Eric Curry out for the year

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Livingat45north said:
Does Nate Wozniak play basketball? I'm actually serious in asking this...
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+1. We only need him for Miles Tarver minutes. Play defense. Box out. Rebound. Pass. Never dribble. Never shoot unless it's a put back.
 



howeda7 said:
+1. We only need him for Miles Tarver minutes. Play defense. Box out. Rebound. Pass. Never dribble. Never shoot unless it's a put back.
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I have a feeling he still might have trouble grabbing rebounds.
 


Very sad news. I feel for you Curry. Stay positive and focused on recovering, you can do it. As a fan this is a real blow as well.
 

SKOOKM said:
Very sad news. I feel for you Curry. Stay positive and focused on recovering, you can do it. As a fan this is a real blow as well.
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We have become conditioned to just expect that players will return from ACL surgery and at some point be the same player they were prior to the injury. Adrian Petersons had one, Robert Smith had two ACL reconstructions and both returned as good as ever. Rachel Banham had a pretty serous knee issue as well and returned. I have heard from some that there is a big mental aspect to returning, and a lack of trust in the knee that lingers.

One semi-obscure example, Gopher related of it going very poorly is the case of #81, Duke Awanayu, a very athletic, big TE who was expect to be a factor post Max Williams, until he blew out his knee in 2014. He is still listed on the roster, but has never played another down, post knee surgery.

I've been playing basketball fived days a week for 30 years, and I am very lucky to have not blown out a knee, or destroyed an ankle as I have had some incidents while driving to the basket that could have lead to a tear. Now that I cannot jump any more, that might help.
 

JimmyJamesMD said:
They need to some serious research on ACL's. Maybe I've overreacting, but seems like a sports epidemic
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Bigger people, stronger people, faster accelerating and more quickly decelerating people, same ligament strength- not that hard to understand.


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Gopherguy0723 said:
It sounds like he probably dislocated his knee like Bridgewater.
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Not necessarily- it is however the Terrible Triad of O'Donague (?sp). My heart and prayers go out to the young man.


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Yes let's not forget about Jamir Harris - maybe a smaller team that can hit threes is a good thing. This team will be a bit different w/o Curry - but the coaches and Pitino will figure it all out...
 

NWMetroGopherFan said:
Lynch and Murphy MUST play smart and stay out of foul trouble. It's a different team when they're both on the floor and can play without having to worry about foul trouble.
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Unfortunately, Reggie Lynch will always be in foul trouble, it's the way the kid plays ball. I love the big fella's presence on the court, but I don't think he'll ever grow out of that reckless reaching tendency. This team does have the number of quality guards to play small ball and I believe we are going to see A LOT of that employed this winter. Besides, I have wanted to play faster for years and now we're going to have to do so.
 

TheMetroTheFaust said:
Unfortunately, Reggie Lynch will always be in foul trouble, it's the way the kid plays ball. I love the big fella's presence on the court, but I don't think he'll ever grow out of that reckless reaching tendency. This team does have the number of quality guards to play small ball and I believe we are going to see A LOT of that employed this winter. Besides, I have wanted to play faster for years and now we're going to have to do so.
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Somewhat agree, but in my memory of watching him play he sets the stage for foul trouble in his activity within pretty close to the first five minutes of the game. Either tie his hands or don't let him play until the five to seven minute mark in the opening minutes.
 

macgopher said:
or don't let him play until the five to seven minute mark in the opening minutes.
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It's a crazy thought, but it occurred to me more than once last year that maybe the Gophers should try it. Start Konate, let him bang with the other team's big for 5 minutes, and then bring in Reggie to play as much as he can the rest of the game, with some rests spaced in. If that thought ever had any viability, it's gone now with Curry out, and therefore unable to sub in at the 5.
 



SelectionSunday said:
Also, Curry injury puts more of a spotlight on having 2 scholarships (Diedhiou, Stockman) wasted on bigs that can't help you in 2017-18.
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^This. Although, at the time, I think the Stockman move was a smart one, because we need a second big in 2018 and could do worse than a 7-foot, fifth-year senior from Louisville. He better be a player, though. If he turns out to be a dud, that move will have been disastrous for both this season and next.

And Diedhiou, has anyone ever explained who on this staff evaluated him and thought he was a B1G caliber player? Did anyone actually go to Africa and watch him, or did we just take the word of some contact on the Canarius basketball staff? Talk about a disaster. If he were an American dud probably just would've made him transfer by now, but instead he takes up four years on the roster. People who watched him at Pro-Am this summer said he didn't even look like a D1 player, just another guy in the gym. Yeesh.
 

WanderingGopher said:
And Diedhiou, has anyone ever explained who on this staff evaluated him and thought he was a B1G caliber player? Did anyone actually go to Africa and watch him, or did we just take the word of some contact on the Canarius basketball staff?
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Got to think Dad has to take some of the blame. With the pipeline to Africa and his philosophy of getting big but raw players out of there, I can just hear Rick. "You know, son, there's another guy who's really big. We don't have room for him but you might want to take a chance." Not sure if Louisville ever thought about Gaston, but I seem to remember they were interested in Konate.
 

[emoji35]?sucks big time


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Mulligan said:
Not sure if Louisville ever thought about Gaston, but I seem to remember they were interested in Konate.
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MN and Louisville were looking at Konate and Anas Mahmoud at the same time, and both guys visited both schools (both visited here together). Louisville got the better of that deal... notwithstanding some Pitino comments that Konate in his first year was further along than Gorgei Deng at that time. smh

There was nothing ever reported about Louisville and Gaston. He came out of the blue, and IIRC he was a spring recruit, and then everybody freaked out when U of M admissions made it hard for him to get in here. He had to pass those extra English classes before the U would let him in, and Gopher fans were all pissed. Ironic ...
 

SelectionSunday said:
Also, Curry injury puts more of a spotlight on having 2 scholarships (Diedhiou, Stockman) wasted on bigs that can't help you in 2017-18.
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Exactly. This is the primary reason I was irked at the Stockman scholarship. I argued at the time that this team's front court was thin enough that an injury to any one of the top three big men could cause significant problems going forward.

Last year a late season injury turned a team with so much promise into a first round loser to a much lower seeded opponent. Two years ago, suspensions and a dismissal turned a weak but improving team into an absolute atrocity. Now this injury has to cause some dampening of enthusiasm going forward. Maybe Pitino will now realize that he needs insurance players on the roster.
 

cjbfbp said:
Exactly. This is the primary reason I was irked at the Stockman scholarship. I argued at the time that this team's front court was thin enough that an injury to any one of the top three big men could cause significant problems going forward.

Last year a late season injury turned a team with so much promise into a first round loser to a much lower seeded opponent. Two years ago, suspensions and a dismissal turned a weak but improving team into an absolute atrocity. Now this injury has to cause some dampening of enthusiasm going forward. Maybe Pitino will now realize that he needs insurance players on the roster.
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Pitino went hard at Theo John he just didn't get him, the way things are now that would have been a big pickup.
 

jovs said:
Pitino went hard at Theo John he just didn't get him, the way things are now that would have been a big pickup.
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There were multiple big man grad transfers who went to lesser programs than Minnesota. They could have provided insurance, played some minutes even without any injuries, and occupied a scholarship for only one year.
 

I like Richard as a coach very much. Management of the roster is not one of his strengths.
 

cjbfbp said:
Exactly. This is the primary reason I was irked at the Stockman scholarship. I argued at the time that this team's front court was thin enough that an injury to any one of the top three big men could cause significant problems going forward.

Last year a late season injury turned a team with so much promise into a first round loser to a much lower seeded opponent. Two years ago, suspensions and a dismissal turned a weak but improving team into an absolute atrocity. Now this injury has to cause some dampening of enthusiasm going forward. Maybe Pitino will now realize that he needs insurance players on the roster.
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Is it that Pitino doesn't realize he needs a deep bench, while every other remedial basketball fan on earth does? Or, that it's hard enough to get a decent player to come start here for 4 years, let alone sit on the bench.

Almost nobody outside of the cheating freak shows like North Carolina and Kentucky, who basically pay players, have guys on their bench that could stroll in and make a meaningful contribution.
 

This is the moment that Gaston Diedhiou has waited for! Whoo Hoo! [emoji8] [emoji33] [emoji41]
 

If Fitz stays healthy we are fine. Curry gets an extra year, Thomas will certainly red shirt next year. We will have more front court depth than we will know what to do with next season. As for now Murph is perfectly capable of playing 30 plus minutes a night
 

cjbfbp said:
There were multiple big man grad transfers who went to lesser programs than Minnesota. They could have provided insurance, played some minutes even without any injuries, and occupied a scholarship for only one year.
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Those grad transfer bigs are probably also going to be major contributors at those lesser programs though. I don't think high quality grad transfers love the idea of coming off the bench for the entirety of their final year of college basketball. We'd have a theoretical front court of Lynch, Murphy, Curry, Fitzgerald, and Konate, and then we're supposed to convince a grad transfer that there's minutes to be had here? Seems like kind of a logjam to me, meaning we'd either have to sell a quality post player on being an insurance policy in case one of the 3-4 quality post players we already have gets injured, or we're going after a post player who is good enough to challenge Lynch and Murphy for a starting spot, in which case they might have better options than Minnesota.

TL;DR I don't think Minnesota would have been an appealing option to a grad transfer center or power forward who probably wants to play decent minutes or possibly start.
 

People who think we should have taken a grad transfer center aren't thinking about things from the player's perspective. It never made even an ounce of sense for a grad transfer center to come here, unless they weren't very good and were okay with not getting much playing time, but if that were the case, why would we want them? Any quality grad transfer is going to go somewhere they can get good playing time.
 

Now is the time for Reid Travis to apply for early graduation and come and play at home. :rolleyes: Ha. Not sure what the answer will be but I hope for big things from Fitz
 

Keyser Söze said:
People who think we should have taken a grad transfer center aren't thinking about things from the player's perspective. It never made even an ounce of sense for a grad transfer center to come here, unless they weren't very good and were okay with not getting much playing time, but if that were the case, why would we want them? Any quality grad transfer is going to go somewhere they can get good playing time.
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Correct, the grad transfers that went to lower level programs had equal opportunity to walk onto major level programs as bench warmers and likely turned them down.

There was a maximum of 10 minutes available to a grad transfer 2 weeks ago. Now, it looks like someone could have played 20+. Pitino's and idiot and should have gotten Curry hurt 3 months ago.
 

Murphy and Lynch playing smart and staying out of foul trouble is going to be even more important now then it would have been before the injury. Both guys did a good job not fouling out late in the year but both were also in foul trouble quite a bit. They have to avoid taking the "dumb" fouls that both are prone to from time to time.

Huge loss from a depth standpoint but this is still a very good team and hopefully there is some time now for guys to step up and fill the void.
 

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