Rand: This point in tenure contending for NCAA berth every yr should be expectatio

per Rand:

The Gophers men’s basketball team has been in a recent pattern of bad-good-bad-good seasons. Is this the year Richard Pitino’s program breaks out of the cycle and earns a repeat trip to the NCAA tournament?

First take: Michael Rand

At this point in Pitino’s tenure, contending for a tourney berth every year should be an expectation.

My biggest concerns about this year’s team are overcoming key missing pieces — early departure Amir Coffey, the graduated Jordan Murphy and injured Eric Curry chief among them — and figuring out how this team is going to score.

Minnesota reached the NCAA tourney and won a game last season without having a very efficient offense. The Gophers attempted among the fewest threes in college basketball last season both as a per-game number (343rd out of 353 teams) and percentage of overall shot attempts (344th out of 353 teams).

http://www.startribune.com/can-the-...e-and-make-another-ncaa-tournament/564290802/

Go Gophers!!

Last year really wasn’t that good overall. 9-11 in the B1G.

Contending for a berth. Huh.

Hard to argue we should not be in the tournament every year now unless we lose the key players like 2 years ago. We ARE the Gophers!