Jack Wilson commits

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Big Dawg said:
To me it would look like backing up Payne for a few minutes here and there and not getting torched while on the court. That's basically it. If on the court, don't be a liability. Simple as that.
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I guess it seems like a 2-17 team that lost two of its top 4 scorers to the portal should be aiming a tad higher than that.
 

GopherWeatherGuy said:
It appears that there are a number of people that continue to need that reminder.

But hey, let's count on them to be major contributors this season. It has worked out so well the last two seasons.
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Major contributors? 10+ minutes per game from both? 2 of the top 8-9 players in the rotation? I could possibly see that, but I'm thinking more of guys who can BACKUP the 3,4,5 positions for a few minutes per game. I could easily see our top 8-9 guys (10+ min/gm) being:

PG Mitchell
SG portal/Christie/Carrington
3 Christie/JOJ/Betts/portal shooter/Ihnen
4 Garcia with Betts/JOJ/Ihnen/Fox backing up
5 Payne with Garcia/Wilson/Fox backing up

(Top 8 in minutes bolded-my guess)

That scenario could play out with Fox and Ihnen being contributors but I wouldn't say MAJOR contirbutors. I do hope they are both healthy.
 
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GopherWeatherGuy said:
It appears that there are a number of people that continue to need that reminder.

But hey, let's count on them to be major contributors this season. It has worked out so well the last two seasons.
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Counting on them to be major contributors is risky.....counting on them to be rotational players who come in off the bench and provide some quality minutes is far less so.

There is a lot of unknown with those guys. The likelihood that either is a star play for us is slim but some of you act like they are pushing around walkers and can barely move. Guys recover from injuries all the time. Curry had a very productive final season. Ibrahim came back from an injury that some see as a death sentence for RB.
 

USAF said:
FFS, he played a grand total of 41 minutes last year. Forty. One. Minutes. At WSU. Took 4 shots. He's had years to show what he's capable of. He's not going to "provide 10-15 minutes of backup to Payne, rebound and play defense."
It's a complete waste of a scholarship. Provides NOTHING that will help win B1G games. Nothing. Zilch. Zero.

It would be better to leave the scholarship open and save the Athletic Department $60000 or whatever a sholarship costs.
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If there's a bench clearing brawl against Wisconsin, he could prove important. Imagine him tossing the next Brad Davidson around like a rag doll....

Also, the U costs $60K/year now?
 

howeda7 said:
I guess it seems like a 2-17 team that lost two of its top 4 scorers to the portal should be aiming a tad higher than that.
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Wilson is not intended to be a replacement for Cooper nor Battle.
 


howeda7 said:
If there's a bench clearing brawl against Wisconsin, he could prove important. Imagine him tossing the next Brad Davidson around like a rag doll....

Also, the U costs $60K/year now?
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Davidson would nut punch Wilson and the brawl would be over.
 

USAF said:
FFS, he played a grand total of 41 minutes last year. Forty. One. Minutes. At WSU. Took 4 shots. He's had years to show what he's capable of. He's not going to "provide 10-15 minutes of backup to Payne, rebound and play defense."
It's a complete waste of a scholarship. Provides NOTHING that will help win B1G games. Nothing. Zilch. Zero.

It would be better to leave the scholarship open and save the Athletic Department $60000 or whatever a sholarship costs.
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Cool story....the guy being paid to run the team disagrees with your assessment.

And the only people that expect Wilson to log 10-15 minutes a game are those of you that are determined to be negative about everything associated with the program and are making up stuff to support your case.
 

Big Dawg said:
Wilson is not intended to be a replacement for Cooper nor Battle.
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I get that. But so far it's two out two in and he's #2. At the very least, it seems way too early to even accept a commitment from someone this marginal.
 





MNVCGUY said:
Cool story....the guy being paid to run the team disagrees with your assessment.

And the only people that expect Wilson to log 10-15 minutes a game are those of you that are determined to be negative about everything associated with the program and are making up stuff to support your case.
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Appeal to authority is usually always a faulty argument, but especially when it is the current staff. No one expecting Wilson to log that time, that's the problem. We NEED someone who can, and that ship has now sailed. Again, hope I'm wrong.
 

USAF said:
Tuition, room and all meals year round, stipend. I don't know but I'd conservatively guess $60k.
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I suppose. But the scholarships never actually go "unused" so that argument doesn't really fly.
 

MNVCGUY said:
Literally nobody is saying anything close to that. But we do have a front court of Payne, Garcia, JOJ, Betts, Ihnen, and Fox so there isn't a lot to offer a transfer in terms of guaranteed playing time which makes it unlikely that an impact front court guy is going to consider us as an option.
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Sure, we have a lot of guys on the frontcourt, but outside of Garcia, they haven't proven much and in Betts, Ihnen and Fox, haven't shown anything in two years or ever. You try to upgrade the roster period. It's not like were returning a Clingan, Filipowski, Edey etc...
 



howeda7 said:
I get that. But so far it's two out two in and he's #2. At the very least, it seems way too early to even accept a commitment from someone this marginal.
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Oh good lord....the order of the commitments does not matter one bit. Said in another post, if you identify a player that fits a roll and the player wants to commit why would you wait?

Clearly some of you don't see any value in Wilson but Johnson does and he is the guy coaching for his job.
 

Big Dawg said:
To me it would look like backing up Payne for a few minutes here and there and not getting torched while on the court. That's basically it. If on the court, don't be a liability. Simple as that.
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If that's the case, why not choose what's behind door #2? Door #2 being some underrecruited FR.
 

GopherBlood666 said:
Appeal to authority is usually always a faulty argument, but especially when it is the current staff. No one expecting Wilson to log that time, that's the problem. We NEED someone who can, and that ship has now sailed. Again, hope I'm wrong.
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Betts, Ihnen, Fox.....all fit into the front court rotation somewhere with Payne, Garcia and JOJ, we don't need a 10-15 minute a night center....we just don't.
 


MNVCGUY said:
Oh good lord....the order of the commitments does not matter one bit. Said in another post, if you identify a player that fits a roll and the player wants to commit why would you wait?

Clearly some of you don't see any value in Wilson but Johnson does and he is the guy coaching for his job.
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Whose opinion on the roster do you trust more?

I disagree with Howie on most things, but he's been much more accurate with assessing Gopher basketball players over the last couple of years than Ben Johnson.
 

short ornery norwegian said:
I'm shocked that the posters who don't like Ben Johnson are the most upset with this signing.

Look - maybe this season will turn out to be a disaster. Maybe Wilson can't play. Maybe Johnson will not sign any more players, or will sign two guards who can't play.

Maybe a giant meteor will head towards the Earth and some oil-well drillers will have to fly up on the space shuttle to set off a nuke and save the world.

But, we don't know any of that for sure until or unless it happens.

Ben Johnson is coaching for his job. he has to know that. Until he is fired, he has the right to make his own choices, and he will live with the consequences of his decisions. As do we all.

And 1 more thing: Let's say for the sake of argument that the Gophers show a lot of improvement next year. I will be happy. Because I am rooting for the program. I am not rooting against the Coach.
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He's fucking 23 and avg 2 mpg at .500 P12 school. He can't play.
 

MNVCGUY said:
Oh good lord....the order of the commitments does not matter one bit. Said in another post, if you identify a player that fits a roll and the player wants to commit why would you wait?

Clearly some of you don't see any value in Wilson but Johnson does and he is the guy coaching for his job.
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The order might not but the timing does. This team needs a lot of help and giving a spot to someone like this in mid-April feels desperate. You could could pretty easily find someone of this level in July if necessary.

We've gone from no open scholarships and people wanting to run off Parker Fox to "boom" about a commitment from someone who scored 4 points last year in a span of about two months. Yikes.
 

howeda7 said:
What would an incredible season for him look like? 5 minutes/game average 1.5 points?
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Doesn't matter if he scores 1.5 a month. Not his job. On offense he sets bone-rattling picks to give a shooter an open look.
 

Gophers7633 said:
Sure, we have a lot of guys on the frontcourt, but outside of Garcia, they haven't proven much and in Betts, Ihnen and Fox, haven't shown anything in two years or ever. You try to upgrade the roster period. It's not like were returning a Clingan, Filipowski, Edey etc...
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I know some don't like the whole "the coaches are with these guys everyday" line of thinking and prefer to assume that we as fans know better.....but....

Johnson knows what kind of shape Fox and Ihnen are in right now, and he is going to have a pretty good idea of what each brings to the table. Could they have another season ending injury....sure....could happen to any player but until it happens the coach has to look at the pieces they have and use them accordingly.

The fact that we don't appear to be actively pursuing heavy minute front court players tells me they think they are going to get something from Betts, Ihnen and Fox to go along with the players we have already. Maybe they will end up being wrong but I'm willing to give them the benefit of the doubt in terms of knowing where guys are at in their recovery and how they are recovering.
 

Big Dawg said:
I agree will almost all of that. I would sumbit that no D1 basketball player should play (on average) more than 30-32 min/gm. The exceptions would be in tight contests where you need your best players out there for a longer period of time. I looked a few weeks ago and if memory serves, rarely did starters on the sweet 16 teams play more than 30-32 min/game. Garcia can play SOME 5 against SOME teams SOMEtimes. Ideally I would like to see Payne out there for 30-32, Wilson for 2-4, Fox/Garcia/Ihnen/whoever for 4-8. Same with the 4. Garcia for 30-32, Ihnen/Betts/JOJ for 8-10. We'll see how it pans out.
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If Payne plays the kind of defense we need -- he will -- he would very rarely see 30 minutes. Post defense means fouls.
 

howeda7 said:
The order might not but the timing does. This team needs a lot of help and giving a spot to someone like this in mid-April feels desperate. You could could pretty easily find someone of this level in July if necessary.

We've gone from no open scholarships and people wanting to run off Parker Fox to "boom" about a commitment from someone who scored 4 points last year in a span of about two months. Yikes.
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He's got up to three more scholarships. Timing here is fine.
 

MNVCGUY said:
They didn't run TT off in order to bring in Wilson. TT left because he was a horrible fit for the team and was never going to see the court as a 7 foot tall player with zero post ability. Wilson wasn't brought in to play significant minutes, not sure why that is tough for some to grasp.
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When you have as many holes and question marks on this roster as this team has currently, it's a bad look to bring in a player that even the most optimistic posters on this site are advocating will be a great guy to practice against and/or give fouls in a game.

The worse rationale is only adding players that won't perform better than the ones you have currently on a team that lost four guys to the portal and finished with two conference wins. A guy like this would likely have been available in August. Not much competition for him in mid-April, I can't imagine.
 

MNVCGUY said:
I know some don't like the whole "the coaches are with these guys everyday" line of thinking and prefer to assume that we as fans know better.....but....

Johnson knows what kind of shape Fox and Ihnen are in right now, and he is going to have a pretty good idea of what each brings to the table. Could they have another season ending injury....sure....could happen to any player but until it happens the coach has to look at the pieces they have and use them accordingly.

The fact that we don't appear to be actively pursuing heavy minute front court players tells me they think they are going to get something from Betts, Ihnen and Fox to go along with the players we have already. Maybe they will end up being wrong but I'm willing to give them the benefit of the doubt in terms of knowing where guys are at in their recovery and how they are recovering.
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You are correct on this. That said, I hope you understand why some of us have 0 faith in CBJ and don't trust him. He's done a horrible job of building rosters, he's had a terrible record, and has no history otherwise. Sure it's his team, we all get that. And you can say that we should trust them but, it's just hard when we are getting guys who are almost assuredly useless in terms of on court production. I don't think that's an unreasonable take.
 

Bob_Loblaw said:
If that's the case, why not choose what's behind door #2? Door #2 being some underrecruited FR.
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Wouldn't we rather have a one year guy who we know can hold his ground physically over a questionable freshman that could potentially waste a scholarship for 4 years?
 

MNVCGUY said:
It seems very likely that Ben's future with the program is going to be dictated a lot by what happens next season.

So if he has a role he wants to fill, and he finds a transfer that he feels can fill that roll....should he spend time pursuing tons of other big men for a very limited back of the rotation spot, or should he take the player he feels fills the need and keep the focus on the much higher priority guards?
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As cbj just said, there are no good centers willing to come here and sit behind Payne. Wilson will do just fine in the narrow role.
 

Big Dawg said:
Major contributors? 10+ minutes per game from both? 2 of the top 8-9 players in the rotation? I could possibly see that, but I'm thinking more of guys who can BACKUP the 3,4,5 positions for a few minutes per game. I could easily see our top 8-9 guys (10+ min/gm) being:

PG Mitchell
SG portal/Christie/Carrington
3 Christie/JOJ/Betts/portal shooter/Ihnen
4 Garcia with Betts/JOJ/Ihnen/Fox backing up
5 Payne with Garcia/Wilson/Fox backing up

(Top 8 in minutes bolded-my guess)

That scenario could play out with Fox and Ihnen being contributors but I would say MAJOR contirbutors. I do hope they are both healthy.
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That rotation is still reliant on a player we don’t have yet, a player who’s a tweener and doesn’t have a position in JOJ, and a 3* RS FR who is the same age as true FR.

I’ll reserve my judgement about next season for when we think we have all of our scholarships filled, but I don’t like the looks of that at all.
 


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