Ben Johnson and this team

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Dakota2 said:
TT played more here than he would have anywhere else in the league.
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I am not arguing for more playing time for TT. What I am saying is that it was frustrating to watch losing that has no future to it. TT has a long way to go to be a Big Ten ready big man. Playing him wouldn't have given me an "oh boy, wait until next year!" feeling. Before the Dorsey scandal, I had that feeling with that edition of the Gophers. They had Murph, McBrayer, Dorsey and Mason out there and even with all the losing you could see the potential and until that scandal it felt exciting. This did not.
 

Off-GridTNgopher said:
Ended the way I was it expecting to be all yr..

I'm still happy with the overall results..
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Very happy with results. Expected less than 10 wins and maybe one or two lucky league wins. Could never have expected this roster to win handily at Michigan and beat 4 Seed Rutgers with three guys sick and out. Then to play Sparty and Wiskey down to the buzzer was incredible, as was winning at Ole Miss.

Players produced way over their heads in majority of games.
 

bga1 said:
I am not arguing for more playing time for TT. What I am saying is that it was frustrating to watch losing that has no future to it. TT has a long way to go to be a Big Ten ready big man. Playing him wouldn't have given me an "oh boy, wait until next year!" feeling. Before the Dorsey scandal, I had that feeling with that edition of the Gophers. They had Murph, McBrayer, Dorsey and Mason out there and even with all the losing you could see the potential and until that scandal it felt exciting. This did not.
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There is a future to it. Coaches laid a foundation for what it now means to play for Minnesota. The guys who can best help win that game will play. Development happens in practice and more so in off season.

Thompson's future is all in his own hands, starting next week.
 










MNVCGUY said:
We all know Johnson will do what he can to fix these issues before next season.

But since you have all the answers - how would you have fixed these problems during the season with the roster that was in place?
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You can’t. Which is why it was so ridiculous that people were offended by me calling this a bad team
 

ecoperson said:
Absolutely! I haven't followed your history on this subject here or on other threads. I think some took offense at the term 'bad' in your description. Bad implies that they are losing every game by 20 plus and offending our aesthetic love of basketball.

This team was extremely over-matched (as I expected) in conference. They kept turnovers to a minimum and, for the most part, continued to play a pleasing team-oriented and organized game of basketball. They just didn't have the horses or legs to hold up to a full season of ball.

In all but a couple of games, this team fought until the horn and made things respectable. Maybe I am splitting hairs but I do not think that is a definition of a bad team.
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My definition of a bad team that loses a lot of games.
By that definition, they were the worst team in the big ten this year.
 

Dakota2 said:
His first class of recruits isn't here yet.
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Yes, they have been playing and on the team this entire season. I guess Battle, Sutherlin, Stephens, Willis, Loewe and others do not exist.
 

bga1 said:
I am not arguing for more playing time for TT. What I am saying is that it was frustrating to watch losing that has no future to it. TT has a long way to go to be a Big Ten ready big man. Playing him wouldn't have given me an "oh boy, wait until next year!" feeling. Before the Dorsey scandal, I had that feeling with that edition of the Gophers. They had Murph, McBrayer, Dorsey and Mason out there and even with all the losing you could see the potential and until that scandal it felt exciting. This did not.
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100% correct. My biggest disappointment with this season is the very point you are talking about. What foundation are you really laying if you have a total of one guy coming back that has had any sort of playing time under this regime? When the entire team with the exception of Ihnen left last April, it led to what essentially was a throwaway year. I would have much rather seen many of the young Pitino guys, Thompson, and Thiem with a record of 2-18 in conference than a bunch of one year guys and a 4-16 conference record. Maybe you see a little growth over the course of the year. We will get that next year, I suppose. But starting with 12 open scholarships could not have been part of the plan. Sorry @ecoperson, not trying to be too negative.
 



golfing18now said:
100% correct. My biggest disappointment with this season is the very point you are talking about. What foundation are you really laying if you have a total of one guy coming back that has had any sort of playing time under this regime? When the entire team with the exception of Ihnen left last April, it led to what essentially was a throwaway year. I would have much rather seen many of the young Pitino guys, Thompson, and Thiem with a record of 2-18 in conference than a bunch of one year guys and a 4-16 conference record. Maybe you see a little growth over the course of the year. We will get that next year, I suppose. But starting with 12 open scholarships could not have been part of the plan. Sorry @ecoperson, not trying to be too negative.
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Nailed it.
CBJ made that choice.
 

golfing18now said:
100% correct. My biggest disappointment with this season is the very point you are talking about. What foundation are you really laying if you have a total of one guy coming back that has had any sort of playing time under this regime? When the entire team with the exception of Ihnen left last April, it led to what essentially was a throwaway year. I would have much rather seen many of the young Pitino guys, Thompson, and Thiem with a record of 2-18 in conference than a bunch of one year guys and a 4-16 conference record. Maybe you see a little growth over the course of the year. We will get that next year, I suppose. But starting with 12 open scholarships could not have been part of the plan. Sorry @ecoperson, not trying to be too negative.
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I agree with this in a vacuum but not everything created equal. For instance, there was a moment last offseason I wasn’t sure we would have 5 healthy scholarship players on the roster.
So while I’d rather have good freshmen than ippclassmen. I would rather have 1 year guys than bad 4 year guys. If he could’ve taken some good quality freshmen I would’ve rather had them. But I am sure he would have if he could have. You aren’t take Lowe over a good freshman.
 

BarnBurner said:
Yes, they have been playing and on the team this entire season. I guess Battle, Sutherlin, Stephens, Willis, Loewe and others do not exist.
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They certainly exist, Greta. They are portal transfers needed to fill out the roster. A few more will be needed next year and the year after. Johnson's first class of Big Ten recruits is on the way.
 

golfing18now said:
100% correct. My biggest disappointment with this season is the very point you are talking about. What foundation are you really laying if you have a total of one guy coming back that has had any sort of playing time under this regime? When the entire team with the exception of Ihnen left last April, it led to what essentially was a throwaway year. I would have much rather seen many of the young Pitino guys, Thompson, and Thiem with a record of 2-18 in conference than a bunch of one year guys and a 4-16 conference record. Maybe you see a little growth over the course of the year. We will get that next year, I suppose. But starting with 12 open scholarships could not have been part of the plan. Sorry @ecoperson, not trying to be too negative.
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You are not helping young guys not good enough to play (Thiam) or strong enough to play (TT) by throwing them on the floor against some of the most gifted athletes on the planet. They get abused. If Thiam could guard Loewe in practice and score on him he would have gotten plenty of game time.
 


Some guy said:
I agree with this in a vacuum but not everything created equal. For instance, there was a moment last offseason I wasn’t sure we would have 5 healthy scholarship players on the roster.
So while I’d rather have good freshmen than ippclassmen. I would rather have 1 year guys than bad 4 year guys. If he could’ve taken some good quality freshmen I would’ve rather had them. But I am sure he would have if he could have. You aren’t take Lowe over a good freshman.
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I agree and understand the difficulty in landing a bunch of quality freshman in April. But that's my frustration in his inability to keep anybody on the team. I would have been more intrigued if they had kept Freeman/Mitchell/Williamns/Ihnen and then talked Johnson or Gach to come back too. Fill in with the two freshman and a handful of transfers. Likely not a tournament team in either case but at least have a few pieces coming back. I understand kids have the opportunity to leave but to lose everybody is almost unprecedented, is it not?

However, as I've said before, plenty of time for this regime to show improvement.
 

golfing18now said:
I agree and understand the difficulty in landing a bunch of quality freshman in April. But that's my frustration in his inability to keep anybody on the team. I would have been more intrigued if they had kept Freeman/Mitchell/Williamns/Ihnen and then talked Johnson or Gach to come back too. Fill in with the two freshman and a handful of transfers. Likely not a tournament team in either case but at least have a few pieces coming back. I understand kids have the opportunity to leave but to lose everybody is almost unprecedented, is it not?

However, as I've said before, plenty of time for this regime to show improvement.
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Yeah. The team outperformed my expectations on the court based on the roster, the roster did not meet my expectations
 


Dakota2 said:
They certainly exist, Greta. They are portal transfers needed to fill out the roster. A few more will be needed next year and the year after. Johnson's first class of Big Ten recruits is on the way.
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They are recruits that came through transfer onto the Mn bb team, the first of the cbj era. Recruits.
 


golfing18now said:
I agree and understand the difficulty in landing a bunch of quality freshman in April. But that's my frustration in his inability to keep anybody on the team. I would have been more intrigued if they had kept Freeman/Mitchell/Williamns/Ihnen and then talked Johnson or Gach to come back too. Fill in with the two freshman and a handful of transfers. Likely not a tournament team in either case but at least have a few pieces coming back. I understand kids have the opportunity to leave but to lose everybody is almost unprecedented, is it not?

However, as I've said before, plenty of time for this regime to show improvement.
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I know it wasn't meant to, but your post made me much more accepting of what happened. Glad those guys in the bold didn't come back. But, it's been rehashed so much. Hopefully better things on the horizon.
 

I cannot agree. BJ must play to win at all costs! Playing someone who is not ready or who has not earned playing time, is never a good thing.... ever!!! I don't care who they are!!
 

MNVCGUY said:
So for this particular season Johnson didn't have a lot of time to construct and manage the roster. He was hired and then had to build a roster almost entirely from scratch over just a couple of months. He then lost 2 of the key pieces of that reconstructed roster before the first game was even played.

We aren't talking about the kind of roster mismangement we saw during the Pitino years, this was a crazy situation where the new coach has to start from nothing and try and field a competitive team in a super short amount of time.
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Save your breath
 

We should fire coach every year until one wins the b1g in their first year. No more settling
 

Some guy said:
Somehow I got roasted for suggesting this isn’t a very good team.

the team got 14th out of 14 and got swept by 13 and 12

bottom 5 team in post WW2 gopher basketball history

In no order
2021-22
2015-16
2006-07
2003-04
1986-87
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Oh good. The trolls are climbing out of their holes to pat themselves on the back for having the unique take that this year's team wasn't going to be good. :rolleyes:

At least get your facts straight if you are going to cocky post about how you should get props for shitting on the team all year.

A) The Gophers didn't get swept by the 12th BT team. They split with both NW and PSU.
B) I've never heard a team losing a single game to another team as a "sweep". But if that's the case.....yes.....the Gophers got swept by the 13th BT team. But by that logic....the Gophers also "swept" the 4th and 8th place finishing Big Ten teams. Sounds kind of stupid....doesn't it?
 

stocker08 said:
Oh good. The trolls are climbing out of their holes to pat themselves on the back for having the unique take that this year's team wasn't going to be good. :rolleyes:

At least get your facts straight if you are going to cocky post about how you should get props for shitting on the team all year.

A) The Gophers didn't get swept by the 12th BT team. They split with both NW and PSU.
B) I've never heard a team losing a single game to another team as a "sweep". But if that's the case.....yes.....the Gophers got swept by the 13th BT team. But by that logic....the Gophers also "swept" the 4th and 8th place finishing Big Ten teams. Sounds kind of stupid....doesn't it?
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Well we got the 14 seed. I thought northwestern and Penn state had passed Maryland when I wrote that. I was wrong. My bad.
No. The team being bad isn’t a hot take. Yet for some reason people are really offended by it.
It’s a terrible team. We should applaud coach Johnson for having his terrible roster win more games than expected. We should expect more of his roster construction.


You call me a troll for saying we are a bad team but then insinuate I am making an obvious statement. Which is it? Am I trolling or am I making an obvious statement? If the truth is trolling then lol
 

Some guy said:
Well we got the 14 seed. I thought northwestern and Penn state had passed Maryland when I wrote that. I was wrong. My bad.
No. The team being bad isn’t a hot take. Yet for some reason people are really offended by it.
It’s a terrible team. We should applaud coach Johnson for having his terrible roster win more games than expected. We should expect more of his roster construction.


You call me a troll for saying we are a bad team but then insinuate I am making an obvious statement. Which is it? Am I trolling or am I making an obvious statement? If the truth is trolling then lol
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Nobody suggested that the team was going to be good this year. Most everyone knew that it was going to be a rough year as evidenced by the preseason expectation thread. A lot of (actual) Gopher fans chose to enjoy the wins and pick out the good things we saw. A number of a-holes decided to shit on the team as many times as possible. A few of which disappeared when the team won games they weren't supposed to win....and reappeared when it served them.

I am calling you a troll because you bumped a thread in order to pat yourself on the back for making the same prediction that most everyone had. The only difference is that most of us aren't celebrating the losses like Team Personality Disorder.
 

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