What Ben Johnson can learn from NCAA Tournament

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Vegwards

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Once again, the Big Ten has an embarrassing year in the NCAA Tournament. Why? Because we are big and slow. Speed kills the Big Ten every year. If Ben Johnson has a brain, he will see this. Instead of trying to match the other BT Teams, building something different. Build a team with speed.

Another lesson to learn is build with college athletes. We are not Kentucky, Michigan State or Duke who always gets the cream of the crop of future NBA players. Recruit people who are solid players with high basketball IQs and who know they are not going to make the NBA. Unlike Battle and Cooper who are delusional in thinking they will be pro basketball players (except maybe in Poland or Slovakia).
 


Vegwards said:
Once again, the Big Ten has an embarrassing year in the NCAA Tournament. Why? Because we are big and slow. Speed kills the Big Ten every year. If Ben Johnson has a brain, he will see this. Instead of trying to match the other BT Teams, building something different. Build a team with speed.

Another lesson to learn is build with college athletes. We are not Kentucky, Michigan State or Duke who always gets the cream of the crop of future NBA players. Recruit people who are solid players with high basketball IQs and who know they are not going to make the NBA. Unlike Battle and Cooper who are delusional in thinking they will be pro basketball players (except maybe in Poland or Slovakia).
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Wait, I'm confused. Should Ben building with athletes or players with high basketball IQ's? Any shooters?
 





What i get from watching the NCAA tourney is that the winners of games all have fast/quick PG's who can break down a defense and set-up easy shots for others (whether on the break or not). The teams with the great PG's aren't even running offense half the time....they make the offense go by being creative.

Cooper is/was serviceable, but the difference watching some of these teams in the tourney is HUGE.
 

According to Kansas State coach, you need "Dudes" and Johnson has said that on multiple occasions. He needs guys to turn into "Dudes".
 

Guards will ball games in college basketball. Purdue had one of the best if not the best big man in the country. They were beat by a horseshit team cause Purdue’s guards are terrible. Now I am not saying you only need guards, but they are way more important than a big man. Kentucky is the same thing have a great big guy who’s name I can’t spell and they are done because K-State’s guards played better.
 



From the Parkinglot said:
Guards will ball games in college basketball. Purdue had one of the best if not the best big man in the country. They were beat by a horseshit team cause Purdue’s guards are terrible. Now I am not saying you only need guards, but they are way more important than a big man. Kentucky is the same thing have a great big guy who’s name I can’t spell and they are done because K-State’s guards played better.
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And we have none at the moment.
 








I spent the weekend in Las Vegas. Watched some or all of every game for 4 days. My biggest takeaway was how nearly every team looked so much more athletic than the Gophers. Not just winning teams or P6 teams. All of them.

In my opinion Johnson is going to fall into the trap of recruiting like other big ten teams to compete with them instead of trying to be different. And he’ll never out-recruit and out coach the other teams going for the same types of players. FDU beat Purdue by being quicker and more athletic at many positions. Try that. It’s his best chance to be successful.
 

Yes, FDU beat Purdue. But does anyone really believe that FDU with all their speed and athletic ability would be able to compete in the grind of the Big Ten regular season?
 

UMwolverine said:
Yes, FDU beat Purdue. But does anyone really believe that FDU with all their speed and athletic ability would be able to compete in the grind of the Big Ten regular season?
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Neither can our team as Ben has assembled it, as evidenced by 6-33 in conference over the last two seasons. Trying a different strategy couldn’t be much worse.
 

Like a combination of comments:
1. You gotta be able to shoot
2. You need enough quickness to defend but compare how hard FDU worked on defense vs the Gophers.
3. Like everybody says...you need guards....gotta have at least 3 quick, penetrating, finish at the rim fearless attackers. They also need to be defenders. Rotate em
4. Really good coach is the biggest thing I saw...I still don't think Painter is a game coach.
He had a 7'4 guy? How many times did they throw it to him at the rim vs the 6 foot defenders?
5. Going to be hard to win in the NCAA or any close game if you can't make free throws.
 

I saw several teams that were bad a year or two ago that were in the tourney this year. A lot of them got a transfer or two to boost them, but none of them were turning over the entire starting lineup year after year.

There's a lot of problems with Gopher basketball at the moment, but roster continuity is #1. As Ben Johnson entered, he had to basically start over with an expansion team of random transfers. Those guys largely left after Year 1 (including good players on tournament teams like Marcus Carr and Gabe Kalscheur) so in comes a whole different team this year. Now we're getting a load more transfers and will have a very different team in Year 3.

I get it, losing is hard and the portal seems like a quick fix. But something needs to be done to keep guys around so investing in the hard times pays off down the line.
 

fmlizard said:
I saw several teams that were bad a year or two ago that were in the tourney this year. A lot of them got a transfer or two to boost them, but none of them were turning over the entire starting lineup year after year.

There's a lot of problems with Gopher basketball at the moment, but roster continuity is #1. As Ben Johnson entered, he had to basically start over with an expansion team of random transfers. Those guys largely left after Year 1 (including good players on tournament teams like Marcus Carr and Gabe Kalscheur) so in comes a whole different team this year. Now we're getting a load more transfers and will have a very different team in Year 3.

I get it, losing is hard and the portal seems like a quick fix. But something needs to be done to keep guys around so investing in the hard times pays off down the line.
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We finished #216 in the NET. We lost 3 of the starters from that team. Plus another part time starter to graduation. And another 7 foot guy. And our best recruit according to the rankings... transferred before he got here. That's 6 new guys who gotta be at least that good to get to the same starting line at #216. Tall task to be better than this season.
Roster continuity wouldn't be quite as concerning if 5 of those 6 guys hadn't left to go play for someone else they hope will be better for their interests versus graduation.

8 of the top 40 guys in the portal so far have chosen new teams. We need to add 6 as good or better players to get back what we lost...let alone improve. Maybe don't wanna wait too much longer to add at least one of the top 50 guys?
Battle #8. (You know the guy, we won't miss...#8)
Cooper #38
Henley #89
 

60's Guy said:
We finished #216 in the NET. We lost 3 of the starters from that team. Plus another part time starter to graduation. And another 7 foot guy. And our best recruit according to the rankings... transferred before he got here. That's 6 new guys who gotta be at least that good to get to the same starting line at #216. Tall task to be better than this season.
Roster continuity wouldn't be quite as concerning if 5 of those 6 guys hadn't left to go play for someone else they hope will be better for their interests versus graduation.

8 of the top 40 guys in the portal so far have chosen new teams. We need to add 6 as good or better players to get back what we lost...let alone improve. Maybe don't wanna wait too much longer to add at least one of the top 50 guys?
Battle #8. (You know the guy, we won't miss...#8)
Cooper #38
Henley #89
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Has Rohde been given a ranking number yet? Would be curious if he gets ranked ahead of Henley.
 

MaxyJR1 said:
According to Kansas State coach, you need "Dudes" and Johnson has said that on multiple occasions. He needs guys to turn into "Dudes".
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Players win games. Unfortunately for us we have the worst roster in the conference
 


UMwolverine said:
Yes, FDU beat Purdue. But does anyone really believe that FDU with all their speed and athletic ability would be able to compete in the grind of the Big Ten regular season?
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They'd win more than 2 games...
 

minnyrules11 said:
Michigan St does not get the cream of the crop and usually do more with less.
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Could it be said that coaching matters?

I think Ben would follow closely in the Penny Hardaway mode if he were to get great talent. All that talent but can't coach them up.
 


SelectionSunday said:
Has Rohde been given a ranking number yet? Would be curious if he gets ranked ahead of Henley.
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So far they have ranked 94 guys and Rohde is not one I see.
Reason or speculation why he's leaving? NCAA Tournament ineligibility? Or something else...it wasn't playing time :)
 
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Fast or slow, big or small, you need players that can put the ball into the net.
My current favorite team in the tournament is Princeton.
They are not only talented at scoring but so very well coached that no matter what the other team throws at them they do not become rattled.
If that coach wants to leave, he is going to find some attractive job openings.
 

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