Thoughts on team as we head into Big Ten games

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What is the reason for little to no playing time for Betts?

3.5/4 star recruit who reclassifies then sits?

CSU might be looking real good for a CO native.
 

Wet_Blanket_Guy said:
I don’t believe our non-conference gives us a true barometer of what the gophers are. MIZZOU is a bad SEC team (projected to finish almost dead last in the conference this year) and San Fran is projected to finish 3rd in the WCC (barely edging out Loyola Marymount). Everyone else we have our will play, we should kill. So when we have games like last night…we should. It doesn’t mean anything.

My prediction for the B10 is that our guards will get us killed. College basketball is a guard driven world. The gophers, as currently constructed are a big man lead team (Payne and Garcia). Without Payne and Garcia in the only relevant game recently (San Fran), the Gophers almost wouldn’t have scored. The guards are not quick at P5 level, they lack elite dribbling skills, and they make bone-headed passes leading to turnovers / easy transition points the other way. Further on the guards, two of them (Mitchell and Hawkins) are absolute defensive liabilities. Hawkins will get put in non-stop pick and rolls and ultimately have to guard a big man down low, or just be posted up by a guard who is average height. While many think Carrington is a good defender, there are multiple instances every game where he gets burned. He really can only guard small 3s.
*Christie is a shooter, but I think the B10 will be a struggle for him this year as we have no other real guards to shoulder the load, so teams can focus on taking away his shot while on the floor

Forwards: we don’t really have the ability to stretch the floor.
- Ihnen is easy to guard as he is so slow with the ball and rarely looks to drive. Unless wide-open, he does nothing
-Fox can finish a wide-open dunk but other than that, little to no threat from outside of 4 feet
-JOJ: decent shooter on low volume, but he disappears for huge chunks of games. Poor defender but can sometimes stretch the floor and attack

Centers:
Garcia- very good at college level, but struggles defensively against good bigs
-Payne: turnover machine, has been pretty dominant against low level competition (as expected). Needs to hammer out free throw issue. Still a nightmare more than 4 feet from the hoop and not a threat

If the gophers lose either Garcia or Payne to an injury for any time, they are screwed. As they don’t have the guard depth / talent to run a 4 guard / small ball system, and they don’t have the depth to really fill in after Payne/Garcia.
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Well there’s that. It will likely be a 2 win big ten season diffident Ben will be told to pick up his briefcase of money and hit the street.
 

RockChalk said:
What is the reason for little to no playing time for Betts?

3.5/4 star recruit who reclassifies then sits?

CSU might be looking real good for a CO native.
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Did you see how he played last night against very marginally talented team?

Nowhere near ready.
 

Only two other B1G teams besides the Gophers are ranked lower on KenPom than San Francisco, and only one lower than Missouri, our two losses.

In order for this team to jump up in the B1G standings this year, they needed to be about 15 PPG better than last year's team. They're better, but it's still only about half of that.

They'll be lucky if they can match the 4 B1G wins of Ben's first team. I'll bet the under.
 

BarnBurner said:
Did you see how he played last night against very marginally talented team?

Nowhere near ready.
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Ihnen is? I have watched 5 years of him, there is not a lot there not saying Betts is better than ihnen right now but would like to see him get more runs in games like this. Ihnen looks timid, but then again he always did. Me personally I think anyone on the bench could put up numbers like his last 3

NOLA-13 minutes, 0-2, 0 points, 3 rebounds 2 turnovers
SF- 17 minutes 0-2, 0 rebounds
Pine Bluff-27 minutes 3-11, 6 points, 6 rebounds.

Also playing just awful defense.
 
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OK
BarnBurner said:
Did you see how he played last night against very marginally talented team?

Nowhere near ready.
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OK I get that. But why would you reclassify then sit for essentially two years? You don't reclassify to sit. I think the kid got some real bad advice from a real bad coach and that coach wasn't his HS coach.
 

RockChalk said:
What is the reason for little to no playing time for Betts?

3.5/4 star recruit who reclassifies then sits?

CSU might be looking real good for a CO native.
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He's 18, a true freshman by class, and not ready.
 

rivergopher said:
Ihnen is? I have watched 5 years of him, there is not a lot there not saying Betts is better than ihnen right now but would like to see him get more runs in games like this. Ihnen looks timid, but then again he always did. Me personally I think anyone on the bench could put up numbers like his last 3

NOLA-13 minutes, 0-2, 0 points, 3 rebounds 2 turnovers
SF- 17 minutes 0-2, 0 rebounds
Pine Bluff-27 minutes 3-11, 6 points, 6 rebounds.

Also playing just awful defense.
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I am talking about Betts.
 

BarnBurner said:
I am talking about Betts.
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Sorry my point is I would rather give this utterly empty minutes to someone else, maybe Betts. Ihnen whether injuries or never relly had it has done nothing to earn the minutes he gets. Betss is 19 Ihnen he is 23 and not much upside there.
 



60's Guy said:
Who are the Gophers going to beat? 20 time underdogs may get us a couple wins on a night or two we can't miss.
ESPN gives us a 14% chance to beat Ohio State and a 41% chance vs Nebraska. Nebraska is one of our better chances for a win but they could beat us convincingly as well. Nebraska has better players.
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Nebraska also has a better coach.
 

We have a deeper bench this year, which will help us. However, we still do not seem to value every possession. I am hopeful that the 20 point loss and 18 turnovers against San Francisco will help these guys understand how important every possess is for the full 40 minutes of play. This team will live or die by their turnover margin. They are better rebounders, better defenders, and better shooters than last years team, but they cannot give away 20 points a night due to turnovers. If they don't get that, then they will be at the bottom of the league yet again. If they stop turning the ball over, then I think this team has the chance to be on the bubble. But...that is a huge if and only these players can determine that reality. We will see.
 

FinnGopher said:
We have a deeper bench this year, which will help us. However, we still do not seem to value every possession. I am hopeful that the 20 point loss and 18 turnovers against San Francisco will help these guys understand how important every possess is for the full 40 minutes of play. This team will live or die by their turnover margin. They are better rebounders, better defenders, and better shooters than last years team, but they cannot give away 20 points a night due to turnovers. If they don't get that, then they will be at the bottom of the league yet again. If they stop turning the ball over, then I think this team has the chance to be on the bubble. But...that is a huge if and only these players can determine that reality. We will see.
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I’m not convinced they are playing better defense. The only teams with any comparable talent they have played have scored at will on them. They don’t get stops. They will not win games on defense but only shooting lights out on offense. It can happen, but it’s no way to climb the standings.
 

Holy Man said:
I’m not convinced they are playing better defense. The only teams with any comparable talent they have played have scored at will on them. They don’t get stops. They will not win games on defense but only shooting lights out on offense. It can happen, but it’s no way to climb the standings.
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I'm not sure "scored at will" is the correct statement since so many points came in transition due to turnovers. Eliminate the turnovers and this team is undefeated. But, those turnovers are big deals and these guys may not be discipled enough to stop the careless turnovers.
 



FinnGopher said:
I'm not sure "scored at will" is the correct statement since so many points came in transition due to turnovers. Eliminate the turnovers and this team is undefeated. But, those turnovers are big deals and these guys may not be discipled enough to stop the careless turnovers.
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Agree to disagree. The term may slightly overstate the issue, but there were plenty of uncontested threes and layups in half court defense too. Turnovers are a problem, no doubt. But they have not proven themselves capable of stopping a high quality team in the half court in current staff’s tenure. That means wins come from shooting lights out and the other teams having off nights shooting. Not a recipe for success.
 

RockChalk said:
What is the reason for little to no playing time for Betts?

3.5/4 star recruit who reclassifies then sits?

CSU might be looking real good for a CO native.
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Why would CSU want him?
 

Holy Man said:
Agree to disagree. The term may slightly overstate the issue, but there were plenty of uncontested threes and layups in half court defense too. Turnovers are a problem, no doubt. But they have not proven themselves capable of stopping a high quality team in the half court in current staff’s tenure. That means wins come from shooting lights out and the other teams having off nights shooting. Not a recipe for success.
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Every decent team has been able to drive to the bucket at will against us. Actually, even most of the bad teams have.
 

UpAndUnder43 said:
Why would CSU want him?
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CSU has 4 seniors (one a 5th year guy) and one junior playing. I don't know how they got all of these guys but it appears that they develop players over time. Betts has ability.
 

GopherWeatherGuy said:
Only two other B1G teams besides the Gophers are ranked lower on KenPom than San Francisco, and only one lower than Missouri, our two losses.

In order for this team to jump up in the B1G standings this year, they needed to be about 15 PPG better than last year's team. They're better, but it's still only about half of that.

They'll be lucky if they can match the 4 B1G wins of Ben's first team. I'll bet the under.
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I don't think the difference between the Gophers and the bottom-ish teams of the conference is as wide as it was last year. I think they'll be unlucky to be less than 4 wins, but as it stands right now, it's optimistic to be more than 6.
 



Bob_Loblaw said:
Gun to my head, I would bet the under as well. I just wouldn't hammer it.
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Yeah I aint betting the mortgage or anything ;)

(that is also why I rarely bet on teams I care about)
 

FinnGopher said:
I'm not sure "scored at will" is the correct statement since so many points came in transition due to turnovers. Eliminate the turnovers and this team is undefeated. But, those turnovers are big deals and these guys may not be discipled enough to stop the careless turnovers.
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Right...but if we are turning the ball over all the time against mediocre teams what is the Big Ten going to do to us?

Sorry man but your copium level is a bit high might need to lower the drip!
 


Dave H said:
So? That doesn't mean they would want him now. I don't know if you know this but opinions can and do change over time...
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...so it might change on Betts yet again
 

Dave H said:
So? That doesn't mean they would want him now. I don't know if you know this but opinions can and do change over time...
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But your's doesn't. You are comfortable telling others how they should feel and think. There's only one way, right?
 

We play Penn State twice. Should win at least one of those games. :)
 


bga1 said:
CSU has 4 seniors (one a 5th year guy) and one junior playing. I don't know how they got all of these guys but it appears that they develop players over time. Betts has ability.
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Ok. But he hasn’t developed much/at all. They can likely find other guys to develop if they want to go that route.

And I haven’t seen the ability you speak of. So I can’t say he for sure has it.
 

RockChalk said:
OK

OK I get that. But why would you reclassify then sit for essentially two years? You don't reclassify to sit. I think the kid got some real bad advice from a real bad coach and that coach wasn't his HS coach.
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www.chieftain.com

Pueblo Central boys basketball star Kadyn Betts opts out of senior year for prep school

Pueblo Central boys basketball player Kadyn Betts is opting out of his senior year to play at a prep school in West Virginia.
www.chieftain.com

Above link is from the Pueblo newspaper, dated 07/03/2022. Kayden had been a 3 year starter, junior year was named to the 1st team 4A All-Colorado. In this article Kayden talks about his decision to attend Huntington Prep(WVa) for his Senior season. Essentially he wanted better competition.

Couple of weeks later, he announces that he is reclassifying as a 2022 grad and will be attending Minnesota starting fall of 2022.

www.chieftain.com

Kadyn Betts to reclassify and join University of Minnesota men's basketball team this fall

Pueblo Central basketball star Kadyn Betts has graduated early and will join the University of Minnesota men's basketball team for the 2022-23 season.
www.chieftain.com
 

Ben is arguably coaching for his career. He’s not going to play Betts after what we’ve seen so far. He certainly gotten a few opportunities and was about as bad as I’ve seen. I’m ok decreasing Ihnen’s minutes if he doesn’t improve, but I certainly wouldn’t be giving them to Betts unless the game is in hand (either way).
 

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