Battle and Cooper leaning towards moving on from Gophers after the season

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I think we’ll all just do a wait and see what those actual options look like. Thinking you may have a shot to play high tier euro ball or make the g league is different than ending up playing in Romania. Going to guess multiple guys put the feelers out but wouldn’t be shocked to see some guys return after seeing what they’re getting
 





Understandable in both cases, but it makes Ben's task next year that much more difficult. If Henley goes too, then what?
 


Drake University Gopher said:
Then we wait patiently (or impatiently I suppose) until Ben’s buyout is low enough that we can fire him and move on.
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It's $8 million now. It'll be ~$4 million a year from now. How much will they lose in ticket revenue next year vs making the move now? I'd argue it's a financial wash and better for the long-term health of the program.
 



howeda7 said:
It's $8 million now. It'll be ~$4 million a year from now. How much will they lose in ticket revenue next year vs making the move now? I'd argue it's a financial wash and better for the long-term health of the program.
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We still have to pay another coach and somehow come up with money for the Athletes Village. Sorry it’s just not happening. As disappointing as it is, I hope it has no impact on the long-term health of the program and maybe just gives the younger players time to develop. Then a real coach can inherit a roster that he can convince to stay and turn it all around! #Polyanna
 

Drake University Gopher said:
We still have to pay another coach and somehow come up with money for the Athletes Village. Sorry it’s just not happening. As disappointing as it is, I hope it has no impact on the long-term health of the program and maybe just gives the younger players time to develop. Then a real coach can inherit a roster that he can convince to stay and turn it all around! #Polyanna
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The entire buyout is not owed immediately. And the new coach won't make substantially more than Ben unless it's Musselman. The immediate financial impact is worse keeping him vs. not. I predict they will lose 2,000 + season tickets next year if they run it back. And many of them will never come back.
 

If Cooper, Battle and Henley leave along with Evans not coming. Will everybody else stay?
If Coyle has somebody, some group of Dunkers to help dollarwise AND if Coyle knows through back channels he can hire his first or second coaching choice....I think it's bad enough Ben could be gone.
But, I think a guy or two more than 3 need to leave to force Coyle to act. At that point you would be starting over again..that's now likely a two more year thing and it's obvious today it an't gonna work any more likely after four years than where we are after two. A third year lowers the buyout and quiets the fair chance critics.

Cooper and Battle leave....now Fox and Ihnen have to be contributors. Is Ben really the guy to get 5 plus guys out of the portal who can step in and win Big Ten games?
 

howeda7 said:
The entire buyout is not owed immediately. And the new coach won't make substantially more than Ben unless it's Musselman. The immediate financial impact is worse keeping him vs. not. I predict they will lose 2,000 + season tickets next year if they run it back. And many of them will never come back.
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I doubt it. Fans have short memories and are optimistic each time a new season starts. Furthermore, why would you hire another cheap coach after the last two?
 

Well this is half of what I predicted earlier and that is that 2 of our starters leave. My guess is we lose 1-2 of those freshmen as well.

Flat out you just can’t lose as much as they did this year. No one likes that. Player, fans recruits.
 

Its a damn shame if we don’t pay the buyout this year. I have no idea if we’re capable of that, but man I hope so.

It’s just crazy because we all thought the hire was bad, but this is really just a nightmare. I’m sure it’s a nightmare for Coyle.
 

60's Guy said:
If Cooper, Battle and Henley leave along with Evans not coming. Will everybody else stay?
If Coyle has somebody, some group of Dunkers to help dollarwise AND if Coyle knows through back channels he can hire his first or second coaching choice....I think it's bad enough Ben could be gone.
But, I think a guy or two more than 3 need to leave to force Coyle to act. At that point you would be starting over again..that's now likely a two more year thing and it's obvious today it an't gonna work any more likely after four years than where we are after two. A third year lowers the buyout and quiets the fair chance critics.

Cooper and Battle leave....now Fox and Ihnen have to be contributors. Is Ben really the guy to get 5 plus guys out of the portal who can step in and win Big Ten games?
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This pretty much sums it up. Even the best case scenario is pretty dire, and we're all going to be holding our breath waiting for the other shoe to drop after the season ends.

You can bet the players have the same concerns we've expressed here. Who among us wouldn't seriously consider transferring out of this listing ship? You only get four years of eligibility, and do really you want to waste it on a lost cause with little hope of experiencing conference contention or postseason participation?
 

60's Guy said:
If Cooper, Battle and Henley leave along with Evans not coming. Will everybody else stay?
If Coyle has somebody, some group of Dunkers to help dollarwise AND if Coyle knows through back channels he can hire his first or second coaching choice....I think it's bad enough Ben could be gone.
But, I think a guy or two more than 3 need to leave to force Coyle to act. At that point you would be starting over again..that's now likely a two more year thing and it's obvious today it an't gonna work any more likely after four years than where we are after two. A third year lowers the buyout and quiets the fair chance critics.

Cooper and Battle leave....now Fox and Ihnen have to be contributors. Is Ben really the guy to get 5 plus guys out of the portal who can step in and win Big Ten games?
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If anything, I would think Battle leaving would be a positive for keeping Henley. If Battle, Cooper and TT are the only guys that leave, I feel like Ben has a decent chance to put together a good club next year. Ben has to make a serious jump in his own coaching decisions though- tonight was not exactly a coaching gem. You can't just let Wahl and Crowl go one on one time and again with out providing any help. This is an ongoing theme from Ben and he appears not to learn.
 

bga1 said:
If anything, I would think Battle leaving would be a positive for keeping Henley. If Battle, Cooper and TT are the only guys that leave, I feel like Ben has a decent chance to put together a good club next year. Ben has to make a serious jump in his own coaching decisions though- tonight was not exactly a coaching gem. You can't just let Wahl and Crowl go one on one time and again with out providing any help. This is an ongoing theme from Ben and he appears not to learn.
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Given the rest of your post, what gives you the optimism for the bolded part?
 

bmb5270 said:
Battle will be tough to replace
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Not with the numbers he put up this year. Battle was a very inefficient player this year. 38% FG shooting 32% from the three, got to the line very little and averaged 1 point per shot taken- that's really poor for a key veteran. He's not a real good defender or rebounder and his assist to turnover ratio is about 1 to 1. If we cannot find a player to replace that....well that's pretty bad.
bmb5270 said:
but I really think Coopers defensive deficiencies outweigh any benefit from his passing
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yep
 


golfing18now said:
Given the rest of your post, what gives you the optimism for the bolded part?
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I think he has the opportunity to put together a nice lineup. Whether he will be able to coach winning ball is the question. Look, moving into the offseason with Payne and Garcia is a pretty darn good start to a lineup. Payne will be terrific next year and Garcia will fit along side of him well. We need continued development out of JOJ, Henley and Carrington and hopefully Christie is good. Can Betts step in and go? Not sure. Ihnen and Fox? Also not sure. He needs to go get a 4/5 guy and a couple of good quick guards. Can he do all that? I don't know. Is there an opportunity with what he has? Yes.
 

bga1 said:
I think he has the opportunity to put together a nice lineup. Whether he will be able to coach winning ball is the question. Look, moving into the offseason with Payne and Garcia is a pretty darn good start to a lineup. Payne will be terrific next year and Garcia will fit along side of him well. We need continued development out of JOJ, Henley and Carrington and hopefully Christie is good. Can Betts step in and go? Not sure. Ihnen and Fox? Also not sure. He needs to go get a 4/5 guy and a couple of good quick guards. Can he do all that? I don't know. Is there an opportunity with what he has? Yes.
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I know he can't.

We need probably 3 starters out of the portal to avoid weakling Wednesday. I'd guess something similar to Willis, Loewe and Stephen's is the absolute peak. And ohh BTW that team also finished DFL in conference.

What does he have to sell? He's got a horrible record, a terrible offense, apparently not much NIL. If you are going to say PT I would agree, this far that has landed us basically nothing. So unless we are going to start hiring relatives of guys to be on staff I'd guess another 1-2 conference win team is coming up.
 

leib0039 said:
I know he can't.

We need probably 3 starters out of the portal to avoid weakling Wednesday. I'd guess something similar to Willis, Loewe and Stephen's is the absolute peak. And ohh BTW that team also finished DFL in conference.

What does he have to sell? He's got a horrible record, a terrible offense, apparently not much NIL. If you are going to say PT I would agree, this far that has landed us basically nothing. So unless we are going to start hiring relatives of guys to be on staff I'd guess another 1-2 conference win team is coming up.
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I think that you find a really good portal pg and a lot of things would change. The talent on this team is not bad at all when you add Fox, Ihnen, Betts and Christie. Ben has to get a lot better at his craft. Perhaps Coyle will force his hand on hiring an assistant coach that has potential head coaching chops to work along side Ben. Obviously the assistants we have are not cutting it either.

I know it looks dark right now. Fire Ben and it gets darker. Watch the exodus (again). For next year, I remain convinced that an improved CBJ is our best shot at restoring the program.

Tonight's game would have been won by the Gophers if they had Ihnen. He's a kid they could have put on Wahl or Crowl and with his length they would not have scored that way on him.
 

bga1 said:
Not with the numbers he put up this year. Battle was a very inefficient player this year. 38% FG shooting 32% from the three, got to the line very little and averaged 1 point per shot taken- that's really poor for a key veteran. He's not a real good defender or rebounder and his assist to turnover ratio is about 1 to 1. If we cannot find a player to replace that....well that's pretty bad.

yep
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I think you are selling Battle pretty short. If you are an opposing coach...who are you most worried about hurting you? No question it is Battle for me. It might be Payne if we used him like Cockburn and if we did it would elevate Battle's value.
We had no actions to get Battle looks. Almost all his shots he had to create off a dribble...that is not what he does best. He's a scoring machine utilized to his strengths....which he wasn't...not his fault and therefore he was ineffective for his abilities. Absolutely our most dangerous shooter! Not even close.
Highly unlikely we get a better shooter than Battle. If we do...will we put him in spots to do what he does best? That's the problem, not Battle.
 

60's Guy said:
I think you are selling Battle pretty short. If you are an opposing coach...who are you most worried about hurting you? No question it is Battle for me. It might be Payne if we used him like Cockburn and if we did it would elevate Battle's value.
We had no actions to get Battle looks. Almost all his shots he had to create off a dribble...that is not what he does best. He's a scoring machine utilized to his strengths....which he wasn't...not his fault and therefore he was ineffective for his abilities. Absolutely our most dangerous shooter! Not even close.
Highly unlikely we get a better shooter than Battle. If we do...will we put him in spots to do what he does best? That's the problem, not Battle.
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Thank You!! Battle was not put in good spots to get the ball this year.
 
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bga1 said:
I think that you find a really good portal pg and a lot of things would change. The talent on this team is not bad at all when you add Fox, Ihnen, Betts and Christie. Ben has to get a lot better at his craft. Perhaps Coyle will force his hand on hiring an assistant coach that has potential head coaching chops to work along side Ben. Obviously the assistants we have are not cutting it either.

I know it looks dark right now. Fire Ben and it gets darker. Watch the exodus (again). For next year, I remain convinced that an improved CBJ is our best shot at restoring the program.

Tonight's game would have been won by the Gophers if they had Ihnen. He's a kid they could have put on Wahl or Crowl and with his length they would not have scored that way on him.
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I dont disagree, a Souley Boum or Jalen Pickett type would do wonders. However, CBJ hasn't gotten even close to that yet, what has changed?

I also agree if you don't fire CBJ you need to can an assistant and get someone who has P5 coaching experience.

I will disagree on "fire him and watch it get darker". First off, we got dead last the last 2 years, by definition it can't get worse. Furthermore, maybe a new coach brings guys with him or is just a better coach.
 

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