TonyLiebert
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Gophers suffer 8th loss in 9 games 71-59 to Iowa | Gopherhole
- Thread starter TonyLiebert
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Do not agree with the headline. I don't believe this years' Gopher team "should" beat Iowa. And certainly not in Iowa City.
Especially if Battle has an off day. We competed well. We need more and better players before we "should" beat just about anybody.
We are 11and 9. Michigan is 11 and 9. Think about that.
Especially if Battle has an off day. We competed well. We need more and better players before we "should" beat just about anybody.
We are 11and 9. Michigan is 11 and 9. Think about that.
Spaulding!No!
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Hand picked team by Ben isn’t able to compete in Big Ten.
MNVCGUY
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2 starters lost for the season before the season started. Short timeframe to make a roster with clear focus put on future.
This team isn't setup to win in the Big Ten this year but they are competing. But feel free to troll away.
MNVCGUY
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In spite of what some of the resident trolls will say this season has been a success on a lot of levels. Losses are frustrating but anyone paying attention should have been prepared for a rough Big Ten season. By all accounts this team has played better overall than most of us expected, they just need everything to go right in order to have a shot at winning most nights.
PMWinSTP
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Another brilliant post from you...
We competed very well the first half. When Iowa turned up the level of effort- we didn't come close to matching it. The second half was a beat down and we did not compete well at all in the second half.
Do you hate yourself?
This is the attitude of a loser.
I'm sorry, but this is not the way.
You "should" beat middling teams. You don't need talent to beat bad teams, you need toughness, defense, rebounding, stuff that takes effort and nothing else.
I agree our talent isn't there. But you also have 2 players that will make all conference in your starting 5.
Sure, Ben I'll bet feels we should beat every team we play. But somewhere somebody needs some common sense. Iowa is an established program. They are not a "bad team". Their all conference selection will be a Top 10 pick in the NBA draft, ours will be in another country if they desire to continue playing.
Yup, toughness, rebounding and defense is all you need. No respect for your opponent because they got no talent and can't coach. You might add depth to your list to be credible. We have none.
Depth is for sure needed.
And I don't think Iowa is bad either. But just as I have said in other threads. It doesn't get any better here until we can do less with more. Ben showed he was capable of that at the start of the season...
Honestly, fine with where they are for his first year. But if this kind of thing keeps happening in year 2-3-4, then I am not.
short ornery norwegian
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So MN - a team currently at #91 in the NET rankings - plays IA - a team currently at #22 in the NET rankings. The game is at Iowa.
and that is a game that MN "should" win?
Iowa has the better W-L record. Iowa has the better NET rating. Iowa is the home team.
and that is a game MN "should" win?
hey, I want to see the Gophers win, too. But the Gophers have no margin of error when they're playing a team that is better on paper. Battle had a bad game and the Gophers lost.
I agree but that does not mean going in we "should" have won. We were outstanding in the first half. Second half we couldn't keep up...Murray was pretty dominant both ends.
MNVCGUY
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Yeah, 2nd half was disappointing but Iowa is flat out a better team than we are right now. They will be in the NCAA Tournament and they are led by one of the best players in the country. They have had a bit of an up and down season but this is still a quality team.
We played a great first half, just couldn't sustain it in the 2nd half.
Understand. Minnesota will never have talent. Until we win.
The university is in the middle of one of the worst "woke" urban centers in America, has problems winning and is extremely cold.
I'm not saying Iowa is a game they "should" win, I am saying they NEED to win games like this with the kind of talent level they have before things turn around here.
High end kids are not coming to this University just because Ben Johnson is a nice guy.
The university is in the middle of one of the worst "woke" urban centers in America, has problems winning and is extremely cold.
I'm not saying Iowa is a game they "should" win, I am saying they NEED to win games like this with the kind of talent level they have before things turn around here.
High end kids are not coming to this University just because Ben Johnson is a nice guy.
Ben has taken huge strides. I'll agree the game was there to win on Sunday but we fell short.
But most of our wins have been eye openers. Tell me you expected us to beat Michigan on the road and Rutgers down three starters. The signs are there. Tell me you expected us to start undefeated?
Ben has gotten people's attention. I like his talent evaluation with a couple unexplainable exceptions. We will add some transfers to the freshmen and be better next year, Im confident of that.
Spaulding!No!
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I am not sure how anyone could predict success or failure for this new staff. As of now it is monsontubbypitino like. Those who say it is better are dreamers.
I agree with you. I really do.
I do also know that this rise to competitiveness has to be Tony Bennet or Bo Ryan like.
It won't happen with talent. It just won't. I do agree with you though, that it should get better than it is now. Jamison Battle though, has talent. Tons of it. He is as good as anyone.
I just don't ever see us landing 4 star talent on the regular. Not to this university.
Please take your 'woke' slinging to the OTB. You are wrong about MSP and, even if you were right, being woke would ATTRACT talent here not discourage it!
The Gophers NEEDED to win games against Western Kentucky, Princeton, Mississippi State, Michigan, and Rutgers under a variety of challenging circumstances and DID. This is exactly why so many nationally including many coaching competitors have heaped glowing praise upon Coach Johnson and this team.
Most see the excellent job that this staff has done with a rag tag group of misfits and little bench and project how things might look with a full bench and a slight increase in talent. A small number of local fans still carry some hate because they didn't like the hire. They had to run into the corners like cockroaches earlier in the season but are now slowly creeping back to throw shade as the losses pile up in conference.
Coach Johnson isn't going to attract kids to the U because he is a nice guy. He is going to attract kids to the U because this nice guy builds relationships with local student athletes from an early age. He will attract these kids to the U because they see how they can fit into the cohesive team-first system that this staff has established.
Are you really a fan of the University of Minnesota Golden Gophers? This coach is in his first year and has dealt with extremely adverse circumstances. How can you possibly paint with such a broad brush about next year let alone 2-4 years from now?
If Coach Ben Johnson can find Jamison Battle and Payton Willis and convince them to transfer in with no tape and no history as a head coach, I expect that he should be able to improve on this in coming years.
PMWinSTP
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I definitely understand, but I don't see much roster stability until at least year 3 for Ben.
short ornery norwegian
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Roster Stability may be a thing of the past.
There may be some programs that can still recruit a bunch of HS players, develop them, and keep them for 4 years.
But, I suspect the majority of programs are going to have some fairly steady roster churn. 1 or 2 kids leave for the portal because they aren't getting playing time, so the coach has to go out and find 1 or 2 kids in the portal to replace them.
and, if one or more of your HS recruits doesn't pan out, or isn't ready to play as a FR, you might need to go out and get a grad transfer or a 1-year kid through the portal as a stop-gap.
I suspect that is going to be closer to the norm.
College sports in the era of NIL and the Portal. It's like the Zipper Merge. You may not like it, but you have to learn to live with it.
Not a chance ! 1
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Why do you use the word “We?” You blew off the program. You returned your tickets and demanded a refund in a snit when the university instituted public safety measures that were a minor inconvenience for you.
Wet_Blanket_Guy
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Do I think Ben can coach, yes, but it is extremely sad that we talk about wins against Western Kentucky and Princeton as big wins.
Let's just cut right to it. We are a really bad team, but a really bad team with hope. While I did not support the hire, Ben has shown that he can maximize the talent of his roster (which is really bad in terms of Big Ten *exceptions Battle and Willis*), which is what good coaches always do. We need to give him 3 or 4 years before we can say one way or the other if he was / wasn't the right hire.
Hopefully with some luck in recruiting and being a player in the transfer market, we can upgrade the talent and let Ben continue to maximize the talent / effort of his roster.
Finally, we will never win the big ten. We should strive to finish 4-6 (MSU, Michigan (they will come back strong), WI & Purdue will most likely always finish in the top tier (essentially the Big Ten is like Formula 1...Mercedes and Red Bull are locks for either 1 or 2...then it is a battle for the best of the rest (Minnesota should be happy with winning that battle).
salzie
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just ignore him
I disagree with that headline, it's a game we could have won, but a couple things one it's not easy on the road in this league and two Iowa's not a bad team, they have an All American do everything type in Keegan Murray, Bohannon a sixth year starter at PG and they have a bunch of guys who are capable role players. This team went into Virginia and got a win, there not bad. We played a great first half, defense was probably good enough to win overall, but you're not winning too many games putting up 19 in the second half. Who knew that all Iowa needed to play good defense was for Fran to not coach, we also missed some shots, thought Ben did a good job trying to get Battle going but ultimately you have to make the shots in that situation and he didn't.
PMWinSTP
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We'll see. What I do know is 10 players are juniors or seniors.
When has any University of Minnesota team attracted big name talent? Seriously, you have to look into the history of how things are and understand this is not an attractive place to play Basketball or Football. So winning has to be won with superior coaching, culture and hard nosed play.
Also, if you don't think the goings on of Minneapolis have scared people away from the city, you haven't been paying attention at all.
I can agree. And I am with you about the roster. I do think talent level will improve from where it is now for sure.
But those expecting Johnson to bring in classes towards the top of the conference are kidding themselves. This university will always be in that 7-10 range as it applies to recruiting until it wins something.
Anything thinking that this will change just doesn't pay attention. Wisconsin is the mold and always has been here. Look at what PJ Fleck is doing. He is Barry Alvarez.