***OFFICIAL WESTERN CAROLINA AT MINNESOTA IN-GAME THREAD!!!!***

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28 point win.
Line was 30.

Vegas is pretty good at what they do.
 

yes, it's early in the season, but the Gophers still seem to have at least one stretch in every game where they go 3 or 4 minutes without doing anything on offense. that won't fly against good competition. If there's one thing the Gophers need to improve on, it's having positive possessions on offense on a more regular basis.

It's like the team is thinking, "no big deal, we'll go on one of our runs soon." Which is fine - as long as they go on a run. If they match up against a team that keeps them from going on a run, then every possession becomes more important.

having said that, this team can be very good - or they can be something special. I would love to see them realize their potential - but to do that, there are still aspects of the game they need to improve upon.
 

short ornery norwegian said:
yes, it's early in the season, but the Gophers still seem to have at least one stretch in every game where they go 3 or 4 minutes without doing anything on offense. that won't fly against good competition.
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On the road against Providence wasn't "good competition"? I strongly beg to differ
 


short ornery norwegian said:
yes, it's early in the season, but the Gophers still seem to have at least one stretch in every game where they go 3 or 4 minutes without doing anything on offense. that won't fly against good competition. If there's one thing the Gophers need to improve on, it's having positive possessions on offense on a more regular basis.

It's like the team is thinking, "no big deal, we'll go on one of our runs soon." Which is fine - as long as they go on a run. If they match up against a team that keeps them from going on a run, then every possession becomes more important.

having said that, this team can be very good - or they can be something special. I would love to see them realize their potential - but to do that, there are still aspects of the game they need to improve upon.
Click to expand...

I get what you are saying but you're probably being a little dramatic. I would argue that if we have only 3-4 minutes of stagnant offense each game, we will cruise into the NCAA tourney as the overall #1 seed. The Tubby stall ball days are still etched in my frontal lobe. We had some competitive teams those year and didn't do a thing for multiple 10-12 minute streches, especially in crunch time.
 

WriterGoph said:
On the road against Providence wasn't "good competition"? I strongly beg to differ
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I guess I'm thinking primarily of the B1G. the non-conference games as a general rule of thumb tend to be a little more free-flowing, which plays to the Gophers' strengths. But, in the B1G, there are more slug-it-out types of games with lower scoring. that is when a team really has to have good possessions. In the B1G, if you have three or four bad possessions, you can be down by 10 or 12 points in a hurry - and in a lower-scoring game, 10 or 12 points is a big deficit. I'm not knocking Providence, or Miami, or any other non-conference opponent. I just put more emphasis on the conference games. especially when you play a team twice and they really have a good scouting report on you - that makes execution a must.
 

It was good to hear coach Pitino bemoan a sloppy game tonight and expect better possessions in the future. We beat an inferior opponent where mistakes didn't change the outcome, but we need to be better.
On the positive, our 2nd half defense was much better.
 

Was anyone else annoyed by the lack of foul data/who was in the bonus on the FS1 graphics? I didn't notice that in the Providence game.
 



short ornery norwegian said:
yes, it's early in the season, but the Gophers still seem to have at least one stretch in every game where they go 3 or 4 minutes without doing anything on offense. that won't fly against good competition. If there's one thing the Gophers need to improve on, it's having positive possessions on offense on a more regular basis.

It's like the team is thinking, "no big deal, we'll go on one of our runs soon." Which is fine - as long as they go on a run. If they match up against a team that keeps them from going on a run, then every possession becomes more important.

having said that, this team can be very good - or they can be something special. I would love to see them realize their potential - but to do that, there are still aspects of the game they need to improve upon.
Click to expand...

I would argue that most teams have a dry stretch like that almost every game. The Gophers of the past have been prone to longer or multiple stretches.
 

howeda7 said:
Was anyone else annoyed by the lack of foul data/who was in the bonus on the FS1 graphics? I didn't notice that in the Providence game.
Click to expand...

I was extremely annoyed. Really poor broadcast, IMO. Bardo kept talking about other teams and games, while not explaining a couple calls.
 

The announcers touched on this, but man McBrayer is crucial to our team. He's been on fire this year, which is good to see, especially when Coffey isn't being as aggressive.

As far as our defense, I think a lot of these 3 pointers we're giving up is just dumb luck. I am more concerned about how we respond on the offensive end than I am on how we should tighten up the D...
 

Lakers612 said:
The announcers touched on this, but man McBrayer is crucial to our team. He's been on fire this year, which is good to see, especially when Coffey isn't being as aggressive.

As far as our defense, I think a lot of these 3 pointers we're giving up is just dumb luck. I am more concerned about how we respond on the offensive end than I am on how we should tighten up the D...
Click to expand...

I would say it was about 50/50 on bad defense vs. dumb luck. Some of the plays we fell asleep on screens and gave up wide open looks, others were deep and well covered, but they just went in.

I continue to be impressed with the team's poise. They get less rattled than I do sitting on the couch! Defense was much better in the second half.
 



Games like this can be tough for good teams to get up for and they play down to their opponent for a while before taking over. It is nice that we are all looking at a 28 point win knowing the team didn't play close to its best. The more things the can iron out now the better as this is shaping up to be a special year.
 

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