All Things 2021 Gophers Basketball Recruiting Thread

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SixBySix said:
That an interesting take--I'm far from a basketball expert, but I remember being quite impressed with the on-ball post defense he played against some of the better bigs in conference this year. Maybe it was just lucky bounces in a small-ish sample size.
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I agree. He more than held his own, with very limited playing time. Quick feet. Ability to REBOUND well.

IIRC, good FT %.
 

SixBySix said:
That an interesting take--I'm far from a basketball expert, but I remember being quite impressed with the on-ball post defense he played against some of the better bigs in conference this year. Maybe it was just lucky bounces in a small-ish sample size.
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On ball in the post he was fine. His lack of mobility made it really hard for him to be effective on ball screens. He was average off the ball in help. He worked plenty hard. He'll be a fine rotation guy at mid to low major. Just too hard in the B1G with how good the guard play is.
 
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manderson1984 said:
On ball he was fine. His lack of mobility made it really hard for him to be effective on ball screens. He was average off the ball in help. He worked plenty hard. He'll be a fine rotation guy at mid to low major. Just too hard in the B1G with how good the guard play is.
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Two things that are just as important, if not more so, when it comes to developing a well-coordinated team defensive concept. It's amazing how much time is spent by good defensive teams working on team defensive schemes. If they do it well, you don't really notice individual breakdowns as much. The beaten player is covered for, and he understands that he now needs to rotate to another spot and take away an offensive option away from the ball. If your team defense is bad, any individual problems become 100% more obvious.
 

SixBySix said:
That an interesting take--I'm far from a basketball expert, but I remember being quite impressed with the on-ball post defense he played against some of the better bigs in conference this year. Maybe it was just lucky bounces in a small-ish sample size.
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I'm with you. Freeman looked more than capable in the limited minutes he got to play last year. I'm willing to bet that Pitino had a reason why he wasn't given more playing time....but I don't know how any observing fan could peg the guy based on what little we all saw. And considering that he was forced into play later in the season while we were playing Big Ten competition? There were a few times that he entered the game and immediately made a few splashy plays.

I'd personally like Freeman to stay if at all possible.
 



Chico Gopher said:
Two things that are just as important, if not more so, when it comes to developing a well-coordinated team defensive concept. It's amazing how much time is spent by good defensive teams working on team defensive schemes. If they do it well, you don't really notice individual breakdowns as much. The beaten player is covered for, and he understands that he now needs to rotate to another spot and take away an offensive option away from the ball. If your team defense is bad, any individual problems become 100% more obvious.
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100% correct and it was the why Pitino's tenure ended the way it did. He couldn't ever get his teams to collectively defend like that consistently for a season. Last year his team showed spurts at the start of the year and I thought he had a chance. Then the bottom fell out. Hoping Ben and Thorson fix it and I expect them too.
 

manderson1984 said:
Hes slow, cannot shoot, and was a very average defender. I'm guessing that's why he wouldn't fit, but I don't know for 100 percent. We can't have him and Parker Fox together on the floor for sure. I'm guessing the new culture is more defensive oriented as well. Freeman seemed like a good kid, but I just didn't find him to be valuable or even that serviceable personally.
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I’m confused. Are you implying Fox is slow and an average defender as well?
 

Gold Vision said:
I’m confused. Are you implying Fox is slow and an average defender as well?
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No those two couldn’t play together because of offensive limitations. Don’t know enough about Fox defensively but do know he’s not slow footed.
 





manderson1984 said:
No those two couldn’t play together because of offensive limitations. Don’t know enough about Fox defensively but do know he’s not slow footed.
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Fox was one of the top defensive players in D2 ball. He led the nation in blocks per game and was the defensive PotY in his conference.
 


Buzz interview
The most surprising exit, though, is that of sophomore forward Emanuel Miller, who led the team in scoring (16 points per game) and rebounds (8 per game) as easily the top performer on an 8-10 squad. "What a great job he did for us I love who he is and love his future and will miss the kid as much as I'll miss the player," Williams said. "He just wanted a clean start, a clean slate somewhere else. I don't think it was necessarily that things went wrong or that he had a bad experience here. We wish him the best."
 



GopherOhana said:
Buzz interview
The most surprising exit, though, is that of sophomore forward Emanuel Miller, who led the team in scoring (16 points per game) and rebounds (8 per game) as easily the top performer on an 8-10 squad. "What a great job he did for us I love who he is and love his future and will miss the kid as much as I'll miss the player," Williams said. "He just wanted a clean start, a clean slate somewhere else. I don't think it was necessarily that things went wrong or that he had a bad experience here. We wish him the best."
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Unfortunately, if you read this board, nothing Ben achieves in putting next season's team together matters. Not even a bona fide (and leading scorer) starter in the SEC.

The ONLY thing that matters is how many Minnesota kids he gets in 2022.

Get with the program, man. 😘 /s
 

WriterGoph said:
Unfortunately, if you read this board, nothing Ben achieves in putting next season's team together matters. Not even a bona fide (and leading scorer) starter in the SEC.

The ONLY thing that matters is how many Minnesota kids he gets in 2022.

Get with the program, man. 😘 /s
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I don't think that's true. Some of the people are waiting to see what roster he puts together to take away some doubt. If we truly get the two A and M kids as well as a solid center and PG, then Johnson and staff will have done an amazing job putting something together and most here would agree I believe. Right now, there is nothing official on those two kids so.....
 

bga1 said:
I don't think that's true. Some of the people are waiting to see what roster he puts together to take away some doubt. If we truly get the two A and M kids as well as a solid center and PG, then Johnson and staff will have done an amazing job putting something together and most here would agree I believe. Right now, there is nothing official on those two kids so.....
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That might be for you, but there have been plenty who have said Ben will be solely judged on how many Minnesota kids he gets in 2022 - because that is what Coyle talked about in his presser.
 

WriterGoph said:
That might be for you, but there have been plenty who have said Ben will be solely judged on how many Minnesota kids he gets in 2022 - because that is what Coyle talked about in his presser.
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You're oversimplifying. It's not how many MN kids, its does he get the top MN kids. Period. The way you're phrasing it he could just offer all bench players from MN high schools and that's getting MN kids.

His measuring stick should be how many of the top 5 MN kids does he keep in each class.
 

SanDiegoGopherFan said:
You're oversimplifying. It's not how many MN kids, its does he get the top MN kids. Period. The way you're phrasing it he could just offer all bench players from MN high schools and that's getting MN kids.

His measuring stick should be how many of the top 5 MN kids does he keep in each class.
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His measuring stick will be wins and losses over time.
 

SanDiegoGopherFan said:
You're oversimplifying. It's not how many MN kids, its does he get the top MN kids. Period. The way you're phrasing it he could just offer all bench players from MN high schools and that's getting MN kids.

His measuring stick should be how many of the top 5 MN kids does he keep in each class.
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He's being sarcastic. Adjust your meter.
 

I would agree with PMWinSTP in that keeping as many of the top 5 MN kids each year is a good measuring stick. I would add to that take that keeping the #1 recruit is not going to happen most years--Tre Jones (2018), Matthew Hurt (2019), Jalen Suggs (2020), and Chet Holmgren (2021) all wanted more than what we could possibly offer in the short-run--namely, a chance at a National Championship. So, taking out the the #1 recruit in the state, and assuming we need 2-3 of the next four (#s2-5 in the state) each year....here is what we are looking at....2-3 of Reuvers, Davison, R.Thompson, and John in 2017, the three we got in 2018 (Oturu, Omersa, and Kalscheur), 2-3 of Nnaji, T.Terry, and T. Wahl in 2019, 2-3 of D.Garcia, Dainja, Ben Carlson, and Kerwin Walton in 2020, 2-3 of Tschetter, T.Thompson, and whoever are ranked 3 and 4 in 2021. HYPOTHETICALLY, IF we had done that, next year's roster might be D.Garcia, Dainja, T.Terry, R.Thompson, Reuvers, Davison, Tschetter, T.Thompson, T.Wahl, and Ben Carlson or Kerwin Walton PLUS whomever we recruited fro out-of-state (i.e. Ihnen) and any tranfers in (i.e Battle, Fox). While I don't think we would win a National Championshop with that roster, I am quite confident that we would be in the upper third of the Big Ten.
 

bga1 said:
I don't think that's true. Some of the people are waiting to see what roster he puts together to take away some doubt. If we truly get the two A and M kids as well as a solid center and PG, then Johnson and staff will have done an amazing job putting something together and most here would agree I believe. Right now, there is nothing official on those two kids so.....
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We have two point guards already...Willis and Stephens and two combo guards, Sutherlin and Loewe. That's 4 guys who can control the ball. We don't need 5 guys who can. McNeilly is a SG, we have a bunch of SFs....we need PFs and Cs IMHO
 
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CoMn said:
We have two point guards already...Willis and Stephens and two control guards, Sutherlin and Loewe. That's 4 guys who can control the ball. We don't need 5 guys who can. McNeilly is a SG, we have a bunch of SFs....we need PFs and Cs IMHO
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What the hell is a control guard?
 




SanDiegoGopherFan said:
You're oversimplifying. It's not how many MN kids, its does he get the top MN kids. Period. The way you're phrasing it he could just offer all bench players from MN high schools and that's getting MN kids.

His measuring stick should be how many of the top 5 MN kids does he keep in each class.
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No, it's does he win. I don't care if they're all from North Korea. Too many people have a hard on for Coyle. Who cares who he interviewed or what he said at the press conference. Coyle put his neck on the line with the hire. That's all that matters. If Ben doesn't work out in a few years, Coyle and his reputation will take a hit - maybe he will lose his job (but only if PJ doesn't work out). But who cares what he said in a press conference. Like it or not, athletic directors don't owe explanations to fans on why they hired someone. They make the decision they feel is best and they live with it.
 

CoMn said:
We have two point guards already...Willis and Stephens and two control guards, Sutherlin and Loewe. That's 4 guys who can control the ball. We don't need 5 guys who can. McNeilly is a SG, we have a bunch of SFs....we need PFs and Cs IMHO
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I am taking the term 'control guard' to mean additional ball handlers who can assist in controlling the ball, bringing it up the court, etc. As opposed to PG, who runs the offense and primarily distributes the ball. Am I right, CoMn? Close, but missing nuances? Or a straight up whiff?
 




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