***OFFICIAL IOWA AT MINNESOTA IN-GAME THREAD!!!***

If this was the Football board, we would get a lot of "trust the coaches" opinions.

So, I'll go with that. The coaches watch practice every day. they see what players do well, and what they don't do well, and that determines playing time.

Does anyone really think that Ben Johnson, in his first year as a D1 Head Coach, would keep a player on the bench if he thought that player could help his team win?

"Yeah, he's really good, but I'm not going to play him because of........reasons......"

Sorry, don't buy it.
 


Wow! These guys are the best. They came within 3 in the last 5 minutes of a game where we have 6 players out (Fox and Ihnen too). So much heart but also talent. They play as a team. Extremely well-coached and never give up. This is the easiest Gopher basketball team to support in a long time. Hats off to them and the coaches.
 

If this was the Football board, we would get a lot of "trust the coaches" opinions.

So, I'll go with that. The coaches watch practice every day. they see what players do well, and what they don't do well, and that determines playing time.

Does anyone really think that Ben Johnson, in his first year as a D1 Head Coach, would keep a player on the bench if he thought that player could help his team win?

"Yeah, he's really good, but I'm not going to play him because of........reasons......"

Sorry, don't buy it.
Not one person that I have seen has said TT is really good.
After today it is apparent he should get some minutes. Each game.
 

Wow! These guys are the best. They came within 3 in the last 5 minutes of a game where we have 6 players out (Fox and Ihnen too). So much heart but also talent. They play as a team. Extremely well-coached and never give up. This is the easiest Gopher basketball team to support in a long time. Hats off to them and the coaches.
Agree. My favorite Gopher team in many years. Love the way they go about their business. Love the culture being built. Best chance of sustainable winning in seasons going forward.
 


If this was the Football board, we would get a lot of "trust the coaches" opinions.

So, I'll go with that. The coaches watch practice every day. they see what players do well, and what they don't do well, and that determines playing time.

Does anyone really think that Ben Johnson, in his first year as a D1 Head Coach, would keep a player on the bench if he thought that player could help his team win?

"Yeah, he's really good, but I'm not going to play him because of........reasons......"

Sorry, don't buy it.
Don't forget the other football board theme -- culture buy-in. When coaches say a guy needs to earn playing time they sometimes mean something more than physical performance in practice.
 


It's not surprising, but still disappointing to see the Gophers "effort" praised in a game like this. They were at home against a below average Big Ten team in what was virtually a must win game for their season. The effort was atrocious in getting down as much as 24 points. Tons of easy offensive rebounds given up. There wasn't the scrappiness you saw from this squad in earlier games. The easiest time to "fight back" is when your oppposition has been up 15 or more for much of the game and it's almost impossible to come back. If the shoe was on the other foot, the analysis from many of the same posters would be "Gophers dominated, but the they got bored/lacked focus...still I was never concerned about a loss...nice wake up call that you need to play 40 minutes". The effort in the large portion of the game that allowed them to get down 24 is a lot more meaningful than coming back using a zone where your opponent shoots 1-9 from 3 during that stretch (and only 5-22 for the game and you still lost by double digits...).

As for Thompson, they had 8 guys available and Ben didn't put him in until they were down 20 deep in the second half. Rebraca and McCaffery are not tough matchups and don't bring the physicality that most B1G front court players will. I am going to be critical where it's warranted, but I am not sure we've seen enough evidence to say "Ben should be playing Thompson".

TJ and Shaka are leaving Ben in the dust right now. Both are now on track to make the tournament and both racked up nice wins again this weekend. I'd say there was still time to turn things around, but I am not sure there is anymore. Falling to 1-5 in the conference and 0-3 at home is a massive hole to climb out of. Even the moral victory of playing MSU close was taken away from us when Northwestern went in to East Lansing and won without their best player. Post Michigan, the team has been consistently underwhelming.
 

Wow! These guys are the best. They came within 3 in the last 5 minutes of a game where we have 6 players out (Fox and Ihnen too). So much heart but also talent. They play as a team. Extremely well-coached and never give up. This is the easiest Gopher basketball team to support in a long time. Hats off to them and the coaches.
Not that I think Ben had any other choice, but this culture is being built but guys where over 75% of them cannot be here next year. We’ll have to see what the actual wave of home grown players can do.
 



Remember with the TT hype that Iowa is probably the most likely Big 10 team (including Nebraska in this list) where I could say, “throw a brand new big man in there and he’ll put up numbers.”

Theyre a good team but they’re very soft. Let’s see what TT does against most other teams with a tough presence inside.
 

It's not surprising, but still disappointing to see the Gophers "effort" praised in a game like this. They were at home against a below average Big Ten team in what was virtually a must win game for their season. The effort was atrocious in getting down as much as 24 points. Tons of easy offensive rebounds given up. There wasn't the scrappiness you saw from this squad in earlier games. The easiest time to "fight back" is when your oppposition has been up 15 or more for much of the game and it's almost impossible to come back. If the shoe was on the other foot, the analysis from many of the same posters would be "Gophers dominated, but the they got bored/lacked focus...still I was never concerned about a loss...nice wake up call that you need to play 40 minutes". The effort in the large portion of the game that allowed them to get down 24 is a lot more meaningful than coming back using a zone where your opponent shoots 1-9 from 3 during that stretch (and only 5-22 for the game and you still lost by double digits...).

As for Thompson, they had 8 guys available and Ben didn't put him in until they were down 20 deep in the second half. Rebraca and McCaffery are not tough matchups and don't bring the physicality that most B1G front court players will. I am going to be critical where it's warranted, but I am not sure we've seen enough evidence to say "Ben should be playing Thompson".

TJ and Shaka are leaving Ben in the dust right now. Both are now on track to make the tournament and both racked up nice wins again this weekend. I'd say there was still time to turn things around, but I am not sure there is anymore. Falling to 1-5 in the conference and 0-3 at home is a massive hole to climb out of. Even the moral victory of playing MSU close was taken away from us when Northwestern went in to East Lansing and won without their best player. Post Michigan, the team has been consistently underwhelming.
They've been consistently underwhelming due to very little talent. Good Grief, you are worried about making the tournament.

They couldn't rebound because they have little length and nothing inside. This is a year to just watch the games and in a way, kind of get it over with.
 

It's not surprising, but still disappointing to see the Gophers "effort" praised in a game like this. They were at home against a below average Big Ten team in what was virtually a must win game for their season. The effort was atrocious in getting down as much as 24 points. Tons of easy offensive rebounds given up. There wasn't the scrappiness you saw from this squad in earlier games. The easiest time to "fight back" is when your oppposition has been up 15 or more for much of the game and it's almost impossible to come back. If the shoe was on the other foot, the analysis from many of the same posters would be "Gophers dominated, but the they got bored/lacked focus...still I was never concerned about a loss...nice wake up call that you need to play 40 minutes". The effort in the large portion of the game that allowed them to get down 24 is a lot more meaningful than coming back using a zone where your opponent shoots 1-9 from 3 during that stretch (and only 5-22 for the game and you still lost by double digits...).

As for Thompson, they had 8 guys available and Ben didn't put him in until they were down 20 deep in the second half. Rebraca and McCaffery are not tough matchups and don't bring the physicality that most B1G front court players will. I am going to be critical where it's warranted, but I am not sure we've seen enough evidence to say "Ben should be playing Thompson".

TJ and Shaka are leaving Ben in the dust right now. Both are now on track to make the tournament and both racked up nice wins again this weekend. I'd say there was still time to turn things around, but I am not sure there is anymore. Falling to 1-5 in the conference and 0-3 at home is a massive hole to climb out of. Even the moral victory of playing MSU close was taken away from us when Northwestern went in to East Lansing and won without their best player. Post Michigan, the team has been consistently underwhelming.
To be fair—Michigan is currently .500 and that win looks pretty meh. They don’t have many good wins, if any. Michigan may be the most disappointing team in the country based on preseason rankings.
 

It's not surprising, but still disappointing to see the Gophers "effort" praised in a game like this. They were at home against a below average Big Ten team in what was virtually a must win game for their season. The effort was atrocious in getting down as much as 24 points. Tons of easy offensive rebounds given up. There wasn't the scrappiness you saw from this squad in earlier games. The easiest time to "fight back" is when your oppposition has been up 15 or more for much of the game and it's almost impossible to come back. If the shoe was on the other foot, the analysis from many of the same posters would be "Gophers dominated, but the they got bored/lacked focus...still I was never concerned about a loss...nice wake up call that you need to play 40 minutes". The effort in the large portion of the game that allowed them to get down 24 is a lot more meaningful than coming back using a zone where your opponent shoots 1-9 from 3 during that stretch (and only 5-22 for the game and you still lost by double digits...).

As for Thompson, they had 8 guys available and Ben didn't put him in until they were down 20 deep in the second half. Rebraca and McCaffery are not tough matchups and don't bring the physicality that most B1G front court players will. I am going to be critical where it's warranted, but I am not sure we've seen enough evidence to say "Ben should be playing Thompson".

TJ and Shaka are leaving Ben in the dust right now. Both are now on track to make the tournament and both racked up nice wins again this weekend. I'd say there was still time to turn things around, but I am not sure there is anymore. Falling to 1-5 in the conference and 0-3 at home is a massive hole to climb out of. Even the moral victory of playing MSU close was taken away from us when Northwestern went in to East Lansing and won without their best player. Post Michigan, the team has been consistently underwhelming.
If you had this high of expectations, you weren't weighing the evidence very carefully in my opinion.
 



It's not surprising, but still disappointing to see the Gophers "effort" praised in a game like this. They were at home against a below average Big Ten team in what was virtually a must win game for their season. The effort was atrocious in getting down as much as 24 points. Tons of easy offensive rebounds given up. There wasn't the scrappiness you saw from this squad in earlier games. The easiest time to "fight back" is when your oppposition has been up 15 or more for much of the game and it's almost impossible to come back. If the shoe was on the other foot, the analysis from many of the same posters would be "Gophers dominated, but the they got bored/lacked focus...still I was never concerned about a loss...nice wake up call that you need to play 40 minutes". The effort in the large portion of the game that allowed them to get down 24 is a lot more meaningful than coming back using a zone where your opponent shoots 1-9 from 3 during that stretch (and only 5-22 for the game and you still lost by double digits...).

As for Thompson, they had 8 guys available and Ben didn't put him in until they were down 20 deep in the second half. Rebraca and McCaffery are not tough matchups and don't bring the physicality that most B1G front court players will. I am going to be critical where it's warranted, but I am not sure we've seen enough evidence to say "Ben should be playing Thompson".

TJ and Shaka are leaving Ben in the dust right now. Both are now on track to make the tournament and both racked up nice wins again this weekend. I'd say there was still time to turn things around, but I am not sure there is anymore. Falling to 1-5 in the conference and 0-3 at home is a massive hole to climb out of. Even the moral victory of playing MSU close was taken away from us when Northwestern went in to East Lansing and won without their best player. Post Michigan, the team has been consistently underwhelming.
Did you miss the part about an already short handed team missing 2 key parts of the rotation today? if you had high hopes for making the tournament this year you really haven’t been paying attention.
 

Remember with the TT hype that Iowa is probably the most likely Big 10 team (including Nebraska in this list) where I could say, “throw a brand new big man in there and he’ll put up numbers.”

Theyre a good team but they’re very soft. Let’s see what TT does against most other teams with a tough presence inside.
He may well struggle. Thats ok. Next season, gh will be whining about lack of experience for some players.......
 

He may well struggle. Thats ok. Next season, gh will be whining about lack of experience for some players.......

I agree, just throw him out and so we know what we got. Roster nearly turns over next year, we need as much experience as we can get.
 

TJ and Shaka are leaving Ben in the dust right now. Both are now on track to make the tournament and both racked up nice wins again this weekend. I'd say there was still time to turn things around, but I am not sure there is anymore. Falling to 1-5 in the conference and 0-3 at home is a massive hole to climb out of. Even the moral victory of playing MSU close was taken away from us when Northwestern went in to East Lansing and won without their best player. Post Michigan, the team has been consistently underwhelming.
While I would have loved to take a run at Shaka, I don't think either he or TJ were ever seriously considered.
 

It's not surprising, but still disappointing to see the Gophers "effort" praised in a game like this. They were at home against a below average Big Ten team in what was virtually a must win game for their season. The effort was atrocious in getting down as much as 24 points. Tons of easy offensive rebounds given up. There wasn't the scrappiness you saw from this squad in earlier games. The easiest time to "fight back" is when your oppposition has been up 15 or more for much of the game and it's almost impossible to come back. If the shoe was on the other foot, the analysis from many of the same posters would be "Gophers dominated, but the they got bored/lacked focus...still I was never concerned about a loss...nice wake up call that you need to play 40 minutes". The effort in the large portion of the game that allowed them to get down 24 is a lot more meaningful than coming back using a zone where your opponent shoots 1-9 from 3 during that stretch (and only 5-22 for the game and you still lost by double digits...).

As for Thompson, they had 8 guys available and Ben didn't put him in until they were down 20 deep in the second half. Rebraca and McCaffery are not tough matchups and don't bring the physicality that most B1G front court players will. I am going to be critical where it's warranted, but I am not sure we've seen enough evidence to say "Ben should be playing Thompson".

TJ and Shaka are leaving Ben in the dust right now. Both are now on track to make the tournament and both racked up nice wins again this weekend. I'd say there was still time to turn things around, but I am not sure there is anymore. Falling to 1-5 in the conference and 0-3 at home is a massive hole to climb out of. Even the moral victory of playing MSU close was taken away from us when Northwestern went in to East Lansing and won without their best player. Post Michigan, the team has been consistently underwhelming.

Using TJ and Shaka as knocks on Ben right now is pretty outrageous. ISU has been quite the surprise and TJ deserves major credit, but that is still a better roster. Brockington is a legit player. Hunter a legit recruit. Gabe was a guy we literally lost.

Shaka due to his name and pedigree was able to take a much different approach to his team than Ben. Where Ben had to basically dumpster dive and snag super seniors who played on teams that would be Quad 4 buy games for the Gophers and a retread who has transferred like 7 times. Shaka was able to bring FOUR recruits with him from Texas. Got 2 more of Wojos to stay signed. His two veteran impact transfers came from Oklahoma and Maryland(reigning Big10 defensive player of the year) while bringing in two other freshman from Clemson and George Mason.

Sorry, but Maryland and Oklahoma rotation players are more likely to hit than guys from Lafayette, William & Mary, SFA and New Hampshire.

Also, love Currys heart as much as the next guy but he was the best(and really only guy) Johnson returned. Even with two fully healthy legs hes never gonna be Justin Lewis.

Its been impressive how Shaka has gotten such a young and inexperienced team to be competitive especially as they learn his offense. But lets not act like its anything that can be used as a knock on Ben.
 

Using TJ and Shaka as knocks on Ben right now is pretty outrageous. ISU has been quite the surprise and TJ deserves major credit, but that is still a better roster. Brockington is a legit player. Hunter a legit recruit. Gabe was a guy we literally lost.

Shaka due to his name and pedigree was able to take a much different approach to his team than Ben. Where Ben had to basically dumpster dive and snag super seniors who played on teams that would be Quad 4 buy games for the Gophers and a retread who has transferred like 7 times. Shaka was able to bring FOUR recruits with him from Texas. Got 2 more of Wojos to stay signed. His two veteran impact transfers came from Oklahoma and Maryland(reigning Big10 defensive player of the year) while bringing in two other freshman from Clemson and George Mason.

Sorry, but Maryland and Oklahoma rotation players are more likely to hit than guys from Lafayette, William & Mary, SFA and New Hampshire.

Also, love Currys heart as much as the next guy but he was the best(and really only guy) Johnson returned. Even with two fully healthy legs hes never gonna be Justin Lewis.

Its been impressive how Shaka has gotten such a young and inexperienced team to be competitive especially as they learn his offense. But lets not act like its anything that can be used as a knock on Ben.
Great rational post! Well said, Ben is racing in the indy 500 with a geo metro, if anyone actually thought we were making the big dance this year I'm sorry, but your objective skills need to be assessed. This is a scrappy and fun group to watch if you accept the reality of their makeup.
 

Remember with the TT hype that Iowa is probably the most likely Big 10 team (including Nebraska in this list) where I could say, “throw a brand new big man in there and he’ll put up numbers.”

Theyre a good team but they’re very soft. Let’s see what TT does against most other teams with a tough presence inside.
Why play him in that case, you know it will be a mismatch, Illinois, Mich St, Ohio St to name a few, teams like Iowa, Nebraska, Wisconsin, Nw that don't have a physical dominating center play him, he's got skills that will help, he should get some minutes
 

Using TJ and Shaka as knocks on Ben right now is pretty outrageous. ISU has been quite the surprise and TJ deserves major credit, but that is still a better roster. Brockington is a legit player. Hunter a legit recruit. Gabe was a guy we literally lost.

Shaka due to his name and pedigree was able to take a much different approach to his team than Ben. Where Ben had to basically dumpster dive and snag super seniors who played on teams that would be Quad 4 buy games for the Gophers and a retread who has transferred like 7 times. Shaka was able to bring FOUR recruits with him from Texas. Got 2 more of Wojos to stay signed. His two veteran impact transfers came from Oklahoma and Maryland(reigning Big10 defensive player of the year) while bringing in two other freshman from Clemson and George Mason.

Sorry, but Maryland and Oklahoma rotation players are more likely to hit than guys from Lafayette, William & Mary, SFA and New Hampshire.

Also, love Currys heart as much as the next guy but he was the best(and really only guy) Johnson returned. Even with two fully healthy legs hes never gonna be Justin Lewis.

Its been impressive how Shaka has gotten such a young and inexperienced team to be competitive especially as they learn his offense. But lets not act like its anything that can be used as a knock on Ben.
TJ built the roster. As you said, BJ used a different approach - his own choice. This reeks of excuses.
 

TJ built the roster. As you said, BJ used a different approach - his own choice. This reeks of excuses.

Yup.

Even in year 1 if this team looked like a total dumpster fire and was not competetive in rarely any games(not the case) then sure there could be some early job questions.

But questioning Ben based off basically the gophers "resume" compared to a few other new coaches. Is insane. Completely different siuations.

Any objective eye who has watched this team this year would say things look far better than expected.
 

Using TJ and Shaka as knocks on Ben right now is pretty outrageous. ISU has been quite the surprise and TJ deserves major credit, but that is still a better roster. Brockington is a legit player. Hunter a legit recruit. Gabe was a guy we literally lost.

Shaka due to his name and pedigree was able to take a much different approach to his team than Ben. Where Ben had to basically dumpster dive and snag super seniors who played on teams that would be Quad 4 buy games for the Gophers and a retread who has transferred like 7 times. Shaka was able to bring FOUR recruits with him from Texas. Got 2 more of Wojos to stay signed. His two veteran impact transfers came from Oklahoma and Maryland(reigning Big10 defensive player of the year) while bringing in two other freshman from Clemson and George Mason.

Sorry, but Maryland and Oklahoma rotation players are more likely to hit than guys from Lafayette, William & Mary, SFA and New Hampshire.

Also, love Currys heart as much as the next guy but he was the best(and really only guy) Johnson returned. Even with two fully healthy legs hes never gonna be Justin Lewis.

Its been impressive how Shaka has gotten such a young and inexperienced team to be competitive especially as they learn his offense. But lets not act like its anything that can be used as a knock on Ben.
Nice post.

Additionally, both TJ & Shaka have prior D1 head coaching experience. Ben is learning as he goes and obviously he won’t do everything correctly on his first go around - no one in any job does.

some people thrive on negativity; 🌧 on 🌞 people - makes them comfortable.
 

Yup.

Even in year 1 if this team looked like a total dumpster fire and was not competetive in rarely any games(not the case) then sure there could be some early job questions.

But questioning Ben based off basically the gophers "resume" compared to a few other new coaches. Is insane. Completely different siuations.

Any objective eye who has watched this team this year would say things look far better than expected.
Early job questions? Not sure what you mean.

I dont think the situation at ISU is much different. Last year was horrible for them, they hired a new coach. Marquette lost a ton of players and brought in a ton. Both teams are performing pretty darn well, imo.

Right now, MN conf record is poor. They performed well against the non con. The non con opposition was pretty weak, for the most part. The differences in getting higher impact players between ISU/Mar/MN is striking. This is the preferred path of BJ.

I like the way this years squad plays, and I HATED hero ball so I understand your last comment.

The TT conversation is interesting to me. If you are indeed building for the future, he appears to be a kid I would want to get minutes this year. I LOVE having 7 footers on the roster. TT appears he can play a bit, and it appears he has an edge to him, which I like. They have to get game experience at some point. What better season to do that?
 

Early job questions? Not sure what you mean.

I dont think the situation at ISU is much different. Last year was horrible for them, they hired a new coach. Marquette lost a ton of players and brought in a ton. Both teams are performing pretty darn well, imo.

Right now, MN conf record is poor. They performed well against the non con. The non con opposition was pretty weak, for the most part. The differences in getting higher impact players between ISU/Mar/MN is striking. This is the preferred path of BJ.

I like the way this years squad plays, and I HATED hero ball so I understand your last comment.

The TT conversation is interesting to me. If you are indeed building for the future, he appears to be a kid I would want to get minutes this year. I LOVE having 7 footers on the roster. TT appears he can play a bit, and it appears he has an edge to him, which I like. They have to get game experience at some point. What better season to do that?
Iowa State is 2-4 in conference. Main difference between the two is that a top 4 projected player for them didn't tear his ACL during the summer. Similar stats up and down the roster but Minnesota can only play 7 due to injuries.
 
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Iowa State is 2-4 in conference. Main difference between the two is that a top 4 projected player for them didn't tear his ACL during the summer. Similar stats up and down the roster but Minnesota can only play 7 due to injuries.
ISU is ranked quite highly, and their roster is markedly better than MN. I guess we'll have to wait until the end of the season to really see the final results.
 

Early job questions? Not sure what you mean.

I dont think the situation at ISU is much different. Last year was horrible for them, they hired a new coach. Marquette lost a ton of players and brought in a ton. Both teams are performing pretty darn well, imo.

Right now, MN conf record is poor. They performed well against the non con. The non con opposition was pretty weak, for the most part. The differences in getting higher impact players between ISU/Mar/MN is striking. This is the preferred path of BJ.

I like the way this years squad plays, and I HATED hero ball so I understand your last comment.

The TT conversation is interesting to me. If you are indeed building for the future, he appears to be a kid I would want to get minutes this year. I LOVE having 7 footers on the roster. TT appears he can play a bit, and it appears he has an edge to him, which I like. They have to get game experience at some point. What better season to do that?

I was agreeing with you ha

The initial poster was questioning Ben strictly by comparing him to two other coaches at two other schools in completely different situations. Which is asinine. And can never be the way to judge a coach in year 1.

I said there could be early question marks on Ben(or any coach) being a good coach in year 1 if the team was an absolute trainwreck. Never competitive, no fight, disarray on offense/defense, scandals etc..

But that hasnt been a issue with Ben or this Gopher team. They have vastly overperformed any reasonable expectations people had of this team.
 

I was agreeing with you ha

The initial poster was questioning Ben strictly by comparing him to two other coaches at two other schools in completely different situations. Which is asinine. And can never be the way to judge a coach in year 1.

I said there could be early question marks on Ben(or any coach) being a good coach in year 1 if the team was an absolute trainwreck. Never competitive, no fight, disarray on offense/defense, scandals etc..

But that hasnt been a issue with Ben or this Gopher team. They have vastly overperformed any reasonable expectations people had of this team.
Do you say that as a result of the assembled team or before the team was assembled? Do you think ISU and MarQ had similar expectations before and after?
 

Do you say that as a result of the assembled team or before the team was assembled? Do you think ISU and MarQ had similar expectations before and after?

Wait, I just reread your inital reply to my post again,

Haha you were saying that what I said sounded like excuses and agree with EG#9??? Oh my.

Nevermind. I am not in agreement with you. My lack of reading gave you way too much credit.

It's not an excuse. Its a fact. The gophers had much lower expectations this year, actually the gophers expectations were embarrassingly bad. Ben has had the team playing much better per expectations.

Have TJ and Shaka also exceeded expectations? Yup. Should Ben be compared to them after 15 games? Not if you would like to stay out of a psyche ward.
 

TJ built the roster. As you said, BJ used a different approach - his own choice. This reeks of excuses.
Not his choice, his only option. The only evaluation is who of the coaches you are comparing him to could do more with this roster.
 




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