The 2022-23 Gopher basketball season will be a success if?...

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BleedGopher

BleedGopher

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If we make the NIT, if the Barn becomes a tough place for opponents to win again, if we improve as the season goes on and most importantly, if we finish this season more optimistic going into next year than we are finishing this year. To achieve that, we have to develop talent. Hopefully we don't lose Battle and Garcia after this year, but even if we do, we can't be so thin with our depth that we are starting all over yet again in Year 3. So my biggest factor to this being a successful season is less with wins (though those are important) but more so that we are even more excited with how players are developing and that we have even more excitement going into Year 3.

We can't be chasing mid-majors in The Portal every year hoping to sustainably build a winner.

Go Gophers!!
 

BleedGopher said:
If we make the NIT, if the Barn becomes a tough place for opponents to win again, if we improve as the season goes on and most importantly, if we finish this season more optimistic going into next year than we are finishing this year. To achieve that, we have to develop talent. Hopefully we don't lose Battle and Garcia after this year, but even if we do, we can't be so thin with our depth that we are starting all over yet again in Year 3. So my biggest factor to this being a successful season is less with wins (though those are important) but more so that we are even more excited with how players are developing and that we have even more excitement going into Year 3.

We can't be chasing mid-majors in The Portal every year hoping to sustainably build a winner.

Go Gophers!!
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We literally can chase mid majors in the portal and be successful. Probably not a full roster, but it’s a very sound strategy to get mid major guys. They come in ready to play.

NIT is the minimum for me. I think they have a chance at being on the bubble.
 


These are always subjective to start the year. In theory its "not successful if we dont win the big 10 and a title" but thats clearly not logical.

I would say its easier for me to define what is an unsuccessful year. If we are playing weakling wednesday then it has been a failure in my eyes. I refuse to hear "well we were picked 14th and we got 12th, we did better than expected" that is not good enough for me. Losing close games is still losing. 2nd I want to see actual improvement from the younger guys. Last year I was disappointed that i didnt think any of the younger guys improved. I understand we likely arent making the tourney but i want progress. I want to say hey next year carrington/henley/payne etc we have a base and we need to add 1-2 guys and we are going to be legit. Not omg we are losing battle/garcia and these guys look awful, here comes another 14th place finish next year!
 

leib0039 said:
These are always subjective to start the year. In theory its "not successful if we dont win the big 10 and a title" but thats clearly not logical.

I would say its easier for me to define what is an unsuccessful year. If we are playing weakling wednesday then it has been a failure in my eyes. I refuse to hear "well we were picked 14th and we got 12th, we did better than expected" that is not good enough for me. Losing close games is still losing. 2nd I want to see actual improvement from the younger guys. Last year I was disappointed that i didnt think any of the younger guys improved. I understand we likely arent making the tourney but i want progress. I want to say hey next year carrington/henley/payne etc we have a base and we need to add 1-2 guys and we are going to be legit. Not omg we are losing battle/garcia and these guys look awful, here comes another 14th place finish next year!
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What younger guys are you thinking about from last year? Hard to see that improvement when you play 6 guys all year. Hopefully Johnson feels he has more depth this year where he feels somewhat comfortable going 8-9 deep. Then I would say we should hope to see improvement.
 


RockChalk said:
What younger guys are you thinking about from last year? Hard to see that improvement when you play 6 guys all year. Hopefully Johnson feels he has more depth this year where he feels somewhat comfortable going 8-9 deep. Then I would say we should hope to see improvement.
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Thompson and Thiam were the only real younger guys. And some of that only playing 6 is the point. It would have been nice if Treyton improved over the year to the point we could have had a 7 man rotation and not played curry 30+ a night or would have been good to have Thiam get 10 a game to help save Willis/Loewe. And others will say well that was Ben's first class and it wasnt a full year, sure but at some point those are excuses. I would say undoubtedly this freshman class has more natural ability so we should see improvement. If we are back to a 6 man rotation of Cooper/Samuels/Garcia/Battle playing 35+ a night to me that is concerning. For example it looks like Betts may not be a big contributor right away, thats totally fine, but maybe 20 games in he can be out there 10 min a game and helping with depth.
 



It's an unqualified success if we make the NCAAs.
Failing that, it is a good season, if we end the year feeling like next year is a top 25 team that can make a run.
 



fan of Ray Williams said:
Think the season will be a success if they are able to stay healthy. (Stating this with the assumption that Battle will fully recover and be ready soon.)
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That's where I'm at, if we can stay healthy then the rest should take care of itself. I'm optimistic we can be a tourney team. If we miss the tourney and settle for the NIT, fine that's okay. If we miss the NIT then my optimism will be dwindling. Love Ben and the recruits he's getting, let's just stay healthy!
 

If the Gophers manage to make the NIT this year....it would be a success. Would be a significant improvement from last year to this year....and would be a good building block toward next year.
 

If I have to pick numbers: 8-2 in non-conference, 8-12 in conference, so a winning record overall at 16-14.

Mostly want to see freshman improve and look like guys that belong in the big 10. Been thrilled with Johnson’s recruiting so far, but recruiting doesn’t mean anything if you can’t turn recruits into good big 10 players, and so far, that’s the one piece of coaching that we haven’t seen Ben Johnson do. I have a lot of faith that he will, but would be good to start seeing some progress there.
 




BleedGopher said:
If we make the NIT, if the Barn becomes a tough place for opponents to win again, if we improve as the season goes on and most importantly, if we finish this season more optimistic going into next year than we are finishing this year. To achieve that, we have to develop talent. Hopefully we don't lose Battle and Garcia after this year, but even if we do, we can't be so thin with our depth that we are starting all over yet again in Year 3. So my biggest factor to this being a successful season is less with wins (though those are important) but more so that we are even more excited with how players are developing and that we have even more excitement going into Year 3.

We can't be chasing mid-majors in The Portal every year hoping to sustainably build a winner.

Go Gophers!!
Click to expand...
 

It will be a success if Ben can keep more than 6 players from this years roster to stay for next season !!!
 

leib0039 said:
Thompson and Thiam were the only real younger guys. And some of that only playing 6 is the point. It would have been nice if Treyton improved over the year to the point we could have had a 7 man rotation and not played curry 30+ a night or would have been good to have Thiam get 10 a game to help save Willis/Loewe. And others will say well that was Ben's first class and it wasnt a full year, sure but at some point those are excuses. I would say undoubtedly this freshman class has more natural ability so we should see improvement. If we are back to a 6 man rotation of Cooper/Samuels/Garcia/Battle playing 35+ a night to me that is concerning. For example it looks like Betts may not be a big contributor right away, thats totally fine, but maybe 20 games in he can be out there 10 min a game and helping with depth.
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As for last year... I hate to say it but Thiam wasn't worth 1 minute a game. He was a gamble that didn't pay off and we are fortunate that he saw the writing on the wall and transferred down to where he will get some minutes.

Betts is unlikely to play this year unless we have additional prolonged injuries. His upside is too high to waste a year with middling minutes.
 

8 big ten wins.
I feel like they “should” win 6
Win the 6 you should and steal two more.

2 or fewer non conference losses.

16-14 (8-12) or better is a success to me
 
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Getting to the NCAA Tournament would be a success. Not making the NIT would be a failure. Making the NIT would OK. (Assuming all players stay healthy)
 

If MN could get Carlson back after he left WI.
 



Competitive all season with no more injuries. Team is paper thin with two bigs already out.
 


We need to find a starting lineup of 5 very good players. And a couple of good bench players.

Line them all up on the same team...hopefully within the next year or 2.
 


Lion King said:
It will be a success if Ben can keep more than 6 players from this years roster to stay for next season !!!
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Ya, I don't think you can use results to measure success this year. We need the freshmen to play meaningful minutes in every game this year. Have them stay on the team and add Christie, Evans,
Fox and Ihnen. Keeping Battle would be a huge bonus. If all that happened we'd be exciting next year!!!
Freshmen gotta play every game...if that happens and they are here next year....excellent foundation!
 

Losing Fox and Ihnen have me re-assessing expectations.

things did not look great in the opener - but that was without Battle and Carrington, who will be key parts of the rotation. I think the FR will be OK, but it's going to take a while and the team might take some lumps along the way.

Assuming Battle returns and he is healthy,

I hope this team can go at least .500 overall - so let's say 15-15 overall and 7-13 in conference. If they can win a couple more games and make the NIT, great.

but one step at a time.

and echoing what others have said - need to see growth in Payne, JOJ, Henley and Carrington. that is as important or even more important than W's and L's.
 

Make the NIT and win a game in the BTT and this is a successful season.
 

BleedGopher said:
If we make the NIT, if the Barn becomes a tough place for opponents to win again, if we improve as the season goes on and most importantly, if we finish this season more optimistic going into next year than we are finishing this year. To achieve that, we have to develop talent. Hopefully we don't lose Battle and Garcia after this year, but even if we do, we can't be so thin with our depth that we are starting all over yet again in Year 3. So my biggest factor to this being a successful season is less with wins (though those are important) but more so that we are even more excited with how players are developing and that we have even more excitement going into Year 3.

We can't be chasing mid-majors in The Portal every year hoping to sustainably build a winner.

Go Gophers!!
Click to expand...

Definitely didn't hit my overall criteria for success. There are some pieces to be optimistic about if the freshmen all stay in the program. Garcia had some big games and had too many games like tonight where he disappeared. I'm glad we'll apparently have him another year, but he wasn't as consistently impactful as I had hoped. Battle had a disappointing year.

Go Gophers!!
 


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