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Post by carllove on Dec 30, 2023 0:14:08 GMT
Well Kansas State’s Freshman Quarterback, Avery Johnson, looks like he could light up the Big 12 next year! The Pop Tart’s Bowl was fun! My Dad and my Husband both attended Kansas State, so we watched the game. I was obsessed with the giant Pop Tart the winning team got to eat in the end. I didn’t see it on the ESPN broadcast, but the eating of the Pop Tart was available on ESPN this morning 🤣. I really wanted a Pop Tart this morning too - but our work stash of free Pop Tarts was gone 😞
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Post by Kapitan on Dec 30, 2023 1:01:26 GMT
I'm experiencing the Gophers basketball game the old-fashioned way tonight: on radio. It's streaming on Peacock, one of I think six or seven different platforms or networks they'll be on this year. (BTN, BTN+, Peacock, FS1, ESPN...I know there's more, probably a network like CBS or something?) I'm not getting an account just for two games on Peacock.
Listening is a whole other experience, that's for sure. You have to depend on the announcer and analyst, and frankly they aren't great. (Not bad, but not great.) Between keeping an eye on the box online and listening, though, it's good enough.
Should be a good win this evening for our final nonconference game, which would put us at 10-3 going into the B10 season.
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Post by carllove on Dec 30, 2023 1:09:01 GMT
I upgraded my Sling TV package so I could watch the KU Football Bowl game, also knowing that the K-State Bowl game and most KU Basketball games would be on ESPN this season. It was only about $10 extra a month. It will be worth it.
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Post by The Cincinnati Kid on Jan 4, 2024 14:00:41 GMT
UC begins its inaugural Big 12 basketball season this weekend at fellow newcomer #12 BYU. The last few games have me a little worried how we will perform in conference. It will somehow be tougher than the old Big East days. BYU's NET ranking is #2, so you might think it will only get easier from here, but no, our former AAC conference mate Houston is #1. The conference is so stacked that I think if we go 2-4 over our next six games, we will have a good shot at making the tournament.
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Post by Kapitan on Jan 4, 2024 14:11:20 GMT
Minnesota opens its conference season (well, other than those two weird early games the B10 plays: we beat Nebraska and lost to Ohio State earlier this year) tonight, too, with a game at Michigan.
I don't know what to think of this team. Sometimes it seems horrible, sometimes almost like a bubble team--which is a major step forward after the rebuilding we've had under now 3rd-year coach Ben Johnson. Lately it has seemed like the largely new roster has gelled, so hopefully that's the case. (Our starting PG, SG, and 3G/SF were either portal transfers in or in the latter case, a freshman; we also have two forwards who both missed two consecutive years with two consecutive knee injuries. Then three of our other key contributors are true sophomores. So there is a lot of blending to be done.)
It's not a great Michigan team, so my fingers are crossed. I'm pulling for coach Johnson, as he was a hometown kid who also played his final two seasons at the U of MN, and he's just a good guy. I also like what he's building. But he needs to demonstrate real progress to keep his job.
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Post by Kapitan on Jan 4, 2024 15:57:04 GMT
UC begins its inaugural Big 12 basketball season this weekend at fellow newcomer #12 BYU. The last few games have me a little worried how we will perform in conference. It will somehow be tougher than the old Big East days. BYU's NET ranking is #2, so you might think it will only get easier from here, but no, our former AAC conference mate Houston is #1. The conference is so stacked that I think if we go 2-4 over our next six games, we will have a good shot at making the tournament. By the way, I don't know if you've noticed, but both of the Madsen twins who transferred out of UC have been reasonably effective elsewhere. (Which can't feel great.) Gabe, the 6-6 combo guard, is Utah's second-best player: 14.4 ppg (50.8% FG, 47.1% 3pt, 76.5% FT), 4.4 rpg, 2 apg, 1.5 spg. Mason, the 6-4 shooting guard, is an effective reserve for Boston College: 6.2 ppg in 17.2 mpg, including 45.9% 3pt, plus 3 rpg. I still wish they had stayed home, but reportedly Minnesota would only offer a scholarship to Gabe, not Mason, and at that time, they wanted to play together. (Ironically they split up a year later anyway.) One of many recruiting blunders by former coach Richard Pitino. Our backcourt has been entirely new every season since!
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Post by The Cincinnati Kid on Jan 4, 2024 20:00:09 GMT
UC begins its inaugural Big 12 basketball season this weekend at fellow newcomer #12 BYU. The last few games have me a little worried how we will perform in conference. It will somehow be tougher than the old Big East days. BYU's NET ranking is #2, so you might think it will only get easier from here, but no, our former AAC conference mate Houston is #1. The conference is so stacked that I think if we go 2-4 over our next six games, we will have a good shot at making the tournament. By the way, I don't know if you've noticed, but both of the Madsen twins who transferred out of UC have been reasonably effective elsewhere. (Which can't feel great.) Gabe, the 6-6 combo guard, is Utah's second-best player: 14.4 ppg (50.8% FG, 47.1% 3pt, 76.5% FT), 4.4 rpg, 2 apg, 1.5 spg. Mason, the 6-4 shooting guard, is an effective reserve for Boston College: 6.2 ppg in 17.2 mpg, including 45.9% 3pt, plus 3 rpg. I still wish they had stayed home, but reportedly Minnesota would only offer a scholarship to Gabe, not Mason, and at that time, they wanted to play together. (Ironically they split up a year later anyway.) One of many recruiting blunders by former coach Richard Pitino. Our backcourt has been entirely new every season since! Yes, it would have been nice to have them. It's a shame John Brannen turned out to be a bit of a nut, otherwise Tari Eason would have stayed as well. He went to LSU to be a major impact player and is having a nice NBA career so far. Speaking of Pitino, it seems he has turned around the New Mexico program after they were down for close to a decade.
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Post by Kapitan on Jan 8, 2024 13:47:11 GMT
Last night the Gophers had a nice come-from-behind win over Maryland to go to 3-1 in Big Ten play (and 12-3 overall). Maryland is hardly a powerhouse at 9-5 going into last night's game, but it mattered because the win gave us one more conference win than we had all of last year. We've also got three more wins overall than we had last year.
What's more, the team showed resilience. The first half began OK with PG Elijah Hawkins in particular wreaking havoc--he had four steals within the first five minutes or so! But while we were forcing turnovers, we weren't hitting shots. We had a stretch of about 7 scoreless minutes and were 1-14 3pt in the first half. We were also getting hammered on the glass, with Maryland having a 20-5 advantage at one point late in the first half. Our leading scorer on the season, forward Dawson Garcia, was held to one point on 0-5 FG in the half, I believe. It was UGLY.
But in the second half, the team really turned it on. We rebounded with more purpose, finishing the game with just a 35-30 deficit. We hit 5-9 3pt shots in the second half. We began challenging their very aggressive players, fouling out two key players.
While Garcia never did really hit his stride--he finished with 11 points, but 7 of those were FTs, and 4 of those were in the final seconds as Maryland played the foul game--it was a balanced effort: 12 pts for freshman wing Cam Christie, 11 for Garcia, 10 apiece for Joshua Ola-Joseph and Hawkins, and 8 apiece for Pharrel Payne and Braeden Carrington. Carrington, in particular, was huge in the second half with phenomenal energy, great defense, a few key 3s, 5 rebounds, 2 assists, 2 steals.
The team is not perfect, and probably not even especially good. But it's improving, and it's fun to watch if you like gritty, Big Ten basketball.
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Post by Kapitan on Jan 20, 2024 23:02:07 GMT
Today a friend and I attended a few of the eight games in a "Minnesota v Wisconsin Border Battle" HS basketball event. We watched two games, and they had an interesting little side plot for me. The first game's Minnesota team was Cherry HS, featuring senior PG Isaac Asuma; the second was Breck HS, featuring senior PG Daniel Freitag. These two have been among the top rated players in the class of '24 for at least four years now, and both were offered by Minnesota ... but Asuma was the priority, and he did indeed sign here. (Freitag signed with rival Wisconsin.)
So it was a fun chance to see them both the same day, back to back.
I came away thinking that while I'm still not sure who is individually the better player, the Gophers were smart to prioritize Asuma. He's a more mature player, a real game manager, and a very positive leader out there. Freitag is VERY good, but he's got an edge that might lean toward selfishness. He's definitely more scoring-oriented. And frankly I didn't love his attitude: he complained a lot to and about teammates, refs, opponents ... it was just not something I liked at all.
But what a great time. And you could watch all eight games for just the $15 admission, which is insane considering how many great players were to take part. I have come to prefer watching HS basketball to pro basketball, crazy as that sounds.
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Post by Sheriff John Stone on Feb 18, 2024 14:04:21 GMT
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Post by Kapitan on Feb 19, 2024 20:56:33 GMT
Thanks to a win over Rutgers last night, my Golden Gophers guaranteed a level of success that sadly has been missing from the basketball team for the past four seasons. By winning their 16th game, they are guaranteed of at least a .500 finish on the season even if they lose all six remaining conference games and their first Big Ten tournament game.
Obviously, a .500 finish isn't something to write home about, but former coach Richard Pitino failed to hit that mark in his final two seasons, and after he was fired, coach Ben Johnson has not been able to hit it as he works to rebuild the program from scratch.
At 16-9 with at least seven games left, we actually could still have an outside shot at the NCAA Tournament, but I'm not counting on that or even really giving it any thought. I'm hoping we can hit 4-1 to close out the regular season (though 3-2 or 2-3 seem most likely), and then just see what happens with the B10 tournament and maybe an NIT bid.
The exciting thing is, we could return everyone even as we add one very promising combo guard and a combo forward to next year's team. If that happens, then I'd feel very good about our odds at hitting the tournament. But of course with the portal and the pros always looming, one never knows who will return.
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Post by Kapitan on Feb 23, 2024 19:00:33 GMT
Last night the Gophers beat visiting Ohio State, putting our record at 17-9. On the Big Ten Network after the game, the studio hosts suggested third-year head coach Ben Johnson deserves serious consideration for B10 coach of the year.
I think I'd agree with that (though I don't think he's necessarily the favorite).
Last year's team went 9-22, 2-17 in the conference. In the offseason, the team lost two key starters in forward Jamison Battle (12.4 ppg, a Minneapolis kid who transferred to Ohio State for an NIL deal) and point guard Ta'Lon Cooper (9.8 ppg, 4.0 rpg, 6.3 apg, transferred to South Carolina for an NIL deal); a part-time starter and promising freshman wing in Jaden Henley (5.3 ppg, transferred to DePaul for an NIL deal); and a reserve forward/center in Treyton Thompson. What's more, prized recruit Dennis Evans, a 7-1 center generally regarded among the top 30 or so recruits nationally, decommitted to the program for Louisville, again for an NIL deal. (He struggled at Louisville and has since either left or been asked to leave that program.)
Despite all of those losses, the team has already won nearly twice as many games overall as last year, and at 8-7 in the conference, has quadrupled last year's win total. There were additions as well as subtractions: freshman wing Cam Christie will be an NBA player someday (but hopefully not before he gives us another year!); our starting backcourt of Elijah Hawkins and Mike Mitchell transferred in from Howard and Pepperdine, respectively; and we finally got to see both of forwards Parker Fox and Isaiah Ihnen, both of whom lost the past two seasons to knee injuries.
Johnson has this team playing hard, playing unselfishly, and beginning to really balance offense with defense for something closer to complete games rather than a few minutes of one or the other.
B10 COY? I don't know. But he's doing great!
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Post by The Cincinnati Kid on Feb 29, 2024 16:18:41 GMT
Saw this on X, Kapitan
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Post by Kapitan on Mar 14, 2024 18:28:31 GMT
The Gophers' season may well have ended today, barring an NIT berth, with a 10-pt loss to Michigan St in the B10 tournament. They kept it close for about 30, even 35 minutes, but the Spartans really caused us pain in the final minutes. We had two bigs (from a 3-man rotation) in foul trouble most of the second half, and one of them, talented sophomore, Pharrel Payne was playing pretty poorly in addition to the foul trouble. (He had seven turnovers! The team had 12 total...)
Adding to the sting, Minnesota native Tre Holloman killed us. He's a sophomore reserve PG, and he came in and just destroyed us. He always defends like crazy, but he also was 3-3 FG for 9 pts plus 1 reb, 4 ast, 2 stl, and 1 blk. Just a huge boost to them, especially when Spartan star PG Tyson Walker was pretty bad for much of the game. (He came on late and finished with 15.)
If everyone returns, I love our team next year. But freshman wing Cam Christie, 4th-year junior forward Dawson Garcia, and junior PG Elijah Hawkins are all reportedly thinking about going pro. (None should, though Christie is most likely to be a future NBA player.) We also have a 6th year forward Parker Fox who is likely not to return just because, well, he's been in college for 6 years. And there are a couple guys I can imagine transferring due to reduced roles this year. So until everyone is officially back, I'm not comfortable.
If they do, though? We're a Top 25 team next year.
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Post by Kapitan on Mar 27, 2024 16:38:01 GMT
For college basketball fans whose teams are done, it's not just tournament season, but transfer portal season.
The Gophers just had the first of what could be several transfers announced, with 6-7 sophomore forward Joshua Ola-Joseph entering the portal. He is a local kid who was among third-year coach Ben Johnson's first commitments, but anyone who watched this season was ready for this announcement: Johnson basically chased him into the portal.
JOJ is a freakish athlete, a real competitor, and a pretty good face-up shooter who played (and started at) both forward positions. You'd like to see him rebound more according to his athleticism and size, and his handle could use work, but he was thrust into major roles his freshman and sophomore seasons and performed pretty well, especially for an unheralded prospect. Beyond that, there were never any disciplinary issues or academic issues, as far as anyone has ever said (including back in his HS days). He seemed very well liked by his peers, too.
But Johnson simply stopped using him. It's not clear why; Johnson just shortened his rotation by about two players, and JOJ was one of them.
In the first three months of the season (20 games), JOJ played 20.3 mpg and produced 10.4 ppg on 63% FG and 43.3% 3pt, and 2.8 rpg.
In the final two months of the season (14 games), he only saw action in 9 games, played 5.4 mpg in those 9 games, and produced 1.1 ppg on 36.3% FG, and 0.2 rpg.
I can't recall such an about-face by a coach on a player's minutes absent injuries or disciplinary action of some kind, but there was no word of any such thing. He just got benched, going from mostly starting to barely seeing the court.
I don't really blame him for transferring. But I'm worried about the message this sends other prospects about playing at Minnesota. Unless there is something else to the story that prospects and players know and can share as appropriate, this just looks bad.
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