Quite the path he's taken to get here lol
Committed to Oregon State and averaged 4 minutes/game as a freshman. Transferred to Idaho for one year (sat out half the year due to transfer rules, pre-portal). Then walked on to Washington State to play football. Played 25 games over 3 years (mostly special teams) before joining the basketball team for their final 14 games where he played sparingly.
Dude looks huge but other than being depth behind Payne I doubt he makes much impact.
What a long, strange, trip it's been...
“When your best friend is the son of God, you get tired of losing every argument.”
― Christopher Moore, Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ's Childhood Pal
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What I read was he is basic there for Payne to practice against.
Quite the path he's taken to get here lol
Committed to Oregon State and averaged 4 minutes/game as a freshman. Transferred to Idaho for one year (sat out half the year due to transfer rules, pre-portal). Then walked on to Washington State to play football. Played 25 games over 3 years (mostly special teams) before joining the basketball team for their final 14 games where he played sparingly.
Dude looks huge but other than being depth behind Payne I doubt he makes much impact.
If there was ever an example of Portal disfunction.
I don't think the portal has anything to do with his path until this transfer. He had to sit out when he transferred to Idaho because it was before the portal existed. Then he walked on for a different sport at a different university (WSU), meaning he didn't use any transfer rules. Then he joined the basketball team at that same university.
What I read was he is basic there for Payne to practice against.
and give 5 hard fouls when we need him too, but yeah thats about it.
Ben is on borrowed time...he needs a splash and fast.
For some added reference:
https://twitter.com/GopherHole/status/1648378656606109706?s=20
If he commits to Minnesota that would be a big big get for the back court.
I guess my definition of "big get" is different. We should not be sweating over a grad transfer from friggin Bryant. We are a Big Ten team...
This wreaks of massive settling.
I guess my definition of "big get" is different. We should not be sweating over a grad transfer from friggin Bryant. We are a Big Ten team...
This wreaks of massive settling.
They need guards. Particularly guards who can shoot from the outside. Pride shot 37% from 3 over his last three seasons. He would help fill a big hole in the team's biggest weakness. Hence, a big get.
Is he going to be an All-American? No. But if he can come in and hit 1-2 3s a game off the bench and not be a total disaster defensively, that would be big for a team that is going to need more outside shooting to open things underneath for Payne/Garcia/JOJ/Betts.
Sorry but we aren't in a position to be excited over probable bench players. This was a historically bad team last year and our roster is not getting much better. So far we have added a 5th year practice player and maybe a guard from a school no one had heard of before like 3 days ago and he is not a guarantee.
This stinks of "its close to bar close and all the decent looking chicks are gone so just find anyone so you dont go home alone".
I will support him and the team dont get me wrong, but if he is indicative of the splash we are making in the portal we are staring down the barrel of a 4-5 win season TOPS in conference and a coaching search. JMHO.
Pride still has yet to commit (meaning he likely wont at this point) and their other target just committed to Utah State. This is a friggin disaster.
When Ryan Burns is saying this, you know that the coaching is a total disaster. Wow.
https://twitter.com/ryanburnsmn/status/1652312163954880513?s=46&t=UtlPiq7Vt1Te97QT76L7LQ
What is a St. Bonaventure?
Something is wrong in this program.
We can't outrecruit Utah State and St. Bonaventure. This is the lowest point in Gopher Basketball in my lifetime. Even the scandal wasn't this awful.
https://twitter.com/TiptonEdits/status/1655573265425788931?s=20
Has two years of eligibility left. Only time I saw him play was when Howard played Kansas in the NCAA tournament. He looked like a solid player in that game (had 12 points and 8 assists in their blowout loss 1v16 game).
46% from 3 sure sounds nice though.
Per 247sports, he was contacted by Texas, Ole Miss, Wichita State, Utah, Utah State, Seton Hall, USF, and UCF among others after he entered the portal.
Plan J...meh. He is going to get beat up in Big Ten play. I sincerely hope I'm wrong.
I keep looking for hope but I know if this was the roster of a team coming to town I Sikhism not be breaking a sweat as a fan.
Meh, we're building a roster through less conference players. Maybe they're diamonds in the rough (hopefully), but hard to get excited about it.
When the season starts I will delude myself into believing this is a Big Ten level squad. (Especially when they win some terrible non-con games) but back here in reality this is a roster that gets a coach fired. Even if they are diamonds in the rough it could take 2-3 years to know that and Ben doesn't survive that.
I sincerely hope I'm wrong.
When the season starts I will delude myself into believing this is a Big Ten level squad. (Especially when they win some terrible non-con games) but back here in reality this is a roster that gets a coach fired. Even if they are diamonds in the rough it could take 2-3 years to know that and Ben doesn't survive that.
I sincerely hope I'm wrong.
You're probably not wrong, but at least the guard depth as it sits right now seems significantly better than last season with Mitchell, Hawkins, Carrington, and Christie in the back court. Plus they kept Garcia, Payne, and JOJ in the program for post players, and *HOPEFULLY* get Ihnen and Fox to stay healthy.
I'm really curious to see what they get out of Kadyn Betts. His stock went soaring toward the end of his junior year and he accelerated to get on campus a year early. PrepHoops had him as the #78 player in the country in his recruiting class by the time he got on campus here.
Looking at their NC schedule and I can't decide if the highlight game will be vs. Texas San Antonio, USC Upstate or Pine Bluff.
Sad about Knight. I will throw a chair in his honor.
As a Hoosier basketball fan, it's sad he's dead. He'd been in ill health for a while now. He was a son of a b-tch, but he got away with it when his teams were good, which they weren't past 1992.
Gopher hoops wins their season opener 80-60 (covering the -17 spread) against Bethune Cookman.
Team made 27/35 FTs (77.1%) which is a good sign considering they were one of the worst in the country last year from the charity stripe at 61.9%.
23 points and 14 rebounds from Garcia, 13 from Carrington, 10 from Hawkins, 8 from Ihnen and JOJ, 7 from Fox. Payne scored 5 in 15ish minutes as he works his way back from injury. Mike Mitchell had 6 points, 5 rebounds, and 4 assists off the bench and hit 2 of the team's 5 three pointers (5/17 for the game after 5/10 in the first half).
Thread title needs an update. Last season needs to be buried and forgotten.