***OFFICIAL MINNESOTA ILLINOIS GAME THREAD ***

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Myke said:
This starting 5 can compete with anybody's in the country but i'm worried about the bench. Got nothing from them. If we're gonna beat the Indiana's and Michigan's we need something from our bench. Other then that i'm happy. Good for Joe he really was key. That's gonna do a lot for his confidence. Trevor was also great. Great win and now let's go beat Indiana. Go Gophers!
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Some of these bench guys have played well in the past...need to get them going. I'd rather see welsh as the back-up pg and mav at the 2.

Like to see more of Oto.

Like to know what is up with Elliot......
 


Superb win guys! Great D and as usual O boards. Wow, what a display on the FT's. I think it would have been better to play Oto over Mo, but a W is a W and what a freaking beatdown we put on the Ilini.
 

Final stats:

Minnesota 9-15 from 3 (60%)
Illinois 3-24 from 3 (12.5%)
 

Gotta say, as happy as I am about this win, it being a ROAD win for one, and agaist the Illini, esp. I have to say that despite the Illini's big wins, I just don't think they are a truly solid team. Probably 6th in the Big Ten right now. Great win, no matter, but Michigan and Indiana are the real powers that we'll find out against, how good we really are.
 


GuyFawkes said:
Final stats:

Minnesota 9-15 from 3 (60%)
Illinois 3-24 from 3 (12.5%)
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I'd be curious to see how many 3's Illinois attempted in the second half (subtracting the desperation shots toward the end of the game). I don't think I saw more than three or four attempts in the meat of the second half. They completely shied away from their bread and butter.
 

Dr.Don said:
Maybe, just maybe, you experts will come to realize that we have a damn good team, and will stop with your penny ante negative bull$hit about a certain incident in a game.
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So, remind me, what is gopherhole for again?
 

station19 said:
Some of these bench guys have played well in the past...need to get them going. I'd rather see welsh as the back-up pg and mav at the 2.

Like to see more of Oto.

Like to know what is up with Elliot......
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They have but i'm worried. We need to keep the starting 5 fresh so we can make it through tough conference play. I'd like to see Welch play point too and as long as Mav plays limited minutes i'm cool with him playing the 2 a bit. I'd like to see more of Oto as well.
 

MinneStoa said:
I'd be curious to see how many 3's Illinois attempted in the second half (subtracting the desperation shots toward the end of the game). I don't think I saw more than three or four attempts in the meat of the second half. They completely shied away from their bread and butter.
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They fired up 16 in the first half so your answer is 8 - by my count 5 of them were of the desperation variety you describe.
 



15 of 16 on FT in the 2nd half. Andre Hollins hits 4 of 6 3-pointers, had 8 rebounds, and 6 assists. Austin Hollins with 6 assists as well.
 

#1nHkyCfbBsbDncSolarDebat said:
I just don't think they are a truly solid team.
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Ohio State, losers 74-55 at Illinois would disagree.

#1nHkyCfbBsbDncSolarDebat said:
Great win, no matter, but Michigan and Indiana are the real powers that we'll find out against, how good we really are.
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We LOVE moving the goal posts at the gopherhole.

Wait until Duke...wait until Memphis...wait until Stanford...wait until Michigan State...wait until Illinois...well, wait until Indiana....wait Indiana has already lost this season...wait until Michigan.

Advice to others that just come here after a game. Never re-read a game thread. I'm now convinced Minnesota is going to finish the year 15-18.
 






Tubtastic said:
Up 4, playing like Shi-it. I like it! Gophers by 10+
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Pats my own back.

Seriously though: we have a team that is extremely tough to beat. The 97 team was flashier, with players who could drop 30 points per game if needed. This team has that plus extremely tough defense. We looked terrible in the first half of Northwestern and I'LL but still lead in both games at the half. I really like this team.

B1G champs.
 

Sorry Maximus, we lost to Duke, pretty convincingly, so it was a good thing we waited until the Duke game to start making big predictions.
Illinois has played well and won some pretty big games, and they've also lost some games that make you wonder as well, including to a hardly spectacular Purdue team. I think that the Illini live by the 3, and die by the 3. They made them vs OSU and Missouri, they missed them vs PU and vs our Gophers.
The Indiana game, is the toughest game we'll play this year. The home game vs Michigan, well, its a home game, and Michigan has alot of youth on their team, and I think our veteran team, and our crowd, will give us a great chance to win that game. But it wouldn't be the end of the world if we lost that one, either. But predicting that we're going to win this next game vs Indiana, clearly a Top 5 team, on the road, is very hopeful thinking. Can it be done, SURE, absolutely. I'm going to watch the game, and as soon as we get a lead, like we had on Ill tonight, I'll instantly assume we can beat them, but IU's got the talent to come back from behind.
I'm writing it off as a loss, and if we do end up winning, GRAVY!!! I don't think we need to win that game to win the Big Ten Title. Other Big Ten fans think that a 14-4 record will be good enough to win the Big Ten this season. So who are we going to lose to? The 4 losses have to come from somewhere? I think our toughest games all year will be @IU, vs Mich an @MSU. We might not lose them all, but we might lose a game we never should, as well? We might not lose 4 games, only 1 or 2? We might lose 5 or 6? There's alot of bb left to play, I'm just trying to say lets not get too excited. This is a big win, but lets not make it a bigger one that it is, and set ourselves up for a letdown.

I would love to be wrong. I'd love to see the Gophers go 16-0, and I'll gladly eat all the crow you can serve up, ok?! And if I end up being write, don't worry, no crow will be served to you. It's not about being right or wrong for me, just trying to be a voice of reason is all.
 

Very good game tonight. Low turnover ratio, good ball movement and strong low-post presence. Probably the best overall performance of the season. Even their freethrow shooting improved over the second half. What I was most impressed with was the intensity on the defensive side. Illinois rarely got a good look on their 3 point attempts and their legs left them due to the physical play of the Gophers. I'll admit to being impressed for one of the first times in quite awhile with a Tubby coached team. A few more of these and perhaps...don't get your hopes up too high...I'll view Tubby as a descent offensive coach. I'm just saying...perhaps. :p
 

station19 said:
Some of these bench guys have played well in the past...need to get them going. I'd rather see welsh as the back-up pg and mav at the 2.

Like to see more of Oto.

Like to know what is up with Elliot......
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Quote from yahoo game recap:

Center Elliott Eliason headed to the bench a short time later after a foul he didn't think he committed only to be met by a sharp ''Do your job!'' from coach Tubby Smith.
 

notoriousgod71 said:
Quote from yahoo game recap:

Center Elliott Eliason headed to the bench a short time later after a foul he didn't think he committed only to be met by a sharp ''Do your job!'' from coach Tubby Smith.
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PRICELESS.
 


Just got done watching the game on the DVR and WOW, what a performance! I was not in the camp that believed the Gophers needed to win this game to be contenders and think this is a HUGE win for the teams conference prospects (not just to win the conference, but to finish top 3). This was much more than holding serve in my mind and really should bring the level of excitement for this team up a notch among the general public.

Some thoughts:

Mbakwe's play was enormous in the first half when things were not going well offensively. I thought he had a really key bucket when put in with four reserves to really stem some momentum Illinois was building. Eddie Johnson really did a good job of pointing out what steadying influence Trevor was for the Gophers and that certainly seemed true in the first half tonight when the team needed to settle down.

I was much more impressed by Joe Coleman's hustle and toughness than by his point total. Joe flat out beat people to several lose balls and then also continuously beat guys down the court for those transition dunks. The 3's were nice, but if Joe can continue to show so much energy on both ends of the court that makes the Gophers that much tougher.

Andre Hollins made a number of fairly difficult passes on the break that lead to easy finishes for Coleman and others (but mainly Coleman). The guys were open, but Hollins had to put those passes on the money, between defenders, to make that open. Further progression in to the PG role from 'Dre.

LOVE watching this team play in transition, great on offense and often great at getting back and stopping the oppositions chances as well.

The comeback the Illini had in the second half was only possible because Trevor missed a bunny and then Austin got fouled on a bunny (no call)...I think if the Gophers score on either of those possessions the game never would have gotten below 8 or so. Very impressive to see the team answer back in front of a loud/hostile crowd and build a 4 point lead back up to 11 quickly. The adversity in this game and the MSU game that the team was able to persevere through should be a positive down the road.

Edit: One other point someone mentioned in this thread that the 1997 team didn't even win in Champaign. That is true, BUT that game was the worst example of home cooking I've ever seen involving the Gophers. The officials basically said "Minnesota, you're not going to win this game".
 

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