Cashius McNeilly & Emanuel Miller (Texas A&M) both in the portal

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bc2211 said:
Adding on to last post.. BJ might be the right guy, but the timing of this has made his job so much more difficult.
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Agreed. I just hope the Athletic Department is doing everything they can to help him succeed because it's a difficult job to begin with before factoring in Covid, the transfer portal free for all, etc. There can be so many roadblocks at this University. I really hope this was not another one. And I really hope Ben is as poised as Dave Thorson says he is - he's going to need it.
 

bc2211 said:
sucks, but whatever. With the conditions of his hire (unproven head coach in a free covid transfer year), he was always going to have to grind out his first few years and find a way to create a culture and system of his own. A couple of A/M players would have made it more palatable, but it wouldn’t have changed the reality of the rebuild.
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true, but I'm curious how ticket sales will fare.

Coyle made a great hire in PJ and from day one PJ was showing us his energy and passion, selling the program and his vison almost weekly with hype videos. With this current news, I think it's time for Ben to do that but in his own way.

I think there will be initial surge of sold out games (once allowed) just because we have all been stuck inside, but if the product on the floor is not good, I don't know how 2022 will be.

Ben is in a tough spot right now, first hype around Nuness came crashing down and now the A&M thing is on life support.

If you check on any gopher basketball related social media posts (twitter, IG, FB, Newspapers comment sections, etc, it's almost 50/50 people either hating on Ben or people defending him (and im being nice with 50/50). That's a not a good look and the U marketing/PR team needs to fix that.

I honestly can't think of any new team coach in the B1G, let alone any Power 5 conference with a bigger mountain to climb than Ben right now. Feel for him.
 

Are we still going to get these kids with their uncle not being the coach. Seems unlikely. Right now I like the St Thomas roaster more than I like the gophers roster.
 

umn99 said:
No. Doesn't seem like anybody knows. Thinking it has to be Visa or compliance related.
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How could it be visa related? If he can work in Texas, he can work in MN.

To leave a coaching spot vacant for a month and hold multiple scholarships open and have this happen is amateur hour. Next year is looking brutal.
 



8-23 combined with missing the top six 2022 guys might be a hole to big to dig out of.
 
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Slim Tubby said:
I managed to make it through an entire season of intramural hoops in college without recording a single rebound. I’m just a phone call away, Ben. I’ll make the rest of the roster look like All Americans by the time we fail to meet NIT requirements.
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I was just the opposite, I got a lot of rebound (and a few fouls), but never scored.
 


bc2211 said:
sucks, but whatever. With the conditions of his hire (unproven head coach in a free covid transfer year), he was always going to have to grind out his first few years and find a way to create a culture and system of his own. A couple of A/M players would have made it more palatable, but it wouldn’t have changed the reality of the rebuild.
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Assuming Doogie proves to be right this is right about where I fall on this as well. It sucks for the short term and hampers the chances of doing a little better than expected right off the bat, but I don't know that it has any massive implications.

Even with the A&M guys this team was not going to be a contender in the BIG next season. Don't get me wrong, would love to have seen it happen but if it doesn't then we move on. Some of the sky is falling posts over this are way over the top.

As for the Athletic article you mentioned (always forget I have a subscription to their content). They put Johnson in Tier 4 with the likes of Porter Moser. Most of the other Big Ten hires from this off season found their way into Tier 3. There were 5 total tiers in their ranking.
 

speaking of Doogie, he was on with Mackey and Judd the other day. Said that Johnson and his staff are reaching out to a lot of 'bigs' in the portal. they could still try to add a PG, but right now (assuming Doogie is correct) the whole focus is on adding some size.

Doogie also mentioned that a number of players in the portal are - at least - testing the NBA waters, but if that doesn't look likely, then they will likely return to college somewhere. So it could be a while for some of these guys to figure out what they want to do.
 



Pretty discouraging news on what has been a tumultuous start to an underwhelming hire. Obviously too early to panic, but it’s concerning that Coach Johnson hasn’t filled his staff—let alone his roster—over a month into the job. It points to a lack of a coherent plan, which was my major concern in the first place.

Pretty much resigned to a horrible year of gopher hoops, which we’ve seen before and will be offset by what should be a strong football season, but the importance on next years recruiting class is paramount. If he doesn’t pull in major talent and prove he can sell the U to high-end prospects, then I fear his tenure will become ugly very fast.
 

\]\[ BFF
SPEGOPHER said:
Pretty discouraging news on what has been a tumultuous start to an underwhelming hire. Obviously too early to panic, but it’s concerning that Coach Johnson hasn’t filled his staff—let alone his roster—over a month into the job. It points to a lack of a coherent plan, which was my major concern in the first place.

Pretty much resigned to a horrible year of gopher hoops, which we’ve seen before and will be offset by what should be a strong football season, but the importance on next years recruiting class is paramount. If he doesn’t pull in major talent and prove he can sell the U to high-end prospects, then I fear his tenure will become ugly very fast.
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Married@SiebertField said:
I strongly support Coach Ben—but there is reason for deep concern. If this were the corporate world the CEO would need to have a candid talk with shareholders. Given the uncertainty hovering over the basketball program AD Coyle should gather virtually his shareholders—the ever dwindling number of basketball season ticket holders. He should demonstrate he has some concern for the fan base.
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Slim Tubby said:
I managed to make it through an entire season of intramural hoops in college without recording a single rebound. I’m just a phone call away, Ben. I’ll make the rest of the roster look like All Americans by the time we fail to meet NIT requirements.
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Definitely not gritty enough!!
 

It took 4 months for Buzz to hire his VT assistants at Texas A&M (McNeilly, etc...). I would assume that he is/was in the plans to join the staff at Minnesota. You can bet that Ben would not leave him hanging in between jobs and pull the offer. Either it is still in the works or some impossible hurdle got in the way. Maybe we all need to write our congressperson or senators to overcome this international incident...
 


Love it how all of a sudden people are even more in panic mode now that mcneilly isnt coming here! People on here have even said they're not renewing their season tickets. All over an assistant coach! We will get another coach along with some bigs in the next few months I promise you that. Relax!
 


gophereric30 said:
Love it how all of a sudden people are even more in panic mode now that mcneilly isnt coming here! People on here have even said they're not renewing their season tickets. All over an assistant coach! We will get another coach along with some bigs in the next few months I promise you that. Relax!
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I think it is more being upset that we talked ourselves into believing he was bringing two players with him....one of which would likely have been our best player next year and one of which who was highly thought of. He was bringing a great base upon which to build the program. Now, that does not seem to be the case.
 

From the Parkinglot said:
Are we still going to get these kids with their uncle not being the coach. Seems unlikely. Right now I like the St Thomas roaster more than I like the gophers roster.
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Taking a step back, if you're counting on nephews of an assistant coaching hire to save your roster, maybe you're not on that firm of ground to start with.
 



From the Parkinglot said:
Are we still going to get these kids with their uncle not being the coach. Seems unlikely. Right now I like the St Thomas roaster more than I like the gophers roster.
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Sounds like a business opportunity to me for an online chat board for them. You could call it -

Tommy Talk
 

short ornery norwegian said:
speaking of Doogie, he was on with Mackey and Judd the other day. Said that Johnson and his staff are reaching out to a lot of 'bigs' in the portal. they could still try to add a PG, but right now (assuming Doogie is correct) the whole focus is on adding some size.

Doogie also mentioned that a number of players in the portal are - at least - testing the NBA waters, but if that doesn't look likely, then they will likely return to college somewhere. So it could be a while for some of these guys to figure out what they want to do.
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That last part is important. A lot of chips will fall into place once the NBA draft process is complete and the guys that didn't make it need to figure out where to play next season.
 

TWeber said:
I think it is more being upset that we talked ourselves into believing he was bringing two players with him....one of which would likely have been our best player next year and one of which who was highly thought of. He was bringing a great base upon which to build the program. Now, that does not seem to be the case.
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Pretty spot on although I don't know that them potentially not coming really does much to the long term prospects of the team. As the roster stands right now (not complete yet) the team will not be as good next year without Miller. But overall this doesn't really change a ton in the long term outlook for the program.
 

short ornery norwegian said:
speaking of Doogie, he was on with Mackey and Judd the other day. Said that Johnson and his staff are reaching out to a lot of 'bigs' in the portal. they could still try to add a PG, but right now (assuming Doogie is correct) the whole focus is on adding some size.

Doogie also mentioned that a number of players in the portal are - at least - testing the NBA waters, but if that doesn't look likely, then they will likely return to college somewhere. So it could be a while for some of these guys to figure out what they want to do.
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Its obvious there are a few 4 or 5 star players in the transfer portal who possibly think they have a chance to be drafted somewhere in the NBA 2nd Rd, or sign a free agent contract, develop under a minor contract in the the D League or opt turning pro overseas....If they feel returning to a college could improve their financial value in the pro's likely most will return to the original school they left, similar to Marcus Carr in 2020 and the Gophers. ...It is doubtful the Gophers have any hope of signing any of the fringe-pro talent type players testing the so-called water... Of the several remaining in the transfer portal who mentioned "other college contact & interest, Minnesota is almost void of any interest, even within the 2 & 3 star ability ranked players as of recent player response...
 

MNVCGUY said:
Pretty spot on although I don't know that them potentially not coming really does much to the long term prospects of the team. As the roster stands right now (not complete yet) the team will not be as good next year without Miller. But overall this doesn't really change a ton in the long term outlook for the program.
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If it helped win more games while they were here, then yeah it definitely hurts long term. Could be completely moot, but winning sells to both players and fans. He needs a large victory to kick things off whether that be in recruiting or on the court. We've seen what Nebraska looked like the last 2 seasons with a roster cobbled with transfers. Very, very, bad. Do we have confidence that our staff is better than Hoiberg's?
 

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