Ben Johnson's Gophers picked to finish 14th in the unofficial Big Ten men's hoops preseason media poll

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Gophers7633 said:
That would require us to win all the games outside of WKU then Princeton/South Carolina, Pitt and Miss State. 6 wins is probably the max we're getting OOC, unfortunately. The other 6 games are extremely easy, but I'm not sure we run that table. Wouldn't surprise me if UMKC, IPFW and Green-Bay are all hard fought games.
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Go 5-1 in the home games. Beat either WKU or Princeton.
 

Gopherfan84 said:
Agree on WKU and you can always expect Stansbury will always bring in dudes. They will be developing chemistry just like us as well though. Princeton didn't play last year, but are most likely a top 3 team in the Ivy if not the favorite, and James Jones is phenomenal as a coach.

Trust me I don't expect us to win a ton of B1G games. I can see the 3/4 wins for us being a realistic possibility with a ceiling of 6-7 (lot of things go right and bad for others). I just don't think NW will improve a ton more than last year and PSU isn't a ton better like you mentioned. I don't expect postseason births, but I don't think we will be as bad as Pitinos team with Dorsey, and a young Nate Mason though either.
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I'd be happy with a 6-4 OOC record, and thrilled with a 7-3 record, meaning we got a win over WKU, So. Carolina/Princeton, Miss St or Pitt. I'm guessing we'll have a similar record to the 15/16 team, which won I think 2/3 B1G games. I think in the other thread I predicted 8 wins so I'll stick with that, heading into the BTT.
 

howeda7 said:
Go 5-1 in the home games. Beat either WKU or Princeton.
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I've been chalking up the WKU game as a loss all off-season. Perhaps I'm just higher on them than I should be. But I doubt we win that one. Princeton is a lot more realistic in terms of winning. I can see a scenario where we go 5-1 against the 6, but beat Princeton, or go 6-0 against the 6, but lose to Princeton. Pitt(even though they aren't great) and Miss State are sure fire losses IMO. The Miss State game might get ugly.
 

Gopherfan84 said:
Agree on WKU and you can always expect Stansbury will always bring in dudes. They will be developing chemistry just like us as well though. Princeton didn't play last year, but are most likely a top 3 team in the Ivy if not the favorite, and James Jones is phenomenal as a coach.

Trust me I don't expect us to win a ton of B1G games. I can see the 3/4 wins for us being a realistic possibility with a ceiling of 6-7 (lot of things go right and bad for others). I just don't think NW will improve a ton more than last year and PSU isn't a ton better like you mentioned. I don't expect postseason births, but I don't think we will be as bad as Pitinos team with Dorsey, and a young Nate Mason though either.
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James Jones is the head coach at Yale. Mitch Henderson is Princeton's coach.
 

dlnavra said:
James Jones is the head coach at Yale. Mitch Henderson is Princeton's coach.
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Man good catch, can't believe I got them mixed up. I'm more confident in that as a high possible/probable win now.
 


Was at the fan appreciation basketball practice today. Somehow the practice seemed better run than my recollection of Pitino practices - just a feeling. Not much to report except that I do not think that any individual player is going to surprise us either direction. As a team, who knows?

After the practice Ben practically guaranteed the crowd that we would not be last in the Big 10 this year. Something like "I can tell you one thing, we will not be last in the Big10"

...so we've got that going for us. Which is nice ;)
 
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Gophers7633 said:
I'd be happy with a 6-4 OOC record, and thrilled with a 7-3 record, meaning we got a win over WKU, So. Carolina/Princeton, Miss St or Pitt. I'm guessing we'll have a similar record to the 15/16 team, which won I think 2/3 B1G games. I think in the other thread I predicted 8 wins so I'll stick with that, heading into the BTT.
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I just think we are too old and built around being defensively sound to be comparable to that team, but we will see.
 

CPTMidnight said:
Was at the fan appreciation basketball practice today. Somehow the practice seemed better run than my recollection of Pitino practices - just a feeling. Not much to report except that I do not think that any individual player is going to surprise us either direction. As a team, who knows?

After the practice Ben practically guaranteed the crowd that we would not be last in the Big 10 this year. Something like "I can tell you one thing, we will not be last in the Big10"

...so we got that going for us. Which is nice ;)
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Having Thorson involved in practice planning alone will make it significantly better than anything Pitino did. His practices weren't my favorites (only saw two and they were earlier in his tenure though).
 

CPTMidnight said:
Was at the fan appreciation basketball practice today. Somehow the practice seemed better run than my recollection of Pitino practices - just a feeling. Not much to report except that I do not think that any individual player is going to surprise us either direction. As a team, who knows?

After the practice Ben practically guaranteed the crowd that we would not be last in the Big 10 this year. Something like "I can tell you one thing, we will not be last in the Big10"

...so we got that going for us. Which is nice ;)
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Bold. It's not quite "we're going to take Gopher Nation to Pasadena" but what is...
 



Gopherfan84 said:
It's amazing how doom and gloom some think this roster is. I seriously think many think it's not a D1 roster even. I get the worries about competing in the B1G, but we added a lot of good pieces that should be more than enough to beat most in our non con. We added plenty of players who played big minutes in D1 already.
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This is of course a D1 roster, this is just not a P5 one. Anyone can see that, tbh I couldn't even tell you who is on our noncon schedule. I just know based on our roster we shouldn't assume ANY victories. Any D1 team can beat us on a given night.
 


kix4kix said:
This is of course a D1 roster, this is just not a P5 one. Anyone can see that, tbh I couldn't even tell you who is on our noncon schedule. I just know based on our roster we shouldn't assume ANY victories. Any D1 team can beat us on a given night.
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Since it's our current roster it is a P5 one this year. You can argue it's not a high level one and that's pretty fair based on previous stats and injuries to our roster this year already. In basketball, you shouldn't assume wins period (Kentucky lost to Evansville a couple years ago), but if you truly don't believe the gophers are going to be heavy heavy favorites over a majority of their non con (UMKC, Fort Wayne, Jacksonville, Texas A&M CC, Green Bay and Alcorn), you just need to do a little google searching on season previews.

We are very old, which is a good thing. We added plenty of shooting and we will defend better this year even with our hole at Center due to just have Thorson and a staff that will be defense first. Again, 14th in the B1G is very realistic ( I don't think it happens personally, but the margin is thin and dependent on staying reasonably healthy), but it's not a sure thing as the bottom and lower mid B1G tier is bigger this year.
 




Gophers vs Oklahoma Next saturday in a "Not so secret" scrimmage. I know its just a scrimmage but should be a good test run against another team with a new coach and a ton of transfers. Now they have in my opinion a better coach and better transfers, but none the less we are in the same boat with the amount of new faces. Will be good to get some run against another P5 team and see what happens and how we play.
 

Gopherfan84 said:
Since it's our current roster it is a P5 one this year. You can argue it's not a high level one and that's pretty fair based on previous stats and injuries to our roster this year already. In basketball, you shouldn't assume wins period (Kentucky lost to Evansville a couple years ago), but if you truly don't believe the gophers are going to be heavy heavy favorites over a majority of their non con (UMKC, Fort Wayne, Jacksonville, Texas A&M CC, Green Bay and Alcorn), you just need to do a little google searching on season previews.

We are very old, which is a good thing. We added plenty of shooting and we will defend better this year even with our hole at Center due to just have Thorson and a staff that will be defense first. Again, 14th in the B1G is very realistic ( I don't think it happens personally, but the margin is thin and dependent on staying reasonably healthy), but it's not a sure thing as the bottom and lower mid B1G tier is bigger this year.
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LOL, how about this? If they win 7+ non conference games I will stop posting here? If they win less you stop posting?
 



SanDiegoGopherFan said:
Whens the last time a B1G team didnt win a single game?
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Northwestern was the last B1G team to go winless in 99-00 as they went 5-26 (0-16). There have been a handful of 1-win teams in conference play since then with Rutgers being the most recent one in 15-16. Both seasons were the third and final season for the head coach.
 

matt said:
Northwestern was the last B1G team to go winless in 99-00 as they went 5-26 (0-16). There have been a handful of 1-win teams in conference play since then with Rutgers being the most recent one in 15-16. Both seasons were the third and final season for the head coach.
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Was Ben on that NW team?
 


matt said:
Northwestern was the last B1G team to go winless in 99-00 as they went 5-26 (0-16). There have been a handful of 1-win teams in conference play since then with Rutgers being the most recent one in 15-16. Both seasons were the third and final season for the head coach.
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Good to know Gophers won't be breaking new ground.
 


SanDiegoGopherFan said:
Whens the last time a B1G team didnt win a single game?
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I don't think we're going to be a good team, but I think we'll be a tougher out than most people think. We are just built like the kind of team that upsets teams if they don't play well. We have 4 guards on our roster who have played a ton of minutes of college basketball. Loewe, Stephens, Sutherlin, and Willis all averaged 30+ minutes per game. Three of these players are average to average+ shooters.

Those are the kinds of teams that upset better teams. Even in the tournament, usually when I pick upsets, I just look for the midmajors with experienced guards who can shoot a little bit. They can control the pace of the game, make sure the offense gets set up, etc.
 


Bob_Loblaw said:
I don't think we're going to be a good team, but I think we'll be a tougher out than most people think. We are just built like the kind of team that upsets teams if they don't play well. We have 4 guards on our roster who have played a ton of minutes of college basketball. Loewe, Stephens, Sutherlin, and Willis all averaged 30+ minutes per game. Three of these players are average to average+ shooters.

Those are the kinds of teams that upset better teams. Even in the tournament, usually when I pick upsets, I just look for the midmajors with experienced guards who can shoot a little bit. They can control the pace of the game, make sure the offense gets set up, etc.
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Could definitely happen. Midmajors upset good teams sometimes. The biggest obstacle to overcome for these players is adjusting to the grind of 20 games against Big Ten defenses. With so many good big men, the defenses can pressure out more than they are used to at the midmajor level. They won’t get as many open looks from three. They would all be better in their second year.
 

Spaulding!No! said:
Agreed. You dopes who act like “wins don’t matter”. Deserve crap seasons in perpetuity.
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You have to put things in context. New coach - huge roster turnover - two players who were expected to be starters out for the season with injuries. You have to adjust your expectations.

if the Gophers had Carr and Robbins back, it's an entirely different situation. Shoot, if they have Ihnen and Fox available, it changes the equation.

Of course you want to win as many games as possible. but, it's a fair point to suggest that this year's team will be evaluated on factors that go beyond wins and losses.

I can honestly say that, if this year's team wins 10 games total, I will likely feel better about the season than I did about any of the recent seasons under Pitino, where the season always seemed to leave a bad taste in your mouth.

Sometimes, you have to take a detour to reach your ultimate destination. with Pitino, it felt like the program was just driving around with no GPS and trying to figure out which way to go.
 





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