Jon Rothstein has Gophers 15th in BT Power Rankings

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I expect us to be closer to 8th than 15th.
It could happen, but it would take injury levels worse than last year (apologies for even tempting fate by mentioning it).
 



BleedGopher said:

Go Gophers!!
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I don't hate his top three, but I would put UCLA with those three as a top four, I'm not very high on USC, despite all their talent, under Muss they just seem like the team that can never figure out the right chemistry every year, but they are loaded on paper. Purdue and Ohio State are top half teams, as is Nebraska, PG might be an issue there, but if it's average when it comes to turnovers they have a really good shooters. I like Iowa and our teams continuity I think that's being underestimated by a lot of these predictions. Stentz is a huge loss, but Iowa still has a lot back to make things easier on their new guys. Wisconsin so much of it depends on that PG becoming the next Sarr, Tonje, Blackwell or Boyd. Besides Nolan Winter they really don't have a lot, but they have some guys that will at least D-Up. Agree with his bottom three but I think Washington and Oregon will be down there as well as the bottom five I don't think much will separate 7-13 in this league this year, could literally be one game in the standings.
 


gopherbadgerman said:
I'd take that bet.
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Midway between 8th and 15th makes the over/under 11.5. We went over that mark (11th) last year, with terrible roster depletion due to injuries. You expect them to be worse than last year? I expect them to be better. At least by a place or two, maybe more. I stand by my statement.
 

goldenboy said:
Midway between 8th and 15th makes the over/under 11.5. We went over that mark (11th) last year, with terrible roster depletion due to injuries. You expect them to be worse than last year? I expect them to be better. At least by a place or two, maybe more. I stand by my statement.
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Good analysis!
 



goldenboy said:
Midway between 8th and 15th makes the over/under 11.5. We went over that mark (11th) last year, with terrible roster depletion due to injuries. You expect them to be worse than last year? I expect them to be better. At least by a place or two, maybe more. I stand by my statement.
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Perfect!
 

goldenboy said:
Midway between 8th and 15th makes the over/under 11.5. We went over that mark (11th) last year, with terrible roster depletion due to injuries. You expect them to be worse than last year? I expect them to be better. At least by a place or two, maybe more. I stand by my statement.
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I think this roster is pretty difficult to predict because there are so many unknowns on it. I won't predict where they will finish other than to say I'm pretty confident that they won't finish in the top third of the conference.

As far as the depleted roster due to injuries, yes, that wore them down as the year progressed but the team actually played better after the roster was down to 7 active scholarship players than they played earlier in the season.
 

goldenboy said:
Midway between 8th and 15th makes the over/under 11.5. We went over that mark (11th) last year, with terrible roster depletion due to injuries. You expect them to be worse than last year? I expect them to be better. At least by a place or two, maybe more. I stand by my statement.
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They could be a better team with a worse conference record.
 

TwistingMyMelon said:
I think this roster is pretty difficult to predict because there are so many unknowns on it. I won't predict where they will finish other than to say I'm pretty confident that they won't finish in the top third of the conference.

As far as the depleted roster due to injuries, yes, that wore them down as the year progressed but the team actually played better after the roster was down to 7 active scholarship players than they played earlier in the season.
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True. They did get better. I’m not sure that is due to the subtraction of two starters (making the bench shorter) or just the fact that the team had more games under their belt. Looking back it surprised me how little we got out of Vaiholla (5 games) and Willis (7 games). I do think that Grayson Grove’s surprising (to me) development was mostly due to the major minutes he got.
 

gopherbadgerman said:
They could be a better team with a worse conference record.
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That’s always true, I guess. Nobody knows what the rest of the league will look like. There are 180 conference wins to spread across the 18 teams, but 180 losses have to end up on some teams’ ledgers, too. The Gophers could play really well and still have a number heartbreaking losses. They could be a bad team and win a number of lucky ones. I suspect that usually evens out. What I am positive about is better depth. I don’t think we’ll run out of gas at the end of games like last year. I don’t think we’ll need to play timid because we just couldn’t take a foul down the stretch. I think Niko will have more chess pieces to mix and match to create better matchups. And I think he will be able to sit a cold shooter or a guy that’s just having an off night, where he couldn’t do that last year. Yes, there are lots of question marks. But there were last year as well. I haven’t been this optimistic about Gopher hoops in a decade (maybe more).
 

goldenboy said:
I do think that Grayson Grove’s surprising (to me) development was mostly due to the major minutes he got.
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Very likely true! He was a pleasant surprise to me last season. I didn't know much about him and thought he probably would be kind of a stiff as a freshman.
 

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