Amelia: Is this worst Gophers basketball team ever? Not yet, anyway

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BleedGopher

BleedGopher

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per Amelia:

After the Gophers’ head-shaking defeat Tuesday night, no one is denying that right now this is a very, very bad team. They have lost six in a row and nine of 10, and they could be on the wrong end of another blowout when high-flying Indiana comes to Williams Arena on Saturday.

But is this the worst Gophers team ever? No — at least not yet.

Most fans will remember the cringe-inducing 2006-07 season, at least those who haven’t erased it from their brains in post-traumatic instinct. After a five-game losing streak in November culminated with a tumble against Clemson, coach Dan Monson was fired seven games into his eight season.

Things didn’t get any better under interim coach Jim Molinari. The Gophers lost at Alabama-Birmingham as well as at home to Arkansas-Little Rock. In the Big Ten, they won only three games and finished the season on an eight-game slide.

A stroll down a painful memory lane for Gophers fans of a certain age provides another “worst” contender. The 1986-87 season was right up there as well. Four players were kicked off the team a year earlier — three for an alleged sexual assault in Madison — and coach Jim Dutcher resigned in protest of a president-instructed forfeit. The Gophers finished the Big Ten on a 16-game losing streak, dropping seven of those by 20 or more. “Uff da” surely echoed around the state then.

http://www.startribune.com/is-this-worst-gophers-basketball-team-ever-not-yet-anyway/365381351/

Go Gophers!!
 


beavergopher said:
At least the Iron Five played hard.
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Yep, I remember the Iron 5 getting standing O's from the Williams Arena faithful because they played their a**ses off. Whether you have a really good team, a really bad team, or somewhere in between, fans will find it easy to get behind a team that plays hard. At the bare minimum that's what this team needs to do the rest of the season (along with sweeping Rutgers!).
 

If at the bare minimum this team can't play hard the rest of the season I think it would be fair to say Pitino has lost the team.
 

SelectionSunday said:
Yep, I remember the Iron 5 getting standing O's from the Williams Arena faithful because they played their a**ses off. Whether you have a really good team, a really bad team, or somewhere in between, fans will find it easy to get behind a team that plays hard. At the bare minimum that's what this team needs to do the rest of the season (along with sweeping Rutgers!).
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Amelia is actually a year off in her reference of the Iron 5 (it was 85-86). I remember that season well because that was my last year living in Iowa City. They also beat Iowa a couple of games after the OSU victory. I wasn't a Gopher fan at the time but I remember getting a chuckle out of their win and feeling a lot of admiration for them. They gained a lot of respect around the league for how they persevered. To include them as a comparison to the current Gophers shows Amelia's lack of historical perspective. The 85-86 team's situation was completely different.
 


scools12 said:
If at the bare minimum this team can't play hard the rest of the season I think it would be fair to say Pitino has lost the team.
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Well, watching the Nebraska game was very similar to the feeling I had watching that Monson team. Basically, "They've quit on him," back then. Not expecting a victory Saturday, but really hoping I don't have those same thoughts.
 

I remember going to the Michigan game that year and sitting in the second row behind the bench. Molinari was coaching at that time and the most vivid memory I have was of all the empty seats in the Barn. It felt like an exhibition game, not a Big Ten contest. Very depressing. I hope I do not have that same experience tomorrow when I attend the Indiana game.
 


A season I was glad to see end

goldy93 said:
I remember going to the Michigan game that year and sitting in the second row behind the bench. Molinari was coaching at that time and the most vivid memory I have was of all the empty seats in the Barn. It felt like an exhibition game, not a Big Ten contest. Very depressing. I hope I do not have that same experience tomorrow when I attend the Indiana game.
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That was definitely an easy season to remember, but one we'd all like to forget. The one saving grace was having a quality guy & coach with head coaching experience like Molinari there to run things in the interim. Tough situation, but he handled it with class, dignity, and grace.

I still remember being at the Big Ten Tournament that year when the season ended with an ugly 49-40 loss to Michigan, and saying to the guy who attends the tournament with me every year what a relief it was when the game ended. Not very often I'm glad to see a Gophers season end, but 2006-07 was one of 'em.

12 of the Gophers' 14 losses to Big Ten teams (including the BTT) were by double-digits, but interestingly that Gopher team never got beat by 25+. ... something we've already done twice this B1G season.
 



SelectionSunday said:
That was definitely an easy season to remember, but one we'd all like to forget. The one saving grace was having a quality guy & coach with head coaching experience like Molinari there to run things in the interim. Tough situation, but he handled it with class, dignity, and grace.

I still remember being at the Big Ten Tournament that year when the season ended with an ugly 49-40 loss to Michigan, and saying to the guy who attends the tournament with me every year what a relief it was when the game ended. Not very often I'm glad to see a Gophers season end, but 2006-07 was one of 'em.\

12 of the Gophers' 14 losses to Big Ten teams (including the BTT) were by double-digits, but interestingly that Gopher team never got beat by 25+. ... something we've already done twice this B1G season.
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Yes, the W/L record was horrific, but the thing I remember from that season was that, under Molinari, they were competitive in most games, even when they did lose by double digits.
 

Bad Gopher said:
Yes, the W/L record was horrific, but the thing I remember from that season was that, under Molinari, they were competitive in most games, even when they did lose by double digits.
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That's how I remember, it as well. 10 of the 14 losses were reasonable, ranging from 2 to 15 points. The other four were 18+, 2 by more than 20.
 


Worse, playing with his tie, which isn't millenial cool.

Sent from my SM-N910V using Tapatalk
 





What makes this so much worse than 06/07 is the talent level of the players on this team compared to that team. The 06/07 team had no talent and still fought hard enough to scrape out wins. This team has talent and no energy.
 

yep, that's what we were going for with a new coach: almost historically bad

what happened to this guy:
"Pitino left his position as the associate head coach at Louisville to become the head coach at FIU on April 15, 2012 replacing Isiah Thomas. [3] With only six players remaining from the previous season, and not all of them on scholarship, Pitino cobbled together a team and coached a high-pressure defense that finished eighth in the nation in steals"
 


I chuckle when Amelia acts as though she followed the Gophers or follows them for that matter.

I agree with folks who just want to see this year's squad leave it all on the court. I can take seeing a young squad lose. I don't do well when I see kids stop giving full effort. The recent lack of defensive effort has been very disappointing.
 

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