016 said:

We snag a Taurus?

UPDATE:
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Lets hope! This would ease a lot of my backcourt concerns. Not so much that Samuels is this top end stud, but more just depth in case of injury/fouls/ineffectiveness you have another guy who has played big minutes at a D1 school and been a lead guard. I hope Cooper/Carrington/Henley are awesome but having some depth and someone to push them would be big in my opinion.
 

leib0039 said:
Lets hope! This would ease a lot of my backcourt concerns. Not so much that Samuels is this top end stud, but more just depth in case of injury/fouls/ineffectiveness you have another guy who has played big minutes at a D1 school and been a lead guard. I hope Cooper/Carrington/Henley are awesome but having some depth and someone to push them would be big in my opinion.
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Yes, to me it is about resiliency.

If you think about the season as a simulation you run 100 times, at least a few of those times Cooper misses major time (or Carrington, who we think is our other guard right now). We risk becoming a completely dysfunctional team in those scenarios (remember our PG woes when Hoffarber had to take over?), while having a guy like Samuels available to fill in makes us more resilient to that possibility.
 



Bob_Loblaw said:
While I don't disagree with this, I don't think it's true of most Gopher fans. In some ways, it almost couldn't be true of us (we wouldn't have stayed fans). You can look at the optimism and excitement about the basketball in January or the football board in 2018. We will rally behind our teams and we are probably as big of homers as anyone. I mean that in a good way, being a homer is fun.

That said, we don't have the most successful programs and I do think sometimes we can have a bit of a chip on our shoulders where any slight or disagreement is perceived as an absolute trashing. I think, at times, we are overly protective of "our own".

For me, I liked a lot of what I saw in year 1 of CBJ. Despite the record, I am more excited about the future of our program after year 1 than I was when we hired him. He, at least partially, converted a skeptic in the middle of a last place season.

That said, I disliked how he handled our bench last year and I think we need to add more wings to this roster. I see those things as negatives so far and when I've articulated those things, there are folks on the board that react like I'm constantly trashing him.

I think supportive and positive fans can point out things they don't agree with or criticisms in general.

(PS: the same can be said about PJ, I think he's a great coach but I hate how he uses the RBs)
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PJ has shown he can learn and change, albeit cautiously. I think Ben is very much in that mould. There is still a fair amount of portal movement still to come. I don't think the roster is complete yet.
 

eker0016 said:
Yes, to me it is about resiliency.

If you think about the season as a simulation you run 100 times, at least a few of those times Cooper misses major time (or Carrington, who we think is our other guard right now). We risk becoming a completely dysfunctional team in those scenarios (remember our PG woes when Hoffarber had to take over?), while having a guy like Samuels available to fill in makes us more resilient to that possibility.
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I still have nightmares about that season.

In fairness, Blake was not a point guard, and Tubby's decision messed up both guard positions, accelerating the season's disaster. He didn't have to play point guard.
 


Holy Man said:
I still have nightmares about that season.

In fairness, Blake was not a point guard, and Tubby's decision messed up both guard positions, accelerating the season's disaster. He didn't have to play point guard.
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Yup. All about anti-fragility of the roster. To be fair Tubby had senior Al Nolen and Devoe Joseph combo guard capable of PG and freshman Mav at PG...it was a comedy of errors with Devoe transferring and an Al Nolen injury weeks later and Mav being so raw that led to the situation. He definitely deserves blame for the situation but it also seemed like our classic MN luck.

It was scaring me that one Talon Cooper injury would mean one true guard on our roster.
 

Dakota2 said:
PJ has shown he can learn and change, albeit cautiously. I think Ben is very much in that mould. There is still a fair amount of portal movement still to come. I don't think the roster is complete yet.
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Yep but I'm sure reasonable people will always find something to disagree with the coach/each other on, it just comes with the territory. It doesn't mean you don't like the coach.
 

Bob_Loblaw said:
Yep but I'm sure reasonable people will always find something to disagree with the coach/each other on, it just comes with the territory. It doesn't mean you don't like the coach.
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Totally agree. I am critical of PJs love of running down the play clock as a TOP strategy. But he's a great HC.
 

GopherWeatherGuy said:
Those comments are exactly why I'm concerned about Ben's ability to evaluate. He's really the only head coach in the country that feels that way about Henley. He could end up looking like a genius, or every other coach could be proven right.



I've done plenty of homework, which is why I feel the way I feel about Henley. A clip from 2 years ago when Henley was several inches smaller doesn't mean anything. The most recent clips are from him stealing the ball, not bringing it up as a PG facing pressure. Big difference. I think he has upside as a forward, not as a guard.

I'm also not sure why you consider Colony an All-Star team? According to 247, they don't have any other ranked players in this years or next years class. Maybe you're thinking of Ola-Joseph who was essentially playing on an All-Star team.
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Henley's junior season was shortened due to Covid and he played on a non-shoe sponsored aau team. I doubt there was much evaluation done on him during that period of time. If he hadn't committed to Minnesota so early in his Senior season, I have no doubt he would have received more high major offers.
 

DeathClutch said:
Henley's junior season was shortened due to Covid and he played on a non-shoe sponsored aau team. I doubt there was much evaluation done on him during that period of time. If he hadn't committed to Minnesota so early in his Senior season, I have no doubt he would have received more high major offers.
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We should also remember that his other offer, San Diego State, is a better basketball program than many P6 ones. SDSU was 7-2 against P6 teams played in the regular season during the last three years. They also had 4 players on NBA rosters this year.

I checked 247 recently and they had him listed as the 21st rated player in California and #175 overall. Considering the sheer number of players in California, #21 is pretty good and #175 overall, while not great, is still a decent national number. Jordan Murphy was rated as #12 in Texas and #167 overall after his senior year.
 

DeathClutch said:
Henley's junior season was shortened due to Covid and he played on a non-shoe sponsored aau team. I doubt there was much evaluation done on him during that period of time. If he hadn't committed to Minnesota so early in his Senior season, I have no doubt he would have received more high major offers.
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California may have been the state most limited by pandemic restrictions, limiting competition and evaluation time. Who knows how well he will succeed, but this is as good a chance as any to attract a player under the radar here.
 

DeathClutch said:
Henley's junior season was shortened due to Covid and he played on a non-shoe sponsored aau team. I doubt there was much evaluation done on him during that period of time. If he hadn't committed to Minnesota so early in his Senior season, I have no doubt he would have received more high major offers.
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Maybe, but high majors come in late on players all of the time if they are interested. And I don't have an issue with Ben recruiting Henley at all. I can see why he has upside in the same way that people think Ihnen has upside.

My only problem is relying on Henley to bring the ball up at times and guard B1G guards as a 6'8" true freshman who I believe is a project. I think that's a big mistake.
 

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