***OFFICIAL USC UPSTATE AT MINNESOTA IN-GAME THREAD!!!!***

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howeda7 said:
Did Konate even play? Is he hurt?
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Konate had a moment where Pitino put him in. Konate stood in front on the bench for 10 or 15 seconds struggling to get his warm-up pants off. Pitino gave him a look, told him to sit down, and put Reggie back in. I'm not sure I've ever seen anything like that before. I'm sure Konate was probably embarrassed about the situation
 

Didn't get to see the game because we don't have BTN Plus but from listening on the radio it sounds like this was a pretty typical first game. Wouldn't read much into the good or bad from a game like this one. The important part is that we are 1-0, if things still look disjointed after a few more games then it might be time to start worrying.

This is a very talented and experienced team, I think we will be just fine.
 

Not pretty but not really worried. Kentucky won by just 10. Villanova by 15. Upstate was making some crazy shots.

Great to see Murphy off to a great start as he struggled early on last year.
 

Bigg Robb said:
Konate had a moment where Pitino put him in. Konate stood in front on the bench for 10 or 15 seconds struggling to get his warm-up pants off. Pitino gave him a look, told him to sit down, and put Reggie back in. I'm not sure I've ever seen anything like that before. I'm sure Konate was probably embarrassed about the situation
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Oh lord.
 

The zone D messed up our offense and hurt our guard play. Let's see how they learn from this. Maybe more teams will throw a zone at them. Not a bad play against this team. If so, Harris will be key. He looks solid for a freshman.
 


People freaking out over the 1st game is hilarious.


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Pitino made a remark after the game stating that the guys coming off of the bench have to be able to play defense and guard someone. I'm assuming that was directed at Washington. He had a few lapses tonight and one really bad one where he let his guy get behind him and leak out for an easy, uncontested layup. In the two games I've watched him play, he's pretty sloppy on D and takes a lot of chances. I'm concerned that he's going to get lit up once we get into Big 10 play
 

Murphy's hair and game were extra bouncy tonight
 

Gopher fans... relax. It's the first game of the year. Defense wasn't very good, but Upstate shot it well from deep. Great thing about tonight: it was the biggest student section I've seen in many many years against a non-power conference team. Hopefully they keep packing the place...
 



freshtrout said:
The zone D messed up our offense and hurt our guard play. Let's see how they learn from this. Maybe more teams will throw a zone at them. Not a bad play against this team. If so, Harris will be key. He looks solid for a freshman.
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Pitino said tonite, in a pregame talk we attended, that they had no info or film on this team. So if they looked unprepared for a zone its because they were.
 


I was in farmington freezing my a** off watching high school football game, so i wasn't able to follow along to closely. I kept checking in on the score, and saw that it wasn't to pretty in the first half. Did the second half play out much better?

On a side not, I was looking through box scores and checked out the Kentucky game. Akolda Mangyang was playing for Utah Valley, never even realized he transferred from Oklahoma. He was a Duluth East kid that got into some trouble right?
 

Mangyang left his team when a family member died and I’m not sure he ever returned.
 



UpAndUnder43 said:
Mangyang left his team when a family member died and I’m not sure he ever returned.
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Yeah that was sad, played that family member for three years as he was in my conference. I was just kind of shocked to see Akolda's name. I thought that he was out of eligibility.
 

GophersInIowa said:
Not pretty but not really worried. Kentucky won by just 10. Villanova by 15. Upstate was making some crazy shots.

Great to see Murphy off to a great start as he struggled early on last year.
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Upstate had very good ball movement, especially in the first half; they had two or three good ball handlers and a couple of very good shooters (I don't think Span missed a three pointer). That was not a bad team. They just lacked the size and athleticism to compete at a major level.
 

Breakin' The Plane said:
It foretells nothing in football.
It's even less than that in hoops.
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Yes, winning by 15 over an outsized, athletically inferior, but fundamentally sound team that could shoot doesn't foretell significant problems. On the other hand, I'm not convinced Indiana's drubbing by Indiana State doesn't make some kind of statement.
 

Missed the game last night but seems like there is room for improvement?

Every year I have to remind myself that many college basketball games are tougher than they look on paper, and good teams don’t always dominate every night out. Good teams just consistently win.

Glad we are 1-0!


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I will take the win. I'm sure the players and coaches know they have more work ahead of them so be better prepared for the next game or the outcome may be a gopher loss. Go Gophers
 

Not an impressive opener, especially defensively. No reason to not get out and guard someone, especially with our physical advantage inside, but they still wouldn't do it. This ain't no contending team without more attention and effort on D.

Last year's team was pretty adept at zone busting when they stuck to the script, but last night they were too content to settle for long jumpers. That's when it went from a runaway game to single digits in the second half.

This game is what Pitino needed to get them to ignore all the press clippings. Play hard and play smart.
 


Didn't watch...sounds like that was the correct move. Caught about half the game in total on the radio. Sounded like Murphy was a man amongst boys. Lynch is quite a presence inside, he is so valuable defensively and he certainly does enough offensively...hope he can correct last years foul issues. Washington sounded like he was pressing and I'm sure coach will get him to relax. I really wanted Fitz to be dynamic out there as we really need him with Curry out for the year, I barely heard much in the game and saw the box score and it looked like he didn't get much for minutes. Intentional? Saving him? Or did he just not look that good last night?
 

Not a great performance defensively last night, largely due to a few match-up issues and communication among the guards. They were having some difficulty talking through Upstate's screens, and it led to many open looks. Credit Upstate, they hit their open shots and made a few ridiculous contested shots. Last night presented a match-up problem for our bigs, because their guys camped out on the perimeter and had no interest attacking the basket over Lynch and Murphy.

Konate didn't play because the match-ups didn't dictate it. You can't have him out there trying to close out on a post player trying to shoot a 3, it won't end well. Upstate had no chance to match the Gophers physicality and had to live and die by the 3. Reggie even hesitated a couple times to close out on a shooter because he didn't want to vacate his responsibilities in the lane.

I never once felt the Gophers were threatened in the second half, even when it got down to 9.

First games are typically a little sloppy. I expect them to play a lot better Monday night and they'll need to. Providence returns plenty of experience from an NCAA Tournament team. It would be a quality win.

And like others have said, Indiana gets run out of Assembly Hall by Indiana State and Northwestern had to fight off Loyola. I'll take a 15-point win in a first game that wasn't always the prettiest. Gives them a lot to learn from moving forward.
 

Clean up the three point defense, make a few more three pointers of our own, recognize advantage and pound the ball inside earlier and we beat USCU by 30.

Fitz played fine. Box score doesn’t tell the entire story. Lots of new faces getting to know one another. Panicking after one game - a 15 win - is absurd.
 

No one is panicking, but the last three halves of basketball have shown very poor defensive effort against inferior teams. Last year when we looked off during the non conference, the defense really never missed a beat.

Lots of time to figure things out, this is basically the same group of guys.
 

Bigg Robb said:
Konate had a moment where Pitino put him in. Konate stood in front on the bench for 10 or 15 seconds struggling to get his warm-up pants off. Pitino gave him a look, told him to sit down, and put Reggie back in. I'm not sure I've ever seen anything like that before. I'm sure Konate was probably embarrassed about the situation
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Not as bad as a Chris Washburn incident back in the 80's. Washburn, a big man out of NC State, was a major NBA bust (overall #3 pick in 1986). Golden State was either up or down big in a game. Don Nelson looks down at the end of the bench and tells Washburn to get in the game. When Nelson noticed he was not going in, he got up to see what was going on. He saw Washburn lacing up his shoes, because he had taken them off earlier. Nelson just shook his head and put someone else in.
 

Where did this team come from? Yes, Nebraska has quit, but still...this is a good win.
 

cjbfbp said:
Upstate had very good ball movement, especially in the first half; they had two or three good ball handlers and a couple of very good shooters (I don't think Span missed a three pointer). That was not a bad team. They just lacked the size and athleticism to compete at a major level.
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Florida Gulf Coast better watch out.
 

Donovan said:
Not as bad as a Chris Washburn incident back in the 80's. Washburn, a big man out of NC State, was a major NBA bust (overall #3 pick in 1986). Golden State was either up or down big in a game. Don Nelson looks down at the end of the bench and tells Washburn to get in the game. When Nelson noticed he was not going in, he got up to see what was going on. He saw Washburn lacing up his shoes, because he had taken them off earlier. Nelson just shook his head and put someone else in.
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I think the Konate story is more funny. Sounds like that Washburn guy just didn't care to much, but Konate was actually trying to get off his pants and couldn't. Imagine a big 6"11 kid standing there trying to get into the game, and the coach just tells him to sit back down since he couldn't unbutton the warmup pants. You guys think he doesn't wear the pants for next game? haha
 

SM_25 said:
I think the Konate story is more funny. Sounds like that Washburn guy just didn't care to much, but Konate was actually trying to get off his pants and couldn't. Imagine a big 6"11 kid standing there trying to get into the game, and the coach just tells him to sit back down since he couldn't unbutton the warmup pants. You guys think he doesn't wear the pants for next game? haha
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