Ben Johnson and this team

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stocker08 said:
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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Really nice job by your of diminishing mental health here
 

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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We never saw the roster Johnson constructed. We saw a good chunk of it, minus two guys with size who would have seen a ton of minutes.
 

MNVCGUY said:
We never saw the roster Johnson constructed. We saw a good chunk of it, minus two guys with size who would have seen a ton of minutes.
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They'd have both played till they dropped. Two best rebounders, two best shot blockers, and in Fox probably the best interior scorer.
 


Some guy said:
Really nice job by your of diminishing mental health here
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Seems like you are lashing out because people aren't congratulating you for your unique take that the Gophers weren't going to be good this year. Quick.....find some of your other posts in threads that have fallen to the second page and beyond.....so that you can bump them and wait for people to rush in and ask how you knew.
 


MNVCGUY said:
We never saw the roster Johnson constructed. We saw a good chunk of it, minus two guys with size who would have seen a ton of minutes.
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Do other teams have injuries? Ever?

Can always count on you for excuses.
 

BarnBurner said:
Do other teams have injuries? Ever?

Can always count on you for excuses.
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It isn't an excuse it is just the reality of the situation the team was in. But I am sure in your infinite wisdom you can provide a ton of examples of teams that have lost 2 key players and nearly all their front court depth before the season and gone on to win the NCAA tournament.....

Every team deals with injuries. And I would fully expect any team in a situation similar to the one the Gophers were in to really struggle.

But will wait to see your examples of all those teams that dealt with multiple season ending injuries before the year started and still went on have great years. I would especially love to hear about the ones that did it in the coaches first year with a roster that was built from scratch over a couple month period.

Will say it again, with the way the remaining guys played it would have been a lot of fun to see this team as constructed in action. Unfortunately that didn't get to happen, and it was easy to see a rough year coming.
 

MNVCGUY said:
It isn't an excuse it is just the reality of the situation the team was in. But I am sure in your infinite wisdom you can provide a ton of examples of teams that have lost 2 key players and nearly all their front court depth before the season and gone on to win the NCAA tournament.....

Every team deals with injuries. And I would fully expect any team in a situation similar to the one the Gophers were in to really struggle.

But will wait to see your examples of all those teams that dealt with multiple season ending injuries before the year started and still went on have great years. I would especially love to hear about the ones that did it in the coaches first year with a roster that was built from scratch over a couple month period.

Will say it again, with the way the remaining guys played it would have been a lot of fun to see this team as constructed in action. Unfortunately that didn't get to happen, and it was easy to see a rough year coming.
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And.............no one has said anything of the sort.

So, I am sure YOU can provide a ton of examples, with quotes of course, to back up what is highlighted above.

If you cant, well then.........I guess your excuses will continue. You are a professional.
 

Well, MNVCGUY - where are the quotes?

Or, perhaps you were lying?
 



MNVCGUY said:
We never saw the roster Johnson constructed. We saw a good chunk of it, minus two guys with size who would have seen a ton of minutes.
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You deny this is the roster the coach constructed?
 


howeda7 said:
Yes. But after that rough start, we stayed remarkably healthy. 7 games missed by starters in total. 9 by the top 8 rotation guys.
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Well, if you add in Fox and Ihnen, potentially two starters, then you can add another 58 games missed to this point.
 
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Some guy said:
You deny this is the roster the coach constructed?
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Not in the least, Johnson had to construct a roster in a really short amount of time. But the roster he constructed and the one that hit the court were very different due to injuries.

Roster constructed:
Starters: Willis, Stephens, Battle, Ihnen, Fox
Bench: Loewe, Sutherlin, Curry, Thompson, Daniels, Thiam
Solid 8-9 man rotation with some decent bench players to spell starters.

Actual roster:
Starters: Willis, Stephens, Loewe, Battle, Curry
Bench: Sutherlin, Thompson, Daniels, Thiam
6-7 man rotation with very limited options on the bench.

The constructed roster wasn't perfect by any means but based on what we got out of the other transfers, and assuming Fox was good enough to justify the massive amount of high major interest he got when he entered the portal, that would have been a pretty solid team.
 

GopherWeatherGuy said:
Two best rebounders and shot blockers? Curry is better than Ihnen at both.
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Obviously, mostly subjective, but if we go by raw numbers - here are their per 40 minute averages:

BLOCKS:
Curry (1.0 blocks per 40 minutes)
Ihnen (1.8 blocks per 40 minutes)

REBOUNDS:
Curry (8.7 rebounds per 40 minutes)
Ihnen (9.5 rebounds per 40 minutes)


Ihnen is a relatively small sample size, as he averaged 13.1 minutes per game in a 50-game college career so far, while Curry is at 20.4 minutes per game in a 103-game college career.
 

tjgopher said:
Obviously, mostly subjective, but if we go by raw numbers - here are their per 40 minute averages:

BLOCKS:
Curry (1.0 blocks per 40 minutes)
Ihnen (1.8 blocks per 40 minutes)

REBOUNDS:
Curry (8.7 rebounds per 40 minutes)
Ihnen (9.5 rebounds per 40 minutes)


Ihnen is a relatively small sample size, as he averaged 13.1 minutes per game in a 50-game college career so far, while Curry is at 20.4 minutes per game in a 103-game college career.
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And players never perform the same way for 40 minutes when they play so few to begin with. If Ihnen was fully capable of putting up those types of numbers over that period of time, he should have been playing more, but he wasn't, for a reason.

Plus those numbers are Ihnen with 2 good knees, and Curry with 2 bad ones. Ihnen now has at least 1 bad knee, and we have no idea how that recovery is going.
 

GopherWeatherGuy said:
And players never perform the same way for 40 minutes when they play so few to begin with. If Ihnen was fully capable of putting up those types of numbers over that period of time, he should have been playing more, but he wasn't, for a reason.

Plus those numbers are Ihnen with 2 good knees, and Curry with 2 bad ones. Ihnen now has at least 1 bad knee, and we have no idea how that recovery is going.
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Yeah, as I said it is mostly subjective. I was just offering raw numbers, as I posted. Really no strong opinion either way.

I do, however, think the assumption that Dakota was making (as would make sense) is that the team lost their two best rebounders and shot blockers when they were healthy, since had they not been injured they wouldn't have lost them.
 

tjgopher said:
Yeah, as I said it is mostly subjective. I was just offering raw numbers, as I posted. Really no strong opinion either way.

I do, however, think the assumption that Dakota was making (as would make sense) is that the team lost their two best rebounders and shot blockers when they were healthy, since had they not been injured they wouldn't have lost them.
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Just take "Best" out of the equation and this argument doesn't really matter. There is zero doubt that Fox and Ihnen would have been major factors in the rebound and blocked shot departments. And the two of them in the mix would have gone a long way towards addressing the massive issue this team had with size and athleticism down low.
 

MNVCGUY said:
Just take "Best" out of the equation and this argument doesn't really matter. There is zero doubt that Fox and Ihnen would have been major factors in the rebound and blocked shot departments. And the two of them in the mix would have gone a long way towards addressing the massive issue this team had with size and athleticism down low.
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Not to mention giving others rest too. We basically played 7 guys down the stretch and 6 of them were always tired on the floor, not a good recipe.
 

MNVCGUY said:
Not in the least, Johnson had to construct a roster in a really short amount of time. But the roster he constructed and the one that hit the court were very different due to injuries.

Roster constructed:
Starters: Willis, Stephens, Battle, Ihnen, Fox
Bench: Loewe, Sutherlin, Curry, Thompson, Daniels, Thiam
Solid 8-9 man rotation with some decent bench players to spell starters.

Actual roster:
Starters: Willis, Stephens, Loewe, Battle, Curry
Bench: Sutherlin, Thompson, Daniels, Thiam
6-7 man rotation with very limited options on the bench.

The constructed roster wasn't perfect by any means but based on what we got out of the other transfers, and assuming Fox was good enough to justify the massive amount of high major interest he got when he entered the portal, that would have been a pretty solid team.
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Got it.
Remind me at the end of the year next year to ask you if the coach should be credited with the roster or not

two guys are out and we have basically 6-7 serviceable players. So that means we have assembled an 8-9 man roster of contributors. I blame monson
 

Some guy said:
Got it.
Remind me at the end of the year next year to ask you if the coach should be credited with the roster or not

two guys are out and we have basically 6-7 serviceable players. So that means we have assembled an 8-9 man roster of contributors. I blame monson
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So you are blaming Johnson for not having established depth on a roster he had to create essentially from scratch over a really short amount of time? Got it.

This was a nearly unprecedented situation with essentially the entire previous roster going into the portal. All things considered Johnson did a heck of a job fielding a team that could even be as competitive as it was (especially after the Fox and Ihnen injuries). Most on this board get that but there are a few of you that seem to live in this fantasy world where it is easy to just go out and pluck the players you need to build a contender from day 1.
 

The question remains, regardless of the roster, did they get markedly better from Nov/Dec up until today? If you can't say that the team has improved as the season has gone on, it's certainly on the table to have questions and concerns about the coaching staff. Regardless of who is on the floor, improvement over the course of the season is coaching, plain and simple.

Are they markedly better today than they were in Nov/Dec?
 


MNVCGUY said:
Just take "Best" out of the equation and this argument doesn't really matter. There is zero doubt that Fox and Ihnen would have been major factors in the rebound and blocked shot departments. And the two of them in the mix would have gone a long way towards addressing the massive issue this team had with size and athleticism down low.
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And neither participated this season.
MNVCGUY said:
So you are blaming Johnson for not having established depth on a roster he had to create essentially from scratch over a really short amount of time? Got it.

This was a nearly unprecedented situation with essentially the entire previous roster going into the portal. All things considered Johnson did a heck of a job fielding a team that could even be as competitive as it was (especially after the Fox and Ihnen injuries). Most on this board get that but there are a few of you that seem to live in this fantasy world where it is easy to just go out and pluck the players you need to build a contender from day 1.
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Like Otzelberger?

Unprecedented!!!

A new coach was hired!! Players left the team!!!!

Never happens.
 

MNVCGUY said:
Not in the least, Johnson had to construct a roster in a really short amount of time. But the roster he constructed and the one that hit the court were very different due to injuries.

Roster constructed:
Starters: Willis, Stephens, Battle, Ihnen, Fox
Bench: Loewe, Sutherlin, Curry, Thompson, Daniels, Thiam
Solid 8-9 man rotation with some decent bench players to spell starters.

Actual roster:
Starters: Willis, Stephens, Loewe, Battle, Curry
Bench: Sutherlin, Thompson, Daniels, Thiam
6-7 man rotation with very limited options on the bench.

The constructed roster wasn't perfect by any means but based on what we got out of the other transfers, and assuming Fox was good enough to justify the massive amount of high major interest he got when he entered the portal, that would have been a pretty solid team.
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As I recall, we got rid of the last guy because we were tired of excuses about injuries and such. This looks like and excuse about injuries...

Ben made some mistakes on roster construction. He coached very well this year in my opinion. He needs to build a much better roster for next year. The no injury squad you listed was likely a 6-7 win club in the Big Ten.
 

Ogee Oglethorpe said:
The question remains, regardless of the roster, did they get markedly better from Nov/Dec up until today? If you can't say that the team has improved as the season has gone on, it's certainly on the table to have questions and concerns about the coaching staff. Regardless of who is on the floor, improvement over the course of the season is coaching, plain and simple.

Are they markedly better today than they were in Nov/Dec?
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BJ recruited this roster for a reason, per his own plan. Injuries certainly hindered his plan. What is the win impact of Fox and Ihnen on the 21-22 roster? We will never know for certain, however they would have had to be really, really good to improve even 3 wins in conference.

We know what II could do pre injury. Not yet on Fox.
 

MNVCGUY said:
So you are blaming Johnson for not having established depth on a roster he had to create essentially from scratch over a really short amount of time? Got it.

This was a nearly unprecedented situation with essentially the entire previous roster going into the portal. All things considered Johnson did a heck of a job fielding a team that could even be as competitive as it was (especially after the Fox and Ihnen injuries). Most on this board get that but there are a few of you that seem to live in this fantasy world where it is easy to just go out and pluck the players you need to build a contender from day 1.
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Yeah. I am blaming the coach for the team.
My bad.

It is okay to criticize the coach.
it is okay to think the coach didn’t do a good job constructing this years roster while at the same time understanding that he had a tough task to put together a good roster.
 

BarnBurner said:
BJ recruited this roster for a reason, per his own plan. Injuries certainly hindered his plan. What is the win impact of Fox and Ihnen on the 21-22 roster? We will never know for certain, however they would have had to be really, really good to improve even 3 wins in conference.

We know what II could do pre injury. Not yet on Fox.
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It’s also okay to understand that it wasn’t easy to put together a roster last minute but still evaluate that he didn’t do a very good job of retaining players from last year nor replacing the ones he lost. He has a couple of nice pieces and I hope he builds on it.
 

GopherWeatherGuy said:
Two best rebounders and shot blockers? Curry is better than Ihnen at both.
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Curry is not either a better rebounder, defender, or shot blocker than Iihnen or Fox, both of whom were, prior to injury, explosive athletes. Eric has been good given his many surgeries and limited mobility and total loss of vertical.
 

BarnBurner said:
DAKOTA does.
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Nope, didn't say that. It is part of the roster he constructed. Just missing the two best rebounders, interior defenders, and shot blockers from the roster he constructed / threw together in a very short time.
 

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