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

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I know it's not easy, but the Gophers could really use an experienced 'big man' transfer or grad transfer for next year.

watching Race Thompson play for Indiana just points out the hole the Gophers have at PF.
 

Two bad streaks really cost the Gophers. Scoring 4 points in the last 5:30 or so of the first half and then another rough stretch that started somewhere around the 9 min mark (not looking it up right now) that took a tie game to double digits. This was a far cry from the Illinois game where they were just never competitive from the jump.

Assuming a loss at Michigan State, the Gophers have Iowa, @Penn State, Rutgers in their next 3. That's a chance to get back to 4-4 in conference and change the conversation. Anything less than 2 wins in that stretch and things get really ugly.

Not going to debate with people that think 6-14 would somehow be ok....Gophers have all of one known contributor coming back next year. Iowa State was in a much worse situation as arguably the worst power 5 program in the country last year and I'd say they are still a favorite to make the tourney as of today even if I am not particularly high on them. Marquette currently has more losses than the Gophers but have had a couple of blowout wins recently including over a ranked Providence team. Both of those teams also have more returning next year than Minnesota.

It's a long season, plenty of time for things to change for the better or worse, but this program does need things to go well on the court. Concerned that the two freshman still can't see the floor. The bar for seeing the floor most games is Charlie Daniels, Will Ramberg, Danny Ogele. That's a long time little used bench player from a 1 bid league, a walkon, and a bench guy from a DIII school. Thiam isn't even really a freshman having played JUCO ball last year.
 



EG#9 said:
Two bad streaks really cost the Gophers. Scoring 4 points in the last 5:30 or so of the first half and then another rough stretch that started somewhere around the 9 min mark (not looking it up right now) that took a tie game to double digits. This was a far cry from the Illinois game where they were just never competitive from the jump.

Assuming a loss at Michigan State, the Gophers have Iowa, @Penn State, Rutgers in their next 3. That's a chance to get back to 4-4 in conference and change the conversation. Anything less than 2 wins in that stretch and things get really ugly.

Not going to debate with people that think 6-14 would somehow be ok....Gophers have all of one known contributor coming back next year. Iowa State was in a much worse situation as arguably the worst power 5 program in the country last year and I'd say they are still a favorite to make the tourney as of today even if I am not particularly high on them. Marquette currently has more losses than the Gophers but have had a couple of blowout wins recently including over a ranked Providence team. Both of those teams also have more returning next year than Minnesota.

It's a long season, plenty of time for things to change for the better or worse, but this program does need things to go well on the court. Concerned that the two freshman still can't see the floor. The bar for seeing the floor most games is Charlie Daniels, Will Ramberg, Danny Ogele. That's a long time little used bench player from a 1 bid league, a walkon, and a bench guy from a DIII school. Thiam isn't even really a freshman having played JUCO ball last year.
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SanDiegoGopherFan said:
Nobody expected the team to Win like it did up until IL.

Odds of this current team (injuries included) making some miracle run was slightly better than winning the lottery.

this team has still overachieved which is a testament to the staff.

We’ll get better
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Liked what you said, but I think what you see is what you get. Better? Not sure. Will need another miracle to win 5 more.
 

WilliamsArenaGuy said:
The problem with Loewe today is not that he was a non-factor. It's that he was an extreme negative factor. He can't shoot. Usually he only shoots when very open and is smart about it. Today for some reason he took several terrible shots that had no chance and killed possessions.
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Ward, don’t you think you’re being awfully hard on the Beaver? 🤔
 




WriterGoph said:
I mean, sure, if you're totally discounting everything we did in the non-conference and in Ann Arbor, then I guess that makes sense.
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The gophers beat Mississippi state and a bunch of bad teams non conference.
Michigan looks like they are the competition for who gets 8th in the conference.
 

Some guy said:
The gophers beat Mississippi state and a bunch of bad teams non conference.
Michigan looks like they are the competition for who gets 8th in the conference.
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I didn't know Western Kentucky and Princeton qualified as "bad teams". Winning on the road in the Big Ten (especially after our past few season) should never be discounted, IMO

Edit: I see Princeton is 12-3 and currently tied for 1st in the Ivy. WKU is 9-6 with 4 of those losses to either ranked (when they played) or P6 teams; they also have a win over Louisville. I guess I wouldn't call either of these teams "bad". Going by that, the Gophers had 3 pretty solid wins in the non-con.
 
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WriterGoph said:
I didn't know Western Kentucky and Princeton qualified as "bad teams". Winning on the road in the Big Ten (especially after our past few season) should never be discounted, IMO

Edit: I see Princeton is 12-3 and currently tied for 1st in the Ivy. WKU is 9-6 with 4 of those losses to either ranked (when they played) or P6 teams; they also have a win over Louisville. I guess I wouldn't call either of these teams "bad". Going by that, the Gophers had 3 pretty solid wins in the non-con.
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Being 9-6 with a win Over a Louisville team that is going to be a bubble team and a loss to the gophers isn’t that impressive to me.


I’m not discounting the wins. I’m not counting them for more than they are.
If over under was 16.5 right now I’m taking the under

I take it you’re taking the over?




Do you really think this is the roster of a good team? If yes,
If the gophers don’t make the tourney does it mean Johnson has done a poor job?
 



Some guy said:
Being 9-6 with a win Over a Louisville team that is going to be a bubble team and a loss to the gophers isn’t that impressive to me.


I’m not discounting the wins. I’m not counting them for more than they are.
If over under was 16.5 right now I’m taking the under

I take it you’re taking the over?




Do you really think this is the roster of a good team? If yes,
If the gophers don’t make the tourney does it mean Johnson has done a poor job?
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Well, there is quite a bit of space on the spectrum between "impressive" and "bad" - which is what caused my initial response - would you not agree?

16.5 is an interesting number. I'd have to look hard at the schedule, but I definitely see another 5 wins coming. There are some teams that are worse off than us in the Big Ten - Northwestern, Nebraska, Iowa, Maryland - and we have 6 games against those teams (not counting @iowa yet) still left. I just don't think the season is lost yet. I think we have played an extremely tough stretch of teams to start the Big Ten schedule, so I'm not gonna kill all my optimism at this point.

Do I think it's the roster of a good team? Obviously no, if only for the lack of playable
guys. Also no, I don't think Ben did a poor job if we don't make the tournament. But I think we have a couple really good players at the top and we will win some games people are not expecting us to.
 

We can't expect to have a huge number of wins this year with a completely new team, a new coach, and playing in one of the toughest conferences. We need to take pride in what the team accomplishes this year. They are playing very hard and competing well. They don't have the talent, size, and depth of many Big Ten teams. I think they mesh with the coaches well and play better as a team than we have seen for a while. I enjoy watching them play and think they are going to beat some good teams. I think some good recruits/transfers will take notice of the improvement and will consider Minnesota. The glass is not half empty.
 

WriterGoph said:
Well, there is quite a bit of space on the spectrum between "impressive" and "bad" - which is what caused my initial response - would you not agree?

16.5 is an interesting number. I'd have to look hard at the schedule, but I definitely see another 5 wins coming. There are some teams that are worse off than us in the Big Ten - Northwestern, Nebraska, Iowa, Maryland - and we have 6 games against those teams (not counting @iowa yet) still left. I just don't think the season is lost yet. I think we have played an extremely tough stretch of teams to start the Big Ten schedule, so I'm not gonna kill all my optimism at this point.

Do I think it's the roster of a good team? Obviously no, if only for the lack of playable
guys. Also no, I don't think Ben did a poor job if we don't make the tournament. But I think we have a couple really good players at the top and we will win some games people are not expecting us to.
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When I say bad, I mean in the context of the 2010-present big ten.

they are above average when compared to the entirety of d1 basketball.
 

I think a lot of people on here are falling victim to judging this team on a stretch of games where the talent level of teams we played were disproportianate to that of the rest of the conference, including this next game at MSU which, yes, we will likely lose as well. But there are A LOT of games left that lend themselves to better outcomes for the Gophers. Don't fall for recency bias. This is still a decent team!
 

to be clear - the Gophers are going to play competitive basketball. I expect them to be "in" most of the remaining games on the schedule.

but, this team has a very narrow margin of victory. they have to play solid defense, and there has to be a 3rd or 4th scoring option. Battle and Willis are not going to beat anyone playing 2-on-5.

on nights where the pieces all fall into place, they are capable of winning. But, they are equally capable of getting thumped as they did vs Illinois.
 

BarnBurner said:
No one said anything about win at all costs. Good grief.
Mn coach will not be new next season. Stop lowering expectations and making excuses.
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Already low realistic expectations for next year can't be lowered. We will return one starter and two guys coming off serious injury. Four freshmen aren't going to make them a contender their first year.

The only thing that would dramatically raise expectations would be to find a dominant post player and a good point guard as transfers.
 

Dakota2 said:
Already low realistic expectations for next year can't be lowered. We will return one starter and two guys coming off serious injury. Four freshmen aren't going to make them a contender their first year.

The only thing that would dramatically raise expectations would be to find a dominant post player and a good point guard as transfers.
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Well, then, I guess we know what Job 1 is for the coach, eh?
 

short ornery norwegian said:
to be clear - the Gophers are going to play competitive basketball. I expect them to be "in" most of the remaining games on the schedule.

but, this team has a very narrow margin of victory. they have to play solid defense, and there has to be a 3rd or 4th scoring option. Battle and Willis are not going to beat anyone playing 2-on-5.

on nights where the pieces all fall into place, they are capable of winning. But, they are equally capable of getting thumped as they did vs Illinois.
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Stephens needs to be more aggressive on offense. Especially shooting 3's. He might be our best 3 point shooter. Fire away.
 

WriterGoph said:
Well, there is quite a bit of space on the spectrum between "impressive" and "bad" - which is what caused my initial response - would you not agree?

16.5 is an interesting number. I'd have to look hard at the schedule, but I definitely see another 5 wins coming. There are some teams that are worse off than us in the Big Ten - Northwestern, Nebraska, Iowa, Maryland - and we have 6 games against those teams (not counting @iowa yet) still left. I just don't think the season is lost yet. I think we have played an extremely tough stretch of teams to start the Big Ten schedule, so I'm not gonna kill all my optimism at this point.

Do I think it's the roster of a good team? Obviously no, if only for the lack of playable
guys. Also no, I don't think Ben did a poor job if we don't make the tournament. But I think we have a couple really good players at the top and we will win some games people are not expecting us to.
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Personally I dont see northwestern, maryland, and iowa being worse off than minnesota. Are all those winnable games? Yes, but if we go 1-5 against those teams including nebraska it wouldnt shock me.
 

gophereric30 said:
Personally I dont see northwestern, maryland, and iowa being worse off than minnesota. Are all those winnable games? Yes, but if we go 1-5 against those teams including nebraska it wouldnt shock me.
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Maybe you should find a different team to root for.
 

gophereric30 said:
Personally I dont see northwestern, maryland, and iowa being worse off than minnesota. Are all those winnable games? Yes, but if we go 1-5 against those teams including nebraska it wouldnt shock me.
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I think we beat the Hogeyes at home. There 5 Rebracca is no offensive threat which will allow the team to play tough on the perimeter. The problem is keeping Murry under 30 and keeping Bohanen from getting hot.
 

One thing I was hoping they would do is shoot the 3 better in conference. In their 3 Big Ten losses they are 14 for 63 (If my math is correct.) Tough to win when this squad shoots like that.
 

Chico Gopher said:
Right now, our Gophers are about what I hoped they would be. My expectations aren't particularly high for them, but I do like what I see from this group in terms of work ethic, attitude and teamwork. If everything goes right, they can win some games. But if a couple of things go wrong, they're in some trouble-like today. Right now, this team has come to the point where it needs to be able to find another gear and continue to grow. *Actually, I'm pretty sure that every coach in the Big Ten is telling their team that we've come to the point in the season where we need to start making strides and being better than we are right now* I'm guessing the Indiana coaches told their team in the locker room after the game "Nice win, but we let an undermanned team back into a game that we had under control. Can't let that happen, good teams will make us pay for that!".

As for as next year, I'm not so sure they'll be significantly better in terms of possible win/loss record. That's mainly because I think, with all the new freshmen, who I expect could account for 50% of the minutes right off the bat, there will be a huge learning curve. They might be a little young to consistently win next season. Obviously, a couple of high quality, experienced transfers could change that.

However, I'm actually looking the 23-24 season to be the big turnaround. You'll have Battle and Ihnen? and Fox? as seniors and this nice freshman class with a year of Big Ten play under their belt, plus hopefully another freshman recruit who comes in ready to contribute right away. That's actually the season that I'm looking for a big difference in wins and losses.
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Nice freshman class ? Really ??
I think not
 

GopherManiac8 said:
I think a lot of people on here are falling victim to judging this team on a stretch of games where the talent level of teams we played were disproportianate to that of the rest of the conference, including this next game at MSU which, yes, we will likely lose as well. But there are A LOT of games left that lend themselves to better outcomes for the Gophers. Don't fall for recency bias. This is still a decent team!
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Agree
 

GopherManiac8 said:
I think a lot of people on here are falling victim to judging this team on a stretch of games where the talent level of teams we played were disproportianate to that of the rest of the conference, including this next game at MSU which, yes, we will likely lose as well. But there are A LOT of games left that lend themselves to better outcomes for the Gophers. Don't fall for recency bias. This is still a decent team!
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Is Indiana really top 5 in the conference? I don’t think so. Illinois and Michigan state certainly are
 

Lion King said:
Maybe you should find a different team to root for.
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Why would I do that? I'm a gopher fan. Just stating my opinion on the fact that I dont see those teams being worse off than we are. Those are winnable games and I hope we go 5-1 in those games, but I dont see it. Because in my opinion I dont see us winning alot of big ten games you want me to start rooting for a different team?
 


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