Gophers Dennis Evans "Is the most polarizing HS player in the country"

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I am not sure that is what you want to hear. The recruit that has been touted as the guy to save the program and the coaches job(at least from some on here) you hope there is more consensus to his stardom.
 

WoodburyTim said:
I am not sure that is what you want to hear. The recruit that has been touted as the guy to save the program and the coaches job(at least from some on here) you hope there is more consensus to his stardom.
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It's still better than having to listen to your side...who says Nolan Winter is the savior to lead another Final Four run like his dad did.
 

To me Evans sounds a lot like Joel Pryzabilla! A skinny 7-1 shot blocker out of high school but raw on the offensive end. A McDonald all American and brobably the 2nd or 3rd rated center that year. He averaged 7ppg, 6 reb, and a couple blocks as a fr. so year before he quit his offense was coming around: 14 ppl, 8.5 boards, and 3.9 blocks. Is this a good comparison?
 

listened to the section about Evans. one thing I noted is that some services had Evans ranked lower because he did not play in a big-time AAU program or go through the EYBL circuit.

I think there is a perception - or bias if you will - that a player who doesn't go through the shoe-sponsor circuit must be lacking in some way.

in the end, what matters is whether he - or any other recruit - can play.

We'll find out. I don't expect him to walk in and be a superstar on day 1. But it sounds like there is still a lot of room for growth and development.
 


march madness said:
To me Evans sounds a lot like Joel Pryzabilla! A skinny 7-1 shot blocker out of high school but raw on the offensive end. A McDonald all American and brobably the 2nd or 3rd rated center that year. He averaged 7ppg, 6 reb, and a couple blocks as a fr. so year before he quit his offense was coming around: 14 ppl, 8.5 boards, and 3.9 blocks. Is this a good comparison?
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I’ll take those numbers in a heartbeat
 

short ornery norwegian said:
listened to the section about Evans. one thing I noted is that some services had Evans ranked lower because he did not play in a big-time AAU program or go through the EYBL circuit.

I think there is a perception - or bias if you will - that a player who doesn't go through the shoe-sponsor circuit must be lacking in some way.

in the end, what matters is whether he - or any other recruit - can play.

We'll find out. I don't expect him to walk in and be a superstar on day 1. But it sounds like there is still a lot of room for growth and development.
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He gives us Hope and a reason to pay attention next year😃
 


Some fume about the coaching hire. And so what I am writing next may make them even more disappointed.

The reality at Minnesota is that another coach will not be coming at an expensive contract while the school has to pay Ben Johnson. It's not going to happen. The budget for this program has been spent.

Get used to a Collins and Pikiel scenario.

The team needs to pull itself up by the bootstraps and pull it together. Another coach is not on the way. No way ever will this school spend a lot of money for a change now.

Maybe after next season if the team hasn't made progress. Johnson hasn't yet built his team to be judged yet. It's like a project that gets graded when it's finished.

Both Northwestern and Rutgers are performing well with coaches that had bad teams before. They were bad. Eventually the teams got better under these "bad" coaches.

Pikiel was 3-15 in conference play in 2017-18, I believe is 3rd season. He had a losing season the next, his 4th season. Now they are winning, and his contract is extended to 2030.

Collins at Northwestern has been 10th or worse in the Big Ten in 7 out of 9 seasons.

With Rutgers, the team had to rebuild with the toughest recruiting situation.

Northwestern is really good and heading up.

Get used to the reality of Collins and Pikiel, at least through the end of next season.

No coaching change this year.

Will Dennis Evans help this program rock in March Madness with Ben Johnson? We will find out.

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march madness said:
To me Evans sounds a lot like Joel Pryzabilla! A skinny 7-1 shot blocker out of high school but raw on the offensive end. A McDonald all American and brobably the 2nd or 3rd rated center that year. He averaged 7ppg, 6 reb, and a couple blocks as a fr. so year before he quit his offense was coming around: 14 ppl, 8.5 boards, and 3.9 blocks. Is this a good comparison?
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Think that's a good comp. Could see Evans scoring 6 grabbing eight boards, racking up blocks and altering shots next year. I do think Payne will make a leap, especially we can upgrade the guard play
 

march madness said:
To me Evans sounds a lot like Joel Pryzabilla! A skinny 7-1 shot blocker out of high school but raw on the offensive end. A McDonald all American and brobably the 2nd or 3rd rated center that year. He averaged 7ppg, 6 reb, and a couple blocks as a fr. so year before he quit his offense was coming around: 14 ppl, 8.5 boards, and 3.9 blocks. Is this a good comparison?
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Pretty good comp, but Joel was still likely farther along a this stage than Evans is. He was the consensus 8th best player in the country coming out of high school.
 

Bfan said:
Some fume about the coaching hire. And so what I am writing next may make them even more disappointed.

The reality at Minnesota is that another coach will not be coming at an expensive contract while the school has to pay Ben Johnson. It's not going to happen. The budget for this program has been spent.

Get used to a Collins and Pikiel scenario.

The team needs to pull itself up by the bootstraps and pull it together. Another coach is not on the way. No way ever will this school spend a lot of money for a change now.

Maybe after next season if the team hasn't made progress. Johnson hasn't yet built his team to be judged yet. It's like a project that gets graded when it's finished.

Both Northwestern and Rutgers are performing well with coaches that had bad teams before. They were bad. Eventually the teams got better under these "bad" coaches.

Pikiel was 3-15 in conference play in 2017-18, I believe is 3rd season. He had a losing season the next, his 4th season. Now they are winning, and his contract is extended to 2030.

Collins at Northwestern has been 10th or worse in the Big Ten in 7 out of 9 seasons.

With Rutgers, the team had to rebuild with the toughest recruiting situation.

Northwestern is really good and heading up.

Get used to the reality of Collins and Pikiel, at least through the end of next season.

No coaching change this year.

Will Dennis Evans help this program rock in March Madness with Ben Johnson? We will find out.

View attachment 23699
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It was Pickel second season, they had a nice run at the BTT that year, then I think they won 6-7 big ten games the next year and in year four it all came together and they've been at an NCAA level since. Collins is interesting as his program crashed after a nice build up to year four. His current group is experienced and has played a lot of bad basketball together, but they've always had offensive talent, this year they started defending, but I think Bouie and Aldige are done after this year so could be back to the cellar for them. Pickel pretty much turned over his program so I think his is more sustainable. Cam Spencer was a nice portal add, I was hoping we would land him
 

Bfan said:
Some fume about the coaching hire. And so what I am writing next may make them even more disappointed.

The reality at Minnesota is that another coach will not be coming at an expensive contract while the school has to pay Ben Johnson. It's not going to happen. The budget for this program has been spent.

Get used to a Collins and Pikiel scenario.

The team needs to pull itself up by the bootstraps and pull it together. Another coach is not on the way. No way ever will this school spend a lot of money for a change now.

Maybe after next season if the team hasn't made progress. Johnson hasn't yet built his team to be judged yet. It's like a project that gets graded when it's finished.

Both Northwestern and Rutgers are performing well with coaches that had bad teams before. They were bad. Eventually the teams got better under these "bad" coaches.

Pikiel was 3-15 in conference play in 2017-18, I believe is 3rd season. He had a losing season the next, his 4th season. Now they are winning, and his contract is extended to 2030.

Collins at Northwestern has been 10th or worse in the Big Ten in 7 out of 9 seasons.

With Rutgers, the team had to rebuild with the toughest recruiting situation.

Northwestern is really good and heading up.

Get used to the reality of Collins and Pikiel, at least through the end of next season.

No coaching change this year.

Will Dennis Evans help this program rock in March Madness with Ben Johnson? We will find out.

View attachment 23699
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I think there is a continuum of opinions on Ben. I think he has good potential. I think he has character and connects with the kids. In terms of strategy, in game coaching and roster construction- I think he is as green as the grass. Time will tell how his learning curve goes.

My beef in general is not with the man, Ben Johnson. The complaint is with the administration putting him in this situation. This was so predictable.
 



bga1 said:
I think there is a continuum of opinions on Ben. I think he has good potential. I think he has character and connects with the kids. In terms of strategy, in game coaching and roster construction- I think he is as green as the grass. Time will tell how his learning curve goes.

My beef in general is not with the man, Ben Johnson. The complaint is with the administration putting him in this situation. This was so predictable.
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This is a thoughtful post. Well done.

I remember listening to a game on the radio where the defense the Gophers were using was being exploited. The announcer kept saying, when are they going to switch. Why are they sticking with this scheme.

I hear the people who say what they see are mistakes.

I don't know know for sure. Sometimes you can't do the better scenario. Maybe earlier in the game they tried the other things and players were lost. I don't know.

It also seems strange that the game can be well coached against Indiana and then two lame efforts.

I do hear you.

I do hear those saying the contract should ha e gone to a more experienced coach.

I also see who recruiter Johnson has coming in which is not bad.
 

Bfan said:
This is a thoughtful post. Well done.

I remember listening to a game on the radio where the defense the Gophers were using was being exploited. The announcer kept saying, when are they going to switch. Why are they sticking with this scheme.

I hear the people who say what they see are mistakes.

I don't know know for sure. Sometimes you can't do the better scenario. Maybe earlier in the game they tried the other things and players were lost. I don't know.

It also seems strange that the game can be well coached against Indiana and then two lame efforts.

I do hear you.

I do hear those saying the contract should ha e gone to a more experienced coach.

I also see who recruiter Johnson has coming in which is not bad.
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If all he can do is recruit, he should be an assistant coach. Problem solved
 


march madness said:
To me Evans sounds a lot like Joel Pryzabilla! A skinny 7-1 shot blocker out of high school but raw on the offensive end. A McDonald all American and brobably the 2nd or 3rd rated center that year. He averaged 7ppg, 6 reb, and a couple blocks as a fr. so year before he quit his offense was coming around: 14 ppl, 8.5 boards, and 3.9 blocks. Is this a good comparison?
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This is a great contribution.

Joel Przybilla was drafted in the NBA first round at overall pick #9. Przybilla played two seasons at Minnesota.

en.wikipedia.org

Joel Przybilla - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org en.wikipedia.org

Some are saying Evans projects to a top-5 pick.


You can't teach height.

Evans already is amazing at shot blocking. He can score in the paint. He seems to distribute the ball fine. Those long arms really do help with some things, despite the lampooning in this group. The new news is that he has flashed scoring offense away from the paint. I think the big question is how he will do when he's not on defense with his back to the rim.


I think the new reality is Evans starting early, and then everyone needs to think about who else plays where.
 


Bfan said:
This is a great contribution.

Joel Przybilla was drafted in the NBA first round at overall pick #9. Przybilla played two seasons at Minnesota.

en.wikipedia.org

Joel Przybilla - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org en.wikipedia.org

Some are saying Evans projects to a top-5 pick.


You can't teach height.

Evans already is amazing at shot blocking. He can score in the paint. He seems to distribute the ball fine. Those long arms really do help with some things, despite the lampooning in this group. The new news is that he has flashed scoring offense away from the paint. I think the big question is how he will do when he's not on defense with his back to the rim.


I think the new reality is Evans starting early, and then everyone needs to think about who else plays where.
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Przy played a season and a half, not two seasons. That’s what many of us remember. He bailed on his team during a turnaround. He grew up and admitted his immaturity but it was bad at the time.
 


Bfan said:
Northwestern is really good and heading up.
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Stop saying things like this. Northwestern is having a good year. That's is all. One good year isn't a "trend" or "turning a program around." If that were the case, Pitino would still be here (he had three good years in his 8 year tenure). The old saying of "don't dwell in the past, live in the present" generally is sound life advice but some people take that saying too far!

Even two consecutive good years isn't necessarily a trend. Collins had two consecutive good years in 2016 and 2017 but the next five years were losing seasons.
 

I'm not sure if Johnson has discussed this publicly, but it would be very interesting to know exactly what his plan is for Evans - how Johnson expects to work him into the rotation, and how that impacts other players on the team, especially Payne.

I think we've all watched enough basketball to understand the difference that a strong defensive presence in the post can make. my local HS boys BB team doesn't have a player on the roster taller than 6'1" - and they're giving up 80 pts a game. (of course, they're scoring 89 pts a game....)

so now it's up to Johnson to make it work and maximize what Evans can bring to the team.

and - let's face it - Johnson is not a fool. He has to know that his future with MN is riding on how well he makes this work.
 

Bfan said:
This is a great contribution.

Joel Przybilla was drafted in the NBA first round at overall pick #9. Przybilla played two seasons at Minnesota.

en.wikipedia.org

Joel Przybilla - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org en.wikipedia.org

Some are saying Evans projects to a top-5 pick.


You can't teach height.

Evans already is amazing at shot blocking. He can score in the paint. He seems to distribute the ball fine. Those long arms really do help with some things, despite the lampooning in this group. The new news is that he has flashed scoring offense away from the paint. I think the big question is how he will do when he's not on defense with his back to the rim.


I think the new reality is Evans starting early, and then everyone needs to think about who else plays where.
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Didn’t a ton of people say Payne flashed scoring potential in HS outside of the paint?
 

So I am hearing Joel was a higher rated recruit, so Evans very likely could average less! So if Christie comes in and gets maybe 8-9 ppl where is this team 4-6 more wins?

Realistically if Ben cannot find a true quick experienced guard next year we aren't talking NCAA"s we are talking NIT at best, and maybe a hot seat? I don't want to be debbie downer bought how many years are we to wait until we get to what Patino had? Fleck brought some great recruits with him to the U, future draft picks! Ben got nobody on a decent Xavier team now ranked! I am having trouble being patient.
 

march madness said:
So I am hearing Joel was a higher rated recruit, so Evans very likely could average less! So if Christie comes in and gets maybe 8-9 ppl where is this team 4-6 more wins?

Realistically if Ben cannot find a true quick experienced guard next year we aren't talking NCAA"s we are talking NIT at best, and maybe a hot seat? I don't want to be debbie downer bought how many years are we to wait until we get to what Patino had? Fleck brought some great recruits with him to the U, future draft picks! Ben got nobody on a decent Xavier team now ranked! I am having trouble being patient.
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Joel started becoming a great player in his sophomore season. Let's hope Evans does the same. That's also when our current freshmen will hopefully start becoming very good.

Let's not melt-down game-by-game before then.
 

EasyThere Pilgrim said:
Joel started becoming a great player in his sophomore season. Let's hope Evans does the same. That's also when our current freshmen will hopefully start becoming very good.

Let's not melt-down game-by-game before then.
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Now its TWO years from now? Your timeline is slipping.
 


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