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jovs said:
Add Hadley, keep Christie, guard depth is better next year than this. Keep Garcia and add a couple of decent bigs and things will be fine.
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Betts is also staying for sure as well. Still waiting on official word from Garcia, Fox and Christie. Will be shocked if Christie doesn't at least get draft feedback and maintain his eligibility. Feeling pretty good about Garcia and Fox being back

Unfortunately it sounds like Hadley is a lock for Iowa State. Some saying he is related to Curtis Jones, so that's a factor.
 



TwistingMyMelon said:
Well, "irreplaceable" probably should be considered a relative term. I agree that one couldn't consider Payne the best center in the country but we could not land the best center in the country so that comparison is kind of irrelevant for us.

I don't expect us to land a center better, or even that close to, Payne but we might be able to get a couple of guys who will do well enough that he won't be missed as much as we think.
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Yep, that is the key. Very few players are irreplaceable but it will not be easy to replace Payne and chances are the C position is going to look different next year with whoever we do end up with.
 

WriterGoph said:
Betts is also staying for sure as well. Still waiting on official word from Garcia, Fox and Christie. Will be shocked if Christie doesn't at least get draft feedback and maintain his eligibility. Feeling pretty good about Garcia and Fox being back

Unfortunately it sounds like Hadley is a lock for Iowa State. Some saying he is related to Curtis Jones, so that's a factor.
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He is a cousin. Both went to Cretin and both went to community college in Iowa (can’t remember which one). I think he is a lock to Iowa state.
 



GopherBlood777 said:
STOP. No one here hates Ben Johnson as a person. There are many who have realized he is in over his head as a coach in this league and want a change. BIG DIFFERENCE.
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I will not stop...I think he is in way over his head I don't say some of the things I read on here. There is no way you can read some of these comments and think the posters have any level of respect for him as a person.
 

When we don’t sign a 6-9 255lb physical presence you will see why I said Irreplaceable for the gophers.

We haven’t had a few physical players since the final four team, it’s been a huge weakness in the big ten. We run out finesse players year after year.
 

march madness said:
When we don’t sign a 6-9 255lb physical presence you will see why I said Irreplaceable for the gophers.

We haven’t had a few physical players since the final four team, it’s been a huge weakness in the big ten. We run out finesse players year after year.
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I mean...Mbakwe, Lynch, Murphy, Oturu, Robbins etc just off the top of my head.

We've had plenty of athletic physical big guys recently.
 



bga1 said:
total minutes? Sure. The curious no start issue- no. How he used him? Why run a kid out constantly on the hard hedge if you are trying to protect his back. He was constantly chasing around to recover on D.
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All valid points.
 

atsgopher said:
So just looked up our former players are not well regarded in the transfer portal rankings.

Not a great sign for them.

There should be substantial additions. I imagine their NIL offers will suffer.
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What site please?
 
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formerlybis said:
More based on faith than evidence at this point. It ain’t happening here in the real world.
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Tubby Smith had us in NCAAs 3 out of his final 5 years. He's the only competent hire of the past 3 coaches.

Richard was not ready for this job, and even he had us in 2 out of his 5 final years. Was way down on the list for Teague who really botched that coaching cycle.

It's really not out of reach. Just hire a decent coach.

I really think it's as simple as hiring Medved, and he'd take the job I'd think. He might not be a home run, but it's a smart, sensible, evidence-based hire.
 




007gopherfan said:
So far Kadyn Betts hasn't entered. I know he actually committed a year earlier than anticipated and then red shirted. I did think he would get more time this year then he did, but maybe it was due to the 3 leaving now complaining about their playing time and Ben trying to accommodate, which explains there exits as they all left in a hurry? Betts does seem to be developing in size nicely and maybe now he gets his chance to shine next year as the starting Wing??? Definitely think he has a chance to be a good Wing player with his size and ability.
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One of Betts or Christian was likely to leave all along ... whichever deemed himself to be not likely in the mix next year. If Betts stays it means he does believe he will play some next year.
 

Dakota2 said:
One of Betts or Christian was likely to leave all along ... whichever deemed himself to be not likely in the mix next year. If Betts stays it means he does believe he will play some next year.
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I'd think Betts should contribute next year and hopefully surprise us a little bit. He was a decent recruit and has good size. Seems like he is supposed to be able to shoot a little bit too.

There's definitely talent with the current guys still on this roster.

Can they get coached up? Have they / can they be developed? Another story. Hope so.

*Betts was Top 100 on 247 but then reclassified a year early and was moved outside of Top 200 for that class.
 

GoldenMAV30266 said:
“Fire Ben” “Go get Mussemlan” “The roster is imploding” blah blah blah.

Transfers leave faster than they come in, and with respect to JOJ and Carrington, the only one that stings a bit so far Payne.

There’s thousands of kids in the portal, Ben just has to find the right ones (again). Leave your overreactions for after the roster is actually set.

Seeing a visit from Morgan today and hearing there’s mutual interest with J’Vonne Hadley is a good start.

I know everyone loves to overreact. But there’s actually a possibility to get a BETTER roster from this.
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I hope you are correct on Morgan and Hadley. They would help.
 

Dave H said:
I will not stop...I think he is in way over his head I don't say some of the things I read on here. There is no way you can read some of these comments and think the posters have any level of respect for him as a person.
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The only criticism I see about Ben is in regard to his coaching ability. It can be harsh, but he is a highly compensated public figure. Criticism is part of the job. Who has attacked him personally?
 


Mbakwe was 11 years ago, Oturu and Robbin’s were finesse players.

My point Is Payne was a monster on a team that has been undersized weight wise muscle wise for decades.

Maybe they will find a 6-10 230lb guy who can give you 10 pts, 5 reb. It’s way more than those stats. Just the number of fouls alone he generated. Someone who had the size to block a dunk.
 


I have no idea if Payne was included in the alleged Carrington/JOJ dissension, but it doesn’t seem from his effort and playing style that he would have been. But that list of teams shows two things. Some teams aren’t as worried about free throw percentages as posters here are, which by the way at end of year he improved dramatically. Also not sure if we realized what we had here? Apparently some teams also aren’t put off by, "can’t shoot", can’t handle the ball", "bad foot work", and "can’t pass"?

Now everyone’s only concern will be "can’t turn down the money"!

IF the U isn’t, can’t, or won’t shell out the cash to keep a Payne level player then the wet dreams that the Never Ben posters have of replacing him with someone who will magically lure high end players to come here, in the current environment, will turn into nightmares!
 

march madness said:
Mbakwe was 11 years ago, Oturu and Robbin’s were finesse players.

My point Is Payne was a monster on a team that has been undersized weight wise muscle wise for decades.

Maybe they will find a 6-10 230lb guy who can give you 10 pts, 5 reb. It’s way more than those stats. Just the number of fouls alone he generated. Someone who had the size to block a dunk.
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Just because Oturu and Robbins could score more than 2 feet away from the basket doesn't make them finesse players. Both were much better shot blockers than Payne too.
 

Gophers have to get to the tournament next season. I think the majority believe that.

With the NIL transfer portal what it is, there may be different ways to get there.
 

skiumah1 said:
I really think it's as simple as hiring Medved, and he'd take the job I'd think. He might not be a home run, but it's a smart, sensible, evidence-based hire.
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I mean, Thorson was with Medved for three years prior to coming here?
 

@skiumah1 my point is, I'm just curious your thoughts, what is it that Medved would do that Thorson couldn't have counseled BJ something like "well at CO St we would have done this ..." ?

Maybe BJ said forget that, I'm going to do whatever I think makes sense to me. I'm just saying.
 

CO St had a nice bounce back from a poor and disappointing 22-23 where it was a major drop off from a great 21-22. They went 6-12 (T-8th) last year but bounced back to 10-8 (though that was only good enough for T-6th) this year. So that is nice to see.

The one who really was impressive was Sprinkle at Utah State. But he was quickly already snatched up by Washington, and now will be competing directly against us starting next season.
 

Gopheritnow said:
Now everyone’s only concern will be "can’t turn down the money"!

IF the U isn’t, can’t, or won’t shell out the cash to keep a Payne level player then the wet dreams that the Never Ben posters have of replacing him with someone who will magically lure high end players to come here, in the current environment, will turn into nightmares!
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Universities can't shell out cash to anyone. It bugs me that people still think that the U is somehow making the calls on NIL. NIL is supposed to be handled by entities outside of the universities and colleges. I have no doubt that some universities are more materially involved but the University of Minnesota is not going to run afoul of the actually intent of NIL. They have approached NIL very conservatively to avoid this from day one.

We are, unfortunately, never going to attract NIL like other programs do. Minnesotans are not myopic enough to throw away their hard-earned cash to pay for the privilege of watching a college player for one year when they can pay a fraction of the cost to get great seats to watch the best players in the world in the pro leagues.
 

Gopheritnow said:
I have no idea if Payne was included in the alleged Carrington/JOJ dissension, but it doesn’t seem from his effort and playing style that he would have been. But that list of teams shows two things. Some teams aren’t as worried about free throw percentages as posters here are, which by the way at end of year he improved dramatically. Also not sure if we realized what we had here? Apparently some teams also aren’t put off by, "can’t shoot", can’t handle the ball", "bad foot work", and "can’t pass"?

Now everyone’s only concern will be "can’t turn down the money"!

IF the U isn’t, can’t, or won’t shell out the cash to keep a Payne level player then the wet dreams that the Never Ben posters have of replacing him with someone who will magically lure high end players to come here, in the current environment, will turn into nightmares!
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I think Carrington and JOJ were a different situation. They believed they were better than their playing time would indicate. They both had good attributes. Carrington was a good defender, but no offense to speak of. JOJ had the ability to go snag rebounds and catch lobs (he was a key reason we came back against Nebraska) but he seemed to lack a motor and when things werent going, he would force up shots and show little effort on D.
Payne felt with how physically imposing he is that he could get paid better. Players like him aren't easy to find and he knew it which is why he skipped town.
 

march madness said:
www.minnesotasportsfan.com

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www.minnesotasportsfan.com www.minnesotasportsfan.com

Apparently some crappy teams are interested.
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Not surprising. Big men are much harder to come by than guards in the portal. Payne will have his pick from a ton of schools and I am sure will cash in bigtime on this move.

Great time to be a skilled big man in college basketball. As long as you are just in it for yourself there will be plenty of opportunities to profit.
 

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