Coyle: "If everybody comes back we'll be a top-25 team preseason next year"

BleedGopher

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Per Harrison:

The Gophers men's basketball team will open up the 2024-25 season as a ranked top-25 team, according to Gophers athletics director Mark Coyle.

"If everybody comes back we'll be a top-25 team preseason next year," Coyle said on the Golden Gophers Podcast. "I have no issues saying that at all. We'll be a top-25 preseason team and that means teams aren't going to want to play you."

The team has shown significant improvement this season after two lackluster season to begin Ben Johnson's tenure as head coach of the Gophers. Minnesota is 17-11 overall this season, sporting an 8-9 record in the Big Ten with just three games left in the regular season. In his first two seasons in charge, Johnson won six Big Ten games combined.


Go Gophers!!
 



Per Harrison:

The Gophers men's basketball team will open up the 2024-25 season as a ranked top-25 team, according to Gophers athletics director Mark Coyle.

"If everybody comes back we'll be a top-25 team preseason next year," Coyle said on the Golden Gophers Podcast. "I have no issues saying that at all. We'll be a top-25 preseason team and that means teams aren't going to want to play you." . . .
Laying the ground work to scam season ticket holders yet again with a crummy home non-conference schedule?
 



I'd say maybe receiving votes to start the season if everyone returns. 2017-18 might be the only season I've seen as a fan where we were in the preseason top 25, and that was coming off a 4th place finish in the Big Ten, a 5 seed in the NCAA tournament, returning first team All Big Ten Nate Mason, freshman All Big Ten Amir Coffey, and Big Ten defensive player of the year Reggie Lynch.

Even 2012-13, Tubby's last year, coming off an NIT championship game appearance, Rodney Williams coming on strong at the end of his junior year, returning Andre and Austin Hollins, and getting Trevor Mbakwe back from injury, we were not a preseason top 25 team. We got ranked relatively early after going 2-1 in the Battle for Atlantis, but didn't get a preseason ranking.

We also weren't a preseason top 25 team after Richard Pitino's NIT championship.

So I don't think we'll be ranked in the preseason even if everyone returns, unless we either dominate in the NIT and/or bring in a big time transfer or two, like an all-conference small forward from the ACC or Big 12 or something, which I don't think will happen. I bet we'll appear in some very early NCAA tournament projections, and we might get ranked if we get some notable early wins or just start the season 10-0 or something. But I don't see a preseason ranking.
 


maybe Coyle is trying to promote the program.

Or maybe Coyle is trying to create unreasonable expectations for the coach...........

who the bleep knows? at least for Coyle, it was a fairly comprehensible sentence, which is better than his typical utterances.
 

Yes, top 25 teams really struggle to find games.
 
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maybe Coyle is trying to promote the program.

Or maybe Coyle is trying to create unreasonable expectations for the coach...........

who the bleep knows? at least for Coyle, it was a fairly comprehensible sentence, which is better than his typical utterances.
Going to go out on a limb that his goal was to promote the program and not to undercut the coach he hired.

Funny part is that what he is saying should be loved by even the negative crowd around here but of course they have predictably found ways to take shots at it because that is what they do.

Pretty clear that expectations for 24-25 are going to be quite a bit higher as they should be.
 

^^^^^^. Mnvcguy thinks top 25 teams have trouble getting games. ^^^^^^^^^

🤣🤣🤣🤣😂

Excuses from the AD now. No wonder Mnvcguy loves coyle.
 

Going to go out on a limb that his goal was to promote the program and not to undercut the coach he hired.

Funny part is that what he is saying should be loved by even the negative crowd around here but of course they have predictably found ways to take shots at it because that is what they do.

Pretty clear that expectations for 24-25 are going to be quite a bit higher as they should be.

We should love that there's already a built-in excuse for playing a crappy OOC again? Purdue, Tennessee, Arizona, Alabama, UNC, Creighton, Kansas, Gonzaga and St Mary's all had no problem scheduling a difficult OOC schedule. Just to name a few.

We will be a projected tournament team next year, assuming the roster stays in tact. We need to schedule that way. Because unless we bank on winning 12/13 B1G games next year, we're going to need to have SOMETHING of substance in the OOC. Mizzou should at worst be a Q2 game, so scheduling about 4 more of those games and better is a must.
 

We should love that there's already a built-in excuse for playing a crappy OOC again? Purdue, Tennessee, Arizona, Alabama, UNC, Creighton, Kansas, Gonzaga and St Mary's all had no problem scheduling a difficult OOC schedule. Just to name a few.

We will be a projected tournament team next year, assuming the roster stays in tact. We need to schedule that way. Because unless we bank on winning 12/13 B1G games next year, we're going to need to have SOMETHING of substance in the OOC. Mizzou should at worst be a Q2 game, so scheduling about 4 more of those games and better is a must.
You simply can't make up the excuses Mn "fans" will go to to protect the coach. Unreal.

Now, Mnvcguy will be back to back peddle and spin more. Clockwork.
 



Per Harrison:

The Gophers men's basketball team will open up the 2024-25 season as a ranked top-25 team, according to Gophers athletics director Mark Coyle.

"If everybody comes back we'll be a top-25 team preseason next year," Coyle said on the Golden Gophers Podcast. "I have no issues saying that at all. We'll be a top-25 preseason team and that means teams aren't going to want to play you."

The team has shown significant improvement this season after two lackluster season to begin Ben Johnson's tenure as head coach of the Gophers. Minnesota is 17-11 overall this season, sporting an 8-9 record in the Big Ten with just three games left in the regular season. In his first two seasons in charge, Johnson won six Big Ten games combined.


Go Gophers!!
This sounds like a ready made excuse to give us another crappy non-conference schedule next year. “Hey, we tried, but everyone is afraid to play us! So this is all we could line up.”
Get ready for more 300+ NET opponents.
 

We should love that there's already a built-in excuse for playing a crappy OOC again? Purdue, Tennessee, Arizona, Alabama, UNC, Creighton, Kansas, Gonzaga and St Mary's all had no problem scheduling a difficult OOC schedule. Just to name a few.

We will be a projected tournament team next year, assuming the roster stays in tact. We need to schedule that way. Because unless we bank on winning 12/13 B1G games next year, we're going to need to have SOMETHING of substance in the OOC. Mizzou should at worst be a Q2 game, so scheduling about 4 more of those games and better is a must.
Crazy thought....maybe wait till the schedule is actually made before assuming it is going to be crappy again. Coyle flat out says the goal is to get to the NCAA tournament next year so the schedule is going to have to be tougher to make sure that can happen.

But I get that it is far easier to just assume the worst....I see BarnBurner loved your comment....so you are clearly in good company with your take.
 

Crazy thought....maybe wait till the schedule is actually made before assuming it is going to be crappy again. Coyle flat out says the goal is to get to the NCAA tournament next year so the schedule is going to have to be tougher to make sure that can happen.

But I get that it is far easier to just assume the worst....I see BarnBurner loved your comment....so you are clearly in good company with your take.
I see your point. Because this AD has a track record of always putting the best interests of the fans first. He did, after all, green light this year’s schedule. It just seemed an odd thing to throw in at the end of his statement.
 

I see your point. Because this AD has a track record of always putting the best interests of the fans first. He did, after all, green light this year’s schedule. It just seemed an odd thing to throw in at the end of his statement.
But this one isn't about the fans. He says the goal is to get to the NCAA Tournament next year, this year's non-conf schedule is being viewed as one of the main reasons the current team most likely won't get to the Tournament this year. So it would stand to reason then that if the goal is to make the tournament next year the non-conf schedule is going to have to improve to make that possible.
 


Joe Nelson reporting yesterday that Hawk and DG not decided if they will return for next year.

DTA better get their act together otherwise we will lose 2 if not 3 (christie) of our best players.
 


Joe Nelson reporting yesterday that Hawk and DG not decided if they will return for next year.

DTA better get their act together otherwise we will lose 2 if not 3 (christie) of our best players.
They said they were going to wait until the season is over to talk about it, but DG said he would decide quickly.
 

Crazy thought....maybe wait till the schedule is actually made before assuming it is going to be crappy again. Coyle flat out says the goal is to get to the NCAA tournament next year so the schedule is going to have to be tougher to make sure that can happen.

But I get that it is far easier to just assume the worst....I see BarnBurner loved your comment....so you are clearly in good company with your take.
And, here he is for his lap of excuses.......
 


He was actually pretty critical of the non conference schedule this year if anyone actually wanted to listen to the podcast.
And, he approved limping away from the preseason tourney and the doc schedule. Wimpy.
 



They said they were going to wait until the season is over to talk about it, but DG said he would decide quickly.
Which is fair and pretty much par for the course anymore. As long as they make their decisions quickly it is all we can really ask for as fans in this current college sports landscape.

Hopefully they can see the potential for this squad if they stick together for another year.
 

Need to get into a early season tournament. That is something that is a must. I am also not sure why they've never scheduled some of the closer power 5 teams. We should be playing Iowa State every season, Marquette, Butler, Notre Dame, etc.
 

Crazy thought....maybe wait till the schedule is actually made before assuming it is going to be crappy again. Coyle flat out says the goal is to get to the NCAA tournament next year so the schedule is going to have to be tougher to make sure that can happen.

But I get that it is far easier to just assume the worst....I see BarnBurner loved your comment....so you are clearly in good company with your take.

I would have until his comments. It's absurd. It's not that difficult to schedule a decent OOC schedule. I'm not even asking for that much, just not to be the worst in the country.

It was a dumb comment.
 

Joe Nelson reporting yesterday that Hawk and DG not decided if they will return for next year.

DTA better get their act together otherwise we will lose 2 if not 3 (christie) of our best players.
This would be par for the course for this program to have those guys leave.
Minnesota has to have the most college bball players leave to go to Europe or non-NBA places I've ever seen.
Lose those three and it will be over with fast and back down to the bottom...
 




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