WHere do you think the Gophs rank pre-season for 2011

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Miles Tarver

Miles Tarver

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assuming Mbakwe, and Sampson stay.

with Hollins, Welch, and the rest of the crew.

Where would you say the gophs rank going into the preseason next year?

I know it means very little (I think UConn was unranked going into the season this year)
but it is fun to speculate.

where would you rank them?

30s? 40s? 50s?

below that?
 

I don't think they make the NCAA Tourney so below the 50's. With the looks of their NC schedule they probably will get a NIT bid.
 

With Mbakwe and Sampson, I would say 7th in the Big Ten preseason poll. There are just too many questions surrounding this program to speculate any higher.
Without Mbakwe, I could envision some prognosticators picking them 9th or 10th.
 

honestly? I have faith that they can finish top 6 in the BT, and get in the tourney. Give sampson, rodney, hollins, and Mo a year to get better, and who knows how good this team could be?
 

Pre season I think they will be ranked in the 40s
After the non conference games ranked in top 25
After first half of season top 15
After full season top 10

Finish top 3 in big ten

Andre Hollins over all game will be better than Nolen's
The addition of Andre, Julian, and Joe will be better than Al and Blake
We will score easier and more often...
Better Defense
High tempo and Pressure both ends
Mo, Oto, Elliot, a deep bench will all help a ton
 


Jon said:
Pre season I think they will be ranked in the 40s
After the non conference games ranked in top 25
After first half of season top 15
After full season top 10

Finish top 3 in big ten

Andre Hollins over all game will be better than Nolen's
The addition of Andre, Julian, and Joe will be better than Al and Blake
We will score easier and more often...
Better Defense
High tempo and Pressure both ends
Mo, Oto, Elliot, a deep bench will all help a ton
Click to expand...

You are more confident than I am. I am with you on the pressure defense which I think will help them score more easily. They had none of that in back half of this year. I am not so sure the newcomers make up for the loss of Blake and Al. Blake may be the best shooter to ever wear a Gopher uniform, and that is not easily replaced, even if the talent level overall is improved. It will be a team that is not young, but relying on very young guys to make significant contributions for the team to be successful. That's a tall order.

My theory is that not burdened by high expectations, they will likely exceed them. The biggest question is whether any of the guys we have not seen in a college uniform(Andre, Oto, Joe) can give us some consistent scoring.
 

Jon said:
Pre season I think they will be ranked in the 40s
After the non conference games ranked in top 25
After first half of season top 15
After full season top 10

Finish top 3 in big ten

Andre Hollins over all game will be better than Nolen's
The addition of Andre, Julian, and Joe will be better than Al and Blake
We will score easier and more often...
Better Defense
High tempo and Pressure both ends
Mo, Oto, Elliot, a deep bench will all help a ton
Click to expand...

Do you really think they can finish in the top 10? Sure, they might be better than last year, but that won't be all that hard. To be honest, I was waiting for the punch-line after I read the "After full season top 10" line.
 

Yep I will be amazingly happy this whole off season believing we will be an amazing team.
 

whats stupid is, if wisconsin and the natl. media can expect Mike brusewitz to be some kind of huge contributor, scoring, rebounding, the works, why cant rodney williams be some kind of big deal? arent their stats pretty similar? Really they have 1 proven player. We have 1 or 2 I think in Mbakwe and Sampson.
 



It depends 100% on the guard play.
If they can play like average big ten guards, this team is probably in the 20-35 range. If they are below average, bubble team. If they are bad, bad team. If they are good. 10-20 range. If they are John wall eske, it is a top ten team.

If I had to predict right now id give them a 7 seed in the tourney next year.
 

Go Gophs eh? said:
honestly? I have faith that they can finish top 6 in the BT, and get in the tourney. Give sampson, rodney, hollins, and Mo a year to get better, and who knows how good this team could be?
Click to expand...

Giver Sampson & Williams yet another year? Come on. These guys will be seniors and we haven't seen either one address the glaring flaws in their games. And I predict neither of them will.

RSIII needs toughness. Every coach in the Big Ten knows that if you give him a few hips & shoves early, he gets intimidated and drifts out to the perimeter and doesn't dare go into the paint the rest of the game. Competitiveness is as innate as being 7-feet tall. Ralph has the height & a lot of the skills, but not the heart.

Rodney is a One Trick Pony. He Dunks. He doesn't shoot well, he doesn't pass well, he doesn't handle the ball well, he's not much more than an average rebounder. We've all known this since his freshman year, but I haven't seen any improvement in the last two years. I think he's too busy practicing his Dunks to worry about shooting & ball handling.
 

Rodney's going to be a senior? Hmm. I'll bet that's news to him.
 

I am not so sure the newcomers make up for the loss of Blake and Al
Click to expand...

I think folks are missing something here...essentially we didn't have Al and Blake (as we know him) for the last half of the year. Al didn't play so its not tough to replace that.. and Blake was out of position and didn't contribute like his is capable. Essentially, the team was a lock for the NCAA tourney with Al playing and after Al got hurt, it fell apart.

The new guys will instantly improve us (or should) over the last part of the season and we probably won't be as good as the first part of last year. To me, that means we are capable of top 6. I think Gophers were a top 4 BT team before Al was hurt and a bottom feeder after. Top 6 splits the difference pretty well.
 



Though I cannot say I am overly optimistic about the 2011 season, I am probably more so than most of people here depending on TM staying.

Obviously, Blake will be irreplaceable, but I am sure we can cope with the loss. Overall, our guard situation will be definitely more flexible and quite possibly much better than it was during the stretch of 1-10. If TM returns, our frontcourt will be no worse than it was at any point of the last season. We will have a very solid frontcourt barring major injuries.

One of the reasons for the implosion last season was that we simply didn’t have enough time to accommodate the major adjustments required when Nolen went down in absence of a capable backup. Next season, The coaches will have enough time to come up with better schemes and fine-tune them through plenty of practice and against cupcakes once the season starts.

We were reasonably competitive in almost every game during the last stretch, albeit not being able to take care of the business for the last 5 minutes or so. A bit of help, preparation time, and average luck here and there could have easily changed the outcome far more favorably like 4-7 or so.

So, if the new players are good enough to let us win a game or two in addition to the 4-7 finish we could have had. If they are, then it may not be a stretch at all to project us finishing somewhere between 5th and 7th in the conference considering that it may be a down year for the conference. If they are not but with TM staying, I would project somewhere between 6th and 8th. If the new players are not much of help, and TM leaves, oh well….

At any rate, I will take the optimistic scenario of the range between 5th and 8th. If I have to, I will go with 6th in the conference and a strong bubble.
 

I think 7th or 8th in the conference, but by the time the Big Ten tournement rolls around they will be making a run at the NCAA tourment. I figure they could end up anywhere in the 5-8 range depending on how the team comes together and develops.

Ohio State
Michigan
Illinois
Michigan State

Wisconsin
Purdue
Indiana
Minnesota

Iowa
Nebraska
Nortwestern
Penn State
 

IM not putting indiana in front of us. I refuse. Why are they going to be so much better than last year? and dont say Cody Zeller. Kid weighs less than ralph sampson, and is softer. He wont have any sort of game changing impact despite being a MC AA
 

I think Zeller will have a very good year for a freshman, but if Mbakwe returns I don't see anyway that they place ahead of us.
 

I think Jonah Travis outplayed Zeller and Plumlee when PnR played that indiana team, cant remember the game or stats forsure, but i remember watching it
 

I'm not doubting that, but I've seen enough of Zeller to be confident that he'll have a good season next year. He's not going to put Indiana on his back and carry them to a Big Ten title, but I'm sure he'll be one of their leading scorers from day one. And Jonah wouldn't be the only mid-major recruit to get the best of Plumlee last summer. He has a ways to go before he's going to make any sort of impact at Duke.
 

Until I see us with a guy who can handle the basketball under pressure, I don't rate us very highly.
 

Anywhere from 5th to 11th

Really tough to project nationally, but these are the teams I'm confident the Gophers will finish behind in the Big Ten:

Group A
Michigan (assuming Morris comes back, otherwise they join Group C)
Michigan State (would be foolish to expect another 18-15, 9-9 campaign)
Ohio State (Sullinger sticking to his word so far)
Wisconsin (until proven otherwise, the Badgers should always be picked in the top half)

Group B
The ones we'll finish ahead of:
Penn State (DeChellis has his hands full; is there another Talor Battle in the incoming class?)

Until I see (A) Big Ten caliber guard play & (B) Rodney Williams become a night-in, night-out factor, I'd guess the Gophers will be anywhere from 5-11 with:
Group C
Illinois (losing Richmond is a blow)
Indiana (is this the year the pacing/clapping maniac makes Hoosiers relevant?)
Iowa (I like what McCaffery did in his first season)
Nebraska (total wildcard coming off a decent season)
Northwestern (can they replace Juice because everyone else is back)
Purdue (if Hummel's 100% healthy by January, I'd bet against Boilers finishiing in bottom half)
 

It is really hard to tell. I mean, if Andre Hollins can handle the ball, Trevor comes and and, like so many are waiting for, Ralph and Rodney step up, we could be really really good. I also think a lot of people aren't giving Joe Coleman enough pub on here. I don't know if it is because his brother wasn't the best, good, but maybe more soft than Ralph? I think he will be a really really nice player for us right out of the gate.

Bored and want to check out a podcast to kill some time?

http://sportstearsinourbeers.blogspot.com/

http://mnsportssidefx.blogspot.com/
 

We will be better, both incoming guards will handle the ball better than Blake. Hopefully Oto is as good a shooter as he is reputed to be to keep teams honest. Elliason could be a big help if Trevor stays and can still police the boards, gives EE another year to get stronger and still play.
I hope being past all of the off court drama finally happens. Say what you want, but that has detracted a lot from the teams concentration and the fans enjoyment. Most of us hate that crap, and the Devoe J stuff was the worst to me.
Given the backcourt situation, the actual play was not horrible, we were in most games. It certainly was disappointing versus what our expectations should be, but without guards you are screwed in college ball. Blake, was injured, played out of position, was exhausted and there was no one to help him, we just ran out of guards who could play B10 ball. Blake would do better at small forward than point guard, he is pretty tough physically, he just is not quick.
I am not counting on Rodney, until he learns to move without the ball, develops a jump shot, and gets to be consistent on D, he should not be a starter on a BigTen team. He made the lack of a point guard a LOT worse when he was on the floor.
 

Near the bottom of the Big Ten until we prove otherwise.
 

Well let's see, you kinda gotta think of this is pieces. Before the Al Nolen injury, we were 15-4, 4-3 in the BT. We weren't a dominant team by any means, but we were good IMO. A top 25 squad probably, maybe top 30, ignoring what our actual ranking was. When Al went down, things got all mixed up, and we only had 8 scholarship players playing. We went 2-10 to finish out. That looks really bad. But closer inspection sees this troubling set of games:

L @ IU 60-57, L @ PSU 66-63, L v MSU 53-48, L v PSU 66-63 (Less than 5 pts). Then you also have L v ILL 71-62 (Tied w/7min left), L v Michigan 70-63 (Led w/2min left), L @ NU 68-57 (10pt 2nd half lead, tied w/6min left). That's 7 games that were easily there for the taking and they lost all 7. Even a 3-4 record in those would have netted a 20 win season still, and a 9-9 BT record, not great, but doesn't look nearly as abominable as losing 10 of your last 11. As I've said numerous times, lack of depth in general and a complete lack of strong guard play plagued us, but we were still right in position to take a bunch more wins than we did.

Fast forward to this year. We're bringing in 4 new guys, 3 of them guards/wings who should help that position at least even a little bit. Plus, you have the addition of Oto and Eliason from redshirt years. That's 6 new guys, and then 7 if you wanna throw in Big Mo, who also missed the entire BT season. That is the depth we had NONE of this past season. Two major problems from last season's slide should be "fixed", as in much improved IMO. That said, a lot of new pieces to implement.

If I were to guess, I'd put the Gophers in that lower-mid BT spot, about 8th, and in the 50s nationally, to start the year, with potential to jump as high as 4 or so if things work out. This team isn't remotely void of talent, but it is imperative for either Welch or Hollins to be the ballhandler we lacked during that slide. If they can do that, this team has mad potential, cause down low, with Trevor back, we could be tough.
 

Go Gophs eh? said:
IM not putting indiana in front of us. I refuse. Why are they going to be so much better than last year? and dont say Cody Zeller. Kid weighs less than ralph sampson, and is softer. He wont have any sort of game changing impact despite being a MC AA
Click to expand...

The reason I think Indiana will be better is because they will have experienced guards that are decent, it makes a difference. I think Zeller will give them a scoring threat inside that they haven't had, he's not going to overpower anybody, and will not be the main scorer but he will help.
 


PG or lead guard is the most important position in college basketball so this scares me. Also we had no one who can shoot but the Hoff and he is gone and the newcomers havent played a minute against big ten teams. We have to become a crazy full court pressing team to overcome this as we will probably be a bit brutal in the half court. Get ready to face lots of zone. On the flip side when nolen went down, chip and occassionally Rodney were the only ones to take it to the rim. Next year we have those two plus Hollins and Coleman. Not sure on Welch yet.
 

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