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PeterMac05

PeterMac05

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I will have to admit, I have only been a serious gopher fan for about 3 years now, as I am still pretty young myself, but I don’t ever remember a time where I was this excited about gopher basketball. Maybe after they beat Louisville in the tourney, but right now I am so excited about coach Johnson and Thorson. It will be so fun watching the gophs play next year, because it will kinda be like and expansion team, and with the additions of fox, battle and the others I think we will be somewhat competitive next year. Not to mentIon all of the great in state players coming up, I think the future is bright for gopher basketball.
 


It's rare to have nearly an entirely new team (roster, coaches, etc.) as dramatically as we will next year. With that comes excitement, new blood, new energy, etc. It was needed.

I can't wait for the season.

Go Gophers!!
 

PeterMac05 said:
I will have to admit, I have only been a serious gopher fan for about 3 years now, as I am still pretty young myself, but I don’t ever remember a time where I was this excited about gopher basketball. Maybe after they beat Louisville in the tourney, but right now I am so excited about coach Johnson and Thorson. It will be so fun watching the gophs play next year, because it will kinda be like and expansion team, and with the additions of fox, battle and the others I think we will be somewhat competitive next year. Not to mentIon all of the great in state players coming up, I think the future is bright for gopher basketball.
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That's great. I am a long time fan but only joined when PJ arrived. Jump in and have fun. We all have Gopher fever here.
 

Yeah, I suppose if there is one thing to be intrigued about is there are basically no expectations. They could be really good or really bad, but none of us have any idea what to expect. Hopefully they manage to steal a game or 2 against a top dog and no 20 pt road blow outs whether they win or lose would be nice.
 


I'm cautiously optimistic at this point. The team can't possibly shoot any worse than last year. They won't have a shot blocker in the middle and a dynamic pg, but they will have much better ball movement and the pg, whoever he is, won't be as easy to defend because he will have instructions to pass the ball more than once a half. It should be a fun year in a very noisy building.
 

Interesting the team is going to be so senior laden.

Who exactly is going to sit on the bench? Has to be someone
 

JimmyJamesMD said:
Interesting the team is going to be so senior laden.

Who exactly is going to sit on the bench? Has to be someone
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Just thinking about that. All guys pretty evenly matched. Will be interesting to see how it works out. I wouldn't mind going 10/11 deep.
 

JimmyJamesMD said:
Interesting the team is going to be so senior laden.

Who exactly is going to sit on the bench? Has to be someone
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Hopefully we will play 10 guys instead of 7. I wouldn't expect Thompson to play much. Hard to say who 11-12 will be without seeing how the roster fills out.
 



howeda7 said:
Hopefully we will play 10 guys instead of 7. I wouldn't expect Thompson to play much. Hard to say who 11-12 will be without seeing how the roster fills out.
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5 guard attack? If Thompson doesn't play much, and Fox is the only real big guy, could be small ball
 

JimmyJamesMD said:
5 guard attack? If Thompson doesn't play much, and Fox is the only real big guy, could be small ball
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I assume/hope one of the remaining commits is a center. Or we coerce Liam to come back. Fox/Ihnen could handle back-up center minutes.
 

One thing that I haven't necessarily seen talked about as much is how much of a benefit the transfer portal and the NCAA transfer waiver rules have been for the new staff. Imagine if none of last year's players could transfer, or would have to sit out a year (maybe they will still, who knows), and that caused them to stick around? Perhaps, then, we'd have a group of players that don't want to be here, or don't mesh well with the new staff, etc. Instead, we are just about reloading the entire team with guys that want to be Gophers, and are proud to wear the maroon and gold. There's still going to be growing pains for sure, but for the right reasons rather than a conflict of personalities (hopefully).
 

I’m envisioning a 5-15/6-14 type B1G season with the current trajectory of the roster. That would rise to 8-12 if the A&M trio comes to Minnesota.
 



Marooned said:
One thing that I haven't necessarily seen talked about as much is how much of a benefit the transfer portal and the NCAA transfer waiver rules have been for the new staff. Imagine if none of last year's players could transfer, or would have to sit out a year (maybe they will still, who knows), and that caused them to stick around? Perhaps, then, we'd have a group of players that don't want to be here, or don't mesh well with the new staff, etc. Instead, we are just about reloading the entire team with guys that want to be Gophers, and are proud to wear the maroon and gold. There's still going to be growing pains for sure, but for the right reasons rather than a conflict of personalities (hopefully).
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There is definitely something to be said for having a roster full of guys that want to be there. All these players transferring in are going to want to make the most of their opportunity to play on the big stage.

Trick for Johnson and his staff will to make sure all the personalities mesh and that everyone is willing to play team ball. Will be very interesting to see how it all shakes out and what this team looks like when it takes the court next year.
 


SanDiegoGopherFan said:
That's what I've been thinking. the way the roster is filling out, gonna be small ball
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This will give Ben a chance to show he is an improvement over Pitino when it comes to in game lineup switching. I would imagine you would need to be reliant on good match ups if you are undersized.
 

howeda7 said:
Hopefully we will play 10 guys instead of 7. I wouldn't expect Thompson to play much. Hard to say who 11-12 will be without seeing how the roster fills out.
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Hard to play a lot of guys when no one has played together before. You are forced to really shorten the bench to get some kind of rhythm between players.
 

BleedGopher said:
It's rare to have nearly an entirely new team (roster, coaches, etc.) as dramatically as we will next year. With that comes excitement, new blood, new energy, etc. It was needed.

I can't wait for the season.

Go Gophers!!
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Next two seasons will be new rosters. Almost entirely. And probably beyond that.
 


matt said:
I’m envisioning a 5-15/6-14 type B1G season with the current trajectory of the roster. That would rise to 8-12 if the A&M trio comes to Minnesota.
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If Ben gets to 8-12 in the Big Ten with a roster that's been completely overhauled then they should start building the statue outside the Barn. Chris Beard went 6-12 his first year at Tech in conference, Muss went 7-11 in his first year at Arkansas, GopherHole fave John Beilein went 5-13 in his first year...unless you're taking over an established program, it's really difficult to win in year 1.
 
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I know everyone is being overly optimistic with this cluster of new guys, but I don't see how "small ball" works in the B1G? I guess they have a chance to win 5-6 games in the OOC and sneak 3-4 in conference and it'll be an improvement from Pitino.

I imagine BJ gets at least a 2-3 year cushion to be competitive.
 

Marooned said:
One thing that I haven't necessarily seen talked about as much is how much of a benefit the transfer portal and the NCAA transfer waiver rules have been for the new staff. Imagine if none of last year's players could transfer, or would have to sit out a year (maybe they will still, who knows), and that caused them to stick around? Perhaps, then, we'd have a group of players that don't want to be here, or don't mesh well with the new staff, etc. Instead, we are just about reloading the entire team with guys that want to be Gophers, and are proud to wear the maroon and gold. There's still going to be growing pains for sure, but for the right reasons rather than a conflict of personalities (hopefully).
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Exactly. It allows the new coach to bring in some more experienced players, distribute the classes more evenly and to allow the ones to leave that do not want to be playing for the U. It is like building with some free agents instead of restarting with a large crop of rookies.
 

I'm excited too. But, I was thinking. Maybe the team needs new nickname. How about "The Vagabonds" or "The One Year Leases?"
 

GopherNuts said:
If Ben gets to 8-12 in the Big Ten with a roster that's been completely overhauled then they should start building the statue outside the Barn. Chris Beard went 6-12 his first year at Tech in conference, Muss went 7-11 in his first year at Arkansas, GopherHole fave John Beilein went 5-13 in his first year...unless you're taking over an established program, it's really difficult to win in year 1.
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I agree. I would be content with a 6-14 conference record next year all things considered. It just sucks that it’s kind of a throwaway year in some regards, but that is the nature of coaching changes. I just want the Gophers to make it to the dance. That’s really all I want each year. But I would be really surprised if that is in the cards next year.
 


It's going to be very different, I think. I don't see how we win without lots of passing and movement on offense....which will be different. Maybe someone will emerge and step up as a scoring leader/best offensive player but I don't think he is on the roster yet.

Pitino needed to be somewhere else but the bashing seems to dismiss the Gopher Top 25 rankings in most years, the victories over Top 10 teams this year and the number one ranked team in a blowout. I'll be surprised and very happy if that happens in the next two years with BJ. With Richard, we were always pretty optimistic through January. I'm a bit worried it's going to be awhile before we get back that far.

It would be nice to be optimistic in March more than a couple times in eight years though.
 

JimmyJamesMD said:
Interesting the team is going to be so senior laden.

Who exactly is going to sit on the bench? Has to be someone
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I like Gach, but it could be him and Sutherlin not seeing much playing time. With such a balanced roster training camp will be competitive and someone could surprise us and start like Gabe did his freshman year
 

GopherNuts said:
If Ben gets to 8-12 in the Big Ten with a roster that's been completely overhauled then they should start building the statue outside the Barn. Chris Beard went 6-12 his first year at Tech in conference, Muss went 7-11 in his first year at Arkansas, GopherHole fave John Beilein went 5-13 in his first year...unless you're taking over an established program, it's really difficult to win in year 1.
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Year Zero, using Fleck years.
 

Love the enthusiasm!!! Just curious wonder how many are new fans cuz of fleck, goes to show, being productive and elite in all programs matters
 

schlegs said:
Love the enthusiasm!!! Just curious wonder how many are new fans cuz of fleck, goes to show, being productive and elite in all programs matters
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Fleck had one of the best seasons of gopher football history, modern history at least, that brings fans in quick. If ben makes a sweet 16 by year 3, he will do the same.
 

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