A Gopher Hoops group chat turned into a full-on talent draft, and once the names started flying, the debate practically took care of itself.
The question was simple enough: which era of Gopher basketball had the best talent? Players from the Clem Haskins, Don Monson and Tubby Smith eras were in the chat, and naturally the Haskins group backed Clem.
A Tubby-era voice made the case for Smith’s best team ever. The conversation even drifted to whether those squads would land in the top four, with the answer given as yes.
That led to a bigger exercise: building out rotations from the last eight coaches and comparing them like tournament seeds. Niko Medved was left out because it’s only been one year, and the list went back to John Kundla, with a few coaches from earlier years skipped because they were in and out quickly. Big Ten champions were given higher seeds, and so were the teams with the strongest NCAA runs.
The seeding came out like this: the Haskins Era at No. 1 against the Johnson Era at No. 8, Dutcher at No. 2 against Kundla at No.
7, Musselman at No. 3 against Monson at No. 6, and Smith at No. 4 against Pitino at No. 5.
From there, the rosters made the argument for themselves.
Richard Pitino’s group featured Nate Mason at point guard, Andre Hollins at shooting guard, Amir Coffey on the wing, Jordan Murphy at power forward and Daniel Oturu at center. Marcus Carr was the sixth man, followed by Maurice Walker, Reggie Lynch and Al Nolen.
Tubby Smith’s lineup had Andre Hollins at point guard, Blake Hoffarber at shooting guard and Austin Hollins at small forward, though the source did not list a power forward or center.
Dan Monson’s team went Kevin Burleson, Vincent Grier, Kris Humphries, Dusty Rychart and Joel Przybilla across the starting five, with Rick Rickert, Michael Bauer, Travarus Bennett and Maurice Hargrow coming off the bench.
Clem Haskins had Bobby Jackson running the show, Sam Jacobson at shooting guard, Willie Burton at small forward, Courtney James at power forward and John Thomas in the middle. Quincy Lewis was the sixth man, with Ariel McDonald, Kevin Lynch and Richard Coffey rounding out the group.
Bill Dutcher’s team might have been the deepest collection of names on the page: Tommy Davis, Trent Tucker, Ray Williams, Kevin McHale and Mychal Thompson as the starters, with Randy Breuer, Jim Peterson, Darryl Mitchell and Marc Wilson behind them.
Bill Musselman’s rotation was led by Flip Saunders, Dennis Shaffer, Clyde Turner, Mark Olberding and Jim Brewer, then Ron Behagen, Dave Winfield, Corky Taylor and Mark Landsberger off the bench.
John Kundla’s group featured Archie Clark, Lou Hudson, Eric Magdanz, Larry Mikan and Tom Kondla, with Al Nuness, Bob Griggas, Leroy Gardber and Ron Johnson as the reserves.
The source also pointed to Randy Breuer as a major figure from the 1979-83 stretch, noting that he was a two-time First Team All-Big Ten selection, a key part of the 1982 Big Ten title team, and that his 1,777 career points and 229 career blocks rank fourth and second all time. It also said Breuer played 11 seasons in the NBA.
There was also a mention of the 1977 Minnesota Gophers as “The best team to never play in the NCAA tournament due to infractions,” with the post listing Sugar Ray, McHale, Flip Saunders, Lingenfelter and Lockhart and saying, “They scheduled the best teams and beat them to prove a point.”
The debate may have started in a group chat, but once the lineups were laid out, it turned into something bigger: a clean, old-school argument over which Gopher era could claim the deepest talent from top to bottom.
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