All Things Race Thompson Recruitment Thread - Class of 2018, Gophers Have Offered

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GopherBlood666 said:
Woodson was able to make the playoffs with the Knicks in the 21st century, that takes quite the coaching ability lol
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I don't know why people are ripping on Woodson. His overall record in the NBA is under .500 but that is because the teams he started with in Atlanta were bad with really, really bad records which are hard to balance out....13-69 and then 26-56 (39-125 overall). He has 680 games of head coaching experience in the NBA with only one season in which his team's record regressed.
 

TWeber said:
I don't know why people are ripping on Woodson. His overall record in the NBA is under .500 but that is because the teams he started with in Atlanta were bad with really, really bad records which are hard to balance out....13-69 and then 26-56 (39-125 overall). He has 680 games of head coaching experience in the NBA with only one season in which his team's record regressed.
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When you have a record, people will bludgeon you with it, many times unfairly. When you have no record/history people will paste into that empty space all their hopes and dreams or whatever they want. You see it time and time again.
 

WriterGoph said:
The thing about the transfer portal is that there are only a handful of spots where a kid can transfer to a better team in a league as good as the Big Ten from a school like Minnesota. Some of the 8 will definitely transfer down to a less competitive league where they can get more playing time. But for guys like Carr, Liam, Mashburn and Gabe, if you're not going to a different Big Ten team or a top-half P6 team, you're not really transferring up. Spots will start to dry up quickly and the grass is not always greener when you're already at a Big Ten school. Again, I'd be SHOCKED if all 8 of these guys end up leaving. Some of them are just testing the waters because that is the opportunity at hand and the wise thing to do this offseason.
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That is exactly the point I was making. Many of these kids in the portal will be disappointed if they think they are moving up and there old team doesn’t let them back in.
 

Northeastgopher said:
Trace Jackson Davis said he was set on going to the NBA before meeting with Woodson, but after the meeting he committed to staying and said he “Believs in Coach Woodson’s plan.” This isn’t me panicking this is simply a huge contrast in how the transitions are going with the respective coaches. Imagine how excited this entire board would of gotten if Carr or Robbins had said something like that. Again this isn’t to say Ben can’t turn it around, and I really hope he does, but at the moment things are trending a lot better at IU.
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Maybe you as just assuming the worst for the U and giving everyone else the benefit of the doubt. Maybe Johnson has been working on them already, but suggested they look around to make sure they are were they want to play (no prisoners, only guys that still want to play for the U). Maybe the players want to see the full staff and a coordinated plan for the team. Maybe Johnson wants to get consensus from his assistants on the type of players they will build the team around. Maybe, maybe, maybe.... Maybe we should not count any players as gone until they actually sign with another team. B1G roster spots are very hard to find and are coveted by just about 80% of the guys who play college ball. Way too early to panic.
 

Northeastgopher said:
Kinda interesting how Woodson is able to retain players from the previous coach’s team while Ben has had the whole team leave
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A totally ridiculous statement, as others have pointed.

just want to add, that Woodson is not currently as connected with college recruiting. It is in his best interest to retain as many players as possible just to field a competitive team.
 


Northeastgopher said:
Trace Jackson Davis said he was set on going to the NBA before meeting with Woodson, but after the meeting he committed to staying and said he “Believs in Coach Woodson’s plan.” This isn’t me panicking this is simply a huge contrast in how the transitions are going with the respective coaches. Imagine how excited this entire board would of gotten if Carr or Robbins had said something like that. Again this isn’t to say Ben can’t turn it around, and I really hope he does, but at the moment things are trending a lot better at IU.
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Woodson lost one today.
 






Northeastgopher said:
remember when people said it was ridiculous for me to point out that Johnson was struggling to retain players and get adequate talent to replace them last month??? That aged well...
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Who says our talent isn't adequate? Have you seen all the new comers play? Is our roster full? Marcus was gone no matter what, so was Gabe and Mitchell. Mash was fine, but he's not an all conference guy imo. We will have a team that defends better and will place the same in the conference of better so I don't see it as much a loss yet.
 

manderson1984 said:
Who says our talent isn't adequate? Have you seen all the new comers play? Is our roster full? Marcus was gone no matter what, so was Gabe and Mitchell. Mash was fine, but he's not an all conference guy imo. We will have a team that defends better and will place the same in the conference of better so I don't see it as much a loss yet.
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To your point, we don't know if this team will "defend" better.
 

manderson1984 said:
Who says our talent isn't adequate? Have you seen all the new comers play? Is our roster full? Marcus was gone no matter what, so was Gabe and Mitchell. Mash was fine, but he's not an all conference guy imo. We will have a team that defends better and will place the same in the conference of better so I don't see it as much a loss yet.
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Objectively speaking this is a bottom 4 roster on paper at the moment. Johnson’s biggest selling point was recruiting I was told no? Look I would love to be proven wrong, but I also don’t get why people are getting so defensive over what has been an abysmal start to his tenure. I’ve been a gopher fan my whole life and I’ve watched years and years of terrible basketball. I expect more now and I’m gonna call out bad recruiting or coaching when I see it.
 

manderson1984 said:
Who says our talent isn't adequate? Have you seen all the new comers play? Is our roster full? Marcus was gone no matter what, so was Gabe and Mitchell. Mash was fine, but he's not an all conference guy imo. We will have a team that defends better and will place the same in the conference of better so I don't see it as much a loss yet.
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If the bolded above happens- I will be ecstatic with Johnson's coaching future here. He is definitely going to have to do it with teamwork, scheme and defense because we will not have any proven Big Ten talent (based on today's roster). I have no idea how much talent we will have but it won't be battle tested, that's for sure.
 



Northeastgopher said:
Objectively speaking this is a bottom 4 roster on paper at the moment. Johnson’s biggest selling point was recruiting I was told no? Look I would love to be proven wrong, but I also don’t get why people are getting so defensive over what has been an abysmal start to his tenure. I’ve been a gopher fan my whole life and I’ve watched years and years of terrible basketball. I expect more now and I’m gonna call out bad recruiting or coaching when I see it.
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What do you think would have been an amazing start? What did Ben fail at in his 2 months on the job?
 

Northeastgopher said:
Objectively speaking this is a bottom 4 roster on paper at the moment. Johnson’s biggest selling point was recruiting I was told no? Look I would love to be proven wrong, but I also don’t get why people are getting so defensive over what has been an abysmal start to his tenure. I’ve been a gopher fan my whole life and I’ve watched years and years of terrible basketball. I expect more now and I’m gonna call out bad recruiting or coaching when I see it.
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I just don't think you can judge him based on recruiting this spring. He absolutely cannot take any chances on character and he cannot sell a chance to make a run this fall. Every recruit knows that this is at best an opportunity for them to prove themselves at a level above where they have been or to come back home. The recruiting this fall is a whole different matter. There the expectations need to be as high as they would be for Musselman or any other coach we would have gotten in here. If he was the best guy, this fall is show time.
 

Northeastgopher said:
Objectively speaking this is a bottom 4 roster on paper at the moment. Johnson’s biggest selling point was recruiting I was told no? Look I would love to be proven wrong, but I also don’t get why people are getting so defensive over what has been an abysmal start to his tenure. I’ve been a gopher fan my whole life and I’ve watched years and years of terrible basketball. I expect more now and I’m gonna call out bad recruiting or coaching when I see it.
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I think people react more to the posters who are absolutely positive Ben Johnson cannot recruit even though he has been coach for only a short time. Basically, give him a little more leash. Not talking about people with concerns; it's the ones who act like they know for certain this will end in disaster. They look for any little reason to pile on.
 


Northeastgopher said:
Objectively speaking this is a bottom 4 roster on paper at the moment. Johnson’s biggest selling point was recruiting I was told no? Look I would love to be proven wrong, but I also don’t get why people are getting so defensive over what has been an abysmal start to his tenure. I’ve been a gopher fan my whole life and I’ve watched years and years of terrible basketball. I expect more now and I’m gonna call out bad recruiting or coaching when I see it.
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It might be a bottom 4 roster, we just don't know because we haven't seen them play was my point. I also know that less talent that is more cohesive and better coached will have better results. I'm not saying Ben will be the next Wooden and I wasn't a fan of the hire. I do know this roster is old and experienced. They don't have a go to guy at this point offensively, but they will have many pieces to be a good defensive team. Does that get us in the top 10 in the conference? Unless we add some more scoring, probably not, but look where we were the last two years with Carr, Robbins, Oturo, and other many talented guys. I'm not getting super defensive over the roster, I just don't think we can judge it yet until we see it on the floor.
 

Northeastgopher said:
Objectively speaking this is a bottom 4 roster on paper at the moment. Johnson’s biggest selling point was recruiting I was told no? Look I would love to be proven wrong, but I also don’t get why people are getting so defensive over what has been an abysmal start to his tenure. I’ve been a gopher fan my whole life and I’ve watched years and years of terrible basketball. I expect more now and I’m gonna call out bad recruiting or coaching when I see it.
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Lol they haven't played any games yet and everyone knows you can't judge a coach's recruiting before they've even had a single full recruiting cycle. Johnson may or may not be the right guy for the job and I have no issue with having high expectations, but your criticism at this point in time is comically off base. If we wrap up our 2022 class without any good recruits to be excited about, that will be a different story, but we're a ways away from that.
 

Keyser Söze said:
Lol they haven't played any games yet and everyone knows you can't judge a coach's recruiting before they've even had a single full recruiting cycle. Johnson may or may not be the right guy for the job and I have no issue with having high expectations, but your criticism at this point in time is comically off base. If we wrap up our 2022 class without any good recruits to be excited about, that will be a different story, but we're a ways away from that.
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I was super critical about the hiring but this is 100% correct. We really won't know much until about a year from now. If there isn't some momentum in terms of gameplay or recruiting, I think the criticisms are valid.
 

I’ve made my point and clearly people disagree that’s fine. I just don’t understand why we are paying a guy millions of dollars and then giving him a pass when the roster downgraded in talent from what was already a mediocre starting point. We didn’t get the Texas A&M guys or assistant coach, we lost Robbins and Gabe and If we stink next year what are selling to recruits besides playing time? It’s not like Ben Has a proven track record as a coach to point to.

All I want is some sort of concrete sign of improvement and I assumed recruiting would be that since that was suppose to be a big part of this hiring. Nobody posted any sort of positive he has done yet, I just heard a lot of it’s too soon to judge comments. Well other programs are in the same boat like Marquette and Indiana and their rosters are looking a lot better than ours. You can make excuses about how those are stronger programs than us, but we are never gonna be a successful program unless fans demand more. Excuses are the same reason I had to watch Pitino go 55-97 in the big ten instead of being fired earlier. The only thing that has gotten me excited about the program this off-season is hiring Thorson.
 

Northeastgopher said:
I’ve made my point and clearly people disagree that’s fine. I just don’t understand why we are paying a guy millions of dollars and then giving him a pass when the roster downgraded in talent from what was already a mediocre starting point. We didn’t get the Texas A&M guys or assistant coach, we lost Robbins and Gabe and If we stink next year what are selling to recruits besides playing time? It’s not like Ben Has a proven track record as a coach to point to.

All I want is some sort of concrete sign of improvement and I assumed recruiting would be that since that was suppose to be a big part of this hiring. Nobody posted any sort of positive he has done yet, I just heard a lot of it’s too soon to judge comments. Well other programs are in the same boat like Marquette and Indiana and their rosters are looking a lot better than ours. You can make excuses about how those are stronger programs than us, but we are never gonna be a successful program unless fans demand more. Excuses are the same reason I had to watch Pitino go 55-97 in the big ten instead of being fired earlier. The only thing that has gotten me excited about the program this off-season is hiring Thorson.
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I do see your point but I just don't see it as Ben's fault that we lost Robbins and didn't land the A&M assistant. I do agree with you that it is a small bit telling that we didn't keep Gabe and lost out on Eli King. For me, it's sort of like playing poker. We lost the first few hands we played but we didn't lose much. It's hard to really draw any conclusions about how the night's going to go.
 

I was really hoping we could at the very least make it to some sweet 16s with our new coach. I don’t understand why Johnson hasn’t accomplished that yet and why everyone is just okay with it. I guess you all just accept mediocrity.
 

Keyser Söze said:
I was really hoping we could at the very least make it to some sweet 16s with our new coach. I don’t understand why Johnson hasn’t accomplished that yet and why everyone is just okay with it. I guess you all just accept mediocrity.
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Funny. All anyone is saying is that there are few positive signs to point to so far while at similar programs who made changes there are. Pretending it's going well so far requires faith in things not yet in evidence.
 

Northeastgopher said:
I’ve made my point and clearly people disagree that’s fine. I just don’t understand why we are paying a guy millions of dollars and then giving him a pass when the roster downgraded in talent from what was already a mediocre starting point. We didn’t get the Texas A&M guys or assistant coach, we lost Robbins and Gabe and If we stink next year what are selling to recruits besides playing time? It’s not like Ben Has a proven track record as a coach to point to.

All I want is some sort of concrete sign of improvement and I assumed recruiting would be that since that was suppose to be a big part of this hiring. Nobody posted any sort of positive he has done yet, I just heard a lot of it’s too soon to judge comments. Well other programs are in the same boat like Marquette and Indiana and their rosters are looking a lot better than ours. You can make excuses about how those are stronger programs than us, but we are never gonna be a successful program unless fans demand more. Excuses are the same reason I had to watch Pitino go 55-97 in the big ten instead of being fired earlier. The only thing that has gotten me excited about the program this off-season is hiring Thorson.
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You are a tool. Have you looked at all the roster changes, especially at schools with coaching changes?
 

howeda7 said:
Funny. All anyone is saying is that there are few positive signs to point to so far while at similar programs who made changes there are. Pretending it's going well so far requires faith in things not yet in evidence.
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I’d argue it’s neither going well nor going poorly. The real joke here is making judgements this insanely early. I honestly can’t believe people are already complaining lol.
 

Keyser Söze said:
I’d argue it’s neither going well nor going poorly. The real joke here is making judgements this insanely early. I honestly can’t believe people are already complaining lol.
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10 of 13 players leaving is not a neutral. And the incoming pieces all coming from non-power 6 schools isn't either.
 

manderson1984 said:
I would bet my mortgage they will. They have a staff that actually can and want to teach it. Offensively who knows what we will see.
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Okay, so this team will have better defensive stats than last years team? We can put some money on it.
 
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SanDiegoGopherFan said:
Okay, so this team will have better defense stats than last years team? We can put some money on it.
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You truly don't believe we will rank higher than 12th in the B1G on KenPom next year? That's really the only "stat" I look at defensively as a whole. Even NW and Nebraska ranked above us in defense last year. Last year was probably the most infuriating year because we actually defended really well at the start of the year. I think we will be 10th or 11th in the B1G next year and probably rank last in Offense, but we will be at least 8th in defense. Thorson alone will move us up a couple notches.
 

howeda7 said:
10 of 13 players leaving is not a neutral. And the incoming pieces all coming from non-power 6 schools isn't either.
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We don’t know how good our incoming transfers are going to be yet. The fact that they came from mid majors is irrelevant to me. Our class isn’t even done yet, and some coaches are more worried about character and instilling their culture with their first recruiting class so they can set up long term success. It just make no sense to me to be upset this early. I don’t care if other teams with new coaches win more games year one. I want to setup a culture and have long term success.
 

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