Sure Hope Ben is Right

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Mulligan

Mulligan

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Just up in the Strib:

Johnson said Monday that as of now he potentially could have four starters back with leading scorer and All-Big Ten forward Dawson Garcia, Elijah Hawkins, Mike Mitchell Jr., and Cam Christie. The only starter currently lost is Pharrel Payne, among five Gophers who entered the transfer portal last week after the season ended.

"Right now, we're in a pretty good spot," Johnson said in a phone interview. "If you look across the league at the number of teams that could potentially return four guys who started a significant amount of games. We're pretty fortunate."
 

Mulligan said:
"Right now, we're in a pretty good spot," Johnson said in a phone interview. "If you look across the league at the number of teams that could potentially return four guys who started a significant amount of games. We're pretty fortunate."
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All right, I'll give him that but he still has to recruit four or five players.
 

The previous iteration said something to the effect that he really won’t know for sure until May 1. True for sure but isn’t exactly oozing confidence.

Scary thing is that Garcia and Christie are staying silent and probably will until we know who is coming in and what their options are.
 

key word in Ben's first sentence:

Johnson said Monday that as of now he potentially could have four starters back with leading scorer and All-Big Ten forward Dawson Garcia, Elijah Hawkins, Mike Mitchell Jr., and Cam Christie. The only starter currently lost is Pharrel Payne, among five Gophers who entered the transfer portal last week after the season ended.

Potentially is never good.
 



Wet_Blanket_Guy said:
key word in Ben's first sentence:

Johnson said Monday that as of now he potentially could have four starters back with leading scorer and All-Big Ten forward Dawson Garcia, Elijah Hawkins, Mike Mitchell Jr., and Cam Christie. The only starter currently lost is Pharrel Payne, among five Gophers who entered the transfer portal last week after the season ended.

Potentially is never good.
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Little worried about you. He used "potentally" in the next paragraph also and you passed up a chance to be doubly pessimistic.

For example: "He used 'potentially' twice and that proves we're screwed because that always means a total disaster with no hope at all."
 


USAF said:
We could potentially have 4 of 5 starters back from a team that finished below .500 in conference and were nowhere near the NCAA tournament.

Whoppee!!!!
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giphy.gif
 

Garcia and Christie are the two most important guys to watch. Christie if he takes a step forward could carry the Gophers far. He is special. Garcia is Garcia, the best player on the team.

Would have been nice if Gophers beat Michigan State in the B1G Tournament except Payne had seven turnovers.

Next season they need to make the tournament. Maybe being without 7 turnovers and a bad back will help.

Keep an eye on who comes in via the portal, especially at post/forward.
 



GopherMarroon said:
Garcia and Christie are the two most important guys to watch. Christie if he takes a step forward could carry the Gophers far. He is special. Garcia is Garcia, the best player on the team.

Would have been nice if Gophers beat Michigan State in the B1G Tournament except Payne had seven turnovers.

Next season they need to make the tournament. Maybe being without 7 turnovers and a bad back will help.

Keep an eye on who comes in via the portal, especially at post/forward.
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Easy. Pilgrim
 

get used to it, folks. until something changes, this is going to be the norm every season. there is no guarantee - none - that any player will spend more than one season with a team.

unless you have unlimited amounts of money to throw around - and MN certainly does not - this is the new status quo.

it's the law of nature - adapt, evolve or face extinction.
 

GopherMarroon said:
Garcia and Christie are the two most important guys to watch. Christie if he takes a step forward could carry the Gophers far. He is special. Garcia is Garcia, the best player on the team.

Would have been nice if Gophers beat Michigan State in the B1G Tournament except Payne had seven turnovers.

Next season they need to make the tournament. Maybe being without 7 turnovers and a bad back will help.

Keep an eye on who comes in via the portal, especially at post/forward.
Click to expand...
If we are going to be really good, we need to get an even replacement for Payne, Christie needs to have an offseason that makes him the best player on the team and everyone needs to become a better defensive player. Then we need to recruit rotation players that Ben will play.
 

bga1 said:
If we are going to be really good, we need to get an even replacement for Payne, Christie needs to have an offseason that makes him the best player on the team and everyone needs to become a better defensive player. Then we need to recruit rotation players that Ben will play.
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And an above average presence underneath coming from the portal.
 




I’m not counting any chickens until Cam and Dawson decide if they are staying. If they both stay, we have a solid team to build around since we know Hawkins and Mitchell are staying. Plus, I think Betts will contribute , as will Asuma. The guys/minutes we’ve lost so far from the portal are replaceable. Losing Christie or Garcia would not be replaced via the portal.
 


To have a chance to be good...Garcia, Christie, and Hawkins need to stay. Mitchell seems to indicate he is going to be here. Ben needs those four guys to stay and then there is hope.
 

60's Guy said:
To have a chance to be good...Garcia, Christie, and Hawkins need to stay. Mitchell seems to indicate he is going to be here. Ben needs those four guys to stay and then there is hope.
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Without additional reinforcements who can contribute, that won’t be enough. With those guys staying, the chances of getting those reinforcements increases significantly.
 

Block M said:
Payne will be nearly impossible to replace but if we're lucky, the incoming/outgoing player swap could actually improve the team on the court.
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If you get 3-4 4th/5th year guys to come in and have a really veteran group with Christie it can be a really good team.
 


Sure, you should assume they're coming back until they say they aren't. At the very least, I think there's still a decent chance Christie put his name in the draft to see what feedback he gets. And if it really is as bad of a class as people say, maybe he really is a 1st round pick.
 


The problem Ben is that your 4 starters don’t compare to most of the other B1G teams starters.
 


MaxyJR1 said:
If you get 3-4 4th/5th year guys to come in and have a really veteran group with Christie it can be a really good team.
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It's interesting to see college basketball become more like college hockey where winning programs are getting older players to come and win with experience.
This NIL is making kids from high school basically irrelevant unless they are 5* recruits. The 3* and 2* recruit will be playing for the University of Texas - Commerce type schools in hopes of being plucked when they get older and stronger. The lower tier schools are becoming the equivalent of JUCOs.
 

short ornery norwegian said:
get used to it, folks. until something changes, this is going to be the norm every season. there is no guarantee - none - that any player will spend more than one season with a team.

unless you have unlimited amounts of money to throw around - and MN certainly does not - this is the new status quo.

it's the law of nature - adapt, evolve or face extinction.
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You are 100% spot on. My issues are

1) Seems that Coyle was a bit flat footed in actively managing NIL and with the four PAC 12 teams joining he will only fall further behind on effectively mmahing NIL

2) the revolving door reality will continue to out pace Ben’s coaching ability. His shortcomings will only be magnified by this changing landscape with continuous player turnover
 

FinnGopher said:
It's interesting to see college basketball become more like college hockey where winning programs are getting older players to come and win with experience.
This NIL is making kids from high school basically irrelevant unless they are 5* recruits. The 3* and 2* recruit will be playing for the University of Texas - Commerce type schools in hopes of being plucked when they get older and stronger. The lower tier schools are becoming the equivalent of JUCOs.
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Point taken but hockey older guys are more frequently developed within the program and or come from junior hockey. It’s not the free for all transfer world of basketball that gets them “old.”
 


Mulligan said:
Just up in the Strib:

Johnson said Monday that as of now he potentially could have four starters back with leading scorer and All-Big Ten forward Dawson Garcia, Elijah Hawkins, Mike Mitchell Jr., and Cam Christie. The only starter currently lost is Pharrel Payne, among five Gophers who entered the transfer portal last week after the season ended.

"Right now, we're in a pretty good spot," Johnson said in a phone interview. "If you look across the league at the number of teams that could potentially return four guys who started a significant amount of games. We're pretty fortunate."
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And I could potentially be a millionaire because I bought a lottery ticket. :rolleyes:
 


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