Minnesota Sports Forum

I went to my first game of the year at Williams Arena yesterday, and despite trailing a not very good Green Bay team at the half, it's always fun to see a game at that venue. And we have to acknowledge what Johnson has done with essentially a team of transfers. Yeah, they don't have a signature win except for beating Michigan on their court, but 10-1 with the only loss a relatively close one to Michigan State is pretty damn good. After watching a season of the sticky-fingered Wolves, it was fun to see a team move the ball the way Johnson has these guys doing.

I loved Marcus Carr last year, and thought this season was doomed when he (and many others) entered the transfer portal. But he is averaging a career low in points and assists at Texas, and the Gophs are doing just fine without him. (He probably should have entered the draft last season after going 19-5-4...I don't see him attracting any interest with his senior year 8.5/3.3/1.5).

This Gopher team may have a middle of the Big Ten standings ceiling, but we still need to compliment Johnson and these transfers for what they are doing so far.

FNG wrote:I went to my first game of the year at Williams Arena yesterday, and despite trailing a not very good Green Bay team at the half, it's always fun to see a game at that venue. And we have to acknowledge what Johnson has done with essentially a team of transfers. Yeah, they don't have a signature win except for beating Michigan on their court, but 10-1 with the only loss a relatively close one to Michigan State is pretty damn good. After watching a season of the sticky-fingered Wolves, it was fun to see a team move the ball the way Johnson has these guys doing.

I loved Marcus Carr last year, and thought this season was doomed when he (and many others) entered the transfer portal. But he is averaging a career low in points and assists at Texas, and the Gophs are doing just fine without him. (He probably should have entered the draft last season after going 19-5-4...I don't see him attracting any interest with his senior year 8.5/3.3/1.5).

This Gopher team may have a middle of the Big Ten standings ceiling, but we still need to compliment Johnson and these transfers for what they are doing so far.

Dang we don't get much college hoops talk on this board but I do love myself some Gophers Hoops. So when the Gophers hired Johnson I hated the hire. I hate that minnesota always feels like they need to win with Minnesota players. In my opinion I could care two shits where the player comes from as long as they are good. I also feel like Pitino got way to much crap for not keeping elite in state talent home (I did a huge thing a year ago that Pitino was on average on keeping top 100 talent home just as good as the rest of the nation).

So far I have been pleasantly surprised how the Gophers have done this year. I did not expect this and I would say the one thing I underestimated going into the season is the Gophers are a team of men. They are extremely old with starting 2 6 year seniors, a 5th year senior and another senior and to finish it off another senior. Then their 2 bench guys are 5th year seniors. This gophers team is a bunch of men and I underestimated that. I will say though there are some narratives I disagree with from what I see online. People say the ball movement is better under Johnson but the assist numbers are down from last year. Last year Pitino got ripped for not playing his bench and playing his starters way to much. This year Johnson literally plays 7 guys (He plays Thompson and Thiam occasionally). I just think it is funny that this Johnson team is doing exactly what people didn't like Pitino for but because it is under a new head coach they aren't complaining about it this year.

I will be very curious how this team will finish the year because I think Battle is a legit stud and they have guys like Stephenson, Sutherlian and Willis are all good iso scorers. Also going forward next year they only return Battle and possibly loewe next year who get significant minutes. They have 3 MN kids committed next and a complete unknown from California. I think its funny that websites like Gopherhole are super pumped about this Johnson effect when it comes to recruiting but this will be statistically by 247 the gophers worst recruiting class since 2013 (Obviously recruiting rankings can be really bad).

Overall though I didn't think I was going to enjoy this Gopher team this year and I was wrong. Hopefully they continue to be competitive in the B10 this year and Battle continues to be an elite B10 player. I hope I continue to be wrong on Johnson because I have enjoyed this season so far.

Some good comments here that I mostly agree with. I also didn't think we had to fire Pitino, and was concerned about hiring a local boy as his replacement. That said, this early season success (albeit against a soft schedule) has me edging toward hopping on the Johnson train. I still think a middle of the pack Big Ten finish is this team's ceiling.

You're right that this team might be the oldest in college basketball. What do we have...8 guys older than 21? It was funny seeing us matched up against Green Bay because it really looked like men playing against boys. Oh well, maybe that will help us once the conference schedule gets in full swing.

I don't know if there are many other Gopher hoops fans here, but maybe we can see a few posts this season.