Giving an F is silly. I know we live in a time of knee jerk reactions but there wasn’t a soul that had this team finishing 4 games under .500 before the season started. Particularly with power conference road wins including the big one at Michigan. Despite being undersized and undermanned, they played up against Wisconsin both times and were a play or two away from pulling an upset. To me that matters when there’s a clear talent gap, we’re undersized and short on depth. Willis and Battle (who we get two more years of) were tremendous adds, if Ihnen and Parker Fox aren’t lost for the season, I think we’re on par or slightly better than PSU and Maryland. Payne’s arguably got the highest ceiling in the state and as mentioned before, Carrington’s looking like the front runner for Mr. Basketball. Henley’s also had an impressive year out in California.
the games that disappointed me most were @Nebraska, @PSU,
@iowa and @NW, just inexcusable effort in those games. The front court transfers they brought in were not good, missing on Race and Dawson aren’t the end of the world but there were definitely better options out there. Would have been nice to have a bigger bodied 5 even if Ihnen and Fox were healthy. Another ball handler would have been nice too, Thiam was a questionable addition.
I’d give the season a C+. Slight overachievement with the strong non-conference showing. The roster overhaul was necessary IMO because I thought the culture was poor and the parts didn’t mesh to a point to produce good team basketball. In flashes, we saw a fluid offense with good floor spacing, a coach that maximizes timeouts, defensive creativity and flexibility despite clear disadvantages, a real sense of togetherness both on the court with effort and off the court with how united they were as a group. Also restoring a sense of pride with the return of some of the players of the past, hopefully that’s something that can be built on.
I feel positive about this staff in the longer term, both Johnson and each of his assistants are impressive in their own right. Obviously a big off-season coming up that likely shapes how this tenure will go, I believe we’ll see higher quality transfers and I’m hopeful we pull one of the big three in-staters before the summer’s out. Hang in there, we got through the rough transition year…wasn’t too dissimilar to Fleck’s first was it?
gopherhole.com
Actually, I think you're very fair and knowledgable so it kind of is a downer. When you're 76 and have had many more lows than highs since you heard Lou Hudson broke his shooting hand, you really want to see the light at the end of the tunnel get brighter.
