So far I am totally wrong...

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I agree they are playing hard and fundamentally sound. But they also have not played any teams with great athletic ability. When they play the big boys it’ll take perfect games to have a chance to win many. If they can win 5-6 big ten games and be close in others I’d consider that ok.
 




UpAndUnder43 said:
I think they play better basketball but really are going to be exposed in the conference (not that Pitino's teams weren't...) due to lack of athleticism and size. They may steal some games though depending on the opposition.
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Matchups will be key. Teams with dominant bigs will destroy us. But this a very experienced group who will probably surprise us some this year. Real shame that Fox and Ihnen went down before the season.
 

What is kind of fun is seeing what they were going after in the transfer portal coming together. A lot of fans were confused about the players we were bringing in. They all had impressive stats but for the most part were coming from smaller schools and lesser leagues.

This team looks more cohesive in 3 games than a lot of Pitino's teams did in multiple seasons together. Johnson went out and found basketball players, high IQ guys that could work together. We actually look like we know what we are doing in a half court set, and we have guys being active and moving on D. And again, this group is all new players, usually it takes teams a long time to gel, but these guys seem to be figuring it out quickly.

This team is going to struggle a lot this year due to the lack of size and depth. The injuries to Fox and Ihnen basically insured that it is going to be a long year once the level of difficulty goes up.

But at least here at the beginning it is very clear what Johnson was going for as he put this roster together. And it is very cool that this group went out and won a tournament after being together for such a short amount of time.

Hopefully fans keep things in perspective over the course of the season but the early returns bode well for Johnson's future here.
 

MNVCGUY said:
Matchups will be key. Teams with dominant bigs will destroy us. But this a very experienced group who will probably surprise us some this year. Real shame that Fox and Ihnen went down before the season.
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Ihnen and Fox would've made a huge difference, especially with how thin our depth appears to be. Shortened us from 9 rotational players to 7.
 

Parcival said:
Ihnen and Fox would've made a huge difference, especially with how thin our depth appears to be. Shortened us from 9 rotational players to 7.
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What is the deal with Danny Ogele. He's a senior and has yet to play. What exactly is the plan? I know he signed late but...
 



Parcival said:
Ihnen and Fox would've made a huge difference, especially with how thin our depth appears to be. Shortened us from 9 rotational players to 7.
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I suspect if neither of them got hurt, Curry wouldn't be playing, but still it's a trade you'd make every time.
 

howeda7 said:
What is the deal with Danny Ogele. He's a senior and has yet to play. What exactly is the plan? I know he signed late but...
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To my understanding he was just a late signing to fill out the team - a practice body if you will. Which is consistent with him being a bench piece for Navy last season. No idea if he's any good but I trust CBJ to make that decision. Seems he won't see the floor for any meaningful minutes barring injury though.

I'm more intrigued by the choice to play Treyton zero minutes so far and you have to think redshirting him is a consideration at this point. I'm fairly sure we still have several games before having to make the call on that but I could be wrong there.
 

MNVCGUY said:
Matchups will be key. Teams with dominant bigs will destroy us. But this a very experienced group who will probably surprise us some this year. Real shame that Fox and Ihnen went down before the season.
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Ihnen would have helped a lot defensively. I thought he was a capable defender against bigs.
 


Parcival said:
To my understanding he was just a late signing to fill out the team - a practice body if you will. Which is consistent with him being a bench piece for Navy last season. No idea if he's any good but I trust CBJ to make that decision. Seems he won't see the floor for any meaningful minutes barring injury though.

I'm more intrigued by the choice to play Treyton zero minutes so far and you have to think redshirting him is a consideration at this point. I'm fairly sure we still have several games before having to make the call on that but I could be wrong there.
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Treyton played last night. The last second of regulation or the first ot.
 

gopherbadgerman said:
I agree they are playing hard and fundamentally sound. But they also have not played any teams with great athletic ability. When they play the big boys it’ll take perfect games to have a chance to win many. If they can win 5-6 big ten games and be close in others I’d consider that ok.
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I think before the season started, 5-6 B1G wins would be miles above consensus, much less just OK
 

So, what have the expectations moved up to, now?

There's still no chance of any kind of post-season tournament, or doing anything noteworthy in the Big Ten, right?


What is the best thing to hope for? Knock off Iowa/Wisc for a really fun upset? Or something like that?
 

MplsGopher said:
So, what have the expectations moved up to, now?

There's still no chance of any kind of post-season tournament, or doing anything noteworthy in the Big Ten, right?


What is the best thing to hope for? Knock off Iowa/Wisc for a really fun upset? Or something like that?
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Expectations should be that the team plays hard and does their best to give a quality performance.

Outside of that, it should be seeing some development in the guys who will be around after this year and looking to the future. There really shouldn't be an expectation for a certain number of conference wins. Just let the season play out and enjoy whatever successes the team manages to have.

Too many holes in this particular roster to expect anything more than that.
 

UpAndUnder43 said:
I think they play better basketball but really are going to be exposed in the conference (not that Pitino's teams weren't...) due to lack of athleticism and size. They may steal some games though depending on the opposition.
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Lack of point guard play too.
 

gopherbadgerman said:
I agree they are playing hard and fundamentally sound. But they also have not played any teams with great athletic ability. When they play the big boys it’ll take perfect games to have a chance to win many. If they can win 5-6 big ten games and be close in others I’d consider that ok.
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If they win 5-6 B1G games, Ben Johnson should be coach of the year.
 

UpAndUnder43 said:
If they win 5-6 B1G games, Ben Johnson should be coach of the year.
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Yeah, if this group can equal last year's BIG win total (6) that would be super impressive. Conference play is going to be rough, we are going to be at a talent and size disadvantage against basically everyone in the BIG.
 

MplsGopher said:
So, what have the expectations moved up to, now?

There's still no chance of any kind of post-season tournament, or doing anything noteworthy in the Big Ten, right?


What is the best thing to hope for? Knock off Iowa/Wisc for a really fun upset? Or something like that?
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I think my expectations are still on a game-by-game basis. We don’t have enough talent/depth to compete season long, but would love to see us pull out a few upsets, and be competitive in each game throughout the year. Think we have good enough shooters that we could see a couple fun wins happen.
 

MplsGopher said:
So, what have the expectations moved up to, now?

There's still no chance of any kind of post-season tournament, or doing anything noteworthy in the Big Ten, right?


What is the best thing to hope for? Knock off Iowa/Wisc for a really fun upset? Or something like that?
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For me, this year won't be judged on wins and losses.

I'm looking for offensive sets, effort, and how they play fundamental defense

in end, there is too much talent deficiency to do much, no front court depth and no true PG
 


MNVCGUY said:
Yeah, if this group can equal last year's BIG win total (6) that would be super impressive. Conference play is going to be rough, we are going to be at a talent and size disadvantage against basically everyone in the BIG.
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I think the Gophers can beat Nebraska and Northwestern. I don't see any others but basketball is a funny game
 

They've played really tough. I don't think we have the guns to win a lot of games but they aren't going to be an easy team to play.

Maybe it's Ben Johnson, maybe it's that we have a really experienced team (it's likely both), but they really play smart defense. It was always one of my biggest issues with Pitino's teams on defense, they'd double at weird spots, they'd leave a good shooter to help out on crappy shooters, we just always played kind of dumb defense.

This team plays much smarter defense, they actually cut on offense, their shooters actually get to catch and shoot in rhythm (because it's not dribble ball). So far so good.
 

mnhoopboy said:
This team will overachieve. You can already see they believe in each other and the coaching staff and there are no egos. That's half the battle right there.
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They look like a Bo ryan/dick Bennett WI team: great defense, low on talent but high intense team defense and pass the ball well
 

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