They only have two guy's back from last year, and yes Thompson is measurably better defensively than he was last year. I expect the same from this years freshman class. As players get accustomed to each other offensively they will naturally improve, you can't have a new team every year and expect to win unless you have dominating natural ability which the Gophers will never have.
I didn’t say anything about winning. We can still improve team offensive / defensive metrics and still not win (but that would be considered an improvement).
I’ll make it crystal clear, I did not expect to more than a .333 winning percentage in the B10. Additionally, I expected the following in non-conference:
-6-0 against cream puffs (Chicago state, Arkansas PB, western Michigan, st Francis Brooklyn, Central Michigan, Cal-Baptist. Combined we won (393-346). That is not really an acceptable margin when you realize we beat St. Francis by 18 and Arkansas PB by 16, meaning the other four games our combined margin of victory was 13 points. *I give the Michigan some leeway in losing to Central Michigan as that is essentially Central Michigan’s Super Bowl.
- I expected us to be a coin toss against UNLV. While they are guard heavy (a weakness for us, which is well documented) I figured our size could grind on them in an early season game. It was a blow out and the final score does not actually represent what actually happened (we were destroyed)
You've thrown out those two words multiple times. I think they are closer to an average team, than historically bad. Guess we'll find out over the next 2-3 months
an average team can potentially go winless in conference…wow. Hate to see a bad team in your mind.