What grade would you give Gophers in Coach P’s first season?

What grade would you give Gophers in Coach P’s first season?

  • A

    Votes: 6 7.1%

  • B

    Votes: 42 50.0%

  • C

    Votes: 31 36.9%

  • D

    Votes: 5 6.0%

  • F

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Total voters
    84
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What grade would you give Gophers in Coach P’s first season?
 

Solid C. I was impressed early on, the players seemed to improve on defense this season compared to years prior. Without Braun, I was disappointed by the way the team played. Overall, the team was far improved from the Whalen years.

I expect 2-3 transfers out. I also expect Coach P to go after a point guard and a center. There are many talented players in the portal to go after, it should be a fun off season and see how far this team can go with the talented starting 5.
 

I would give them a C. They deserve a B for part of the season and a D for the other part, which averages to a C. They are an excellent mid-major team. I don’t think there is enough upside potential with the current roster to make them a great Power Five team. I think they need to recruit a couple of impact players from the portal. Hopefully, Minnesota will be more attractive to recruits given their WNIT run and an experienced roster coming back.
 

I went with "C". First season, so there is that adjustment period. I think Coach P got the team to buy in defensively but on the skill development on the offensive side, there is a lot of work to do.
 

It's a talent problem. Iowa and Ohio State have at least 1 WNBA player on their rosters.

UCONN's entire starting 5 yesterday could be 1st Round picks when they're all eligible. Bueckers will be the 1st pick next year, Edwards will go in the middle of Round 1 this year, Mühl could go end Round 1 this year.

If we want to compete for the Big Ten title, then the roster needs a massive talent infusion. There isn't a WNBA player on the roster right now.

You have to get girls like Crump, Greenway, and Olson to come here, or grab that kind of talent from somewhere else.
 


I’d give her a B grade. It was a definite upgraded season, but lack of depth hurt when Braun went down. Battle did step up after,the Braun injury and that should help her confidence going forward. Need to add an active big.
 

C+
Probably will take a few years to get rolling with the recruits she needs. Expected better offensive flow; but maybe it doesn't all fall on her.
 

B
She can coach. She needs more talent and a deeper bench. Let’s see how she handles recruiting and the portal for the next couple years.
 

TruthSeeker said:
It's a talent problem. Iowa and Ohio State have at least 1 WNBA player on their rosters.

UCONN's entire starting 5 yesterday could be 1st Round picks when they're all eligible. Bueckers will be the 1st pick next year, Edwards will go in the middle of Round 1 this year, Mühl could go end Round 1 this year.

If we want to compete for the Big Ten title, then the roster needs a massive talent infusion. There isn't a WNBA player on the roster right now.

You have to get girls like Crump, Greenway, and Olson to come here, or grab that kind of talent from somewhere else.
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Indirectly I was thinking the samething. After having seen lots of the NCAA woman's tournament games then watching the St Louis game yesterday, I was thinking we look like a mid level high school team.
 



Turnovers improved but the ball movement was lacking the second half of the season. The wins against Michigan and Nebraska showed the Gophers can be upper-level. The Wisconsin loss showed how bad they can look. Most of the team is young.

Other teams loaded up on upperclassman players via the transfer portal. We may need to wait until this current Gophers roster is two seasons older. What Minnesota needs is a talented team that is mostly seniors starting.
 

Gave it a C. See what happens this offseason and next year, thought there were times to develop a few more players but was also improvement.

South Carolina as much talent as they get from portals, recruits, etc. only 2 players played more than 30 minutes and 9 players played 14 minutes or more in the championship game. Stinks Tessa Johnson couldn't be more like a Caitlin Clark and stay in Minnesota to help get MN to where Iowa is. Hopefully any other top recruits out there who really want to take women's basketball even further start going to more schools to help develop more teams to make final four runs!
 

Question for those who have followed Coach P's career. Ben Johnson has stated his preference is to play 7 people. How many people did Coach P play when she had established teams? Like in the first half. I'm not counting the one or two minute contributions in the box score in the answer.

U Conn, she essentially played 5. Stony Brook 8. Drake 8. The Nebraska win we played 9 for 8 or more minutes. Maryland: 8 girls 5 or more minutes but the four starters are at 40, 39, 36, and 36 minutes with Hart at 28. Win at Michigan was 7 girls...two others played 2 minutes.

So, playing time was not consistent when all hands were on deck.
 
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Offense was hard to watch without Braun. Absolutely no ball movement. Dribble until you were stopped, tied up, or turned the ball over. And even if there was a big drop off to the 8, 9, and 10 players, the player rotation could have been better--Grace struggled with her shot at the end of the year, probably because she was playing pretty much the whole game.
 





60's Guy said:
Question for those who have followed Coach P's career. Ben Johnson has stated his preference is to play 7 people. How many people did Coach P play when she had established teams? Like in the first half. I'm not counting the one or two minute contributions in the box score in the answer.

U Conn, she essentially played 5. Stony Brook 8. Drake 8. The Nebraska win we played 9 for 8 or more minutes. Maryland: 8 girls 5 or more minutes but the four starters are at 40, 39, 36, and 36 minutes with Hart at 28. Win at Michigan was 7 girls...two others played 2 minutes.

So, playing time was not consistent when all hands were on deck.
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It really depends on matchups. It's going to vary from game to game. I gave her a C. Gophers played their best half of basketball against U Conn. That first half was great and I would give an A for that. As the season wore on the team kind of fell apart. It's to bad because they got off to a very good start. When you lose the backbone of your team it's understandable.
 

walleye said:
I would give them a C. They deserve a B for part of the season and a D for the other part, which averages to a C. They are an excellent mid-major team. I don’t think there is enough upside potential with the current roster to make them a great Power Five team. I think they need to recruit a couple of impact players from the portal. Hopefully, Minnesota will be more attractive to recruits given their WNIT run and an experienced roster coming back.
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+o4
 

Just gonna say that, even though I feel I have a nice grasp on basketball, I'm also willing to admit that I am not even close to being qualified to actually give a well-established college coach a grade on her job. There is just too much stuff involved with navigating and coaching a college basketball team. Stuff that most of we fans are completely unaware of and may likely be completely overwhelmed with, to be able to credibly judge another persons performance. Maybe if I were on the scene and around the team every single day, on and off season, practice, meetings, work-outs, in tune with their classwork and social/family life, I might venture a guess.

Kinda like somebody trying to give me a grade on my (or your) job, with-out having actually done or been around something similar, that would allow you to understand all the little, behind the scenes stuff, that has to be dealt with every single day.
 

Chico Gopher said:
Just gonna say that, even though I feel I have a nice grasp on basketball, I'm also willing to admit that I am not even close to being qualified to actually give a well-established college coach a grade on her job. There is just too much stuff involved with navigating and coaching a college basketball team. Stuff that most of we fans are completely unaware of and may likely be completely overwhelmed with, to be able to credibly judge another persons performance. Maybe if I were on the scene and around the team every single day, on and off season, practice, meetings, work-outs, in tune with their classwork and social/family life, I might venture a guess.

Kinda like somebody trying to give me a grade on my (or your) job, with-out having actually done or been around something similar, that would allow you to understand all the little, behind the scenes stuff, that has to be dealt with every single day.
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I would agree. Except we’re not grading her. We’re grading the team.
 

Organization was better. Turnovers were better, and defense was modestly improved. Pace of play was slower, which was a correct read on Gopher talent, but a problem. Gophers need to play faster, at least sometimes. Offense, however, was bad. The Gophers were the worst shooting team in the league in conference play, inclusive of the Big Ten tourney: 13th in FG%; 14th in FT%, combining to be last in true shooting percentage (True shooting percentage is a measure of shooting efficiency that takes into account field goals, 3-point field goals, and free throws.).

C for the year, but still a fan of Coach P, and on the bandwagon.
 

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