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Otis

Otis

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These are the guys I’d want to keep to build the program.

1. Evans - you thought someone else would be here? Just look what Reggie did for our defense.
2. Garcia - with him next to Evans he would be free to play his game.
3. Payne - he has the best potential of the freshmen but we have depth at his position. So you could talk me down. But this is his spot right now.
4 JoJ - yeah, he fits better at SF than the all-B1G player ahead of him and plays better team ball and is quicker.
5. Cooper - I would like to put him lower but you push him out of the way and you can’t find a PG. So consider this his spot by default.
6. Battle - he makes turnovers, jacks ill-advised shots and is a defensive liability who shoots poorly. He wouldn’t play on a decent team more than 10 minutes.
7 - 11. Christie, Henley, Betts and Carrington - Christie could rise above but his tape shows a stringing guard who is in dire need of a sandwich. Doesn’t look developed physically enough for the B1G. Betts is a near unknown in a position with the top of this list to fight with for PT. Henley and Carrington look thrown to the Wolves so far and need to put on some bulk and improve their games. But these are all building blocks with potential.
12. Ihnen - poster boy for wondering what could have been and what will he be at the same time. I hope he comes back and performs well. But unlike Curry, he never flashed bright on the Williams Arena floor.
13. Fox - he’s going to be in year three of using his 1 remaining year of eligibility and after 2 ACLs. You gotta cheer for the guy, but we have no idea what he’s capable of anymore if we ever really knew.
14. TT - one of those Ts probably stands for transfer. The odds on him developing and beating out those ahead of him are right up there with Lloyd Christmas bedding Lauren Holly.

Ben needs a PG transfer who is a pass first speedy defensive stopper or a summer commitment from Asuma to take the heat off his chair going into next year.
 
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Otis said:
These are the guys I’d want to keep to build the program.

1. Evans - you thought someone else would be here? Just look what Reggie did for our defense.
2. Garcia - with him next to Evans he would be free to play his game.
3. Payne - he has the best potential of the freshmen but we have depth at his position. So you could talk me down. But this is his spot right now.
4 JoJ - yeah, he fits better at SF than the all-B1G player ahead of him and plays better team ball and is quicker.
5. Cooper - I would like to put him lower but you push him out of the way and you can’t find a PG. So consider this his spot by default.
6. Battle - he makes turnovers, jacks ill-advised shots and is a defensive liability who shoots poorly. He wouldn’t play on a decent team more than 10 minutes.
7 - 11. Christie, Henley, Betts and Carrington - Christie could rise above but his tape shows a stringing guard who is in dire need of a sandwich. Doesn’t look developed physically enough for the B1G. Betts is a near unknown in a position with the top of this list to fight with for PT. Henley and Carrington look thrown to the Wolves so far and need to put on some bulk and improve their games. But these are all building blocks with potential.
12. Ihnen - poster boy for wondering what could have been and what will he be at the same time. I hope he comes back and performs well. But unlike Curry, he never flashed bright on the Williams Arena floor.
13. Fox - he’s going to be in year three of using his 1 remaining year of eligibility and after 2 ACLs. You gotta cheer for the guy, but we have no idea what he’s capable of anymore if we ever really knew.
14. TT - one of those Ts probably stands for transfer. The odds on him developing and beating out those ahead of him are right up there with Lloyd Christmas bedding Lauren Holly.

Ben needs a PG transfer who is a pass first speedy defensive stopper or a summer commitment from Asuma to take the heat off his chair going into next year.
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Battle is not anything close to All Big Ten- maybe an honorable mention type player at best. I think you are expecting too much from Evans next year. I hope you are right, but I think he will be great long term.
This is such a weird roster. Any opinion is valid on this one. As of today there is not a single one of them that is a good TWO WAY player.
 


I think on a "better" team, Battle would have a more defined role.

I always go back to Tom Kelly - the job of a coach/manager is to put a player in a situation where he or she has the highest chance of success and the lowest chance of failure.

In Battle's case, because of the Gophers' situation, I think Battle is being asked to do things that take him out of his comfort zone, and I also think he puts pressure on himself to do more to help the team.

on a better team, with a more clearly-defined role, I think Battle could be a great 6th man type, especially if the team ran plays that suited his skill set.

some of his issues with the Gophers are - IMHO - not really his fault.
 

bga1 said:
Battle is not anything close to All Big Ten- maybe an honorable mention type player at best. I think you are expecting too much from Evans next year. I hope you are right, but I think he will be great long term.
This is such a weird roster. Any opinion is valid on this one. As of today there is not a single one of them that is a good TWO WAY player.
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Not really saying Evans will be the best player on the team next year. He has the most upside and is the best building block on the roster though.

Ornery, you are right, Battle is not suited for what is currently required. He needs to play for a team which could hide his flaws and maximize his skills. This is not that team. Unless I’m wrong, Battle only has 1 year remaining. I don’t think his presence will make a difference next year.
 


Otis said:
These are the guys I’d want to keep to build the program.

1. Evans - you thought someone else would be here? Just look what Reggie did for our defense.
2. Garcia - with him next to Evans he would be free to play his game.
3. Payne - he has the best potential of the freshmen but we have depth at his position. So you could talk me down. But this is his spot right now.
4 JoJ - yeah, he fits better at SF than the all-B1G player ahead of him and plays better team ball and is quicker.
5. Cooper - I would like to put him lower but you push him out of the way and you can’t find a PG. So consider this his spot by default.
6. Battle - he makes turnovers, jacks ill-advised shots and is a defensive liability who shoots poorly. He wouldn’t play on a decent team more than 10 minutes.
7 - 11. Christie, Henley, Betts and Carrington - Christie could rise above but his tape shows a stringing guard who is in dire need of a sandwich. Doesn’t look developed physically enough for the B1G. Betts is a near unknown in a position with the top of this list to fight with for PT. Henley and Carrington look thrown to the Wolves so far and need to put on some bulk and improve their games. But these are all building blocks with potential.
12. Ihnen - poster boy for wondering what could have been and what will he be at the same time. I hope he comes back and performs well. But unlike Curry, he never flashed bright on the Williams Arena floor.
13. Fox - he’s going to be in year three of using his 1 remaining year of eligibility and after 2 ACLs. You gotta cheer for the guy, but we have no idea what he’s capable of anymore if we ever really knew.
14. TT - one of those Ts probably stands for transfer. The odds on him developing and beating out those ahead of him are right up there with Lloyd Christmas bedding Lauren Holly.

Ben needs a PG transfer who is a pass first speedy defensive stopper or a summer commitment from Asuma to take the heat off his chair going into next year.
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It's fine to not like the guy but spouting off that Battle wouldn't play more than 10mpg on a decent team reflects more on your analytical skills or a personal beef
 



This is honestly a very difficult question because if I were to replace CBJ in this hypothetical scenario, I think portal players could replace the talent on this roster immediately and produce much better results (could it be worse?).

So in setting that context, my vision would be a run and gun team (ordered from players I would want to keep to players to not keep): *also I am showing their eligibility next year*

1) Garcia (JR) Starting PF - I think in a fast paced game in which he can cook against slow PFs or C's he will be fine (you need to have a clear lane for him as he plays the perimeter but needs to be able to drive to the rim)
2) Evans (FR) starting C- Great potential, but most likely limited immediate impact (which makes Garcia even more important in the near term)
3) Christie (FR) starting SG - great potential, concerned about quickness
4) Payne (SO) backup C- essentially no offense, but can dunk and need a big strong body to play defense in the B10
5) Battle (SR) backup PF - huge struggles this year at SF - need to move him back to PF and play him behind Garcia. With up-temp pace of play, he will still get his minutes (6th man of the year / spark-plug)
6) JoJ (SO) backup SF - good piece for the future, but extremely limited offensively, hurts our pace and space style when in the game. Needs a 3pt to become more 3&D
7) Cooper (SR) backup SG - fine in a backup role - should become a spot shooter, can't be counted on late in games due to FT shooting
8) Betts (RS FR deep bench SF) *i'm super low on Henley and think he is a WCC player at best. Thus I chose Betts as I want to see what he can do next year

Jettison: Fox (JR), Ihnen (JR), Carrington (SO), Henley (SO), Ramberg (SR), Thompson (JR)

Need to get Portal starters for PG, SF to accelerate the winning...also need another portal guard for bench ball handling
 

Interesting topic. No right or wrong answers, at least not yet anyways! I’m going to take the easy way out and limit my choices to which guys on the current roster (including injured players) I’d absolutely want back, no questions asked.

Battle
Cooper
Garcia
Henley (raw, hyper, but there’s something there)
Ola-Joseph
Payne

I’ll leave it up to Ben to fill in the remaining (up to) 5 spots (assumes above 6 + Evans & Christie).
 
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short ornery norwegian said:
I think on a "better" team, Battle would have a more defined role.

I always go back to Tom Kelly - the job of a coach/manager is to put a player in a situation where he or she has the highest chance of success and the lowest chance of failure.

In Battle's case, because of the Gophers' situation, I think Battle is being asked to do things that take him out of his comfort zone, and I also think he puts pressure on himself to do more to help the team.

on a better team, with a more clearly-defined role, I think Battle could be a great 6th man type, especially if the team ran plays that suited his skill set.

some of his issues with the Gophers are - IMHO - not really his fault.
Click to expand...
Battle reminds me of the kid Purdue used to have Stoyanovich (or whatever his name was) who played alongside of Carson Edwards and their other really solid players who you had to deal with. They would attract attention and then that kid would throw the dagger. Battle would be very good as a 3rd option or so.
 

Wet_Blanket_Guy said:
This is honestly a very difficult question because if I were to replace CBJ in this hypothetical scenario, I think portal players could replace the talent on this roster immediately and produce much better results (could it be worse?).

So in setting that context, my vision would be a run and gun team (ordered from players I would want to keep to players to not keep): *also I am showing their eligibility next year*

1) Garcia (JR) Starting PF - I think in a fast paced game in which he can cook against slow PFs or C's he will be fine (you need to have a clear lane for him as he plays the perimeter but needs to be able to drive to the rim)
2) Evans (FR) starting C- Great potential, but most likely limited immediate impact (which makes Garcia even more important in the near term)
3) Christie (FR) starting SG - great potential, concerned about quickness
4) Payne (SO) backup C- essentially no offense, but can dunk and need a big strong body to play defense in the B10
5) Battle (SR) backup PF - huge struggles this year at SF - need to move him back to PF and play him behind Garcia. With up-temp pace of play, he will still get his minutes (6th man of the year / spark-plug)
6) JoJ (SO) backup SF - good piece for the future, but extremely limited offensively, hurts our pace and space style when in the game. Needs a 3pt to become more 3&D
7) Cooper (SR) backup SG - fine in a backup role - should become a spot shooter, can't be counted on late in games due to FT shooting
8) Betts (RS FR deep bench SF) *i'm super low on Henley and think he is a WCC player at best. Thus I chose Betts as I want to see what he can do next year

Jettison: Fox (JR), Ihnen (JR), Carrington (SO), Henley (SO), Ramberg (SR), Thompson (JR)

Need to get Portal starters for PG, SF to accelerate the winning...also need another portal guard for bench ball handling
Click to expand...
Odd time to move on from Carrington and Henley.
 



UpAndUnder43 said:
Odd time to move on from Carrington and Henley.
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How so? Portal players couldn’t do worse if they tried

Carrington is a shooter who can’t shoot.

Henley has shown something these last few games, but there is such a delta to be a serviceable player that I think a portal player solves that immediately.
 

1. Evans
2. Garcia
3. Payne
4. JOJ
5. Battle
6. Christie
7. Copper
8. Henley
9. Carrington
10. Betts
11-13 TT, Fox, Ihnen
 
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short ornery norwegian said:
I think on a "better" team, Battle would have a more defined role.

I always go back to Tom Kelly - the job of a coach/manager is to put a player in a situation where he or she has the highest chance of success and the lowest chance of failure.

In Battle's case, because of the Gophers' situation, I think Battle is being asked to do things that take him out of his comfort zone, and I also think he puts pressure on himself to do more to help the team.

on a better team, with a more clearly-defined role, I think Battle could be a great 6th man type, especially if the team ran plays that suited his skill set.

some of his issues with the Gophers are - IMHO - not really his fault.
Click to expand...
Battle is way worse than Charles Thomas, who was a role player on good teams.
 

SelectionSunday said:
Interesting topic. No right or wrong answers, at least not yet anyways! I’m going to take the easy way out and limit my choices to which guys on the current roster (including injured players) I’d absolutely want back, no questions asked.

Battle
Cooper
Garcia
Henley (raw, hyper, but there’s something there)
Ola-Joseph
Payne

I’ll leave it up to Ben to fill in the remaining (up to) 5 spots (assumes above 6 + Evans & Christie).
Click to expand...
Those should be the guaranteed best 6 players of the current roster. My only quibble is Payne. If like Battle is used and like SON stated about putting players in position to succeed...well then Payne is a detriment. Somebody else puts Battle in positions to be successful and he is All Big Ten. If somebody puts Payne on the block and passes him the ball ... then we can see how good he can be. How many post entries on the block has Payne gotten so far this year? He plays 15 to 25 feet from the basket...he can't shoot from there, he can't handle the ball out there and the thing he is the worst at is passing...so why is that the plan?

We have no idea how healthy and confident Ihnen and Fox will be by the summer...but I wouldn't just throw them away. I believe they could be in our top 5 players quite easily. I can also see them totally ineffective...hard to know without being around them. Gotta believe they are hungry!
 

Wet_Blanket_Guy said:
5) Battle (SR) backup PF - huge struggles this year at SF - need to move him back to PF and play him behind Garcia. With up-temp pace of play, he will still get his minutes (6th man of the year / spark-plug)
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No way Battle accepts coming off the bench. He came here to be the man.
 


Wet_Blanket_Guy said:
How so? Portal players couldn’t do worse if they tried

Carrington is a shooter who can’t shoot.

Henley has shown something these last few games, but there is such a delta to be a serviceable player that I think a portal player solves that immediately.
Click to expand...
Because Johnson hasn’t done well in the portal. So to chase off two guys you want to be here to get Ford Taurus and a pro fisherman—if you’re lucky—is a bad idea. At least these two might get better. Getting a bad 5th year guard doesn’t help at all.
 



UpAndUnder43 said:
Because Johnson hasn’t done well in the portal. So to chase off two guys you want to be here to get Ford Taurus and a pro fisherman—if you’re lucky—is a bad idea. At least these two might get better. Getting a bad 5th year guard doesn’t help at all.
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Agree that he’s been terrible. He needs to hire a big time recruiter as an assistant and unleash the guy.

Hire a kids dad, I could care less, it work for usc. They hired Evan Mobley’s dad and even got the brother who is also a stud (granted not via the portal but I bet that would work).
 

Wet_Blanket_Guy said:
I think it’s unrealistic to come to a big10 program from George Washington and expect to be the man…and he wasn’t even
Crushing that league.
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Came to a team that enabled him to play a ton of minutes and take as many shots as possible. He isn't sticking around to come off the bench.

I don't care if he leaves btw.
 

tikited said:
Came to a team that enabled him to play a ton of minutes and take as many shots as possible. He isn't sticking around to come off the bench.

I don't care if he leaves btw.
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Let him leave. Now that he is back in proximity of family, it’s harder to leave. Option 1) except bench role. Option 2) pursue other options, but that means playing basketball locally in front of your family are over
 

Gophs24 said:
1. Evans
2. Garcia
3. Payne
4. Battle
5. Christie
6. Cooper
7. JOJ
8. Henley
9. Carrington
10. Betts
11-13 TT, Fox, Ihnen
Click to expand...

im tweaking mine
1a. Evans
1b. Garcia
3. Battle
4. JOJ
5. Payne
6. Christie
7. Cooper
8. Henley
9. Carrington
10. Betts
11. Fox
12. Ihnen
13. TT

and if im a betting man today. we will have at least 3 of these guys move on.
 

We are so historically bad, you could say…don’t keep anyone but Evans, JOJ and Christie and fill in with portal everywhere else…and we would be better…

But then CBJ would go get a team of samuels to run out at guard in the B10 and think that’s a sound strategy.

There is no way a portal built team doesn’t beat our results this year and most likely next year with a real coach
 

Gophs24 said:
im tweaking mine
1a. Evans
1b. Garcia
3. Battle
4. JOJ
5. Payne
6. Christie
7. Cooper
8. Henley
9. Carrington
10. Betts
11. Fox
12. Ihnen
13. TT

and if im a betting man today. we will have at least 3 of these guys move on.
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I don't think we are going to be very good next year without a fair amount of movement in the roster. Evans is going to be a year away. My guess is that one of Battle or Garcia moves on, Cooper moves on and TT moves on. There is no point in having both Battle and Garcia on the same team. It is a proven losing combination- not a fit. Bring in a wing who can fill it up and 2 speedy guards.

Ben needs to change his offense in the offseason.
 

bga1 said:
I don't think we are going to be very good next year without a fair amount of movement in the roster. Evans is going to be a year away. My guess is that one of Battle or Garcia moves on, Cooper moves on and TT moves on. There is no point in having both Battle and Garcia on the same team. It is a proven losing combination- not a fit. Bring in a wing who can fill it up and 2 speedy guards.

Ben needs to change his offense in the offseason.
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my guess is that Cooper, TT, and at least 1 of Fox/Ihnen move on.
it wouldnt shock me if 1 of battle of Garcia moves on but i do hope they both stay. they are still our 2 best players.

2 guards who can play are a must.
a change in the assistant coach ranks is a must as well.

while we got 2 really good recruits coming here. the fact that we have to rely on the transfer portal and try to convince 2 legit players (or more) to come and play for this team after the season that is being had is going to be very hard. Ben will be able to put that elite recruiting he has to good use
 

Doesn’t the question needed to be asked, which players on the roster could transfer and be immediately eligible?
 

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