coolhandgopher
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To head this off at the pass, a few opening statements need to be established. . .
* yes, officially 1997 never happened for the Minnesota Golden Gopher basketball program. Save your jokes.
* I'm not making a premature prediction that the Gophers are headed to the Final Four, merely pointing out some similarities between the two squads.
* I'm not going to be doing a player-by-player comparison to '97's roster; that's not what this about and I recognize that there's no one on our current roster that compares to Bobby Jackson. This is more of a generalities comparison with some interesting similarities (or at least interesting to me).
* I've yet to see a live minute of Gopher basketball action this season, I'm basing all of this on knowledge of previous players and what I've read of our new players.
With that established. . .
* The sports landscape in Minnesota was filled with mediocrity, potential, and false hopes in the fall/winter of 1996/97. The Minnesota Gophers dismissed energetic, overmatched Jim Wacker at the end of the '96 season, replaced by Glen Mason, a head coach whose job it was to return the program to respectability. After years of futility, glimmers of hope lead by two promising young players (Garnett and Marbury) were emerging over at Target Center. The Minnesota Twins, whose high hopes for the season were dashed in the pre-season when aging superstar Kirby Puckett woke up and couldn't see out of his right eye, experienced a disappointing, below .500 season. The Minnesota Vikings made the playoffs for the fourth time in five years, but again could not win a playoff game under Dennis Green. (change the narratives of the Twins and the Vikings in '10 and it's a little eerie)
* The Golden Gophers stepped into the 1996-97 season with a veteran roster and some talented newcomers, but there was quite a bit of uncertainty about the squad coming off their NIT season from the year before. While there was optimism before the season among the Gopher faithful, the team was a marginal top 25 team in the preseason (voted #22 in the preseason AP poll)
* An early season tournament title in Puerto Rico over solid basketball programs served notice to the nation that this team could be formidable to deal with (credit to From the Barn, he's the first one I saw note this similarity)
* In '97, the Gophers featured a veteran point guard who had tantalized with promise in previous years, but finally put it all together to provide steady leadership and gritty defense throughout the season. (Eric Harris; Al Nolen?)
* The front line of the '97 Gophers was a strength of the team, with a rotation of interchangeable big bodies that couldn't be matched by the competition in the Big Ten (John Thomas, Courtney James, Trevor Winter, Miles Tarver; Ralph Sampson, Trevor Mbawke, Colton Iverson, Mo Walker?)
* The small forward was a Minnesota prep product with highlight film dunks and huge expectations who was still developing his basketball game. (Sam Jacobson; Rodney Williams?)
* a savvy, veteran backcourt that made good decisions and featured the "go to" player on offense (Harris and Jackson; Nolen, Hoffarber, and hopefully Joseph?)
* The bench was a surprising source of energy and production featuring. . .
-a physical presence from a small town in western MN (Winter; Iverson-o.k., he's from SD, but fairly close)
-a rail-thin freshman from Arkansas who impressed Gopher faithful from the beginning with his basketball savvy and scoring ability (Quincy Lewis; Austin Hollins-again, I know Memphis is not in Arkansas, but it's within spitting distance)
-an energetic left-handed shooting guard who had the potential to fill up the basket and was emerging as a fan favorite at Williams Arena (Charles Thomas; Chip Armelin?)
-the fourth big man on the roster who spent a year at a Maine prep school before joining the Gophers and who also became a fan favorite, due largely at first to his unique physical characteristics (Tarver; Walker-yeah, yeah, I know his prep school was in New Hampshire, but again, is it that big a difference?)
-a freshman point guard with a hard to spell last name beginning with "A" who some questioned the talent for a scholarship but had a few solid moments (Archambeault; Maverick?)
Obviously a long ways to go for this team to deliver the wonderful feelings of '97 (and obviously we don't want the train wreck that ensued after the magical season), but as I was working out this morning, the similarities kept popping into my head. And while this team doesn't have a Bobby Jackson and probably won't have four #1 draft picks when the NBA comes calling, the bench looks like it could be better, the front line looks a bit deeper, the defense could be elite. It's shaping up as an awfully fun winter at Williams Arena
.
* yes, officially 1997 never happened for the Minnesota Golden Gopher basketball program. Save your jokes.
* I'm not making a premature prediction that the Gophers are headed to the Final Four, merely pointing out some similarities between the two squads.
* I'm not going to be doing a player-by-player comparison to '97's roster; that's not what this about and I recognize that there's no one on our current roster that compares to Bobby Jackson. This is more of a generalities comparison with some interesting similarities (or at least interesting to me).
* I've yet to see a live minute of Gopher basketball action this season, I'm basing all of this on knowledge of previous players and what I've read of our new players.
With that established. . .
* The sports landscape in Minnesota was filled with mediocrity, potential, and false hopes in the fall/winter of 1996/97. The Minnesota Gophers dismissed energetic, overmatched Jim Wacker at the end of the '96 season, replaced by Glen Mason, a head coach whose job it was to return the program to respectability. After years of futility, glimmers of hope lead by two promising young players (Garnett and Marbury) were emerging over at Target Center. The Minnesota Twins, whose high hopes for the season were dashed in the pre-season when aging superstar Kirby Puckett woke up and couldn't see out of his right eye, experienced a disappointing, below .500 season. The Minnesota Vikings made the playoffs for the fourth time in five years, but again could not win a playoff game under Dennis Green. (change the narratives of the Twins and the Vikings in '10 and it's a little eerie)
* The Golden Gophers stepped into the 1996-97 season with a veteran roster and some talented newcomers, but there was quite a bit of uncertainty about the squad coming off their NIT season from the year before. While there was optimism before the season among the Gopher faithful, the team was a marginal top 25 team in the preseason (voted #22 in the preseason AP poll)
* An early season tournament title in Puerto Rico over solid basketball programs served notice to the nation that this team could be formidable to deal with (credit to From the Barn, he's the first one I saw note this similarity)
* In '97, the Gophers featured a veteran point guard who had tantalized with promise in previous years, but finally put it all together to provide steady leadership and gritty defense throughout the season. (Eric Harris; Al Nolen?)
* The front line of the '97 Gophers was a strength of the team, with a rotation of interchangeable big bodies that couldn't be matched by the competition in the Big Ten (John Thomas, Courtney James, Trevor Winter, Miles Tarver; Ralph Sampson, Trevor Mbawke, Colton Iverson, Mo Walker?)
* The small forward was a Minnesota prep product with highlight film dunks and huge expectations who was still developing his basketball game. (Sam Jacobson; Rodney Williams?)
* a savvy, veteran backcourt that made good decisions and featured the "go to" player on offense (Harris and Jackson; Nolen, Hoffarber, and hopefully Joseph?)
* The bench was a surprising source of energy and production featuring. . .
-a physical presence from a small town in western MN (Winter; Iverson-o.k., he's from SD, but fairly close)
-a rail-thin freshman from Arkansas who impressed Gopher faithful from the beginning with his basketball savvy and scoring ability (Quincy Lewis; Austin Hollins-again, I know Memphis is not in Arkansas, but it's within spitting distance)
-an energetic left-handed shooting guard who had the potential to fill up the basket and was emerging as a fan favorite at Williams Arena (Charles Thomas; Chip Armelin?)
-the fourth big man on the roster who spent a year at a Maine prep school before joining the Gophers and who also became a fan favorite, due largely at first to his unique physical characteristics (Tarver; Walker-yeah, yeah, I know his prep school was in New Hampshire, but again, is it that big a difference?)
-a freshman point guard with a hard to spell last name beginning with "A" who some questioned the talent for a scholarship but had a few solid moments (Archambeault; Maverick?)
Obviously a long ways to go for this team to deliver the wonderful feelings of '97 (and obviously we don't want the train wreck that ensued after the magical season), but as I was working out this morning, the similarities kept popping into my head. And while this team doesn't have a Bobby Jackson and probably won't have four #1 draft picks when the NBA comes calling, the bench looks like it could be better, the front line looks a bit deeper, the defense could be elite. It's shaping up as an awfully fun winter at Williams Arena
.
