What happened to this board?

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I've been a regular reader on this board for many years, and rarely a poster. I like to come here to pick up on tidbits of information I otherwise likely would miss out on. But something has changed. Almost every post becomes an argument that takes the original post off topic. It's basically a mess and hard to enjoy. What happened?
It seems like it could be trolls from both St. Thomas and Wisconsin fans, who create accounts and aren't really fans but want to take conversations and move them off topic and be overly negative. This was a fan board. Now it seems like almost the complete opposite. How can we get it back to what it used to be?
 

I've been a regular reader on this board for many years, and rarely a poster. I like to come here to pick up on tidbits of information I otherwise likely would miss out on. But something has changed. Almost every post becomes an argument that takes the original post off topic. It's basically a mess and hard to enjoy. What happened?
It seems like it could be trolls from both St. Thomas and Wisconsin fans, who create accounts and aren't really fans but want to take conversations and move them off topic and be overly negative. This was a fan board. Now it seems like almost the complete opposite. How can we get it back to what it used to be?

By hiring a competent coach and not finishing last every season.

It's amazing we have enough fans that even care as much as they do to still argue about the state of the program.
 

How about clarity on whether CBJ is the right one or not. He's certainly polarizing but that can't last.
 


I've been a regular reader on this board for many years, and rarely a poster. I like to come here to pick up on tidbits of information I otherwise likely would miss out on. But something has changed. Almost every post becomes an argument that takes the original post off topic. It's basically a mess and hard to enjoy. What happened?
It seems like it could be trolls from both St. Thomas and Wisconsin fans, who create accounts and aren't really fans but want to take conversations and move them off topic and be overly negative. This was a fan board. Now it seems like almost the complete opposite. How can we get it back to what it used to be?
I am right with you! I have been following the Gopher Hole for many years and not too long ago decided to become a "member." To me, it has become a microcosm of our society. I have to work much harder at finding insightful posts as many just fixate on the obvious struggles, or worse yet, the same people create new ones. Great post!
 


I've been a regular reader on this board for many years, and rarely a poster. I like to come here to pick up on tidbits of information I otherwise likely would miss out on. But something has changed. Almost every post becomes an argument that takes the original post off topic. It's basically a mess and hard to enjoy. What happened?
It seems like it could be trolls from both St. Thomas and Wisconsin fans, who create accounts and aren't really fans but want to take conversations and move them off topic and be overly negative. This was a fan board. Now it seems like almost the complete opposite. How can we get it back to what it used to be?
Bingo. We all have been pretending to be Gopher fans for decades for this moment. As Badger fans, we really want the Gophers to fire Ben Johnson because he is on the verge of turning the U into an absolute juggernaut.

Either that, OR. . . our program is awful and this is what happens to message boards when there is nothing good to talk about. I started my covert operation when Brew was hired, and at that time, the football board was similar to the basketball board now. Why? We stunk and there was nothing good to talk about.

You also seem to be a glutton for punishment. The threads about Grove are pure basketball threads. There were a number of threads re: Hawkins and Mitchell that were pure basketball threads. If you read a thread called Ben Johnson is a total disaster and expect positivity, that says more about you than the thread. It's the offseason, there isn't much to talk about. Also - it's the same people posting in the football board and that's almost entirely football.

So if you're asking what happened? Well, we're historically bad. We are (hopefully) at our low point in our program's history and this is kind of what happens to message boards at that time especially in the offseason.
 

I've been a regular reader on this board for many years, and rarely a poster. I like to come here to pick up on tidbits of information I otherwise likely would miss out on. But something has changed. Almost every post becomes an argument that takes the original post off topic. It's basically a mess and hard to enjoy. What happened?
It seems like it could be trolls from both St. Thomas and Wisconsin fans, who create accounts and aren't really fans but want to take conversations and move them off topic and be overly negative. This was a fan board. Now it seems like almost the complete opposite. How can we get it back to what it used to be?
Microcosm of the world we live in.
 

What
I've been a regular reader on this board for many years, and rarely a poster. I like to come here to pick up on tidbits of information I otherwise likely would miss out on. But something has changed. Almost every post becomes an argument that takes the original post off topic. It's basically a mess and hard to enjoy. What happened?
It seems like it could be trolls from both St. Thomas and Wisconsin fans, who create accounts and aren't really fans but want to take conversations and move them off topic and be overly negative. This was a fan board. Now it seems like almost the complete opposite. How can we get it back to what it used to be?
You sound like a Badger fan!
 

Microcosm of the world we live in.
It's just a microcosm of every single human interaction. When things are going bad, people don't get along. That's been true since the beginning of time.

The football board has a completely different feel and it's mostly the same posters. It's because the football team is decent.
 



I've been a regular reader on this board for many years, and rarely a poster. I like to come here to pick up on tidbits of information I otherwise likely would miss out on. But something has changed. Almost every post becomes an argument that takes the original post off topic. It's basically a mess and hard to enjoy. What happened?
It seems like it could be trolls from both St. Thomas and Wisconsin fans, who create accounts and aren't really fans but want to take conversations and move them off topic and be overly negative. This was a fan board. Now it seems like almost the complete opposite. How can we get it back to what it used to be?
Welcome to the internet. Until Johnson is fired or the team starts winning it is probably wise to just spend a limited amount of time on this forum as most topics are going to quickly turn negative as the same posters post the same complaints over and over again.

Football forum was not much fun after Fleck was hired because there were those that hated everything he did and said with a passion. Those posters have changed their tune or faded into the background with the success the football program has had.

The same thing will happen here if the program starts winning. Until that happens though you can expect negativity to be the prevailing theme on this board.
 

By hiring a competent coach and not finishing last every season.

It's amazing we have enough fans that even care as much as they do to still argue about the state of the program.

Naturally you were the first to post to the OP
🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

If only your forecasts were this predictable - git it🤨
 


The team is bad, so people are cranky. Personally I usually avoid the board for at least a day or two if not a week after a loss, because the discussions just aren't fun to have. You might be well served avoiding the board until we get another decent transfer commitment, if we get one, or we win a few games again next season. I'm not going to accuse everyone who's negative right now of being a Wisconsin troll, but there are definitely some people who pretty much only post when the team is struggling.
 




Welcome to the internet. Until Johnson is fired or the team starts winning it is probably wise to just spend a limited amount of time on this forum as most topics are going to quickly turn negative as the same posters post the same complaints over and over again.

Football forum was not much fun after Fleck was hired because there were those that hated everything he did and said with a passion. Those posters have changed their tune or faded into the background with the success the football program has had.

The same thing will happen here if the program starts winning. Until that happens though you can expect negativity to be the prevailing theme on this board.

I mean...outside of some (questionably) good recruiting news there isn't much positive to discuss. Same coaches, mostly same players, same question marks and so on. Can you really blame people for being negative?

The problem is there does not appear (to some of us) to be a light at the end of the tunnel. If last year the team was an NIT team I think people would be looking at at this differently. I almost won as many Big Ten games as they did and that is not a great foundation. The team could play 100% better and it still might not win very many games...it's just hard to ignore that for some.

I don't think most of us want to be negative (note I said MOST) but we need a reason to believe.
 

Microcosm of the world we live in.
Yes, but the tOTB posters are all over the place here where they are straight line conservations and communist wackos on tOTB. A bit surprising. A lot of latent racism shows here and not on tOTB. Very strange. I put a couple posters on ignore. The ones I argue with here are solid people despite their low BB IQ. Lol!
 

I mean...outside of some (questionably) good recruiting news there isn't much positive to discuss. Same coaches, mostly same players, same question marks and so on. Can you really blame people for being negative?

The problem is there does not appear (to some of us) to be a light at the end of the tunnel. If last year the team was an NIT team I think people would be looking at at this differently. I almost won as many Big Ten games as they did and that is not a great foundation. The team could play 100% better and it still might not win very many games...it's just hard to ignore that for some.

I don't think most of us want to be negative (note I said MOST) but we need a reason to believe.
The negativity is 100% understandable. The part that gets frustrating is the need some in that crowd have to attack/mock anyone that chooses not to dwell on the negative and who leaves open the possibility that things could improve.

Heck, when a poster has decided the players we have brought in aren't good enough, the guys on the roster won't improve enough, and the only solution is fire the coach there really isn't much more that person can bring to the table discussion wise. :)
 

The negativity is 100% understandable. The part that gets frustrating is the need some in that crowd have to attack/mock anyone that chooses not to dwell on the negative and who leaves open the possibility that things could improve.

Heck, when a poster has decided the players we have brought in aren't good enough, the guys on the roster won't improve enough, and the only solution is fire the coach there really isn't much more that person can bring to the table discussion wise. :)
Except for the trolls, they are obvious, it is harmless banter for those confident in their opinions. Thick skin may be required.
 

I've been a regular reader on this board for many years, and rarely a poster. I like to come here to pick up on tidbits of information I otherwise likely would miss out on. But something has changed. Almost every post becomes an argument that takes the original post off topic. It's basically a mess and hard to enjoy. What happened?
It seems like it could be trolls from both St. Thomas and Wisconsin fans, who create accounts and aren't really fans but want to take conversations and move them off topic and be overly negative. This was a fan board. Now it seems like almost the complete opposite. How can we get it back to what it used to be?

The loudest four or five posters on the basketball threads are all counting down the days until Ben Johnson is fired, and they're posting every day about it. Makes it a little tough when there are threads designed for actual news and then it's completely bombarded. This group claims it's only because they care about the program, but when every single comment is negative, that's enough proof that they will be like this as long as they have GH accounts. Simply have to get used to it or block them. This is coming from a guy that believes Ben Johnson should be fired if the Gophers don't get to a minimum of seven Big Ten wins next year. However, I also believe the roster will be quite a bit better than last year, and I'm ready to see if Ben and the staff have learned their lessons from the first two years to become better coaches.
 

It's just a microcosm of every single human interaction. When things are going bad, people don't get along. That's been true since the beginning of time.

The football board has a completely different feel and it's mostly the same posters. It's because the football team is decent.
Well said. The exception would be the hockey board where a historic season was a total failure because we lost in OT of the title game.
 

I think Gopherhole is a pretty fair barometer during the off-season. My annoyance is post-game (especially football) where a loss means the season is a waste and we need to tear it all down.

I think fans are upset with the basketball program and its current direction. There isn’t much happening or noteworthy news. So it’s either no posts or posts about a team with back to back last place finishes. And while I would be surprised if they finished last again—I am not going to speculate for months about where they will finish.

The lack of any coaching change is the biggest surprise to me. Insane to take last twice and make zero changes to the staff.
 

When we get good news, like Mitchell committing, it's positive.

When we lose a recruit to St. Bonaventure and the 5th website in a row picks us to finish dead last for the 3rd year in a row, or give us an F for our portal recruiting, or we drop out of an interesting non-conference tournament so we can play USC-Upstate instead, it's tough to spin the positives on that.
 

The loudest four or five posters on the basketball threads are all counting down the days until Ben Johnson is fired, and they're posting every day about it. Makes it a little tough when there are threads designed for actual news and then it's completely bombarded. This group claims it's only because they care about the program, but when every single comment is negative, that's enough proof that they will be like this as long as they have GH accounts. Simply have to get used to it or block them. This is coming from a guy that believes Ben Johnson should be fired if the Gophers don't get to a minimum of seven Big Ten wins next year. However, I also believe the roster will be quite a bit better than last year, and I'm ready to see if Ben and the staff have learned their lessons from the first two years to become better coaches.
Going to be really difficult to see 7 wins for me. 4 wins, 2 wins and now 7? "roster will be quite a better than last year" Please, give me the logic for that conclusion?
We lost 2 of our best 3 scorers plus a backup point guard in Samuels, plus we lost maybe our most versatile freshman with the most potential in Henley.
We have added two guys from the portal who are unproven at this level and our ranking is #67 in portal additions. Christie might be better than Henley ... has to be by a lot to get a boost.
Fox or Ihnen are my only two hopes for better...simply because they are totally unknown.
They could be spectacular, could be cheerleaders. Betts was a small school high school kid with potential who reclassified and redshirted and is pretty much in the Ihnen, Fox category of unknown until we see him play. He has no proven history of excellence, period, but none in the Big Ten. So, how do you get to quite a bit better other than unfounded hope?
The biggest problem is we were last and the other teams all added more than we did.
Iowa gives me hope...tough to find other victories apart from the nobody saw that coming kind...hard to see 5 or 6 of those happening.
 

This has been coming for awhile.

The last time there was universal approval was when they hired Tubby. Then everyone realized he had retired from recruiting after the first 4 years and his potentially program changing teams seemed to always finish worse than their potential due to injuries and incidents.

So they hired Pitino.

This was not well met, but he exceeded expectations with Tubby’s guys and won a coaching award after picking up some good players and getting into the tourny. He, like Tubby, built some teams with potential that despite the win over Louisville never seemed to live up to their highest expectations. He was submarines by off-court catastrophe and players leaving early and a failure to land the biggest MN recruits. He was handed off to Nee Mexico.

Pitino raised the frustration meter to near the breaking point.

Johnson pushed it over the edge with his bizarre hiring over more desirable choices who we have watched do well at other locations.

And then, he led the team to the worst 2 consecutive seasons in Golden Gopher History!

And you wonder why people are negative?

If this history belonged to an SEC football team, the fans would burn down the stadium and lynch the AD!

Just be happy most of us are Minnesotans, which means this is pretty much the worst it will ever get.
 

We have had 1 winning Big Ten season since 2004-05, we haven't finished ahead of the Badgers in the Big Ten since 1998, we have had 2 historically bad seasons in a row, etc. This message board is WAY more positive than what 99% of Power 5 program message boards would be in the offseason with the same success profile.

We have 1 Big Ten title since 1982. 1. We have 2 NCAA Tournament wins since 1997. 2.

I'm thrilled we have as many interested fans as we do.

But our best days are ahead of us, I hope sooner rather than later.

Go Gophers!!
 

We have had 1 winning Big Ten season since 2004-05, we haven't finished ahead of the Badgers in the Big Ten since 1998, we have had 2 historically bad seasons in a row, etc. This message board is WAY more positive than what 99% of Power 5 program message boards would be in the offseason with the same success profile.

We have 1 Big Ten title since 1982. 1. We have 2 NCAA Tournament wins since 1997. 2.

I'm thrilled we have as many interested fans as we do.

But our best days are ahead of us, I hope sooner rather than later.

Go Gophers!!
Those are crazy depressing stats. Brutal.
 

This has been coming for awhile.

The last time there was universal approval was when they hired Tubby. Then everyone realized he had retired from recruiting after the first 4 years and his potentially program changing teams seemed to always finish worse than their potential due to injuries and incidents.

So they hired Pitino.

This was not well met, but he exceeded expectations with Tubby’s guys and won a coaching award after picking up some good players and getting into the tourny. He, like Tubby, built some teams with potential that despite the win over Louisville never seemed to live up to their highest expectations. He was submarines by off-court catastrophe and players leaving early and a failure to land the biggest MN recruits. He was handed off to Nee Mexico.

Pitino raised the frustration meter to near the breaking point.

Johnson pushed it over the edge with his bizarre hiring over more desirable choices who we have watched do well at other locations.

And then, he led the team to the worst 2 consecutive seasons in Golden Gopher History!

And you wonder why people are negative?

If this history belonged to an SEC football team, the fans would burn down the stadium and lynch the AD!

Just be happy most of us are Minnesotans, which means this is pretty much the worst it will ever get.
good synopsis. And,s icne we're Minnesotans, no pitchforks, but a lot of passive-agressive sniping.....
 

I mean...outside of some (questionably) good recruiting news there isn't much positive to discuss. Same coaches, mostly same players, same question marks and so on. Can you really blame people for being negative?

The problem is there does not appear (to some of us) to be a light at the end of the tunnel. If last year the team was an NIT team I think people would be looking at at this differently. I almost won as many Big Ten games as they did and that is not a great foundation. The team could play 100% better and it still might not win very many games...it's just hard to ignore that for some.

I don't think most of us want to be negative (note I said MOST) but we need a reason to believe.
:clap::clap::clap::clap::clap::clap::clap::clap::clap::clap::clap::clap::clap::clap::clap::clap::clap::clap:
 

Going to be really difficult to see 7 wins for me. 4 wins, 2 wins and now 7? "roster will be quite a better than last year" Please, give me the logic for that conclusion?

You clearly read my post wrong. Never once did I make a prediction that the Gophers were winning seven Big Ten games next year. I said that's what would be required for Ben Johnson to keep his job, in my opinion.

They will win more than last year because of better guard play. How many wins that turns out to be is anyone's guess.
 
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On one level, I think it's just more fun to be negative. on the football board, there are always more posts after a loss, because a loss offers more opportunities for criticism. If the Gopher hoops team was finishing 8th or 9th in the B1G, there would be much less action on this board.

For some reason, it's easier to bitch than to praise. It's easier to complain than to offer support. In short - people are a-holes.
 




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