BleedGopher
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per Jace:
The Gophers earned their second NCAA tournament appearance in three years and netted their first tournament win since 2013. They did, Amir Coffey said, “a lot of things that people didn’t believe we could do.”
“I think we definitely took a step forward this season,” the junior forward added.
The key now is to take at least one more next season, and another after that. This past month should be used as a springboard to leap into the future.
For years, the bar for this program has been relatively low, and fairly so. But circumstances have changed, and so should expectations. You can now build a consistent winner at Minnesota. Perhaps Richard Pitino is in the process of doing just that.
Finally, the Gophers have the facilities necessary to attract recruits, and they arrived at just the right time. Minnesota high school basketball is consistently churning out four or five high-major level recruits in each class, each capable of helping a team compete and win in the Big Ten.
There’s no better evidence of that than this year’s freshman class. Gabe Kalscheur and Daniel Oturu were two major reasons the Gophers went as far as they did this season. Jarvis Omersa filled in admirably in Jordan Murphy’s absence on Saturday. All three Minnesotans appear primed for long, successful college careers.
But it’s a stretch to say any of Pitino’s teams at Minnesota have been “deep.” The coach is hopeful Minnesota’s injury luck will “even out at some point,” but in case it doesn’t, a solid safeguard is to build a roster that goes nine or 10 quality players deep to create competition — and have a Plan B when something inevitably goes awry during the season.
That should be the goal for this program moving forward. It’s what’s necessary to consistently compete at a high level in the Big Ten, advance to NCAA tournaments on an annual basis and occasionally threaten to advance deep into March.
Players present in the Gophers’ locker room Saturday were right, this season was a success. And success should be this program’s new norm.
https://www.twincities.com/2019/03/24/success-should-be-new-normal-for-gophers-basketball/
Go Gophers!!
The Gophers earned their second NCAA tournament appearance in three years and netted their first tournament win since 2013. They did, Amir Coffey said, “a lot of things that people didn’t believe we could do.”
“I think we definitely took a step forward this season,” the junior forward added.
The key now is to take at least one more next season, and another after that. This past month should be used as a springboard to leap into the future.
For years, the bar for this program has been relatively low, and fairly so. But circumstances have changed, and so should expectations. You can now build a consistent winner at Minnesota. Perhaps Richard Pitino is in the process of doing just that.
Finally, the Gophers have the facilities necessary to attract recruits, and they arrived at just the right time. Minnesota high school basketball is consistently churning out four or five high-major level recruits in each class, each capable of helping a team compete and win in the Big Ten.
There’s no better evidence of that than this year’s freshman class. Gabe Kalscheur and Daniel Oturu were two major reasons the Gophers went as far as they did this season. Jarvis Omersa filled in admirably in Jordan Murphy’s absence on Saturday. All three Minnesotans appear primed for long, successful college careers.
But it’s a stretch to say any of Pitino’s teams at Minnesota have been “deep.” The coach is hopeful Minnesota’s injury luck will “even out at some point,” but in case it doesn’t, a solid safeguard is to build a roster that goes nine or 10 quality players deep to create competition — and have a Plan B when something inevitably goes awry during the season.
That should be the goal for this program moving forward. It’s what’s necessary to consistently compete at a high level in the Big Ten, advance to NCAA tournaments on an annual basis and occasionally threaten to advance deep into March.
Players present in the Gophers’ locker room Saturday were right, this season was a success. And success should be this program’s new norm.
https://www.twincities.com/2019/03/24/success-should-be-new-normal-for-gophers-basketball/
Go Gophers!!