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

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bga1 said:
I expect no firing this year:

1. Coyle in his weak presser actually offered an excuse for not firing Ben- "He's in year 2- Lindsey was in year 5".............. while not saying anything to endorse what Ben is doing.
2. It was a diversity hire. I can't see Gabel letting him do it.
3. Now add #1 and #2 - it has all the vibe of Coyle not wanting to say the nice things he should have about Ben to support him- because it wasn't his call then and it's not his call now and he's ticked that he's stuck with it.
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Agreed on 1 and 2, I still think it was mainly Coyle's call. Plenty of "diverse" candidates that were far more qualified.
 

skiumah1 said:
Agreed on 1 and 2, I still think it was mainly Coyle's call. Plenty of "diverse" candidates that were far more qualified.
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If it was Coyle's call then he will fire Ben in the next 7 days. If you hold a presser like that and have a chance to support a coach you intend to keep on board- you say supportive things. That's basic.
If it is out of his hands and he is unhappy about it- he acts just like he did at the presser.
 

bga1 said:
If it was Coyle's call then he will fire Ben in the next 7 days. If you hold a presser like that and have a chance to support a coach you intend to keep on board- you say supportive things. That's basic.
If it is out of his hands and he is unhappy about it- he acts just like he did at the presser.
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I didn't think he was negative about Ben. He only said a couple words.

The presser was about Whalen.
 


bga1 said:
It was what he didn't say in his comment about Ben.
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Idk. Regardless, the record speaks for itself.

I still don’t think he’s gone this year.

Buyout is too big for the administration I think.
 


howeda7 said:
This is one of the 5 worst teams in the the Power 6 and their 2nd best player is leaving a year early along with another of their top 4. It can't get any darker. Sure an exodus would suck, but it's not guaranteed to happen, and what's the difference if it's now or a year from now?
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I guess this potentially purely about semantics, but if Battle leaves will it really be "a year early" or just on time? He's played 4 years of college basketball.

I would be curious the percentages for players being granted the extra year of eligibility for Covid how it broke down in terms of:

1) Stayed with the team they finished their 4th yr
2) Transferred to another school
3) Just moved on, whether it was starting a professional basketball career or moving on to real life.

The last one, one factor is with NIL can still get some financial benefit in addition to the extra free year of school/expenses. On the other hand, I imagine higher learning has been quite challenging the past few years, and can easily see guys 23-25 years of age just realizing it's time to move on.

I never presumed everyone would be taking advantage of the extra year. From those 3 scenarios, wouldn't surprise me if the percentages were pretty equal.

Option 1 seems more likely for programs that are poised to win big or at least be highly competitive (obviously).
 
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Ope3 said:
I would be curious the percentages for players being granted the extra year of eligibility for Covid how it broke down in terms of:

1) Stayed with the team they finished their 4th yr
2) Transferred to another school
3) Just moved on, whether it was starting a professional basketball career or moving on to real life.
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If I had to take a wild guess, I would say that the majority would fit into #3 either because the player did not want to stay in college or no acceptable destination wanted the player.
 

If I had to guess, I would say Battle goes down to Iowa State as a grad transfer. With Gabe leaving Iowa State, Battle would be a nice fit for their program.
 

bga1 said:
It was what he didn't say in his comment about Ben.
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Great observation. Whenever the opportunity to praise or support your coach comes up, you do it. It's possible Coyle messed up, but more likely, it was an intentional omission.
 




Professional careers are short. He can’t afford not to get paid that extra year overseas.
 

Gopherguy0723 said:
Great observation. Whenever the opportunity to praise or support your coach comes up, you do it. It's possible Coyle messed up, but more likely, it was an intentional omission.
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I’m not sure Mark is savvy enough to be that coy and intentional in his spoken communication.
 

Loosing Battle and Cooper is not great, but I believe they are incapable of providing the boost Ben needs to save his job.

He needs to kill it in the spring recruiting cycle and portal.
 




Otis said:
Loosing Battle and Cooper is not great, but I believe they are incapable of providing the boost Ben needs to save his job.

He needs to kill it in the spring recruiting cycle and portal.
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Yeah, Cooper and Battle are not the kind of players that can't be replaced however there will be a lot of pressure on Johnson to find those replacements and he can't afford to miss....especially on the Point Guard(s) he brings in.
 

Coyle is not going to replace both Men's and Women's coaches at the same time.

Whalen's firing/"mutual agreement" basically guaranteed that Johnson would be back no matter how bad this year went.

Now, if next year is similar, then yes, I think Johnson will be gone.

the question that only Coyle can answer is this: how much better does next year's team have to finish in order for Johnson to keep his job?

and as others have noted ad infinitum, it all depends on Johnson landing PG and SG help in the portal.
 

I think how many more players leave could be a tipping point to starting over with someone else in charge. We’ll know shortly.
 

short ornery norwegian said:
Coyle is not going to replace both Men's and Women's coaches at the same time.

Whalen's firing/"mutual agreement" basically guaranteed that Johnson would be back no matter how bad this year went.
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Regardless of how warranted it may be, this administration and Athletic Department is just not going to fire a back head coach after 2 years. I just don't see it.
 

Ogee Ogilthorpe said:
Regardless of how warranted it may be, this administration and Athletic Department is just not going to fire a back head coach after 2 years. I just don't see it.
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Agreed. Add in a large buyout and you’ve got yourself a third year.
 

I would like Battle to come back. Him and Garcia’s injuries derailed the season.

Talon can pass but the damn misses free throws from him all season was ridiculous. He’s solid but not great at all.
 



alaska said:
Hot take: We have a worse record next year than this year.
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I don't think so. Ben and Coyle's backs are against the wall next year. I expect they will make changes in a positive way. Success in the portal is going to demand some NIL and I think they will get something done there and get a few key transfers. I don't expect an exodus of players.
 

UnFadeable21 said:
I would like Battle to come back. Him and Garcia’s injuries derailed the season.

Talon can pass but the damn misses free throws from him all season was ridiculous. He’s solid but not great at all.
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I think "derailed" is a bit of an overstatement. If those 2 had been fully healthy, maybe an extra win or two nonconference, same with the Big 10 slate.

Still would be firmly entrenched in last place. Maybe a few less blow outs.
 

Ope3 said:
I think "derailed" is a bit of an overstatement. If those 2 had been fully healthy, maybe an extra win or two nonconference, same with the Big 10 slate.

Still would be firmly entrenched in last place. Maybe a few less blow outs.
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Massive overstatement. The only loss Battle missed was DePaul and we lost by ~16. None of the non-conference losses were that close. If Garcia doesn't get hurt, maybe we win the Indiana game. That's about it. 1 more win. Maybe 2.
 

Ope3 said:
I think "derailed" is a bit of an overstatement. If those 2 had been fully healthy, maybe an extra win or two nonconference, same with the Big 10 slate.

Still would be firmly entrenched in last place. Maybe a few less blow outs.
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they won against teams they should have...so the other teams are: Depaul, UNLV and Va Tech...who are we beating there?

For UNLV - Battle and Garcia both played (a combined 67 minutes and put up a combined 32 pts, 17 rebs, 2 asts, on 11 of 28 shooting, 4 /14 3pt...

For Va Tech: they played 62 minutes and put up a combined 11 pts, 3 rebs, 3 asts, on 4 of 19 shootings ...3/10 3pts
 

bga1 said:
I don't think so. Ben and Coyle's backs are against the wall next year. I expect they will make changes in a positive way. Success in the portal is going to demand some NIL and I think they will get something done there and get a few key transfers. I don't expect an exodus of players.
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Agreed, of course the determining factor will be what kind of guards Johnson can get from the portal, but it will also be the continuing development of Carrington and Henley (if he stays), and what kind of help Christie can give. If they can get some reasonably competent guards from the portal, at least one of which needs to be a pure point guard, they'll be better. Believe it or not, many of the freshmen from this year WILL be much better than this past year.
 

howeda7 said:
Massive overstatement. The only loss Battle missed was DePaul and we lost by ~16. None of the non-conference losses were that close. If Garcia doesn't get hurt, maybe we win the Indiana game. That's about it. 1 more win. Maybe 2.
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Wet_Blanket_Guy said:
they won against teams they should have...so the other teams are: Depaul, UNLV and Va Tech...who are we beating there?

For UNLV - Battle and Garcia both played (a combined 67 minutes and put up a combined 32 pts, 17 rebs, 2 asts, on 11 of 28 shooting, 4 /14 3pt...

For Va Tech: they played 62 minutes and put up a combined 11 pts, 3 rebs, 3 asts, on 4 of 19 shootings ...3/10 3pts
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I don't disagree. A healthy Battle from the get go (fully participating) in practice in basketball ready shape, still probably wouldn't have made enough of a difference to get an extra win or two.
 
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Hopefully Ben can get a solid point guard who can shoot free throws and a big center with some muscle from the transfer portal. And of course keep the freshmen. Thompson looks like a D2 player who couldn’t get playing time when they needed someone inside against the Sconnies. Don’t see him being part of the rotation, unless he has not been playing because he is injured. Regardless, not impressed with him.
 

Tucker32 said:
Battle was awful this year. Terrible shot selection, poor passer, and lazy on defense. He really was not very good at all. I also think the staff did a terrible job putting him in a position to play well consistently, and never held him accountable for his poor shots and defense.
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Good thing you won’t have Battle to complain about next year
 

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