At 3-1, are the Gophers good, does the B1G stink, or is it a little of both?

What’s behind Gopher 3-1 start?

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I think it's a bit of both. Minnesota has been getting it done lately on the court. We'll see if that continues, but for now, they're doing fine. At the same time, the Big Ten doesn't seem as strong as it has been.

Right now there are three teams in the top 25 and I still don't fully trust Purdue. Michigan and Michigan State seem down and I think the Juwan Howard experiment is over. Not sure what to make of Ohio State and Indiana and how good they are.

I was thinking over the last few months about how different the Big Ten was 10 years ago in 2013. Thad Matta and Tom Crean had Ohio State and Indiana playing at a high level, Izzo was typically good, John Beilein had a great season and Bo Ryan had his team on point. Illinois, Iowa and Minnesota were all doing pretty well.

The season finished with eight teams earning more than 20 wins and during the season the league on average had six teams ranked. There were great players including Trey Burke, Gary Harris, Victor Oladipo, Cody Zeller, Deshaun Thomas, Tim Hardaway Jr., Aaron Craft, Adreian Payne, Christian Watford, Jared Berggren. Plus for Minnesota we had Andre Hollins, Austin Hollins, Trevor Mbakwe and Rodney Williams.
 

BarnBurner said:
Sure they could have.
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I would disagree with this. They might have won one of them. Yes, Mich and Maryland are down, but maybe you should check in on Nebraksa, they just handed Purdue their butts last night.
 

MNVCGUY said:
In regards to free throws this is really in large part a Payne issue and not a team one. Garcia and Mitchell are both hitting over 80%, Carrington, Christie and Hawkins are all over 75% and JOJ is over 70%. That is 6 guys that will make their free throws 7+ times out of 10 and while I don't have other teams data to compare it to I have to think that is pretty solid in relation to most teams.

The bummer is that Payne is basically making it so that he can't play offense in close games because he is hitting at a putrid 36% (16-45). That is big time pulling our team total down. Combine that with Fox and Ihnen both in the 50% range which is frustrating but those two are less of a late game issue and more role players off the bench.

So on the whole the free throw shooting this year is significantly better overall with the exception of Payne who is a complete mess at the line right now. Hopefully at some point he can get it sorted out and get that percentage at minimum over 50% and ideally closer to 60% so that he can be on the court late in close games without fear of teams just hacking the heck out of him.
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Payne is a terrible FT shooter. Shaq like. Honestly, it would do him good to just try to old granny shot. I bet he would make quite a few more than what he does now this way.
 

Go Gophs said:
Payne is a terrible FT shooter. Shaq like. Honestly, it would do him good to just try to old granny shot. I bet he would make quite a few more than what he does now this way.
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Agree that he is almost certainly never going to be a good free throw shooter but last year he hit close to 49% and this year he is clocking in at 36%. So he is clearly capable of more than what we are getting right now.

Saying Payne is Shaq like in free throws is actually an insult to Shaq because he was a career 53% free throw shooter in the NBA. Not good but quite a bit better than what Payne is doing right now.
 


Go Gophs said:
I would disagree with this. They might have won one of them. Yes, Mich and Maryland are down, but maybe you should check in on Nebraksa, they just handed Purdue their butts last night.
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So, you are saying there would be no chance to win?

Disagree.
 

IceBoxGopher said:
I think it's a bit of both. Minnesota has been getting it done lately on the court. We'll see if that continues, but for now, they're doing fine. At the same time, the Big Ten doesn't seem as strong as it has been.

Right now there are three teams in the top 25 and I still don't fully trust Purdue. Michigan and Michigan State seem down and I think the Juwan Howard experiment is over. Not sure what to make of Ohio State and Indiana and how good they are.

I was thinking over the last few months about how different the Big Ten was 10 years ago in 2013. Thad Matta and Tom Crean had Ohio State and Indiana playing at a high level, Izzo was typically good, John Beilein had a great season and Bo Ryan had his team on point. Illinois, Iowa and Minnesota were all doing pretty well.

The season finished with eight teams earning more than 20 wins and during the season the league on average had six teams ranked. There were great players including Trey Burke, Gary Harris, Victor Oladipo, Cody Zeller, Deshaun Thomas, Tim Hardaway Jr., Aaron Craft, Adreian Payne, Christian Watford, Jared Berggren. Plus for Minnesota we had Andre Hollins, Austin Hollins, Trevor Mbakwe and Rodney Williams.
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A few others should read this post. Then apologize for even suggesting the conference isn't down, significantly, this season.
 





Bobek said:
The conference appears to be down, but you can only play the hand you are dealt. still it is difficult to win on the road in the B1G.
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Agreed - you can only play the games on the schedule.

That said, that would mean this team should win a bunch in conference.
 

I don’t think the conference is down! I just believe college basketball there’s so much parity across the nation. Especially when half the teams in the top 10 have lost games this week.
 

Lutefisk guy said:
I don’t think the conference is down! I just believe college basketball there’s so much parity across the nation. Especially when half the teams in the top 10 have lost games this week.
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There are very few great teams in college basketball and has been that way for a while now. There are always the handful of really good teams but there is a ton of parity in college basketball and it seems to be growing every year.

As for the Big Ten, it will be interesting to see how it plays out. Purdue is very good and Edey always makes for a tough matchup due to his size. But as we just saw even they are not invincible.

Won't be surprised if the final standings in the conference this year resemble last year where most of the conference was separated by just a few games. The good news is that it is looking like this year we are going to be in that mess as opposed to looking up at it from the bottom of the conference.
 

BarnBurner said:
So, you are saying there would be no chance to win?

Disagree.
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Not no chance, but less than 20%. They haven't had a guard that is better than anything Mankato state has had under Ben until this year. It makes all the difference.
I suppose Willis and Cooper, but I would argue those guys couldn't hold this current backcourt's jockstraps.
 



Go Gophs said:
Not no chance, but less than 20%. They haven't had a guard that is better than anything Mankato state has had under Ben until this year. It makes all the difference.
I suppose Willis and Cooper, but I would argue those guys couldn't hold this current backcourt's jockstraps.
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Any given Sunday.
 

BarnBurner said:
Any given Sunday.
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Yep, 20% would account for that.

Hawkins, Christie, Mitchel.

That is the difference. Guard play is what makes teams go. Why do you think Wisconsin is always good? They recruit SMART guards that defend, don't turn it over and can make open shots. Usually they aren't even very good athletes, but they have brains.
 

Impressive that 150 of the 163 votes on this thread are in some way positive for the team’s improvement!

See what a few wins can do.

And I agree, 3consecutive losses would totally reverse the voting.
 

Go Gophs said:
Yep, 20% would account for that.

Hawkins, Christie, Mitchel.

That is the difference. Guard play is what makes teams go. Why do you think Wisconsin is always good? They recruit SMART guards that defend, don't turn it over and can make open shots. Usually they aren't even very good athletes, but they have brains.
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What do you mean smart? I think I know what you mean.
 

Spaulding!No! said:
What do you mean smart? I think I know what you mean.
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Guys that don't turn the ball over. Take good shots. Run the offense. Aren't chuckers.
Bobby J, Ariel McDonald, Eric Harris are three that come to mind off the top of my head that were MN gophers.
 

Go Gophs said:
Yep, 20% would account for that.

Hawkins, Christie, Mitchel.

That is the difference. Guard play is what makes teams go. Why do you think Wisconsin is always good? They recruit SMART guards that defend, don't turn it over and can make open shots. Usually they aren't even very good athletes, but they have brains.
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Been preaching about bad guards at Mn for a long time. I agree.
 


MNVCGUY said:
There are very few great teams in college basketball and has been that way for a while now. There are always the handful of really good teams but there is a ton of parity in college basketball and it seems to be growing every year.

As for the Big Ten, it will be interesting to see how it plays out. Purdue is very good and Edey always makes for a tough matchup due to his size. But as we just saw even they are not invincible.

Won't be surprised if the final standings in the conference this year resemble last year where most of the conference was separated by just a few games. The good news is that it is looking like this year we are going to be in that mess as opposed to looking up at it from the bottom of the conference.
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The parity is mostly at the top, power 5. And it’s not being driven by an uptick in quality. I would argue it’s the other direction. Parity is being driven by more inexperienced talent on the floor as well as annual roster upheaval at so many schools. It’s heading toward a scenario that the big boys will start demanding a tournament criterion that gives points to improvement over the season since they haven’t played together long enough.

Just because there is parity and unpredictability doesn’t mean the play has improved. I miss the days of experienced and less talented mid majors scaring the excrement out of the future lottery pick rosters.
 

Go Gophs said:
Yep, 20% would account for that.

Hawkins, Christie, Mitchel.

That is the difference. Guard play is what makes teams go. Why do you think Wisconsin is always good? They recruit SMART guards that defend, don't turn it over and can make open shots. Usually they aren't even very good athletes, but they have brains.
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This.

Think back to the few good teams we ve had in last 20 yrs and the hyped up teams that didn't pan out.

2016-17 excellent guard play=great record

2002-3, 2019-20, 2005-6: all lots of hype but very poor record due poor guard play.

I remember those Rickert yrs. Granted he was part of the problem but man, they had a dominant front court but had one of the poorer back courts (Fleming and Burleson weren't good)
 

Thomasthetank said:
This.

Think back to the few good teams we ve had in last 20 yrs and the hyped up teams that didn't pan out.

2016-17 excellent guard play=great record

2002-3, 2019-20, 2005-6: all lots of hype but very poor record due poor guard play.

I remember those Rickert yrs. Granted he was part of the problem but man, they had a dominant front court but had one of the poorer back courts (Fleming and Burleson weren't good)
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Point taken but we had Carr, Willis, and Kalscheur in the backcourt in 19-20.

The reason that team underachieved was the extreme last of depth and overall crap roster quality beyond our top 4 guys (Oturu being our other high end player obviously).
 

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