Well, Daniels does give effort, of that I have no doubt. He is however one of the stiffest basketball players I have ever seen. He is just terribly clumsy and like Roberto Duran, has got 'manos de piedra' (hands of stone).
I think fatigue is totally a factor. Johnson continually riding the same horses, you can see the guys are gassed when it comes to crunch time. And now that is factoring in from the start. Another reason he should have been getting at least 10-15 minutes from the start for Thiam and TT so as to give the other guys a breather and not wear them down as he has. Doing the same thing Pitino did.
I actually don't disagree on Thiam. But either play him or have a difficult conversation for breakfast about what is best for him after this season. Maybe they have.
I follow the timberwolves and gophers. The basketball in this state has been brutal and embarrassing for decades. Hopefully, the wolves are turning it somewhat around.
I think we have less wins overall this season if we play those two early. I think the staff did it right this year and got as many wins early as they could. Let TT get his feet wet, hopefully he continues to get better. The rotation piece here isn’t because he wants to, it’s cause he had to do a full overhaul of the roster and it’s hard to get that many competent B1G players. Next year he can hit the portal for 2-3 guys. They can be more selective and pointed in their recruitment. They also have film of how they play. They also will have a real recruiting class. Let’s start judging rotations and depth development after next year.
I agree with you somewhat in regards to wins. But I think getting both Thiam and TT at least 10 min per game early would have been helping right now. This year never should have been strictly about wins.....we all like winning BB, but we also brought Johnson in to improve for the future of this program. Without early development of the young guys we will not improve. Next year we have a good crop of guys coming in but they will be deer in the headlights. All freshman suffer from the game being too fast and not having experience to deal with the level of play. Without having more experience from TT and Thiam (if he is any good...we do not know due to lack of playing time), it will be very hard next year as well. Depth development should start day 1 if you are a good coach that is looking towards the future. All of these guys will be gone next year except Battle, so there is NO excuse to not have started developing TT and Thiam by letting them get at least 10-15 minutes per game. As I said, when we first saw TT for the 2-3 minutes he was in early in the season, many did not think highly of him. But now that we are seeing more minutes we can see potential. We need to see more minutes from Thiam and let him get his feet wet, we may yet be surprised and start to see potential in him. But clearly if Johnson does not get going, Thiam will be gone and we will never know. This is what happened with Pitino, lack of bench development that clearly resulted in trouble when the main guys went down.
Yeah, I'm wondering if they're just ground down into nothing. Already. Still a lot of season left.
They've had lots of worse losses than this through the years. They lost a road game in the B1G in front of pumped up fans primed for a win.
In the end, this season's record wouldn't be much different if Thiam and TT played more throughout the season.
"I appreciate all the stuff about culture, yada, yada, but at the end of the day it comes down to whether you can do the above and finish ahead of the Badgers for the first time in over two decades."
This has to do with depth period.
I don't disagree, I think they try to sprinkle those guys in more towards the end of the year possibly. I'm a little more in the camp though that the offseason will help these guys develop more than playing time this year (I still agree both should get more minutes though).
Agreed. Other teams have figured us out more and more as the season has gone on as well. More tape. The ball dominant Willis offense has lost steam, and we just don't have other guys to make things happen.
Finch is a solid coach. Wolves are slowly turning a corner I think.
I hear you on the developing part, but I will push back on that playing them just for experience isn't best for all. They have to earn some of it and they have to have some semblance of being ready. I see TT growing and I see him getting some more regular minutes, but for him it will be match up based until he gets stronger. Thiam imo just isn't ready and I don't know if throwing him out to the wolves is the best for him or not. Honestly I think he gets passed up by our freshman and transfers next year anyhow. I hear your worries about the lack of depth after what we watched the last 8 years, but this seems different to me than how Pitino did it. I will reserve my judgement on developing a bench for next years squad where Ben and his staff have had more time to truly build a roster. This years was slapped together very quickly (imo the right move) to build relationships with our 2022 class. Next spring they get to find pieces a little more selectively.
I like those three as well. For sure we will hit the portal but I want to see a ton of minutes for the 4 freshmen next year. It is bearable to watch some losing that shows future.
Yep. They lost control of the game in the first 10 minutes. Not fatigue.
II showed improvement closer to the hoop, however his shooting did not really improve IIRC.
From the tipoff.
Yeah PG should be priority 1 IMO. It's killing us this year, and it's gotta be addressed going into next year.
