***OFFICIAL BETHUNE-COOKMAN SEASON OPENING IN-GAME THREAD!!!***

Donate To GopherHole


bga1 said:
I'm impressed with Garcia who has a different mindset than he started last year with. He is taking charge and that's good to see.
Payne has got to have a goal of going out and getting 10 boards and let the offense come to him. Pick up the scraps, get some put backs and move the ball when it comes into his hands.
Mitchell, Carrington, Hawkins, Christie and Ihnen give us a nice group of guys that can hit shots.
I was encouraged with Ihnen's play all around. He drove to the bucket out of the half court offense for a score which has been rare for him.

There is a lot to work with here. They need to play better, much better, defensively.
Click to expand...
Yeah, Garcia seemed determined. Almost like a point forward last night at times. 6 of the 17 assists.
Who knows about Christie? Hopefully he brings something. Need another guard in the mix.
 


fan of Ray Williams said:
Who knows about Christie? Hopefully he brings something. Need another guard in the mix.
Click to expand...

Yes. I thought that picking up an under-the-radar international freshman was a decent enough move for later in the summer but I would have preferred that BJ had picked up another guard (could have been an international one). Playing with only 4 guards on the roster is a bit dicey because if one is hurt or just not good enough, you're left with only three. Then, you're really in trouble if one of those three is injured or not capable of playing significant minutes. This is the situation we had last year (Carrington hurt, Samuels not good enough) and it was also the situation that Pitino had in his best season. Pitino had good luck in keeping his 3 capable guards healthy until the Big Ten tournament but once Springs was injured, the team was diminished significantly.
 


TwistingMyMelon said:
Yes. I thought that picking up an under-the-radar international freshman was a decent enough move for later in the summer but I would have preferred that BJ had picked up another guard (could have been an international one). Playing with only 4 guards on the roster is a bit dicey because if one is hurt or just not good enough, you're left with only three. Then, you're really in trouble if one of those three is injured or not capable of playing significant minutes. This is the situation we had last year (Carrington hurt, Samuels not good enough) and it was also the situation that Pitino had in his best season. Pitino had good luck in keeping his 3 capable guards healthy until the Big Ten tournament but once Springs was injured, the team was diminished significantly.
Click to expand...
Yup, with you on the guard situation.
 

fan of Ray Williams said:
Yeah, Garcia seemed determined. Almost like a point forward last night at times. 6 of the 17 assists.
Click to expand...

This is his year. He is the acknowledged leader and he confirmed that on opening night. Ben hinted after Battle entered the portal that there were some conflicting personal dynamics on last year's team. Maybe Garcia and Battle didn't play well together.
 


My opinion
Carrington has improved and gotten a lot stronger (and healthier)
Payne played like he is still hurt, made some poor ball control decisions
Garcia is a ...well.... STUD!
JOJ....can jump to the moon. He will get a bunch of minutes again
Fox..looks like he will contribute some
II ... Looks a bit slow but his length will get him minuntes
Hawkins is better than i thought
Mitchel... is what I thought...OK
Betts...has a bunch of work to do
Wilson..... one big f...ker

as a team, we are better than last year. Teams needs to work on being a team.
Defense needs work

on to UTSA
 




Turnovers and rebounding were frustrating to watch, but the outside shooting and overall ball movement leaves a lot to be enthusiastic about! Ihnen and Fox going to be big factors coming up. Wish Fox was thicker to bang down low- but then he'd probably lose some of that explosiveness (and doesn't need the extra weight on reconstructed knees)

Nice to see some offensive aggressiveness from BC!

Kinda cool to have a backup pg on the roster! Who knew that was an important roster spot to fill?

Can't wait to see how we do in our match on Friday.
 





Payne was a little tentative coming off the injury. let's see what he looks like on Friday.

Johnson also said that he expects Christie to see some minutes on Friday. when he's healthy, that adds another player to the mix.

as someone else said, almost ideal for a coach. Won the game, but made enough mistakes so that the team can't get too cocky and there is plenty to work on in practice.

Marcus Fuller in the Strib is talking a lot about the goal being to play at a faster tempo. so they have to learn how to try and limit turnovers in those situations while still trying to be aggressive.

and I suspect a lot of drills about boxing out and matching up to limit the other team's offensive rebounds.

take the win - try to improve for the next game.
 



60's Guy said:
Are we better or worse? Let's wait and see what Christie brings to the mix.
Keep in mind...we have struggled with D3 Macalester and #350 Bethune Cookman.
Click to expand...
Lol, winning each game by 20+ is struggling?

There were frustrating moments in both games (Macalester defensively and BCU offensively), but neither game was ever in question.

The floor and ceiling of this team are much higher this year than the previous two, and it's not even debatable.

There is still plenty to work on, admittedly, but it's okay to acknowledge improvement!
 

topos said:
There is still plenty to work on, admittedly, but it's okay to acknowledge improvement!
Click to expand...

No, for some people here, it is not.

There are multiple posters on this board who want this team to fail. They want the team to fail because they want Ben Johnson gone yesterday and they care far more about the affirmation of their beliefs that the coach is a total loser than they care about the success of this Gopher team.
 

TwistingMyMelon said:
No, for some people here, it is not.

There are multiple posters on this board who want this team to fail. They want the team to fail because they want Ben Johnson gone yesterday and they care far more about the affirmation of their beliefs that the coach is a total loser than they care about the success of this Gopher team.
Click to expand...
I only see one poster in that category. Many are cynical and not hopeful about the situation, but that doesn’t equate to wanting the team to fail.
 

Holy Man said:
I only see one poster in that category. Many are cynical and not hopeful about the situation, but that doesn’t equate to wanting the team to fail.
Click to expand...

There are more than one. I won't name names but there are at least three or four and possibly more.
 

Johnnyboy18 said:
Do you know what the word struggle means?
Click to expand...
Macalester was ahead or close most of the first half. If a Big Ten team is playing a middle of the road D3 team...I'd say that is struggling.
BC cut it to 9, 10, 11whatever in the second half. At two different times they forced us to call time outs. They are at the bottom of DI rankings.
Maybe struggled is too strong? But we only dominated for very short stretches. We had extremely favorable officials vs BC which was a greater impediment to their game than what we provided.
I think you need to remember what conference we are in and who our opponents have been.
 

topos said:
The floor and ceiling of this team are much higher this year than the previous two, and it's not even debatable.
Click to expand...
Not trying to be a wet blanket here, but games against Macalaster and Bethune Cookman really don't tell us anything about the floor or the ceiling this year. We might need to see a little more. 🤷‍♂️
 

topos said:
The floor and ceiling of this team are much higher this year than the previous two, and it's not even debatable.
Click to expand...

It's definitely still debatable. It has been one game and we beat one of the worst teams in the country by 20.

The only relevant comparison to last year right now is when we played St. Francis Brooklyn who was ranked similarily on Ken Pom. We won that game by 18, without Battle or Carrington. Samuels played 29 minutes, Ramberg 28, and TT 19.

So with 'better players' this season we beat a similarly ranked opponent by one more basket. And we weren't outplayed in the 2nd half of last seasons game either, like we were last night. St Thomas went out and hammered that same team by 36 the next game.
 

GopherWeatherGuy said:
It's definitely still debatable. It has been one game and we beat one of the worst teams in the country by 20.

The only relevant comparison to last year right now is when we played St. Francis Brooklyn who was ranked similarily on Ken Pom. We won that game by 18, without Battle or Carrington. Samuels played 29 minutes, Ramberg 28, and TT 19.

So with 'better players' this season we beat a similarly ranked opponent by one more basket. And we weren't outplayed in the 2nd half of last seasons game either, like we were last night. St Thomas went out and hammered that same team by 36 the next game.
Click to expand...
Just watch with your eyeballs. Any objective basketball fan sees more depth, athleticism, and experience.

There's no need to cherry-pick games from last year to compare to. And if you are, why not point out that W. Michigan was also +300 net (similar to Bethune), and we won by 1 point? Lol.

I mentioned there were frustrating stretches in both games thus far. There's plenty to work on.

But do you really think we'll finish the season at 200+ Kenpom, even with the small sample size you've seen thus far?
 

golfing18now said:
Not trying to be a wet blanket here, but games against Macalaster and Bethune Cookman really don't tell us anything about the floor or the ceiling this year. We might need to see a little more. 🤷‍♂️
Click to expand...

I posted earlier in this thread that I was looking at these early season games against weaker opponents to see if the Gophers could score significantly more and have a higher margin of victory in the early season than they did at this time last year. I also mentioned in that post that this team didn't hit the 80 point mark once last season and only hit the 70 point mark 7 times in 31 games.

Here are some figures from games with weaker nonconference opponents last season.

TEAM and RECORDMN POINTSVICTORY MARGIN
W. Michigan (opener); 8-23
61​
1​
C. Michigan; 10-21
68​
8​
Chicago State; 11-20
58​
3​

So, in the first game of the season, the team scored more points than they did in any game last year and won by 20 despite a fairly poor second half. I think there is reason to believe that the ceiling for this team is higher than last year's team.
 

topos said:
Just watch with your eyeballs. Any objective basketball fan sees more depth, athleticism, and experience.

There's no need to cherry-pick games from last year to compare to. And if you are, why not point out that W. Michigan was also +300 net (similar to Bethune), and we won by 1 point? Lol.

I mentioned there were frustrating stretches in both games thus far. There's plenty to work on.

But do you really think we'll finish the season at 200+ Kenpom, even with the small sample size you've seen thus far?
Click to expand...
We play an actual team in 9 days. We'll know a lot more then.
 

topos said:
There's no need to cherry-pick games from last year to compare to. And if you are, why not point out that W. Michigan was also +300 net (similar to Bethune), and we won by 1 point? Lol.
Click to expand...

GWG cherry picking? Oh, please, say it isn't so.

Well done!
 

topos said:
Just watch with your eyeballs. Any objective basketball fan sees more depth, athleticism, and experience.

There's no need to cherry-pick games from last year to compare to. And if you are, why not point out that W. Michigan was also +300 net (similar to Bethune), and we won by 1 point? Lol.

I mentioned there were frustrating stretches in both games thus far. There's plenty to work on.

But do you really think we'll finish the season at 200+ Kenpom, even with the small sample size you've seen thus far?
Click to expand...

I'm not cherry picking, Bethune Cookman was ranked 349 last season, St Francis was 355. Pretty similar. Western Michigan was 323, so 26-32 spots higher plus they play in a better conference. Saying 300+ and lumping 62 teams together is cherry picking.

UTSA, although not good, is better than all of them, so that game should give us a little better idea.

I'm not arguing that this team doesn't 'look better' and is more athletic, it does, but you could have said that about last years team compared to year 1. But they weren't better at basketball on the court.

The main problem with this team is the problem I and others have mentioned since recruiting ended. There is no 3 on this roster. Teams with good wings, which is most of the B1G and P6 conferences, will hammer this team at that position on offense.
 


Chico Gopher said:
I guess I'm just risk adverse when I have no control over what happens. There's a lot of stuff I would likely bet on if I am personally involved in it, meaning that if there is a way for me to affect the outcome, no matter how unlikely, I'm willing to bet. But if there is no possible way for me to affect the outcome, I'm out.
Click to expand...
With gambling, you either have the bug or you don’t. You’re correct. There is not a logical reason to gamble so if you don’t have the bug, I’m sure gambling just feels idiotic.

It reminds me of a video where neil degrasse Tyson was confidently making an incorrect argument. He was arguing that if people really understood the odds, they wouldn’t dump their money at casinos. He couldn’t me more wrong. Vegas makes their money off people who gamble a ton and know the odds. A high stakes black Jack table is full of people who get it, but gamble anyway. It’s a compulsion, not a logical attempt to make money,

So to answer your question, we like to gamble because it’s fun. The fact that we have no control - like flipping a card or rolling dice - is part of what makes it fun.
 

You must log in or register to reply here.



Top Bottom