Reusse: Pro teams lapping Gophers in fan interest

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BleedGopher

BleedGopher

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per Pat:

The issue for the Gophers is their major men’s programs are becoming second-class citizens more than ever.

When have football, men’s basketball and men’s hockey been more overwhelmed for attention by their pro counterparts as right now? Consider:

BASKETBALL. Finally, the Timberwolves are going first-class in talent (starting with Karl-Anthony Towns), leadership (Tom Thibodeau) and facilities (a new headquarters and next an upgraded Target Center).

Meantime, Williams Arena has gone from a charming relic to a haunted house. The Gophers could make a 400 percent improvement in the Big Ten next winter and still be losers.

http://www.startribune.com/pro-teams-lapping-gophers-in-fan-interest/377703491/

Go Gophers!!
 

Odd that he focused so much on facilities considering the Gophers are currently working on a privately funded athletes village while the billionaire owned sports teams do the same with millions in tax payer dollars. But hey, whatever works.
 

Only way to shut Patrick up is to start winning. Until then the U is an easy target.
 


This is what annoys me. He takes so much pleasure in putting the gophers down. He actually said when the gophers lost in the big ten hockey tournament how happy he as that the u wouldnt make the NCAA tournament et but St. Cloud did. Just an ass.
 


Is he wrong? Wolves are trending up - Gopher men trended down last season. Wolves had the Rookie of the Year - Gophers were suspending players for internet sex videos. Wolves just signed one of the top coaches in the NBA. The Gophers........well, I guess the nicest thing you can say is that the jury is still out when it comes to coaching.
 

One thing that people always forget to realize:

All the pro teams compete against roughly 30 other teams. They also have equal distribution of talent amongst teams.

The Gophers, on the other hand, compete against 200-300 other teams and the teams are on their own to aquire talent......often with the rich getting richer. A much tougher hill to climb.
 

Umm........other than the late 90's........have the Gophers bball team ever garnered more attention than the T-Wolves?
 




station19 said:
One thing that people always forget to realize:

All the pro teams compete against roughly 30 other teams. They also have equal distribution of talent amongst teams.

The Gophers, on the other hand, compete against 200-300 other teams and the teams are on their own to aquire talent......often with the rich getting richer. A much tougher hill to climb.
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But 68 teams still make the postseason tournament compared to 16. And being in the Big Ten automatically puts them head of most other teams in resources and being able to acquire top talent.

Ruesse is not wrong. That's the most disappointing thing about the last few years. The Gophers had a great chance to capitalize on the lack of success of the pro teams and they didn't.
 

Making a comparison between the Twolves and Gophers basketball teams is laughable. Just because things are looking up for Twolves that is supposed to dismiss a dozen years of embarrassment? Things are looking up for the Gophers too but Pat will say "I'll believe it when I see it". Classic pot stirring. Classic Pat.
 

dtrain19 said:
Making a comparison between the Twolves and Gophers basketball teams is laughable. Just because things are looking up for Twolves that is supposed to dismiss a dozen years of embarrassment? Things are looking up for the Gophers too but Pat will say "I'll believe it when I see it". Classic pot stirring. Classic Pat.
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The Wolves going to the Western Conference finals 13 years ago is still more recent success than the Gophers have had in basketball or football.
 

GopherWeatherGuy said:
The Wolves going to the Western Conference finals 13 years ago is still more recent success than the Gophers have had in basketball or football.
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If the measuring stick is how far a team has gotten than you're correct. Let's forget about being the worst team in the NBA for over a decade afterwards.
 



dtrain19 said:
If the measuring stick is how far a team has gotten than you're correct. Let's forget about being the worst team in the NBA for over a decade afterwards.
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And if you add up wins/losses over the past decade, er 50 years, the Gophers have been one of the worst teams in the Big Ten in football and basketball. That's pretty comparable.
 

GopherWeatherGuy said:
And if you add up wins/losses over the past decade, er 50 years, the Gophers have been one of the worst teams in the Big Ten in football and basketball. That's pretty comparable.
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Please Stop! All this negativity is not productive, we get it, the U has not been very successful in those two revenue sports over the last couple of decades. There is a reason why we have new coaches and hope for the future. The football program has plenty of reasons to be hopeful of a very good season this year and the basketball program will be greatly improved and I think they will make the tourney this year.

People that are constantly being told they are a loser, typically fulfill that promise. You need hope and a "can do attitude" to become a winner. If the "hard core fans" are constantly bashing the local team that leads the "casual fans" to have no interest and local recruits to go elsewhere.
 

If only college had drafts that rewarded crap management, play, and coaching. Oh well.

With how bad the wolves have been recently. In a league that rewards you for being bad (as all professional sports do) it would be far more embarrassing if they still weren't good. And they probably could have and should have been better far sooner with all of their lottery picks.
 

I mean seriously. The Wolves drafted Johhny Flynn over Steph Curry. Gave Kevin Love a 4 year max instead of 5. Drafted Derrick Williams over Boogie Cousins. And hiring David Kahn in general and now they are the model basketball franchise? No. They made one great move (Flip trading for Wiggins) and lucked into Karl Anthony-Towns. That doesn't represent solid leadership and management. It represents being so terrible for so long the broken clock was finally right.
 

If the Wolves had any luck at all they would have gotten the number 1 pick well before they got Garnett.
 

scher215 said:
I mean seriously. The Wolves drafted Johhny Flynn over Steph Curry. Gave Kevin Love a 4 year max instead of 5. Drafted Derrick Williams over Boogie Cousins. And hiring David Kahn in general and now they are the model basketball franchise? No. They made one great move (Flip trading for Wiggins) and lucked into Karl Anthony
And that wasn't even that hard, Love forced Flip's hand and Cleveland was the only team with reasonable value. The Wolves aren't exactly back either, sure they'll be better next year, but they're probably not a playoff team yet. It's not completely unreasonable to think the gophers could have a better year next season. Gophs will always ebb and flow as a program. Wolves have an opportunity to be special in a couple years. Vikings could have a nice two or three year run coming up, but do to the cap they'll eventually fall on hard times again. The Twins are going no where fast, but Reusse will never bite that hand. The Wild are stuck in hockey purgatory right now.
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I don't think it is a stretch to say the Wolves are one draft pick away (Garnett) that had it gone the other way would be considered the worst franchise in any of the four major sports.

The topic is comparing apples vs oranges. However, I would still argue we have had stretches where the interest level was higher for the Gophers than the Wolves. It will always be cyclical.
 

scher215 said:
I mean seriously. The Wolves drafted Johhny Flynn over Steph Curry. Gave Kevin Love a 4 year max instead of 5. Drafted Derrick Williams over Boogie Cousins. And hiring David Kahn in general and now they are the model basketball franchise? No. They made one great move (Flip trading for Wiggins) and lucked into Karl Anthony-Towns. That doesn't represent solid leadership and management. It represents being so terrible for so long the broken clock was finally right.
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Flip turning the ninth pick into Shabazz and Dieng was a good move. Drafting Lavine at #13 was a good move. Trading for Wiggins was a good move. Selecting Towns instead of Westbrook or Okafur was a good move. Having a roster that will allow 19-22 million in new spending this summer is good. Hiring Tibs should be a good move.
 

Maximus said:
Flip turning the ninth pick into Shabazz and Dieng was a good move. Drafting Lavine at #13 was a good move. Trading for Wiggins was a good move. Selecting Towns instead of Westbrook or Okafur was a good move. Having a roster that will allow 19-22 million in new spending this summer is good. Hiring Tibs should be a good move.
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Oh fully agree Flip did a pretty good job. Getting Wiggins especially. But what put the Wolves in position to do those things? Being really, really, really bad for quite some time. And how did Cleveland acquire the assets to give the Wolves for Wiggins? By being really, really bad for quite some time.

If the Gophers are really really bad they don't have the opportunity to just pick any 5 star recruit they want and force them to play for the Gophers. And then if they pick the wrong one and suck again? They can pick a different 5 star recruit the next year!

My point isn't so much a criticism on the Wolves, more just that pro sports tend to reward really bad performance far more than college sports. It should be far easier to rebuild a pro team than college. Pro sports are built to support equality.
 

In pro sports the easy way to get talent is to be incompetent and lose big so you get players. (does not work in Philly) Coaches are more expendable.

In college you need to either hire a coach who brings credibility to your team or get lucky and have a coach who can will lesser talent to greater heights so he can recruit better players.
 

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