B1G All-Decade Grades: (Minnesota: C-)

[BleedGopher]

per Drew:

Basketball grade: C-
The Gophers went 188-150 over the last 10 years and 68-116 in conference play. They’ve been ranked in the AP Poll during four seasons but have never finished in the AP top-25. Minnesota has had a winning record in the B1G exactly once in the past 10 years. They’ve also only been to the NCAA Tournament three times this decade.

Minnesota has recruited pretty well for a team that, as recently as five years ago, won a mere eight games, but that hasn’t turned into any sustained on-court success. Head coach Richard Pitino is perpetually on the hot seat but has seemed to follow losing seasons with winning seasons to keep his job. After finishing 15-16 this past year, one would expect the Gophers to have a winning record next year if this trend holds.

Amir Coffey is the only Gophers player currently on an NBA roster, but he will soon be joined by Daniel Oturu, so their production of pro talent is improving.

The Badgers seem to struggle against the Gophers at The Barn, going 5-4 there over the past decade, but Minnesota is never really a team that you circle when the schedule comes out. They have an extremely “C-” energy as a basketball program.

B1G All-Decade Grades: Minnesota

Ugh. I guess we said we’d do these for every B1G team so we have to include Minnesota.

www.buckys5thquarter.com

Go Gophers!!

 

[JimmyJamesMD]

Can't disagree

 

[Bad Gopher]

Cs get degrees, I guess.

 

[builtbadgers]

68-116 is a F in my world.

 

[UpAndUnder43]

68-116 is a F in my world.

I mean so is 188-150. Thats a 55% winning percentage. Unless you're playing major league baseball, that isn't going to get it done in sports. Granted, not ALL of this is on Pitino but his record certainly hasn't helped boost the decade score too much.

 

[forever a gopher]

Have we officially reached fan apathy? There is no way you can argue otherwise. Sure, there are some die-hard fans and Pitino backers on this site that equate unwavering loyalty to a coach to showing support for a program. But the last 10 years has a depressing 37% conference record, and about the only positive thing the writer can come up with to mention is going 5-4 at home against WI. And nobody seems to care.

 

[SelectionSunday]

I'll go with D+. The "+" is for being the best of the worst (teams with less than 4 NCAA tourney appearances in the last 10 seasons)

Here are the number of NCAA appearances for each Big Ten school in the last 10 seasons (2010-11 through 2019-20 seasons). Teams with an *, in my opinion, would've earned a NCAA bid during Coronavirus '20 season.

*Michigan State 9
*Michigan 8
*Wisconsin 8
*Ohio State 7
Purdue 7
*Maryland 4
*Indiana 4
*Iowa 4
Minnesota 3
*Illinois 2
Nebraska 1
Northwestern 1
*Penn State 1
*Rutgers 0

Big Ten Championships
Michigan State (4 regular season, 4 Big Ten Tournament) = 8
Ohio State (2 RS, 2 BTT) = 4
Michigan (2 RS, 2 BTT) = 4
Wisconsin (2 RS, 1 BTT) = 3
Indiana (2 RS) = 2
Purdue (2 RS) = 2
Maryland (1 RS) = 1

 

[Bad Gopher]

Have we officially reached fan apathy? There is no way you can argue otherwise. Sure, there are some die-hard fans and Pitino backers on this site that equate unwavering loyalty to a coach to showing support for a program. But the last 10 years has a depressing 37% conference record, and about the only positive thing the writer can come up with to mention is going 5-4 at home against WI. And nobody seems to care.

The last few weeks have featured some classic Gopher games on TV and streaming, along with some live commentary and tweeting by Ryan James and I suppose others. It's a reminder of how exciting things have been in my lifetime but also a reminder that it's been 23 years since the team has advanced as far as the Sweet 16. That's a long time. I started following the team closely in 1982, the year they won a conference championship. From then until their Final Four appearance in 1997 was only 16 years inclusive, during which we had all kinds of successes and thrills. Now 23 years since without anything close to all that. As I watched The Ten Commandments the other night, and they showed the Hebrews wandering in the desert for 40 years, I'm thinking, yep.

The vibe I get from Gopher BB followers reflects the amount of time passed--those 23 years. I feel like many have essentially stopped expecting the program will ever get back to those kinds of successes again--that those things are in the past, and we might as well live in the past and just watch old videos, because it ain't coming back. And most people seem resigned to that and even OK with that. I guess that is indeed apathy.

 

[SelectionSunday]

The last few weeks have featured some classic Gopher games on TV and streaming, along with some live commentary and tweeting by Ryan James and I suppose others. It's a reminder of how exciting things have been in my lifetime but also a reminder that it's been 23 years since the team has advanced as far as the Sweet 16. That's a long time. I started following the team closely in 1982, the year they won a conference championship. From then until their Final Four appearance in 1997 was only 16 years inclusive, during which we had all kinds of successes and thrills. Now 23 years since without anything close to all that. As I watched The Ten Commandments the other night, and they showed the Hebrews wandering in the desert for 40 years, I'm thinking, yep.

The vibe I get from Gopher BB followers reflects the amount of time passed--those 23 years. I feel like many have essentially stopped expecting the program will ever get back to those kinds of successes again--that those things are in the past, and we might as well live in the past and just watch old videos, because it ain't coming back. And most people seem resigned to that and even OK with that. I guess that is indeed apathy.

Love the 40 years in the desert reference!

I've gotten to the point where give me the exhilaration of another Final Four before I leave this earth, and I'll be happy with that. Hopefully in my case that means Gopher program has about 25-30 years or so to get it done. H*ll, maybe I'd even settle for just experiencing the second weekend of the tournament again!

 

[forever a gopher]

Love the 40 years in the desert reference!

I've gotten to the point where give me the exhilaration of another Final Four before I leave this earth, and I'll be happy with that. Hopefully in my case that means Gopher program has about 25-30 years or so to get it done. H*ll, maybe I'd even settle for just experiencing the second weekend of the tournament again!

How about just not having to play on weakling Wednesday at the BT tourney?

I watched the replay of the 2019 Purdue game when they were streaming it last Friday and forgot how much fun that team was. Coffey, Murphy, McBrayer, a less-experienced Oturu. I was sitting there watching it, wondering how on earth did this team finish 9-11 in the conference? Yes, McBrayer was never the same after his injury the year prior, but Gabe shot at a good clip his freshman year to balance it out. And then I watched Stull come in and I thought, "what if instead of signing Stull (when they already had 2 SG's that could play), Pitino had gotten a competent PG?" Coffey was ridden into the ground just like Carr was this year, and he was doing it out of position. No, Pitino shouldn't have banked on Carr getting a waiver, just like he shouldn't be with Robbins. I didn't mean for this to be yet another diatribe on Pitino's roster management, but WTF, Stull was such dead weight.

 

[Gopherfan84]

How about just not having to play on weakling Wednesday at the BT tourney?

I watched the replay of the 2019 Purdue game when they were streaming it last Friday and forgot how much fun that team was. Coffey, Murphy, McBrayer, a less-experienced Oturu. I was sitting there watching it, wondering how on earth did this team finish 9-11 in the conference? Yes, McBrayer was never the same after his injury the year prior, but Gabe shot at a good clip his freshman year to balance it out. And then I watched Stull come in and I thought, "what if instead of signing Stull (when they already had 2 SG's that could play), Pitino had gotten a competent PG?" Coffey was ridden into the ground just like Carr was this year, and he was doing it out of position. No, Pitino shouldn't have banked on Carr getting a waiver, just like he shouldn't be with Robbins. I didn't mean for this to be yet another diatribe on Pitino's roster management, but WTF, Stull was such dead weight.

The answer to this had nothing to do with a point guard. It had to do with their team defense being below average when they had tons of length and athleticism to have been top 10 in the country good.