Zed Key is their big.
Payne, Ihnen, Thompson with another year in the weight room. Fox as an undersized option.
Payne is great and has huge upside. But I would not assume he will start ahead of Parker Fox. In fact I would be surprised. Fox was the number one player in all of Division II basketball. He has 100 D1 offers when he entered the transfer portal. He scored 31 and 33 against UMD with 10/16 and 10/12 shooting in the two games, and 8 and 9 rebounds.
True. Auburn a prime example. Get up and down the floor and shoot the 3 ball. They've had big time success with that under Pearl.
Auburn has a 7-1 center who gets a lot of playing time. Not sure of his style of play, but he is big.
Forgot about him. You're right. I think he can get up and down a little bit but he's still a big dude.
Fox would be a more suitable 5 over Ihnen. Payne will play a lot from Day 1. Thompson will also hopefully be bigger and stronger.
Well, I think I make him out to be a really athletic, strong, and well-rounded big that will help a lot next year. That certainly doesn't make him a one and done guy. His outside shot is definitely going to need to improve. I do think he's going to be better than a lot of people are thinking he's going to be. I hear people talking about whether he'll start or contribute much. If you see him live I think you'll see some physical talent that can contribute next year right away.
This will be a really interesting position for them next year. I don't think it's a sure thing that any of them will be highly effective at guarding 5's next year. Part of it will be how all of them develop physically over the next year, and if they find a 5 in the transfer portal. Ihnen does have a freakish 7-4 wingspan, but he preferred to be on the outside and actually did reasonably well shooting 3's during his playing time before. Fox would have to bulk up a bit to guard a 5, as would Thompson obviously. Payne has the lower body strength to hold his ground pretty well, but it's a crapshoot at this point.
My hope would be with the extra guard depth, they’d be allowed t guard posts differently. Changing fronts and bringing doubles, etc… Also I like the idea of Dickerson having chase around ultra active Fox or Payne around. Same can be said about TT on ball screens too. They gotta guard our guys too.
I don't think getting some help in the post by doubling is a bad idea on occasion, but I'm not sure what guard depth we have at this point? And there's an awful lot of 3-pt shooters in the Big Ten, and doubling in the post can cause a lot of open looks. And I think Dickinson would have to be chasing a big that can shoot, and that isn't the strength of either Payne or Fox at this point. I just wouldn't mind one more established big to transfer over for some depth.
Yeah it’s of course all match up based. We do this defensively with certain players already where we would sink down. Indiana was an example. I don’t think taking a transfer frontcourt guy is out of the question either. As for guard depth we obviously will be adding multiple, so the guard depth is an assumption. I figured if we could get get the three guards we got this year, we could duplicate at least that level plus add Carrington.
Maybe ten years ago, definitely five, but not 20
There will never be a team where incredibly athletic and skilled 6'10" + guys aren't good at basketball. I don't think anyone ever argued that.
Every team in the country would take a number of these old school centers as you call them. Maybe other conferences have better guards.
The biggest change in basketball is that the idea of traditional positions really doesn't exist that much anymore. You have all these hybrid type players that can play a number of different positions. Big guys can dribble and shoot from outside, guards have gotten a lot taller, you don't need the true center anymore.....This is especially true in the NBA but is also common in the college ranks now.
for sure....clearly a huge hole at the PG spot but we certainly need to add a legit 5 man as well
I will argue that Ihnen is more suited to defend the 3 or 4. He was quicker and more mobile than any of the wings the Gophers are currently playing, hard to tell how he will recover from the injury though.
Gophers cooled on Aligbe too soon. He’s physically ready to play day 1. Having as good of a season as anyone in the state. He’s literally carrying Minnehaha Academy on his back.
Can we get Walton to transfer back?
I think a couple guards that can handle are the priority and there are definitely some that would seem to make sense with Minnesota ties.