Revisitng MTSU game

oak_street1981

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Well, it has been about four months plus since the Gophers lost in the NCAA to the underdog MTSU even though the pundits expected us to lose. I was personally really annoyed as we threw sloppy passes side to side, did not attack the rim, and did not guard the shooters for MTSU. Apparently Butler had a better plan for attacking that zone.

I know losing Akeem Springs really hurt the team, but that game plan really sucked.

I am stilled floored that no better plan emerged for making a zone team pay the price for pressing and playing so much pressure defense, when in theory we had a deeper team. I guess only having one real 3 pt shooter, and having him on the sideline killed us. I wanted to see more aggressive play on offense.


Any further comments on that game? What might be different this year?
 

Mason playing on bum hip. I think we're deeper this year and will need better 3pt shooting

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I think game plan and execution often get mixed up lol. Mason got hurt. Lynch in foul trouble which really changed the game, without Springs to begin with we had no depth. Which gave MTSU more of an opportunity to be aggressive on defense, hence all the TO's. Hurt got way to much run that game and I think even Sharp played.Coffey was good, Dupree was alright that's about it.
 

With the Lynch foul trouble, they needed Konate to play well and he didn't either which hurt us down low.

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It's easy to forget that Akeem was our best outside shooter and on-the-ball defender. That's a devastating loss to start with, and then Mason is playing injured. Winning under those circumstances is a major uphill battle. I think that affected the rest of the team, who themselves played like poop.

I try to take positives from situations. In this case - as in 1996 - it left a bitter taste in the mouths of the returning players. Staying hungry going into this season will be key, and that loss helps with that.
 


Pretty hard to win a tournament game with only three backcourt players, one of whom had a bum hip.
 

yup...Mason was hurt. Lynch in foul troubled didn't help. and Akeem on the sidelines.

change those 3 things and it's a different outcome.
 

yup...Mason was hurt. Lynch in foul troubled didn't help. and Akeem on the sidelines.

change those 3 things and it's a different outcome.

And...MTSU came out and played an amazing game. They clearly shot their wad, as by the next game they looked terrible. Stuff happens, each game is different.
 

And...MTSU came out and played an amazing game. They clearly shot their wad, as by the next game they looked terrible. Stuff happens, each game is different.

They had stretch they didn't miss
 



The better team won that day. It was that simple. Gophers made a run, but MTSU immediately stemmed the tide.
 




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