Gophers to the Final Four?

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bleedsmaroonandgold said:
I am not a fan of us always opening with the first "if" of "no significant injuries". Tubby just said in an interview that this is the deepest team we ever had. I expect us to be able to endure a lost player or two, plug the holes, and keep chugging. That is what separates us from the next level. Lots of teams will do well when everything goes their way, we need to find a way to engineer the big wins when stuff doesn't go our way.
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Being deep still doesn't mean we wouldn't be affected by a significant injury.
 

This team has all the elements needed to make a run. Athletic veterans like Rodney and Trevor, along with Mo Walker who give us a dominent interior play, mixed with some solid shooters on the outside(Hollins, Hollins, Welch and perhaps Oto). In my opinion Coleman will be nothing more than a 6th or 7th man who gives us an occasional scoring spurt off the bench with his aggressive drives to the basket. Asking Coleman to discover his shooting touch in one off-season is a bit much to ask for. Welch and the two Hollins kids all shot over 40% from distance over a long season. We'll need to rely on them and Oto hitting 3's...I like this team's potential even more than the 97 team because we have great FT shooting with Hollins, Hollins, Welch to close out games.
 

I wonder who this "star coach" is that we're going to get...
 

This thread seems to be really high on the following players: Andre Hollins, Austin Hollins and Mo Walker.

Andre was average until the final 1/4 of the season. He is an inconsistent point guard who is probably playing out of position. I like his upside, but lets wait and see on him, shall we? Plenty of players have regressed while wearing the maroon and gold.

Austin is possibly my least favorite Gopher. He is long, athletic and "can shoot"...but he isn't a lockdown defender, good ball handler and his shooting statistics leave a lot to be desired (45/37/81.5) as a sophomore, (40/26/69) as a freshman. Does he shoot like he did as a sophomore or does less touches and a more focused inside attack hurt him in this category? Again, his freshman stats are when Trevor was on the floor with other bigs, sophomore stats were in smaller guard lineups.

Big Mo was my favorite Gopher before he got hurt, seriously. He is big, has great hands, can pass out of a double team and nice touch to 12-15ft. However, that was in 2010. I was there when he got hurt and big tree, fall hard. Coming back from knee injuries is difficult for anyone not named Adrian Peterson, it is even more difficult for a 300lb man who has fitness issues. I like Big Mo, I like his potential, but to say he will be a force on the blocks this year is short-sighted. If he his knee holds up, he keeps his conditioning up, he can move like he use to and can defend smaller, likely quicker players, he could be a great asset.

This was a very negative post but its hard for me to jump on the Final Four bandwagon when there are huge question marks surrounding these players. I think if I had to bet on each of them I would say Andre is most likely to succeed at the hoped for level, followed by Big Mo, followed by Austin. I don't get a good vibe from Austin. I hope he leads the nation in shooting %, but its unlikely and I honestly expect him to regress. Once things start to go bad for Austin he seems to never come out of it.

I won't even touch on the "star coach" comment because Tubby won a title...with another coaches recruits, 15 years ago (I was 11)
 

dpodoll68 said:
It hasn't been done in 23 seasons. Why should anyone expect this to be the 1-in-23 season?
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Because we expect to raise the bar. Carmody is starting to be on the hot seat for not getting NW to the dance, despite the fact that hasn't been done in the history of Northwestern basketball. We fired Monson who managed to find his way into a tournament and lose in the first round, and Tubby had this team going one-and-done three years ago. If we think 1-and-done is the ceiling for this team, then we maxed out our potential several years ago and hopefully we do it again. If we think Minnesota could be better, then we expect to see improvement over those three years.
 


The key to post-season success is the play of a teams point guard. Running the offense and getting the ball to people for open looks without turning the ball over is huge come tourney time. Over the past few years the Gophers have been notoriously sloppy with the basketball. Losing Al Nolen was a devastating loss in his senior season. Who do we have on this Gophers team who can keep turnovers down while commanding the tempo of a game? Right now I think that is a big question mark for this team. If we get solid guard play, the Gophers will make the dance and even win a game or two. If our guards struggle to handle the ball we'll be one and done at best.
 

It's a Pig Man! said:
as long as it's the fairly subtle mohawk that he usually rocks I don't have a problem with that either. His play most of the time is a different story.
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I don't like to savage players, but after watching Maverick play against a couple Division 2 teams, I've decided that instead of being a good backup point guard on a Division 2 team, he would make a good practice point guard on a Division 2 team. And no, I'm not exaggerating.
 


If you run with the 1990 was the last tourney win or that 1997 was the last tourney win....either way is unacceptable. It is hard to believe that the last NCAA tournament win the gophers have had was when we beat UCLA to go to the final four. That seems so long ago.

So I am one who feels the gophers will be a very good team....but the final four is a pretty big jump. Let's get into the tourney first and win in round one.
 




LongLiveMilesTarver said:
It would be incredibly surprising and almost unfathomable to defeat Kentucky.
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Kentucky should be a very good team, but I'd be shocked if they are as good as they were last year. They lost a LOT (top 6 scorers) and their top returning scorer averaged 5 points last year. Their freshmen are good, but not good enough to replace what they lost in my opinion. They will certainly be beatable.
 

It's a Pig Man! said:
as long as it's the fairly subtle mohawk that he usually rocks I don't have a problem with that either. His play most of the time is a different story.
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I contend that our odds at least double if Mav's minutes are limited to 5 or less during conference games. They go up by a factor of 4 if he isn't in the game at the end when we are going for a game tying or game winning shot.
 

Anything can happen during March Madness...go into he tourney hot and ANYTHING can happen for the Gophers.
 



Go into the tournament hot, get a good draw, and get some breaks during the games, and anything can happen.
 

I think making the final four comes down to guys with intestinal fortitude. It's hard to gauge that. Bobby Jackson had it.... and I think Andre Hollins has IT. We'll see...
 

There's a reason that Duke has only made the Final Four once since 2004 ... it's hard to get there even when you have a really good team.

If the Gophers get a #1 seed like 1997, that would probably make it easier.
 

I think the biggest thing i'm curious to see this season, is whether or not these guys can all pick up or play at the top of their game simultaneously. We've seen Mbakwe, Williams and Dre (even Joe Coleman in non-conference play) show that they can step up at times and really make an impact; But to this point, i don't think we've really ever seen them be able to put it all together at once. It seemed last season that most times when a player would get into his zone, it was usually to the detriment of some other facet of the game. If they can figure out a way to click at the same time, this team could really make some noise. However, if continues that we can only feature one guy every game, it's going to be hard to capitalize on our potential.
 

That we're even talking about a Final Four is shocking. Even in 1997, there was no utterance of the FF words until after they'd beaten St. John's something like 77-39.
 

Bad Gopher said:
That we're even talking about a Final Four is shocking. Even in 1997, there was no utterance of the FF words until after they'd beaten St. John's something like 77-39.
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According to the OP, Joe Lunardi was the first one to mention it as at least being a possibility. I don't see us making a Final Four at this point; I'd be happy to finish in the top four of the Big Ten. If we could do that much, I don't think a Final Four is out of the question though.
 

Your assessment of Austin has left me speechless.

khoffman43 said:
This thread seems to be really high on the following players: Andre Hollins, Austin Hollins and Mo Walker.

Andre was average until the final 1/4 of the season. He is an inconsistent point guard who is probably playing out of position. I like his upside, but lets wait and see on him, shall we? Plenty of players have regressed while wearing the maroon and gold.

Austin is possibly my least favorite Gopher. He is long, athletic and "can shoot"...but he isn't a lockdown defender, good ball handler and his shooting statistics leave a lot to be desired (45/37/81.5) as a sophomore, (40/26/69) as a freshman. Does he shoot like he did as a sophomore or does less touches and a more focused inside attack hurt him in this category? Again, his freshman stats are when Trevor was on the floor with other bigs, sophomore stats were in smaller guard lineups.

Big Mo was my favorite Gopher before he got hurt, seriously. He is big, has great hands, can pass out of a double team and nice touch to 12-15ft. However, that was in 2010. I was there when he got hurt and big tree, fall hard. Coming back from knee injuries is difficult for anyone not named Adrian Peterson, it is even more difficult for a 300lb man who has fitness issues. I like Big Mo, I like his potential, but to say he will be a force on the blocks this year is short-sighted. If he his knee holds up, he keeps his conditioning up, he can move like he use to and can defend smaller, likely quicker players, he could be a great asset.

This was a very negative post but its hard for me to jump on the Final Four bandwagon when there are huge question marks surrounding these players. I think if I had to bet on each of them I would say Andre is most likely to succeed at the hoped for level, followed by Big Mo, followed by Austin. I don't get a good vibe from Austin. I hope he leads the nation in shooting %, but its unlikely and I honestly expect him to regress. Once things start to go bad for Austin he seems to never come out of it.

I won't even touch on the "star coach" comment because Tubby won a title...with another coaches recruits, 15 years ago (I was 11)
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Bad Gopher said:
That we're even talking about a Final Four is shocking. Even in 1997, there was no utterance of the FF words until after they'd beaten St. John's something like 77-39.
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A little excitement, even if it's not reality based before the real season begins, and matchups with Northwestern or Iowa become major head aches.
 

underground629 said:
Your assessment of Austin has left me speechless.
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I'll bet you dinner...or something? that Austin regresses this year in every aspect, assuming he is healthy or else its not a fair assessment.

I hope I am wrong, but I don't think he will be do what he did last year offensively and I think he is very over-rated defensively.
 

khoffman43 said:
I'll bet you dinner...or something? that Austin regresses this year in every aspect, assuming he is healthy or else its not a fair assessment.

I hope I am wrong, but I don't think he will be do what he did last year offensively and I think he is very over-rated defensively.
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I would take that bet
 

jamalo said:
I contend that our odds at least double if Mav's minutes are limited to 5 or less during conference games. They go up by a factor of 4 if he isn't in the game at the end when we are going for a game tying or game winning shot.
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+10

I still contend that Mav purposely broke Ellenson's hand just so he wouldn't be the last person on the bench...
 

khoffman43 said:
I'll bet you dinner...or something? that Austin regresses this year in every aspect, assuming he is healthy or else its not a fair assessment.

I hope I am wrong, but I don't think he will be do what he did last year offensively and I think he is very over-rated defensively.
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You are literally the only fan that hates (maybe that is too strong, but you obviously have something against the kid) Austin. Austin is easily the smartest basketball player on the team, he IS a great defender, and is one of the few players on the team that can both stretch the floor and finish in traffic. He is going to be a HUGE part of this team's success this year.
 

I'm going to have to pile on you Khoffman. You're completely cracked. Austin is going to have not just a good season, but a great season in my estimation.
 

Can't always measure intangibles (Austin)

I'll take that bet, too, and that doesn't mean Austin's stats have to match or exceed last season's (though I think they will). His value is much more than numbers.

Austin Hollins is clearly the Gophers' (pardon the cliche) glue guy. He does a little bit of everything, solid all-around, and yet we don't talk about his value a whole lot. Mbakwe, Williams and 'Dre Hollins get the most pub, but Austin is a very vital cog. I'd hate to lose him. I put him in the J.B. Bickerstaff/Travarus Bennett/Damien Johnson mode. ... versatile, gets a lot of s*it done on the court, with little fanfare.
 

SelectionSunday said:
I'll take that bet, too, and that doesn't mean Austin's stats have to match or exceed last season's (though I think they will). His value is much more than numbers.

Austin Hollins is clearly the Gophers' (pardon the cliche) glue guy. He does a little bit of everything, solid all-around, and yet we don't talk about his value a whole lot. Mbakwe, Williams and 'Dre Hollins get the most pub, but Austin is a very vital cog. I'd hate to lose him. I put him in the J.B. Bickerstaff/Travarus Bennett/Damien Johnson mode. ... versatile, gets a lot of s*it done on the court, with little fanfare.
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SS, you need to realize that numbers are all some people go by. Those or the people that have no concept of what makes a player valuable for the entire TEAM.

Unfortunately, these are also the loudest experts who display absolutely no smarts.

I will also join you, in that bet with khoffman.

Let's go back in time...What was the value of Flip Saunders when playing with the likes of Kevin McHale, Ray Williams, and Mychal Thompson? Not much by numbers, but, well, you know the rest of the story:

] At the University of Minnesota, he started 101 of his 103 career contests and as a senior, teamed with Ray Williams, Mychal Thompson, Kevin McHale. Together they led the Gophers to a school-best 24–3 record.
 

Even if the talent comes together to give us a shot, I can't imagine the Ghost of Gangelhoff will stand for it.
 

khoffman43 said:
Austin is possibly my least favorite Gopher. He is long, athletic and "can shoot"...but he isn't a lockdown defender, good ball handler and his shooting statistics leave a lot to be desired (45/37/81.5) as a sophomore, (40/26/69) as a freshman. Does he shoot like he did as a sophomore or does less touches and a more focused inside attack hurt him in this category? Again, his freshman stats are when Trevor was on the floor with other bigs, sophomore stats were in smaller guard lineups...

This was a very negative post but its hard for me to jump on the Final Four bandwagon when there are huge question marks surrounding these players. I think if I had to bet on each of them I would say Andre is most likely to succeed at the hoped for level, followed by Big Mo, followed by Austin. I don't get a good vibe from Austin. I hope he leads the nation in shooting %, but its unlikely and I honestly expect him to regress. Once things start to go bad for Austin he seems to never come out of it.
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Others have commented on this, but I'm just more confused than anything. I guess I don't get your logic at all. Why would you assume he'd regress as a junior when all he's done since he's gotten here is get better? I kinda see what you mean as far as when it goes bad, he can struggle (more freshman year than last year though), but for the most part, he is one of our most consistent guys, so I'm not sure how you can make that assessment on him. As SS said, he also contributes so much outside of shooting, I can't understand how he'd be your "least" favorite.

I also don't get the correlation necessarily between Trevor on the floor his freshman year, and the small guard lineup thing? Are you suggesting that he can't hit open jumpers? Cause he was airmailing those with regularity his freshman year, not so much his soph year. That kind of progression is expected. So again, I don't see why you'd assume he'd tail off his third year just because there are bigs on the floor again. I won't even say you're wrong, I just completely disagree with your logic behind it lol
 

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