Marcus: St. Thomas already making its case as Minnesota's best Division I men's basketball team

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bga1 said:
To be fair my guess is that Minnesota’s talent has a lot more upside to improve than UST. Let’s see what Ben does with it. Last year our start with less talent was pretty solid.
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I think Payne has the highest upside, but I'd take Rohde over every other player on our team (short term or long term).
 

bga1 said:
To be fair my guess is that Minnesota’s talent has a lot more upside to improve than UST. Let’s see what Ben does with it. Last year our start with less talent was pretty solid.
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It's more than a guess - although it's still just an opinion. Their talent is fine for low D1. It'd be interesting to switch rosters (not coaches) and see how it would go. Minnesota may not have any wins at this point. even recognizing that there were some common opponents.
 



As for the Tommies. I think the Big East is a pipe dream that's at minimum 20 years our, lot needs to happen and I don't know where they're going to build an arena, especially after they insulted T&C with their low ball offer. Hope they do well, rather see local kids go there than the Dakotas, could be a nice portal pipeline both ways if we play our cards right
 



Bob_Loblaw said:
I don't know if having a team full of D3 basketball players is really being "born on third".

As to your last point, that's an incredibly high standard for a Gopher fan. We take our Ws any way we get them.
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Zero adversity while building their program... would love a history lesson proving me wrong.
If the Gophers lost to South Dakota they would be chastised, but UST loses to them and it's just part of the process? Different standards put forth by Ben Johnson haters.
 

MonikerSchmoniker45 said:
Zero adversity while building their program... would love a history lesson proving me wrong.
If the Gophers lost to South Dakota they would be chastised, but UST loses to them and it's just part of the process? Different standards put forth by Ben Johnson haters.
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I think there is a difference between a Big 10 team losing to South Dakota and a team in their second year of Division 1 basketball losing to South Dakota.

Ben Johnson aside, is that really want you want for your program to be held to the same standards as a team two years removed from being in the MIAC? UST should absolutely be judged differently than the Gophers.
 

Ski U Mah Gopher said:
Let's look at common opponents:

Chicago St: Minn +3. UST +23
St. Francis: Minn +18 UST +36

Not good
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Two games isn’t anywhere close to a big enough sample size. Not only that but take a look at the minutes distribution of our players. You’ll see TT starting in place of Battle against St. Francis and Ramberg also started that game. Samuels and TT both got more minutes than expected against Chicago St.
 
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Bob_Loblaw said:
I think there is a difference between a Big 10 team losing to South Dakota and a team in their second year of Division 1 basketball losing to South Dakota.

Ben Johnson aside, is that really want you want for your program to be held to the same standards as a team two years removed from being in the MIAC? UST should absolutely be judged differently than the Gophers.
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But, they're so good! Big East bound dontcha know. The thread title says best team in town. They might end up being more successful this season, but again.... the comparisons are ridiculous.
 




MonikerSchmoniker45 said:
Zero adversity while building their program... would love a history lesson proving me wrong.
If the Gophers lost to South Dakota they would be chastised, but UST loses to them and it's just part of the process? Different standards put forth by Ben Johnson haters.
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I agree that UST could lose all their games and they'd be given a pass by the media because of the transition to D1 - is that what you mean by adversity? Other than that, I don't see them getting any third base-type of benefits - it seems like it's more they're starting at the very bottom, not 3rd base.

Someone else made a similar point, but the Gophers are a high-major and rightly have different expectations when they play a SoDak.
 

MonikerSchmoniker45 said:
But, they're so good! Big East bound dontcha know. The thread title says best team in town. They might end up being more successful this season, but again.... the comparisons are ridiculous.
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I think you're missing the point entirely.

It isn't that they are already as good as a Big 10 team. It's that our program is in such shambles that even a decent Summit League team like St. Thomas might be better than us right now.
 

Bob_Loblaw said:
I think you're missing the point entirely.

It isn't that they are already as good as a Big 10 team. It's that our program is in such shambles that even a decent Summit League team like St. Thomas might be better than us right now.
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Actually, Summit favorite Oral Roberts is statistically better than the Gophers so far this season, and it's not particularly close.
 

Bad Gopher said:
Actually, Summit favorite Oral Roberts is statistically better than the Gophers so far this season, and it's not particularly close.
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But that's my point. The article is not saying that St. Thomas is a NCAA powerhouse. They are saying that they might be the best team in the state - which is also a shot at the Gophers. It could also be accurate.
 


It's safe to say that St. Thomas is on track to be the best of Marquette and Gonzaga combined on steroids.

And Clem would have not only scheduled a road game with them at Target Center, he'd have crushed them by 20.
 


howeda7 said:
It's safe to say that St. Thomas is on track to be the best of Marquette and Gonzaga combined on steroids.

And Clem would have not only scheduled a road game with them at Target Center, he'd have crushed them by 20.
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Nope, just better than us.
 

Bob_Loblaw said:
I don't know if having a team full of D3 basketball players is really being "born on third".

As to your last point, that's an incredibly high standard for a Gopher fan. We take our Ws any way we get them.
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If they were born on third and think they hit a triple, I feel like we were born on third and are trying to figure out how we ended up back on second base.
 





Bob_Loblaw said:
I think Payne has the highest upside, but I'd take Rohde over every other player on our team (short term or long term).
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Rhode is a very good player and had he wanted to, could’ve decommitted and gotten more P5 offers, but chose to stay loyal to Tauer.
That being said, it’s crazy to take him over Garcia and Battle short term. Battle is obviously working out the foot injury but his season last year against B1G comp and his years at GW prove he’s superior. Garcia is also way better than many are giving him credit for. Rhode would play for us no doubt, but he’d struggle with the size, speed, and strength of the B1G just like most freshman guards that are not top 50 players. I think he’d be better than Henley though. Not sure he’d be much better than a healthy Carrington. Carrington would be tearing up the Summit too.
 
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howeda7 said:
This is likely the worst Gopher team of any of our lifetimes. If it's not the worst, it's top 3. Being "better" than that isn't hard, even for a team from the Summit League. It doesn't mean it will be th case over the long-term.
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I agree. This should also be one of their worst teams.

I'm just saying the point of the article is that St. Thomas might be the best team in town. It wasn't saying that they are better than Gonzaga or Marquette, just better than us.
 

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