Comparing U of M to other Power 6 programs with similar #of recent NCAA appearances

Something for discussion/debate if you so desire.

Over the last 15 years (since 1999-00 season), these major-conference programs have either earned one more (5), one less (3), or the same number (4) of NCAA appearances as the Gophers. In other words, based on recent NCAA Tournament appearances, these Power 6 programs are "most similar" to Minnesota.

Two questions:

(1) Where would you rank the Gopher program in terms of desirability to a prospective recruit combining tradition, fan support, recruiting footprint, current coach, how the program is trending, etc.?

(2) Which 2 programs would you say are most similar to Minnesota?

1. Arizona State (Pac 12)
2. Arkansas (SEC)
3. Baylor (Big XII)
4. Clemson (ACC)
5. Colorado (Pac 12)
6. Florida State (ACC)
7. Georgia (SEC)
8. Georgia Tech (ACC)
9. Iowa (Big Ten)
10. LSU (SEC)
11. Miami (ACC)
12. Michigan (Big Ten)
13. Minnesota (Big Ten)
14. Ole Miss (SEC)
15. Providence (Big East)
16. Saint John's (Big East)
17. Seton Hall (Big East)
18. Texas Tech (Big XII)
19. Virginia (ACC)

I'll start us.

Trying to remain impartial, I have the Minnesota program between #5-7, with two ahead of the Gophers by a wide margin and the other two by not that large of a margin.

The two most similar to Minnesota? The first one was easy for me (Iowa), the other one is Arkansas.

If we get any discussion on this, I'll reveal the four programs I have ahead of Minnesota later this afternoon.

I'd assume that Virginia and Michigan are two of the teams you have ahead of Minnesota. I think the recency effect is huge with young potential recruits (and with a time horizon of 14 years, we are stretching back to even before most of them probably followed basketball). Virginia is coming off of a major conference championship, and Michigan has sent a lot of players pro in the last few years and had some serious NCAA tournament success. With how much viewership there is for the games in the tournament, I think that winning tourney games would be more important to recruits than simply making it. In Michigan's case, they have won 4 games after the first tournament weekend in the last two years. We have won 1 tournament game during the entire timespan you are looking at.

Long story short, Michigan and Virginia are my guesses for your two teams you have way ahead of the Gophers.

I would put Minnesota right in the middle around 10th.

Agree with Iowa being similar and the other school I would choose would be one of the PAC 12 schools leaning towards Colorado in this time frame.

I would rank Michigan one, than UVA, followed by Baylor, Miami has that sweet 16 finish. Other than that I'd us and Arkansas would be five and six

bleedsmaroonandgold said:

Long story short, Michigan and Virginia are my guesses for your two teams you have way ahead of the Gophers.

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I have Michigan as one of the two clearly ahead, Virginia as one of the other two slightly ahead of Minnesota.

Personally, I'd go:

1. Arkansas
2. Georgia Tech
3. Michigan
4. UVa
5. Minnesota.

But there's no inherent reason MN can't be at the top of this list. Located in a major metro area, only school in a state of 5 million people, arguably the best conference, good fan support, etc. The practice facility is really the only thing holding it back.

I'm guessing you have Michigan as one of those top 2, and they certainly are at this moment. However, I can't shake visions of MN going into Ann Abor in Tubby's 1st year, with the Barnyard 'road trip' and beating them in what sounded like a home game. Contrast that to Indiana still shaking the building the next year and almost beating us even though it was their worst team in years. I just can never quite put Michigan on an elite level for this reason. But Boehlein is a heckuva coach and I suspect he's a lifer there now, however long that is.

SelectionSunday said:

I have Michigan as one of the two clearly ahead, Virginia as one of the other two slightly ahead of Minnesota.

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Hmm. Hard to determine the 2nd one. Baylor? I might agree if I didn't think it will all blow up in Scott Drew's face some day.

I have:

1. Michigan
2. Baylor
3. Virginia
4. Saint John's

I struggled putting Saint John's slightly ahead of the Gophers, but there's still a lot of tradition there, they're in New York, talent pool should always be there, etc. I'll certainly take Little Richard over Lav on the sidelines, but until the Gophers prove it on the court (Big Ten/NCAA) Pitino has a tougher sell getting recruits to come to Minnesota than Lav does to SJU.