What grade would you give the Gophers 2016-2017 basketball season?

A. Last season was a train wreck and tough to follow this team. This year I was excited to watch every game and couldn't stop following them. They changed the expectations from cellar dwellar to Big Ten contender in one season. If someone told me we'd go 11-7 or 12-8 in conference games before the year I would have thought they were a bit too optimistic. Lots of hype for next year as a result.

Ewert86PC said:

Here's an analogy that I hope you understand. We're all so happy that this team climbed fifty feet up a ladder, but we forget that they buried themselves twenty-five feet underground last season. You can argue all you want about the total of fifty feet, but twenty-five feet of the climb was just to get back above ground. It's stacking the deck, manufacturing unnecessary adversity. If you can climb fifty feet on the ladder, why did you have to drop down twenty-five feet to prove it?

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Stupid analogy. But why would I expect anything else from you? It almost sounds like you are saying Pitino and/or the players lost on purpose last year in order to give the false impression that the team made a HUGE improvement?

Making the real tournament as a #5 (not the NIT) is an automatic B. Not going further keeps it at a B. Although a B is like a A compared to last year.

Gophers aren't my "first" team but they got this Twin Cities Cyclone watching and following some again this year. It was nice to see and hear The Barn alive again (even on TV that Iowa game was LOUD). Also found some new respect for Pitino, a lot of that based on that Star Tribune article about all of the behind the scenes things he did to clean up some of the off-court stuff and reinforce expectations. He brought in some nationally respected folks to mentor and instruct on non-basketball stuff. It was under-reported but I found it pretty impressive and not lip service stuff done just for show.

Gopher04 said:

Those 16 other wins must've been all luck... Another brilliant take from Ewert.

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I give myself an "A" for choosing the ignore selection on this guy last season and sticking with it.
I also give the program an A for overachieving.

I voted B, and I would have gone B+ if that was an option. The two main knocks I have are that we didn't finish strong and didn't beat Wisconsin.

If 12 months ago someone told all of us that next year the Gophers will win 24 games, finish top 4 in conference, be 11-7 in B1G play, have the COY, DPOY, All-freshman team player, all B1G player, and have a 5 seed in the tourney...we'd all crawl over broken glass for that outcome. It's an A for the season. Obviously next year we move to higher expectations.


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I gave the team a "B." No doubt a lot of progress this year, but there were still areas of concern. Even when they were playing well, it seemed like almost every game, they hit a 4-5 minute lull on offense where all they did was pass the ball around the perimeter, then jack up a bad shot with the clock running out. That is one area they really need to improve next year - getting into the offense sooner and having more productive possessions.

Also, the whole team could use more consistency. Each player had great games, and then had games where they seemed to vanish. Coffey needs to be more of a focal point of the offense, IMHO. When he's scoring 15+ points, this team just looks so much better.

As mentioned on another thread, having a stronger backup for Lynch would be nice. Against good teams, Konate is a liability.

It will be very interesting to see what the team looks like next year. How much do the FR play? Can Fitzgerald come back and be a contributor? Can Hurt add something to the mix? If everything breaks right, this could be a team that goes a solid 9-10 people deep.

This was an A if there ever was an A.

short ornery norwegian said:

I gave the team a "B." No doubt a lot of progress this year, but there were still areas of concern. Even when they were playing well, it seemed like almost every game, they hit a 4-5 minute lull on offense where all they did was pass the ball around the perimeter, then jack up a bad shot with the clock running out. That is one area they really need to improve next year - getting into the offense sooner and having more productive possessions.

Also, the whole team could use more consistency. Each player had great games, and then had games where they seemed to vanish. Coffey needs to be more of a focal point of the offense, IMHO. When he's scoring 15+ points, this team just looks so much better.

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To be fair, every team in the country has this happen. Unless we have five first team all-americans I think this is pretty much unavoidable.

Bad Gopher said:

This was an A if there ever was an A.

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Based on last year and preseason expectations I'd agree. But no tourney win hurts


I have a B but I'm very happy with season and future outlook

Biggsohnasty said:

A

I wanted 18 wins which included at least six in conference play. They got 23 and top-four finish in conference plus a conf. tourney win.

After an 8 win season, what they did was awesome and people expecting more are either unrealistic or just like being cynical.

The tournament game was disappointing. At the same time, the season as a whole was awesome. this program isn't at a point where it can define its season by what it does in the tournament. Getting there made this season a success in my book.

Now expectations change.

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+1. I was expecting 18 or 19 wins max, with 6 or 7 in the B1G. Once they hit .500 in the B1G it as an absolute A. Everything else was gravy.