How do they go from absolutely awful, lost the kid to OSU and become a possible ncaa team and in 35 months we went from almost sweet 16 to NIT bubble.
Minnesota - the bigger question
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Willingness to hit the portal. And some key HS recruiting hits (Christie and Payne)
Far too many recruiting misses from the HS ranks on the roster. And not enough willingness to give guys “the talk” when it’s clear they’re not Big Ten players
Far too many recruiting misses from the HS ranks on the roster. And not enough willingness to give guys “the talk” when it’s clear they’re not Big Ten players
Minnesota is not that good.
NIT bubble is not far from representative of a program with 1 NCAA win in a million years.
.500 is the goal this year and next year will be a jump.
NIT bubble is not far from representative of a program with 1 NCAA win in a million years.
.500 is the goal this year and next year will be a jump.
Crazy what happens when your incoming prized shooter can actually, you know, shoot.
I hope ours gets into the gym and nutrition program this off-season because right now he is a boy playing with men
I have a rather deep “in” on that program and last I knew they were short on NIL.
they have shooters and they are athletic. Johnson should be in the running for Big 10 coach of the year. Have to have options. They are not likely a ncaa team but they are 7-7 now in league and will make for a really good nit team
Rutgers got the same feeling you get after getting 2-3 strikes in a row bowling , you realize “damn I can make my fourth straight strike and you totally yank the throw “
They let 5 in row and tourney bubble get in their head
They let 5 in row and tourney bubble get in their head
It’s the trajectory of the program. They look renewed and we’ve been steadily worse from March ‘21 to March ‘22 to March ‘23 to now.
Typically the natural response would be correct on R trend, which many have ignored since 2019-2020 yes, but pike gets a reprieve for everything until next season plays out. As far as Minnesotas trajectory, there’s not much there yet.
They've got 16 wins and home games left with OSU, PSU and Indiana. They can easily win all of them and at least one in the B1G Tournament. They're in, and they are good.
I would highly doubt that a school in the middle of no place would have more money than a school with a great business program, 350,000 living graduates, a rabid fan base, and right outside the commerce capitol of the world.
Minnesota is a better team than most here give them credit for. However, we played badly and the bizarre substitutions didn’t help.
35 months is 3 years which is a long time. For Minnesota it’s not that hard to improve quickly in 3 seasons in with recruiting, the portal and now NIL.
For us - we’ve taken a step back due to a combination of factors.
We don’t have a go to scorer/finisher without a guy like Geo, Ron Harper Jr. and Spencer (who sandbagged us at the last minute).
We have had some recruiting misses and had to scramble to fill 2 spots this year due to Spencer and Paul leaving last minute.
We had an incomplete roster due to injuries and suspension.
Our roster had a bunch of turnover and inexperience playing together outside of about 4 guys.
The reality is we’re not as good this year as the team 3 seasons ago but we’re also not that far off from where we were either. The difference between an NIT team and a round of 32 team isn’t big.
Good point. It’s splitting hairs. But our last four seasons haven’t been up and down. The culmination of all things has seen us steadily decline in one direction. Near sweet 16 to play in loser to NIT round one loser to NIT bubble. I’m that order. Next year’s wins and losses will tell a lot. Also we should know 2025 recruiting will be known by NOV.
Could be. I will see if I can learn anything. But they were really short on NIL a year ago.
How different would our team be with Paul Mulcahy, Cam Spencer, and Baye Ndongo? Pike did what he could to have those 3 people on the roster. I understand he lost Jamison Battle, but maybe overall, Ben Johnson just got a little luckier than Pike with roster hits/misses.
Nobody's going to be comparing us negatively to Minnesota next year.
Nobody's going to be comparing us negatively to Minnesota next year.
But we don’t. Whether it be recruiting Noah Fernandes over Paul or not having $$$ for Cam or tossing Hobbs and thus losing Ndongo those were decisions made in running the program.
Coaching? Recruiting? Conditioning? Lot of factors.
Offseason task 1 - get Jay Young back before Dylan and Ace get to campus.
Listen, I like Pike. I want him here. I appreciate what he’s done. But us in business have to keep reinventing ourselves if we’re not getting the results we want. You can’t keep doing things the exact same way if you’re slowly declining. Almost sweet 16 to play in loss to nit top seed loss to not bubble. Even with the Cam loss it was depreciating. I agree with a prior poster those things are splitting hairs. But for us it hasn’t been up and down. It hasn’t been ncaa play in, nit bubble, almost sweet 16 etc. it’s been a little worse each year. Time to re-evaluate your methods a little. I don’t want Pike gone. I just think we need to look at the trend. Two amazing recruits could halt that. A lot rides on next season and 2025 recruiting. Let’s hope.
I don't disagree with you. Even giving the benefit of the doubt for COVID, the track records is 2 NCAAs. Great build up. But after that it has been one barely made NCAA and one NIT (that we got killed in). Over 7 years, its not unreasonable to expect more of an upward trajectory.
People like Hawkins, the PG, and Payne, the big man, were not "big" hits in recruiting at all. Minny was Payne's biggest offer and I believe the only Power 6 offer he had coming out of HS... the rest were smaller D1 offers. And Hawkins was also lightly recruited out of HS (albeit a great program in Dematha, MD) and committed to Howard. They are examples of great career development kids. Hawkins has clearly developed and was able to up himself to a Power 6 school, and Payne has also developed, not to mention he had his best game of his career yesterday, so he doesn't ALWAYS play like that. But he was listed in the Rivals database at 255 coming out of HS, so he already had the strong frame.
Also need portal transfer center to share time with Somerville along with a spot up 3 point shooter,ie, Griffiths far better than this season.
Johnson got his foundational class with Payne, Carrington, and Ola-Joseph. All three stars, program building blocks. Got a 5-star to transfer home in Garcia, and added a 4 star freshman in Christie. Then did a great job in the portal last offseason with Hawkins and Mitchell. As long as guys stay they'll make the tournament next year and then we'll see if he can keep the momentum going.
The longer the season has gone on the more I appreciate just how much Cam screwed us. He would’ve been the team leader, leading scorer, go to scorer in crunch time, mentor to Gavin, etc. He destroyed the entire plan that Pike had and for that I give Pike a pass for this season (even with the occasional head scratching substitutions). Think about it — the heart and soul of the #1 team in the country — was supposed to be here.
