Offseason B1G Projections Now That We Know Who's Coming Back

I don't think he asked that bad of a question and i'll even raise...

On what level is Fitgerald over King and Coffey over Buggs/Morris enough of a difference to go from 13th to top 10 in the Big Ten like some are projecting? I know Coffey is our biggest recruit in years but unless he is putting up 20 a night I still see us in the bottom 4 in the Big Ten. Remember we were 2-12 (along with some terrible non conference losses) even with the Threesome still playing.

I was replying to the part about people supposedly anointing him as a savior. Which just isn't true. He tends to criticize for things people aren't even saying.

I don't know how good Lynch will be but there is a good chance he will be an improvement over what we've had.
 

I don't think he asked that bad of a question and i'll even raise...

On what level is Fitgerald over King and Coffey over Buggs/Morris enough of a difference to go from 13th to top 10 in the Big Ten like some are projecting? I know Coffey is our biggest recruit in years but unless he is putting up 20 a night I still see us in the bottom 4 in the Big Ten. Remember we were 2-12 (along with some terrible non conference losses) even with the Threesome still playing.

Beyond the Fitz vs. King and Coffey vs. Morris comparison, we'll just have more dudes to play. We started last season with 10 scholarship players and ended with 5. We'll start this season with 12, assuming Lynch isn't cleared and nobody else gets in trouble. We also will be more experienced. We only had 3 upperclassmen last year, and ended the season with just one, and none of them were the sort of star you'd want to build a team around, more like solid rotation guys who were forced into being the centerpiece of our team. We'll have 6 upperclassmen this year, 7 if Lynch is available. We also likely won't be relying as heavily on freshmen this year as last year, and if we start a freshman, it probably means that they're a good player, rather than just running out of options and throwing them to the wolves.

We have a pretty solid guard rotation of Springs, Mason, Coffey, and McBrayer (whom I'm personally excited to see again. He's got good size, can handle the ball, can drive and get fouled, and, if he adds a consistent 3 point shot, could become a very nice offensive weapon IMO), with Gilbert and Sharp maybe playing spot minutes. Pitino seems to speak fairly highly of Fitzgerald, and I thought I remembered him mentioning he has the athleticism and shooting ability to play small forward at 6'8". I'd guess he'll be our primary SF, with Buggs, Gilbert, and Hurt picking up some minutes there as well. At the 4/5, Murphy is a stud, but undersized (Pitino tweeted recently that he's only 6'5"?), and then Bakary at the 5 assuming no Lynch. I'm not expecting Curry to light it up, but he's a top 150 recruit, and is even rated a 4-star on 247 and Scout. We'll probably be pretty thin at center again if Lynch isn't back, but it wouldn't surprise me to see small lineups with 2 PF's like how we sometimes played two of Buggs, King, and Murphy.

I really think just having a higher number of competent, experienced basketball players will be a big help this year. If we end up in the bottom 4, I'd like to think that means we either underachieved, or that the bottom half of this conference is still pretty strong.
 

I was replying to the part about people supposedly anointing him as a savior. Which just isn't true. He tends to criticize for things people aren't even saying.

I don't know how good Lynch will be but there is a good chance he will be an improvement over what we've had.

Reggie Lynch was 16th in the country in blocks per game his sophomore year. AJ Hammons at 12th was the only Big Ten player in the top 50. Granted it's possible to be a good post defender without racking up tons of blocks. It also says he only got 22 minutes a game, so I believe he would have ranked around 6th nationally in blocks per 40 minutes.

http://espn.go.com/mens-college-bas..._/stat/blocks/year/2015/seasontype/2/group/50
 

I was replying to the part about people supposedly anointing him as a savior. Which just isn't true. He tends to criticize for things people aren't even saying.

I don't know how good Lynch will be but there is a good chance he will be an improvement over what we've had.

If I recall correctly, Marcus wrote something to the effect that Konate and Diedhiou were both having trouble stowppijg Lynch in practice. He also had an accompanying video in the article as well. I think Konate can be a solid 10-15 minute a night player, but from everything I have seen and read, Lynch is the no doubt better player.
 

But also remember we were 0-12, beat then #6 Maryland, blew out Rutgers, then had the suspensions. Last years team was dreadful defending and rebounding first half of the year and improved greatly in those areas. I still say the suspensions stopped the momentum that was building and also stopped us from getting to 4-5 wins in conference. You add Lynch (hopefully), Fitz, Coffey, Hurt, Curry and Springs suddenly you have depth and roster versatility. Springs also adds maturity and experience which is something we needed desperately last year.

After the Maryland game we played:
Illinois
Rutgers 2x (1 win)
Wisconsin

Even without the suspensions we'd only have been favored against Rutgers. If you want to be optimistic and say we'd have beat Illinois too, that's reasonable. Even so we'd still have been 13th in the conference.
 


This isn't just about sports, it is about reflecting on the University of Minnesota have a high level of integrity and respectability as a whole. The Psychiatry program should be a reminder that the academic side of the school can be just as bad as Athletics.

Luckily for some of us, it's just sports.
 

Revisit in August when we know more about suspensions/transfers/late roster additions, and most importantly each teams' B1G schedule. But for now. ...

1 Wisconsin
2 Purdue
3 Michigan State
4 Indiana
5 Ohio State
6 Michigan
7 Illinois
8 Northwestern
9 Maryland
10 Penn State
11 Iowa
12 Nebraska
13 Minnesota
14 Rutgers

I know you follow other teams rosters way more closely than I do. This is very disappointing if it plays out like this.
 

Having them finishing 13 is a joke!

People forget that the first half of the season the team was relying too much on the "leadership" from the upper class men. It took quite a while before Pitino decided to let the freshman play and then it took time for them to learn how to play at a B1G level. That team at the end of the season would have won most of the non conference games and many more conference games. Now you add experienced help on the inside and some exciting new freshman. The team will be a major improvement over last year. Pitino showed he can coach during the NIT run, he now has some horses that can compete. I think they will finish in the top half of the B1G and make the tourney.


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After the Maryland game we played:
Illinois
Rutgers 2x (1 win)
Wisconsin

Even without the suspensions we'd only have been favored against Rutgers. If you want to be optimistic and say we'd have beat Illinois too, that's reasonable. Even so we'd still have been 13th in the conference.

We were kicking the **** out of Illinois at halftime without the three amigos. We don't run out of gas and we stomp on their ****in throat in the second half with a full team. Then you go into the bucky game on a three game winning streak full of confidence senior day etc. If anything I would've been more worried about a let down vs a desperate Rutgers team
 



We were kicking the **** out of Illinois at halftime without the three amigos. We don't run out of gas and we stomp on their ****in throat in the second half with a full team. Then you go into the bucky game on a three game winning streak full of confidence senior day etc. If anything I would've been more worried about a let down vs a desperate Rutgers team

ok...and? If your point is you think we had a better chance against wisconsin than rutgers, :rolleyes: My point was simply no matter how revisionist you want to make history, best case we were 12th in the big ten.
 

ok...and? If your point is you think we had a better chance against wisconsin than rutgers, :rolleyes: My point was simply no matter how revisionist you want to make history, best case we were 12th in the big ten.

12th in the Big Ten is bad, but hypothetically winning 4 of our last 5 games with 3 freshmen and a sophomore leading the charge would create some hope for next year, granted Dorsey is obviously gone now, but adding Springs might be a wash.
 

The new schedule isn't out yet, so we could still be lucky, but I was talking last year about how unlucky it was that we drew the easy schedule in our crappy year.

Last year we got:
Rutgers x2
Illinois x2
Northwestern x2
MSU/Wisconsin/Maryland/Purdue x1 at home
Iowa only once on the road

Basically, if you swapped in a home Penn State game instead of Indiana, we might have drawn the easiest possible BIG schedule.

The league will be different next year, but I'm hoping that we don't end up with an improved team that could win 7-8 conference games with an average or easy BIG schedule that only wins 4-5 due to playing all of the big dogs twice.
 

I don't think he asked that bad of a question and i'll even raise...

On what level is Fitgerald over King and Coffey over Buggs/Morris enough of a difference to go from 13th to top 10 in the Big Ten like some are projecting? I know Coffey is our biggest recruit in years but unless he is putting up 20 a night I still see us in the bottom 4 in the Big Ten. Remember we were 2-12 (along with some terrible non conference losses) even with the Threesome still playing.

I don't think anyone disagrees that Coffey and Fitzgerald are both upgrades on both ends of the floor.

However I don't believe that is the sole reason to be optimistic. Our young team started to get very competitive (sex tape washed us knocking off #1 out of our brains) at the end of the season with Dupree, Mason, and Murphy playing much better.


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1. Michigan St
2. Wisconsin
3. Indiana
4. Purdue
5. Maryland
6. Michigan
7. Ohio St
8. Northwestern
9. Iowa
10. Nebraska
11. Penn St
12. Minnesota
13. Illinois
14. Rutgers
 

BT Powerhouse Has Gophers 12th

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