2023 College Basketball Transfer Portal Watch Thread

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Formerswish said:
Actually, I wasn't assuming anything, I don't think they'll win 9 games. Hey Crappie, go ahead and give your opinions, but at least read what you're commenting on, could you? Nothing personal.
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You said assuming he can get one more quality guard. So you didn't assume anything.

Got it.
 



Dave H said:
This is not a knock on Ben, but I dont think any coach is going to have any real success if their season rests on how well they do in the portal. Not a school like ours. It is one thing if you are at a Blue Blood or recently successful school getting the creme de la creme of transfers then you can make it work. A middling program like ours that has no real history of success? Its a recipe for disaster.

Fingers crossed, I hope Ben pulls a few rabbits out of his hat.
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Three months ago I would have agreed with you completely, the last month has changed my viewpoint. You cannot survive without exploiting the transfer portal anymore. You better learn how to utilize it or I am afraid you will be doomed to failure.
 





SelectionSunday said:
Find it odd we're still going after big guys. We still need guards/wings.

This likely gives credence to the suggestion that Fox and/or Ihnen rehab isn't going all that well.
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Gophers mens basketball posted a pic of Ihnen in a shooting position on their instagram stories yesterday. Fox is still MIA.

Gotta get more big guys because Ihnen is a 2 :sneaky:
 

Crappie said:
He never should have been hired. Another epic fail by Mn administration.
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The hockey team won the Big 10, Fleck is doing better than any coach in my lifetime, the women's won hockey too. There are 3 money sports...basketball, football and hockey. We are doing well in two...I wouldn't say that's a failure. Especially when our football program, the flagship program is doing well. And it seems like all our programs are graduating the athletes and staying out of trouble. I salute this administration for turning a lot around.
 




CoMn said:
The hockey team won the Big 10, Fleck is doing better than any coach in my lifetime, the women's won hockey too. There are 3 money sports...basketball, football and hockey. We are doing well in two...I wouldn't say that's a failure. Especially when our football program, the flagship program is doing well. And it seems like all our programs are graduating the athletes and staying out of trouble. I salute this administration for turning a lot around.
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I'll withhold the salute while still acknowledging your points. Until the admin demonstrates any desire to improve my primary interest, men's basketball, I'm reserving my praise.
 


jovs said:
Three months ago I would have agreed with you completely, the last month has changed my viewpoint. You cannot survive without exploiting the transfer portal anymore. You better learn how to utilize it or I am afraid you will be doomed to failure.
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That isn't what I am saying. You have to use the portal there is just no way around that. But if your program lives and dies basically on the backs of it you are going to fail way more often than you succeed unless you have a solid foundation to build on. We don't. With the caliber of player we tend to be "in" on in the portal (outside of Minnesota born players) this is just a recipe for bottom 3 finishes.

The portal is like CGI in a movie. If used right it enhances the experience and makes everything better. When it is the primary focus of the film though and is way overdone it makes everything look trashy.
 



Formerswish said:
That's quite a jump-how about 6-7 next year and 9-10 the next? Good enough for you? If he gets 9 next year he's coach of the year-that would probably upset a lot of people here.
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I dont think 6 wins will be enough...that is still a pretty awful season and while technically an improvement would still put most coaches on the chopping block based on how things went the year before.

And you need to lay off the drugs if you think 9 wins gets Johnson anywhere near COTY.

Ben has made his bed, he painted himself into a real bad corner and I dont think mediocre improvement will be enough to keep fans interested and the AD from looking elsewhere. He needs to prove himself this year or he is done like dinner. I hope he does, but I wouldn't bet on it.
 

Formerswish said:
I don't disagree with anything you just said, although I'm not completely sure about the "Everyone wants to see him coach well and win games" part. It may be that they're just so frustrated that they say he never should have been hired and he stinks as a coach and should be gone now. I really want to see what he can do with some talent, and if he doesn't produce this year, he'll be gone.

When he has some talent on the floor and his team is failing, then there is a case to make. Let's see what he does with some talent this year.
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Just because people dont think he should have been hired doesnt mean they dont want him to win. That is a false dichotomy. He was not a good choice, by any metric, when the hire was made. But he is the coach so winning trumps that.

If he goes on to be a long term great coach all the people who are or were spitting on the hire will shut their mouths. (just like they did with PJ)
 

Gopherjackrabbits said:
I believe you did! The same crap from the same people talking about the same crap from the past!!!
BORING!!
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I mean, should we talk about what kind of concessions Charlie Pride got at the TWolves game? Not exactly a lot of news out there right now.
 

SelectionSunday said:
Find it odd we're still going after big guys. We still need guards/wings.

This likely gives credence to the suggestion that Fox and/or Ihnen rehab isn't going all that well.
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Doesn‘t say when he was in contact with any of those schools or if he is still in contact with them. So not sure I would draw a ton of conclusions from a really generic tweet like that.
 

Dave H said:
I mean, should we talk about what kind of concessions Charlie Pride got at the TWolves game? Not exactly a lot of news out there right now.
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My guess is that the staff conceded that he was the best they could do. Oh, did you mean popcorn?
 

Dave H said:
That isn't what I am saying. You have to use the portal there is just no way around that. But if your program lives and dies basically on the backs of it you are going to fail way more often than you succeed unless you have a solid foundation to build on. We don't. With the caliber of player we tend to be "in" on in the portal (outside of Minnesota born players) this is just a recipe for bottom 3 finishes.

The portal is like CGI in a movie. If used right it enhances the experience and makes everything better. When it is the primary focus of the film though and is way overdone it makes everything look trashy.
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There is no right or wrong way to use the portal. It is a marketplace. All coaches and players understand that.

In a short window coaches evaluate, offer, and sell. Players weigh offers based on what they desire -- playing time, exposure, team strength, and maybe money. We have not yet gotten top level transfers, except Willis and Garcia for special reasons, because Minnesota basketball is not attractive to better players. They can do better. The program is at bottom and the coach doesn't have the reputation to get good players in spite of the program rep. Not many could quickly.

Ben knows how to use the portal. He's just competing against schools and coaches with more clout.
 

Dave H said:
Just because people dont think he should have been hired doesnt mean they dont want him to win. That is a false dichotomy. He was not a good choice, by any metric, when the hire was made. But he is the coach so winning trumps that.

If he goes on to be a long term great coach all the people who are or were spitting on the hire will shut their mouths. (just like they did with PJ)
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Fair point. And I don't need or want to get into a back and forth, that's been done. Perhaps I need to transform my thinking to believe that if things improve, all the people who were spitting on the hire will be quiet.
 


Formerswish said:
Fair point. And I don't need or want to get into a back and forth, that's been done. Perhaps I need to transform my thinking to believe that if things improve, all the people who were spitting on the hire will be quiet.
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If the program starts winning things will get better. When Fleck was hired there were fans that flat out hated everything about him as well as some hanging onto the Kill regime with both hands as hard as they could. Those posters are much harder to find now.

Basketball isn't quite the same since people don't seem to hate Johnson they just hated the hire. But if Johnson finds the right pieces and gets things on track the tune around here will change.

Will be interesting to see how the transfer portal season finishes out. Hopefully we snag a couple more solid guards to round things out and then we will see what happens when they take the court in a few months.
 

MNVCGUY said:
If the program starts winning things will get better. When Fleck was hired there were fans that flat out hated everything about him as well as some hanging onto the Kill regime with both hands as hard as they could. Those posters are much harder to find now.

Basketball isn't quite the same since people don't seem to hate Johnson they just hated the hire. But if Johnson finds the right pieces and gets things on track the tune around here will change.

Will be interesting to see how the transfer portal season finishes out. Hopefully we snag a couple more solid guards to round things out and then we will see what happens when they take the court in a few months.
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I can understand your point here, but there's really no comparison when you look at Fleck's resume versus Ben's resume at the time of hire.

Anyone who didn't like the Fleck hire likely just didn't like his personality. The resume was home run hire type.

However, agreed on the portal - If we can lock down Brown and Pride, there's reason for optimism no doubt IMO.
 

CoMn said:
The hockey team won the Big 10, Fleck is doing better than any coach in my lifetime, the women's won hockey too. There are 3 money sports...basketball, football and hockey. We are doing well in two...I wouldn't say that's a failure. Especially when our football program, the flagship program is doing well. And it seems like all our programs are graduating the athletes and staying out of trouble. I salute this administration for turning a lot around.
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Talking specifically mens bb.

Epic fail.
 


Dakota2 said:
All of the above. Attractive program and coach.
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Yeah and Iowa State has a top ten freshmen recruiting class and now three portal additions the Gophers would take in a minute. With their second year coach. Sick of all the apologists Ben so far has about a D- as a coach and recruiter. Hopefully we see some improvement in year three.
 

MNVCGUY said:
If the program starts winning things will get better. When Fleck was hired there were fans that flat out hated everything about him as well as some hanging onto the Kill regime with both hands as hard as they could. Those posters are much harder to find now.

Basketball isn't quite the same since people don't seem to hate Johnson they just hated the hire. But if Johnson finds the right pieces and gets things on track the tune around here will change.

Will be interesting to see how the transfer portal season finishes out. Hopefully we snag a couple more solid guards to round things out and then we will see what happens when they take the court in a few months.
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I still can't stand Fleck, very little about him. However, I want the program to win despite him - he inherited a pretty good thing and has made it better. Hopefully he can actually get over himself a little so they can take the next steps. This isn't about Fleck though, so related to hoops, as much as Fleck bugs me and I don't think he is a perfect coach, his hire was easy to understand. Ben is the opposite. I like the guy, and don't understand what Coyle was thinking. Yet, I want him to win. It's the best thing for the program.
 

Blackhammer said:
Yeah and Iowa State has a top ten freshmen recruiting class and now three portal additions the Gophers would take in a minute. With their second year coach. Sick of all the apologists Ben so far has about a D- as a coach and recruiter. Hopefully we see some improvement in year three.
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Yes, Ben has to do better and ISU is one simple example of how it doesn't have to take forever in hoops. And, sure, we can have high expectations for Ben. but our expectations don't really matter - it's Coyle's that do. However, I can't imagine without a lot of progress next year Coyle can afford to let the program go any deeper than it is now and would be with another poor season. For the sake of the program I hope it is a big jump next year so the program has a brighter future. That doesn't mean I'm an apologist or pollyana, it's just that I want to see the program succeed.
 

skiumah1 said:
I can understand your point here, but there's really no comparison when you look at Fleck's resume versus Ben's resume at the time of hire.

Anyone who didn't like the Fleck hire likely just didn't like his personality. The resume was home run hire type.

However, agreed on the portal - If we can lock down Brown and Pride, there's reason for optimism no doubt IMO.
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Point was simply that winning will take care of things. Complainers are much harder to find when the team is having success.
 

Blackhammer said:
Yeah and Iowa State has a top ten freshmen recruiting class and now three portal additions the Gophers would take in a minute. With their second year coach. Sick of all the apologists Ben so far has about a D- as a coach and recruiter. Hopefully we see some improvement in year three.
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Still waiting for someone to point out all the Johnson apologists. The AD didn't fire him so he is going to be our coach this coming season. So there are those of us that are willing to let things play out and hope for the best. Not sure that qualifies as being an apologist or having unwavering support for the head coach.
 

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