Battle and Cooper Listed as Graduating Seniors Today

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Hmmm. Interesting and maybe not in a good way.
 






GopherWeatherGuy said:
They have their flaws, but they're still two of the top 3 players on this team. With no Evans, and those two leaving, the difficult task of making next year's team competitive just got a lot more difficult.
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Right. I can buy possibly getting 1-2 decent players out of the portal. 3-5 is a lot.
 

On one hand they have significant flaws and we are going for back to back last place finishes so I mean really it's not like we are losing 2 nba guys off a great team.

On the other hand they play about 75 min a game combined and we have little to not good depth behind them and a coach who has shown no ability to recruit transfers for anything other than a last place team.

So to sum up....we are pretty well screwed!

How many more departures until it's time to throw in the towel on this disaster.
 

Well, you can be a "graduating senior" and still have college eligibility remaining. especially for athletes from the covid era.

If Battle, Cooper or both come out and say definitely "I'm not coming back for another season," then you have something concrete to discuss.

Battle and Cooper could be done playing college hoops - they could come back and play another year at MN - or they could (I think) go somewhere else as a grad transfer.

but until they make their intentions public, it's speculation.
 




bmb5270 said:
It sounds like Battle will have 2 degrees and is ready to be done with college. Cooper leaving I think is for the best.
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That’s impressive to do with the grind of high level college basketball and in four years. Saw Battle is also a high academic guy with a recent All American academic honor.

Congratulations to him!
 

skiumah1 said:
Right. I can buy possibly getting 1-2 decent players out of the portal. 3-5 is a lot.
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Yes, a much bigger challenge, at least for a program that isn't a premier one.
 




I don’t think this tweet is how anyone learns about their pending decisions.
 


short ornery norwegian said:
Well, you can be a "graduating senior" and still have college eligibility remaining. especially for athletes from the covid era.

If Battle, Cooper or both come out and say definitely "I'm not coming back for another season," then you have something concrete to discuss.

Battle and Cooper could be done playing college hoops - they could come back and play another year at MN - or they could (I think) go somewhere else as a grad transfer.

but until they make their intentions public, it's speculation.
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Good point
 

GopherWeatherGuy said:
They have their flaws, but they're still two of the top 3 players on this team. With no Evans, and those two leaving, the difficult task of making next year's team competitive just got a lot more difficult.
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No. Payne and Garcia are two of the top three. Payne not for the whole season but as of now yes.
 

bga1 said:
No. Payne and Garcia are two of the top three. Payne not for the whole season but as of now yes.
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Battle is their best shooter. If he chooses elsewhere, that hurts them. I like Cooper, but I think he’s more easily replaced. Emptying the system of better players doesn’t bode well. It took 20 games for the team to give any appearance of gelling.
 

short ornery norwegian said:
Well, you can be a "graduating senior" and still have college eligibility remaining. especially for athletes from the covid era.
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Yes, but you can also be a graduating senior academically and choose not to do the game ceremony until you are leaving the program. I believe Samuels is a grad student so not a "senior" technically but he is leaving the program after this season.
 

Holy Man said:
Battle is their best shooter. If he chooses elsewhere, that hurts them. I like Cooper, but I think he’s more easily replaced. Emptying the system of better players doesn’t bode well. It took 20 games for the team to give any appearance of gelling.
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I would agree. I think the overwhelming consensus would be that Garcia was our best player this year but even he took a bit of time to find his sea legs and gel with the others.
 

bc2211 said:
I don’t think this tweet is how anyone learns about their pending decisions.
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I agree. But I thought when Battle ran over and hugged his mom after the last game it looked like a thank you and good bye of sorts. No idea why but I would put my money on him leaving after this year.
 

golfing18now said:
I agree. But I thought when Battle ran over and hugged his mom after the last game it looked like a thank you and good bye of sorts. No idea why but I would put my money on him leaving after this year.
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That was his Grandma
 



Holy Man said:
Battle is their best shooter. If he chooses elsewhere, that hurts them. I like Cooper, but I think he’s more easily replaced. Emptying the system of better players doesn’t bode well. It took 20 games for the team to give any appearance of gelling.
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I agree. I think Cooper was their third best player and now Payne is. Payne is the star next year in my view. I'd be happy to keep Battle and Cooper. It is Ben's job to put them in their proper roles for the right amount of minutes.
 



stocker08 said:
They are seniors and it's senior night. But they both have eligibility....so they can come back if they choose. Not going to read much into this.
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Being a "senior" is as pointless as any other label these days, with how many different ways you can be.

I don't think you participate in senior night unless it's over.
 

leib0039 said:
On one hand they have significant flaws and we are going for back to back last place finishes so I mean really it's not like we are losing 2 nba guys off a great team.

On the other hand they play about 75 min a game combined and we have little to not good depth behind them and a coach who has shown no ability to recruit transfers for anything other than a last place team.

So to sum up....we are pretty well screwed!

How many more departures until it's time to throw in the towel on this disaster.
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Right, all along we've been saying that the program can't get any worse, right...? Anyone who thinks things are already as bad as they could ever be, so what's the harm in losing a couple players off a historically bad team, hasn't been paying attention.
 

Congratulations on your time as Gophers!

Next year, Ihnen and Fox can replace what Battle did, especially moreso on defense.

Johnson needs to find 2 good guards in the portal.

If he does that, this team could be solid next year, assuming Ihnen and Fox are healthy.
 

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