The Key Against Northwestern

Is it 3 Point FG Defense or Turnovers???

Here is the opponent's 3 point FG% and turnover differential in our 9 losses:
Michigan State - 33%, -0 TO margin
@Northwestern - 42% (9 threes), -5 TO margin
Purdue - 55%, +3 TO margin
@ Michigan State - 58%, -0 TO margin
@ OSU - 33%, -7 TO margin
@ Penn State - 48% (11 threes), -2 TO margin
@ Michigan - 46% (13 threes), -2 TO margin
@ Illinois- 33%, -6 TO margin
Michigan - 41% (9 threes), -9 TO margin

It is BOTH. These are HORRENDOUS numbers both ways.

PLEASE Tubby - your inside defenders are MORE than good enough 1-1 to stop Northwestern on the inside. Don't even allow NW to shoot 3's.

No double teams. Switch every high screen. Do WHATEVER it takes on D to stop 3 pointers.

On offense - scheme a way to get the ball AROUND Jeremy Nash (not trying to get it over him) and get it inside. Do you think Rawley or Scherna is going to stop Johnson, RSIII or Colt? Not a chance.

PLEASE Tubby - I know you like to defend the inside first and live with giving up 3's - but it has burned you time after time this year and this is one game where you absolutely CANNOT afford to do so again.

Anyone that watched Ohio State play NW saw Matta make a slick adaptation in the 2nd half on offense. They had been having trouble getting the big kid posted. Then they started just rolling him right to the basket and lobbing to him. He got three or four jams in a short time span.

I'm sure the coaches saw that, so now we just have to execute. The 1-3-1 isn't all that difficult to beat. We just need good guard play, and sometimes with this team, that's asking a lot.

If we spread out defense too much to prevent the 3 NU will beat us on back door cuts. I say continue to play D the way we have been. However, we need to notice when a player gets hot and adapt to that. ie (Landry, Simms) If Craig Moore gets hott drap DJ or nolen all over him. We beat these cats by 20 last time. If we show up with that kind of energy I see no reason why this isn't a safe W.

Yeah, I even think we should've beat them the first time around. We should've won that game. As long as we bring our defense and energy, we'll overwhelm them.

"We should've won that game."

Respectfully disagree. Was in Evanston & what I saw was Northwestern completely outplaying us for the final 24 minutes. There was no coulda', woulda' or shoulda' in the second half of that game; NW was the better team that day, just as the Gophers were the better team in the 2nd meeting.

The Penn State and Illinois road games? To me, more than any those are the games that could end up costing the Gophers a NCAA bid. Those games were there for the taking and the Gophers melted down in the clutch. Win either of those games and the Gophers aren't forced into pretty much must-win mode in the finale vs. Michigan.