Enjoying Gopher Basketball

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Gopherbbdude

Gopherbbdude

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I assume like many of you last night, you were on the edge of your couch/chair thinking that we could actually beat bucky(if you weren't I truly feel sorry for you and your half empty cup).

I feel like we have had a chance in every game we have played, but just can't seem to finish them(for many reasons). This is FAR different than the last few years. The only team I feel we have very little chance to beat is Purdue, the rest of the Big10 is beatable by the Gophers.

I truly am enjoying this season unlike the last 2 seasons. Losing is always hard and losing close ones to your rivals is even harder. This world is full of negativity and SM pushes that narrative. Hiding behind a keyboard or phone makes it very easy to rip on someone or a team. I will choose to stay positive and support OUR team until the end.

I know the "half empty" crew will chime in and rip this thread and me to pieces but I said what I said.

I see the future being bright

GO GOPHERS!!!!
 

Gopherbbdude said:
I assume like many of you last night, you were on the edge of your couch/chair thinking that we could actually beat bucky(if you weren't I truly feel sorry for you and your half empty cup).

I feel like we have had a chance in every game we have played, but just can't seem to finish them(for many reasons). This is FAR different than the last few years. The only team I feel we have very little chance to beat is Purdue, the rest of the Big10 is beatable by the Gophers.

I truly am enjoying this season unlike the last 2 seasons. Losing is always hard and losing close ones to your rivals is even harder. This world is full of negativity and SM pushes that narrative. Hiding behind a keyboard or phone makes it very easy to rip on someone or a team. I will choose to stay positive and support OUR team until the end.

I know the "half empty" crew will chime in and rip this thread and me to pieces but I said what I said.

I see the future being bright

GO GOPHERS!!!!
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The NYC 👃what’s you’re posting!!!
Thanks for picking me up, I was feeling a little down.

Let the naysayers naysay - it takes more courage in my experience to remain positive and upbeat.

Let’s Win Saturday!!
Huzzah 🙌🎉🥳
 
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I think these players are fun to watch and they are giving effort. Enjoying Gopher basketball would have been made easier last night if I had been able to watch 2000 BADger fans walk out the door with their cocky tails between their legs wondering how they will ever win again in the Barn.
 


bga1 said:
I think these players are fun to watch and they are giving effort. Enjoying Gopher basketball would have been made easier last night if I had been able to watch 2000 BADger fans walk out the door with their cocky tails between their legs wondering how they will ever win again in the Barn.
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Nothing worse than having Skunks fans win in our building, and making their presence known throughout the game.
 


Those late game sequences were so classically depressing gophers basketball. It was completely predictable that we would find a way once again to lose in a situation like that and we did. I can’t agree that it’s fun to watch losses that are just reverberations of the marrow of this program - ineptitude when it matters.

Get some wins against T25 or at least rivals and we can have fun.
 

You can support the team and program, while also acknowledging that it needs a change in leadership. Those two aren't mutually exclusive.

I'd argue if you wish to continue on with the current regime, you aren't supporting the program's best interests.
 



Gophers7633 said:
You can support the team and program, while also acknowledging that it needs a change in leadership. Those two aren't mutually exclusive.

I'd argue if you wish to continue on with the current regime, you aren't supporting the program's best interests.
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If you include Coyle and admin, I agree.
 

SamSquatch said:
Those late game sequences were so classically depressing gophers basketball. It was completely predictable that we would find a way once again to lose in a situation like that and we did. I can’t agree that it’s fun to watch losses that are just reverberations of the marrow of this program - ineptitude when it matters.

Get some wins against T25 or at least rivals and we can have fun.
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2 minutes to go, game tied, our home court, Hawkins comes up court and the coach is calling or him to hold the ball. Turnover.

1 minute to go we get a huge break- technical on Wisky with the game tied. Garcia misses the FT- we stall, Garcia gets off a tough three late in the clock and misses.

Playing with a play not to lose attitude is usually a loser. I you believe you can't do it, you won't.
 


Last night was the only game of the season I haven't seen (I watched one other on replay). I was following it intermittently on my phone. I was extremely discouraged in the first half but I was proud of their comeback and the way they fought to the end even though they lost a one-score game.

Although I thought we had a chance, I didn't expect to win last night. One thing I haven't seen mentioned is that last night was Wisconsin's second lowest scoring total of the season (Providence held them to 59). The game also represented Wisconsin's 6rh lowest shooting percentage of the season.

The most frustrating thing about the loss for me is the 5-13 free throw shooting. I don't know if Ben Johnson will be here next year but, if the team has openings for portal transfers, Johnson needs to make sure anyone he recruits has a history of going to the line and making them.

I'm not going to assume yet that this team's current losing streak will doom the season. Other Gopher teams in recent history have had longer losing streaks than this and recovered to salvage the season.
 



This year has been a good bit more enjoyable than the past two, but that's a pretty low bar. Truth be told, I don't know when I've been more deflated after a game than when we walked out of the arena after the Missouri meltdown. There's only so much enjoyment you can feel when the highest quality non-conference game you'll see all season ends like that.

Their conference record in the Johnson tenure isn't a social media concoction or "narrative." Before the internet, you would have looked that up in the newspaper, and it would have been just as bad. And instead of your Twitter follows bemoaning the situation, it would've been your friends and classmates in person. Same diff.

The bottom line is that, last night, a national television audience observed the vast difference between peer programs who should enjoy about the same level of success but do not, and the only logical explanation is that Wisconsin is very good at this kind of thing, and we're very bad. That's humiliating, and humiliation is not very enjoyable.
 

This is the most hilariously ironic thread I have read

The guy making this thread is claiming to be part of the glass half full crew, calling out people who doubt the team

And hes the same guy who said just yesterday that we can only beat wisconsin if Hawkins goes for 10 assists and 0 turnovers at minimum.

Yeah, you got a lotta faith in the squad.

Forget about getting the program back on track. Step 1 should be getting fans that are not posting from padded rooms.
 

Bad Gopher said:
This year has been a good bit more enjoyable than the past two, but that's a pretty low bar. Truth be told, I don't know when I've been more deflated after a game than when we walked out of the arena after the Missouri meltdown. There's only so much enjoyment you can feel when the highest quality non-conference game you'll see all season ends like that.

Their conference record in the Johnson tenure isn't a social media concoction or "narrative." Before the internet, you would have looked that up in the newspaper, and it would have been just as bad. And instead of your Twitter follows bemoaning the situation, it would've been your friends and classmates in person. Same diff.

The bottom line is that, last night, a national television audience observed the vast difference between peer programs who should enjoy about the same level of success but do not, and the only logical explanation is that Wisconsin is very good at this kind of I, and we're very bad. That's humiliating, and humiliation is not very enjoyable.
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Interesting that one team is very good at it and one is very bad and the result is a two-point game decided in the last few seconds. Seems like a thin line between very good and very bad.
 

Dakota2 said:
Interesting that one team is very good at it and one is very bad and the result is a two-point game decided in the last few seconds. Seems like a thin line between very good and very bad.
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You understand the difference between weather and climate...?
 

Dakota2 said:
Interesting that one team is very good at it and one is very bad and the result is a two-point game decided in the last few seconds. Seems like a thin line between very good and very bad.
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The difference between the two programs isn't solely depicted by one game, wingnut.
 


Bad Gopher said:
That's humiliating, and humiliation is not very enjoyable.
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Why are you personally humiliated by an underachieving college basketball program? You aren't playing or coaching.

You know, I read people around here worrying about being jeered by Badger fans after a football or basketball loss. Seems to me there is a very simple solution for that: don't hang out with Badger fans or, if you do, tell them that sort of thing if off limits. I have a long-time friend who is a die-hard Iowa fan who used to do that sort of thing but he no longer does.
 

bga1 said:
Garcia misses the FT- we stall, Garcia gets off a tough three late in the clock and misses.

Playing with a play not to lose attitude is usually a loser. I you believe you can't do it, you won't.
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Perhaps, but it seems to me that our players are damned if they do and damned if they don't go quickly with the clock winding down. For example, look at how Mitchell was maligned after taking that late three pointer against Michigan State. I didn't have a problem with that shot because we needed to close a significant gap with little time left and I believe we would have lost even if he hadn't taken that shot.
 

Bad Gopher said:
This year has been a good bit more enjoyable than the past two, but that's a pretty low bar. Truth be told, I don't know when I've been more deflated after a game than when we walked out of the arena after the Missouri meltdown. There's only so much enjoyment you can feel when the highest quality non-conference game you'll see all season ends like that.

Their conference record in the Johnson tenure isn't a social media concoction or "narrative." Before the internet, you would have looked that up in the newspaper, and it would have been just as bad. And instead of your Twitter follows bemoaning the situation, it would've been your friends and classmates in person. Same diff.

The bottom line is that, last night, a national television audience observed the vast difference between peer programs who should enjoy about the same level of success but do not, and the only logical explanation is that Wisconsin is very good at this kind of thing, and we're very bad. That's humiliating, and humiliation is not very enjoyable.
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From my vantage point it looks like we are at the same place, in terms of team development arc, that Wisconsin was at this time last season.

Both teams are/were inconsistent. They were learning how to win last season. The difference is they had expectations last season we did not.

Both team’s flaws are different. I see us as a team that gets into a rush offensively. Then we go through scoring droughts. I often see mitchell and Christie in particular take a series of off balance shots. Usually it gets corrected and then we make our push.

I think given our preseason expectations, people nationally are more likely to consider us a surprise vs embarrassing. They are more likely to see a team that needs to tighten up their process. Once done we should be fairly good.
 

TwistingMyMelon said:
Why are you personally humiliated by an underachieving college basketball program? You aren't playing or coaching.

You know, I read people around here worrying about being jeered by Badger fans after a football or basketball loss. Seems to me there is a very simple solution for that: don't hang out with Badger fans or, if you do, tell them that sort of thing if off limits. I have a long-time friend who is a die-hard Iowa fan who used to do that sort of thing but he no longer does.
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On one hand, this is a good point and question. On the other hand, it's been discussed ad-nauseum in this forum. Like it or not, varsity athletics is the most prominent public face of collegiate institutions. Right or wrong, they convey and form the public image of the institution. If a school is a bunch of fuckups in sports, it comes across as a bunch of fuckups, and the alumni are, by association, seen a bunch of fuckups. I don't make these rules; I'm just the messenger. You should try to be good at everything you do, or don't do it.

Not to mention, the sports experience is integral to the student experience. Your success can be the difference in some talented students' decisions on where to go. It's not unimportant. In other words, it's important.
 


atsgopher said:
From my vantage point it looks like we are at the same place, in terms of team development arc, that Wisconsin was at this time last season.

Both teams are/were inconsistent. They were learning how to win last season. The difference is they had expectations last season we did not.

Both team’s flaws are different. I see us as a team that gets into a rush offensively. Then we go through scoring droughts. I often see mitchell and Christie in particular take a series of off balance shots. Usually it gets corrected and then we make our push.

I think given our preseason expectations, people nationally are more likely to consider us a surprise vs embarrassing. They are more likely to see a team that needs to tighten up their process. Once done we should be fairly good.
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Ummm, this is the typical Gopher fan line of thinking that continuously sets people up for disappointment.

Wisconsin faced a MUCH tougher non con last year. They beat Stanford, Dayton, Marquette, USC. Lost to Kansas by 1. Not all those teams were good but all better than anything close to the gophers did.

They went 9-11 in a tougher BIG10 too. Gophers have to still find a way to do that.

Oh yeah, and Wisconsin took a leap this year because not only did they return everyone but they also added Storr. You planning on Ben finding a AJ Storr chilling in the portal? He hasnt yet. Heck, Hawkins is his closest thing to finding a Klesmit.
 


MUgopher32 said:
Ummm, this is the typical Gopher fan line of thinking that continuously sets people up for disappointment.

Wisconsin faced a MUCH tougher non con last year. They beat Stanford, Dayton, Marquette, USC. Lost to Kansas by 1. Not all those teams were good but all better than anything close to the gophers did.

They went 9-11 in a tougher BIG10 too. Gophers have to still find a way to do that.

Oh yeah, and Wisconsin took a leap this year because not only did they return everyone but they also added Storr. You planning on Ben finding a AJ Storr chilling in the portal? He hasnt yet. Heck, Hawkins is his closest thing to finding a Klesmit.
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Dawson and Battle had better offers than any player Wisconsin brought in as transfers.

Continuity is a big reason teams get better from year to year. Acting like it isn't is dumb. See Northwestern last year as another example.
 

atsgopher said:
I think given our preseason expectations, people nationally are more likely to consider us a surprise vs embarrassing. They are more likely to see a team that needs to tighten up their process.
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Good point, but I guess how much of a good point depends upon how the rest of the season goes.

Towards the latter part of last season, there was a mocking tournament bracket circulating around the Twitterverse featuring Minnesota, Georgetown, Louisville, and California. The question next to the bracket was "Who would win this tournament?"

At the end of last season, there were 7 sub-200 net Power Conference teams as follows:

NET 2023 RankNET 2024 RankCHANGE
minnesota
220​
96​
124​
Florida State
221​
84​
137​
Oregon State
222​
194​
28​
south carolina
234​
48​
186​
Georgetown
243​
190​
53​
California
313​
136​
177​
Louisville
313​
224​
89​


Perhaps we were unjustly included in that bracket given that we finished the highest of the seven!

One can see that we are one of three teams from that group now ranked in Top 100. South Carolina clearly is the champ (Good transfer move, Mr. Cooper! You got to go home while having the most team success of your college career). Florida State is above us but not by much.

So, we've made a big improvement from year to year. It's already progress but, If we can finish close to the low eighties, I think the season should be considered very definite progress.
Of course, some around here will not be satisfied with that improvement if it occurs. Part of that is due to enmity towards the coach but part is due to sunk cost thinking (they can't forget the past).
 

Johnnyboy18 said:
Dawson and Battle had better offers than any player Wisconsin brought in as transfers.

Continuity is a big reason teams get better from year to year. Acting like it isn't is dumb. See Northwestern last year as another example.
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Dawson? No he didnt.

His only chance of getting a waiver was using close to home sickness after he bailed on his team midseason. Which was coincidentally the second team that got instantly better when he left.

No sh it continuity is why teams get better. But a team thats bad doesnt just magically become good because of continuity. The whole big10 is going to get better, the league is bad this year. If you cant win in this one its not gonna happen next year.

All I said was comparing the gophers to wisconsin last year is mental. Because that badgers team did more with a tougher schedule. And they got better because they brought everyone back and added Storr.
 

Bad Gopher said:
If a school is a bunch of fuckups in sports, it comes across as a bunch of fuckups, and the alumni are, by association, seen a bunch of fuckups. I don't make these rules; I'm just the messenger. You should try to be good at everything you do, or don't do it.
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I don't think that is a rule. I think that's just something in your head. Do you think a single Georgetown law graduate is wishing he/she went to Alabama or Tennessee instead?

I guess I agree more or less with the non-bolded sentence but institutions often feel compelled to do certain things even though those things aren't their top priorities. When it comes to sports, I think one factor that might tend to suppress enthusiasm for and investment in basketball at the U of M may be the popularity of hockey and the cultural significance of that sport to this state. Most Power Conference schools don't have to worry about investing in that competing sport.
 

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