Who will be the star for the gophs next year?

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PeterMac05

PeterMac05

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Every team in college basketball has at least one guy that is above the rest, recently we’ve been lucky to have guys like this every year (Coffey, Oturu, Carr), but who will it be this year? Isaiah Ihnen. The potential has been there for so long, and this year he will break through and potentially... become an all big ten player. He can shoot very well, very good at rebounding, and has so much length that it’ll be hard for anyone to stop in the paint. If he hits his stride, he will be a great player for us this year.
 

PeterMac05 said:
Every team in college basketball has at least one guy that is above the rest, recently we’ve been lucky to have guys like this every year (Coffey, Oturu, Carr), but who will it be this year? Isaiah Ihnen. The potential has been there for so long, and this year he will break through and potentially... become an all big ten player. He can shoot very well, very good at rebounding, and has so much length that it’ll be hard for anyone to stop in the paint. If he hits his stride, he will be a great player for us this year.
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I don't think there will be an Oturu, Carr, or Jordan Murphy impact type player on this team. What we have to hope for is that this team has fewer unproductive and/or inefficient players than some of Pitino's teams.

As far as Ihnen, I like him a lot but I don't agree that he shoots "very well." He stunk as a three point shooter last year so I hope he takes far fewer of those in this year's offense. He is much better on 2s and is a good free throw shooter so I hope he is played to maximize those types of shots. He does have very good length (a long wingspan I would guess), quick reflexes, and he was the second best rebounder among the rotational players on a per minute basis (9..9 per 40 minutes) last year. He also shows a willingness to pass out of the post area so I don't think he'll be a black hole when he's in there. He is also a pretty fair defender. I suspect Ihnen will have his best season this year but I don't know that I'd predict a breakout year for him.

I have a feeling that the surprise player may be Abdoulaye Thiam. No real reason for that feeling; just a wild hunch.
 



No stars on this team. It will have to be a team effort night in night out. Every player on this squad is easily stopped by an opposing coach, so I have to believe there will be 6-7 guys that take turns being the best player on a given night. That's okay.
 



bga1 said:
No stars on this team. It will have to be a team effort night in night out. Every player on this squad is easily stopped by an opposing coach, so I have to believe there will be 6-7 guys that take turns being the best player on a given night. That's okay.
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Wow. You've pored over hundreds of hours of all these guys' film to know that they will all be "easily stopped" by an opposing coach? Very impressive.

Are you a scout? What areas do you cover?
 

bga1 said:
No stars on this team. It will have to be a team effort night in night out. Every player on this squad is easily stopped by an opposing coach, so I have to believe there will be 6-7 guys that take turns being the best player on a given night. That's okay.
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Which go to move for each player is easily stopped?
 





WriterGoph said:
Wow. You've pored over hundreds of hours of all these guys' film to know that they will all be "easily stopped" by an opposing coach? Very impressive.

Are you a scout? What areas do you cover?
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That's my opinion- there won't be any stars. This is a board for speculation about Gopher basketball correct? Over the years I have been one of the most optimistic fans on here and I usually overestimate with my predictions. This is the first year in a long, long time where I cannot see us being anything other than bad. So, considering my past predictions, maybe we will be terrific!
 





bga1 said:
Carr was stopped by opposing coaches- or made inefficient once they figured out what to do. Do you think we have someone at that level?
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Carr didn't know how to set teammates up and felt like he needed to score 40 to win every night. That led to a lot of his struggles not necessarily opposing coaches elite game planning.
 

If you value a players previous performance on the court in the past, I doubt you have a realistic consistent star on the present team....The roster is void of any player ranked higher than a 2 or 3 star recruit by mainstream scouting publication. Possibly one of these players will emerge and was undervalued by the elite basketball colleges and their recruitment interest...
 

bga1 said:
Carr was stopped by opposing coaches- or made inefficient once they figured out what to do. Do you think we have someone at that level?
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What level was he? He had no clue how to pass or no interest in passing (take your pick). The assistant coach of an eighth grade traveling basketball team can figure out how to defend that. A player who doesn't pass and can't play defense is a low level player because he doesn't help the team win games.

My guess is that we will have multiple players this coming year who will be better at helping the team win games--and it will still be a lousy team.
 

I could see 5 or 6 different guys who will each be the leading scorer for at least one game.

If I had to guess, I would say Battle is the most likely to be the leading scorer.

But, from what I've read, Johnson wants a team approach - ball movement, sharing the ball, etc. if that proves to be the case, it's possible that you could have a lot of guys average 10-11 pts a game but nobody putting up huge numbers.
 

I think better question is, who will be our leading scorer.

I'll say it will be Battle, seems like the easy pick. Surprise pick....I can't come up with one.
 



SanDiegoGopherFan said:
Yeah, could be. If he bulks up just a tad, maybe like 10 lbs, he could have a breakout season based on minutes alone
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If he could just emerge like he was during the end of his freshman season he could be a star. He showed he can shoot his freshman year when he shot almost 38% from 3 and just under 43% from the field whereas last year he was 22% and 31% respectively. In my opinion his confidence was destroyed by the RP era like several others. He needs to score more in the short range and get back his confidence from 3. At times he has shown he can rebound but last year he suddenly looked lost at times, although not as lost as Gach.
 


This is an interesting thread.

I don’t think the gophers will have a player they rely on night in and night out. But I do think they’ll have a bunch of contributors. Will they contribute enough to win a lot of games? I do not think that will happen. At all. But maybe some dudes catch fire here and there and they surprise us.

But really, I have such low expectations for this team. Hopefully by the time the season starts Johnson has some solid commitments for 22-23.
 



would imagine no stars and no all conference players on this team. as others have said, would imagine it's a share the ball philosophy and different guys scoring each night.
 

Update: welp. Sorry if I may have jinxed anything.
 

Looks like the star may be a manager pressed into uniform, some foreign unknown, or … (who’s left without injury?) Is there an intramural player as good as Dave Winfield around?
 


Full Speed Ahead said:
Time to put your talent to good use. You should head over to Ohio State's Football thread and post that C.J. Stroud is going to win the Heisman this year.

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Any hoopers on the football team? Could help for some of big ten play?
 

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