Silver Linings - Life would be too hard for me without them

Ok, I want to cry, but why? Honestly.

#1 - MTSU IS actually a very good team, wow. And their defensive schemes seemed to work so well against us, I was very impressed. Hopefully RP will work on ways to counter that before we run across the same thing again? I hate to admit it, but I friggin hope they beat Butler and UNC, too. I hate UNC, and MTSU probably deserves it.

#2 - I heard at least one commentator say that last year he said that MTSU was the best #15 seed he'd ever seen, EVER. And I heard several people say that MTSU was deserving of better than a #12 seed this year, too. And that same person said that they could be the best #12 seed EVER, as well. I am open to believing him, but I'm a Gopher fan, so I simply want to believe him, I can admit that.

They were #35 in the Rpi. That's a pretty good rating.

#3 - As much as I talked about their 25 pt loss to Syracuse last year, MTSU did keep that game tight into the 2nd half, and Syracuse did get all the way to the Final Four, so maybe that was more of SU being on a hot streak than MTSU being so inferior. I simply wanted to believe it was a sign of MTSU's weakness, but now I want to see it differently.

#4 - I told dozens of people, if MTSU shot 59% from 3 pt land like they did last year against MSU, they'd win. And last I saw they were 6 of 10. Not sure the final %, I haven't looked yet. Oh, and at the same time they were sitting at 60%, we were sitting at 20%, 3 of 15.

#5 - I told those same dozens of people that we had to stay out of foul trouble. I could have forgiven Reggie for that first stupid foul, but then to commit another just 9 seconds later? Wow. You just can't do that, not if you want to stay in the game and help your team to victory. But I won't go on and on about it because my guess is those fouls, esp the 2nd one, will haunt Reggie all through the offseason. Can't get angry about it or blame him. He's done so much for our program in his short time here. And as I told one person who I saw ripping on Reggie, it's his first year here at Minnesota, and most of the games where he fouled out of games happened earlier in the season, so maybe RP is coaching him up, maybe he on his own is working on it and getting better, maybe its a combo of both? But he has gotten better, and I hope he continues to get better going into next season and as next season progresses.

#6 - I was encouraged by our comeback, same as the comeback in the Michigan game. Seems missing Springs hurt us more than I thought it would. And I don't know if having him would have been enough to beat MTSU though, although we could have maybe kept the game closer? But I do think having him would have been the difference in the Michigan game.

#7 - Well, we got 2 games of experience in, playing and knowing what it will be like without Springs. I wouldn't wish it on us ever, but since it happened, maybe it will be sort of a blessing in disguise come next year? Maybe not? Just hoping for the best, always.

#8 - We were only down 4 pts late, after being in foul trouble, and having our best player contribute less than he probably did the whole rest of the season. I'm not an expert, maybe that is as much on MTSU for knowing how to neutralize Mason, or maybe that's a sign that Mason isn't as good as I thought he was? If anything, maybe it will quite down the Mason to the NBA talk that went on to a minor degree this season? At least until he hopefully has another 1st team All-Conf like season again next year!!! But my point is, that MTSU IS really a good team, and despite all of our troubles, we still had a shot to win that game. Makes me very hopeful for next year.

#9 - I was encouraged while watching this game online, because before the comeback at the end, I remember hearing a bunch of Gopher fans in the crowd cheering them on. We were down by 15 or 16, and they hadn't lost hope yet, and then they did make a comeback. It fell short, but I loved knowing that there were Gopher faithful there at the game, giving our boys encouragement when they were down so far, with so little time left.

#10 - I can't think of anything else, and I'm getting tired of typing, but you can't have a list with just 9 things. So I don't know, AT LEAST WE WILL ALWAYS have hockey to soften the blow when our cbb team loses its last game.

When Reggie got that 2nd foul, I said, I hope he doesn't have to think about that one all summer.
I have loved this team and season. This was a tough draw, as we all knew. It's disappointing not to make it any further than this but they did exceed my expectation for the year. I just hoped they'd keep exceeding!

I froze the screen a few times to see what MTSU was doing with that trap and they had 3 players well beyond the free throw line and fairly close to the half court line a lot, sometimes 4, while he had two guys playing catch for 12 seconds of the shot clock.

With our athletic, team for Pitino not to find a way to throw it over to top to the rim to make them pay, push the tempo and get some fast break points, and push the ball the middle of the court hard near the free throw line to make the defense commit and then dish the ball is pretty poor.

The silver lining is maybe Pitino will learn how to attack a zone, hard, because that is what cost us the game, aside from letting MTSU score on 10 of 12 possessions and then let some other guy run wild at the end, just like Walton did last Saturday.

Horrible 3 pt. shooting, no transition points to speak of, and non-existent defense equals embarrassing loss.

oak_street1981 said:

I froze the screen a few times to see what MTSU was doing with that trap and they had 3 players well beyond the free throw line and fairly close to the half court line a lot, sometimes 4, while he had two guys playing catch for 12 seconds of the shot clock.

With our athletic, team for Pitino not to find a way to throw it over to top to the rim to make them pay, push the tempo and get some fast break points, and push the ball the middle of the court hard near the free throw line to make the defense commit and then dish the ball is pretty poor.

The silver lining is maybe Pitino will learn how to attack a zone, hard, because that is what cost us the game, aside from letting MTSU score on 10 of 12 possessions and then let some other guy run wild at the end, just like Walton did last Saturday.

Horrible 3 pt. shooting, no transition points to speak of, and non-existent defense equals embarrassing loss.

Click to expand...

It helps to have someone who is a really good ball handler and can push without having to worry about turning it over. That guy is Jelly. He will help in that regard a lot next year.

Losing Dorsey hurt a lot, he is the type of quick ball handler that could have made a difference today, and also the type of player that could have stuck close by Walton in the BTT.

oak_street1981 said:

I froze the screen a few times to see what MTSU was doing with that trap and they had 3 players well beyond the free throw line and fairly close to the half court line a lot, sometimes 4, while he had two guys playing catch for 12 seconds of the shot clock.

With our athletic, team for Pitino not to find a way to throw it over to top to the rim to make them pay, push the tempo and get some fast break points, and push the ball the middle of the court hard near the free throw line to make the defense commit and then dish the ball is pretty poor.

The silver lining is maybe Pitino will learn how to attack a zone, hard, because that is what cost us the game, aside from letting MTSU score on 10 of 12 possessions and then let some other guy run wild at the end, just like Walton did last Saturday.

Horrible 3 pt. shooting, no transition points to speak of, and non-existent defense equals embarrassing loss.

Click to expand...

I think our coach is getting too much heat for our zone offense. We got many open looks that we should have made. Especially in the first half

Sent from my E6810 using Tapatalk

Lack of depth. Lack of depth. Lack of depth. Did I say we have a lack of depth?
Preparation was fine. WIDE-OPEN 3's were missed. Only 8 TOs; 4 by our 1st team all BT PG.

Losing Springs 67 3's was a big deal.

Mason missed a ton of open looks early, which hurt. Not blaming him for the loss but if he shoots like he normally does, Gophers could have been up 15 early.

I get the lack of production by the shooters and a lack of depth at the guard spot is killing us now, but the attack on the zone D was poor. There needs to be a more aggressive attack on the rim, and if at least one charge is not called that is a sign the Rim was not attacked enough vs. the Zone. It wa all jump shots and a lot of rushed 3s.

Was Springs worth 10 point offensively, defensively, and on leadership? I say yes.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk