What can we expect from Isaiah Ihnen/Parker Fox next season?

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Bobek said:
Maybe my memory fails me, but I don’t recall Ihnen being highly recruited. kind of an unknown from Germany.
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Yeah. Only a Top 100 4 star recruit with offers from Tennessee, Oregon, Arizona State, TCU, and Texas. Not much of a recruitment.
 

Rockraven said:
Yeah. Only a Top 100 4 star recruit with offers from Tennessee, Oregon, Arizona State, TCU, and Texas. Not much of a recruitment.
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Inhen also has been loyal to the program and to the University and grateful for the medical care and rehab. Positive teammate through the process. Fox has been here only two years and has never played here, but also is a positive force on the team and appreciates his teammates, Ben too and also his opportunities at the U. Would be very nice for both to be impact players in a turnaround year and also good leaders for the younger guys adding to team chemistry. In fact they both added to team chemistry last season, and chemistry seemed pretty good despite all the losing, which is not always easy. Obviously Battle and Henley wanted to try something different, but that is okay and somewhat understandable. Payne and Ola-Joseph and Carrington (when healthy) put in their work and improved over the year. Garcia kept pedaling all year. Betts by all accounts kept working and did not complain. We needed an upgrade over Cooper at point guard - he played hard and has some good skills but lacked elite speed and athleticism and was somewhat exposed by Big Ten level of play. Samuels never really even seemed in shape and was really too slow. He really couldn't play effectively at this level. Thompson likely would remain role player in Big Ten and will pay a lot at Stetson. Henley IMO could have become a Big Ten regular and will likely continue to develop at DePaul.
 

Classof 66 said:
Inhen also has been loyal to the program and to the University and grateful for the medical care and rehab. Positive teammate through the process. Fox has been here only two years and has never played here, but also is a positive force on the team and appreciates his teammates, Ben too and also his opportunities at the U. Would be very nice for both to be impact players in a turnaround year and also good leaders for the younger guys adding to team chemistry. In fact they both added to team chemistry last season, and chemistry seemed pretty good despite all the losing, which is not always easy. Obviously Battle and Henley wanted to try something different, but that is okay and somewhat understandable. Payne and Ola-Joseph and Carrington (when healthy) put in their work and improved over the year. Garcia kept pedaling all year. Betts by all accounts kept working and did not complain. We needed an upgrade over Cooper at point guard - he played hard and has some good skills but lacked elite speed and athleticism and was somewhat exposed by Big Ten level of play. Samuels never really even seemed in shape and was really too slow. He really couldn't play effectively at this level. Thompson likely would remain role player in Big Ten and will pay a lot at Stetson. Henley IMO could have become a Big Ten regular and will likely continue to develop at DePaul.
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Christie and Betts will quickly make us forget Henley and Battle. We plused up on both.
 

Rockraven said:
Yeah. Only a Top 100 4 star recruit with offers from Tennessee, Oregon, Arizona State, TCU, and Texas. Not much of a recruitment.
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Your memory must be better than mine.
 

EG#9 said:
You shouldn't expect anything after 2 major knee injuries. Anything either player can contribute should be looked at as found money.
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Yeah I don’t expect Fox to make it through the season with his injury history
 




GopherGod said:
Yeah I don’t expect Fox to make it through the season with his injury history
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Why wouldn't someone make it through a season after ACL surgery. That would be unusual. The second surgery not really related to the first, a separate injury. Miss one year for each. I don't think ACL injuries increase the risk of other sports injuries, and a person only has two knees. Not like he is Byron Buxton or something.
 

Rockraven said:
Christie and Betts will quickly make us forget Henley and Battle. We plused up on both.
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Someone who have never played a moment of college ball is going to be better than a pre season all B1G selection.. and make us forget all about him...

Fucking idiotic .
 



Off-GridTNgopher said:
Someone who have never played a moment of college ball is going to be better than a pre season all B1G selection.. and make us forget all about him...

Fucking idiotic .
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Was Battle all Big Ten last year? Honorable mention?

Battle was the LEAST efficient player to play significant minutes on the Gophers last year. His three point percentage was near the bottom of the team. He played poor defense and took bad shots.

Basketball is a team game. They won't replace Battle with one guy, they will replace Battle with better team play and efficiency. I offer you Kris Humphries who led a last place team while being all Big Ten (as a freshman). The next year- without him - they went to the NCAAs. Will it happen this year? Probably not. Will we be better this year than last? Definitely.
 

Many here doubt the Fox and Ihnen will be productive, are fully recovered from their injuries and a much lesser version of their healthy years. Some even feel they are "wasted" scholarships.

I want to throw out a different perspective.

Ben obviously knows he needs to put his best product on the floor. He expects that both are ready to compete and battle for PT. He is in no position to keep them on the roster in return for all their hard work and dedication, Plus I doubt that both players and Ben would want to be in that position just to take up space at the end of the bench. There have been no roster changes or other info from the team thus they have to be making adequate progress and ready to compete. Ben can't afford anything different.
 

bga1 said:
Was Battle all Big Ten last year? Honorable mention?

Battle was the LEAST efficient player to play significant minutes on the Gophers last year. His three point percentage was near the bottom of the team. He played poor defense and took bad shots.

Basketball is a team game. They won't replace Battle with one guy, they will replace Battle with better team play and efficiency. I offer you Kris Humphries who led a last place team while being all Big Ten (as a freshman). The next year- without him - they went to the NCAAs. Will it happen this year? Probably not. Will we be better this year than last? Definitely.
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We also brought in Grier who was a 1st team All B1G selection. Without him, we would have been terrible. We don't have anyone like that transferring in. Hagen and Robinson also improved significantly the following year. So our young guys are going to have to show improvement(which I think they will). Also, even though we finished last in 04, that team wasn't nearly as terrible as last years. So yeah, we'll be better, but it's a long leap from where we were to respectability.
 

Gophers7633 said:
We also brought in Grier who was a 1st team All B1G selection. Without him, we would have been terrible. We don't have anyone like that transferring in. Hagen and Robinson also improved significantly the following year. So our young guys are going to have to show improvement(which I think they will). Also, even though we finished last in 04, that team wasn't nearly as terrible as last years. So yeah, we'll be better, but it's a long leap from where we were to respectability.
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Do you have an idea how coveted Grier was as a JUCO recruit? And what expectations were for him coming in?

I was in college then and paid no attention to recruiting so all I remember was him showing up on the team and being way better than I thought a JUCO transfer would be. I found an article talking about how he had to play PF/C after injuries and him struggling at PG while at Dixie State. His coach mentions BYU was recruiting him.

All that to say I think you are correct, we don't have a guy coming in who will be first team All B1G. Guys can progress and grow and outperform expectations though. I am really hoping that one of Hawkins/Mitchell/Carrington shows major growth and becomes a "problem" for other teams, and that one of our total unknowns of Betts/Christie/Fox/Ihnen contributes significantly more than we think.
 



bga1 said:
Was Battle all Big Ten last year? Honorable mention?

Battle was the LEAST efficient player to play significant minutes on the Gophers last year. His three point percentage was near the bottom of the team. He played poor defense and took bad shots.

Basketball is a team game. They won't replace Battle with one guy, they will replace Battle with better team play and efficiency. I offer you Kris Humphries who led a last place team while being all Big Ten (as a freshman). The next year- without him - they went to the NCAAs. Will it happen this year? Probably not. Will we be better this year than last? Definitely.
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Jamison Battle's 4 year progression of PER (player efficiency rating):

13.0 -> 17.4 -> transfer to Minnesota: 18.3 -> 9.4

Comparison with Gabe Kalscheur:
11.9 -> 11.5 -> 9.3 transfer to Iowa State -> 6.0 -> 12.9

Battle was a more important player to our team in his first year here than Kalscheur ever was. Then absolutely cratered to Gabe Kalscheur junior year levels of efficiency last year. Could be injury, poor coaching, playing out of position, teams scouting him better etc.

While I would have said he was our 1st or 2nd best player on the team going into last year, I do think there is merit to the idea that if we could replace Battle with a more efficient wing player (major TBD!) and get better guard play from Hawkins/Mitchell/Carrington than we got from Cooper/Samuels/Henley last year...we are in a better place.
 

Bayfieldgopher said:
Many here doubt the Fox and Ihnen will be productive, are fully recovered from their injuries and a much lesser version of their healthy years. Some even feel they are "wasted" scholarships.

I want to throw out a different perspective.

Ben obviously knows he needs to put his best product on the floor. He expects that both are ready to compete and battle for PT. He is in no position to keep them on the roster in return for all their hard work and dedication, Plus I doubt that both players and Ben would want to be in that position just to take up space at the end of the bench. There have been no roster changes or other info from the team thus they have to be making adequate progress and ready to compete. Ben can't afford anything different.
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They would have medically retired. Both will be healthy and eager to make this Gopher team a winner. Smart post Bayfield!
 

Battle missed open shots in this day and age where everyone throws out that the game is positionless… whatever positions he played last year he missed open shots.. if he makes open shots at OSU he will be valuable pretty simple… time will tell.
 

Gophers7633 said:
We also brought in Grier who was a 1st team All B1G selection.
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We had no idea how good Grier was before the season (which is where we are today).
Gophers7633 said:
Without him, we would have been terrible. We don't have anyone like that transferring in. Hagen and Robinson also improved significantly the following year.
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Sure
Gophers7633 said:
So our young guys are going to have to show improvement(which I think they will).
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OK - good. I think so too.
Gophers7633 said:
Also, even though we finished last in 04, that team wasn't nearly as terrible as last years. So yeah, we'll be better, but it's a long leap from where we were to respectability.
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We are a lot more talented as a whole than that Grier team. Will it come together? I don't know.
 

eker0016 said:
Jamison Battle's 4 year progression of PER (player efficiency rating):

13.0 -> 17.4 -> transfer to Minnesota: 18.3 -> 9.4

Comparison with Gabe Kalscheur:
11.9 -> 11.5 -> 9.3 transfer to Iowa State -> 6.0 -> 12.9

Battle was a more important player to our team in his first year here than Kalscheur ever was. Then absolutely cratered to Gabe Kalscheur junior year levels of efficiency last year. Could be injury, poor coaching, playing out of position, teams scouting him better etc.

While I would have said he was our 1st or 2nd best player on the team going into last year, I do think there is merit to the idea that if we could replace Battle with a more efficient wing player (major TBD!) and get better guard play from Hawkins/Mitchell/Carrington than we got from Cooper/Samuels/Henley last year...we are in a better place.
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Battles replacements will be better than first year Battle. Olo-Joseph, Christie, and Betts will get most of the minutes. But who knows, maybe Ihnen gets the start. I’m not a Battle hater but rather a Battle pragmatist. What I find to be reliable sources have Ihnen and JOJ getting minutes at both the 4 and 3 with Fox getting minutes at the 4 and 5. We have been bit hard by injuries without good depth. This season changes that. BTW I like Mitchell a little better than Hawkins or Carrington, but Carrington has the highest ceiling. They can be game changers for us as well. I love this roster construction. There are additional Gophers with potential on the bench. Likely better than some starters we used last year. They are all Gophers.
 

eker0016 said:
Do you have an idea how coveted Grier was as a JUCO recruit? And what expectations were for him coming in?

I was in college then and paid no attention to recruiting so all I remember was him showing up on the team and being way better than I thought a JUCO transfer would be. I found an article talking about how he had to play PF/C after injuries and him struggling at PG while at Dixie State. His coach mentions BYU was recruiting him.

All that to say I think you are correct, we don't have a guy coming in who will be first team All B1G. Guys can progress and grow and outperform expectations though. I am really hoping that one of Hawkins/Mitchell/Carrington shows major growth and becomes a "problem" for other teams, and that one of our total unknowns of Betts/Christie/Fox/Ihnen contributes significantly more than we think.
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Coming from a JUCO, he was relatively unknown in that regard, but he was a top 100 recruit out of HS in North Carolina. I certainly didn't expect him to be a first-team all conference player. But you could tell from the jump, he was going to be a great player. The game against FSU, was a great coming-out party. He was really talented, and a great fit for the 04/05 team. My point, was that him coming in, greatly enhanced the turnaround from the prior season. We don't have that type of player coming in this year, unfortunately. Going to need improvement from the current guys on the roster, which I think they will, will it be enough to not finish 13th or last place though?
 

Classof 66 said:
17% of WNBA players have had ACL surgery. Return to play is over 70% with many at prior level of play.

About 3% of NBA players have had ACL surgery. Return to play is 70%. Many play at similar level.
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I wonder why the percentage is so much higher in the WNBA than the NBA? Out of curiosity is the 70% return number all time or is it fairly recent? I know they have made huge strides in the recovery process for things like ACL injuries.

Amazing to see how quick guys are coming back from that in football now when it used to seem like an ACL injury was basically a full year recovery timeframe.
 

bga1 said:
We had no idea how good Grier was before the season (which is where we are today).

Sure

OK - good. I think so too.


We are a lot more talented as a whole than that Grier team. Will it come together? I don't know.
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Yeah, he was somewhat of an unknown, but turned out to be a first team conference. That had a lot to do with the turnaround. Obviously, if Mitchell or Hawkins is first team all conference, we'll be really good. But I'd put that at about .05%. Also, the B1G was pretty awful in 04/05 in terms of depth(great the top), which certainly helped. Unfortunately, the depth of the league has never been better. We have a lot of teams to climb to be better, and the historically bad teams(NW, PSU, Nebraska) appear to be better(in NW's case), or about even.

Also, I wouldn't say this team is a lot more talented than that one. We don't even know who's starting yet. Are we more talented than last years team? I'd probably say yes to that. Especially banking on our young guys to show improvement.
 

Gophers7633 said:
Yeah, he was somewhat of an unknown, but turned out to be a first team conference. That had a lot to do with the turnaround. Obviously, if Mitchell or Hawkins is first team all conference, we'll be really good. But I'd put that at about .05%. Also, the B1G was pretty awful in 04/05 in terms of depth(great the top), which certainly helped. Unfortunately, the depth of the league has never been better. We have a lot of teams to climb to be better, and the historically bad teams(NW, PSU, Nebraska) appear to be better(in NW's case), or about even.

Also, I wouldn't say this team is a lot more talented than that one. We don't even know who's starting yet. Are we more talented than last years team? I'd probably say yes to that. Especially banking on our young guys to show improvement.
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We may not know who is starting yet, but we know how many minutes each gets! Yep, the Ben haters know. Lol!!!!!!
 
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Bobek said:
Your memory must be better than mine.
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I think he was Pitino's second highest rated recruit, I'm pretty sure Coffey had the highest rating out of high school.
 


howeda7 said:
This is good. But it also reinforces the rumors that Ihnen's recovery is going well and Fox's is not.
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Honestly curious - how does a small group workout like this reinforce anything in relation to Fox's status? This wasn't a team activity, most of the people there were either former players or female players.

Video certainly reinforces the idea that Ihnen's recovery is going well. But it has nothing to do with Fox and shouldn't reflect on his recovery in a positive or negative way.
 

MNVCGUY said:
Honestly curious - how does a small group workout like this reinforce anything in relation to Fox's status? This wasn't a team activity, most of the people there were either former players or female players.

Video certainly reinforces the idea that Ihnen's recovery is going well. But it has nothing to do with Fox and shouldn't reflect on his recovery in a positive or negative way.
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Because there is no similar "good news" videos or stories coming out about Fox. Instead the opposite. It lends credence to what Doogie and others have said. I'm guessing if there was something positive to share, he or the team would share it.
 

howeda7 said:
Because there is no similar "good news" videos or stories coming out about Fox. Instead the opposite. It lends credence to what Doogie and others have said. I'm guessing if there was something positive to share, he or the team would share it.
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Your reaching pretty hard on this one to make this video a negative reflection on fox in any way shape or form. This video looks like it was posted by something called fresh coast TV and is promoting something called basektball enterprise. This didn't come from the U of M and it would seem like the only U of M connections are a couple of the players and the fact that they are using an on campus gym.
 


MNVCGUY said:
Your reaching pretty hard on this one to make this video a negative reflection on fox in any way shape or form. This video looks like it was posted by something called fresh coast TV and is promoting something called basektball enterprise. This didn't come from the U of M and it would seem like the only U of M connections are a couple of the players and the fact that they are using an on campus gym.
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There is no point to attempting to educate ignorant haters.
 

howeda7 said:
Because there is no similar "good news" videos or stories coming out about Fox. Instead the opposite. It lends credence to what Doogie and others have said. I'm guessing if there was something positive to share, he or the team would share it.
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The poster of said video is friends with Ihnen. We’ve asked for news in the past. So nothing to do with Fox.
 

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