ESPN 991: "Minnesota may be the big surprise of the Big 10 next season."

per ESPN 991:

The college basketball season is a long way away but that doesn't mean we can't make some way to early predictions about next year.

So let me take a stab at it...

The Minnesota Gophers basketball team may be the big surprise of the Big 10 next season.

Minnesota was able to surprise a lot of people last year by putting together a good end to the season and cap it off with a trip to the NCAA Tournament.

Can they now take that momentum and build on it next season?

I think the answer could be yes considering the construction of the roster and the talent they have across the board.

It was announced this week that the Gophers landed grad transfer Alihan Demir from Drexel.

Demir was the second leading scorer for Drexel last year averaging almost 15 PPG and could prove to be instant offense for the Gophers this season.

Not only does that move bolster the talent on the roster, Minnesota will benefit from seeing junior Payton Willis and sophomore Marcus Carr on the court.

Willis transferred from Vanderbilt and Carr transferred from Pittsburgh, with both sitting out last year and will be eligible to play this season.

Add in a few freshman who made up a solid recruiting class for Richard Pitino and this could be a special season at the Barn.

https://espn991.com/minnesota-gophers-basketball-may-be-the-big-surprise-next-season-in-the-big10/

Go Gophers!!

No mention of whether Coffey will return or not and no mention of Oturu or Kalschuer.

Well yeah I think even Pitino has no idea how next year will go. It’s almost an expansion draft worth of transfers making up the 2020 team

Big ten will be tough next year! We could have another year with 10+ teams competing for a tournament bid

Pitino cannot assume that Coffey will be back. In fact, I think Pitino has to plan for the season as if Coffey will NOT be back.

for the past season, I suspect that Pitino prepared for the season while hoping or expecting that Carr would be eligible. When Carr did not get the waiver, the Gophers were left short at PG, and we all saw the results. That can't happen again. If Coffey winds up coming back, great. huge bonus for the team. But you cannot count on Coffey coming back, and you absolutely cannot set up your game plan for the season based on the assumption that Coffey will be back.

so, I hope that, as Pitino plans for the season, Plan A assumes No Coffey. He can have a plan B that includes Coffey, but that has to be plan B. It should not be plan A.

short ornery norwegian said:

Pitino cannot assume that Coffey will be back. In fact, I think Pitino has to plan for the season as if Coffey will NOT be back.

for the past season, I suspect that Pitino prepared for the season while hoping or expecting that Carr would be eligible. When Carr did not get the waiver, the Gophers were left short at PG, and we all saw the results. That can't happen again. If Coffey winds up coming back, great. huge bonus for the team. But you cannot count on Coffey coming back, and you absolutely cannot set up your game plan for the season based on the assumption that Coffey will be back.

so, I hope that, as Pitino plans for the season, Plan A assumes No Coffey. He can have a plan B that includes Coffey, but that has to be plan B. It should not be plan A.

Click to expand...

Agree. Just a difficult spot for Pitino as a worthy replacement for Coffey will probably hesitate to come here until he is sure of Coffey's departure. Hopefully there will still be a worthy replacement available if necessary by the time Amir decides.

short ornery norwegian said:

Pitino cannot assume that Coffey will be back. In fact, I think Pitino has to plan for the season as if Coffey will NOT be back.

for the past season, I suspect that Pitino prepared for the season while hoping or expecting that Carr would be eligible. When Carr did not get the waiver, the Gophers were left short at PG, and we all saw the results. That can't happen again. If Coffey winds up coming back, great. huge bonus for the team. But you cannot count on Coffey coming back, and you absolutely cannot set up your game plan for the season based on the assumption that Coffey will be back.

so, I hope that, as Pitino plans for the season, Plan A assumes No Coffey. He can have a plan B that includes Coffey, but that has to be plan B. It should not be plan A.

Click to expand...

I don't think they were expecting Carr to be eligible until later in August, September and October when all the waivers started rolling in.

I think they were originally expecting Washington to develop into a starting caliber PG which never happened. Pitino also recruited a ton of HS PG's in the 2018 class but struck out on all of them. And for a while, we were expecting to get Crandall.

I think Purdue is the team that is going to be underestimated by too many people. They have a lot of very good players coming back, and should be a solid top-25 team, but many media analysts are sleeping on them because they lost Carsen Edwards.

OSUfan said:

I think Purdue is the team that is going to be underestimated by too many people. They have a lot of very good players coming back, and should be a solid top-25 team, but many media analysts are sleeping on them because they lost Carsen Edwards.

Click to expand...

They have a lot of similarities to us if Coffey is gone. Both will have some solid role players but lack a true go to guy that can get a bucket when they need one. Haarms, Eastern, Trevion Williams, Hunter Jr and Wheeler are solid pieces but none of them are stars. The grad transfer from Highpoint, Jahad Proctor will definitely be solid but they also lost Cline and Eifert in addition to Edwards. We will see how they do.