Jack Wilson commits

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golfing18now said:
Not freaking out either but Payne hasn't proven he can stay on the court without fouling. That fact was always why I was more bothered by Battle leaving than others because you could get away with Garcia at the 5 and Battle at the 4 in the event Payne had fouls. Now our backups at the 4 and 5 are completely unproven (Betts), complete unknown injury recoveries (Ihnen/Fox), undersized (Ola Joseph) and a football player. We will need one or two of those guys to exceed expectations.
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What about Garcia at the 5 in small ball?
 

Holy Man said:
What about Garcia at the 5 in small ball?
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I agree but I would have preferred to have Battle to slide into that 4 position. I might not be giving Ola-Joseph enough credit here but I'm really leery of the options at the 4 in the small ball scenario. But I certainly would allow for the possibility that one of Ihnen/Betts/Fox will emerge.
 

GopherOhana said:
a practice beast that has been a dud since he joined Oregon State in 2018? seems like wishful thinking to me. no idea why he would be good in practice yet unable to see the floor
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Maybe because they brought him in late because of injuries? Did he practice with the team over the summer? Early fall?

Don't know. Asking.
 

GopherBlood666 said:
Ben chased TT to bring this guy in. Maybe he'll be fine, but I can't see this being an upgrade. Hope I'm wrong.
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If he plays three minutes a game and pushes opposing center around he is a big upgrade over TT playing same minutes and getting pushed all over the gym.

TT is a wing and could not come in for Payne.
 

Oatmeal Savage said:
In addition to all you've pointed out with his likely role, depth behind Payne, Garcia, and Fox, I suspect that if we can sign one more good guard, Johnson may be more likely to play with a smaller lineup on occasion when Payne or Garcia are sitting. Wilson will not be expected to be a big contributor. He's for practice, insurance, and some special situations. We haven't had that kind of depth the last two years. Hopefully we don't need him much.
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He's not here to be a practice player. We have a great vulnerability with Payne and foul trouble. We do not know how much Fox can go in backing up Payne.

There will be many games that Payne plays no more than 25 minutes and some where he plays 20 or fewer. Wilson is No. 3 at the post position. We will need all three on defense.

By defending strong, giving hard fouls, and getting a few rebounds, he will play his role as little or much as we need him..
 


MaxyJR1 said:
People realize we have Betts, Payne, Garcia and Ola-Joseph coming back? If Ihnen and Fox have anything, what minutes are there really to give out? Dudes a one year player that fills a role the coach wants.
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His minutes are backing up Payne, after Fox gets a crack.
 

golfing18now said:
Not freaking out either but Payne hasn't proven he can stay on the court without fouling. That fact was always why I was more bothered by Battle leaving than others because you could get away with Garcia at the 5 and Battle at the 4 in the event Payne had fouls. Now our backups at the 4 and 5 are completely unproven (Betts), complete unknown injury recoveries (Ihnen/Fox), undersized (Ola Joseph) and a football player. We will need one or two of those guys to exceed expectations.
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You cannot get away with Garcia at the post. He cannot defend the post for three minutes let alone 15-20. Also dangerous to put our best player into clear danger of fouling out himself trying to guard the other team's post man.

Fox and Wilson can play aggressive defense in the post with lots of fouls to give.
 

bmb5270 said:
I actually think this guy is a better fit for a back up big than Thompson. He should be able to body up a guy like Edey. Thompsons problem was that he wasn’t strong enough to defend in the paint and wasn’t quick enough to defend the perimeter.
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A stray fart would knock Thompson over. He CLEARLY had zero interest playing anywhere near the paint.

Thompson was not an anomaly of being a tall slender guy that was uncomfortable with contact. A lot of guys built like him start to lose the height advantage if you are able to establish a physical presence. Stick 'em early and often on box outs and they become less eager to hang around the basket.
 

MaxyJR1 said:
People realize we have Betts, Payne, Garcia and Ola-Joseph coming back? If Ihnen and Fox have anything, what minutes are there really to give out? Dudes a one year player that fills a role the coach wants.
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Exactly! Ben isn’t gonna recruit over Payne and Garcia. All those mentioned can contribute when they go small. Wilson is a one year rental that will be a physical presence as needed.
 



This is a great 'cruit for us. We simply do not have a player of this size that can match up underneath when needed, and he in turn will be a matchup nightmare for other teams. Jack is our Kofi Cockburn.

At a minimum, this means other teams will have to spend a good chunk of their prep day getting ready to play against someone this size. Every team has a small amount of time to prep for a game, the more angles we can throw at them the better. Plus, we really needed rebounding last year, and I'm thinking Jack will help a lot in that need.
Bring on the bruiser - love it. Welcome to MN Jack :cool03::drink::cool03:

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Gophers don't use all their scholarships........fans say "that's stupid, they have to use all their scholarships."

Gophers use a scholly on a backup player........fans say "what a waste of a scholarship."

to quote my Grandma Ina - "some people would bitch if you hung them with a new rope."

Here's what I want from Wilson - Gophers are playing Iowa, and some Hawkeye tries to drive the lane, when.....Wilson pole-axes them!! then, when Fran starts screaming, Wilson says "do you want some of this, buster?"
 




Gopher_In_NYC said:
You only post negative posts, which mostly are off.

He is an athlete and wants to be here and understands his role- why not trying be enthusiastic for once, you can always be negative later and in the interim you save yourself unnecessary stress - it’s called science/health😃

Have a great weekend unless you’ve made other plans.
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They remind me of one of my aunts. The woman bitches when her ice cream is served cold. Complains incessantly. Very little joy in her life and is never happy about anything. If something positive does happen, she'll then fixate on how bad it is probably going to blow up. I swear her goal is to pull everyone else down to her level of misery.

He is a massive human being. Can he play? Time will tell. In the meantime, I have a similar outlook. Why not see what he can do first before throwing oneself off a cliff in protest? Why fret over something none of us can control anyway? If it turns out to be a collosal failure, rest assured we'll have a new coach come the following season. If something can't continue, it won't.
 


Omg I didn't think this was actually going to happen. My God our team is the biggest joke ever. CBJ should be fired now if these are the guys we are getting.

I swear some on you are either related to the staff or don't understand basketball. It's 2023, literally the last thing you need is a C who sucks and can do nothing but be big. I guess good news is on this path we are closing in on the day CBJ is fired and we can stop recruiting like we are in the NSIC.
 

St Paul paper writeup on Jack Wilson.
I have a very mixed bag of mostly questions with some thoughts on other comments here:
1. Do we really only have two scholarships left as the linked article says?
We need a home run guy to be one of those, if true, because our odds of a surprise contributor are pretty limited with two. You gotta score to win. We are not going to become a defensive stat leader overnight.
2. If Jack has a role other than a practice player, I could like this addition quite a bit especially if the guy has skills to go with size. (Skills: Can he can catch and can he make free throws?) Will he play a couple minutes every night and longer some nights?
Or, will he play once a month? Another words does he have a role other than as a practice player?
3. Nobody has mentioned his potential biggest contribution on offense. Do you have any idea how hard it is for a 6' foot anything guard to get over the top of Jacks screen? If we had a shooter... Great potential for open looks for shots, for cutters to get free and around the hoop lob dunks for a partner. There are so many ways this guy could create matchup hell for the opponent if you utilized him with a plan. I don't know why more teams wouldn't search for a guy like this BUT you need to build a role to utilize him.
4. Defending the post. Yes, a 6'8" 210 pound guy like Fox or Betts who can jump could defend the post but we haven't seen any evidence of teaching them how. For us they get backed down to out of bounds. So, Jack could be helpful there if he has a consistent role. After Payne, Ola Joseph is/was our physical post defender and he's 6'7". Ihnen has possibilities with length and quickness but if wouldn't seem to me to be his best utilization. Also, one caveat...just because you are big it isn't automatic you can defend the post....it is a difficult unique job.
I got lots of thoughts how this could be good depending what role we build for him.
We do need a proven DI shooter and another guard to attack the rim and defend.
 
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Bunch of clowns in this thread. It's been well-known on the pay board for a few weeks that Ben clearly stated they needed a big body for practice and emergency depth. So many of you have complained when we don't use all the scholarships and now we have a willing athlete for ONE YEAR and you're acting like the world is ending. Ridiculous overreactions.
 

WriterGoph said:
Bunch of clowns in this thread. It's been well-known on the pay board for a few weeks that Ben clearly stated they needed a big body for practice and emergency depth. So many of you have complained when we don't use all the scholarships and now we have a willing athlete for ONE YEAR and you're acting like the world is ending. Ridiculous overreactions.
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He still has 2 more scholarships to fill. If he fills both, then I have less of a problem with this. But I'll believe it when I see it.

We've also seen for the last 2 years that there is no such thing as emergency depth. The emergency depth players end up playing significant minutes. Ihnen and Fox should be those depth players if we want to be competitive.
 

WriterGoph said:
Bunch of clowns in this thread. It's been well-known on the pay board for a few weeks that Ben clearly stated they needed a big body for practice and emergency depth. So many of you have complained when we don't use all the scholarships and now we have a willing athlete for ONE YEAR and you're acting like the world is ending. Ridiculous overreactions.
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He scored 4 points and had 5 rebounds ALL YEAR. We were by far the worst team in the conference and are using a scholarship on this bum?? Yah I'm not happy. Our coach is a damn joke. I think those of us annoyed realize not everyone is going to play 35 min a game, but if this is our only option in April we are totally screwed.
 

Momma always said "If you don't got nothing nice to say, don't say nothing at all...."

I'm trying mom.... I'm trying
 


GopherWeatherGuy said:
He still has 2 more scholarships to fill. If he fills both, then I have less of a problem with this. But I'll believe it when I see it.

We've also seen for the last 2 years that there is no such thing as emergency depth. The emergency depth players end up playing significant minutes. Ihnen and Fox should be those depth players if we want to be competitive.
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Ihnen and Fox will - and should - be more than emergency depth. As far as the other 2 scholarships, this has zero to do with those. There are numerous conversations and visits happening currently with combo guards and wings. Let it get to May before we start freaking out.
 

leib0039 said:
He scored 4 points and had 5 rebounds ALL YEAR. We were by far the worst team in the conference and are using a scholarship on this bum?? Yah I'm not happy. Our coach is a damn joke. I think those of us annoyed realize not everyone is going to play 35 min a game, but if this is our only option in April we are totally screwed.
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Only option for what? The 13th scholarship?
 

Pretty enterting, watching the usual suspects contort themselves into stretches that would make Gumby proud trying to justify how this stiff creates B1G wins next winter.

What's not entertaining is this basketball program.
 

WriterGoph said:
Bunch of clowns in this thread. It's been well-known on the pay board for a few weeks that Ben clearly stated they needed a big body for practice and emergency depth. So many of you have complained when we don't use all the scholarships and now we have a willing athlete for ONE YEAR and you're acting like the world is ending. Ridiculous overreactions.
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A practice player and "emergency depth"? This isn't burning the 13th scholarship in July instead of giving it to Jackson Purcell. This is the second signing of period and apparently warranted a "boom" tweet from Ben.
 

WriterGoph said:
Bunch of clowns in this thread. It's been well-known on the pay board for a few weeks that Ben clearly stated they needed a big body for practice and emergency depth. So many of you have complained when we don't use all the scholarships and now we have a willing athlete for ONE YEAR and you're acting like the world is ending. Ridiculous overreactions.
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4d chess by a grandmaster, the mental gymnastics in this thread are as nutty as the April weather in Minnesota.
 

WriterGoph said:
Bunch of clowns in this thread. It's been well-known on the pay board for a few weeks that Ben clearly stated they needed a big body for practice and emergency depth. So many of you have complained when we don't use all the scholarships and now we have a willing athlete for ONE YEAR and you're acting like the world is ending. Ridiculous overreactions.
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Your first sentence pretty much sums it up.
 



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