This isn't going as planned

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builtbadgers said:
I am extremely excited for this years team. No matter the results there is so much to look for in every area of coaching and implementing.
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You sure you aren't a relative of Ben?
I agree it will be an interesting season versus "extremely excited" season to see how hard we work each and every game. Is there consistency of effort? Do we play together? Are we somebody that other teams hate to play because we make it difficult on them...do we take away their strengths and force them to do something they aren't as comfortable with. Do we force them to compete? Do make them uncomfortable? Do they get frustrated? Do we have an identity?

All those and a million other signs will be interesting to watch.....but we are in the Big Ten! Without talent Ben isn't going to beat the elite. Can he recruit? Then I'll worry if he can coach.
It is just such and uphill situation he put himself into not retaining talent.

Thorson got to 500 in three years at a lower level....17 and 17. If we get there, maybe it can happen but again, it is the Big Ten and is Ben better than Medved?

As a recruit, if you could go somewhere else, why wouldn't you? Not sure how he gets past that reality for recruits when the guys from last year all said nope.
We need like 8 guys for next year Built. If it doesn't happen before the season it has to get harder or less likely, right? Playing hard is nice but we need eight new guys with talent to sign on for the quest or coaching isn't going to mean much..
 


60's Guy said:
You sure you aren't a relative of Ben?
I agree it will be an interesting season versus "extremely excited" season to see how hard we work each and every game. Is there consistency of effort? Do we play together? Are we somebody that other teams hate to play because we make it difficult on them...do we take away their strengths and force them to do something they aren't as comfortable with. Do we force them to compete? Do make them uncomfortable? Do they get frustrated? Do we have an identity?

All those and a million other signs will be interesting to watch.....but we are in the Big Ten! Without talent Ben isn't going to beat the elite. Can he recruit? Then I'll worry if he can coach.
It is just such and uphill situation he put himself into not retaining talent.

Thorson got to 500 in three years at a lower level....17 and 17. If we get there, maybe it can happen but again, it is the Big Ten and is Ben better than Medved?

As a recruit, if you could go somewhere else, why wouldn't you? Not sure how he gets past that reality for recruits when the guys from last year all said nope.
We need like 8 guys for next year Built. If it doesn't happen before the season it has to get harder or less likely, right? Playing hard is nice but we need eight new guys with talent to sign on for the quest or coaching isn't going to mean much..
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This would imply he wanted all of them to stay which he didn't.
 


60's Guy said:
You sure you aren't a relative of Ben?
I agree it will be an interesting season versus "extremely excited" season to see how hard we work each and every game. Is there consistency of effort? Do we play together? Are we somebody that other teams hate to play because we make it difficult on them...do we take away their strengths and force them to do something they aren't as comfortable with. Do we force them to compete? Do make them uncomfortable? Do they get frustrated? Do we have an identity?

All those and a million other signs will be interesting to watch.....but we are in the Big Ten! Without talent Ben isn't going to beat the elite. Can he recruit? Then I'll worry if he can coach.
It is just such and uphill situation he put himself into not retaining talent.

Thorson got to 500 in three years at a lower level....17 and 17. If we get there, maybe it can happen but again, it is the Big Ten and is Ben better than Medved?

As a recruit, if you could go somewhere else, why wouldn't you? Not sure how he gets past that reality for recruits when the guys from last year all said nope.
We need like 8 guys for next year Built. If it doesn't happen before the season it has to get harder or less likely, right? Playing hard is nice but we need eight new guys with talent to sign on for the quest or coaching isn't going to mean much..
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It’s not unreasonable to think we will get 5 high school recruits and 3 transfers next year. As far as can they recruit or coach? That’s a very chicken or egg on which is first and for sustained success you will need to do both. Most kids pick who they think the best coach in developing and creating a relationship along with playing time available. I’m excited for a team to be proud of. If they play hard and defend I’ll watch and be excited because we will overachieve doing those things and it will help with transfers and recruiting down the road. There isn’t a quick fix for this job sadly.
 


Angry said:
This last year was one of the more exciting seasons in the last 20 years.
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Did you stop watching after the middle of January? They lost 12 of their last 14 and finished in 13th place in the conference. You don't get awards for having a good first half of a season.
 

cjbfbp said:
Did you stop watching after the middle of January? They lost 12 of their last 14 and finished in 13th place in the conference. You don't get awards for having a good first half of a season.
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And the team literally quit on each other and Pitino. It was awful and embarrassing.
 

manderson1984 said:
And the team literally quit on each other and Pitino. It was awful and embarrassing.
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I was told by bad gopher that Pitino’s kids don’t quit on him. Baby Ben is in a tight spot cuz the u has had 4 bad bball coaches in a row. I count pitino as 2 cuz he had 8 years.
 






howeda7 said:
Based on.....?
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He has a good group of coaches, has a nice group of hard working players that were leaders and standouts at the schools they transferred from. He is building good lines of communication with the local players and organizations. He has fostered good communications with good players across the country and got many to commit to visits. He has brought back past players to connect to the program and has some on the staff. He is being patient and not selling out his culture just to get a more marque recruit. He is keying in on exactly what he said he would key in on: high BB IQ, hard workers, good defense, good shooters, high character.

People have to face reality. Ben may not have been who you wanted the U to hire (he was not who I excepted them to hire). But he is our coach and we need to measure his initial progress by what he is capable of doing. He is a first year head coach, very high profile players do not typically choose to "end their career" at a school with an unproven track record. All he can do is build an attractive track record to attracted those more talented players.
 




cjbfbp said:
Did you stop watching after the middle of January? They lost 12 of their last 14 and finished in 13th place in the conference. You don't get awards for having a good first half of a season.
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Not only that, but last year's Big Ten was clearly not as strong as we all thought it was early in the season. The conference got decimated in the NCAA tournament.

So some of those wins over high ranked teams lost a little bit of their shine once it became clear those teams were not nearly as good as their rankings might have indicated at the time.

The first half of the season was exciting though, it just tanked in epic fashion during the second half.
 

alchemy2u said:
He has a good group of coaches, has a nice group of hard working players that were leaders and standouts at the schools they transferred from. He is building good lines of communication with the local players and organizations. He has fostered good communications with good players across the country and got many to commit to visits. He has brought back past players to connect to the program and has some on the staff. He is being patient and not selling out his culture just to get a more marque recruit. He is keying in on exactly what he said he would key in on: high BB IQ, hard workers, good defense, good shooters, high character.

People have to face reality. Ben may not have been who you wanted the U to hire (he was not who I excepted them to hire). But he is our coach and we need to measure his initial progress by what he is capable of doing. He is a first year head coach, very high profile players do not typically choose to "end their career" at a school with an unproven track record. All he can do is build an attractive track record to attracted those more talented players.
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You have been asked, multiple times, what makes the assistant coaches so great.

You haven't once answered, that I have read.
 

MNVCGUY said:
Not only that, but last year's Big Ten was clearly not as strong as we all thought it was early in the season. The conference got decimated in the NCAA tournament.

So some of those wins over high ranked teams lost a little bit of their shine once it became clear those teams were not nearly as good as their rankings might have indicated at the time.

The first half of the season was exciting though, it just tanked in epic fashion during the second half.
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So now wins over ranked teams are being downplayed - from the previous coach. Cant make this shit up.
 

Keyser Söze said:
Yeah there are a lot of extremely short-sighted people on the board who are way too eager to call this thing a failure. Sometimes successful coaches and programs have bad seasons in year 1. Get over it.

I'd rather our coach focus on getting players who fit what he wants to do even if he has to sacrifice some talent in year one (since there was an extremely shallow pool to choose from), than just mindlessly grab as much talent as possible and figure out how everyone fits later. I think focusing on the right fit is going to have more long term success.

There are enough uncommitted players in 2022 where he should be able to find some players who are both culture/system fits and have high level talent. That's when we will have the chance to turn things around. If the 2022 class ends up terrible, then I'll join people in their state of panic.
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I doubt our strategy is to dig down on our path to finding a way up...would especially not make too much sense for a first year coach trying to gain credibility.
 


MNVCGUY said:
Not only that, but last year's Big Ten was clearly not as strong as we all thought it was early in the season. The conference got decimated in the NCAA tournament.

So some of those wins over high ranked teams lost a little bit of their shine once it became clear those teams were not nearly as good as their rankings might have indicated at the time.

The first half of the season was exciting though, it just tanked in epic fashion during the second half.
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This is not the best indicator of conference strength, but we do not have a ton of other options I guess. Lot of variables out of their control and the game is called differently and in ways that will most likely not ever favor the leagues style. This is not new for the B1G and most likely won't change until they adjust. Some teams were overrated however last year (Iowa and Wisconsin), while others overachieved, but got hit with injuries/covid (Michigan and Ohio State).
 

ekeg0002 said:
Are you implying he wanted all of them to leave except Ihnen?
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I am sure he would have been fine with more of them staying but I doubt he bent over backwards to try and convince guys from last year's team to stick around.

Not like we lost some collection of blue chippers or anything. Choice basically comes down to keep the old players around and suck or go out and get a bunch of one year guys and probably still suck. Focus is clearly on the future not next season.
 



BarnBurner said:
So now wins over ranked teams are being downplayed - from the previous coach. Cant make this shit up.
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Not trying to downplay anything or take anything away from Pitino.

The wins were still great wins and tons of fun. Ohio State and Iowa, while still very good teams, were not quite as good as their ranking would have indicated at the time we beat them.

This happens all the time and it goes both ways. It is why rankings shouldn't happen until partway through the season when you actually get a sense for how good teams really are. This is especially true in football.

But make no mistake those early season wins over Michigan, Iowa and Ohio State were all quality wins over legit top 20 or better teams. And those wins were a big part of the reason why the second half of the season was so damn disappointing. Watching a team that showed it was capable of playing with and beating good teams get their a$$ kicked by bad teams.
 

Each ex gopher got 3 meetings with the new coach. Final meeting was if you wanna leave then leave. No one is keeping you here. Oops. The kids left.
 

benlaur said:
I doubt our strategy is to dig down on our path to finding a way up...would especially not make too much sense for a first year coach trying to gain credibility.
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No one has suggested that was our strategy, so not sure what you're responding to.
 

Spaulding!No! said:
Each ex gopher got 3 meetings with the new coach. Final meeting was if you wanna leave then leave. No one is keeping you here. Oops. The kids left.
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I doubt it was ooops they left. If there was truly 3 meetings, then I’ll guess plenty was discussed, and options given. I’m sure Ben knew that all or none or some were going to chose the door. It happened, I’m ready to move on. The season may not be great but I will look to see improvement throughout the year. Wait to see what the recruiting class looks like before getting real excited about anything. Love my gopher basketball, will hope to see a brighter future from here.
 

Spaulding!No! said:
I was told by bad gopher that Pitino’s kids don’t quit on him. Baby Ben is in a tight spot cuz the u has had 4 bad bball coaches in a row. I count pitino as 2 cuz he had 8 years.
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I'll stick with my observation from a distance that the team didn't quit on the coach. That said, there were obvious problems, and only an insider could tell us what they thought they were. The injuries certainly didn't help, but I don't think they explain everything.
 

Spaulding!No! said:
Each ex gopher got 3 meetings with the new coach. Final meeting was if you wanna leave then leave. No one is keeping you here. Oops. The kids left.
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Why would he tell them that? They all know they can leave if they want to.
 

Bad Gopher said:
I'll stick with my observation from a distance that the team didn't quit on the coach. That said, there were obvious problems, and only an insider could tell us what they thought they were. The injuries certainly didn't help, but I don't think they explain everything.
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They didn't quit, outside of the last 30 minutes of the Illinois game. That was hard to watch.
 

alchemy2u said:
He has a good group of coaches, has a nice group of hard working players that were leaders and standouts at the schools they transferred from. He is building good lines of communication with the local players and organizations. He has fostered good communications with good players across the country and got many to commit to visits. He has brought back past players to connect to the program and has some on the staff. He is being patient and not selling out his culture just to get a more marque recruit. He is keying in on exactly what he said he would key in on: high BB IQ, hard workers, good defense, good shooters, high character.

People have to face reality. Ben may not have been who you wanted the U to hire (he was not who I excepted them to hire). But he is our coach and we need to measure his initial progress by what he is capable of doing. He is a first year head coach, very high profile players do not typically choose to "end their career" at a school with an unproven track record. All he can do is build an attractive track record to attracted those more talented players.
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The coaches appear to be a decent group, but we pretty clearly missed on one we wanted/thought we had. So, TBD at best. Same with the incoming players.

On the communications with local players/recruiting the jury is entirely out. Getting visits doesn't mean much. Hopefully some commits are coming shortly.
 

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