Niko’s roster construction

agreed. I like the thought of playing a lineup that has 3 forwards that can all switch on defense and shoot the ball. But that doesnt mean you dont need somebody who can bang down low when the other team has a physically dominate player

CSU had that player in Memba. Right now, we dont have that player and there is not alot of options in the portal.
Agreed. I think we all want Nacho to construct a perfectly balanced roster for his first season. It's going to take a minute for him to establish his brand at the U.

Once that happens, hopefully it opens the door for more NIL support and the higher quality players that come with it.
 


Added Robert Vaihola at center- probably a depth signing but definitely a load at 260 lbs!
I think it is more likely that he is the Mbemba replacement. Fill it out with more 6'7" forwards that can shoot. Add in a couple guards and we will look pretty good.
 

If it were only that easy. Managing a basketball game is incredibly challenging with so many moving parts. All I know is the winning teams play their warriors down the stretch whether they started or not.
You sound like you were a fan of Ben starting Parker Fox every game last year. He didn't deserve to start, but at least he wasn't finishing, am I right?
 

Agreed. I think we all want Nacho to construct a perfectly balanced roster for his first season. It's going to take a minute for him to establish his brand at the U.

Once that happens, hopefully it opens the door for more NIL support and the higher quality players that come with it.
C’mon Slim Tubby. I’m already tired of the “Nacho” bit. If you’re trying to be cute or funny: it’s not. If you’re trying to be a dink: I had always thought you were better than that.
 


C’mon Slim Tubby. I’m already tired of the “Nacho” bit. If you’re trying to be cute or funny: it’s not. If you’re trying to be a dink: I had always thought you were better than that.
You're being a little hard on the beave. This came out of the thread that complained about people's habit of misspelling players' names. Some of us figured that, if you're going to misspell someone's name, do it affectionately and with style!
 


You sound like you were a fan of Ben starting Parker Fox every game last year. He didn't deserve to start, but at least he wasn't finishing, am I right?
No. Parker was pretty limited, anyway you cut it. Try to find him some clock based on match ups and situation. But definitely not a guarantee to start every game.
 

Updated to remove Evans add the other 3 guards we are after and in a shocking move, another 6’8” forward from Corpus Christi!
 



I am really trying to be positive and optimistic about the Niko Medved hire and era, I truly am. I am more enthusiastic now than I thought I would be when it became obvious he would be the hire.

All of that being said - this looks to me like a roster full of guys who would be the 7th-8th guys on most competitive Big Ten rosters, a roster full of bench players a la elite coach Ben Johnson in year 1.

It looks like we need 2-3 true impact players among our remaining acquisitions to have any hope of being competitive and approaching .500 in conference play in year 1. Medved is a vastly superior coach to Johnson, so it seems likely he'll extract maximum productivity out of the roster, but my contention is that this roster in its current configuration has a ceiling of 8-12 in the Big Ten even with some lucky breaks along the way.

I'd love to be talked off the ledge on this one.
 

I am really trying to be positive and optimistic about the Niko Medved hire and era, I truly am. I am more enthusiastic now than I thought I would be when it became obvious he would be the hire.

All of that being said - this looks to me like a roster full of guys who would be the 7th-8th guys on most competitive Big Ten rosters, a roster full of bench players a la elite coach Ben Johnson in year 1.

It looks like we need 2-3 true impact players among our remaining acquisitions to have any hope of being competitive and approaching .500 in conference play in year 1. Medved is a vastly superior coach to Johnson, so it seems likely he'll extract maximum productivity out of the roster, but my contention is that this roster in its current configuration has a ceiling of 8-12 in the Big Ten even with some lucky breaks along the way.

I'd love to be talked off the ledge on this one.

I think based on what we know now, this is a fair assessment. My hope is that we'd have 3 players that are in the top half of the BT for their respective position. Right now I don't think we have any. Last season we had 1. Let's hope the remaining roster spots are filled by players who are top half BT talent at their position.

Go Gophers!!
 

I am really trying to be positive and optimistic about the Niko Medved hire and era, I truly am. I am more enthusiastic now than I thought I would be when it became obvious he would be the hire.

All of that being said - this looks to me like a roster full of guys who would be the 7th-8th guys on most competitive Big Ten rosters, a roster full of bench players a la elite coach Ben Johnson in year 1.

It looks like we need 2-3 true impact players among our remaining acquisitions to have any hope of being competitive and approaching .500 in conference play in year 1. Medved is a vastly superior coach to Johnson, so it seems likely he'll extract maximum productivity out of the roster, but my contention is that this roster in its current configuration has a ceiling of 8-12 in the Big Ten even with some lucky breaks along the way.

I'd love to be talked off the ledge on this one.

As Tom Petty said, "the waiting is the hardest part." For fans, the waiting is exacerbated by the complete unknown of how much of the limited resources available have been used on the players we've signed. Personally, I really like Durkin. But I like him a lot less if he's the first option on offense. There are a lot of players still out there, hopefully there are still some resources available to acquire them. If not, I don't think you'll be stepping back from that ledge.
 

I am really trying to be positive and optimistic about the Niko Medved hire and era, I truly am. I am more enthusiastic now than I thought I would be when it became obvious he would be the hire.

All of that being said - this looks to me like a roster full of guys who would be the 7th-8th guys on most competitive Big Ten rosters, a roster full of bench players a la elite coach Ben Johnson in year 1.

It looks like we need 2-3 true impact players among our remaining acquisitions to have any hope of being competitive and approaching .500 in conference play in year 1. Medved is a vastly superior coach to Johnson, so it seems likely he'll extract maximum productivity out of the roster, but my contention is that this roster in its current configuration has a ceiling of 8-12 in the Big Ten even with some lucky breaks along the way.

I'd love to be talked off the ledge on this one.
Perhaps I can push you off.
From present observation it looks like the NIL pot in Minnesota is still lacking in comparison to other schools. Good players have come on the market and UMN doesn't even offer. Why is that? Lack of fit or lack of money? I don't know, but UMN may be the most conservative school in NIL. With Scrooge holding the purse strings, you end up getting the players you have seen sign with the Gophers. Until the coffers fill up and Niko can start waving cash around like a high roller in Vegas you will see the marginal player brought into the program. As others have said, the issues at UMN go much higher up the chain than the person who coaches a sport.
 



I am really trying to be positive and optimistic about the Niko Medved hire and era, I truly am. I am more enthusiastic now than I thought I would be when it became obvious he would be the hire.

All of that being said - this looks to me like a roster full of guys who would be the 7th-8th guys on most competitive Big Ten rosters, a roster full of bench players a la elite coach Ben Johnson in year 1.

It looks like we need 2-3 true impact players among our remaining acquisitions to have any hope of being competitive and approaching .500 in conference play in year 1. Medved is a vastly superior coach to Johnson, so it seems likely he'll extract maximum productivity out of the roster, but my contention is that this roster in its current configuration has a ceiling of 8-12 in the Big Ten even with some lucky breaks along the way.

I'd love to be talked off the ledge on this one.
Of our 6 spots to fill, there are enough impact players in the portal that we could realistically sign 2 or 3. Plus, "impact players" isn't defined until the season starts anyway (based on how they perform)
 



I think based on what we know now, this is a fair assessment. My hope is that we'd have 3 players that are in the top half of the BT for their respective position. Right now I don't think we have any. Last season we had 1. Let's hope the remaining roster spots are filled by players who are top half BT talent at their position.

Go Gophers!!
That's a good metric to live by. You need star players. These last six scholarships are going to tell the tale.

That said, one reason you hire someone like Niko is his track record of development. The idea is that one of these younger additions will develop into top players before it's all over.
 

I am really trying to be positive and optimistic about the Niko Medved hire and era, I truly am. I am more enthusiastic now than I thought I would be when it became obvious he would be the hire.

All of that being said - this looks to me like a roster full of guys who would be the 7th-8th guys on most competitive Big Ten rosters, a roster full of bench players a la elite coach Ben Johnson in year 1.

It looks like we need 2-3 true impact players among our remaining acquisitions to have any hope of being competitive and approaching .500 in conference play in year 1. Medved is a vastly superior coach to Johnson, so it seems likely he'll extract maximum productivity out of the roster, but my contention is that this roster in its current configuration has a ceiling of 8-12 in the Big Ten even with some lucky breaks along the way.

I'd love to be talked off the ledge on this one.
The one big difference to me between this roster so far and a lot of Ben's is that there's a good amount of guys that have more than 1 year of eligibility left. There's at least some room for development.

I also think people are underestimating Durkin.
 

I am really trying to be positive and optimistic about the Niko Medved hire and era, I truly am. I am more enthusiastic now than I thought I would be when it became obvious he would be the hire.

All of that being said - this looks to me like a roster full of guys who would be the 7th-8th guys on most competitive Big Ten rosters, a roster full of bench players a la elite coach Ben Johnson in year 1.

It looks like we need 2-3 true impact players among our remaining acquisitions to have any hope of being competitive and approaching .500 in conference play in year 1. Medved is a vastly superior coach to Johnson, so it seems likely he'll extract maximum productivity out of the roster, but my contention is that this roster in its current configuration has a ceiling of 8-12 in the Big Ten even with some lucky breaks along the way.

I'd love to be talked off the ledge on this one.
I read somewhere that the talent that Niko has on the current roster grades out better than the entire roster from last year.

I'm not too worried about getting quality guys into the system.

I too also like that some have multiple years left.
 

I am really trying to be positive and optimistic about the Niko Medved hire and era, I truly am. I am more enthusiastic now than I thought I would be when it became obvious he would be the hire.

All of that being said - this looks to me like a roster full of guys who would be the 7th-8th guys on most competitive Big Ten rosters, a roster full of bench players a la elite coach Ben Johnson in year 1.

It looks like we need 2-3 true impact players among our remaining acquisitions to have any hope of being competitive and approaching .500 in conference play in year 1. Medved is a vastly superior coach to Johnson, so it seems likely he'll extract maximum productivity out of the roster, but my contention is that this roster in its current configuration has a ceiling of 8-12 in the Big Ten even with some lucky breaks along the way.

I'd love to be talked off the ledge on this one.
I'll give it a shot

Niko isn't going to build a B1G champ overnight, he's going to need to instill a playing style and culture. I know with years and years of losing basketball, it's tough to be patient, but I don't think there is a coach that can fix it overnight

Many are disappointed we didn't get Evans. Evan's was a low 3 star recruit developed by Niko that UNC now gave decent chunk of change. The goal should be for him to do that and hopefully the ones that pan out we can retain via NIL and boost roster with portal additions.

If your expectation is for MN to be top spender and roll in a high price roster with high ranked recruits, I'd argue you're just not being realistic.

Right now we have a losing brand, a coach not everyone knows, and smaller budget than a lot of our competitors. Niko will need to show coaching chops to hopefully develop under rated recruits/transfers to generate wins and hopefully more revenue

I would be happy with PJ Fleck level of success here in MN Basketball.
 

I'll give it a shot

Niko isn't going to build a B1G champ overnight, he's going to need to instill a playing style and culture. I know with years and years of losing basketball, it's tough to be patient, but I don't think there is a coach that can fix it overnight

Many are disappointed we didn't get Evans. Evan's was a low 3 star recruit developed by Niko that UNC now gave decent chunk of change. The goal should be for him to do that and hopefully the ones that pan out we can retain via NIL and boost roster with portal additions.

If your expectation is for MN to be top spender and roll in a high price roster with high ranked recruits, I'd argue you're just not being realistic.

Right now we have a losing brand, a coach not everyone knows, and smaller budget than a lot of our competitors. Niko will need to show coaching chops to hopefully develop under rated recruits/transfers to generate wins and hopefully more revenue

I would be happy with PJ Fleck level of success here in MN Basketball.
Executive summary: we settled for Medved and shouldn't expect much different results.
 

You're being a little hard on the beave. This came out of the thread that complained about people's habit of misspelling players' names. Some of us figured that, if you're going to misspell someone's name, do it affectionately and with style!
Once, for a joke (even if it’s not funny), I can put up with. Keeping it up is too much like the idiot that called Pitino “little Ricky” for his entire time at MN. That was just being a jerk.
 



read into what it you want, I expect Niko to be successful here. I expect the team to better next year than last year and see continued growth.

But I'm aware you're nothing but wet blanket
PJ has had the Gophers in the top 10. Medved has had CSU in the top 15. Those are a couple of really good coaches.

Minnesota is better situated for basketball success than football success for various reasons. I have always liked our potential. We have more alumni than almost any other institution in the country, and the school exists in a major metropolitan area filled with potential casual fans. Anyone who doesn't see the potential in that or chooses to focus on disadvantages is intentionally being a wet blanket.

This town went ape shit for the Gophers in the 90s, and it can happen again. This state is now 29 years more starved for a champion than it was in 1996-97.
 


As a compromise, someone invent "Settle Nachos" and sell them at the Barn. Proceeds to DTA. Make sure they go well with Duck Duck Beer.
 


I'll give it a shot

Niko isn't going to build a B1G champ overnight, he's going to need to instill a playing style and culture. I know with years and years of losing basketball, it's tough to be patient, but I don't think there is a coach that can fix it overnight

Many are disappointed we didn't get Evans. Evan's was a low 3 star recruit developed by Niko that UNC now gave decent chunk of change. The goal should be for him to do that and hopefully the ones that pan out we can retain via NIL and boost roster with portal additions.

If your expectation is for MN to be top spender and roll in a high price roster with high ranked recruits, I'd argue you're just not being realistic.

Right now we have a losing brand, a coach not everyone knows, and smaller budget than a lot of our competitors. Niko will need to show coaching chops to hopefully develop under rated recruits/transfers to generate wins and hopefully more revenue

I would be happy with PJ Fleck level of success here in MN Basketball.
There’s not much room for patience anymore when everyone is a free agent every year. I trust Niko to do this fast if he is properly funded. That’s a big if around here
 

There’s not much room for patience anymore when everyone is a free agent every year. I trust Niko to do this fast if he is properly funded. That’s a big if around here
See $200,000 match off RIGHT NOW. Pull out your wallet.
 




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