What's Our Rotation Looking Like 2021 Season?

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Lakers612

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Who is starting? Who is seeing minutes? Who is providing depth at the front court (and back court)?
 

Based on the single scrimmage, I’d see minutes something like:

Willis: 33
Battle: 33
Loewe: 28
Stephens: 26
Sutherlin: 18
Thiam: 15
Curry: 22
Daniels: 12
Thompson: 10
Ogele: 3

Think the guard minutes could fluctuate a lot based on who’s hot, and could see Thiam carving out a bigger role for himself.

Honestly, don’t think this gopher team is THAT far off from being competitive, seems like we have a lot of solid role players. Obviously it’s a big ask, but if you took this team and added a guy like Daniel Oturu to it, I think they’d be pretty solid.
 



Since I have seen like no projections on this, ill throw out my uneducated take based on like 30 minutes of research and knowing how a roster like this would fair in the big ten.

PG: Willis/Stephens
SG: Lowe/Thiam
SF: Sutherland/Battle/Ogele
PF: Battle/Daniels/Ogele
C: Curry/Daniels/Thompson

I think Ben Johnson should try to go big with his lineups, because come conference play we will need size in order to offset our lack of a Big 10 starting-caliber center.

Seems like Sutherland, Battle, Daniels, and Ogele should be playing most of the minutes at the 3 and 4 -- maybe even stagger those 4 a bit so that Sutherland is with one of Daniels and Battle is Ogele for significant minutes ensure we can have above-average shooters next to Daniels and Ogele, who are not going to offer much on the offensive end, but will be a necessity when we are playing bigger, athletic teams.

If we can hide our weakness at Center by having size at the 3 and the 4, think that should help our rebounding. Then on the other end it will come down to Battle and Willis putting up at least 35 points a night, with Stephens, Lowe, Thiam, and Sutherland giving us a consistent 40 in aggregate and hope that keeps us in games.
 


skyman31 said:
And honestly, if Ihnen and Parker Fox were healthy, I’d feel a whole lot better about this team
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I think Daniels actually looked decent, better on the boards than Curry and a better defensive presence. Curry just can't get off the ground like he used to. It feels to me like they might have to split time.
 

Lakers612 said:
Since I have seen like no projections on this, ill throw out my uneducated take based on like 30 minutes of research and knowing how a roster like this would fair in the big ten.

PG: Willis/Stephens
SG: Lowe/Thiam
SF: Sutherland/Battle/Ogele
PF: Battle/Daniels/Ogele
C: Curry/Daniels/Thompson

I think Ben Johnson should try to go big with his lineups, because come conference play we will need size in order to offset our lack of a Big 10 starting-caliber center.

Seems like Sutherland, Battle, Daniels, and Ogele should be playing most of the minutes at the 3 and 4 -- maybe even stagger those 4 a bit so that Sutherland is with one of Daniels and Battle is Ogele for significant minutes ensure we can have above-average shooters next to Daniels and Ogele, who are not going to offer much on the offensive end, but will be a necessity when we are playing bigger, athletic teams.

If we can hide our weakness at Center by having size at the 3 and the 4, think that should help our rebounding. Then on the other end it will come down to Battle and Willis putting up at least 35 points a night, with Stephens, Lowe, Thiam, and Sutherland giving us a consistent 40 in aggregate and hope that keeps us in games.
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Whatever we do, we are going to have to play 10 times better defense than we did last night and to beat any Big Ten team we are going to have to shoot a ton of threes and shoot them at a 40% clip.

I think I'd be going small with Willis, Stephens, Sutherlin, Battle and Curry/Daniels.

Thiam is interesting. He's the most athletic kid on the squad but his game is a little loose.
 

bga1 said:
Whatever we do, we are going to have to play 10 times better defense than we did last night and to beat any Big Ten team we are going to have to shoot a ton of threes and shoot them at a 40% clip.

I think I'd be going small with Willis, Stephens, Sutherlin, Battle and Curry/Daniels.

Thiam is interesting. He's the most athletic kid on the squad but his game is a little loose.
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I agree except Lowe should start (and did I think?) over Sutherlin. It seems like he's the better shooter.
 

I'd start Sutherlin over Loewe. He provides more size, athleticism, and rebounding.
 



add parker to the rotation in about 6 weeks? I've heard nothing about his recovery. A recent instagram photo of him posing in uniform, knee fully bent, no leg wrap. Not sure why you'd take a photo like that if you weren't planning on playing yet this season
 

I think I'd start Loewe over Sutherlin, just because I think Sutherlin might need to get some run at 4.

G: Willis
G: Loewe
G: Stephens
F: Battle
C: Curry

Sutherlin
Daniels
Thompson
Thiam
Ogele

Does Ramberg get some run?
 

GopherOhana said:
add parker to the rotation in about 6 weeks? I've heard nothing about his recovery. A recent instagram photo of him posing in uniform, knee fully bent, no leg wrap. Not sure why you'd take a photo like that if you weren't planning on playing yet this season
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It’s been a little 6 months since he had surgery, and I had originally heard 6-9 months recovery time. Not sure if that was time to start practicing again, or time to be fully back, but in theory he could be back this year. Not sure if it’s worth using up a year of eligibility though
 




bga1 said:
I think I'd be going small with Willis, Stephens, Sutherlin, Battle and Curry/Daniels.
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Pretty much what they did with Thompson spelling Battle and Loewe rotating with the other three wings.
 

howeda7 said:
I agree except Lowe should start (and did I think?) over Sutherlin. It seems like he's the better shooter.
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No problem with that. The thing with Sutherlin is he is so scrappy and might help make up for the lack of bigs on the boards. What we have is not much, but it will be interesting to see how creative Ben can be with the roster.
 

skyman31 said:
It’s been a little 6 months since he had surgery, and I had originally heard 6-9 months recovery time. Not sure if that was time to start practicing again, or time to be fully back, but in theory he could be back this year. Not sure if it’s worth using up a year of eligibility though
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He was jumping up on the court during timeouts without any problem, he was moving smoothly, can't say the same about Ihnen though.
 

Only 1 meaningless game, but first impression is Gophers will (among other things) struggle mightily on the boards, and our guards will be highly susceptible to pressure. First gut reaction is I’d take the under on my preseason projection of 4 Big Ten wins.

Individually, Battle will be a Big Ten-caliber player, and Willis will be solid. But when Big Ten scouting reports kick in and those two are taken away, where are the Gophers going to find points?

Also, I liked Sutherlin. Not real athletic but kind of a Jack of all trades. Thiam likes to shoot, he’ll have to learn a little about shot selection, however!

Nevertheless, great to be back in The Barn watching Gopher hoops.
 
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Blackhammer said:
Thiam= Rico Tucker?
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Not a bad comparison. I'd say Rico Tucker probably had a bit more polish than Thiam but Thiam is a longer athlete. He is also not a PG which makes his kind of nervous chaotic energy a bit easier to deal with.

I don't know if you watched the TWolves much but a similar kind of energy to like a Corey Brewer or Josh Okogie. I know those two are NBA players, I'm just trying to think of a comparison in terms of energy.
 

skyman31 said:
It’s been a little 6 months since he had surgery, and I had originally heard 6-9 months recovery time. Not sure if that was time to start practicing again, or time to be fully back, but in theory he could be back this year. Not sure if it’s worth using up a year of eligibility though
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Hearing Fox will be back around New Year's Day, which would allow him to play the majority of the B1G season.

Even if he's not quite fully healthy, adding his size and athleticism would be a big help.
 

Zeppelin Gopher said:
Hearing Fox will be back around New Year's Day, which would allow him to play the majority of the B1G season.

Even if he's not quite fully healthy, adding his size and athleticism would be a big help.
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Wow. This is excellent news if true. I'm all for playing him this year. I have confidence the staff will be able to backfill his roster spot with superior talent in two years from now.
 

I think most on this board knows this year is a wash. Just hope to see minimal mental errors as the season progresses.

we will be outmatched athletically in most every B1G game, but as long as BJ can keep the players locked in all season, that will go a long ways in predicting how his teams will play with more talent in the coming years.
 

topos said:
Wow. This is excellent news if true. I'm all for playing him this year. I have confidence the staff will be able to backfill his roster spot with superior talent in two years from now.
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Yep, it'll also be another fun thing to watch this year. I'd like to get him some run to just have a better idea of what we have next year too. I don't think we'll be great next year, but it'll be a fun team.
 

Zeppelin Gopher said:
Hearing Fox will be back around New Year's Day, which would allow him to play the majority of the B1G season.

Even if he's not quite fully healthy, adding his size and athleticism would be a big help.
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Unless he's truly unusual, I would be surprised if he is cleared for full practice participation before the 8.5 to 9 month mark. Then we're still probably looking to at least 2 full 100% effort weeks of practice, just to make sure he's truly healthy before he hits the floor in a game.

Can't imagine any trainer in the world putting him out on the floor at less than 100% recovered off a ALC tear. Can you imagine the repercussions if he were to blow it up again and find out trainers knew he could've probably used an extra 3-4 weeks to heal, but we figured 90% was good enough to go?
 

SelectionSunday said:
Thiam likes to shoot, he’ll have to learn a little about shot selection, however!
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Until he learns that I don't see him playing in the B1G games, this team is going to have to play a disciplined ball control offense, they get into a run and gun mode there could some 30 or 40 point blowouts.
 

jovs said:
Until he learns that I don't see him playing in the B1G games, this team is going to have to play a disciplined ball control offense, they get into a run and gun mode there could some 30 or 40 point blowouts.
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Unfortunately, for this team, I think a "good shot" will be any open three. I just don't see these guys finishing at the rim in the Big Ten. Thiam definitely chucked a couple of questionable ones though...
He shot something like 48% in JUCO last year didn't he?
 

jovs said:
Until he learns that I don't see him playing in the B1G games, this team is going to have to play a disciplined ball control offense, they get into a run and gun mode there could some 30 or 40 point blowouts.
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guessing there will be plenty of games where our gophers are getting blown out early and everybody gets to play a lot of minutes. bad for this year, maybe good for the future.
 

What I'd like the starting line up to be:

PG: Willis
SG: Stephens
SF: Loewe
PF: Battle
C: Thompson

Yes, that makes us extremely small in the frontcourt, but I think this is probably the most skilled lineup. I'm hoping Thiam can come off the bench and provide some scoring. Everyone else can hopefully provide some defense and rebounding. I do think it's good that we have multiple ball handlers so they can each get some rest when need be.

I know the outlook looks grim for this season, but I'm excited none the less.
 

GopherOhana said:
guessing there will be plenty of games where our gophers are getting blown out early and everybody gets to play a lot of minutes. bad for this year, maybe good for the future.
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In theory, yes, but for about half of this team, there is no future beyond this season. At least five players either can't play beyond this year because of exhausted eligibility or probably won't (like Curry).
 

cjbfbp said:
In theory, yes, but for about half of this team, there is no future beyond this season. At least five players either can't play beyond this year because of exhausted eligibility or probably won't (like Curry).
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Yep- that's the problem. Battle has some eligibility but he's a starter. Beyond that the main guys that getting time for the future might help are Thompson and Thiam. Not much future development on this squad.
 

bga1 said:
Yep- that's the problem. Battle has some eligibility but he's a starter. Beyond that the main guys that getting time for the future might help are Thompson and Thiam. Not much future development on this squad.
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This is a slow build. This year is all about establishing a culture and a system. The primary reason to play the games this season is to provide Johnson with a stage to demonstrate his vision to future recruits. As we could guess and have seen, Johnson can't pull in many impact players without showing what he's got on his resume as a head coach. He'll begin building that resume beginning tomorrow night at 7:00. This isn't what we wanted but it is the track that we are on. We all have a choice... either stay on the train to see what's around the bend or jump off.
 

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