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SelectionSunday

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Gopher FB underachieving (so far). Maybe Gopher BB overachieves this winter?
 

Who the **** knows at the point. The only thing we know is that this season is a total unknown. For all we know, we could win he Big Ten championshio, ya know?
 

The volleyball team had a big win over Illinois tonight.
 

When is the last time we had a team that truly overachieved? The NIT title under Pitino was nice and a fun way to end the season and gave us hope heading into last year, but we can't count that as a big over achievement. Was it Tubby's first NCAA Tourney team here? Or more likely the last team to really overachieve was the ARob/Lawson/Grier/Hagen/Stamper team that beat UW and made it the NCAA Tournament.

It sure would be nice to have a team really overachieve for once. It seems so rare around these parts.

Go Gophers!!
 

BleedGopher said:
When is the last time we had a team that truly overachieved? The NIT title under Pitino was nice and a fun way to end the season and gave us hope heading into last year, but we can't count that as a big over achievement. Was it Tubby's first NCAA Tourney team here? Or more likely the last team to really overachieve was the ARob/Lawson/Grier/Hagen/Stamper team that beat UW and made it the NCAA Tournament.

It sure would be nice to have a team really overachieve for once. It seems so rare around these parts.

Go Gophers!!
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I'd go with the Grier/ARob/Hagen/Stamper/Lawson group as the last meaningful overachievers. Pitino's first group overachieved (and honestly were pretty unlucky with the Hollins injury and some end of game officiating), but they ended up without a winning B1G record or an NCAA tournament berth. We've seen a lot of teams underachieve (many of the Monson years including Grier's Senior season and the second half of Tubby's tenure), but overachieving has been rare post Clem.

I guess it's true that you never know, but I have a hard time seeing this team being the one to change Gopher fans fortunes. The biggest obstacle in my eyes is that just to be competitive, the Gophers need Bakary Konate to make a massive leap forward. If that happens, we would then still need another scorer to emerge as well as a rebounder who can anchor inside for 10-15 minutes a game when Bakary sits. If all of that happens, then we still need the team defense to improve over last year.
 


BleedGopher said:
When is the last time we had a team that truly overachieved? The NIT title under Pitino was nice and a fun way to end the season and gave us hope heading into last year, but we can't count that as a big over achievement. Was it Tubby's first NCAA Tourney team here? Or more likely the last team to really overachieve was the ARob/Lawson/Grier/Hagen/Stamper team that beat UW and made it the NCAA Tournament.

It sure would be nice to have a team really overachieve for once. It seems so rare around these parts.

Go Gophers!!
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I'll qualify that with overachieve and make the NCAA tournament. The sad thing about this year's team is that it could "overachieve" and still not make the real tournament giving us hope for the future but another barren March.

I would agree that the last true overachievers were the ARob/Lawson/Hagen crew. I'm not sure any of Monson's teams ever underachieved, though. I'm not sure there was ever enough talent to be called underachievers.
 

2002-03?

I would respectfully argue that Monson's 2002-03 squad underachieved. Rickert, Bauer, Holman, Hargow, and Burleson was a pretty solid core. They were coming off a 2001-02 season where they just barely missed the NCAA Tournament. And Stanley Gaines had a pretty solid freshman season? It was that season that started me thinking that Monson probably wasn't the guy to get it done here. The first 3 years had been pretty encouraging, despite the lategame meltdown vs. Illinois that cost the Gophers a NCAA bid.
 

Holy Man said:
The sad thing about this year's team is that it could "overachieve" and still not make the real tournament giving us hope for the future but another barren March.
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I would argue that given expectations, this team would overachieve somewhat if it went 16-14 (I think they play only 30 regular season games this year). People should be pretty happy if this team ends up 18-12 (or 18/19-13 after the Big Ten tournament) and makes the NIT. I wouldn't call that a barren March.
 

SelectionSunday said:
I would respectfully argue that Monson's 2002-03 squad underachieved. Rickert, Bauer, Holman, Hargow, and Burleson was a pretty solid core. They were coming off a 2001-02 season where they just barely missed the NCAA Tournament. And Stanley Gaines had a pretty solid freshman season? It was that season that started me thinking that Monson probably wasn't the guy to get it done here. The first 3 years had been pretty encouraging, despite the lategame meltdown vs. Illinois that cost the Gophers a NCAA bid.
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Good point. Was that the year Bauer went down with the nasty ankle injury after they started 15-3 or something? True, with Rickert they should have made at least an appearance in the tournament and that is underachieving.

BTW, all your arguments are respectful.
 



T
Holy Man said:
Good point. Was that the year Bauer went down with the nasty ankle injury after they started 15-3 or something? True, with Rickert they should have made at least an appearance in the tournament and that is underachieving.

BTW, all your arguments are respectful.
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Yep, it's the 2000-01 season you're thinking of. The gophers were overachieving and rolling that year, including a win over Wisconsin (coming off its Final 4), but then Bauer and Bickerstaff went down within a week or 2 of one another. That team certainly was looking like it had a chance to make NCAA before those season-ending injuries.
 

If they wouldn't have blown leads of 9 or more with under 6 minutes to play in the below games the 2001-2002 team would have won the big ten. Again, all of these were at least 9 point leads with under 6 minutes (or even less) to play in each game. As they finished the season 2 games out of the top spot, that team literally choked away a BT Title.

@ Michigan
@ Northwestern
Wisconsin
Illinois (up 4 with 20 sec left and had the ball)
 

I think this year's team could overachieve. Remember last year they lost a ton of games by single digits. They also blew a lot of leads last year. If they can correct just a few things and have a few guys step up who knows.

I'm expecting them to finish in the bottom half of the big ten, but i'm excited for basketball to start!
 

That is very true. Haven't had many players make huge jumps and lead us to an unexpectedly good season.

BleedGopher said:
When is the last time we had a team that truly overachieved? The NIT title under Pitino was nice and a fun way to end the season and gave us hope heading into last year, but we can't count that as a big over achievement. Was it Tubby's first NCAA Tourney team here? Or more likely the last team to really overachieve was the ARob/Lawson/Grier/Hagen/Stamper team that beat UW and made it the NCAA Tournament.

It sure would be nice to have a team really overachieve for once. It seems so rare around these parts.

Go Gophers!!
Click to expand...
 



We may surprise but I'm really worried about having enough guards. The Jarvis situation killed our depth.
 

Blackhammer said:
We may surprise but I'm really worried about having enough guards. The Jarvis situation killed our depth.
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It did, but if he plays a three forward lineup most of the time four guards should be sufficient (barring injuries). For the most part, Iowa had only four last year and one of those was a really ineffective Oglesby. They had a fifth guard but he played little before transferring.
I suppose if Pitino needed a fifth guard for limited spot duty, he could insert Gilbert.
 

Can't lose a point guard. For a coach that preaches having multiple ball handlers on the floor at one time, without knowing much about Dupree's ball handling, we've got 2 guys I would trust with the rock on the roster at the moment.
 


cjbfbp said:
It did, but if he plays a three forward lineup most of the time four guards should be sufficient (barring injuries). For the most part, Iowa had only four last year and one of those was a really ineffective Oglesby. They had a fifth guard but he played little before transferring.
I suppose if Pitino needed a fifth guard for limited spot duty, he could insert Gilbert.
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no
 


cjbfbp said:
It did, but if he plays a three forward lineup most of the time four guards should be sufficient (barring injuries). For the most part, Iowa had only four last year and one of those was a really ineffective Oglesby. They had a fifth guard but he played little before transferring.
I suppose if Pitino needed a fifth guard for limited spot duty, he could insert Gilbert.
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I still think despite what Pitino says we will run a lot of three guard offense unless Murphy can be an effective three. I see no one else who may brings enough versatility to play there among our bigger players. I don't know if Murphy can but I know what Buggs and King bring to the table.
 

5 guards, including one who doesn't sound ready (Gilbert). 4 capable players for two positions isn't that scary. We would only be screwed if Mason and Dorsey were hurt. Would certainly be nice to have Jarvis but not having him doesn't make me worry about our guards much (I'm most excited for our guard play this year).

Blackhammer said:
We may surprise but I'm really worried about having enough guards. The Jarvis situation killed our depth.
Click to expand...
 

underground629 said:
5 guards, including one who doesn't sound ready (Gilbert). 4 capable players for two positions isn't that scary. We would only be screwed if Mason and Dorsey were hurt. Would certainly be nice to have Jarvis but not having him doesn't make me worry about our guards much (I'm most excited for our guard play this year).
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Closer to four players for three spots. imo Unless one of our forwards can handle the ball we are thin. You need three ball handlers and even as important guys quick enough to guard the three.
 

Sharp

I never expect walk-ons to amount to anything -- the Dusty Rycharts of the world are the exception & not the rule -- but is the Sharp kid more of a PG or a 2G? Any chance he'd be a serviceable player in a pinch (few minutes here & there)?
 



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