Gophers one of 12 teams listed by Athlon's "on the rise for 2014-15"

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BleedGopher

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College Basketball Teams on the Rise in 2014-15

Minnesota
One starter, Austin Hollins, is gone from the NIT champions. The Gophers still have Andre Hollins and Dre Mathieu, a duo who helped Minnesota defeat Wisconsin, Ohio State and Iowa to get onto the NCAA Tournament bubble in the first place. The Big Ten doesn’t figure to be the gauntlet it has been in the last two seasons, so Richard Pitino’s team could take a significant step forward after going 9-11 in the league in his first season. -

http://athlonsports.com/college-basketball/12-college-basketball-teams-rise-2014-15

Go Gophers!!
 


Can one of our programs break freaking .500 in the conference please?

Thank you in advance!
 

Illinois is definitely the Big Ten team that I would expect would make the biggest improvement in 2015 compared to 2014. Minnesota could improve but I'm not as convinced it will happen, or to the same extent, as I am with Illinois.

But I would not put Nebraska on this list, I just don't foresee much room for improvement from them. I think Miles got as much out of that team as he could, and a favorable conference schedule combined with being overlooked by many of the conference teams created a perfect storm for them to snatch a tourney bid in a season that nobody expected them to. I definitely think they will make the tourney again but I don't think overall they will see a lot of improvement in terms of their overall team quality.
 

3 of the 12 (Gophers, Georgia, Gonzaga) are expected to be in Madison Square Garden for the NIT Season Tip-Off semifinals.
 


Studwell55 said:
Can one of our programs break freaking .500 in the conference please?

Thank you in advance!
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Hockey, Volleyball, baseball, softball...

More that I'm not coming up with either. Golf won the B1G too.

You just need to expand your sports watching.
 


OSUfan said:
Illinois is definitely the Big Ten team that I would expect would make the biggest improvement in 2015 compared to 2014. Minnesota could improve but I'm not as convinced it will happen, or to the same extent, as I am with Illinois.

But I would not put Nebraska on this list, I just don't foresee much room for improvement from them. I think Miles got as much out of that team as he could, and a favorable conference schedule combined with being overlooked by many of the conference teams created a perfect storm for them to snatch a tourney bid in a season that nobody expected them to. I definitely think they will make the tourney again but I don't think overall they will see a lot of improvement in terms of their overall team quality.
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If your point is that they already finished 11-7 and 4th in the B1G so there aren't many more rungs to climb in conference, then I agree. But they lost some bad non-conf games, their first B1G tourney game, and their first NCAA game...don't expect those to happen next year. I would take Petteway over ANY returning player in the league, and they rarely lose at home. Hate to say it, but they're going to be a force to be reckoned with.

After Wisconsin, I predict you're going to see a real flip of the typical top of the conference standings next year. Most of the bunch of Minnesota, Illinois, Nebraska are going to be near the top; there are good reasons to predict that most of the bunch of MSU, OSU, Mich, Iowa will not finish top-4; and Indiana and Purdue are not good (along with PSU and NW of course).
 

Sparlimb said:
Hockey, Volleyball, baseball, softball...

More that I'm not coming up with either. Golf won the B1G too.

You just need to expand your sports watching.
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Wrestling #2 in NCAA, #1 in Duals, and conference champs; men's and women's hockey both conf champs and #2 in NCAA...

I agree with his point, though ... Minnesota seems to be King of non-revenue sports and I'd trade all that stuff in a heartbeat for elite football and basketball (men's).
 



WanderingGopher said:
I agree with his point, though ... Minnesota seems to be King of non-revenue sports and I'd trade all that stuff in a heartbeat for elite football and basketball (men's).
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And somewhere, off in the distance, Joel Maturi cries.
 

BarnBoy said:
And somewhere, off in the distance, Joel Maturi cries.
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Nice. Beat me to it. How can you people not recognize the value of the Learfield Sports Director's Cup? Shame on you. :cool:
 

Don't forget about the Women's Dance Dynasty. All they do is win.
 

WanderingGopher said:
If your point is that they already finished 11-7 and 4th in the B1G so there aren't many more rungs to climb in conference, then I agree. But they lost some bad non-conf games, their first B1G tourney game, and their first NCAA game...don't expect those to happen next year. I would take Petteway over ANY returning player in the league, and they rarely lose at home. Hate to say it, but they're going to be a force to be reckoned with.

After Wisconsin, I predict you're going to see a real flip of the typical top of the conference standings next year. Most of the bunch of Minnesota, Illinois, Nebraska are going to be near the top; there are good reasons to predict that most of the bunch of MSU, OSU, Mich, Iowa will not finish top-4; and Indiana and Purdue are not good (along with PSU and NW of course).
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Well, I guess I look at the bad from Nebraska last year as more telling than the good. I do think they could well get a higher seed than #11, something in the 7-10 range might even be likely. But I don't see them finishing higher than 4th in any case. Again, I think teams were overlooking them to an extent last season, they caught some teams by surprise and they won't be able to do that again this season. They got pounded by Baylor. They struggled mightily on the road for much of the season; however, they caught MSU by surprise, and got a decent road win at IU but I'm pretty sure IU wasn't bringing their "A" game in that particular outing. So aside from 2 games where I feel like they caught the opponent on an off night, they had one road win in the Big Ten, at Northwestern. They lost at each of PSU, Illinois and Purdue. They had 2-plays against each of the five worst teams in the B1G and one-plays against 3 of the other 5 B1G teams that made the tourney. I would have a hard time believing another B1G team had a weaker in-conference schedule strength last season. None of the teams that Nebraska is having a 2-play with this upcoming season (IL, IA, MD, MN, WI) is one that I feel will be outside of the top-75 teams in the RPI, and they all will have a decent shot at making the tournament. They have no 2-plays with the 3 teams that I'm confident will be the weakest (PSU, Northwestern & Rutgers) or even Purdue who I think should also be right at the bottom tier. Ultimately I feel that Nebraska may end up with a slightly higher seed but a similar conference record - could easily be worse. I just don't buy them as a true B1G contender considering they still had some limitations last season in terms of being more of a finesse team with minimal inside presence, and I doubt that they will improve a ton in that important aspect.
 



OSUfan said:
Well, I guess I look at the bad from Nebraska last year as more telling than the good. I do think they could well get a higher seed than #11, something in the 7-10 range might even be likely. But I don't see them finishing higher than 4th in any case. Again, I think teams were overlooking them to an extent last season, they caught some teams by surprise and they won't be able to do that again this season. They got pounded by Baylor. They struggled mightily on the road for much of the season; however, they caught MSU by surprise, and got a decent road win at IU but I'm pretty sure IU wasn't bringing their "A" game in that particular outing. So aside from 2 games where I feel like they caught the opponent on an off night, they had one road win in the Big Ten, at Northwestern. They lost at each of PSU, Illinois and Purdue. They had 2-plays against each of the five worst teams in the B1G and one-plays against 3 of the other 5 B1G teams that made the tourney. I would have a hard time believing another B1G team had a weaker in-conference schedule strength last season. None of the teams that Nebraska is having a 2-play with this upcoming season (IL, IA, MD, MN, WI) is one that I feel will be outside of the top-75 teams in the RPI, and they all will have a decent shot at making the tournament. They have no 2-plays with the 3 teams that I'm confident will be the weakest (PSU, Northwestern & Rutgers) or even Purdue who I think should also be right at the bottom tier. Ultimately I feel that Nebraska may end up with a slightly higher seed but a similar conference record - could easily be worse. I just don't buy them as a true B1G contender considering they still had some limitations last season in terms of being more of a finesse team with minimal inside presence, and I doubt that they will improve a ton in that important aspect.
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I agree with Wandering... No, they may not experience a major increase from a season where they finished 11-7 and 4th in the BT, but Nebraska will be a tough out for a long time.

Miles is building things there the same way he has elsewhere (or so it looks to me); redshirt MOST of his recruits, get by the first few seasons with what was in the cupboard and maybe a few stopgaps thrown in there, and then after a few years he has a veteran roster of all his own guys that are clicking. That's what he did at NDSU, that's what he did at CSU.

Miles also has the luxury of recruiting to a new practice facility, a new arena, and to a school with a football program with a strong, strong history, which always helps.

OSU, I get what you're saying about the schedule but I don't expect Nebraska to be around the bottom 4-5 teams in the conference any time in the foreseeable future.
 

Ogee Oglethorpe said:
I agree with Wandering... No, they may not experience a major increase from a season where they finished 11-7 and 4th in the BT, but Nebraska will be a tough out for a long time.

Miles is building things there the same way he has elsewhere (or so it looks to me); redshirt MOST of his recruits, get by the first few seasons with what was in the cupboard and maybe a few stopgaps thrown in there, and then after a few years he has a veteran roster of all his own guys that are clicking. That's what he did at NDSU, that's what he did at CSU.

Miles also has the luxury of recruiting to a new practice facility, a new arena, and to a school with a football program with a strong, strong history, which always helps.

OSU, I get what you're saying about the schedule but I don't expect Nebraska to be around the bottom 4-5 teams in the conference any time in the foreseeable future.
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Bottom line: Tim Miles is a fantastic coach. Had they fired Tubby after the 2011-12 season instead of foolishly firing him after his best season here and the school's best in decades, we would likely have Miles as our coach and be well-set for decades with an outstanding coach who we know wants to be here.
 

dpodoll68 said:
Had they fired Tubby after the 2011-12 season instead of foolishly firing him after his best season here and the school's best in decades
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Fire him after leading the program to its most wins in 21 years? 21 years!?!?!?!
 

Maximus said:
Fire him after leading the program to its most wins in 21 years? 21 years!?!?!?!
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Regular season wins without an NCAA Tournament trip are meaningless. Anyone who thinks this most recent season was better than the previous because we had more wins is biased, delusional, or both. Valiant effort, though.
 

I thought 2012-13 sucked. I don't care if we won the one single NCAA game. That one game doesn't define the season for me. I wanted Tubby fired after yet another Feb-March collapse, with a crappy recruiting class coming in, last year was going to be a train wreck with Tubby asleep at the wheel again.

You are welcome to your opinion, DPO, but you aren't the law on this.

==> Thread derailed
 


dpodoll68 said:
Regular season wins without an NCAA Tournament trip are meaningless. Anyone who thinks this most recent season was better than the previous because we had more wins is biased, delusional, or both. Valiant effort, though.
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Has a coach ever been fired after leading his team to its most wins as a program in 21 years?
 

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