Positives

I know there are a lot of negative feelings on the board right now, and there will be more of the same over the next 24 hours. I want to focus on positives that I saw, although there were few:

- Carter - played like he hasn't yet this year, was aggressive, and finished a number of times around the rim, scoring 15 pts in 14 min
- Iverson - as poorly as he played, he still pulled down 9 rebs, a stat which hasn't happened for him in a while.
- Williams - getting 5 rebounds in 9 minutes, plus a nice three from the corner before the half
- We outrebounded them 35-33, which has been a big issue for us
- Forced 17 turnovers against an experienced team at home

Despite our horrific shooting (31%), passing (only 8 team assists), defense (4 Boilers in double-digits, shot 52% as a team), and bad calls (hello Ed Hightower, I missed you), I think that we'll have a good shot when they come to The Barn.

I know there weren't many positives tonight, but I think we at least have the horses to stick with the #4 team in the country, and possibly pull of the upset at home.

Yeah I expected a little more in a big game like this, however, this is a Purdue team that could win over 30 games (including the Big Ten Tourney) this year. I did love the way Carter played and Damian was solid as usual (besides a few forced shots). I also think in order to win a game like this we needed the refs to swallow their whistles on some of those calls. Our aggressive play does not suite the style of refereeing tonight. On the road against #4 was going to be tough, so I really am not that dissapointed.

Here's another positive. We proved we can press and run against the best team in the Big Ten. We rarely got burned off the press and we had some very good success with it. The thing that stopped us was that we stopped making shots and thus couldn't apply the pressure. The Gophs weakness is the halfcourt so we have to press and run. So I thought there were some good signs tonight despite the loss. Agree that Carter played very well as well.

I said in another thread I think they have a shot to beat them at Williams arena. Get a little more production out of a few guys, some home cooking and they'll be fine.

a positive

The first positive thing that comes to mind is we dont have to play at Mackey Arena again this season

The second thing that comes to mind is we still get a shot at them in the Barn, hopefully with a different set of refs

Not much to show for in the Box Score but I thought Cobbs played a nice game. Maybe Bostick too.

I know there was a thread about nolan driving to the basket, but i like that he has established a reason to guard him, he isnt goin to finish against elite big men but other than michigan state and purdue he will be effective. i think nolan and westbrook understand their role moreso now then ever

3 from the corner by Williams

Yes, that was a sweet shot and when we really needed it too. Another glimpse of the future: Cobbs taking it end to end and then pulling back when there wasn't a shot. Nice poise for a freshman backup....

The biggest positive to me was the one that BGA mentioned- The Gophers showed they could press and run effectively against (arguably) the Big Ten's best team. I think this is huge and really makes me feel better about the Gopher chances to end up near the top of the conference. This team is so much more effective when the pace is quickened, but I had doubts that they could press and run against the upper echelon Big Ten teams.

As for the shooting percentage, I felt like the Gophers got a number of good shots tonight, they just did not knock them down. As mentioned in another thread, there were a lot of in and outs, so it wasn't the Gophers throwing up bricks for the most part.

GopherNation said:

Yeah I expected a little more in a big game like this, however, this is a Purdue team that could win over 30 games (including the Big Ten Tourney) this year. I did love the way Carter played and Damian was solid as usual (besides a few forced shots). I also think in order to win a game like this we needed the refs to swallow their whistles on some of those calls. Our aggressive play does not suite the style of refereeing tonight. On the road against #4 was going to be tough, so I really am not that dissapointed.

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You act like Purdue wasn't just as aggressive. Just admit it already, that was piss-poor officiating.

If we get a similarly-biased game at home, we'll easily beat them by double-digits. Of course, they may get the same advantage for another gimme win.

I actually think there were a lot of positives in this game. Purdue wouldn't miss in the second half and had the refs in their back pockets, while we couldn't get a shot to drop (the absurd amount of in-an-outs has been mentioned), and we still played them pretty competitively. By no means should we have won, but it was a lot closer than the score suggested. Painter said after the game that he thought we outplayed them.