Everyone is under the assumption that we are a "young team". Lets look at it.

L

lightning1

Well-Known Member
Baer: Born 3/1996, age 22 or a Graduate student.
Moss: Born 8/1996 age 22 or a SR
Cook: Born 9/1997 age 21 or a JR
Bohannon: Born 6/1997 age 21 or a JR
Connor: Born 7/1998 age 20 or a SO
Pemsl: Born 8/1997 age 21 or a JR
Garza: Born 12/1998 age 19 or a SO
Kriener: Born 4/1998 age 20 or a JR
Dailey: Born 2/1998 age 20 or a JR
Nunge: Born 2/1999 age 19 or a SO
Frederick: Born 7/1999 age 19 or a FR
Wieskamp: Born 8/1999 age 19 or a FR
That's 2 SRs. 5 JRs. 3 SOs. 2 FR. This is not a young team. Many of them are old for their class age range, with summer birthdays. This is not a young team.
 
I don’t know about young but we have to be one of teams in the country with the majority of their minutes played returning this year. Perhaps returning scoring % would be even higher.
 
We are not going to be the youngest team in the country or the Big ten. That said Baer is our only senior, add Cook to that if you expect him to leave after this year.
 
Cableman said:
Moss a senior? He had the red shirt year so isn't he a junior?
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I'm talking about actual age. Not where he is in eligibility. If a kid re-classifies and then red-shirts, he's technically a 20 yr old FR. That does not excuse him playing like an 18 year old FR. I fully expect a 20 year old to play much, much better than an 18 year old. Based on physical development alone.
 
We are no longer young. Even though we have only one senior in terms of athletic eligibility, we have a five/six man nucleus that has been starting or getting significant minutes for two full years and has been around the league a couple times.

This leads to another question I've had for decades. Why does upperclass experience seem to mean so much in the Big Ten, more than other conferences around the country. I have at least two possible theories. One, bad winter weather makes road trips tough on younger teams that haven't experienced them. And two, consistently mediocre to bad officiating (which the Big Ten has long been known for) can be more easily swayed by home crowds and it takes experienced teams to play through it and deal with it.
 
Northside Hawk said:
We are no longer young. Even though we have only one senior in terms of athletic eligibility, we have a five/six man nucleus that has been starting or getting significant minutes for two full years and has been around the league a couple times.

This leads to another question I've had for decades. Why does upperclass experience seem to mean so much in the Big Ten, more than other conferences around the country. I have at least two possible theories. One, bad winter weather makes road trips tough on younger teams that haven't experienced them. And two, consistently mediocre to bad officiating (which the Big Ten has long been known for) can be more easily swayed by home crowds and it takes experienced teams to play through it and deal with it.
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It's the familiarity of playing together for a longer period of time. Knowing your teammates is important. It matters in every conference.
 
PCHawk said:
You wont hear that excuse from me this year. Or probably anyone else for that matter. It makes no sense. We have like 4 underclassmen in the rotation.
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Someone was already calling Moss a "young player" in another thread. Trust me, it's being used and will continue to be used. They'll point to Connor and JW's playing time as evidence of our team being young. Some people will make excuses every year. Regardless.
 
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