Glad with the win, but...

...baffling to me that Tubby didn't clamp on the all-out full-court press in this game. Indiana has a very, very inexperienced backcourt. As a team, they averaged something like 17 turnovers a game. Yet, we lay back in a half-court man-to-man. Damian could have confused those guards with the trapping pressure we've had success with against better guards than that.

I would think when Indiana returns to the barn that Tubby will roll that pressure out then. At least, I hope. Baffling that he didn't.

As it was, Indiana was careless with the ball. Think how we could have benefited from Damian's traps on that youthful guard court.

Anyone know why we didn't do that?

It's jsut a personal theory, but....

Our guys are very very talented, but oh so *young*. Every time we've used the press for very long this year (at least to my recollection) it seems like we get caught up in the faster tempo and lose our offensive cadence/continuity, and start doing for lack of a better word, "Stupid stuff". I suspect (imho) that Coach Smith has notices this tendency and thereby chooses to pick his spots for throwing the press on.....

Baffled

I love Tubbby and wouldnt pretend to understand what he is up to at any given time. I also love hoff and jas. But I am baffled at the minutes Hoff and JAS got in indiana and that they got so many at the same time! Can anyone explain this?

i agree; where was the press? when i was looking at the big ten schedule, i thought: "oh man, our press is going to kill indiana's thin and inexperienced back court." then, no press. i mean, i love tubby, and i assume there is a reason, but what the heck.

and yeah, maybe the press does lead to the gophers flying out of control a bit, but doesn't that seem to be happening anyway? i guess i feel like the gophers lack top end big ten offensive talent (at least at this point in their careers), so they have trouble creating offense in the half court set. our defense and press create turnovers and lead to offense, plus it sure is fun to watch.

here's a thought: maybe tubby thought we would handle indiana without the press and wanted to try to keep the guys fresh for the long haul. i again assume tubby doesn't think like that (or at least would never admit to it), but it makes you wonder. or maybe he really is trying to pin down a rotation.

anyway, i am done rambling. 17-3 sounds pretty damn good to me.

In the end, I think Tubby looked at this game like a pre-season game. (in terms of Indiana's talent) Remember back to Georgia St., Bowling Green, CSP...he would only press for a short stint in each of those games (say 5 minutes or so each). He wanted to see his young guys beat those teams in a 1/2 court game and improve their 1/2 court game in a competetive game. Pressing against any of those teams in the pre-season home games for an extended amount of time could cause the game to get out of hand and might have been the same way yesterday. I think he felt the same way about this Indiana game. He wanted to see his team run their "new" offense in a tight game.

I might add that the "new" offense looked much better vs. IU than what we'd seen the previous several games. We had a lot more inside-out stuff and looked a lot more disciplined overall. Encouraging adjustments by Tubby and the team.

tjgopher said:

...baffling to me that Tubby didn't clamp on the all-out full-court press in this game. Indiana has a very, very inexperienced backcourt. As a team, they averaged something like 17 turnovers a game. Yet, we lay back in a half-court man-to-man. Damian could have confused those guards with the trapping pressure we've had success with against better guards than that.

I would think when Indiana returns to the barn that Tubby will roll that pressure out then. At least, I hope. Baffling that he didn't.

As it was, Indiana was careless with the ball. Think how we could have benefited from Damian's traps on that youthful guard court.

Anyone know why we didn't do that?

Click to expand...

Wondering the same here tjgopher... On the road the full-court press might not be as effective? With the depth I'd say go for it..but it wasn't used. It would be a great Q (for Tubby) from our media types here in the TC's..I certainly don't have an answer for you!

The press

I thought it deserved more use too, maybe as its something we need to work on as we have the talent to make it pretty effective. But like someone said, 17-3 is hard to argue with...

Sorry, did we win? I guess the argument is did we win well enough. A road win is a road win. Who was the last MN coach to win at IU, IA, and UW? Clem didn't even do it on the Road to the Final Four. I say win ugly, but please just win -- especially on the road.