This Gopher team deserves more respect

Donate To GopherHole
E

EG#9

Well-known member
Joined
Nov 20, 2008
Messages
7,218
Reaction score
2,276
Points
113
Reading about all of these predictions and seeing the very close line in Vegas (closest by far of all 5/12 games) has me feeling like most people are forgetting just who this Minnesota team is.

This team is 24-9 on the season and of those 9 losses, the Gophers were leading at halftime in SIX of them. This team has played one terrible game in 33 (@Michigan State) and a handful of terrible half's (2nd half's against MSU, Iowa, Penn State, Wisconsin immediately come to mind as well as first half's against Ohio State and Michigan). In both cases of poor first half's, the Gophers bounced back to have a legit chance to win the game.

The Gophers are 16th in the country in field goal percentage defense, allowing teams to shoot an average of 39.8%. The only teams that play in a true power conference to do better? Virginia and Louisville (Georgia Tech, South Carolina, and Baylor are basically tied with Minnesota)

I can understand reasons why some would take MTSU to upset the Gophers in round 1...but I've yet to hear one media personality say they like the Gophers as a Sweet 16 team. Nothing in the Gophers resume suggests they won't come in to Milwaukee and play well. They are not dependent on good shooting to win and they are a low turnover team (as is MTSU to their credit). It's one thing to pick an upset it's another to act like the upset wouldn't actually be one.

I am confident (not cocky) that this team won't be leaving Milwaukee until Saturday night.

Go Gophers
 

I think the media realizes a 5 beats a 12 every year. MTSU is the best 12. Gophers are not the best 5 (to most people) so it is a logical choice.

I want them to win and think they have a very good chance to do so. I don't love the matchup though. If they win, it will be a tightly contested game. If they lose, it means they didn't play well.

Unless Giddy goes off like he did vs MSU last year, I think the Mighty Minnesota Golden gophers win and win Saturday as well vs Winthrop.
 

EG#9 said:
Reading about all of these predictions and seeing the very close line in Vegas (closest by far of all 5/12 games) has me feeling like most people are forgetting just who this Minnesota team is.

This team is 24-9 on the season and of those 9 losses, the Gophers were leading at halftime in SIX of them. This team has played one terrible game in 33 (@Michigan State) and a handful of terrible half's (2nd half's against MSU, Iowa, Penn State, Wisconsin immediately come to mind as well as first half's against Ohio State and Michigan). In both cases of poor first half's, the Gophers bounced back to have a legit chance to win the game.

The Gophers are 16th in the country in field goal percentage defense, allowing teams to shoot an average of 39.8%. The only teams that play in a true power conference to do better? Virginia and Louisville (Georgia Tech, South Carolina, and Baylor are basically tied with Minnesota)

I can understand reasons why some would take MTSU to upset the Gophers in round 1...but I've yet to hear one media personality say they like the Gophers as a Sweet 16 team. Nothing in the Gophers resume suggests they won't come in to Milwaukee and play well. They are not dependent on good shooting to win and they are a low turnover team (as is MTSU to their credit). It's one thing to pick an upset it's another to act like the upset wouldn't actually be one.

I am confident (not cocky) that this team won't be leaving Milwaukee until Saturday night.

Go Gophers
Click to expand...

Fran Fraschilla and the ex-coach on CBS Sports both picked the Gophers to go to the Sweet 16, though the panel roundly made fun of the CBS guy and Wallly Szerbiak 'guaranteed' an MTSU win.
 

UpAndUnder43 said:
I think the media realizes a 5 beats a 12 every year. MTSU is the best 12. Gophers are not the best 5 (to most people) so it is a logical choice.

I want them to win and think they have a very good chance to do so. I don't love the matchup though. If they win, it will be a tightly contested game. If they lose, it means they didn't play well.

Unless Giddy goes off like he did vs MSU last year, I think the Mighty Minnesota Golden gophers win and win Saturday as well vs Winthrop.
Click to expand...

I just don't understand this point. Our wings are 3 and 5 inches taller than their wings and more athletic. We are going to be able to drive through with ease given their lack of rim protection. We just need to rebound and avoid fouls and should get a win.
 

Who cares who gives us respect. Do you think pats fans or Yankees fan or Ohio state fans are so thin skinned like Minnesota fans? Beat teams, be happy, then beat more teams. Is this 25 sport season drought so overwhelming to our collective psyche that we just need espn to say that our team is good. Quit with the "no respect" quibbles. Just win. Just win baby.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 


bott12 said:
Who cares who gives us respect. Do you think pats fans or Yankees fan or Ohio state fans are so thin skinned like Minnesota fans? Beat teams, be happy, then beat more teams. Is this 25 sport season drought so overwhelming to our collective psyche that we just need espn to say that our team is good. Quit with the "no respect" quibbles. Just win. Just win baby.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Click to expand...

Amen bott12 Who cares what others think. We Gopher fans should enjoy being the only ones out there in the know. Think of the possibilities. I'm already thinking of flying out to Vegas, lol. Remember when you discovered that band that no one else knew about? That's fun to be the only one or the first one to know about the next big thing in the music world. It can be the same with sports.
 

Agreed. Besides, it is not as though these pundits have seen a ton of the Gophers. Most of them have seen Duke,KU,UNC, UK a dozen times. The rest they rarely talk about. Everyone will here more about Duke and UNC. Gophers are a much better team than midtenn .
 

There are 75 CBB teams to pay attention to. None of the talking heads have watched enough basketball to have intimate knowledge of all of them. They may know a little about everyone but that's it. MTSU isn't some great team all the sudden. I don't believe the media thought enough of them to rank them all year so despite the gaudy record nobody was beating their drum that hard. That's no knock on them, really. Just saying I doubt any national media knows enough about both teams to make a truly informed choice and that's fine. This stuff is for TV ratings and ad dollars. It has little effect on the game. What's real is that MTSU proved themselves to be a team worthy of the tourney as did MN. That means they're both 2 of the top 40 or so teams in the country and both capable of beating each other. Without Springs we're vulnerable but not dead. My guess is we have a few clear advantages and they may have some as well but if we can stay out of foul trouble and win the rebounding battle as has been our custom I'm confident in our chances against almost anyone
 

howeda7 said:
Fran Fraschilla and the ex-coach on CBS Sports both picked the Gophers to go to the Sweet 16, though the panel roundly made fun of the CBS guy and Wallly Szerbiak 'guaranteed' an MTSU win.
Click to expand...

Wally World's probably still bitter over McHale's Rip Hamilton comments.
 



oleboy41 said:
There are 75 CBB teams to pay attention to. None of the talking heads have watched enough basketball to have intimate knowledge of all of them. They may know a little about everyone but that's it. MTSU isn't some great team all the sudden. I don't believe the media thought enough of them to rank them all year so despite the gaudy record nobody was beating their drum that hard. That's no knock on them, really. Just saying I doubt any national media knows enough about both teams to make a truly informed choice and that's fine. This stuff is for TV ratings and ad dollars. It has little effect on the game. What's real is that MTSU proved themselves to be a team worthy of the tourney as did MN. That means they're both 2 of the top 40 or so teams in the country and both capable of beating each other. Without Springs we're vulnerable but not dead. My guess is we have a few clear advantages and they may have some as well but if we can stay out of foul trouble and win the rebounding battle as has been our custom I'm confident in our chances against almost anyone
Click to expand...

You talk as if MTSU got an at large bid? They won their conf tourney, otherwise they would not have gotten in. THREE BAD losses, 2 of which were HOME games for goodness sake. Just 2 Top 50 wins, and only 4 Top 100 wins. Compare their resume with that of Syracuse or Iowa, go on, compare them and then tell me that they are one Top 40 teams same as Minnesota.
 

howeda7 said:
Fran Fraschilla and the ex-coach on CBS Sports both picked the Gophers to go to the Sweet 16, though the panel roundly made fun of the CBS guy and Wallly Szerbiak 'guaranteed' an MTSU win.
Click to expand...
KG needs to punch Wally again!
 

Many of the talking heads feel MTS is the most under-seeded team in the tournament.

Add to that MN is missing a starting guard....which means we have a 1 man bench.

Spread about right. With Springs I'd be very confident of a sweet 16....without, not so confident.

Last year, as a 15, they beat a 2 seed.
 

station19 said:
Many of the talking heads feel MTS is the most under-seeded team in the tournament.

Add to that MN is missing a starting guard....which means we have a 1 man bench.

Spread about right. With Springs I'd be very confident of a sweet 16....without, not so confident.

Last year, as a 15, they beat a 2 seed.
Click to expand...

Agreed. Someone has to step up on defense to replace Akeem. To our advantage this appears to be a team our inside game could thrive against.
 



MissouriGopher said:
I just don't understand this point. Our wings are 3 and 5 inches taller than their wings and more athletic. We are going to be able to drive through with ease given their lack of rim protection. We just need to rebound and avoid fouls and should get a win.
Click to expand...

The height of our wings doesn't sell me that this is a good matchup. They are 30-4 and matchup pretty well with us inside. They have 3 legitimate players who will be a challenge. For a 12 seed, this is a lot
 

We're a 5 seed, how is that not respect (for a good season so far). We're a 5, they are a 12. The media, I don't care what they think. As Bott12 said, just win.
 

watertown 1987 guy n said:
We're a 5 seed, how is that not respect (for a good season so far). We're a 5, they are a 12. The media, I don't care what they think. As Bott12 said, just win.
Click to expand...

I don't care about the media but that doesn't keep me from thinking Seth Davis is an idiot and a schill for Duke.


What none of the talking heads acknowledge is that the Gophers and others played y the rules and
the RPI formula in setting schedules. If Syracuse cared about the system they would schedule a few road games. Gripe about the system all you want but play by it until it changes. They should all quit whining.
 

MissouriGopher said:
I just don't understand this point. Our wings are 3 and 5 inches taller than their wings and more athletic. We are going to be able to drive through with ease given their lack of rim protection. We just need to rebound and avoid fouls and should get a win.
Click to expand...

The game is not that simple. This is similar to a take where we look at our offensive line weight in football, and their defensive line, and assume we will be able to run at will. And then you're left scratching your head as our RUTM gets stuffed repeatedly.
 

station19 said:
Many of the talking heads feel MTS is the most under-seeded team in the tournament.

Add to that MN is missing a starting guard....which means we have a 1 man bench.

Spread about right. With Springs I'd be very confident of a sweet 16....without, not so confident.

Last year, as a 15, they beat a 2 seed.
Click to expand...

Right there with you in terms of confidence level. We are going to have to get something out of the bench guys to have a shot of getting past the first weekend. If we are limited to a 6 man rotation the way we were against Michigan I don't like our chances of getting far. Losing Springs this late in the season is a killer because he was a key part of the rotation even when he wasn't hitting 3's.
 

KillmeNow said:
You talk as if MTSU got an at large bid? They won their conf tourney, otherwise they would not have gotten in. THREE BAD losses, 2 of which were HOME games for goodness sake. Just 2 Top 50 wins, and only 4 Top 100 wins. Compare their resume with that of Syracuse or Iowa, go on, compare them and then tell me that they are one Top 40 teams same as Minnesota.
Click to expand...

They were a 12 seed. 12 seeds don't go to teams that only made it due to conference tournaments. Maybe they were among the bottom 4-8 but that's a sign that the committee thought them good enough even if they'd have lost the conference tourny
 

<script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
 

station19 said:
Many of the talking heads feel MTS is the most under-seeded team in the tournament.

Add to that MN is missing a starting guard....which means we have a 1 man bench.

Spread about right. With Springs I'd be very confident of a sweet 16....without, not so confident.

Last year, as a 15, they beat a 2 seed.
Click to expand...


and MTS also shot 56% from the field against MSU and promptly got smoked in round 2.
 

by Syracuse ....15pt loss

the Cuse were a 10 seed.
 

The people who matter gave us respect when they made us a 5 seed and seeded us 2nd out of the B1G.

Who cares what the stupid media says. Win 2 games and make it back there next year and the team will earn their respect. We were a laughing stock just last year, it takes time and wins to change that perception.
 

UpAndUnder43 said:
The height of our wings doesn't sell me that this is a good matchup. They are 30-4 and matchup pretty well with us inside. They have 3 legitimate players who will be a challenge. For a 12 seed, this is a lot
Click to expand...

When I see a mid-major with productive 6-8 forwards, I assume they're "active" and athletic - very much like Jordan Murphy. I suspect they have a couple Murphys. It's going to take a concerted effort of Lynch and our Murphy to shut them down. Need to block out; need some rebounds from our guards; need to guard the interior passing lanes.
 

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/2LFb-rFDxyM" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

recap
 

Gopherbbdude said:
and MTS also shot 56% from the field against MSU and promptly got smoked in round 2.
Click to expand...

That's conveniently left out, that a team who actually defended the 3(Syracuse), absolutely suffocated MTSU in round 2. I think they shot upwards of 60+% from 3 in that game. We are top 20 in both FG and 3FG pct defense. I expect a stout defensive effort where it will be close midway through the second half and then we will pull away.
 



station19 said:
Many of the talking heads feel MTS is the most under-seeded team in the tournament.

Add to that MN is missing a starting guard....which means we have a 1 man bench.

Spread about right. With Springs I'd be very confident of a sweet 16....without, not so confident.

Last year, as a 15, they beat a 2 seed.
Click to expand...

Last year, as a 15 seed, they got BLOWN AWAY by an 11 seed, Syracuse, 75-50 in the 2nd round.
 

If they had a BOTTOM 20 WORST teams in the country, FIU would make that list, and MTSU played them twice, and both games won by just 3 points, INCLUDING a HOME game. And including a game played as recently as March 2nd.

There are only 13 teams in the ENTIRE COUNTRY rated worse than FIU.
 

You must log in or register to reply here.



Top Bottom