At 3-1, are the Gophers good, does the B1G stink, or is it a little of both?

What’s behind Gopher 3-1 start?

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NateDawgUM said:
Gophers lose, Ben Johnson sucks.
Gophers win, B1G sucks.

Don't you all get tired of constantly measuring things instead of enjoying the ride?
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There are two types of gophers fans:

Glass Half Empty: Did you see that Maryland game? We played awful for most of the game, had too many defensive lapses, went cold on offense for long stretches, missed critical free throws, and failed to pull away against an inferior team. We will not survive the Big Ten gauntlet playing like this!

Glass Half Full: Did you see that Maryland game? We beat a team who dominated us last year three times, played like s*** for most of the game, clawed back, and still came away with the "W." I can't wait to see the product once we put a complete game together!

I have noticed a reasonable uptick in the latter, which has been refreshing.

Other folks will cling to negativity because their entire GH mantra and identity have been bashing CBJ for the last three seasons. The goalposts will keep moving for these folks. There will never be satisfaction (at least not publically on GH).

I cannot wait for Friday! Indiana is another beatable team, road game or not. Let's keep stacking wins!
 

my feeling - B1G is down a bit and Gophers are better.

which is going to make for a very exciting and nerve-wracking season. outside of the top 2 or 3 teams in the league, when teams #4 through #14 face each other, it's probably going to be a fairly close game and depending how things go, either team could pull out a win.

at the end of the season, I think the standings are going to be very similar to last season. FYI - last year the final B1G standings had 3 teams with 8 losses; 4 teams with 9 losses; 2 teams with 10 losses and 2 teams with 11 losses. that's 11 of the 14 teams in the conference with records of 12-8 through 9-11. really not a lot of difference - a bucket here, a missed FT there, and games can flip on any given night.

it may not make for the most artistically pleasing basketball, but it will be close, and close games are exciting.

fasten your seat belts. it's going to be a bumpy ride.
 

The Big Ten is not down. College basketball in general has a lot more parity than recent years. Current ratings/rank mean nothing in 2 months. MN is clearly better than the last few seasons, mostly due to health, depth, and the ability to finally defend and share the ball.
MN did not "play awful" in the first half of the MD game. MN defended, got stops, made steals, and held the opponent to only a 7pt lead despite being unable to make any shots--most (not all) of which were good looks! The defense should get the game ball. Carrington battled all night. Garcia got key rebounds and defended hard. Fox played the most consequential 6 min game of his career getting Reese to foul twice. Payne occupied the lane on both ends.
Sticking to my 10 win conference record despite the MN GH negativity/BS.
 

Fox Needs more minutes...Ihnen needs to go away.

Gotta get production out of someone else, Betts?, or the Keinys?

A good start to the year. Our transfer guards are playing well, I hop that they can keep it up throughout the season.
 

Bob_Loblaw said:
Was the Big 10 up or down the year we made it to the Final Four? I honestly don't remember because the only thing that matters is that we won games.

Winning matters. Losing matters. I'm not going to cut the program slack if they are losing games in an UP Big 10, I'm not going to quibble if they are winning games in a DOWN Big 10.
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Well said.
 





I have been watching the Gophers all year (with the pre-season TV slate, I have only been able to see 7? of their games (Nebraska, Missouri, UTSA, Ohio State, San Francisco, Michigan, Maryland) thus far this year, but I am impressed and excited. They just do so many things decent-to-well. Balanced scoring allowing for 'hot' and 'cool' streaks by anyone and injuries. Even though, IMO, Cam Christie has underperformed and Braeden Carrington has been mediocre (when present), this team has found some unexpected things--like Ihnen and Fox have something left, the backcourt may be special and one of the guards may set assist records, what we saw from Garcia and Payne last year was not at all a fluke, JOJ can sometimes be more than a 4th or 5th option on a good basketball team, and Ben Johnson is learning from his mistakes. I have a feeling that this team will go down as one of the best we've had in awhile (LOVED the last Pitino team, until they fell apart badly; LOVED the last of the Jordan Murphy teams, but knew that team had no shot to do any damage...and earlier there were some Tournament teams)...but in the recent past, I like this team better than most I've seen
 






I voted a little of both. But here is the main thing I like to see. This team plays MUCH harder than anything we've seen from Ben coached teams yet. This teams plays MUCH better defense than anything we've seen from Ben. This team has MUCH better guards than Ben has had here so far.

They have been fun to watch. I haven't even thought of going to a game the last few years. But I will be there at least a couple times this year.

I've said this a million times on here but in the situation that MN is in. You win by defending and playing harder and smarter than you competition because you will never out-talent teams in this conference with this University, you just won't. Also your guards must flat out not turn it over and be able to hit an open 3. So far, the 3-4 guys we have been running in those spots have done a fantastic job.
 




NateDawgUM said:
Pretty sure the Gophers could win the National Title and this forum would be talking about how it's a down year in college basketball.
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We do know the big isn't up to usual standard this year. Carry on.
 

BarnBurner said:
We do know the big isn't up to usual standard this year. Carry on.
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The obvious answer to the question is, this team is much better. It has nothing to do with the perceived or claimed level of the Big Ten. Why? Because the last two Gopher teams could not have defeated Michigan, Maryland, and Nebraska this year.
 

Dakota2 said:
The obvious answer to the question is, this team is much better. It has nothing to do with the perceived or claimed level of the Big Ten. Why? Because the last two Gopher teams could not have defeated Michigan, Maryland, and Nebraska this year.
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Strength of conference has a lot to do with wins and losses, like it or not. Same with some of the metrics that are commonly discussed, along with SOS with respect to making the ncaa.
 


Cam Christie has underperformed

I’m curious why you think this? I think he’s been really good for a freshman and improving every game. He is a better shooter than I anticipated. Defense needs work but freshman are always a bit behind in that part of their game.
 

BarnBurner said:
Strength of conference has a lot to do with wins and losses, like it or not. Same with some of the metrics that are commonly discussed, along with SOS with respect to making the ncaa.
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Could either of Year 1 or Year 2 teams have beaten this year’s Michigan, Maryland or Nebraska? No.
 


I can’t say if the big ten is down that much. But the gophers have obviously improved while also playing a super easy non conference schedule. That and we caught a good schedule to start the big ten. Michigan is way down as is Maryland.
 


topos said:
There are two types of gophers fans:

Glass Half Empty: Did you see that Maryland game? We played awful for most of the game, had too many defensive lapses, went cold on offense for long stretches, missed critical free throws, and failed to pull away against an inferior team. We will not survive the Big Ten gauntlet playing like this!

Glass Half Full: Did you see that Maryland game? We beat a team who dominated us last year three times, played like s*** for most of the game, clawed back, and still came away with the "W." I can't wait to see the product once we put a complete game together!

I have noticed a reasonable uptick in the latter, which has been refreshing.

Other folks will cling to negativity because their entire GH mantra and identity have been bashing CBJ for the last three seasons. The goalposts will keep moving for these folks. There will never be satisfaction (at least not publically on GH).

I cannot wait for Friday! Indiana is another beatable team, road game or not. Let's keep stacking wins!
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Great post! I'm certainly in the glass half-full crowd but I will admit to being ticked at the decline of the team's free throw shooting. The team (or most of it) was shooting freebies great early in the season but now we're down to the bottom of the conference again. If the last two games are any indication, we're going to see a fair number of close games this season and missed free throws are really going to make us grit our teeth during those contests.
 

Big Dawg said:
We do? By what metric? Please make your case. I'm not disagreeing. I just want to know the data you are using.
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3 teams in the top 25, for one. Using the eye test as well, not data.
 


TwistingMyMelon said:
Great post! I'm certainly in the glass half-full crowd but I will admit to being ticked at the decline of the team's free throw shooting. The team (or most of it) was shooting freebies great early in the season but now we're down to the bottom of the conference again. If the last two games are any indication, we're going to see a fair number of close games this season and missed free throws are really going to make us grit our teeth during those contests.
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In regards to free throws this is really in large part a Payne issue and not a team one. Garcia and Mitchell are both hitting over 80%, Carrington, Christie and Hawkins are all over 75% and JOJ is over 70%. That is 6 guys that will make their free throws 7+ times out of 10 and while I don't have other teams data to compare it to I have to think that is pretty solid in relation to most teams.

The bummer is that Payne is basically making it so that he can't play offense in close games because he is hitting at a putrid 36% (16-45). That is big time pulling our team total down. Combine that with Fox and Ihnen both in the 50% range which is frustrating but those two are less of a late game issue and more role players off the bench.

So on the whole the free throw shooting this year is significantly better overall with the exception of Payne who is a complete mess at the line right now. Hopefully at some point he can get it sorted out and get that percentage at minimum over 50% and ideally closer to 60% so that he can be on the court late in close games without fear of teams just hacking the heck out of him.
 

MNVCGUY said:
In regards to free throws this is really in large part a Payne issue and not a team one. Garcia and Mitchell are both hitting over 80%, Carrington, Christie and Hawkins are all over 75% and JOJ is over 70%. That is 6 guys that will make their free throws 7+ times out of 10 and while I don't have other teams data to compare it to I have to think that is pretty solid in relation to most teams.

The bummer is that Payne is basically making it so that he can't play offense in close games because he is hitting at a putrid 36% (16-45). That is big time pulling our team total down. Combine that with Fox and Ihnen both in the 50% range which is frustrating but those two are less of a late game issue and more role players off the bench.

So on the whole the free throw shooting this year is significantly better overall with the exception of Payne who is a complete mess at the line right now. Hopefully at some point he can get it sorted out and get that percentage at minimum over 50% and ideally closer to 60% so that he can be on the court late in close games without fear of teams just hacking the heck out of him.
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Payne only needs to make 13 in a row to reach 50% on the year. If he can make 50 to 60% from here on out is a realistic goal. Really needs to get out of his own head once at the line.
Maybe he should start breathing through his eye lids.
 

GFBfan said:
Payne only needs to make 13 in a row to reach 50% on the year. If he can make 50 to 60% from here on out is a realistic goal. Really needs to get out of his own head once at the line.
Maybe he should start breathing through his eye lids.
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Maybe he needs someone to pull him aside and remind him not to think, it will only hurt the ballclub which will of course lead to the basketball equivalent of this.....

 

Gophers are now a win at Kenpom #93 Indiana and a wisconsin loss at Ohio State away from sole possession of first place in the Big Ten. In Men's Basketball. 😲
 

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