No need to panic! Yet.

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Otis

Otis

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Ok, so we lost our short pass first PG who shot over 40% from three and was second in NCAA in assists. Set a school single season record, in fact.

It’s not like we lost a starting Big!

Oh yeah, we did.

But we got a Canadian guy who can’t take NIL!

Now we just need to nab a PG out of the pool of 500 or so that can run the point and pass to Dawson and hopefully Christie.

This shouldn’t be too hard with all the minutes that just became available! Right?

Save your panic for when the Celtics decide, “We are pretty set and are dominating the East. Let’s take a flyer on this Christie kid who won’t challenge the lineup and we can stash in the G league for a year or two.”

Then, you are allowed to panic.
 

Though I wanna hit panic, I kind of agree here.

We all like Hawkins, but that dude is not irreplaceable.

We've got NIL to burn, and there's plenty of options still on the table.

Once again, will Ben get them? Ehhhhh unlikely. But not impossible.
 





Sure gets more fans to pay attention in the offseason which probably = even more $$$ in the marketing depts!
 

007gopherfan said:
Sure gets more fans to pay attention in the offseason which probably = even more $$$ in the marketing depts!
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irrelevant unless it is capitalizable. I dont watch shows.

Somebody might get more ad revenue. But I haven’t seen anything I’ve purchased due to an online ad in at least a decade.
 


FinnGopher said:
I'm not panicking at all.
Instead, I am packing up. There is no joy in college athletics.
There are many other things to spend money on so I will go do that.
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There is too many people that will say this and not do it. Look at all the people on this forum just waiting for the next news.
 



A year ago, few of us ever heard of Elijah Hawkins. He had a hell of a year and I was glad I got the chance to watch him for a season but, if he's gone, we're going to have to make do. Luckily, there are a lot of point guards still out there. Maybe moving to more motion and passing offense on the floor instead of a ball dominant point guard could have its upside.
 


Otis said:
Ok, so we lost our short pass first PG who shot over 40% from three and was second in NCAA in assists. Set a school single season record, in fact.

It’s not like we lost a starting Big!

Oh yeah, we did.

But we got a Canadian guy who can’t take NIL!

Now we just need to nab a PG out of the pool of 500 or so that can run the point and pass to Dawson and hopefully Christie.

This shouldn’t be too hard with all the minutes that just became available! Right?

Save your panic for when the Celtics decide, “We are pretty set and are dominating the East. Let’s take a flyer on this Christie kid who won’t challenge the lineup and we can stash in the G league for a year or two.”

Then, you are allowed to panic.
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Or OKC with their 18ish 1st round picks
 








scools12 said:
Don’t panic is all fine and good until you realize the current head coach isn’t the guy you want in charge of a program due to the current environment might need to start from scratch every season.
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And who is that we've had this century?

Calipari might be but he just took another job.
 

This could be what Asuma is waiting for. Is he ready? Who knows. But I like the possibility of good ball movement, solid D, physical presence, good asst/to ratio, get the ball to Garcia to use his strengths, score 8-10 pg, etc. BJ needs to bring in a PG who can compliment Asuma. I know, Asuma is a rookie but stuff like this has happened. Maybe it’s our turn!
 



skiumah1 said:
Won't disagree with that but Asuma played a lot of high level AAU ball, for whatever that's worth nowadays
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Give the ball to Asuma Ben. For two reasons. But first you need to change your style to a ball movement offense rather than dribble, dribble and dribble some more. My take is Asuma is built for that role. And then bring in another PG to do the same

The fans would be curious and come and watch the small town boy run a good brand of ball . Second, guys like Garcia, and maybe even Christie would be better.
 

isn't the program doomed for at least a few years with the misstep of hiring cbj? wasn't cbj hired to recruit MN players to the program and with the exodus of the three, isn't that premise out the window? Seems like a major error on the part of the program to recognize the changing landscape due to NIL

seems you either need a brand name coach that can attract top transfer talent or a coach that somehow keeps the players (ie Niko). MN has a no name coach that players are running away from
 

GopherOhana said:
isn't the program doomed for at least a few years with the misstep of hiring cbj? wasn't cbj hired to recruit MN players to the program and with the exodus of the three, isn't that premise out the window? Seems like a major error on the part of the program to recognize the changing landscape due to NIL

seems you either need a brand name coach that can attract top transfer talent or a coach that somehow keeps the players (ie Niko). MN has a no name coach that players are running away from
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If CBJ fails this year- you go out and hire a new coach with a pile of guaranteed NIL to support him, just like Mussy got at USC (it was assured to him).
If CBJ succeeds this year- NCAAs is the bar at this point- then you go out and get him a pile of NIL to make the next step.
That's reality. BTW- from what I can see- Niko is looking for a whole new team. Half graduated and the other half are in the portal.
 

Bayfieldgopher said:
Give the ball to Asuma Ben. For two reasons. But first you need to change your style to a ball movement offense rather than dribble, dribble and dribble some more. My take is Asuma is built for that role. And then bring in another PG to do the same

The fans would be curious and come and watch the small town boy run a good brand of ball . Second, guys like Garcia, and maybe even Christie would be better.
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If they can keep Christie, get another big athletic wing like Evans, a combo kid who can handle it defend plus one more rotation big- I think this could still be an NCAA team. Change the identity to ball movement, rebounding and defense. Asuma can lead that.

Garcia
Mitchell
Christie
Evans
Asuma

6th man -Mitchell
Betts, Oregon kid combo guard, 6-10 big defender, Grove- all rotation players

I like that group!
 

bga1 said:
If they can keep Christie, get another big athletic wing like Evans, a combo kid who can handle it defend plus one more rotation big- I think this could still be an NCAA team. Change the identity to ball movement, rebounding and defense. Asuma can lead that.

Garcia
Mitchell
Christie
Evans
Asuma

6th man -Mitchell
Betts, Oregon kid combo guard, 6-10 big defender, Grove- all rotation players

I like that group!
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I agree, what will be hard to replace is Hawkins shooting, that really made a difference, defensively because of his size Hawkins was a liability that shouldn't exist anymore.

I would use Hawkins as an example for those who claim Johnson can't coach. He wasn't that good to start the season, around the Missouri game or there after his approach to the game changed completely. He stopped forcing things, facilitated more, and made shots when needed. Doubt that happened out of the blue.
 

bga1 said:
Asuma can lead that.
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If that were the case, that certainly would be a departure from the norm in the conference these days. There were 17 Big Ten players who averaged 2.8 or more assists per game this season. All but one was a guard. None were freshmen. Five were sophs (Thornton and Gayle of OSU, Smith of Purdue, Simpson of Rutgers, and Clary of Penn State).

Ever since the portal blew up in 2021, the fashion (among the power conferences anyway) is to go with maturity and experience and that may be especially true with point guards. None of the players on the all freshmen team this year were point guards.
 

bga1 said:
If CBJ fails this year- you go out and hire a new coach with a pile of guaranteed NIL to support him, just like Mussy got at USC (it was assured to him).
If CBJ succeeds this year- NCAAs is the bar at this point- then you go out and get him a pile of NIL to make the next step.
That's reality. BTW- from what I can see- Niko is looking for a whole new team. Half graduated and the other half are in the portal.
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If Niko is looking for a whole new team, why not do it at Minnesota right now?
 

Looking into analytics here, regarding roster losses and additions. Minnesota finished this past season with an AdjOffEff rating of 113.8, and an AdjDefEff rating 103.1
Using Torvik's ("Sausagemaker") RosterCast which uses player's analytics throughout college careers creating potential rosters, Minnesota currently ranks as #69 best roster in NCAA BB, without any further additions at PG or Center (only Frank Mitchell already included).

IF MN added current targets PG Brennan Rigsby (6'3" Jr. Oregon), and C Keenan Fitzmorris (7' Sr. Stonybrook) the MN roster rank jumps up to #48, while the AdjOE bounces to 114.5 and AdjDE drops to 98.8. Teams with those numbers fell into the #28-40 final TRank, most of which made the NCAA tournament. Teams like Neb/Nev/WF/TexTech/NW/ColoSt/Utah/WashSt/OhioSt. Thus, by adding gettable portal additions, MN should be an improved team for '24-25, solidly in the mix for MM.

If hypothetically, MN somehow added a PG like Seth Trimble (NC), Aiden Mahoney (SMC), or Kerr Kriisa (WV) the roster rank would drop slightly but still be in that ballpark.
 

TwistingMyMelon said:
If that were the case, that certainly would be a departure from the norm in the conference these days. There were 17 Big Ten players who averaged 2.8 or more assists per game this season. All but one was a guard. None were freshmen. Five were sophs (Thornton and Gayle of OSU, Smith of Purdue, Simpson of Rutgers, and Clary of Penn State).

Ever since the portal blew up in 2021, the fashion (among the power conferences anyway) is to go with maturity and experience and that may be especially true with point guards. None of the players on the all freshmen team this year were point guards.
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Is it ideal? No. Could he do it? Maybe. Mitchell can handle it some and maybe they get another combo like Rigsby to help.

Ideally they get a starting PG that can facilitate, hit the open jumper and drive to the bucket- certainly Asuma is the backup plan.
 

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