With non-conference season behind us, the Gophers are?…

With non-conference season behind us, the Gophers are?…

  • Better than you expected

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • About what you expected

    Votes: 11 13.1%

  • Worse than you expected

    Votes: 73 86.9%
  • Total voters
    84
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really hoped that some of the new players would contribute more - but it shows that there is still a pretty big jump up from mid-majors to major conference play.

maybe Cochran can make a difference IF he returns soon. I'm not saying he would turn the team into a powerhouse, but having one more contributor couldn't hurt.
 




I mean, if we can hit 3s like we did, we'll be better than what we've shown. But we did that against a team picked to finish 4th in the MEAC soooo take that for what it is. Mitchell seems to have found his groove though so he'll help us win a few games.
 


short ornery norwegian said:
really hoped that some of the new players would contribute more - but it shows that there is still a pretty big jump up from mid-majors to major conference play.

maybe Cochran can make a difference IF he returns soon. I'm not saying he would turn the team into a powerhouse, but having one more contributor couldn't hurt.
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Cochran could vault them from 2-18 to 4-16. It could be amazing.
 

My pre-season take:
"Outside of Garcia, MM and Fox we don't know what to expect. BJ didn't bring in any dynamic sure thing type of players rather a bunch of experienced, game tested guys who should be able to contribute. Team D, depth, boards and ball movement should be better, but who is capable of having an occasional 15-20 point night? if Garcia averages, 18-20ppg, MM 12-14 and Fox 8 the rest need to muster 35ppg a game. I understand the low rating. But this bunch could surprise if most of them can adjust to the BIG and if Asuma is able to contribute."
 



Didn't have really high hopes after last year's roster blew up, but hoped that a roster with this level of experience would come together and look a little better than they have to this point.

It was a longshot that this year's team was going to be good enough to save Johnson's job and unfortunately it appears that the only option will be to start over again next season with a new coach and essentially a brand new roster.
 






MNVCGUY said:
Didn't have really high hopes after last year's roster blew up, but hoped that a roster with this level of experience would come together and look a little better than they have to this point.

It was a longshot that this year's team was going to be good enough to save Johnson's job and unfortunately it appears that the only option will be to start over again next season with a new coach and essentially a brand new roster.
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Dude. You were leading the "Johnson DESERVES another year" crowd all year long.
Don't back down now.
 

USAF said:
Dude. You were leading the "Johnson DESERVES another year" crowd all year long.
Don't back down now.
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Do you have multiple people posting under your user name? How is it that you can make quality contributions on the football board yet be a complete ahole on the basketball one?

I have been very clear in my take on Johnson, if you can't comprehend it that is on you. But hey, I'm a glutton for punishment so I will try one more time to explain it to you and maybe this time it will finally get through.....one can hope at least.

Johnson "deserved" another season with the team he had at the end of last season. Have commented many times that Coyle would have been totally justified in firing Johnson when the roster fell apart....he didn't so here we are. I fully expect Johnson to get fired at the end of the season based on how things have gone so far this season and where they seem to be headed. And when that happens there won't be anyone complaining about it or saying it was the wrong decision because the Ben Johnson fan club that you and some other posters have dreamed up doesn't exist.
 

howeda7 said:
Awful. The only thing to look forward to for the rest of the season is the day Ben Johnson is mercifully fired.
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Mike Mitchell Jr. as by-far our weakest starter could have been a great team this year.

Coach Johnson gave it a good try. I don't know what else a coach here could have done.
 

MNVCGUY said:
Johnson "deserved" another season with the team he had at the end of last season. Have commented many times that Coyle would have been totally justified in firing Johnson when the roster fell apart....he didn't so here we are. I fully expect Johnson to get fired at the end of the season based on how things have gone so far this season and where they seem to be headed. And when that happens there won't be anyone complaining about it or saying it was the wrong decision because the Ben Johnson fan club that you and some other posters have dreamed up doesn't exist.
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Whatever happened there...
 



....in for one of the least fun conference seasons of all time. With a team that is full of players who just got here and the fans have no investment in and a coach who is 99.99999% getting fired.


It's one thing to be bad, it's another to be totally and completely irrelevant, which is where we are. I can't imagine there has EVER in the history of the program been less excitement for the team. Maybe we had a coach or a few freshman or something we could hang on to. This team has nothing. It's the absolute worst. Hopefully Coyle or whoever is making the calls sees you simply can't hire someone with Ben's coaching profile ever again
 

leib0039 said:
....in for one of the least fun conference seasons of all time. With a team that is full of players who just got here and the fans have no investment in and a coach who is 99.99999% getting fired.


It's one thing to be bad, it's another to be totally and completely irrelevant, which is where we are. I can't imagine there has EVER in the history of the program been less excitement for the team. Maybe we had a coach or a few freshman or something we could hang on to. This team has nothing. It's the absolute worst. Hopefully Coyle or whoever is making the calls sees you simply can't hire someone with Ben's coaching profile ever again
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Old and bad. That's what this team is.
 


leib0039 said:
....in for one of the least fun conference seasons of all time. With a team that is full of players who just got here and the fans have no investment in and a coach who is 99.99999% getting fired.


It's one thing to be bad, it's another to be totally and completely irrelevant, which is where we are. I can't imagine there has EVER in the history of the program been less excitement for the team. Maybe we had a coach or a few freshman or something we could hang on to. This team has nothing. It's the absolute worst. Hopefully Coyle or whoever is making the calls sees you simply can't hire someone with Ben's coaching profile ever again
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Not sure how old you're but shit got really bad Monson last year. But this season is definitely right up there. At least in Pitino third year you could hang your hat on what was coming and the three best players being freshmen and a sophomore. We have nine seniors and we're looking at five or six wins being the best case scenario. Will Wade is the way.
 

Strongazzoffer said:
Not sure how old you're but shit got really bad Monson last year. But this season is definitely right up there. At least in Pitino third year you could hang your hat on what was coming and the three best players being freshmen and a sophomore. We have nine seniors and we're looking at five or six wins being the best case scenario. Will Wade is the way.
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Been around a long time. This is the low point. Period.
 

Strongazzoffer said:
Not sure how old you're but shit got really bad Monson last year. But this season is definitely right up there. At least in Pitino third year you could hang your hat on what was coming and the three best players being freshmen and a sophomore. We have nine seniors and we're looking at five or six wins being the best case scenario. Will Wade is the way.
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This is orders of magnitude worse than the Monson regime.

For one thing, this has gone on 2 years past the point when Johnson should have been canned.
 

As for the OP, we are worse than I thought we would be. Generally as a rule of thump it's my opinion that you need nine guys you can play and seven that you can trust. The gophs have about 10 guys you can play but the problem guys 3-10 are bench role types. Mike Mitchell would be a nice fourth or fifth option on a good team. Garcia a dawg but he's not a guard so someone has to get him the ball.

Overall, I think Mike Mitchell stays healthy we're still not very good we can avoid being historically bad. I would say MM, Garcia and Fox they are what they are. Asuama is a better defender as a freshman than I thought he would be, thought he would bring a little more this year on offense, but he has a high IQ for the game and will be very good down the line.

Lu'Cye Patterson, I thought as a second team all AAC guy his pedigree was better then any transfer guard coming in outside of Peyton Willis, his stroke has just not been there this season and we really need led him to be a top contributor and he just isn't.

Femi: Honestly he's about what I thought he would be, good defender, a hot mess on offense. Thought his shooting percentages would be better.

Rigsby: I thought would be a solid fourth or to with starter/ six man, like he was at Oregon. I can see why they let him walk out the door. Outside of the Yale game where he did a really good job on John Poulakdidas (Former Pitino Recruit) his defense has not been there and his three points shooting has taken a nose dive

Frank Mitchell: Has not been nearly what we needed him to be. At Canisus he liked like someone who would grad boards and run the floor. He has beaten up on some of garbage teams like Morgan State but really didn't give much against better opponents.

Edmonds: He's actually been better especially on offense then I thought he would be.

Williams: Tough to say as he had mono and the road back from that can kick your ass almost hard as the sickness itself. Will see if he can carve out a role for himself, his defense will probably be brutal but if he can make shots this team is desperately in need of another guy who can spread the floor.

Betts: As someone who saw Betts tear up D1 MN with his Pluto AAU team I've been driving the Betts bandwagon. Unfortunately it just hasn't clicked for him. I would like to see him get some minutes that matter as I think he has been fine in the garbage time that he's played. Unfortunately for him maybe it just comes down to he's not a three year a four and we can't really afford have Dawson on the bench.

I'm not as down on this group as most with that said it don't think we have enough top end talent to make any real noise. This is probably at best a 5-6 win team in conference will that be enough to earn a 15 seed for weakling Wednesday. Probably not, probably need seven wins to or that and I just don't know where those wins will come from right now. Right now the only team we have beaten with any sort of pulse is Yale. Ben is a nice guy but he's clearly not it as a head man and I think this was a pretty inevitable outcome once he lost Hawk, Payne, Christie etc.
 

MNVCGUY said:
Do you have multiple people posting under your user name? How is it that you can make quality contributions on the football board yet be a complete ahole on the basketball one?

I have been very clear in my take on Johnson, if you can't comprehend it that is on you. But hey, I'm a glutton for punishment so I will try one more time to explain it to you and maybe this time it will finally get through.....one can hope at least.

Johnson "deserved" another season with the team he had at the end of last season. Have commented many times that Coyle would have been totally justified in firing Johnson when the roster fell apart....he didn't so here we are. I fully expect Johnson to get fired at the end of the season based on how things have gone so far this season and where they seem to be headed. And when that happens there won't be anyone complaining about it or saying it was the wrong decision because the Ben Johnson fan club that you and some other posters have dreamed up doesn't exist.
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Johnson is the same coach today as he was last season.
He no more "deserved" another year then as now.
He should have been gone 2 years ago and giving him last season, much less ANOTHER year this year, was and is an entirely predictable trip farther into the hole dug with his hire.

And I LIKED the hire. But it was quickly obvious he's not equipped for this job. In ANY way. Coaching, recruiting, hiring, fund raising, enthusiasm generating, program building. Anything.
He's awful.

Hell, attendance is so bad the program might be LOSING money, FFS.

And he was awful last year as well. He's been awful since day one. He's never NOT going to be awful.

Pretending that's not the case is idiotic, and part of the problem.
 


short ornery norwegian said:
really hoped that some of the new players would contribute more - but it shows that there is still a pretty big jump up from mid-majors to major conference play.
Click to expand...

Well, there was reason to believe that the new transfers might be able to make the jump given that Mitchell, Hawkins, and Fox were able to do it last season. Certainly other mid-major transfers to Big Ten teams (for example: Jalen Pickett, Jahmir Young, Cam Spencer, Marcus Domask, Tyson Walker, Ace Baldwin, and Reink Mast) were able to make the jump just fine.
 

USAF said:
Johnson is the same coach today as he was last season.
He no more "deserved" another year then as now.
He should have been gone 2 years ago and giving him last season, much less ANOTHER year this year, was and is an entirely predictable trip farther into the hole dug with his hire.

And I LIKED the hire. But it was quickly obvious he's not equipped for this job. In ANY way. Coaching, recruiting, hiring, fund raising, enthusiasm generating, program building. Anything.
He's awful.

Hell, attendance is so bad the program might be LOSING money, FFS.

And he was awful last year as well. He's been awful since day one. He's never NOT going to be awful.

Pretending that's not the case is idiotic, and part of the problem.
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First two years were brutal but last year was not. That team went 9-11 in conference play and had a roster full of guys who could have returned for this season. There was absolutely something there to build on. Giving Johnson another year with that team to see if they could take the next step made sense.

Coyle absolutely could have made a move when the players left but he chose not to. He could chose to make the move in season but he doesn't seem inclined to go that route either. Will be shocking if a move isn't made after the season.
 

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