Three B1G teams ranked in top five in first coaches' poll

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zipsofakron

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Big Ten getting a lot of respect in the year's first poll. Three teams (Indiana, OSU and Michigan) in the top five. Five teams in the top 25. Gophers got nine votes. I actually expected them to be closer to the 25th spot. Gives them a bit of a chip on their shoulder, I suppose.

Funny that Saint Louis is #11 in the Blue Ribbon Yearbook preseason rankings and nowhere to be found in the coaches' poll.

http://espn.go.com/mens-college-basketball/rankings
 

zipsofakron said:
Big Ten getting a lot of respect in the year's first poll. Three teams (Indiana, OSU and Michigan) in the top five. Five teams in the top 25. Gophers got nine votes. I actually expected them to be closer to the 25th spot. Gives them a bit of a chip on their shoulder, I suppose.

Funny that Saint Louis is #11 in the Blue Ribbon Yearbook preseason rankings and nowhere to be found in the coaches' poll.

http://espn.go.com/mens-college-basketball/rankings
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Crapshoot at this point, the Dec 1st poll will shed some light on who is going to be good, the top eight or so are pretty solid, 15-25 who knows,
 

At first glance, Michigan & Duke stand out as the early favorites for most overrated.
 

If Majerus were there and coaching, St. Louis would be a Sweet 16-type team. With him out, they'll be lucky to make the tournament.
 

afurry91 said:
At first glance, Michigan & Duke stand out as the early favorites for most overrated.
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We'll see. I bet you haven't seen their freshmen yet. Trey Burke, Tim Hardaway Jr., Glenn Robinson III, and Mitch McGary are a pretty intimidating lineup regardless of who the 5th player is if you ask me.
 


GophersOnTheRise said:
We'll see. I bet you haven't seen their freshman yet. Trey Burke, Tim Hardaway Jr., Glenn Robinson III, and Mitch McGary are a pretty intimidating lineup regardless of who the 5th player is if you ask me.
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+2
 

My guess is out of that top-5, only Indiana and Louisville are true top-5 teams that will be in the mix at the end of the year. There's a lot that people don't know at this point - there are always several teams that have key players step up and play a lot better than people expected in the preseason, leading their team to an unexpectedly strong year - for some of those teams it leads to a conference championship, others a Final Four, sometimes both.

Michigan is replacing practically half of their rotation with freshmen. Replacing 3 key players with freshmen is a lot easier said than done. Duke no doubt is more of a team that should be in the 20-25 range. Saint Louis lost their head coach, and for this year they've got a stop-gap guy in place, right? If you've paid attention to teams when they've got a substitute/lame duck head coach in place, such as the Saints, usually they underachieve. People don't respect substitutes, and that hurts performance.
 

GophersOnTheRise said:
We'll see. I bet you haven't seen their freshmen yet. Trey Burke, Tim Hardaway Jr., Glenn Robinson III, and Mitch McGary are a pretty intimidating lineup regardless of who the 5th player is if you ask me.
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I understand that they have a great group of freshmen coming in. However, they're still freshmen. As far as bringing in freshmen and succeeding immediately. John Calipari makes it look easy. I think it's extremely difficult, and until last year I would have said it was impossible to win a national title with that many freshmen.

The good news about Duke being 8 is that they'll be around a top 5 opponent when we play them with a great shot at an "upset."
 

afurry91 said:
I understand that they have a great group of freshmen coming in. However, they're still freshmen. As far as bringing in freshmen and succeeding immediately. John Calipari makes it look easy. I think it's extremely difficult, and until last year I would have said it was impossible to win a national title with that many freshmen.

The good news about Duke being 8 is that they'll be around a top 5 opponent when we play them with a great shot at an "upset."
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Personally I hope they stay right at 8 until we play them. The Gophers have had a very good track record against teams ranked #8 the past few years.
 



Cayman said:
Personally I hope they stay right at 8 until we play them. The Gophers have had a very good track record against teams ranked #8 the past few years.
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LOL - You really think it will all come down to #8??
 

afurry91 said:
I understand that they have a great group of freshmen coming in. However, they're still freshmen. As far as bringing in freshmen and succeeding immediately. John Calipari makes it look easy. I think it's extremely difficult, and until last year I would have said it was impossible to win a national title with that many freshmen.

The good news about Duke being 8 is that they'll be around a top 5 opponent when we play them with a great shot at an "upset."
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The reasn Cal makes it look easy is because he's getting the very best freshmen this country has to offer. If we got the #1 freshman in the country, I bet he would do great for the Gophers too. I understand that freshmen generally need some time to adjust to the next level, and maybe these guys will too, but I've seen them play and I think they are ready to contribute right away. McGary in particular. He's about as physical of a player as I've ever seen. I don't think he'll need much time to adjust to the Big Ten. Robinson may have more long term potential, but I think McGary is equally, if not more ready for Big Ten competition right now.
 

BT is looking overrated to start the year as usual. Great conference top to bottom, but our very top seems to always be overrated outside of MSU.
 

Wisconsin is going to have to fill Jordan Taylor's shoes if they are going to be a top 25 team all season long, regardless of how good Dekker actually is.
 



MadtownGopher said:
Wisconsin is going to have to fill Jordan Taylor's shoes if they are going to be a top 25 team all season long, regardless of how good Dekker actually is.
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George Marshall is the greatest redshirt freshman/practice squad player in the history of college basketball. Haven't you heard?
 


GophersOnTheRise said:
The reasn Cal makes it look easy is because he's getting the very best freshmen this country has to offer. If we got the #1 freshman in the country, I bet he would do great for the Gophers too. I understand that freshmen generally need some time to adjust to the next level, and maybe these guys will too, but I've seen them play and I think they are ready to contribute right away. McGary in particular. He's about as physical of a player as I've ever seen. I don't think he'll need much time to adjust to the Big Ten. Robinson may have more long term potential, but I think McGary is equally, if not more ready for Big Ten competition right now.
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Very true. I like to add that he had Jones and Lamb last year also who were veterans. I don't think he could have won it without those 2.

Go Gophers
 

I still think IU are riding the wave of that buzzer beating win over Kentucky last year. They'll wind up being a solid top 20 team, but nowhere near #1 by the end of the season.
 

Moses87 said:
I still think IU are riding the wave of that buzzer beating win over Kentucky last year. They'll wind up being a solid top 20 team, but nowhere near #1 by the end of the season.
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Agreed 100%. I have the same feeling about Michigan.

Go Gophers
 

Moses87 said:
I still think IU are riding the wave of that buzzer beating win over Kentucky last year. They'll wind up being a solid top 20 team, but nowhere near #1 by the end of the season.
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Indiana made the Sweet Sixteen last year and I certainly don't think they'll be any worse this year. Cody Zeller now has a year of experience under his belt and seems to be a favorite for national player of the year, they return just about everyone from last year except Verdell Jones, and they have a very strong 2012 recruiting class with 3 top 50 freshmen. I had heard that a point guard was the main thing they were missing last year, and they brought in a five star point guard for this season. Indiana is a very talented and very deep team, on paper at least. I would pick them to win the Big Ten and probably at least make the Elite Eight this year.
 

Cayman said:
Indiana made the Sweet Sixteen last year and I certainly don't think they'll be any worse this year. Cody Zeller now has a year of experience under his belt and seems to be a favorite for national player of the year, they return just about everyone from last year except Verdell Jones, and they have a very strong 2012 recruiting class with 3 top 50 freshmen. I had heard that a point guard was the main thing they were missing last year, and they brought in a five star point guard for this season. Indiana is a very talented and very deep team, on paper at least. I would pick them to win the Big Ten and probably at least make the Elite Eight this year.
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I f'in love it. I know JB is seething with anger at the thought of Indiana being national title contenders. I hope they go all the way this year and he has a bucacide on this board (if he hasn't already).
 

dpodoll68 said:
I f'in love it. I know JB is seething with anger at the thought of Indiana being national title contenders. I hope they go all the way this year and he has a bucacide on this board (if he hasn't already).
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I googled this word, and the first result was from Gopherhole, the "minngg - banned!!" thread that you started back in March when we beat Washington in the NIT. That thread then brought me to the thread that contained minngg's final posts, in which Gopherhole trolled him, and he was totally mad. It was a good read.

Link for your enjoyment: http://www.forums.gopherhole.com/boards/showthread.php?37415-B1G-vs-PAC-10
 

Cayman said:
I googled this word, and the first result was from Gopherhole, the "minngg - banned!!" thread that you started back in March when we beat Washington in the NIT. That thread then brought me to the thread that contained minngg's final posts, in which Gopherhole trolled him, and he was totally mad. It was a good read.

Link for your enjoyment: http://www.forums.gopherhole.com/boards/showthread.php?37415-B1G-vs-PAC-10
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Cayman, you seem like a smart guy. I've really been debating whether I should post the angry PM minngg sent me a week or two ago. (Yes, he came back after being banned, pathetic as that is.) What do you think - should I?
 

What is bucacide anyway? Tried to Google it, did not get any coherent answers. At this point, I don't even think it is a word.
 


dpodoll68 said:
Cayman, you seem like a smart guy. I've really been debating whether I should post the angry PM minngg sent me a week or two ago. (Yes, he came back after being banned, pathetic as that is.) What do you think - should I?
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I would be curious to know what he said to you. I feel like he likely hasn't been mentioned much at all since the day he was banned, so I'm curious as to why he felt the need to send you an angry PM within the last few weeks. It also strikes me as odd that one could still send PM's after being banned.

If you're cool with it and don't think you'll get a lot of backlash for it (or if you don't care if you get a lot of backlash for it), then I'd say go for it.
 

Cayman said:
I would be curious to know what he said to you. I feel like he likely hasn't been mentioned much at all since the day he was banned, so I'm curious as to why he felt the need to send you an angry PM within the last few weeks. It also strikes me as odd that one could still send PM's after being banned.hi

If you're cool with it and don't think you'll get a lot of backlash for it (or if you don't care if you get a lot of backlash for it), then I'd say go for it.
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Ok, you've convinced me. Here it is:

Minnesotagg said:
This is MinnGG. I am on the board under a different name. I post here when I want. I am also on many other Gopher boards and have so much fun at your expense. I always tell rubes from GI, KFAN, RealGM, Yahoo, Scout, that if they want to go to a board where there are more homers than any other Gopher board, go to Gopherhole. Of all the Gopher homers dpodoll is the king.

So king, I see Wolters is in the top 100 players in the NCAA this year. I see he was honorable mention all-american last year. I also see Tubby continued his stellar coaching and recruiting job. I'll send you another PM when he gets his ass fired.

Finally king of homers, you can't ever get me off this board. I post when I want. Crying to your mommy to get me banned because I didn't listen to your babble and called you out for what you are isn't going to keep me away. I do feel sorry for you though...crying to your mommy when someone beats you up in a chat room. Come on over to KFAN or GI or Scout and identify yourself. I would love to spar with you without your mommy watching.

MinnGG
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