***OFFICIAL MINNESOTA AT MARYLAND IN-GAME THREAD!!!***

Rule
What I'm saying is that is a discriminatory rule. Players who played that year are given 5 years of eligibility (if they want them) while players who didn't because of injury or something similar get only four. I believe a rule like that is challengeable and that challenge could win.
People make rules (often in haste). Those rules are frequently challenged, sometimes successfully and amended; sometimes they're just interpreted on a case by case basis. This is how some lawyers make a very good living.
Now, if someone can point me to evidence showing where this rule has been challenged and that challenge lost, maybe I'll close my mind on the subject.
The NCAA make the rules,don't play the drscrim
 

I don't know but somebody mentioned Crowl didn't play last year. Wi develops players and teams and has success. Hopefully, Ben has the same results.
Played in 12 games. Total of 39 minutes with 18 of those coming in 2 blowout wins. Scored 8 points total for the year.
 

Is there a Gopher coach capable of working with big men?
 

Coaches view things differently...Johnson quotes:
Building his alma mater from the ground up keeps the rookie coach's thoughts churning, especially since the Gophers have had only three winning Big Ten seasons in the past 20 years.


Ben Johnson
"You got to stick to your guns and stay the course," Johnson says. "Get through the process. Once you do, then that's when you can really win."
So, the seniors don't have time to learn the process in this situation. As a coach you overlook their shortcomings, appreciate their contributions because without them you wouldn't have spots to build on next year. You need their support of the program going forward...so they play.

TT on the other hand is held to a higher standard. If he doesn't do what he's asked, he sits even in times of adversity. Playing time is a privilege. "Stick to your guns and stay the course. Get through the process. Once you do that's when you can really win."

I don't know but somebody mentioned Crowl didn't play last year. Wi develops players and teams and has success. Hopefully, Ben has the same results.

And Thiam is in over his head.
WI had a winning program and depth in younger players. This team has no depth and is not competitive this year. I would have tried to give our (2) young players some decent playing time to give them experience going into next year. We were not competing for a B1G title like WI.
Unless a MN big transfers back to be closer to family, don’t expect Shaq to come through the portal. Look at what we ended up with, CD and Ogele. Even the Badgers ended up with a stiff in Chris Vogt. Robbins came and left with his uncle.
A player like Walton would help immensely and have 3 more season with the extra Covid season.
TT surprised us when he had to play. I would have tried to build on the positive. Thiam may be in over his head, but what harm would it do to play him for 3 min early in each half on a 4-15 team?
Getting them some game experience doesn’t mean throwing them out there for 30+ min a night.
If I was a recruit and saw only a 5 man rotation with our 2 freshman anchored to the bench on a 13th place team, it would make me think twice about the program.
 

WI had a winning program and depth in younger players. This team has no depth and is not competitive this year. I would have tried to give our (2) young players some decent playing time to give them experience going into next year. We were not competing for a B1G title like WI.
Unless a MN big transfers back to be closer to family, don’t expect Shaq to come through the portal. Look at what we ended up with, CD and Ogele. Even the Badgers ended up with a stiff in Chris Vogt. Robbins came and left with his uncle.
A player like Walton would help immensely and have 3 more season with the extra Covid season.
TT surprised us when he had to play. I would have tried to build on the positive. Thiam may be in over his head, but what harm would it do to play him for 3 min early in each half on a 4-15 team?
Getting them some game experience doesn’t mean throwing them out there for 30+ min a night.
If I was a recruit and saw only a 5 man rotation with our 2 freshman anchored to the bench on a 13th place team, it would make me think twice about the program.
A player like Shaq would rarely transfer and so not be available in the portal. The vast majority of players are players moving closer to home, dissatisfied with playing time, relocating after a coaching change or some combination thereof.

This team would be lucky to be 1-18 if Thiam had played 3 minutes in each half this B1G season. This team would have also lost at least 4 games in the non conference. Would you rather be 6-22 (1-18) with countless blowouts or 13-15 (4-15) with all but a few games being extremely competitive? You don't sacrifice a culture of accountability for the development of a marginal player who is not guaranteed to even be here next year... ever.

Recruits know a lot more about the team than us fans. They have frequent conversations with coaches. They know the game better than we do and those that come on official visits see exactly what is going on. They watch practices and can see why the two frosh are not playing.

These are confident kids so they think that it will never happen to them. They are also intelligent enough to know that this team is a product of various circumstances and that things will be different next year with a full year under the belt.

Recruits will think twice, thrice, and four times about this program because of what they see. The recruits that Johnson is seeking are exactly the type of recruits who will find what this squad does extremely appealing.
 


A player like Shaq would rarely transfer and so not be available in the portal. The vast majority of players are players moving closer to home, dissatisfied with playing time, relocating after a coaching change or some combination thereof.

This team would be lucky to be 1-18 if Thiam had played 3 minutes in each half this B1G season. This team would have also lost at least 4 games in the non conference. Would you rather be 6-22 (1-18) with countless blowouts or 13-15 (4-15) with all but a few games being extremely competitive? You don't sacrifice a culture of accountability for the development of a marginal player who is not guaranteed to even be here next year... ever.

Recruits know a lot more about the team than us fans. They have frequent conversations with coaches. They know the game better than we do and those that come on official visits see exactly what is going on. They watch practices and can see why the two frosh are not playing.

These are confident kids so they think that it will never happen to them. They are also intelligent enough to know that this team is a product of various circumstances and that things will be different next year with a full year under the belt.

Recruits will think twice, thrice, and four times about this program because of what they see. The recruits that Johnson is seeking are exactly the type of recruits who will find what this squad does extremely appealing.
The idea recruits will worry about the playing time of the two freshmen is likely so far down their list of questions that it wouldn't make the list.
 

The idea recruits will worry about the playing time of the two freshmen is likely so far down their list of questions that it wouldn't make the list.
And that's a true fact. And as Eco said above, our new recruits will come in with confidence. They think they are better. I do too. Be surprised if Payne, Carrington, and maybe Henley are not getting regular playing time. How much depends on how well we do in the portal.
 


This team would be lucky to be 1-18 if Thiam had played 3 minutes in each half this B1G season. This team would have also lost at least 4 games in the non conference.

If this is true, then they better start having conversations with Thiam to find a new place next year. Maybe those conversations have already been had. Otherwise, that's a bad recruiting mistake to tie up a scholarship for a guy who if he played would cost the team seven wins if he played just six minutes per game.
 



If this is true, then they better start having conversations with Thiam to find a new place next year. Maybe those conversations have already been had. Otherwise, that's a bad recruiting mistake to tie up a scholarship for a guy who if he played would cost the team seven wins if he played just six minutes per game.
The seven wins I reference were all close games that came down to the wire. Even one or two unforced errors in games like that could have cost us the game. ANY rookie would be more likely than a vet to make mistakes. 6 minutes is 15% of a game. As we have seen all season, this team had a very slim margin of error.

Thiam is not a strong ball handler and this team needed someone who could take care of the rock. His 3-pt shooting percentage in JC was fantastic. He might be a fine role player without the ball in his hands as a spot up shooter. IF he is a recruiting mistake, you don't compound a recruiting mistake by playing the guy valuable minutes that he didn't earn. You can't add a player mid season so the scholarship is lost already. No harm, no foul.
 

You’re right. This board isn’t to discuss or question anything. I’m sorry for my outburst.
Not saying anything about discussing various aspects of the team. But it just seems like we'd like to actually have some idea of what's actually going on before we start making assumptions about why he does or does not decide to play somebody. Just seems like that, until Coach Johnson decides one day to take an hour to throw one his players under the bus with an exact description of what he does or doesn't do to earn more playing time, it's foolish to be so fixated and get so upset about it. If it's that important to know, it would probably be a good idea to become part of the team, or become such a trusted friend of Coach Johnson, that he would confide all that stuff to us.

In the years I've covered sports teams, there have been a few times where a coach or administrator close to a program mentioned something to me, or I saw something during a practice or meeting, and was asked to not say anything publicly about it, so as not to turn it from a solvable molehill of a problem, to an unsolvable mountain of a problem; or just because they didn't want to throw somebody under the bus.

It's no different than me coming up with all sorts of suggestions for my neighbor on how to fix his marriage and raise his kids when the only time I see him is when they're headed to work/school and a few times when we share a couple of beers on his back porch. It's kinda dumb to think I actually have any idea what's really going on, based on the 1% of his life that I actually get to see in person.

It just seems like a big waste of energy to get all worked up about it, when we can't do a thing to change it.
 




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