***GOPHERS VS FRANKLIN PIERCE IN GAME THREAD***

To confirm, this game will not be used as a win on our tourney resume?

The main benefit then was to:
a. Give Konate some very badly needed minutes. Man, is he raw.
b. Let Charles continue to see the light shine. He's starting to get it as far as what to do which is exciting because next to Mason, he might be the biggest upgrade this season. (Morris for Austin is a wash IMO)
c. Let Kendall get some PT and recognition which is great because he really came across well in the post-game interview.
d. No injuries
 


By the way Franklin Pierce wasn't as bad as we made them look. They were small but otherwise had guys that could shoot and decent athleticism. We just ran them off the court. The thing to watch against little teams like this is- can you crush them? The Gophers did. If you start winning those games by 15 or 20 - then lookout later on- you are not that good. Beating another college team by 50 isn't easy unless you have some talent. Furthermore, the depth of our team made it so that we were able to keep pouring it on with the subs. Good sign.
 

By the way Franklin Pierce wasn't as bad as we made them look. They were small but otherwise had guys that could shoot and decent athleticism. We just ran them off the court. The thing to watch against little teams like this is- can you crush them? The Gophers did. If you start winning those games by 15 or 20 - then lookout later on- you are not that good. Beating another college team by 50 isn't easy unless you have some talent. Furthermore, the depth of our team made it so that we were able to keep pouring it on with the subs. Good sign.

There is definitely a mental side to beating someone that badly.
 

The main benefit then was to:
a. Give Konate some very badly needed minutes. Man, is he raw.
b. Let Charles continue to see the light shine. He's starting to get it as far as what to do which is exciting because next to Mason, he might be the biggest upgrade this season. (Morris for Austin is a wash IMO)
c. Let Kendall get some PT and recognition which is great because he really came across well in the post-game interview.
d. No injuries

Agree with all of that except the "Morris for Austin is a wash" part. Maybe he will be next year or even by the end of this year but not so far.
 


Gophers should be favored by about 35 over St. John's

SJU beat Hawkeye Pierce by 13, the Gophers beat 'em by 52. Subtract about 4 points because the game's being played at MSG and the transitive property says the Gophers should be -35 vs. the Johnnies.

If there were a line for Saturday's cakewalk vs. UMBC (there won't be), it'd be somewhere in the neighborhood of 25 to 30. At least the UMBC game will "count", for better or worse, and the Gophers will "retrieve" another D-I win.
 

Honestly, they should have set up a game with Winona or Northern State. It would have been twice as competitive as this. Ugh.

We were talking about that on the walk back to the car. There are D3 teams around here who could beat the likes of BF Pierce.

As far as McNeil goes, I wonder if he doesn't have a confidence problem. We saw what he was capable of in the UMD game, and Pitino's mentioned that he's been better than last year because he had more confidence. Well last night he was a hot mess until he made a couple plays late in order to keep up with the Kendal Shells of the world.
 

Honestly, they should have set up a game with Winona or Northern State. It would have been twice as competitive as this. Ugh.

This game was set up by the pre-season NIT, so we may not have had a choice. A local team might have gotten a more full house though. Whatever attendance they announce is going to be way higher than the actual butts in seat number.
That being said, Winona only beat DIII Eau-Claire by 10 so it might not have been that competitive. And DIII St Thomas beat DII MN State Mankato by 22 so moving up the ladder in that conference might not help either
 








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