Still not over the hump...

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EG#9

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This one hurts. I pointed out over the past couple years that, even with the injuries, the Gophers lost too many games as favorites. This is supposed to be an "up" year and the Gophers go down as home favorites to a very good (but young) Michigan team. This was a chance on the big stage, with Dickie V in the booth, for this program to validate that it really was where some of us thought it was and some of us HOPED it was. There's no excuse for being down 19 on your home court in such a game and to NEVER be within real striking distance of winning this game in the second half. Some who were talking about the Big Ten title will now adjust their expectations downward and be "happy" with a 5th place finish in the conference or some crap like that. Others will claim the team sucks and a housecleaning is in order. I think seeing Wisconsin go on the road to Indiana, in an expected down year for the Badgers, and pull out a win at Indiana really adds to the pain of this one. Wisconsin did something in a down year, that Minnesota has been unable to do in a supposed "up" year to this point.

I really hope this game closes the book on the "blaming the fans" theory for what has happened to Williams Arena. The crowd was great, but it's not going to continue to be that way unless winning games like the one tonight becomes a REGULAR practice. Again, this is not an aberration, it's happened regularly over the past decade plus...The Gophers lose home games that are crucial and can't make up for it on the road.
 

Yes, I agree with much of your post, however it is one game. Being down 19 on your home court in the first half and never being within striking distance is very accurate and obviously a problem.

Anyone care to argue against Austin Hollins as being the MVP of this team?
 

Under Tubby this team has not for the most part in conference play protected home court. There may be various reason for this but playing at the Barn for thte visitors has not been that difficult.

Secondly, the most glaring problem this team will have going foward is they simply do not value the basketball.
 

EG#9 said:
This one hurts. I pointed out over the past couple years that, even with the injuries, the Gophers lost too many games as favorites. This is supposed to be an "up" year and the Gophers go down as home favorites to a very good (but young) Michigan team. This was a chance on the big stage, with Dickie V in the booth, for this program to validate that it really was where some of us thought it was and some of us HOPED it was. There's no excuse for being down 19 on your home court in such a game and to NEVER be within real striking distance of winning this game in the second half. Some who were talking about the Big Ten title will now adjust their expectations downward and be "happy" with a 5th place finish in the conference or some crap like that. Others will claim the team sucks and a housecleaning is in order. I think seeing Wisconsin go on the road to Indiana, in an expected down year for the Badgers, and pull out a win at Indiana really adds to the pain of this one. Wisconsin did something in a down year, that Minnesota has been unable to do in a supposed "up" year to this point.

I really hope this game closes the book on the "blaming the fans" theory for what has happened to Williams Arena. The crowd was great, but it's not going to continue to be that way unless winning games like the one tonight becomes a REGULAR practice. Again, this is not an aberration, it's happened regularly over the past decade plus...The Gophers lose home games that are crucial and can't make up for it on the road.
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+1
 

I didn't get to watch it. So I have no clue on the flow of the game on how the Gophers responded to any of Michigan's runs.. But I saw a stat where we missed like 7 of the final 16 FT attempts? That can't happen if we want to be competitive in the conference.
 


EG#9 said:
This one hurts. I pointed out over the past couple years that, even with the injuries, the Gophers lost too many games as favorites. This is supposed to be an "up" year and the Gophers go down as home favorites to a very good (but young) Michigan team. This was a chance on the big stage, with Dickie V in the booth, for this program to validate that it really was where some of us thought it was and some of us HOPED it was. There's no excuse for being down 19 on your home court in such a game and to NEVER be within real striking distance of winning this game in the second half. Some who were talking about the Big Ten title will now adjust their expectations downward and be "happy" with a 5th place finish in the conference or some crap like that. Others will claim the team sucks and a housecleaning is in order. I think seeing Wisconsin go on the road to Indiana, in an expected down year for the Badgers, and pull out a win at Indiana really adds to the pain of this one. Wisconsin did something in a down year, that Minnesota has been unable to do in a supposed "up" year to this point.

I really hope this game closes the book on the "blaming the fans" theory for what has happened to Williams Arena. The crowd was great, but it's not going to continue to be that way unless winning games like the one tonight becomes a REGULAR practice. Again, this is not an aberration, it's happened regularly over the past decade plus...The Gophers lose home games that are crucial and can't make up for it on the road.
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+1 Great energy from the crowd, ho hum energy from the Gophers. Baffling performance tonight. Yes, Michigan is talented, but they're young, playing on the road, and while they played well they didn't play unbeatably well. This is a game we were favored to win and should have been able to win. And our turnovers, Christ. To some extent you credit the other team's D, but that's not nearly the whole story.
 

WanderingGopher said:
+1 Great energy from the crowd, ho hum energy from the Gophers. Baffling performance tonight. Yes, Michigan is talented, but they're young, playing on the road, and while they played well they didn't play unbeatably well. This is a game we were favored to win and should have been able to win. And our turnovers, Christ. To some extent you credit the other team's D, but that's not nearly the whole story.
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Yes. This has been an epidemic.
 

EG#9 said:
I think seeing Wisconsin go on the road to Indiana, in an expected down year for the Badgers, and pull out a win at Indiana really adds to the pain of this one. Wisconsin did something in a down year, that Minnesota has been unable to do in a supposed "up" year to this point.
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This. It gets really old seeing us lose against a good team (IU), explain away the loss and then go see a team (supposedly) worse than us (WI) beat the good team we just lost to (IU). We just do not win big games period. I was incredulous when I was reading some of the predict the score prognostications showing us winning by large margins. This team has not shown, to me, while under Tubby, the ability to win a big game at a crucial time. I was hoping MN would win, but I was expecting a loss as MN has not shown me that they have what it takes to get to the next level.
 

Such a big fanbase killer. Everyone gets pumped up and lines to get in the building are out the door. Then the Gophers come out and do that.
 



GO4INLALALAND said:
This team has not shown, to me, while under Tubby, the ability to win a big game at a crucial time.
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It was looking like the Illinois game would buck that trend, but then they decided to go full dumpster fire. Down 48-33 at home to Northwestern right now with 7 minutes left.
 

GopherInPittsburgh said:
It was looking like the Illinois game would buck that trend, but then they decided to go full dumpster fire. Down 48-33 at home to Northwestern right now with 7 minutes left.
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Yeah. It is clear that Illinois was way over ranked. They are heading straight to the bottom of the conference.
 

I think the team thought they were still in the first half of the Indiana game. At one point late in the first half, I noticed that Mbakwe just stood there as a lose ball slowly rolled past him and eventually a Michigan player picked it up and ran to the other end of the court. Not sure what is going on with the team the past two games but this isn't the same team that we saw for the first 14 games.
 

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