In addition to finishing last in the NCAA in FT%...

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EG#9

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The Gophers finished 352nd (out of 352 teams) in free throw percentage, but they also were...

349th in fastbreak points
340th in turnovers forced per game
335th in scoring margin
318th in rebound margin
296th in 3 point fg %
292nd in effective fg %
 

Every one of those stats are a reflection of coaching. The emphasis on defense, the effectiveness of your defense. How many deflections did we get? Deflections lead to fast break baskets. Hard to win when defense is that bad....no reason for it to be.
And free throws is coaching...if you don't think it is ....well, well. you are just wrong. :) And if you don't think it is...who evaluated and recruited those shooters to finish last?
 


That's pretty bad, obviously, but maybe not surprising for a last-place team that wasn't competitive in a lot of games.

Perhaps the most damning thing is the variety of categories they suck in--things relating to both skill and athleticism. I mean, what are they any good at? If you think you've recruited good players, much of it has to be the way they're being coached, right? If not, then your recruiting has been faulty. You can't blame all of this on youth.
 

EG#9 said:
The Gophers finished 352nd (out of 352 teams) in free throw percentage, but they also were...

349th in fastbreak points
340th in turnovers forced per game
335th in scoring margin
318th in rebound margin
296th in 3 point fg %
292nd in effective fg %
Click to expand...
Wow! That is some spectacular level of inefficiency.

The FG efficiency is just crazy bad and worse it was two of our heavy usage guys who drove the number.
Points per shot
Battle 1
Cooper 1.1
Garcia 1.2
Payne 1.7
JOJ 1.3
Carrington 1.1
Henley 1.1
Samuels .9
TT .9
Team 1.16 pts/fga

By comparison- a good team like Purdue is getting 1.3 points per shot. When you are getting 50-60 shots per game- that's 7-8 points per game. Our best player- Garcia, doesn't hit Purdue's average. Yipes.

I continue to be mystified that people think Battle is such a big loss. He is not an efficient player, not a good defender, not a good rebounder and doesn't get much for assists. Perhaps with another PG or star players he would be an excellent role player. Yes, Battle drew good defenders, but he never made the other team pay by feeding open team mates.
 
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60's Guy said:
Every one of those stats are a reflection of coaching. The emphasis on defense, the effectiveness of your defense. How many deflections did we get? Deflections lead to fast break baskets. Hard to win when defense is that bad....no reason for it to be.
And free throws is coaching...if you don't think it is ....well, well. you are just wrong. :) And if you don't think it is...who evaluated and recruited those shooters to finish last?
Click to expand...
If free throw percentage is all coaching then how do you explain Cooper?

He made 81% from the line in his first year at Moorhead State
Second year he made 61%
Third yer he made 65%
This year for the Gophers he was back at 60%

That said, Johnson and his staff are going to have to take a hard look at how they work on free throws because it absolutely cost them last night. If Cooper in fact does move on they need to put a high priority on getting a transfer PG who is good at the line so that he can have the ball in his hands late in games.

Payne has to find a way to improve his percentage. He took the most free throws on the team and only made half of them. Teams will just start hacking him down low and sending him to the line all the time if he doesn't improve from there. High school stats are tough to find but I wonder how Payne was from the line in high school.

Going to be an interesting off season for sure.
 

Honest question on all this, where are other teams in the Big Ten for perspective? I suspect there are not large differences but I don’t have numbers to back it up. Small changes may drop you far down the ratings. That being said, we are bad, but say how far are we from the middle of the Big Ten pack?
 

Outsider said:
Honest question on all this, where are other teams in the Big Ten for perspective? I suspect there are not large differences but I don’t have numbers to back it up. Small changes may drop you far down the ratings. That being said, we are bad, but say how far are we from the middle of the Big Ten pack?
Click to expand...
See post above- we lose 7-8 points per game just on shooting efficiency versus a good team like Purdue. Then add a couple points on free throws, 3-4 points lost on turnovers and 3-4 points lost on rebounding and you add that up to being terrible- which we were.
 



Where do they rank nationally in players games lost due to injury? Has there been anyone on this team not hurt this year? Where do they rank in number of freshmen playing significant minutes per game? From what I recall one announce stated that the Gophers have had 4 freshmen averaging over 20 minutes per game and not other Big Ten team has more than one.

Ben was handed a dumpster fire year one with only one returning player and he missed the entire season. To me he gets a pass for year one for sure and for year two. He cannot get a pass for off season year two in terms of losing significant developing players to the portal and not filling his need for a point guard. He cannot get a pass for significant improvement year three.
 

This all stems from.... not caring about defense.

All I have seen out of this team is summed up by "the best defense is outscoring your opponent" and that ain't working.
 

Ewert86PC said:
This all stems from.... not caring about defense.

All I have seen out of this team is summed up by "the best defense is outscoring your opponent" and that ain't working.
Click to expand...
This is 100% backwards.

The primary issue with this Gopher team is lack of offensive skill.

They weren't a good defensive team, but they were--are--incredibly inept at scoring points.
 




MNVCGUY said:
If free throw percentage is all coaching then how do you explain Cooper?

He made 81% from the line in his first year at Moorhead State
Second year he made 61%
Third yer he made 65%
This year for the Gophers he was back at 60%

That said, Johnson and his staff are going to have to take a hard look at how they work on free throws because it absolutely cost them last night. If Cooper in fact does move on they need to put a high priority on getting a transfer PG who is good at the line so that he can have the ball in his hands late in games.

Payne has to find a way to improve his percentage. He took the most free throws on the team and only made half of them. Teams will just start hacking him down low and sending him to the line all the time if he doesn't improve from there. High school stats are tough to find but I wonder how Payne was from the line in high school.

Going to be an interesting off season for sure.
Click to expand...
How do you explain your apologist rants?
 

USAF said:
This is 100% backwards.

The primary issue with this Gopher team is lack of offensive skill.

They weren't a good defensive team, but they were--are--incredibly inept at scoring points.
Click to expand...
Look, not being a good defensive team comes off as not caring about defense.

There was a decision, somewhere, that since they're not going to focus on defense, outscoring opponents was the way to go. [insert egg on face emoji].

The choice to focus on scoring is a coaching decision.

The choice to recruit players who were a mix of poor defenders and questionable scorers is a recruiting failure.

We are no longer in a position to "coach up" recruits. We need players who can make a difference on the court now.

The question is do we give Ben a third chance at finding immediate impact players in the transfer portal?
 

Crappie said:
How do you explain your apologist rants?
Click to expand...
No apologist here. I am firmly in the camp that Johnson should get 3 years. If we are still in the same position at this time next year I will be right there with those calling for him to be fired.

And on a side note.....how does anything I said in that post qualify as a rant?
 


Ewert86PC said:
The question is do we give Ben a third chance at finding immediate impact players in the transfer portal?
Click to expand...
I agree with that part.

I vote no, but I believe THIS election actually IS rigged and he's getting another year, minimum.
 

We suck
EG#9 said:
The Gophers finished 352nd (out of 352 teams) in free throw percentage, but they also were...

349th in fastbreak points
340th in turnovers forced per game
335th in scoring margin
318th in rebound margin
296th in 3 point fg %
292nd in effective fg %
Click to expand...
 

EG#9 said:
The Gophers finished 352nd (out of 352 teams) in free throw percentage, but they also were...

349th in fastbreak points
340th in turnovers forced per game
335th in scoring margin
318th in rebound margin
296th in 3 point fg %
292nd in effective fg %
Click to expand...
WOW!!! Terrible. I agree that it is coaching! BJ does not shoot the ball, but he gets the players that do. He needs to go. Just plain embarrassing!
 

Atl Gopher said:
Where do they rank nationally in players games lost due to injury? Has there been anyone on this team not hurt this year? Where do they rank in number of freshmen playing significant minutes per game? From what I recall one announce stated that the Gophers have had 4 freshmen averaging over 20 minutes per game and not other Big Ten team has more than one.

Ben was handed a dumpster fire year one with only one returning player and he missed the entire season. To me he gets a pass for year one for sure and for year two. He cannot get a pass for off season year two in terms of losing significant developing players to the portal and not filling his need for a point guard. He cannot get a pass for significant improvement year three.
Click to expand...
So the mystical lineup of… cooper, ihnen, Battle, fox, Garcia would’ve done better?

Then JOJ and Payne wouldn’t have been allowed the time to develop…same as Henley for that matter.

Here’s a hint…that’s an atrocious lineup if that’s the lineup CBJ would’ve started and used.
 

60's Guy said:
Every one of those stats are a reflection of coaching. The emphasis on defense, the effectiveness of your defense. How many deflections did we get? Deflections lead to fast break baskets. Hard to win when defense is that bad....no reason for it to be.
And free throws is coaching...if you don't think it is ....well, well. you are just wrong. :) And if you don't think it is...who evaluated and recruited those shooters to finish last?
Click to expand...
THIS! If our players played hard and lost I could accept that, but this team didn't do a single thing well this season on offense or defense, which is 100% on coaching.
 

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