Michigan Dominating - Gophers 7 or 8th next year

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I am sitting here watching Michigan mop the floor with Tennessee and I got to thinking. It is looking to me like the Gophers again even next year are looking like a 7th or 8th place team. Michigan is now back out of the toilet and they are young only gonna get better.

Ohio St.
Mich St.
Wisky
Purdue
Michigan
Illinois

These teams will finish above the gophers almost surely next year. Why do these teams consistently do well and the Gophers play like crap? Well I will tell you. They recruit and land top flight guards. Gophers have not had a guard worth a crap since Bobby J and coincidentally, that is the last time they have been any good.

Guards win in college B-ball. They are 10X more important than any other position on the floor. You can have all the Trevors, Ralphs, Colton, Mo's, etc that you want. You will never win at a big time level until you have good guards. You would think Tubby would have seen this by now.

Here's to hoping this Hollins kid is as advertised and that ole Tubster has his sights set for some speed guards. Recruiting big guys makes you competitive, but it will never make you a winner.
 


Go Gophs said:
I am sitting here watching Michigan mop the floor with Tennessee and I got to thinking. It is looking to me like the Gophers again even next year are looking like a 7th or 8th place team. Michigan is now back out of the toilet and they are young only gonna get better.

Ohio St.
Mich St.
Wisky
Purdue
Michigan
Illinois

These teams will finish above the gophers almost surely next year. Why do these teams consistently do well and the Gophers play like crap? Well I will tell you. They recruit and land top flight guards. Gophers have not had a guard worth a crap since Bobby J and coincidentally, that is the last time they have been any good.

Guards win in college B-ball. They are 10X more important than any other position on the floor. You can have all the Trevors, Ralphs, Colton, Mo's, etc that you want. You will never win at a big time level until you have good guards. You would think Tubby would have seen this by now.

Here's to hoping this Hollins kid is as advertised and that ole Tubster has his sights set for some speed guards. Recruiting big guys makes you competitive, but it will never make you a winner.
Click to expand...

You may be right but only time will tell. Historically, Tubby has learned from his mistakes and went on to win tons of games. I hope this year will be one of those.

Tubby's teams play a type of defense that would stop the best guards in the country. I hope that our new players learn Tubby's system fast. We need some wins.

By the way, Wisconsin, MSU, IL, OSU, and Purdue will not have their Srs in their rosters next year. We might do well despite our youth.

Go Gophers
 

I would have to say you are wrong about being able to win with guys in the paint. Shots in the paint are a higher percentage shot than outside shots and will always give a team a better chance to win therefore the team with the better post players should win.
 

If this year's defense was any indication of what we will see from this group, it is gonna be scary. Not many teams with worse perimeter defense than we had this year.

Not trying to be negative(although this post surely is), but I am just sick of being a doormat year after year. It is time to get some boys that can play in here and make a run. I want a Jordan Taylor, or a Taylor Battle, Kalin Lucas. Give me a guard or two with some speed that can shoot. Enough of the slow plodding 7 footers.
 


CentralGopher said:
I would have to say you are wrong about being able to win with guys in the paint. Shots in the paint are a higher percentage shot than outside shots and will always give a team a better chance to win therefore the team with the better post players should win.
Click to expand...

Then why haven't we done it? We have had some of the best front line's in the BigTen the last few years and it hasn't amounted to much. If you want those high percentage shots, you need a guard that can get them the ball. Break down a defense, etc.
Guards win in college b-ball. Even one great one can carry a team.
 

we seemed to do just fine before our guards got hurt/transferred...
 

Go Gophs said:
Then why haven't we done it? We have had some of the best front line's in the BigTen the last few years and it hasn't amounted to much. If you want those high percentage shots, you need a guard that can get them the ball. Break down a defense, etc.
Guards win in college b-ball. Even one great one can carry a team.
Click to expand...

You think we have some of the best? I am not so sure about that. They simply have not developed into the post players we thought they could be. Iverson couldn't do squat this year, Sampson is more of an outside player without any real moves in the post, Big Mo was out this year and Mbakwe was our only real threat in the paint. 1 player in the paint can't do it himself. The team as a whole will need to improve to compete with the top of the B10 but we would do much better with better production in the paint simply because they are a higher percentage shot and it is easier to have an off night from outside the paint than it is inside.
 

Go Gophs said:
I am sitting here watching Michigan mop the floor with Tennessee and I got to thinking. It is looking to me like the Gophers again even next year are looking like a 7th or 8th place team. Michigan is now back out of the toilet and they are young only gonna get better.

Ohio St.
Mich St.
Wisky
Purdue
Michigan
Illinois

These teams will finish above the gophers almost surely next year. Why do these teams consistently do well and the Gophers play like crap? Well I will tell you. They recruit and land top flight guards. Gophers have not had a guard worth a crap since Bobby J and coincidentally, that is the last time they have been any good.

Guards win in college B-ball. They are 10X more important than any other position on the floor. You can have all the Trevors, Ralphs, Colton, Mo's, etc that you want. You will never win at a big time level until you have good guards. You would think Tubby would have seen this by now.

Here's to hoping this Hollins kid is as advertised and that ole Tubster has his sights set for some speed guards. Recruiting big guys makes you competitive, but it will never make you a winner.
Click to expand...

The very fact that Michigan is looking good should give us hope not despair. Michigan was left for dead as recent as 7 games into the Big Ten season and then their young guards (a frosh and a soph) started to lead the team. Maybe we will do the same next year- except with the added advantage of size inside.
 



bga1 said:
The very fact that Michigan is looking good should give us hope not despair. Michigan was left for dead as recent as 7 games into the Big Ten season and then their young guards (a frosh and a soph) started to lead the team. Maybe we will do the same next year- except with the added advantage of size inside.
Click to expand...

I am hoping you are right. Sure be nice to see a backcourt that good wearing maroon and gold.
 

CentralGopher said:
You think we have some of the best? I am not so sure about that. They simply have not developed into the post players we thought they could be. Iverson couldn't do squat this year, Sampson is more of an outside player without any real moves in the post, Big Mo was out this year and Mbakwe was our only real threat in the paint. 1 player in the paint can't do it himself. The team as a whole will need to improve to compete with the top of the B10 but we would do much better with better production in the paint simply because they are a higher percentage shot and it is easier to have an off night from outside the paint than it is inside.
Click to expand...

I am not saying you need to shoot and make a ton of 3 pointers to win games which is essentially what you are getting at. Good guards will create those high percentage "gimmee" buckets for our big guys, get some for themselves, etc. Even a marginal inside player can make dunks and layups as long as they rebound.
Shooting the 3 though, is also a VERY important thing in college b-ball. All the good teams have at least a couple guys that can stroke an open 3.
 

Michigan wins by 30 without making a single free throw. MaDnEsS!!
 

Do you remember beating Michigan at Michigan? It was this year, when we had a full roster.
 



I wouldn't say that Michigan has performed "consistently well".
 

It was a big win for Michigan but let's not blow this out of proportion one game doesn't indicate future success/failure. Also, Tennesse didn't appear ready to play and it seemed they let the bruce pearl distractions get the best of them.
 

There was some talk about Morris declaring eligible for the draft this year, has there been any news on that?
 

Gold Vision said:
Do you remember beating Michigan at Michigan? It was this year, when we had a full roster.
Click to expand...

We didn't have a full roster for that game. Devoe had already transfered, Mo was out, and Al suffered his season-ending injury in the first half (only played 11 minutes).
 


Whether the Gophs (along with pretty much everyone else) will finish in the top-6 depends on how much of an impact the freshmen/newcomers can make. The B1G is going to have a down year next year, and that's going to make it a lot easier to finish in the top-half. It's easy to envision a scenario in which the Gophs are in the top-half - of course, that scenario doesn't involve a mid-season transfer of a key player or season-ending injuries to the starting PG and another rotation player. If Andre, Coleman and Welch come in and can play well on both O & D, then there's little doubt that the Gophs should finish in the top-half. If, on the other hand, they turn the ball over a lot, can't shoot and don't guard anybody, then obviously the odds of a top-half finish aren't good. It's too early to say for sure how things will turn out because you just don't know how good the newbies are going to be & they will be counted on for significant contributions.
 

bga1 said:
The very fact that Michigan is looking good should give us hope not despair. Michigan was left for dead as recent as 7 games into the Big Ten season and then their young guards (a frosh and a soph) started to lead the team. Maybe we will do the same next year- except with the added advantage of size inside.
Click to expand...

+1,000,000

Imagine Michigan's freshman + a dominant big man.

I am confident Trevor WANTS to come back (based on interviews, tweets, etc.) will financial and other factors cause him to decide differently? It could. But right now I think he WANTS to be here.

And watching Michigan freshman and sophmores do this is very encouraging when we have Hollins, Coleman and Welch coming in next year. As well as Mo back and the debut of Oto and Elliot.

Hopefully Rodney gets that fire this summer and this team can be just as good as at the start of this year. You add a playmaker that will likely be better than Devoe in Andre (maybe Rodney will be that too). A PG that will be better than Mav or Blake were at PG. A shooter in Oto, another solid big man in Mo, a new big man in Elliot. A year further along of Ralph and Colton, as well as Austin who will have benefited from nice experience last season.

I cannot wait to watch this team next year and am expecting some big things next year.

The "collapse" was due to the lack of leadership and a playmaker to close out games. Next year we will have one of those for sure (Andre) a possible one in Rodney, and I fully believe he will be. Trevor as well with an improved post game and jump shot.

Had the Gophs been getting blown out, it'd be one thing, but they were in EVERY game. While I will miss Blake greatly, he was an awesome Gopher, at the end of the year when we were "in" games, he was at PG and I think Welch will at the very least be able to match Blakes job at PG.
 

OSUfan said:
Whether the Gophs (along with pretty much everyone else) will finish in the top-6 depends on how much of an impact the freshmen/newcomers can make. The B1G is going to have a down year next year, and that's going to make it a lot easier to finish in the top-half. It's easy to envision a scenario in which the Gophs are in the top-half - of course, that scenario doesn't involve a mid-season transfer of a key player or season-ending injuries to the starting PG and another rotation player. If Andre, Coleman and Welch come in and can play well on both O & D, then there's little doubt that the Gophs should finish in the top-half. If, on the other hand, they turn the ball over a lot, can't shoot and don't guard anybody, then obviously the odds of a top-half finish aren't good. It's too early to say for sure how things will turn out because you just don't know how good the newbies are going to be & they will be counted on for significant contributions.
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+1
 

OSUfan sums it up rather well. But I'd like to add to what scher215 was saying. It's not like we were gettin killed out there. Our problems were a direct relation to not having guards to handle the ball. How many times late in these games did we sit there and watch a brutal turnover from someone uncomfortable with the ball in their hands, or a bad shot cause no one could create anything? I'm putting faith in recruits who haven't proven themselves, but I feel pretty confident that Welch and Hollins, plus Coleman can provide a lot of what was lacking in those last 10 games the past season, and that would be guards with the ability to put pressure on the defense by getting into the lane (Al Nolen) and also an ability to shoot it (both have strong percentages from the perimeter).

And Gopher fans of all people should know there's ZERO point in trying to project the future. What if Darius Morris does go pro? What if Tim Hardaway Jr. shoplifts from a store and ends up leaving the program? So many things could happen between now and the start of next year, as we all should know too well.
 

I am hoping right along with you guys. It is just frustrating to watch a team (Michigan) who I never thought would be in a better position than the Gophers are right now win and win with authority in the Big Dance while we sit here and bitch about a piss poor season by our boys.

When the Gophers hired Tubby, it was my belief we would be in the dance in a couple years(which we were), then go on to bigger and better things from there and be a fixture in the NCAAs as well as the top 3-4 in the Big Ten. So far since he has been here we have been a mid-tier BigTen program at best.

Just frustrated, that is all. Here's to hoping next year we bounce back and keep on the path towards to top of the BigTen.
 

Predicting next years B10 standings based on Michigan beating a lifeless Ten. team seems a bit extreme, even to me...so much can happen between now and then...
 

Gophers_are_Golden said:
We didn't have a full roster for that game. Devoe had already transfered, Mo was out, and Al suffered his season-ending injury in the first half (only played 11 minutes).
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Exactly and we still won on the road. Probably the last positive note on the season though. I have confidence that we will bounce back. Expecially if Andre can mature fast. Coleman is no slouch either.
 

The current freshman are going to have to be productive for the team to be successfull next year. You can't expect the new freshman to be difference makers in their first year. Look at Michigan State, Appling was a big time recruit that didn't have a huge impact on Michigan State this year. The second year is when guards start to have an impact.
 

Well, one thing that can be said is that Michigan is back. Not all the way back, yet, but back to some extent. They've been a sleeping giant. I agree that this is one more thing for the Gopher program to have to deal with.
 

The "sky is falling crowd" is great, mostly the same crew that thought we would be FF material early in the year. I think it is fair to say that all of the teams above us in the standings will lose significant senior talent, and the Big Ten will be as wide open as it has been in a while. The earlier poster who said it is not like we are getting killed out there is correct. A point guard and we win five more games this year.
Michigan is talented and when the three pointers fall they will be great, and when they don't, they will be completely beatable.
I think we have a chance to be a good team next year, and a better team the year after, but we'll see next year.
 

Having been a fan since the 60's, with this program I get nervous when things are looking up. So, especially if Trevor stays, I tend to be optimistic about next year.

Little silly to start speculating on Big 10 standings next year with all that can happen. If Michigan is an awakened giant, which I still doubt, then the other school to start worrying about is Indiana. They lose very little to graduation. Presume Creek will be back, and they have two very highly rated recruits signed.
 

We should have beat Michigan twice this year, and Nolen played about 1/2 of 1 game. Why are the Gophers on court results against Michigan less instructive than Michigan's peformance against the Volunteers?

I have a feeling we're going to still see changes to the Gophers roster between now and the fall, I don't see any point in predicting finishes now.
 

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