Gopher hoops brings experienced lineup, will that result in winning?
Last month we took a look at the new Gopher basketball roster. Who was gone, who was in and who was staying.
This new and improved (fingers crossed) roster is on campus for the summer and has begun their summer workouts. Ben Johnson met with the media last week to talk about his team and there was one overarching theme…experience.
Early on, Johnson was asked about the new guys. He didn’t really elaborate on how they are doing or who is showing up, but he did talk about this year’s transfer portal recruitment process and how it compares a little to his first season.
“There is a reason we went with a lot of older guys because if you are going to have a turn around you better have unlimited NIL where you can get whomever, or you have to have a strategy behind it. I look back to year one when we had experience but it goes without say you also have to have the talent. But experience wins. We were able to find that in the portal.”
After that he was asked what he likes most about the group of transfers that he has coming in.
“I just like the fact that they have experience. They’ve been around the block. So, although the way we do things might be different, at the end of the day they understand what goes into winning. Your defensive philosophy might be different but they understand help side defense, they understand rotations, they under physicality ina ball screen, they understand ball movement, they understand what’s the right unselfish play offensively. So you’re not re-teaching that, you are teaching the details of your system. I like the fact that they all have a pretty good feel, pretty good IQ, and they all want to win. That’s probably the underlying factor that when we recruited these guys they all talked about taking the next step both individually and as a team. You want to have a locker room full of guys that expect to win. And want to win.”
What has he seen so far in practice, especially with the new guys?
“You got guys from different levels, you got guys from different coaches that have different mentalities. What might be unacceptable somewhere it might be good here. It’s kind of that back and forth. With experience and with guys that are often smart and have a good feel, I think the process gets sped up.”
The pattern was pretty clear, but up next was Dawson Garcia and he continued to bring us back to what he likes about this new group of Gophers.
“We’re old, we’re experienced, we’re competitive. So I’m excited about the group because especially in this day and age there’s going to be some teams maybe have some more talent but we’re super old, we have a lot depth and we go out there and compete. So if we connect that together, it could be a really good season.”
This notion that the 2024-25 Gophers are old, it checks out. There are 8 scholarship players on the roster who are seniors. Two are freshmen and then 1 each of a junior and a sophomore. That 13th scholarship? Quite possibly will end up being awarded to Lincoln Meister, a transfer from MN-Duluth who is also a senior.
There will be 6 guys on this year’s roster who have played over 2,700 minutes of collegiate basketball. 431 starts at the D1 level and 580 if you include all levels (Caleb Williams was at D3, Parker Fox played D2 and some JUCO for Brennan Rigsby).
Fox is going to turn 26 during this upcoming season!
The program may have added experience out of necessity, but experience is not a question for this season. The questions are more around, is this team talented enough to win in the Big Ten? Will this team come together and play a brand of basketball that beats you with smart execution on both ends of the floor?
In Ben Johnson’s first season he faced a complete roster overhaul that was populated with primarily mid-major kids who were looking for that chance to play at the Power5 level. They added smart and kids with plenty of experience. And it paid off that season. They exceeded expectations and played a brand of basketball that worked because of their ability to execute.
To his point, they do have a better understanding of what is expected at this level and the coaching is more about system and the finer points of execution.
Can this work again? I think so, I think this team will be fine. They are bringing in the right pieces and they do have 3 key contributors returning, including a potential 1st Team All-Big Ten player.
Can this team take another step in the Big Ten and postseason? That seems like a tall task, because at some point, talent matters. Next year’s team will have to show that the pieces work together and the talent is on par with the rest of the Big Ten.