Why The Meltdown?

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I should know better than to log on after a loss. I saw a lot of good things tonight. Some bad, but, oh well. The Gophers fought hard tonight and showed they can compete with the best of our conference. A few shots, a few calls, and it's a different game.
 

Agreed. I don't recall more than a couple people on this whole board thinking we were going to win tonight.

I wasn't expecting a win, but I hoped for a better showing. Regardless, losing by 3 is the same as losing by 19. They're not the #4 team in the country for nothing.

Let's focus on OSU now, as long as we hold serve at home this year, we'll have a great shot at getting into the tourney.
 

I'm not too upset--if the refs would've been decent, the Gophs probably lose by about 5 or 6 pts. Nolen was a mess and Iverson must have put up a very ugly plus/minus, but otherwise, the effort was good and a much better team won.

3 more chances for a sig. win. I'm feeling pretty good about getting to 10 wins, but it will take more I'm afraid.
 

I think 10 wins is within our grasp + 1 in B10 tourney and we're in.
 

I wasn't expecting a win, but I hoped for a better showing. Regardless, losing by 3 is the same as losing by 19. They're not the #4 team in the country for nothing.
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Essentially, yeah. I wasn't expecting a win, but thought we had a chance in this one and we did. I don't think the score was indicative of the outcome. Purdue is an in your face, tough team. I'll be rooting for them all year, except when we beat them at home of course.
 


Purdue Whipped WVU About The Same Way

Gophers shot poorly and fouled too much.

Purdue is a veteran team and best in B10.
 

Shocker: the sky is falling this morning

Unfortunately, the nature of these boards. ...

Next day after a loss -- "The sky is falling, we suck, so-and-so sucks (after he was great in his previous game), Tubby sucks, the refs were responsible, we have no chance to be a NCAA Tournament team."

Next day after a win -- "We're good enough to win the Big 10, so-and-so is awesome (after he was invisible in his last game), Tubby's awesome, the refs were fine and let us play, we're going dancing for sure in March."

It's like clockwork. Usually, the truth lies somewhere in between.

I prefer to let the season evolve & enjoy the journey. Some nights your warts are exposed more than others. Last night was one of those nights. Purdue had a lot to do with that. There's a reason the Boilers are ranked where they are. It happens every night in college basketball, at arenas across the country. Warts are exposed, but the season marches on toward March.

All is not lost. So far the Gophers have held serve in the Big 10, nothing more, nothing less. They've beaten who they were supposed to, and they've lost to who they were supposed to.

Let's beat Ohio State and get to 3-1 in the Big Ten. The Bucks are one of the mid-tier Big 10 teams (also Illinois, Northwestern, maybe even Michigan if they get hot) we'll likely battle for the #4 or #5 spot in the Big 10. These are the teams we must beat head-to-head -- especially at The Barn -- if we want any shot at the NCAA. Not to mention, the Gophs still have 4 cracks (Sparty twice, Purdue once, Bucky once) to earn signature wins over the top shelf of the Big Ten, 3 of which will be played on our home floor.
 

Next day after a loss -- "The sky is falling, we suck, so-and-so sucks (after he was great in his previous game), Tubby sucks, the refs were responsible, we have no chance to be a NCAA Tournament team."
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Exactly, which again why I should have known better than to have logged on last night.

I really thought the Gophers played tough last night against the best defensive team we're going to see this year.

* IF * the boys can bring that game to everyone this year I'm more confident then ever we can reach that 10-11 win mark we're looking for.
 

Still waiting for an offensive leader... or two.

First, there were a few things that impressed me last night. I didn't think the Gophs could be succesfful pressing Purdue. I was dead wrong and I now believe that is probably the biggest strenght of this team if the intensity can be maintained. When you can force the the #4 team in the country into making 17(?) turnovers - largely from the press, you can do something right.

That pressure is likely enough for the Gophs to finish 5th in the Big Ten. They could be higher if an offensive leader(s) emerge during the season. We have a team of roll players and no consistent leaders. The second half, half court offense was brutal and will show its ugly head every time we play great defensive teams: Michigan St., Purdue, Wisconsin. The game was not closer than the score indicated. We got blown out because of bad offensive decisions (a consistent problem for this team against good teams) and a Purdue defense that is very impressive.
 



This is the great thing about Bball the high's and lows aren't spread out between 14 days. Unfortunately on the football board 7 days of the sky is falling, we suck, so-and-so sucks (after he was great in his previous game), Brewster sucks, the refs were responsible, we have no chance to ever win a trophy game is pretty much sucked up into the media and the reiterated for the common fan to repeat also. :(.

It looked like we were able to get Carter the ball in the post. That seemed like a pretty good improvement on our inside play.
 

I'm with the OP, not sure why people are whining so much. I can't realistically say that I'm all that upset about a road loss to a team ranked #4 in the country and undefeated to boot. I actually felt like we were right there for most of the first half until Kramer hit that three at the end of the half. After that, I think the air came out of our balloon quite a bit. Give Purdue credit, they're just better than we are.
 

Right or wrong, the way that Big Ten games are officiated isn't likely to change - so we'll just have to accept it and hope that the gophs don't get as screwed at home. Complaining isn't going to help anything. I'm posting this here b/c I want to stay away from the ref thread.

Purdue played well, as usual. The Gophers also played well, at times. I was very impressed that the gophers didn't "freak out" after being down 8-0 to start the game, and played hard to be up by 4. They did, however seem to freak out during the rest of the game as seen w/ shooting especially. One of the things that the espn commentators said last night that I agreed w/ is that the offense sets up the defense, noting the full press. But this seems to extend into the half court defense too. If they are shooting poorly, it seems like they just get frazzled and the all around game suffers.

One thing that was obvious last night is that we need to have a steady low post scoring option while sampson is out. Carter could be that guy, or Iverson could be, but Iverson needs to learn how to be strong w/ the ball and in general just hold on to it. How many times didn't he have an easy look, and had it swatted away. The purdue defense didn't really worry about Iverson, allowing the guards to be defended tougher.
 

I believe the Gophers have a shot at dumping Purdue in the rematch at Williiams arena. The only thing that bugs me a little bit is that this game (for Purdue) was sandwiched between a couple of huge games. So I hope I'm not being overly optimistic. In the next 3 games they can come out of it 2-1. One of those would be a road win in Indiana, which would be huge.
 



SGL

ShowinGoldyLove said:
Agreed. I don't recall more than a couple people on this whole board thinking we were going to win tonight.

I wasn't expecting a win, but I hoped for a better showing. Regardless, losing by 3 is the same as losing by 19. They're not the #4 team in the country for nothing.

Let's focus on OSU now, as long as we hold serve at home this year, we'll have a great shot at getting into the tourney.
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AGREED.

+1
 

I think the Gophers are a good team and I will be very surprised if they don't make the tournament. Mackey is a tough place to play when Purdue is a good team. When they are very good, it is darn near impossible. You are not going to win a game anywhere shooting 30% so you move on to the next one.

Every team has a weakness or two. You deal with them the best you can. The Gophers have a lot of good players and there is plenty of basketball to be played. Holding serve at home will obviously be critical.
 

The sad thing about last night was now it really only gives us three more chances at a solid resume builder. We have got to take Purdue at home or Michigan St home or on the road. Good things will happen if they put forth the kind of effort they did last night.
 

Many of the positive things I read here may well be true. But, why was our shooting percentage so poor and why did Purdue score 76 points? To me the answer to both questions is they played much better than we did in both half courts. Yes our press bothered them. But, in the half court, they murdered us. They beat us by 19 points even though we were able to convert turn-overs into points.

We have a good team. But, not nearly as good as we would be if we hadn't lost White and Mbakwe. The loss of these guys has left a huge gap at the 4 spot in the line-up. True Sampson was hurt. I doubt if he could have made much difference. 19 points. It's hard to alibi that.
 

figi said:
Many of the positive things I read here may well be true. But, why was our shooting percentage so poor and why did Purdue score 76 points? To me the answer to both questions is they played much better than we did in both half courts. Yes our press bothered them. But, in the half court, they murdered us. They beat us by 19 points even though we were able to convert turn-overs into points.

We have a good team. But, not nearly as good as we would be if we hadn't lost White and Mbakwe. The loss of these guys has left a huge gap at the 4 spot in the line-up. True Sampson was hurt. I doubt if he could have made much difference. 19 points. It's hard to alibi that.
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Agree. Lost in all of the criticism about the refs and some of the players, mostly Iverson and Nolen, is the fact Purdue shot over 50% and scored 76 points. Our press is good but those numbers don't indicate that we're that good a defensive team.

With almost everybody back and the new players, most people assumed we'd take a big step forward. Well, the new players haven't exactly worked out as planned. The returning players are who they are--nobody improved a lot. When we play quality opponents, the weaknesses we saw last year are still here this year. Just about all of our players have stretches or games where they can look very good and then they'll follow that up with periods of play that leave you shaking your head.

I think we'll be fine, but the margin for error is very small. I also hope that some people take a step back and look at our team realistically. I enjoy reading the analysis and criticisms of a lot of people here because they know basketball and see things a lot better than I do. However, the meltdowns by the 13 year old types are already old and to see them after we lost to a really good team at their place is doubly frustrating. Purdue had the best three players on the floor last night and that's tough to beat. As much as I like D. Johnson and as hot as Westbrook can get, there are very few people who wouldn't take Moore, Hummel, or J. Johnson over them in a heartbeat.

That said, I'm already looking forward to Feb. 24. Our shots are dropping; there's aren't; a few calls go our way at a critical time; victory.
 

I really thought that with better shooting earlier, it would have been a better game regardless of the refs. we just didn't seem to shoot well, and we aren't going to get the easy shots like we did against Iowa
 

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