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Pre-season evidence is largely in the books. Just went through the schedule; can the Gophers protect serve and workout a 10-8 record, plucking a couple of road wins in either NE, PSU or IA? Let's start to prognosticate.
 

Without a thorough examination of the schedule, I would think 8-10 would be a decent guess. I don't think that's too bad considering all the injuries this team has sustained thus far. They have been playing very well and are really fun to watch!
 


notagopherfan said:
10-8 with 2 wins in the big 10 tourney and #6 seed in the ncaa tourney
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If this gopher team earns a number six seed in NCAA tournament Tubby Smith should be coach of the year in the nation.

I think these guys are a delight to watch and have shown great energy, but I also see serious flaws. What about this team do you think will earn them 12 wins against big ten teams?
 

BigGopherFan said:
If this gopher team earns a number six seed in NCAA tournament Tubby Smith should be coach of the year in the nation.

I think these guys are a delight to watch and have shown great energy, but I also see serious flaws. What about this team do you think will earn them 12 wins against big ten teams?
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They can run, most B1G teams can't.
 


8-10 would be my guess. Hoping for a .500 record or better.
 

BigGopherFan said:
What about this team do you think will earn them 12 wins against big ten teams?
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Because the Big Ten isn't all that deep this year. After OSU (and maybe Indiana and MSU), it's all teams that have some pretty serious flaws. I don't think it's out of the question that the Gophers emerge towards the top of this group of teams and finish 4th in the conference, gathering 10-11 regular season wins and 1-2 Big Ten Tournament wins.
 

zambam said:
They can run, most B1G teams can't.
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I hear ya. But I looked at the schedule and "gave" Minnesota wins v Iowa, v Purdue, at psu, v northwestern, at Iowa and v Nebraska. Ten wins would require victories at Nebraska, at northwestern, v Illinois and v michigan state AND no upsets what-so-ever. It's certainly possible but there is zero room for error.
 

7-11

Three more losses than if TM had played.
 





3 years in a row I have had very high expectations and then something each year that changed it all (including this year with Trevor). That being said I think that they will struggle early on in the Big. If they can stay healthy, which so far this year they have not demonstrated, I think they can win 9, do a little damage in the Big Ten tournament and win one or two games in the NCAA's.
 

Simply because most everyone sees this team slipping up I am going to put them at 11-7. 11-7 is realistic even if it is unlikely. They play most of the toughest teams at home, and they get the "bottom feeders" 7 times.

Someone above posted that the B1G isn't deep this year... Indiana (the team that was/is supposed to finish 8th or 9th in the B1G) just beat Kentucky... they were/are ranked #1. Are you kidding me? MSU, MU, ILL, OSU, IND, WIS, PUR, NW, MIN... those are all teams that can hang.. this conference has major depth and will likely see 8 teams go to the NCAA tournament.

Why not go for 11-7, they'll have their chance to gain confidence early on in the season. A win at ILL or MU would be a huge spark plug for the rest of the season.

GopherHoopsFan
 



This team is playing as well if not better since Mbakwe went down. So I still have them going 9-9 as I did before :crosses fingers:
 


5 conference wins is the most likely scenario!

They still need a leader before I can go any higher.
 

11-7. Rodney will carry this team and they will play like a team. Sweet 16 bound. Finally.
 

Realistically

Looking through my optimistic homer glasses, I say that we could go 9-9 and make the tourney as a 12ish seed. But realistically, we're not going to even sweep Iowa, Nebraska and Penn State. Is it possible that we pull out one against Purdue, MSU, OSU or Illinois at home? Yes, but likely, no. Since the best possible outcome for Minnesota sports rarely happens, I'd say 8-10 and an NIT bid is probable at this point. We must win the rest of our nonconference games.
If we win the Michigan game or the Illinois game so we start 2-1 I'll have hope.
 

I think will win at home against Iowa, Purdue, Illinois, Nebraska, Wisconsin, Indiana, NorthWestern and on the road vs Iowa, Penn State and Nebraska. So ten wins, I think will split with wiscky and Indiana, I think IU beating UK is like when we beat Louisville, take it with a grain of salt, we could win 11, but we seem to struggle at Northwestern
 

If i had to guess, I would go 8-10 because the Gophers have disappointed in Big 10 play recently. I think anything worse than 9-9 would be quite a disappointment given the schedule. I do find the discussion of "realistic" to be interesting because is always seems to be more pessimistic than realistic. For example, if we "realistically" can't expect the Gophers to beat Iowa, Nebraska, and Penn State every time we play them this year, then we should also "realistically" not expect the Gophers to lose all the road games against teams like Michigan and Illinois.
 

Optimist

Well, I was positive the football team would win 6 games and be bowl eligible. I'm hopeful the mens basketball team wins 5 Big Ten games.
 

I'm always an optimist about the maroon and gold basketball team. My friends still raz me because with 6 games remaining last season I still had our squad finishing 4th. This is how I see it after years of getting the optimism brutally beaten out of me.
1. Ohio State
2. Wisconsin
3. Michigan
4. Indiana
5. Michigan State
6. Purdue
7. Minnesota (10 seed in the NCAA tourney)
8. Illinois
9. Northwestern
10. Iowa
11. Nebraska
12. Penn State
 

GopherHoopsFan said:
Someone above posted that the B1G isn't deep this year... Indiana (the team that was/is supposed to finish 8th or 9th in the B1G) just beat Kentucky... they were/are ranked #1. Are you kidding me? MSU, MU, ILL, OSU, IND, WIS, PUR, NW, MIN... those are all teams that can hang.. this conference has major depth and will likely see 8 teams go to the NCAA tournament.
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I posted that, and, I agree, saying the B1G isn't deep was the wrong turn of phrase. My point was, outside of a couple teams--notably OSU--there are a bunch of teams like the Gophers. Good teams that have some problems. There's a lot of solid teams, but only a couple elite teams.

The general consensus of the board is that the Gophers are at the bottom of this second tier. I'm not sure why most people don't think we can hang with PUR, WI, Ill, Michigan, and the like. (Wait, I do know why. We played poorly against Dayton and have periods of sloppy play in games we end up winning handily, and fans have chosen to focus on the negatives, rather than the positives.) I think we can, and I think we will place ahead of a few of those teams. I see 10 wins on this schedule, and I don't think I'm being blindly optimistic.
 

SonOfTheVarsity said:
I posted that, and, I agree, saying the B1G isn't deep was the wrong turn of phrase. My point was, outside of a couple teams--notably OSU--there are a bunch of teams like the Gophers. Good teams that have some problems. There's a lot of solid teams, but only a couple elite teams.

The general consensus of the board is that the Gophers are at the bottom of this second tier. I'm not sure why most people don't think we can hang with PUR, WI, Ill, Michigan, and the like. (Wait, I do know why. We played poorly against Dayton and have periods of sloppy play in games we end up winning handily, and fans have chosen to focus on the negatives, rather than the positives.) I think we can, and I think we will place ahead of a few of those teams. I see 10 wins on this schedule, and I don't think I'm being blindly optimistic.
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I will be blindly pessismistic and say 6-12.
 

I'm seeing about 7-11, with a ceiling of 10-8. Split the Illinois/Michigan duet to open the season and I'll raise the ceiling to 11-7.
 

I'll be optimistic and say 6-12. But it could be worse than that. I'd say their ceiling is 7 wins, not counting the BTT.
 

@Illinois L
@Michigan L
vs. Iowa W
vs. Purdue W
@Indiana L
@Penn State W
vs. Northwestern W
@Michigan State L
vs. Illinois W
@Iowa W
@Nebraska W
vs. Wisconsin L
vs. Ohio State L
@Northwestern W
vs. Michigan State L
vs. Indiana W
@Wisconsin L
vs. Nebraska W

10-8, or 8-8 not counting wins against Iowa.

When I first did this, I had wins against Wisconsin at home, and @Illinois, and us at 12-6, then thought the team probably wouldn't do quite that well this season, so I lowered it to 10-8. I think both of those games are winnable, as are @Indiana, @Michigan, and home vs. Michigan State. Purdue at home and both Illinois games we could definitely lose though.

Also, we can get to 7 wins by beating only Iowa, Penn State, Northwestern, and Nebraska. I know we haven't played too well @Northwestern the last couple seasons, but even so, this 7 win season assumes we don't beat any of Purdue, Illinois, Wisconsin, Michigan State or Indiana at home, so where some of you are getting predictions like "This team will struggle to get to 6 wins," is beyond me.
 

4-14 and here's why:

1)Not enough scoring in the half court offense. Running and gunning might be a bit easier against the St.Peter's of the world...it won't happen in Big Ten play.

2)Horrific Shooting....Playing chuck it up on the glass and crash the boards might work against Depaul and the Indiana State's of the world, but not against legit Big 10 teams.

3)FT shooting....I see no evidence Tubby has attacked this issue and it WILL cost the Gophers 3 or 4 close games.

4)Inexperience in back court...I have been impressed at times by all the newcomers and even Ahanmisi has shown improvement...but when crunch time comes, who can we really count on?

5)Sampson hasn't improved since Sophomore year...I remember that Purdue game at Williams Arena when he looked like a very promising player...but that was essentially his high water mark and he hasn't improved at all since...Same lousy moves down low and same soft, lethargic player with average hands.

6)Big Ten Strength...In the best case scenario, only Nebraska, Penn State and Iowa offer the Gophers a chance at avoiding the bottom 3 in the league.

Best Case Scenario: 6-12
Worst Case Scenario: 2-16

Probable: 4-14 CONF 17-16 overall with 1 win in the Big Ten Tourney. NIT Bubble here we come!
 

Moses87 said:
4-14 and here's why:

1)Not enough scoring in the half court offense. Running and gunning might be a bit easier against the St.Peter's of the world...it won't happen in Big Ten play.

2)Horrific Shooting....Playing chuck it up on the glass and crash the boards might work against Depaul and the Indiana State's of the world, but not against legit Big 10 teams.

3)FT shooting....I see no evidence Tubby has attacked this issue and it WILL cost the Gophers 3 or 4 close games.

4)Inexperience in back court...I have been impressed at times by all the newcomers and even Ahanmisi has shown improvement...but when crunch time comes, who can we really count on?

5)Sampson hasn't improved since Sophomore year...I remember that Purdue game at Williams Arena when he looked like a very promising player...but that was essentially his high water mark and he hasn't improved at all since...Same lousy moves down low and same soft, lethargic player with average hands.

6)Big Ten Strength...In the best case scenario, only Nebraska, Penn State and Iowa offer the Gophers a chance at avoiding the bottom 3 in the league.

Best Case Scenario: 6-12
Worst Case Scenario: 2-16

Probable: 4-14 CONF 17-16 overall with 1 win in the Big Ten Tourney. NIT Bubble here we come!
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You're wrong on 5 out of 6 points.. here's why..

Gophers average 71 points a game.. you're not scoring a ton of points off of turnovers
Gophers are 21st in the country in fg% at 49%

FT shooting is at 69.6% as a team. Not bad. Rodney Williams is a bad free throw shooter but every one that will be taking free throws is pretty good.. go look at the stats.

Welch is not inexperienced.. he's a junior. Austin is a sophomore, so are mav and chip. The latter 3 played a lot of minutes in big 10 games last year. Seems like Welch is a guy you can count on already. Andre is the only inexperienced one playing a lot of minutes.

Sampson hasn't played that much this year so it's hard to say he didn't improve but 15 and 8 isn't a bad first game back.

Big 10 isn't loaded with Elite teams, though it is a good conference. But gophers have 7 games that should be locks. I think a win over wisconsin, purdue, msu, illinois is possible at home.
 

notagopherfan said:
You're wrong on 5 out of 6 points.. here's why..

Gophers average 71 points a game.. you're not scoring a ton of points off of turnovers
Gophers are 21st in the country in fg% at 49%

FT shooting is at 69.6% as a team. Not bad. Rodney Williams is a bad free throw shooter but every one that will be taking free throws is pretty good.. go look at the stats.

Welch is not inexperienced.. he's a junior. Austin is a sophomore, so are mav and chip. The latter 3 played a lot of minutes in big 10 games last year. Seems like Welch is a guy you can count on already. Andre is the only inexperienced one playing a lot of minutes.

Sampson hasn't played that much this year so it's hard to say he didn't improve but 15 and 8 isn't a bad first game back.

Big 10 isn't loaded with Elite teams, though it is a good conference. But gophers have 7 games that should be locks. I think a win over wisconsin, purdue, msu, illinois is possible at home.
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I don't think I could disagree any more wholeheartedly with your statement about seven games being a lock. Profoundly bold and bizarre comment to make. Minnesota has ZERO locks on the schedule. Outside of Ohio State with Sullinger, no team in the entire conference has more than six "locks." How can you make a statement like that? The Gophers have the ability to beat almost every team in the league, but also have the (in)ability to lose to EVERY team. I would not be stunned if they lost at home to Nebraska just as I would not be stunned to see them beat Purdue on the road. Again, there are ZERO locks on the schedule.
 

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