What grade do you give the team this season?

What grade?

  • A

    Votes: 3 4.1%

  • B

    Votes: 9 12.3%

  • C

    Votes: 27 37.0%

  • D

    Votes: 18 24.7%

  • F

    Votes: 16 21.9%
  • Total voters
    73
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SanDiegoGopherFan

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Season is done. How did the team do relative to your preseason expectations
 



Spottedmuskie said:
Pleased with early season strategy, not pleased with late season strategy. We went away from the things we did well
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More like got scouted and worn down I think. Did go to Willis ball screen far too much for my liking during the middle of the season though.
 

Gave it a D. They were slightly better than expected but faded over the last 6 weeks of the season.

Lack of overall talent and depth ultimately caught up to them.
 



Anything other than an "F" is maroon glasses wearing homerism.

Last place in the B1G, Wednesday loss in BTT.

I have more faith in Johnson than Pitino, but season 1 was a complete and utter disaster.
 

Overachieved early and raised expectations but eventually lack of depth really wore them down. Probably have to give a D for the season but I’m optimistic that with a few talented transfers they could be in line to take a big jump up next year. But then I keep tuning into the Vikings every September thinking this will be the year so what the hell do I know.
 




B. I said before the season that 13 + wins was an A. But the complete fade down the stretch and the refusal to develop the young guys or a bench are depressing/disappointing. If we'd lost a couple non-conference games and won a couple of these while seeing some promise from the younger guys, it would be far more palatable, even with the same record. Right now the 22-23 team is Jamison Battle and a lot of unknowns.
 

F. They were expected to finish last and they finished last.
 

SanDiegoGopherFan said:
Season is done. How did the team do relative to your preseason expectations
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Your title and post pose two different questions.

This season is an F
One of the worst conference seasons in school history.

relative to my expectations probably a B though

So depends on which of the two questions I’m answering
 
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USAF said:
Anything other than an "F" is maroon glasses wearing homerism.

Last place in the B1G, Wednesday loss in BTT.

I have more faith in Johnson than Pitino, but season 1 was a complete and utter disaster.
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I thought it was based on preseason expectations so I went C. A season expectation-blind vote would be F for me.
 




25 years ago I went to San Antonio and saw the Gophers advance to the Final Four for the first time. That was a damn great team: well coached, nasty defensively, tenacious and talented and with an absolute stone cold assassin leading them in Bobby Jackson.

A quarter century later, I’m just sick of the losing. I’m numb to the mediocrity. I just can’t take another year of watching the same shit over and over and over. I fell in love with Gopher basketball as a sophomore in the late 80s when I bought student season tickets. Clem’s team hadn’t quite hit its stride yet, but you could see all the elements present in the ‘89 and ‘90 squads that would make that ‘97 team great (just replace Bobby with Willie Burton), and that promise made it fun and exciting. You could SEE it. You could just FEEL it. Ben Johnson and this team? I see and feel nothing special, just an inescapable feeling that the gerbil wheel of bad will continue to spin indefinitely. My passion for the program has slowly been worn down through Monson then Tubby then Pitino and now Johnson. Now I’ve got nothing left. I guess I have hope he’ll somehow turn things around by building a culture and finding players that buy into it like PJ, ,but I don’t have a lot of faith that he willl. I didn’t like the hire last year and I’m no more encouraged about the program’s potential after a 14th place finish and Wednesday out in the B1G tourney. I don’t mean to be that guy who craps on the team after a bad season, but there have been far too many of them since we nearly reached the mountaintop, and I’ve checked out. Given my 35+ years as a fan I think I’ve earned that right to say I’ve had enough. Maybe if others do too it will send a message to the administration that 25 years of letting your program rot is unacceptable. At least I’d hope so.
 

Went with a D. Liked the better shooting, had some solid wins early, but ultimately we didn't have a big on the roster that could play other than Curry. Injuries do happen but we finished where we were predicted to, last.

I hate to play the if game but if we had Fox/Ihnen, I think we could have won 3-4 more games. Need to grab another center and guards in the portal. Hopeful we can win 3-4 more big ten games in '22-'23 but Ben has his work cut out for him.
 

I went with a C.

please remember that, before the season, there were people predicting that the Gophers might not win more than 5 or 6 games total this season.

As Reusse said, "I predicted 2-18 in the conf and they went 4-16."
Barreiro said the Gophs would not win a single game in the conference.

that is what some people were saying before the season.

So, they certainly exceeded some expectations.

they were not getting blown out by 25 pts a game, or quitting on the floor. they tried. they weren't good enough.

but I liked this team on a personal level. they seemed like a decent group of guys. that doesn't make them good, but I'm not going to sh*t all over a group of players who tried. that still means something in my book.
 

I realize this is not the prediction for next year thread but man do we need some positivity here so I predict that the Gophs will bring in Garcia, Walton, and 2 ball handlers in the portal and at least a couple freshman will be solid contributors as will Fox and Ihnen. Next years team will have length and depth and jump to the top half of the Big Ten standings and put Ben in coach of the year discussion.
 


B. Only because of how poor the overall talent was going into the season. This was a roster that had no business playing in the Big 10 and they made the most of what they had imo. But another showing like this season will warrant an F grade in the future.
 

Overall = D
Expectations = C+. max of 3 B1G wins and got 4.
Player Development = F. Lack of subs tonight showed what Ben thought of his players. He owes the team an apology after tonight.
 


What I feel is this: When the game was over Wednesday, I was glad it was over and we could wipe the slate clean. We should never again field a team that looks like this. Ever. That's not a knock on Ben's coaching, I think he can do well with a good, full roster.

Recruit hard, get a good roster and play them. Let's start building. The excuse period is now over. It was very disappointing to me that we essentially threw last season away on a bunch of senior rental players, building zip for the future. But that's in the rear view mirror now and the focus is on recruiting.
 

A lot of individual players exceeded expectations for me - basically the entire starting lineup. Obviously, all of them have their flaws, but each of them showed a lot more than I was expecting this year. Hoping that’s an indicator of an ability to identify talent from Johnson.

Less excited about the player development, depth, and overall roster construction - if this year was going to be a wash, would have been nice to at least have some guys play that we’re going to be back next year.

overall a C - mostly cause the expectations were low to begin with
 

bga1 said:
What I feel is this: When the game was over Wednesday, I was glad it was over and we could wipe the slate clean. We should never again field a team that looks like this. Ever. That's not a knock on Ben's coaching, I think he can do well with a good, full roster.

Recruit hard, get a good roster and play them. Let's start building. The excuse period is now over. It was very disappointing to me that we essentially threw last season away on a bunch of senior rental players, building zip for the future. But that's in the rear view mirror now and the focus is on recruiting.
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I remember hearing a year ago that the strategy was to get a bunch of seniors to preserve scholarships for a strong 2022 in-state recruiting class, and the recruiting class didn't exactly pan out. Payne seems likely to be the center of the future, and Carrington and Henley could be decent, while Ola-Joseph is maybe supposed to be more of a project. The recruiting class seems decent but not amazing, so taking a bunch of seniors could be seen as a recruiting gamble that didn't pay off. The inability to get a center to transfer in could also be a knock on Johnson. But that's why I also don't criticize Johnson too harshly for not developing players for next year. What players would those be? Pretty sure Thompson and Thiam were literally the only scholarship players on the team who were 1. Not starting 2. Not seniors and 3. Not injured. A 3-star true freshman center not being ready to be a big contributor isn't surprising to me. I'm not going to hold a poor first season against Johnson too much. I think the potential is there for a strong 2023 class, hopefully with at least two 4 star players, I think that's doable, and worth being excited about if it happens.

I also wonder how much tired legs factored in as games and the season as a whole wore on. I think we had at least 4 or 5 conference losses where we were leading at half time, and at least 2 of those, at Iowa and at Ohio State, where we got destroyed in the second half, although Ohio State I chalk up more to the fact that their 3 point shooting sucked in the first half and was great in the second. If greater depth leads to that not happening so much, we might be alright in the long term.
 


I must love rooting for underdogs. As well, I probably got sucked in by their performance before January. Whatever the reasons, I loved these kids. There just weren't enough of them! And they were too small!
As ultimately discouraging as the season was for me (us)... I feel genuinely badly for the kids, who played well enough and hard enough to win a few (3-4?) more games. How would we all feel had they won that game against Becky at the Barn? I know, they didn't win it.
The core of this team, had they been able to keep their game time under 35 minutes, could have won those games and... they would have deserved it.
 
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