Niko should be in Big Ten coach of the year mix

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Gold Vision said:
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According to Gemini, Nebraska is the only team doing significantly more with less. Purdue and Wisconsin just slightly ahead in talent but much higher in the standings. Obviously this is a flawed look because the past HS recruiting is pretty much irrelevant for the gophers.
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Wish there was something easy to grab that was some kind of measure taking into account an actual per game grading of play (like a PFF in football) in combination with total minutes being able to be spread around to depth behind the starters.

So x-axis would more truly measure how much talent was available to the coach over the season.
 

bga1 said:
I have enjoyed watching Niko's offense this year, but little noted has been the fact that the defense has been really solid despite the team having almost zero rim protection. On Evan Miya the Gophs rank 60th in defense and that is being accomplished in a really tough league. We have certainly had teams that we could not stop but there just have not been many breakdowns where the opposition gets easy buckets in a row. The guys always get back on defense, preventing the easy runouts.
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I think it shows that coaching and solid fundamentals can compensate for not having elite athletes. Refreshing change from what we saw under Ben and Pitino where the defensive fundamentals were not strong. I guess it does make sense to hire a coach with more than 1 or 0 years of head coaching experience. Who’d have thunk it?
 

bmb5270 said:
I think it shows that coaching and solid fundamentals can compensate for not having elite athletes. Refreshing change from what we saw under Ben and Pitino where the defensive fundamentals were not strong. I guess it does make sense to hire a coach with more than 1 or 0 years of head coaching experience. Who’d have thunk it?
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Who? MNVC guy
 

The OSU goaltend and the USC game were two absolute robberies. Those two wins alone make it 8-8 and 15-12, even with half the roster missing. Unluckiest season I've ever seen.
 

GoGophs2275 said:
Losing 2 or 3 guys isn't a good enough reason to have 6 playable Division 1 guys.
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What? You think the whole roster has only 8-9 playable guys? It's probably like 10-11 which is pretty common for most rosters. They just have so many guys out (it's more than 2 or 3).
 


GophersInIowa said:
What? You think the whole roster has only 8-9 playable guys? It's probably like 10-11 which is pretty common for most rosters. They just have so many guys out (it's more than 2 or 3).
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It is always funny when people act like a team should have quality/playable depth all the way to the very back of the roster, it just doesn't work that way.

Injuries happen and your roster should be setup to withstand a couple.....but we are well beyond that threshold and yet somehow this group keeps finding a way to compete when on paper they should not be able to.
 

Likely won't be in the mix which is fine. Tough to be coach of the year when you are 12th+ in the league. Tough games down the stretch.

He has really laid a nice foundation that that will be huge in recruiting, portal, and NIL.

I've already started to wonder about transfers that might want to be the next Durkin or Tyson.
 





FinnGopher said:
He has to be in the lead for COY as does Dusty May.
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The actual winner will be Hoiberg and I doubt it will be close. Nebraska was picked to finish 14th and with a couple games left are in a 3 way tie for 2nd.

My only point with this thread was to highlight the really impressive job Niko has done in navigating a ridiculous injury situation. Season easily could have gone off the rails with a roster that has no size, no depth and with half of it made up of young guys in either their first or 2nd seasons of college basketball.

Yet they have managed to stay competitive night in and night out and even sprung a few upsets along the way.

All that said, Hoiberg absolutely should (and most likely will) win the award.
 

If Niko goes 8-12 with this bunch it's nothing short of incredible, in 17-18 there were a lot of injuries but we still had Sr first teamer Nate Mason and Jordan Murphy who had really taken a big step on offense that year and that team went 4-14. Couple years later you could argue Carr and Oturu were two of the top five players in the league, for sure top ten and that group went 8-12
 

GoGophs2275 said:
Losing 2 or 3 guys isn't a good enough reason to have 6 playable Division 1 guys.
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2 or 3 guys?

So, you're commenting on a team you don't follow all that closely.

Gopher players that are not available:

starting PG Chancy Willis
starting C Robert Vaihola
starting F Jaylen Crocker-Johnson

SF BJ Omot (transfer from Cal)
SG Chance Stephens (transfer from Maryland)
C Nehemiah Turner (transfer from Central Arkansas)

That's six scholarship guys. Not 2 or 3. Three starters alone.

If you took the same basic players off of Michigan State, here's what you'd have:

Starting:
PG - Kur Teng (7.3 ppg) (assuming PG Fears out)
SG - Jordan Scott (7.2 ppg)
SF - Coen Carr (11.6 ppg)
PF - Cam Ward (5.1 ppg) (assuming PF Koehler out)
C - Brennan Walton (0.5 ppg) (assuming C Cooper out)

Reserves:
OUT (under this example): Ugochukwu, Fort, McCullough
Leaving:
F - Colin Walton (0.3 ppg)
G - Nick Sanders (walk-on)
G - Denham Wojcik (assistant coach's kid)

Good luck Tom. Not much there. Maybe 5 playable guys? Maybe?
 
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Agree...Niko should be in the mix, but COY, this year, has been earned and deserved by Hoiberg. What I'd like now is for Niko to be solidly in the mix for the transfers and recruits atop his list.
 



Maybe the best thing, we have a coach and I'm not at all worried about him leaving! What a time
 

bmb5270 said:
I think it shows that coaching and solid fundamentals can compensate for not having elite athletes. Refreshing change from what we saw under Ben and Pitino where the defensive fundamentals were not strong. I guess it does make sense to hire a coach with more than 1 or 0 years of head coaching experience. Who’d have thunk it?
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Under both of those coaches and tubby too…post crocker johnson injury it would’ve been 0-X with infinite excuses
 




Unregistered User said:
When Niko was hired, I liked it but thought it was a solid double

Now, I think he’s a game 7 grand slam hire
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I liked the hire....but the way this team is playing right now has been really eye opening to just how good the hire may end up being.

This team should not be able to beat Big Ten teams with this roster......they just shouldn't.

The point guards are a true sophomore and a 2 guard being forced to run the point a lot. There is no size to speak of at all with the biggest post player being a 6'9" 220 lbs redshirt freshman. The entire bench is a true freshman guard with a really limited offensive game. The best offensive player on the team was a complete flop last year at UNC and could barely get on the court. There are 3 starters and 3 reserves unavailable.....

Every single thing about this team says they should be getting smoked each night and sitting in dead last in the conference. Yet somehow, in spite of all the things working against them they have gone 4-3 in their last 7 Big Ten games and they were competitive in all 3 loses.

Niko is doing a hell of a coaching job and the players are doing an awesome job playing great team basketball. It has been a lot of fun to watch, and the future looks really bright under Niko Medved if this is any indication of the kind of coaching he is capable of.
 



"Voting for Big Ten postseason awards in men’s basketball, including Coach of the Year, takes place this week. If voters look deeper than records, Gophers coach Niko Medved deserves consideration for that honor."

"The Gophers have a losing overall record (14-15) and a losing Big Ten record (7-11). You also won’t find a better coaching job this year, next year or any year than what Medved is doing in his first season in Dinkytown."
 

Its funny I read the UCLA writer on 247 preview for the gopher game, he picked the gophs to win by two basically saying UCLA was more talented but he didn't trust them to close on the road. He said in the article Niko should be coach of the year and that this team has no business having six wins now seven in the big ten
 


Bad Gopher said:


"Voting for Big Ten postseason awards in men’s basketball, including Coach of the Year, takes place this week. If voters look deeper than records, Gophers coach Niko Medved deserves consideration for that honor."

"The Gophers have a losing overall record (14-15) and a losing Big Ten record (7-11). You also won’t find a better coaching job this year, next year or any year than what Medved is doing in his first season in Dinkytown."
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Always knew I liked Chip.... :)
 


One thing that hasn't been talked about enough, is the conditioning of the players. In years past when the gophers had injuries and or decided to only play 7 guys the players didn't seem to be in great condition. The current gophers squad does not get beat back, they don't give up easy buckets and they don't stop moving without the ball on offense. That doesn't happen if the players are too gassed to make cuts. I wonder if some of the non-conference issues were still getting these guys into shape, along with learning their roles in the offense and all the iterations for each set. It's fun to watch these guys!
 

Gopher-in-Keno said:
One thing that hasn't been talked about enough, is the conditioning of the players. In years past when the gophers had injuries and or decided to only play 7 guys the players didn't seem to be in great condition. The current gophers squad does not get beat back, they don't give up easy buckets and they don't stop moving without the ball on offense. That doesn't happen if the players are too gassed to make cuts. I wonder if some of the non-conference issues were still getting these guys into shape, along with learning their roles in the offense and all the iterations for each set. It's fun to watch these guys!
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Look.....we all know what is going on here......

 




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