Minnesota will play Temple in opening round of Puerto Rico Shootout

BleedGopher

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I gotta say I'm surprised they didn't match us up with Texas Tech, if nothing else for a guaranteed TV storyline in the first round.

per Jon Rothstein:

First-round matchups for the 2015 Puerto Rico Shootout are set, highlighted by Mississippi State facing Miami on the tournament's first day on Nov. 19.

Texas Tech will play Utah, Butler will face Missouri State, and Minnesota will play Temple in other first-round games, multiple sources told CBSSports.com. Second-round matchups will occur the very next day when the winner of the Mississippi State-Miami game will take on the winner of the Texas Tech-Utah game. The winner of the Butler-Missouri State game will take on the winner of the Minnesota-Temple game.

http://www.cbssports.com/collegebas...o-rico-shootout-mississippi-state-faces-miami

Go Gophers!!
 

In my opinion this draw couldn't have been any better for the Gophers. Get the very winnable matchup against Temple and then if we advance probably Butler. These two games would give us, in my mind, a good opportunity to reach the championship game where we would face the tougher competition (which is more heavily concentrated on the other side of the bracket). It would also give the Gophers time to get their legs under them.
 

By no means am I an expert on Temple basketball but some quick research shows me they will be losing 2 of their top 3 leading scorers from last year but should be returning some decent talent from an NIT team. It's a winnable game but certainly not an easy win IMO.
 

By no means am I an expert on Temple basketball but some quick research shows me they will be losing 2 of their top 3 leading scorers from last year but should be returning some decent talent from an NIT team. It's a winnable game but certainly not an easy win IMO.

Yeah no doubt not an easy win, but easier than it could have been. They're losing some of the top scorers off of a squad that could hardly score last year. Hopefully that bodes well for the Gophers, particularly if it takes Temple some time to figure out their offense.
 



SS, thoughts on the potential match-ups - quality, SOS, RPI, etc.?
 

I like the matchup, solid opponent but also a winnable game. Anyone know if they seeded this tournament kinda seems like it? #1 Butler vs. #8 Missouri State, #4/5 Temple vs. #4/5 Minnesota, #2 Utah vs. #7 Texas Tech, and #3 Miami vs. #6 Mississippi State.
 

They're just setting up a Tubby vs. Pitino championship game. Smart bracket-setting, I tell ya.
 




Supposed to be an NCAA Tournament entrant this coming season

By no means am I an expert on Temple basketball but some quick research shows me they will be losing 2 of their top 3 leading scorers from last year but should be returning some decent talent from an NIT team. It's a winnable game but certainly not an easy win IMO.
http://espn.go.com/blog/collegebasketballnation/post/_/id/107764/looking-ahead-temple-owls

Papa is still undecided but Temple is not on the 24/7 radar as a likely landing spot.
 

Yeah no doubt not an easy win, but easier than it could have been. They're losing some of the top scorers off of a squad that could hardly score last year. Hopefully that bodes well for the Gophers, particularly if it takes Temple some time to figure out their offense.
could just as easily be an upgrade for their offense to get rid of 2 inefficient scorers.
 

In my opinion this draw couldn't have been any better for the Gophers. Get the very winnable matchup against Temple and then if we advance probably Butler. These two games would give us, in my mind, a good opportunity to reach the championship game where we would face the tougher competition (which is more heavily concentrated on the other side of the bracket). It would also give the Gophers time to get their legs under them.

I don't agree with this at all. Of the three teams you mentioned, we're the only ones who didn't play in the postseason last year. Butler even won a game in the NCAA Tournament. (Side note - they even managed to not fire their coach after doing so.) We should consider ourselves fortunate if we win any games in Puerto Rico. It is certainly not out of the realm of possibility, but saying that we have a "good" chance to make the finals is an enormous stretch.
 

I don't agree with this at all. Of the three teams you mentioned, we're the only ones who didn't play in the postseason last year. Butler even won a game in the NCAA Tournament. (Side note - they even managed to not fire their coach after doing so.) We should consider ourselves fortunate if we win any games in Puerto Rico. It is certainly not out of the realm of possibility, but saying that we have a "good" chance to make the finals is an enormous stretch.

the-pot-calling-the-kettle-black.png
 



I would have like an easier game against Tubby. Hopefully we don't face him in the 7th place game...
 

Upsets

I don't agree with this at all. Of the three teams you mentioned, we're the only ones who didn't play in the postseason last year. Butler even won a game in the NCAA Tournament. (Side note - they even managed to not fire their coach after doing so.) We should consider ourselves fortunate if we win any games in Puerto Rico. It is certainly not out of the realm of possibility, but saying that we have a "good" chance to make the finals is an enormous stretch.

To get to the finals we have to upset two teams. As with any tournament, the first game is critical...somehow gotta beat Temple. One game at a time. Not easy, but that would be a successful trip in my mind, winning the first game. Anything more would be welcomed.
 

To get to the finals we have to upset two teams. As with any tournament, the first game is critical...somehow gotta beat Temple. One game at a time. Not easy, but that would be a successful trip in my mind, winning the first game. Anything more would be welcomed.

100% agreed. It's definitely possible. I just disagree with the assertion that we have a "good" chance to make the finals, given that we'll have about a 40-45% chance to beat Temple and about a 25-30% chance to beat Butler, assuming they curbstomp Missouri St. as they should. That would mean about a 10-12% chance of making the finals. Quibble with the hypothetical odds, whatever - the point being that it would take a pretty big departure from rational analysis to get to a point where one could consider the odds "good".
 

Temple I would say is a 50/50 game. Odds are IIT will be this squads first competitive game away from the barn. I'll probably feel better about it in November ad I am a glass half full type but right now its tough to predict thus team without seeing half the guys on the roster
 

Temple I would say is a 50/50 game. Odds are IIT will be this squads first competitive game away from the barn. I'll probably feel better about it in November ad I am a glass half full type but right now its tough to predict thus team without seeing half the guys on the roster

This is called Quibbling.
 

In my mind we should be the favorite against Temple given their bad offense last year. The Butler game will be tough, but this draw, in my mind, is much more favorable than it could have been.
 

In my mind we should be the favorite against Temple given their bad offense last year. The Butler game will be tough, but this draw, in my mind, is much more favorable than it could have been.

They had a good defense and a poor offense. We had a good offense and a poor defense. Why does that make us the favorite?
 


Why does it make them the favorite?

With a young team we don't want to be the favorite. 60:40 Temple is how our expectations should be. I agree with dpo on this one(that was tough to write). I'm not saying i don't think we can win but we shouldn't have the expectation(this year only, next year we better be expected to win) of winning this game more than 2 out of 5 times.
 

Why does it make them the favorite?

They were better than us last year, and we lost most of our best and most experienced players. We'll be relying mostly on freshmen and sophomores. Until and unless proven otherwise, I don't see how we could possibly be the favorite.

I agree with dpo on this one(that was tough to write).

I don't see why it's tough. You'll be right far more often than not.
 

Yup

100% agreed. It's definitely possible. I just disagree with the assertion that we have a "good" chance to make the finals, given that we'll have about a 40-45% chance to beat Temple and about a 25-30% chance to beat Butler, assuming they curbstomp Missouri St. as they should. That would mean about a 10-12% chance of making the finals. Quibble with the hypothetical odds, whatever - the point being that it would take a pretty big departure from rational analysis to get to a point where one could consider the odds "good".

100% agreed
 

I don't see why it's tough. You'll be right far more often than not.

You just come off as being negative quite often. Pair that with hanging onto the past (Tubby is gone, and yes, he got fired after winning in the NCAA's let's move on please and move forward nothing can change the past) means I haven't always agreed with you.
 

You just come off as being negative quite often. Pair that with hanging onto the past (Tubby is gone, and yes, he got fired after winning in the NCAA's let's move on please and move forward nothing can change the past) means I haven't always agreed with you.

Negative doesn't mean wrong. I wouldn't ever bring up Tubby if people would stop assassinating his tenure. I'd be happy to never talk about him again. Firing the most successful coach we've had in a while, only to replace him with someone younger than me who doesn't have much to show for himself aside from his last name, doesn't make me excited for positive returns over the next few years of Gophers basketball.
 

I wouldn't ever bring up Tubby if people would stop assassinating his tenure. I'd be happy to never talk about him again.

In response to a poster who said Minnesota had a good chance to beat Temple and Butler...

Butler even won a game in the NCAA Tournament. (Side note - they even managed to not fire their coach after doing so.)

Must have been painful to be forced to bring up Tubby again.
 

Negative doesn't mean wrong.

True, but I would rather be positive and wrong than negative and right when making predictions(in terms of my sports fandom).

Edit: I would rather always be right about my positive predictions but if it's 50/50 and only every other prediction I make is right I'd rather take the positive stance.
 

True, but I would rather be positive and wrong than negative and right when making predictions(in terms of my sports fandom).

Edit: I would rather always be right about my positive predictions but if it's 50/50 and only every other prediction I make is right I'd rather take the positive stance.

Fair enough. I'd rather have expectations in line with a realistic assessment of the situation, but to each his own.
 

Negative doesn't mean wrong. I wouldn't ever bring up Tubby if people would stop assassinating his tenure. I'd be happy to never talk about him again. Firing the most successful coach we've had in a while, only to replace him with someone younger than me who doesn't have much to show for himself aside from his last name, doesn't make me excited for positive returns over the next few years of Gophers basketball.
I agree with this statement. I wish they would have hired Shaka, but he had no interest in Minnesota. Tubby was Tubby. As a Gopher fan we are hoping that the young PITTINO will bring us success, but he has to show us that he can. We all know the 2015/2016 season will be a second year in a row of at the very bottom of the Big Ten (Please prove us wrong young coach Pittino)
 




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