***OFFICIAL MINNESOTA AT PENN STATE RARE MID-WEEK AFTERNOON IN-GAME THREAD!!!***

Donate To GopherHole
Bayfield Gopher said:
Payne for one. TT needs to bulk up big time if the plan is to make him a 5. The 4 spot is crowded with Battle, Ihnen and Fox. Curry needs to call it the end.
Click to expand...
bga1 said:
Next year. Not this year.
Click to expand...

Neither Ihnen or Parker Fox are big enough to play center. And Payne will be a true freshman. Again....I am not seeing how Curry being around next year could possibly be considered a bad thing.
 

nitramnaed said:
50 years ago, a young coach came in, recruited JUCO players and won a B1G championship. JUCO's not a real option anymore but the portal could lead to success...Just Sayin'
Click to expand...

I think it's a bit of a different situation now though. Some coaches back then just didn't like recruiting JUCOs much. Only a small minority of coaches aren't going to look at the portal for recruiting needs these days. Some old school fans still have bias against regular transfer recruiting but I doubt a large percentage of coaches do. Both Pitino and Johnson have recruited some valuable transfer players but recruiting transfers is very competitive.
 

stocker08 said:
Neither Ihnen or Parker Fox are big enough to play center. And Payne will be a true freshman. Again....I am not seeing how Curry being around next year could possibly be considered a bad thing.
Click to expand...

I agree with bga1 (can't believe I put that in writing): time for Curry to move on. Hit the transfer portal for a center. Throw as many lines out as you can and keep tugging on them.

I don't know how Ihnen will look when he returns but I often thought last year that he might be a pretty fair small ball center. He didn't have much bulk but he had length and quick reflexes.
 




Payne and Carrington could get very meaningful minutes right now, same with the guy from Cali
 

short ornery norwegian said:
If we agree (?) that the Gophers over-achieved in the non-conf schedule - taking the level of opposition into account - I think it's fair to say that the Gophers have under-achieved in 3 of their last 4 games.

the weird thing is this: when the Gophers were short-handed due to covid and beat Rutgers, I think people got excited, with the idea that "if they can do this short-handed, what can they do at full strength?"

But, it's starting to look as if that night was the outlier. Rutgers didn't take the Gophers seriously that night and paid the price. Ironically, other teams took that as a warning, and they are taking the Gophers seriously, with the results plain to see.

to be sure, I still support Ben Johnson and the program. But this is not fun to watch.

this team really needs to come back with a better effort on Saturday. If not, it could get even more ugly down the stretch.
Click to expand...
I’m not sure I say they underachieved. This is the worst roster in the conference IMO
And I don’t think they get last place.
When you don’t really have a 3rd best guy (or your third best guy is an oft injured guy who athletically is a shell of his former self that was the 9th man on a bubble team)
When your second best guy was systematically targeted by the the 10th best team in the conference


this leagues coaching is too good to overcome this talent gap this late in the season with any consistency. Teams are coming in with a plan and basically we don’t have a chance unless we are hot or they are cold.

I still think coach is doing a good job with the roster he has. I wish he had cobbled together a better roster. We will see year two
 

BarnBurner said:
I'm a W/L guy as well. The talent differential is astounding, frankly. It was obvious to anyone paying attention when the roster was assembled.

Will bj succeed at assembling a roster that can complete in the conference? Remains to be seen, and am hopeful. However, next year is critical imo. Next years team cant have results like this season, as I think it would really hamper recruiting.
Click to expand...
The back court is going to be young or portal transfers, unless he gets better players off the portal I don't see a lot of improvement unless he plays the younger guys from the get go and even then it is going to start slow.
 
Last edited:

leib0039 said:
I had a long post about this before, but I genuinely dont know how people could have watched the last 10 games and feel anything but totally deflated about the direction we are heading. Again i know, year 1, lot of turnover, totally get it, no need to rehash that, but man its not great. And I am a W/L guy, but a lot said hey if we lose thats fine just put up good effort, I dont think you can say we have really dont that much recently. Its almost getting to the point I am more afraid than excited to watch them just for fear it can get ugly.
Click to expand...
We've had our exchange after the last game. There is little association between this year and the 'direction we are heading.' This team is cobbled together out of the portal by a first time head coach before he had hired all of his coaches! He also was recruiting high school players at the time. He literally was doing it all.

The team has a thin roster with obvious warts and deficiencies. The coaching staff did an amazing job bringing this team together in short order and winning a slew of games at the start of the season. Everyone in conference is better than anyone out of conference so we should have expected a let down. The VERY unexpected win at Michigan set expectations too high and so the losses to follow have been seen as a major let down.

In addition to everyone in conference being better, they also have over 20 games of film to analyze and deconstruct. The other teams have to get some credit because they have been able to take away the sole reasons that we have had the early success. Unfortunately, because of the roster limitations, there are no additional dials to turn to flip the tables.

Throw in the roster that has been run into the ground and both known and unknown injuries and I am not one bit surprised that things have turned out this way. This team would have likely beaten some of these teams had the games occurred earlier in the conference season. Their schedule left them exhausted at the end against the very teams that they MIGHT have been able to sneak up on.

For those wishing to push the panic button, I again recommend coming back next year. There is NOTHING for you to see here over the last few weeks of the season other than misery. Why waste the time and effort? Come back next year when we have a full roster including some young kids along with some new additions out of the portal.
 



jovs said:
The back court is going to be young or portal transfers, unless he gets better players off the portal I don't see a lot of improvement unless he plays the younger guys from the get go.
Click to expand...
The improvement will come by sheer numbers of players as much as the quality of players he brings in. I'm not saying this is the goal and this is crazy simplification but a team featuring 2 Loewe clones in the starting line up and two spare clones on the bench might actually be serviceable! The numbers alone would allow some more aggressive defense. Right now, they are completely gassed but know that Thiam off the bench gives them no shot.

That said, we need to desperately find a true distributor out of the portal. And another big that can play inside. Curry has done a remarkable job with his limitations but he should not likely be a starting big in this conference. He can come back and provide some veteran practice player experience but should get spot minutes if any.
 

stocker08 said:
Neither Ihnen or Parker Fox are big enough to play center. And Payne will be a true freshman. Again....I am not seeing how Curry being around next year could possibly be considered a bad thing.
Click to expand...
Who’s older, Eric Curry or Ben Johnson?🤔
 

The initial success of this team eating cup cakes before the conference season started, especially after the disappointment of many in whom was chosen to be HC, gave a false sense of competence to many fans.
Next year will be tough with the two six year guys leaving unless some transfers are better than those who are going to be starters.
If recruiting of incoming players falters then there are reasons to be worried.
 

stocker08 said:
I am not seeing how Curry being around next year could possibly be considered a bad thing.
Click to expand...
It will mean the Gophers are still giving a roster spot and playing time to a guy who can't help them win at the level we all want.
It will represent a failure by Johnson to recruit players that might, some day, develop into legit B1G players.


As has been said elsewhere...God bless him, but it's time to move on. I have confidence Johnson can do better.
Bringing back Curry would be a failure, on multiple levels.
 




leib0039 said:
I agree and 10 years ago I would have said our goose is cooked, but the portal does leave some glimmer of hope.

Also think that if TT/Thiam arent playing 15-25 min a game the rest of the way out its a problem. At this point we know we arent making the NIT, we likely arent going win more than a game maybe 2 if we are lucky, there is absolutely 0 reason not to play these guys. If anything at least they/you as a coach know they have something or its time to move on. At this point why are we playing Sutherlin or Daniels. Neither will be here after the next few games and neither provides much anyway.
Click to expand...
Totally agree with this. I have been harping on this for quite some time. Not giving TT/Thiam minutes this year is going to bite us next year. There has been no reason to play either Daniels, Ogele, Sutherlin etc....they are all seniors that will not be here. We need to gain experience for the guys that will be here next year. This year is done....was always done. It was a year to work towards the future...and none of those guys are in the future of this team. And the talk of Curry coming back next year...ugh. Love the guy and all but no way! Need to play the freshman and get them up to speed as fast as possible to get the train on the tracks. Right now Johnson is doing the same crap Pitino did by not getting enough experience to the players and riding the same horses...and the thing that gets me....that is HIS excuse for losing these games. So essentially he is blaming himself. Johnson sucks!
 


Willis appears to have developed senior-itis and mentally checked out. Very disappointing after the way he started.

This is twice in 4 games where the effort has been pathetic. That was the only thing I really expected out of this team this year, and now they're not even giving that.

The lack of movement/adjustments on offense are alarming. It's one thing to not have the players to make shots or finish. But the standing around and chucking contested 3's is Pitino-esque. I expected better.

Thompson should be playing 20 minutes per game, minimum. Daniels playing ahead of him as a joke and Curry playing 30 + minutes is ridiculous.

Thiam looks like he's playing on roller skates on offense, but he can defend a little. There's no reason he can't get some minutes.
 

howeda7 said:
Willis appears to have developed senior-itis and mentally checked out. Very disappointing after the way he started.

This is twice in 4 games where the effort has been pathetic. That was the only thing I really expected out of this team this year, and now they're not even giving that.

The lack of movement/adjustments on offense are alarming. It's one thing to not have the players to make shots or finish. But the standing around and chucking contested 3's is Pitino-esque. I expected better.

Thompson should be playing 20 minutes per game, minimum. Daniels playing ahead of him as a joke and Curry playing 30 + minutes is ridiculous.

Thiam looks like he's playing on roller skates on offense, but he can defend a little. There's no reason he can't get some minutes.
Click to expand...
Wonder if that will become a common theme throughout transfer college basketball - senior transfers checking out early once it’s clear the experiment didn’t work and the ride is over.
 

USAF said:
It will mean the Gophers are still giving a roster spot and playing time to a guy who can't help them win at the level we all want.
It will represent a failure by Johnson to recruit players that might, some day, develop into legit B1G players.


As has been said elsewhere...God bless him, but it's time to move on. I have confidence Johnson can do better.
Bringing back Curry would be a failure, on multiple levels.
Click to expand...

Amen. Couldn't have said it better!
 

bc2211 said:
Wonder if that will become a common theme throughout transfer college basketball - senior transfers checking out early once it’s clear the experiment didn’t work and the ride is over.
Click to expand...

I don't think what you're talking about is limited to senior transfers.
 

ecoperson said:
The improvement will come by sheer numbers of players as much as the quality of players he brings in. I'm not saying this is the goal and this is crazy simplification but a team featuring 2 Loewe clones in the starting line up and two spare clones on the bench might actually be serviceable! The numbers alone would allow some more aggressive defense. Right now, they are completely gassed but know that Thiam off the bench gives them no shot.
Click to expand...

I agree with that. I've said before that if we had an 8 or 9 man rotation with no one worse than Loewe or Sutherlin we'd have a much better team but you often need a full 13 players to come up with 8 or 9 serviceable ones. Injuries, sickness, and departures or absences for other reasons are the norm, not the exception. And, of course, you always have to count on some players just not being good enough to play anything other than garbage time.
 

jovs said:
The back court is going to be young or portal transfers, unless he gets better players off the portal I don't see a lot of improvement unless he plays the younger guys from the get go and even then it is going to start slow.
Click to expand...

I think the primary guards he recruited from the portal (Willis, Stephens, and Loewe) were good enough to play here. The problem is that he didn't recruit enough good players particularly in the front court. If he recruits 3 more transfer guards of the same caliber in 2022 and Carrington and Henley are pretty good freshman, we should have a team with more potential next season.
 

USAF said:
It will mean the Gophers are still giving a roster spot and playing time to a guy who can't help them win at the level we all want.
It will represent a failure by Johnson to recruit players that might, some day, develop into legit B1G players.


As has been said elsewhere...God bless him, but it's time to move on. I have confidence Johnson can do better.
Bringing back Curry would be a failure, on multiple levels.
Click to expand...

Completely disagree. Curry has been either the third or fourth best player on this team. His play won us the Penn State game this past Saturday and kept us in both games against MSU. Realistically.....what a lot of people are saying is that....without seeing them play.....that Ihnen, Fox, and a true freshman are better than Curry. I think people are guessing. And unless TT puts on a lot of weight and muscle during the offseason.....or Johnson finds a serviceable center in the portal (you guys want another Charlie Daniels?)....you are all calling for the biggest guy on our team to move on.

Sure....let's make our front court even smaller!
 

cjbfbp said:
I think the primary guards he recruited from the portal (Willis, Stephens, and Loewe) were good enough to play here. The problem is that he didn't recruit enough good players particularly in the front court. If he recruits 3 more transfer guards of the same caliber in 2022 and Carrington and Henley are pretty good freshman, we should have a team with more potential next season.
Click to expand...
Have no real reason, but I really doubt if he gets anyone in talent above those three. Just me, but I am speculating that he stays in the mid majors to grab his players. Looking back, Willis, Stephens and Lowe were ok, it's Charlie and Danny that didn't provide what was needed. He has a plan here and that is the reason these are 1 year guys, yes? Time will tell, I suppose. If that Austin Powers looking dude at Texas Tech can score some good transfers, you would think Ben could also. (So yeah, I am agreeing with you)
 

leib0039 said:
I had a long post about this before, but I genuinely dont know how people could have watched the last 10 games and feel anything but totally deflated about the direction we are heading. Again i know, year 1, lot of turnover, totally get it, no need to rehash that, but man its not great. And I am a W/L guy, but a lot said hey if we lose thats fine just put up good effort, I dont think you can say we have really dont that much recently. Its almost getting to the point I am more afraid than excited to watch them just for fear it can get ugly.
Click to expand...
It is crazy how quickly the outlook has changed. I'm still optimistic about the future but this year has gotten ugly in a hurry.
 



Fatigue is an issue with our depleted roster. However, the more significant problem of late has been how easy it is to scout us.

Do you think it's a coincidence how well Loewe has been playing? Or even Curry's output in the first Penn State game? Teams sell out defending Willis and Battle and roll the dice on Loewe, Stephens, and Curry, hitting long twos.

Opponents don't even need to think about their rebound positioning or getting out-hustled on a long, awkward offensive rebound. They can lock in on our two capable scorers and ignore everything else.

It's also frustrating (but not surprising) how Sutherlin's skillset (slashing and driving) has been neutralized once he's matched up against a BIG 10-quality guard. It's stung in conference play not having a bench scoring option.

For those in the camp, "This season is a waste because all the seniors will be gone," I argue this year is going to pay some serious dividends for Battle's game. With more talent around him, he is going to flourish. Plus, he will be used to being the centerpiece of the scouting report and know what to expect every night.

I'm confident the coaching staff knows what they need to do next season and what pieces they need to add to be competitive. I can't wait to follow along!
 

topos said:
Fatigue is an issue with our depleted roster. However, the more significant problem of late has been how easy it is to scout us.

Do you think it's a coincidence how well Loewe has been playing? Or even Curry's output in the first Penn State game? Teams sell out defending Willis and Battle and roll the dice on Loewe, Stephens, and Curry, hitting long twos.

Opponents don't even need to think about their rebound positioning or getting out-hustled on a long, awkward offensive rebound. They can lock in on our two capable scorers and ignore everything else.

It's also frustrating (but not surprising) how Sutherlin's skillset (slashing and driving) has been neutralized once he's matched up against a BIG 10-quality guard. It's stung in conference play not having a bench scoring option.

For those in the camp, "This season is a waste because all the seniors will be gone," I argue this year is going to pay some serious dividends for Battle's game. With more talent around him, he is going to flourish. Plus, he will be used to being the centerpiece of the scouting report and know what to expect every night.

I'm confident the coaching staff knows what they need to do next season and what pieces they need to add to be competitive. I can't wait to follow along!
Click to expand...

Perfectly stated. The guys looked downright TIRED last night. Movement on the offensive side was a whole lot of handing the ball off and working along the perimeter. Willis played only his second game of the year under 30 minutes of court time (PFW being the other) and had only his fifth single digit point outing....including his second in a row.

Hoping that the guys get some good rest before tomorrow....but I'm worried that fatigue is going to carry over. Four games in the span of one week is a lot. Especially when you consider the travel in-between. MSP > Ohio on Tuesday > PA on Thursday > Back to MSP for Saturday's game. I know PSU was coming off a short break too....but their games on Tuesday and Thursday were both at home. Have to think that helped with recovery.

With five games remaining before the Big Ten Tournament.....I am hoping to see the guys pick up a couple more wins. That would seal the deal as a pretty big accomplishment for this season. And before anyone says, "yeah but we were bad".....just remember the preseason expectation/goals thread. Remember the predictions from the national media.

Expectations/Goals for 2021-22 Gophers

gopherhole.com gopherhole.com

The team has already exceeded almost everyone's expectations with at least six games still remaining. It's a good sign of what Ben Johnson can do. Will be interesting to see what he can do with a roster of Big Ten talent and a full offseason.
 

Name the last 2 B1G coaches who were never a head coach at another program.
 

You must log in or register to reply here.



Top Bottom