Hole Poll: What grade would you give the Gophers non-conference portion of the season?

[GopherHole Staff]

Hole Poll: What grade would you give the Gophers non-conference portion of the season?

 

[topos]

C+ (I include the two conference games as a part of my assessment).

Utah, Butler, and Depaul are better than preseason projections. It was beyond frustrating not getting at least one of those games, but in hindsight, it doesn't feel unacceptable, more a missed opportunity.

The OK ST win was massive. If they are a tournament team, it will be enormous to have beaten them away from Williams.

Ohio St. will be the gift that keeps on giving. Few bubble teams will have a win of that magnitude.

We've dominated the inferior competition, something that we did not do last year, which made the algorithms hate us.

The biggest takeaway from pre-season for me are:
1. Roles are defined, and the team is starting to gel
2. We should compete every night assuming we don't shoot 1/29
3. Our SOS and play have positioned us well for KenPom and NET

Overall, we did enough in the preseason to stay relevant. There will not be a lack of opportunities going forward. It's all in front of us.

Crazy to think that last year we had the gaudy record, but our only notable win was a buzzer-beater against Washington (Nebraska didn't help us much). We were awful in both KenPom and NET but still managed to make the tournament. We are ahead of where we were last year, but because we are 7-5 it doesn't feel like it.

 

[macgopher]

Hard to tell if this team is Big Ten consistently ready, I’m liking what I’ve seen lately except for the turnovers, turnovers look rather amateurish and concerning.

 

[CoMn]

I included the two B1G games in my vote. We had enormous holes to fill losing starters Murphy, Coffey and McBrayer and subs Washington, Stockton and Stull. That's a lot of bodies to replace on a 13 person roster. I was not optimistic. But this team is looking good and when you look at our losses, only Utah isn't on a path to the tourney, when you look at our wins, OK St. and #2 OSU are great. It was one of the toughest schedules in the country. Pitino has done a really good job this year getting the team playing as a team. In addition he also has signed two solid recruits so far for 2020 and one for 2021. Count me as excited about the direction this team is going with three solid guards, an amazing center and only one position that is a position of weakness...PF...but despite Curry's injury, we have Demir-Omersa-Ihlen improving their play.

 

[MennoSota]

We started out in the D- range, looking really bad, but the past few games have been A level. That averaged out to a C in my equation. We'll see how the B1G season plays itself out.

 

[Block M]

B-minus. No idea how this team will do in the B1G. 500 would be nice.

 

[bc2211]

Was going to go C but went D. While the team may have started to gel, they created a pretty big hole to climb out of if they hope to make the tournament. NET is good, but results are bad. I excluded big ten play... also my scale is based on getting to the tournament.

 

[topos]

Was going to go C but went D. While the team may have started to gel, they created a pretty big hole to climb out of if they hope to make the tournament. NET is good, but results are bad. I excluded big ten play... also my scale is based on getting to the tournament.

I would argue that the wins against Ok St and Ohio St. got them out of the hole. They are now at ground level. If you want to feel good about their chances, take a look at their 2018/2019 schedule.

https://www.espn.com/mens-college-basketball/team/schedule/_/id/135/season/2019

Go game by game, relive the missed opportunities, bad losses, Feb losing streak, lack of road success, etc.

Bottom Line: It really doesn't take much to make the tourney... A winning conference record will do the trick

 

[bc2211]

I would argue that the wins against Ok St and Ohio St. got them out of the hole. They are now at ground level. If you want to feel good about their chances, take a look at their 2018/2019 schedule.

https://www.espn.com/mens-college-basketball/team/schedule/_/id/135/season/2019

Go game by game, relive the missed opportunities, bad losses, Feb losing streak, lack of road success, etc.

Bottom Line: It really doesn't take much to make the tourney... A winning conference record will do the trick

It’s just my take, but I can’t grade 6-4 in nonconference where the only decent win is Oklahoma St any higher than a D. They went 1-4 in games that would help the resume. That won’t look good on the bubble.

The Ohio state win is great, but I omitted it from the grade since it’s a conference game.

I haven’t lost hope since it seemed like those tough early games helped them improve. But I’m not going to take a winning conference record for granted.

 

[bga1]

Here's a comparison between this year's team after 12 games versus last year, statistically:

Stat/19-20/18-19
Record/7-5/10-2
FG%/44.7/39.4
3pt%/35.2/31.4
FT%/70.8/ 67
TO / 13.8/14.5
Blk/ 5.3/ 4.5
Reb./ 39.4/39.3
Pts. / 74.2/76.7
Pts against/64.7/69.7
Margin/ +9.5/ +7

Despite playing a more difficult schedule this team is statistically better than last year except in two areas:
1. Points per game scored
2. Free throws shot- last year we were 228/341 after 12 games while this year we are 138/195- so 90 points less this year from the charity stripe.
The point differential is made up by three point shots as this team has made 42 more threes than last year's edition.

Position by position
Oturu is a big upgrade versus last year's Oturu
Demir is a big downgrade from Murphy
Kalscheur is Kalscheur
Willis is a little upgrade from McBrayer
Carr and Coffey are a wash

Bench - about a wash in my opinion

Bottom line- it will boil down to the close games but I think this team might have an advantage over last year for a few reasons:
1. Better defensive play
2. Better overall shooting
3. More scoring options for end of game situations- last year's team was easier to defense...

 

[Block M]

Here's a comparison between this year's team after 12 games versus last year, statistically:

Stat/19-20/18-19
Record/7-5/10-2
FG%/44.7/39.4
3pt%/35.2/31.4
FT%/70.8/ 67
TO / 13.8/14.5
Blk/ 5.3/ 4.5
Reb./ 39.4/39.3
Pts. / 74.2/76.7
Pts against/64.7/69.7
Margin/ +9.5/ +7

Despite playing a more difficult schedule this team is statistically better than last year except in two areas:
1. Points per game scored
2. Free throws shot- last year we were 228/341 after 12 games while this year we are 138/195- so 90 points less this year from the charity stripe.
The point differential is made up by three point shots as this team has made 42 more threes than last year's edition.

Position by position
Oturu is a big upgrade versus last year's Oturu
Demir is a big downgrade from Murphy
Kalscheur is Kalscheur
Willis is a little upgrade from McBrayer
Carr and Coffey are a wash

Bench - about a wash in my opinion

Bottom line- it will boil down to the close games but I think this team might have an advantage over last year for a few reasons:
1. Better defensive play
2. Better overall shooting
3. More scoring options for end of game situations- last year's team was easier to defense...

I think Kalscheur is improved over last years Kalscheur after adjusting to all the extra attention. Also think Coffey>>Carr by quite a bit (Carr's shooting numbers have been disappointing). 2019 Omersa>2018 Omersa

 

[bga1]

I think Kalscheur is improved over last years Kalscheur after adjusting to all the extra attention. Also think Coffey>>Carr by quite a bit (Carr's shooting numbers have been disappointing). 2019 Omersa>2018 Omersa

You are right on Gabe and Omersa. Regarding Coffey, he's a better player than Carr, BUT, he was out of place at the point and that I think it hurt him. Statistically here they are:

Carr- 14.8 points/ 5.7 rebs/ 7.2assists/ 37.5 FG/ 28.8 3pt %
Coffey- 16.6 pts/ 3.6 rebounds/ 3.2 assists/ 43.6 FG%/ 30.4% 3 pt%

Coffey presented a unique challenge for opposing teams to guard so that made him tough. But he also stopped the ball on offense and didn't find as many ways to get the ball to others as Carr. So overall, I feel Carr is just as effective and I think we are just scratching the surface for what he can do at the college level.

Carr is starting to shoot the 3 better than he was and he has to reduce the turnovers to 2 or less (he's a little over 3 now). I think he can do both.

This team would have been tremendous with a line up of Carr, Willis, Gabe, Coffey and Oturu.

 

[SonoranGopher1]

I voted a C. A win over Utah or Depaul would have pushed it into a B- range. I included the two BIG games as pre season.

 

[jblass]

I gave them a B based on games through the win over Clemson. Record was 5-4 but 3 of the loses were to decent teams on the road. The 5 wins were at home but we did win them in convincing fashion. The only team we lost to at home was DePaul. If I am correct the teams we lost to have a combined 43-9 record. For a young team with new players learning to play with each other I thought they did OK. The thing I like about this team is they seem to be improving every game.

 

[Go4]

i went with b

 

[giveme]

I graded it as D. It was looking like an F early on.

 

[howeda7]

The Ohio State game is what is saving us. If you want to say all games through December, a B is fair. As for the non-conference part, I voted C, but it should be D. The goal was to win 3 or 4 of the power 6 games and we won two.