And pretty much everyone disagrees with you. You're points have been proven wrong over and over again, and when that happens you say some other nonsense. Just be consistent.
"That said, I hope I'm wrong on a TON of things that I think. I think the housing market might crash a little, I hope i'm wrong. I don't think the Vikings will ever win a Super Bowl, I really hope I'm wrong. Whether you believe it or not, I want the Gophers to win. I want every Gopher player to be WAY better than I thought they were going to be. People can accuse me of a lot of things, but no offense, to accuse me of not wanting the Gophers to win is missing the point. I want Samuels to be fantastic and an absolute perfect fit.
Whose job is it to make MN attractive enough to land the top portal talent?
I mean you called Alex O'Connell a very talented guard even though he's 6'6 and have implied Henley isn't a guard because 6'6 or 6'7.
High school rankings from 5 years ago are relevant now but with Kerwin they should have been thrown out the window. That one inch really makes a difference when it comes to calling someone a guard or not. Like I said consistency, you should give it a try.
Like many others, you just assume we are intentionally taking that risk. Not the case. Can't imagine the coach doesn't want to continue to improve the team through the portal. Fact remains, Minnesota is not an attractive landing spot for high level transfers. What Ben is not willing to do is take mediocre players for the sake of filling the roster and, in the process, taking playing time from freshman.
And that's a risk Iowa, Wisconsin, Illinois and lots of others face as well.
Ah must have been a different guy bringing up height on guards when talking about rosters yesterday.
I think you will be surprised by Cooper. He is a better point guard than Willis in terms of running an offense and distributing. He is a better basketball player the Loewe, and is at least equal all around as Stephens.
The only complaint I have about Ben's class is not adding another wing or two.
I don't think these numbers are accurate.
Yeah trust 7 and play 8. I agree. I think Samuel gets 10-12 minutes a game. He will spell Cooper for 5-8 minutes, and also play with Cooper for a couple so he can spell the other wing. I think either Payne or Ihnen will be the 8th guy.
If you look at Ben's largest basketball influences (Dave Thorsen and Ben Jacobson), they don't play that fast on offense. We ranked just ahead of Colorado St. in possessions per game last year. Having a deeper bench will allow for the team to be held more accountable on the defense and that is where I think you will see added depth be felt more.
I agree we will score more points per possessions. I'm not confident we will have more possessions than last year. We still play in the B1G and being better on defense will equate to the other team having longer possessions. We may score a little quicker, but we are hopefully defending a little longer.
If this happens, either Garcia and Battle are hurt, or Fox will be overachieving. I love Fox's attributes and what he brings to the game. He is uber athletic and in the NSIC it was a way to score. He will get more junk points here and will not have offenses ran through him. If he scores 12 ppg, with Battle and Garcia scoring their predicted averages, we are a top 4 team in the B1G.
We may have more spread out scoring, but it most likely wont be by much. Battle and Garcia are at another level offensively. They should be averaging somewhere from 14-20 ppg each with the current pace. If we amped it up to a crazy level pace then then you could look at 18-24 ppg, but I highly doubt that happens knowing what style Ben has preferred to play in the past. We averaged like 67 ppg last year. Lets say we bump that up to 72-75 with he hope our offense is improved. You're scoring spread out will lower averages still.
First off, I think our class this year is better than TT/Thiam obviously BUT that said I don't think this is a statement you can definitively make after last year. We did exactly what you are saying Ben would never willing do. We took below mediocre players in Ogele, Daniels and even Ramburg and gave them more time than TT/Thiam. Again, it certainly appears our freshman are better this year but you are making assumptions about them that the ones who disagree with you seemingly cant make without you throwing a tantrum.
No doubt Ben took some guys to fill it last year, but that was to fill it to 11. This year he didn't have to fill the 12th and 13th spot which is good. Even with filling 8th-10 he certainly did choose character/team fit over talent. We will see if it paid off
We had no choice last year but to take less than mediocre players just to partially fill out a roster. Getting Willis, Battle, and Fox in the portal was a monumental achievement given the horrible condition of the program. Minnesota was not and still is not a desired destination for top portal players.
What better talent could we have had over the three portal players we got?
The head coach. He is doing it.
You just said Mn can’t attract top portal talent. Fail.
He could’ve taken talented guys who were major character flaws. He made the right choice and didn’t take them. Others didn’t either.
Such as?
Go search through the portal. There were better players than Ogele. Who was there isn’t the point. The fact Ben was selective and didn’t sacrifice or try for the quick fix as he worked to build a new culture was the point. I think it was the right choice
There was no reason for Ben to take unnecessary risks last season. Season was going to be a disaster on the record books and in the standings no matter what. He had a free pass and used it.