Cobbs/Joseph/White/Mbakwe/Iverson

andy

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Is it entirely unreasonable to suggest that this would be our starting five this season?

Mbakwe is hurt, understood.

The other four left.

Justin Cobbs is Cal's second-leading scorer and leading assist man, and the Bears are 2nd in their conference at 13-4.

Devoe Joseph is Oregon's leading scorer and second-leading assist man, and the Ducks are 4th in their conference at 11-5.

Royce White is ISU's leading scorer, rebounder, and assist man, and the Clones are 3rd in their conference at 11-5.

Iverson is not playing until next year.

You can only make a meager roster do certain things. The biggest red flag about Tubby's tenure ought to be guys jumping ship. If they were non-factors or had no talent, you can sweep it under the rug. But these guys are all-conference at their respective schools, and they are winning in those systems.

Players should not want to leave a program. Something is wrong.
 

Is it entirely unreasonable to suggest that this would be our starting five this season?

Mbakwe is hurt, understood.

The other four left.

Justin Cobbs is Cal's second-leading scorer and leading assist man, and the Bears are 2nd in their conference at 13-4.

Devoe Joseph is Oregon's leading scorer and second-leading assist man, and the Ducks are 4th in their conference at 11-5.

Royce White is ISU's leading scorer, rebounder, and assist man, and the Clones are 3rd in their conference at 11-5.

Iverson is not playing until next year.

You can only make a meager roster do certain things. The biggest red flag about Tubby's tenure ought to be guys jumping ship. If they were non-factors or had no talent, you can sweep it under the rug. But these guys are all-conference at their respective schools, and they are winning in those systems.

Players should not want to leave a program. Something is wrong.

This is just a shot in the dark, but I feel that Tubby's substitution pattern - that primarily being not giving his best players enough playing time - is what caused a lot of these problems.

Iverson seemed always to be perturbed that he would outplay the hell out of Sampson, but Sampson would always start and play more minutes. At the end of his sophomore year, Iverson was by far the better player. Unfortunately, come the junior year when all this s___ started, Sampson was back starting, Iverson on the bench.

Joseph didn't seem to like always being under Nolen's shadow; and he certainly didn't like being a second-teamer (similar to Iverson). Undoubtedly, it never made much sense why he didn't get more playing time. His sophomore year he showed plenty. Unfortunately, he got in Tubby's doghouse to start his junior year and then quit. It will never make any sense to me, however, why Joseph didn't simply finish last season out instead of outright quitting.

Cobbs never got enough playing time, which is ironic because of Tubby's questionable substitution patterns, where plenty of lower-tier players get plenty of playing time - but not Cobbs. As such, with Nolen and Joseph ahead of him and Tubby gunning hard for Corey Joseph, the writing seemed on the wall. Can't blame Cobbs for leaving.

Mbakwe - first the legal issues, then the devastating injury - what a sad career that could have been. One brilliant, short season. It would be great to have him back next year, but I don't see him risking a pro career to do it.

White - then there's White - the guy who started the whole program downfall. The program was rocking, and had a HUGE future up until Royce White flaked out and got in legal trouble. My god what could have been. This program would have been just fine had Royce White never signed to come here. Instead, he blew it up, and the Gophers and Tubby are paying the price. It was a risk that had to be taken; and such a shame that it flamed out so badly. I really hate seeing him do well at Iowa State; but let's be real, we all knew the kid could play basketball, and that he'd succeed once he stopped being a complete punk.

As such, you can only blame Tubby for so much. White's situation was a pretty obvious call, unless there was a bit of "too strict" going on. Mbakwe had to wait until his legal situation was over. Cobbs wasn't the answer his freshman year, and that year we were a tourney team - ironically, that year Tubby actually used his personnel correctly most of the time and the results displayed that. Tubby failed with Joseph and Iverson; both were much more talented than the playing time they got.
 

This is just a shot in the dark, but I feel that Tubby's substitution pattern - that primarily being not giving his best players enough playing time - is what caused a lot of these problems.

Iverson seemed always to be perturbed that he would outplay the hell out of Sampson, but Sampson would always start and play more minutes. At the end of his sophomore year, Iverson was by far the better player. Unfortunately, come the junior year when all this s___ started, Sampson was back starting, Iverson on the bench.

Joseph didn't seem to like always being under Nolen's shadow; and he certainly didn't like being a second-teamer (similar to Iverson). Undoubtedly, it never made much sense why he didn't get more playing time. His sophomore year he showed plenty. Unfortunately, he got in Tubby's doghouse to start his junior year and then quit. It will never make any sense to me, however, why Joseph didn't simply finish last season out instead of outright quitting.

Cobbs never got enough playing time, which is ironic because of Tubby's questionable substitution patterns, where plenty of lower-tier players get plenty of playing time - but not Cobbs. As such, with Nolen and Joseph ahead of him and Tubby gunning hard for Corey Joseph, the writing seemed on the wall. Can't blame Cobbs for leaving.

Mbakwe - first the legal issues, then the devastating injury - what a sad career that could have been. One brilliant, short season. It would be great to have him back next year, but I don't see him risking a pro career to do it.

White - then there's White - the guy who started the whole program downfall. The program was rocking, and had a HUGE future up until Royce White flaked out and got in legal trouble. My god what could have been. This program would have been just fine had Royce White never signed to come here. Instead, he blew it up, and the Gophers and Tubby are paying the price. It was a risk that had to be taken; and such a shame that it flamed out so badly. I really hate seeing him do well at Iowa State; but let's be real, we all knew the kid could play basketball, and that he'd succeed once he stopped being a complete punk.

As such, you can only blame Tubby for so much. White's situation was a pretty obvious call, unless there was a bit of "too strict" going on. Mbakwe had to wait until his legal situation was over. Cobbs wasn't the answer his freshman year, and that year we were a tourney team - ironically, that year Tubby actually used his personnel correctly most of the time and the results displayed that. Tubby failed with Joseph and Iverson; both were much more talented than the playing time they got.

+1
 

I think as a MN gopher fan we can all play the woulda coulda shoulda game but a few things need to be addressed in this post.

Royce White was not Tubby's fault one bit. That was 100% on Royce White for "wrestling" with a security guard after shoplifting and hanging around questionable people who stole a computer.

We continue to bring up Devoe Joseph on this message board but people do not realize that deep down there was more to the story that him just transferring mid-season. Although we can speculate that he didnt like Tubby's system blah blah and that is why he transferred many people closer to the situation have said there is more to the story. He was suspended at the start of that season and rumors were that he was about to get suspended again.

Cobbs could possibly see as Tubby's fault but at the time he had Devoe Joseph and Al Nolen in front of him.

Iverson is not good we do not miss him.

Sucks Mbawke got hurt.
 

I suspect Gopher fans will get even more indigestion if they see all four of those programs (and 3 of those players). ...

Iowa State (lock)
Cal (likely in)
Oregon (bubble)
Colorado State (bubble)

appear in the NCAA Tournament in no small part because of White, Cobbs and Joseph.
 


White leaving was all on White. There was no way we could allow him to continue here. Getting into that much trouble in that little of time is all on the shoulders of White.

Joseph quit because he was getting suspended AGAIN because he got caught smoking weed AGAIN. There is no blaming Tubby on this one. If a kid continually fails drug tests, why would you keep him on your team? Just because he is good? Not a good enough reason for me.

Iverson should have played more, but in the end was not as good as advertised and would likely get see minutes get smaller behind RS3, Mbakwe and EE. He wasnt going to play much this year.
 


White leaving was all on White. There was no way we could allow him to continue here. Getting into that much trouble in that little of time is all on the shoulders of White.

Joseph quit because he was getting suspended AGAIN because he got caught smoking weed AGAIN. There is no blaming Tubby on this one. If a kid continually fails drug tests, why would you keep him on your team? Just because he is good? Not a good enough reason for me.

Iverson should have played more, but in the end was not as good as advertised and would likely get see minutes get smaller behind RS3, Mbakwe and EE. He wasnt going to play much this year.

Devoe and weed gets tossed about around as fact. Can anyone confirm this?

If this is true, why was he able to enroll at Oregon immediately with no reprecussions?

Tubby also gave him a positve reference and was publicly sorry to see him leave.
 

I think as a MN gopher fan we can all play the woulda coulda shoulda game but a few things need to be addressed in this post.

Royce White was not Tubby's fault one bit. That was 100% on Royce White for "wrestling" with a security guard after shoplifting and hanging around questionable people who stole a computer.

We continue to bring up Devoe Joseph on this message board but people do not realize that deep down there was more to the story that him just transferring mid-season. Although we can speculate that he didnt like Tubby's system blah blah and that is why he transferred many people closer to the situation have said there is more to the story. He was suspended at the start of that season and rumors were that he was about to get suspended again.

Cobbs could possibly see as Tubby's fault but at the time he had Devoe Joseph and Al Nolen in front of him.

Iverson is not good we do not miss him.

Sucks Mbawke got hurt.

Wow. Listen to the excuse meter roll. This is unreal.
 




Mbakwe - first the legal issues, then the devastating injury - what a sad career that could have been. One brilliant, short season. It would be great to have him back next year, but I don't see him risking a pro career to do it.

Mbakwe had to wait until his legal situation was over.

You're confused on both the past and the future.

The past:
The Gophers let Mbakwe play when they knew he'd likely be guilty on both a harassment charge in Minnesota and in the Florida assault matter.

The future:
Subsequent to his season ending injury, Mbakwe has been found guilty by the respective courts in both matters. That is the issue with next year.
 

I think as a MN gopher fan we can all play the woulda coulda shoulda game but a few things need to be addressed in this post.

Royce White was not Tubby's fault one bit. That was 100% on Royce White for "wrestling" with a security guard after shoplifting and hanging around questionable people who stole a computer.

We continue to bring up Devoe Joseph on this message board but people do not realize that deep down there was more to the story that him just transferring mid-season. Although we can speculate that he didnt like Tubby's system blah blah and that is why he transferred many people closer to the situation have said there is more to the story. He was suspended at the start of that season and rumors were that he was about to get suspended again.

Cobbs could possibly see as Tubby's fault but at the time he had Devoe Joseph and Al Nolen in front of him.

Iverson is not good we do not miss him.

Sucks Mbawke got hurt.

Disagree on Iverson. He could have helped this team on the boards and with toughness.
 

Yeah, I can't see how someone can watch our games this year and not think perhaps it would be nice to have a guy like Iverson out there. I thought there were times when him and Ralph on the floor together was good stuff.

Let's face it, losing essentially a starting lineup of players is going to hurt your program, ANY program. Regardless of who's fault it is why they left, they left, and now we basically are going through another rebuild without the fruits of a big tourney run that you usually get when there's an exodus like that. Hopefully the young guys can develop and become a core of something good down the line.
 



I only blame Tubby for losing Cobbs. He was stuck in a tough spot, needed more floor time and saw a way to get it. It is what it is.

Tubby had very little to do with White leaving. That kid screwed himself. I don’t doubt that Tubby did everything he could to keep him here because he knew that White was the “program changer” he needed to make this thing go. Really, how stupid do you need to be to get arrested after you were already suspended for another arrest, it was all over the papers, and it was all anybody who follows Gopher hoops was talking about? Tubby absolutely had to have been fighting Maturi and the administration to let White play while he was waiting for his trial for assaulting that security guard. Meanwhile, the kid goes out tries stealing a laptop. (even if he didn’t do it, he was obviously not putting himself in a good situation) C’mon. That’s on Royce.

As for Joseph: The kid finally got his wish and is running the show in the B1G Tourney, puts the team on his back and plays great. There’s no reason to think he wouldn’t be given the same opportunity the next year. Instead, he gets suspended out of the gate as a junior. When he comes back he’s on the s*$@ list, like anybody would be. Gets caught again and instead of paying the consequence, he quits. Regardless of Devoe’s feelings towards the coach, he quit on his teammates. I have no time for anyone who quits on his teammates in the middle of the season when they obviously need him. He’s a selfish piece of crap.

Yes, it'd be nice to have Iverson this year in light of how Ralph has regressed. When he announced his transferring I thought it would have little impact as we still had four bigs that would be fighting for minutes. I assumed that Colt also saw the writing on the wall that there wouldn't be a lot a PT to go around with Tubby gushing about Elliott and Mo coming back. Knee injuries are what now make this transfer look like a significant deal.
 

Knee injuries are what now make this transfer look like a significant deal.

Hopefully it doesn't become similar to the Madden cover curse. When a player transfers, his back-up or similar player goes out with a season ending injury.
 




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