What grade would you give the 2023-24 Gophers basketball season?

What grade would you give the 2023-24 Gophers basketball season?

  • A

    Votes: 2 1.2%

  • B

    Votes: 51 31.5%

  • C

    Votes: 86 53.1%

  • D

    Votes: 22 13.6%

  • F

    Votes: 1 0.6%
  • Total voters
    162
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C+: Good: winning record, NIT two game appearance, finished mid-B1G when picked last. Comebacks against Nebby, OSU, and NW. Team seems to enjoy playing together. Wish we were able to see the pre-ACL Parker Fox. He made watching these games very enjoyable.

Bad: No bench/roster development, Mizzou loss, Iowa road loss, 6 game swoon towards end of year. Still looking for a signature win to let everyone know you're there.

Ugly: Still haven't been able to beat Wisky, strange offense sets with no movement. Some simple plays like Oakland ran for the tax accountant that shot like Steph Curry for Cam would be a start. Defense disappeared second half of season. Sad crowds at the barn, no 80s/90s home court advantage. Not much program promotion.

Final Analysis: Find some guards with speed that can shoot and defend. Find a D-1 backup big man. Get some DAWGS, overlooked, hungry dudes who want to play. Send Cam and Garcia to the weight room and work on ball handling. Work with PP on recognizing the double team, develop an elbow shot off the FT line, and not put the ball on the deck for easy pickings. Send a SOS out to see what happened to the first half of the season JOJ. Too much talent to be just sitting there. If all of these items are met, Big Dance or bust, if not, a change is going to have to be made.
 

All the present guys are free agents. It would be surprising if they all return. If they don't we have new guys from lower level programs coming in. The two kids of northern Minnesota are not likely to burst onto the scene.
Only 7 guys matter...he has stated and demonstrated that is his philosophy. Pretty tough to develop guys if they don't play in the 2024 era. They have no confidence if they get a chance because of circumstance. 6 guys on your roster don't matter every year. Chances they will the next year would only be because others from the top 7 left and you couldn't recruit better and so now you have an inexperienced, scared replacement.
 

Solid C. This year was more fun to watch than expected, so that’s a plus. But there were so many games or halves of games where it looked like they forgot how to play basketball. So two steps forward, one step back.

Christie was a complete non-factor in numerous games down the stretch. If Garcia leaves, Christie needs to take a step forward and be a consistent difference maker.
 

Gilthorp57 said:
C+: Good: winning record, NIT two game appearance, finished mid-B1G when picked last. Comebacks against Nebby, OSU, and NW. Team seems to enjoy playing together. Wish we were able to see the pre-ACL Parker Fox. He made watching these games very enjoyable.

Bad: No bench/roster development, Mizzou loss, Iowa road loss, 6 game swoon towards end of year. Still looking for a signature win to let everyone know you're there.

Ugly: Still haven't been able to beat Wisky, strange offense sets with no movement. Some simple plays like Oakland ran for the tax accountant that shot like Steph Curry for Cam would be a start. Defense disappeared second half of season. Sad crowds at the barn, no 80s/90s home court advantage. Not much program promotion.

Final Analysis: Find some guards with speed that can shoot and defend. Find a D-1 backup big man. Get some DAWGS, overlooked, hungry dudes who want to play. Send Cam and Garcia to the weight room and work on ball handling. Work with PP on recognizing the double team, develop an elbow shot off the FT line, and not put the ball on the deck for easy pickings. Send a SOS out to see what happened to the first half of the season JOJ. Too much talent to be just sitting there. If all of these items are met, Big Dance or bust, if not, a change is going to have to be made.
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One has to wonder if the late season fade and really bad defense the last quarter of the season is related to the short bench and “load factor.”

I’m not sure if it’s philosophical on Ben’s part to play with such a short bench, but doing so can’t help in the portal. Any recruit paying attention knows it’s 30 minutes or three minutes. No in between.
 


F
Typical gopher season finishing in the bottom of the Big Ten yet again like everyone expected. It’s been years since the Gophers have even sniffed an invitation to the Big Dance. Big Ten expansion will only drive this program further into the depths of irrelevance. We can only watch and shake our heads as Northwestern and Nebraska rise slightly above the average with the hiring of good coaches as we simmer in impotence. Retreating to a comparable conference with the likes of South Dakota State University and North Dakota State University seems reasonable if the majority of people in Minnesota don’t really care about college sports, and they don’t. The Gophers would favorably compare with South Dakota State University‘s basketball team and at least make it to the Big Dance every three years or so. Much better than they have done in the last decade.
 

stocker08 said:
B. Blew expectations out of the water and sets up much higher expectations for next year.

Team is now in a better place than when Johnson took over.....and we should take another step going into next year pending disaster.
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If grading the the improvement over the last two seasons in of itself, then I think you nailed it.

But overall, the season is still more like a C.

Which is a great improvement from a D- to F.
 

I gotta go witha "B". If you had told me at the first pre-season practice that the team would be good enough for two games in the NIT, I would have been ecstatic.
 

Everyone is concerned about retaining players. Not sure we have anyone that a major university would want.
 





i went with a c. pedestrian season.
 

Middle of the B1G, so they get a "C". But then there's the deal that if you're middle-of-the-pack at high-end colleges and universities, you're a solid "A". So average the two, and call it a "B", and hope we retain our players for next year.

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I took C. Better than the last few years for sure.

Still not good though. One thing that really bothered me. The defense relapsing. They were borderline great in that category at the beginning of the Big Ten season, and laughably bad towards the end. Part of this probably has to do with fatigue. If so, play some of your bench. Either way, it regressed big time and I just flat out don't think this program can ever out-talent anyone so defense has to be a huge priority.

Here is another thing. All it takes is 1 or 2 of your top 6 guys to leave the team and this program will be right back in the dumpster winning 4-5 BT games again.
 

stocker08 said:
Only 34 of the 80 P6 teams made the tournament. So where exactly does the bottom tier start for P5? Anything outside of the top two teams in every conference? Because Nebraska and Northwestern finished third and fourth in the Big Ten this year.
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I struggle with how to best evaluate based on tiers as well.

34 teams make the tournament and those that do, rarely make it to the sweet 16. Nebraska and Northwestern are celebrating their seasons and they should. The Gophers beat both of them this year.

I would say there are 90 Power Conference programs across 7 conferences. That includes the MWC and Big East for numbers sake.

Top 4 in each conference would be 28 in Tier 1
Bottom 4 in each would get you Tier 3 of 28

That leaves 34 programs in the middle that beat each other up and argue about where they are in the tiers, when they are all average programs.

This is what creates all the debate over who should be in and out of the tournament. The NCAA wants to put in about 6 teams every year that probably aren't deserving and they snub those that think they have a similar gripe, because they are all average. Perception of the power conferences tend to win out in these decisions. The only way to get best results is to let a computer kick it out, but that would take the "Eye ball" test out.

Take KenPom where the Gophers are 78 (Bottom tier) We were a bottom tier team this year, but with unbalanced scheduling we out performed that level in conference play by finishing 9th with wins over Nebraska, Northwestern, tOSU, MSU, Maryland, Penn State x2, all teams higher in KenPom. However there were about 16 non P7 conference teams ranked higher in KenPom rankings. That moves us up to about 60-65 in the P7. That is right on the bubble of bottom tier.
 

MaxyJR1 said:
I struggle with how to best evaluate based on tiers as well.

34 teams make the tournament and those that do, rarely make it to the sweet 16. Nebraska and Northwestern are celebrating their seasons and they should. The Gophers beat both of them this year.

I would say there are 90 Power Conference programs across 7 conferences. That includes the MWC and Big East for numbers sake.

Top 4 in each conference would be 28 in Tier 1
Bottom 4 in each would get you Tier 3 of 28

That leaves 34 programs in the middle that beat each other up and argue about where they are in the tiers, when they are all average programs.

This is what creates all the debate over who should be in and out of the tournament. The NCAA wants to put in about 6 teams every year that probably aren't deserving and they snub those that think they have a similar gripe, because they are all average. Perception of the power conferences tend to win out in these decisions. The only way to get best results is to let a computer kick it out, but that would take the "Eye ball" test out.

Take KenPom where the Gophers are 78 (Bottom tier) We were a bottom tier team this year, but with unbalanced scheduling we out performed that level in conference play by finishing 9th with wins over Nebraska, Northwestern, tOSU, MSU, Maryland, Penn State x2, all teams higher in KenPom. However there were about 16 non P7 conference teams ranked higher in KenPom rankings. That moves us up to about 60-65 in the P7. That is right on the bubble of bottom tier.
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Nice analysis. I have no problem with an assessment that we are a bottom tier power conference program. If things work out, it is going up but none of us knows for sure and the landscape makes it almost impossible to be sure what direction we are headed.

I will assert that we had more good wins this year than others think, but there isn’t enough data to unequivocally suggest all is in the right direction.

Off season will give a lot of data. Next season will indicate what direction we are moving.
 

Mick Turition said:
F
Typical gopher season finishing in the bottom of the Big Ten yet again like everyone expected. It’s been years since the Gophers have even sniffed an invitation to the Big Dance. Big Ten expansion will only drive this program further into the depths of irrelevance. We can only watch and shake our heads as Northwestern and Nebraska rise slightly above the average with the hiring of good coaches as we simmer in impotence. Retreating to a comparable conference with the likes of South Dakota State University and North Dakota State University seems reasonable if the majority of people in Minnesota don’t really care about college sports, and they don’t. The Gophers would favorably compare with South Dakota State University‘s basketball team and at least make it to the Big Dance every three years or so. Much better than they have done in the last decade.
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Well, this is an insane take
 

UpAndUnder43 said:
Compared to previous seasons it’s a B. But that’s not how this works. So I went D.

Finished bottom half of the conference, beat zero good teams and missed the NCAA tourney.
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Michigan State, Ohio state, Nebraska were good teams.
 


I really really wanted to vote c..,. I went d..... Mainly because of the collapse at the end. There's 0 momentum heading into next year... 3 yrs and a second round nit exit is uninspiring
 

MplsGopher said:
If grading the the improvement over the last two seasons in of itself, then I think you nailed it.

But overall, the season is still more like a C.

Which is a great improvement from a D- to F.
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It's a C. A month ago it looked more like B but then fatigue hit along with loss of intensity.

If everyone but Wilson returns, adding only Asuma and Grove, we will likely win a game or two less in conference next year. There will only be improvements with Cam and maybe Mitchell. Garcia and Hawk played at college peak this year, Fox can't do more than he gave this year. Payne will continue to play in flashes, then revert to mistakes and suffer from chronic back problems.

There is probably no more upside for Carrington and JOJ. Ihnen is a non-factor. Betts and Krynies are unknown. If one broke out it would be somewhat surprising.

The only way to get into the top half of the league next year is to free up more scholarships. One is now with a walkon and that will go to Grove. We need three more open spots and serious success in the portal with a good backup center, a wing who can really shoot, and a big physical guard.

Evaluating a coach is 75% based on who he can attract as talent. Right now, for Ben, it's more like 100%. He needs three open spots and three big roster upgrades from the portal.
 

Jack jones said:
Everyone is concerned about retaining players. Not sure we have anyone that a major university would want.
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Also, we have a few that our major university should not want either. We definitely do not want to retain everyone who can return.
 


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