Going into the Big Ten season, the Gophers team is?...

Going into the Big Ten season, the Gophers team is?...

  • Better than I expected

    Votes: 74 63.8%

  • Worse than I expected

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • About what I expected

    Votes: 42 36.2%
  • Total voters
    116
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.....not going to be playing on weakling Wednesday.
 


I put better than expected. We are getting more from Christie than you can reasonably expect from a freshman guard and Hawkins has been slightly better than I thought.

We still have some question marks but we should be competitive.

It could get real ugly for us if we have any health issues in the backcourt.
 

BleedGopher said:
Going into the Big Ten season, the Gophers team is?...
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Definitely a little better than I expected. A team that the Gophers had last year would have dropped those games with Garcia out. Luckily, it was against lesser opponents and were playing as a team. But those kind of wins still build confidence. We can shoot, we run and we can hit our free throws. The defense needs to improve, but that'll get a boost once Carrington comes back. I would say 10-11 Big Ten wins this year.
 



stocker08 said:
.....not going to be playing on weakling Wednesday.
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I can't say that for sure yet; depends upon how the conference teams' records shake out. Remember that Nebraska and Wisconsin took the 11th and 12th places in the conference tournament last season even though they each had 9-11 conference records.

Last season the conference had unusual parity through the conference except for the top team and the two bottom teams. Three wins separated the top team from the second place team but only three wins separated the second place team from the 12th place team. Most of the conference padded their win totals with games against the two bottom teams who combined for only 7 conference wins.
 

Went with about what I expected.

In the non-conference they have had moments were they look really good and moments where they look really bad.

Need to see at least 6 or more wins in the conference season to believe Ben Johnson has the program trending in the right direction.
 

bga1 said:
I'd say about what I expected. I thought they had the talent to win 7-8 games in the Big Ten and I still think that is the right range. One thing I like better than I thought is their ability to shoot. One thing I don't like as much as I hoped is the defense. That needs to get better as does their ability and patience to feed the post. This could be a 10-11 win team if they can get those two things squared away.
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I'm with you on this analysis. I was thinking 6-8 BT wins with the new guard guard improving along the year #24.

How many are we thinking it takes to get in the tourney? 10 wins? 11? 9 even?
I'm hoping, thinking, maybe this team wins 9 BT games. We will see but if they want to show they are improved beating Michigan tomorrow would be a good start.(and a winning BT record for the time being).
 

Dave H said:
It might be...but I guess I would rather enjoy it while it lasts. If they are as bad as I thought they were going into the year I will have plenty of time to whine about that later. Its like worrying about whether Johnson comes back as coach next year no use stressing about that now that will play itself out.

I personally don't think they are going to win as many games as some do but I wont dismiss that they might and I will remain hopeful they can.
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Only reason I think they can win more now is the Big Ten doesn't look great.
Yes, there are those few teams, but overall, I'm thinking there is a big bunch of teams that are all about the same right now.
 



JZABR said:
Definitely a little better than I expected. A team that the Gophers had last year would have dropped those games with Garcia out. Luckily, it was against lesser opponents and were playing as a team. But those kind of wins still build confidence. We can shoot, we run and we can hit our free throws. The defense needs to improve, but that'll get a boost once Carrington comes back. I would say 10-11 Big Ten wins this year.
Click to expand...
 

Two good things happened in non-conference, the loss to Missouri and Dawson’s injury at the right time.

The team learned a lot about how tough you need to be to hold a lead after choking on Mizzu. Winning without Garcia was a big boost to team confidence.
 

Go Gophs said:
I'm with you on this analysis. I was thinking 6-8 BT wins with the new guard guard improving along the year #24.

How many are we thinking it takes to get in the tourney? 10 wins? 11? 9 even?
I'm hoping, thinking, maybe this team wins 9 BT games. We will see but if they want to show they are improved beating Michigan tomorrow would be a good start.(and a winning BT record for the time being).
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Given the awful non-conference schedule and the relative weakness of the conference, they likely need 12 B1G wins to make the tournament.
 

I'd say they are a mystery to me. I would be somewhere between better than expected and about what I expected. I don't think we can talk about one bad half against Missouri without acknowledging that one good half against Nebraska is what got us our only win against credible opposition.

For what it's worth, the bookies see this team as awful right now. On DraftKings, the Gophers have the lowest odds to win the B1G at +25,000 (a $1 bet would pay to $250) while the next closest team is Penn State at +8,000. Purdue is the overwhelming favorite with Wisconsin second at +700. We also are currently 6.5 point underdogs at Michigan tomorrow which is pretty surprising considering they are below .500 and just lost to McNeese State at home. For comparison, McNeese was a 9.5 point underdog in that game.

My biggest questions surround what translates from playing some of the worst teams in the NCAA to playing power 5 basketball. Elijah Hawkins has been fantastic with his playmaking recently with high assist numbers and low turnovers. However vs Missouri he was 6 assists to 4 turnovers, vs San Francisco it was 5 assists to 5 turnovers, against Ohio State it was was 5 assists to 3 turnovers. Was the Nebraska game where he was 11 assists to 4 turnovers a turning point against actual competition or was it an aberration? Since that game against poor competition Hawkins has 47 assists to 6 turnovers!

Then I question how sustainable the 3 point shooting is from JOJ and Ihnen. JOJ is making just under 1 a game and shooting them at an unsustainable 57.9% clip while Ihnen is making about 1.25 a game and shooting them at 40.5%.

We badly need Hawkins recent play to translate to B1G play. Then we need at least one of JOJ or Ihnen to show their shooting is real and provide consistent floor spacing allowing us to occasionally play Garcia and Payne together.
 



Dakota2 said:
Two good things happened in non-conference, the loss to Missouri and Dawson’s injury at the right time.

The team learned a lot about how tough you need to be to hold a lead after choking on Mizzu. Winning without Garcia was a big boost to team confidence.
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Losing to a bad Missouri team was a good thing? How do we know they've learned anything? They are 1-2 against teams with a pulse since that game. We haven't even done what you said. They were trailing the entire SF and OSU game, and blew out Nebraska after trailing big. Unless you want to say we learned how to not choke against Maine and Arkansas Pine Bluff. But those teams just flat out suck.

If the Mizzou game teaches us anything, it's hopefully that Johnson doesn't play stall ball and cost us another game with poor coaching.
 



Gophers7633 said:
Losing to a bad Missouri team was a good thing? How do we know they've learned anything? They are 1-2 against teams with a pulse since that game. We haven't even done what you said. They were trailing the entire SF and OSU game, and blew out Nebraska after trailing big. Unless you want to say we learned how to not choke against Maine and Arkansas Pine Bluff. But those teams just flat out suck.

If the Mizzou game teaches us anything, it's hopefully that Johnson doesn't play stall ball and cost us another game with poor coaching.
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Everybody learned. Players, coaches, ball boys and trainers. Even the whiners are nervous now.
 


Gophers7633 said:
Learned how to lose to a bad team? Okay... Them losing that game didn't really have a bearing on really any outcome after that, so this is just some spinning BS for the apologists.
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Nope, learning what it takes to hold a lead. When all is done intelligent people will see there was value in that game. Those like you will not.
 

Dakota2 said:
Nope, learning what it takes to hold a lead. When all is done intelligent people will see there was value in that game. Those like you will not.
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You are able to learn that without actually losing to a bad team ya know. But by all means, keep spinning a bad loss into a positive.
 

Gophers7633 said:
You are able to learn that without actually losing to a bad team ya know. But by all means, keep spinning a bad loss into a positive.
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Missouri is not a bad team. They are a mediocre team with talent similar to ours. But people can and do learn from mistakes and adversity.
 


Gophers7633 said:
Learned how to lose to a bad team? Okay... Them losing that game didn't really have a bearing on really any outcome after that, so this is just some spinning BS for the apologists.
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As opposed to the full on twirl job you are doing? Are you even reading the posts you are responding to? There is a difference between a "good loss" and "learning from a loss". No team wants to lose but sometimes beneficial things can come from a bad loss.

(and I am not an apologist)
 

Dave H said:
As opposed to the full on twirl job you are doing? Are you even reading the posts you are responding to? There is a difference between a "good loss" and "learning from a loss". No team wants to lose but sometimes beneficial things can come from a bad loss.

(and I am not an apologist)
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I specifically responded to someone saying the Missouri loss was in fact "good". I disagree. If Missouri was a good team, maybe it would be different, but it's a Q3 loss, and a ding on our current resume.
 

The post you responded to right before mine was discussing that a loss can learn from mistakes and adversity...
 

B1G basketball looks a lot like B1G football right now. There are 3 teams clearly better than the rest. Michigan St and Ohio St look like they might be good but still leave a lot to be desired. Teams 6-14 are all similar and who knows who's going to beat who on a given night.
 

Gophers7633 said:
I specifically responded to someone saying the Missouri loss was in fact "good". I disagree. If Missouri was a good team, maybe it would be different, but it's a Q3 loss, and a ding on our current resume.
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I said Missouri loss had value to the team because they learned something about the toughness it takes to hold a lead down the stretch under great pressure. That was borne out at Ann Arbor.
 

Dakota2 said:
I said Missouri loss had value to the team because they learned something about the toughness it takes to hold a lead down the stretch under great pressure. That was borne out at Ann Arbor.
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Did you watch the last 4 minutes of the Michigan game? After the under 4:00 timeout we played like shit. 3 turnovers, 3 fouls, missed the front end of a one and one and Michigan had a wide open 3 to take the lead with 10 seconds left. Got outscored by 5 at this juncture of the game.
 

Gophers7633 said:
Did you watch the last 4 minutes of the Michigan game? After the under 4:00 timeout we played like shit. 3 turnovers, 3 fouls, missed the front end of a one and one and Michigan had a wide open 3 to take the lead with 10 seconds left. Got outscored by 5 at this juncture of the game.
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They played so shi77y that Mich came back and w…wait, I just looked and we actually won the game.
We had a 4 pt lead after the under 4 TO and the 2 FT’s of Michigan coming out of the break. Got a nice bucket from Payne on one possession, a great drive and dish by Hawkins to JoJ for a monster dunk then proceeded to play some great d by the team and specifically by Garcia to force McDaniel to try an off balance, wrong footed push shot that had no chance of going in.
We didn’t play perfectly in that last 4, but they did do enough to win and they play some exceptional ball in the 2nd half to take control of the game.
 

Will be interesting against Maryland. Jahmir Young, Elijah Hawkins, both from DeMatha, albeit Hawkins is younger.
 

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