Souhan: Big Ten is dealing Gophers' men's basketball team a hard dose of reality; We may have been a bit exuberant in our praise

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BleedGopher

BleedGopher

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per Souhan:

We may have been a bit exuberant in our praise of this team, because this team was such a pleasant surprise.

The praise wasn't necessarily wrong — it just may need to be placed on ice until Johnson can spend more than one rushed, COVID-infested offseason recruiting. And he had an impressive number of top recruits in attendance at Williams Arena on Sunday.

The Gophers' next five games are at Penn State, home against Rutgers, home against No. 16 Ohio State, at No. 13 Wisconsin and home against No. 7 Purdue.

This could get ugly, but the fundamentals of the sweet story are still in place. This remains an endearing combination of earnest coaches and ambitious players, and when fully healthy they could pull another upset or two.

As for the notion that this was going to be an NCAA tournament team, you have permission to blame anyone who let an endearing story line obscure the Gophers' reality.

www.startribune.com

Big Ten is dealing Gophers' men's basketball team a hard dose of reality

Minnesita played another scrappy game, but in the end it wasn't enough against Iowa to keep from losing its fourth game in a row.
www.startribune.com www.startribune.com

Go Gophers!!
 


Didn’t read full story but the posted part is very fair. injuries were always going to be a massive factor for this team given the lack of depth. and their only real shot of making the tournament this year was if they managed to not lose additional players beyond Fox and Ihnen for any significant amounts of time.
 

BleedGopher said:
per Souhan:

We may have been a bit exuberant in our praise of this team, because this team was such a pleasant surprise.

The praise wasn't necessarily wrong — it just may need to be placed on ice until Johnson can spend more than one rushed, COVID-infested offseason recruiting. And he had an impressive number of top recruits in attendance at Williams Arena on Sunday.

The Gophers' next five games are at Penn State, home against Rutgers, home against No. 16 Ohio State, at No. 13 Wisconsin and home against No. 7 Purdue.

This could get ugly, but the fundamentals of the sweet story are still in place. This remains an endearing combination of earnest coaches and ambitious players, and when fully healthy they could pull another upset or two.

As for the notion that this was going to be an NCAA tournament team, you have permission to blame anyone who let an endearing story line obscure the Gophers' reality.

www.startribune.com

Big Ten is dealing Gophers' men's basketball team a hard dose of reality

Minnesita played another scrappy game, but in the end it wasn't enough against Iowa to keep from losing its fourth game in a row.
www.startribune.com www.startribune.com

Go Gophers!!
Click to expand...
Who were the recruits at the game? I missed it - txs!
 




60's Guy said:
Ben is doing fine. Circumstances have made things a steeper climb.
Be nice to infuse some hope in the guys by beating Rutgers. Hopefully Curry can play and play effectively as he was doing prior to the ankle.
Click to expand...
Let's beat Penn State first...
 

Soupcan...the man is a big bundle of ignorance.
No one thought this team would be an NCAA tournament team. What is observed is a team that is undermanned, but well coached. Watching this team has been a joy and a breath of fresh air. I look forward to watching them play. At this point I couldn't care less about post season play.
 

The B1G is a beast of a conference. Average teams in the B1G truly could be top tier teams in most conferences. Teams like NW beating MSU is an eyebrow raiser but ultimately not a huge surprise to people who see these teams play regularly. Anyone who has an off night or takes a night off can be beaten.

I say all of that to point out Ben can be doing a good to great job with what he has available and still not get the favorable result. Wins in the non conference show where he may have them relative to others nationally. Unfortunately, this team may not have the talent to be a B1G elite, but they're competing every night and that's more representative of coaching to me.

Ben is doing fine and likely exceeding everyones preseason expectations overall, he just did himself a disservice by having early success and raising others expectations before B1G season.
 






The local sports media, outside of Marcus and other beat writers, paid almost zero attention to Gopher basketball until about the Mississippi State game. Then they went from "they're going to win 5 games all year" to "Ben Johnson will win coach of the year and they'll make the tournament" in a week. The reality is this was always likely. They will win 5-7 games in the B1G depending on health. It was always unlikely they would make it through without injuries or that they could overcome them when they came.
 



howeda7 said:
The local sports media, outside of Marcus and other beat writers, paid almost zero attention to Gopher basketball until about the Mississippi State game. Then they went from "they're going to win 5 games all year" to "Ben Johnson will win coach of the year and they'll make the tournament" in a week. The reality is this was always likely. They will win 5-7 games in the B1G depending on health. It was always unlikely they would make it through without injuries or that they could overcome them when they came.
Click to expand...
This is dead on. Those of us actually paying attention aren't surprised at all. If anything I'm pleasantly surprised we've been competitive in every conference game other than Illinois. There are going to be some ugly moments for this team with the lack of talent, but nothing has really shocked me or made me think less of this coaching staff.
 

no surprise in the age of instant reaction.

Pre-season: "Gophers could be worst team in B1G."

(gophers do well in non-conf play): "Gophers are the biggest surprise in the B1G. Johnson doing great job."

(gophers lose several games in B1G play): "Gophers are not as good as we thought from the non-conference schedule."

If the Gophers manage to win a few conference games, the pendulum will swing back the other way just as quickly.
 





This is how I see it….If Ben couldn’t coach I’m not sure this group of guys would have even won many non conference games if they were left to their own ways or poorly coached there isn’t enough talent and no depth.
He is navigating COVID, the Ihnen and Fox injuries, and now after the resurrection of Eric Curry he very unfortunately gets hurt.
When your second team is such a step below your first group it is very hard to get anything out of 5 on 5 in practice…no resistance, no competition for that first group leads to bad habits.
For the Gophers to be competitive is excellent coaching. To actually beat Top 40 teams is amazing coaching. I did not expect us to be half this good this year.
Way to go Ben!
 

60's Guy said:
This is how I see it….If Ben couldn’t coach I’m not sure this group of guys would have even won many non conference games if they were left to their own ways or poorly coached there isn’t enough talent and no depth.
He is navigating COVID, the Ihnen and Fox injuries, and now after the resurrection of Eric Curry he very unfortunately gets hurt.
When your second team is such a step below your first group it is very hard to get anything out of 5 on 5 in practice…no resistance, no competition for that first group leads to bad habits.
For the Gophers to be competitive is excellent coaching. To actually beat Top 40 teams is amazing coaching. I did not expect us to be half this good this year.
Way to go Ben!
Click to expand...
Spot on 60!

I really like what I have seen from Coach Johnson's team thus far. Tough, focused, confident and play well together.

I think its a very good sign that he was able to convince Battle, Willis, Stephens, Sutherlin, Loewe and others to come to Minnesota. And the three Minnesota 2022 recruits that he has coming. I would call that a leap of faith in what Ben was selling as well as many of the players being able to come back home or to stay home.

This season is what it is. A display of BenBall for all to see. My hope is that Gopher recruits are impressed and want to be a part of the future.
 

Souhan outing himself has getting his expectations too high.

People who watch basketball knew this wasn’t a tourney team. Souhan probably watched his first game against Iowa and doesn’t know that guys were out
 

Souhan is a dink. 90% of posters thought and still think the NIT invite was the ceiling. With Eric likely being hobbled for the rest of the year it’s now a long shot. Hopefully the covid wheel spins in our favor because these players deserve it. 6 more wins.
 

I dont' a scenario I don't finish the season "happy" even if we lose every game

I'm watching a team play hard, have good ball movement, and play smart.

And while I'm watching a team with limited talent, 2022 class looks promising and Battle will be back next year and a is very good player.

Success wasn't going to be instant in MN, but I'm optimistic at groundwork being laid
 

No guarantees down the road, but what Johnson has done this first season is impressive to me. He has shown that he can coach; that he has a style of play; and that he is going to work his butt off recruiting locally. I was surprised by the hire, but willing to trust Coyle. But there was a dread going into the season of "What if they get hammered every conference game? Will the hole be so deep once the media piles on that Ben can't climb out?" I think the opposite has happened and he's laid a very sound foundation going forward.
 

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