Gophers playing "poorly"?

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balds

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Is it just me, or the Gophers not playing very well this year? Should I be enthused that they can be off and win big? Should I be enthused that they have so much more room for improvement?

Or should the little warning signs be making me (us) nervous?

I estimate that we've played poorly for about 60-70% of minutes so far this year. Taking 8-10 minute stretches off won't cut it if we want to get where we all want to be.
 

We're 6-0 with a true road win against a borderline top 25 opponent. Calm down.
 

Yeah. Jordan Murphy, Lynch, Coffey, McB, Mason all just playing like crap. We’ll be lucky to win a conference game. What a mess. Troll.
 

DeathClutch said:
We're 6-0 with a true road win against a borderline top 25 opponent. Calm down.
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I'm Calm, and I included plenty of ?'s about my thesis. I see what I see. I think we're sloppy and can play way better. Or can we?
 

balds said:
I'm Calm, and I included plenty of ?'s about my thesis. I see what I see. I think we're sloppy and can play way better. Or can we?
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We have stretches where we play like the best team in the country and then stretches where we play like the top half of the big ten good. If we get those issues figured out on 3pt defense and focus completely on offense... look out. No need to be worried. And i think it is just you. They're playing good to great so far.
 


I think all of the concerns that I have with this team are things that will get better as the team becomes more comfortable. Sometimes, they look a little "rusty" if that makes sense and I suspect that will work itself out.
 

I don't like our spot if Lynch gets in foul trouble. I don't like what I see from Washington and Fitzgerald. I'd take Hurt and Harris over those two any day. The loss of Curry will loom larger than we could ever imagine.
 

Wow. This thread is insane.

You really think they’ve played poorly for 60-70% of the season? Do you watch other teams?

College basketball is pretty damn sloppy. I watch a lot of other teams and they have stretches where they are dreadful. I haven’t seen much of that at all from the Gophers
 

Dude, we are 6-0 with a good road win and a neutral court win and we've blown every other team out.

Are you asking if we can play better? Yes, of course, as can every team in the country. My gosh dude.

18899s.jpg
 




As I said in the in game thread this team knows when to turn it on and when they can coast. They've coasted 70% of the season because they can. They turned it on when they needed to against Providence. They'll beat Alabama by 10 tomorrow.
 

Ridiculous post. What are you expecting? can argue that the Providence win was the best of year for any team given the circumstances (first weekend of the season, true road game, national tv). 5 players in double figs, 11th in the nation in scoring as a team. No one's a finished product in November, but they've more than shown that they're deserving of the preseason ranking thus far.

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I guess if they shot the three a little better, guarded it better and had more cohesion with the second unit their average margin of victory would likely be 30 instead of 25. Would that satisfy you?

In all seriousness though, I think Pitino will tighten up the bench starting tomorrow. He has been using these blow-outs to get Fitz, Hurt and Harris extended minutes. I think we will see a rotation very similar to Providence.
 



balds said:
Is it just me, or the Gophers not playing very well this year? Should I be enthused that they can be off and win big? Should I be enthused that they have so much more room for improvement?

Or should the little warning signs be making me (us) nervous?

I estimate that we've played poorly for about 60-70% of minutes so far this year. Taking 8-10 minute stretches off won't cut it if we want to get where we all want to be.
Click to expand...

Those little warning signs should make (us) you worried.

Actually (us) you should panic immediately if not sooner.


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balds said:
I don't like our spot if Lynch gets in foul trouble. I don't like what I see from Washington and Fitzgerald. I'd take Hurt and Harris over those two any day. The loss of Curry will loom larger than we could ever imagine.
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You’re joking right?? Is most of this coming from today’s game? Or have you watched the others too??


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balds said:
I don't like our spot if Lynch gets in foul trouble. I don't like what I see from Washington and Fitzgerald. I'd take Hurt and Harris over those two any day. The loss of Curry will loom larger than we could ever imagine.
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I'd take Fitz over Hurt. I think most here would.
 

balds said:
Is it just me, or the Gophers not playing very well this year? Should I be enthused that they can be off and win big? Should I be enthused that they have so much more room for improvement?

Or should the little warning signs be making me (us) nervous?

I estimate that we've played poorly for about 60-70% of minutes so far this year. Taking 8-10 minute stretches off won't cut it if we want to get where we all want to be.
Click to expand...

Bama and Miami will be a good indicator in the next few days. Our first true B1G road game in the 2-game B1G schedule dip-in-the-pool will be a good barometer too (@ Neb)
 

balds said:
Is it just me, or the Gophers not playing very well this year? Should I be enthused that they can be off and win big? Should I be enthused that they have so much more room for improvement?

Or should the little warning signs be making me (us) nervous?

I estimate that we've played poorly for about 60-70% of minutes so far this year. Taking 8-10 minute stretches off won't cut it if we want to get where we all want to be.
Click to expand...

Interesting take on the situation. I’ve watched every game and do not agree with your 60%-70% estimate. I would probably say more like 20%. They certainly have had some bad stretches of play in each game. The fact is, though, that every team does. I’ve watched some higher-ranked teams and seen some pretty bone-headed stretches of play. I think that our margin of victory has been a decent indicator that you should take a deep breath. This next stretch of tough games will tell us a lot. I’m predicting a very pleasant result for the men in maroon and gold. Go Gophers!


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I'm curious about what expectations are for play when described as playing "poorly." It is hard for me to see anyone saying the first unit has played "poorly" functionally at all, although I'm sure there have been stretches. There certainly have been a few line-up experiments (e.g. both freshman guards in at the same time) that have brought the level of play down. There is no doubt that the bench has to improve as the season progresses if they are to succeed at a very high level. None of this should be a surprise to anyone who has watched this team over the years.

We have an outstanding and experienced first five. The three, perhaps four, deep bench, is both less talented and less experienced than the fist five. I would expect the play to decline somewhat when they are in. Give them some time to improve and play together, including experimenting with unit combinations, and see where it goes.

I'd love to see Hurt hit a few more threes, Isaiah play a little better D, and Konate take bigger steps of improvement. But how anyone can be dissatisfied with overall team performance so far is hard for me to understand. We have seen so much really bad basketball in the Barn over the last 20 years, it is simply a joy to watch good players with good coaching and good effort (almost all of the time). Way too early to split hairs over the drop off on the bench. Enjoy the ride.
 

balds said:
Is it just me, or the Gophers not playing very well this year? Should I be enthused that they can be off and win big? Should I be enthused that they have so much more room for improvement?

Or should the little warning signs be making me (us) nervous?

I estimate that we've played poorly for about 60-70% of minutes so far this year. Taking 8-10 minute stretches off won't cut it if we want to get where we all want to be.
Click to expand...

We are going to struggle more than people think due to not having great shooters. I get exactly what you are saying. We can simply overpower the teams we are playing now.

I think we are going to have stretches where we lose games because we don't score.

I know exactly what you are saying.

In games where mason is off, we will struggle. I don't think we are really any better than last year.
 

Goldteam said:
We are going to struggle more than people think due to not having great shooters. I get exactly what you are saying. We can simply overpower the teams we are playing now.

I think we are going to have stretches where we lose games because we don't score.

I know exactly what you are saying.

In games where mason is off, we will struggle. I don't think we are really any better than last year.
Click to expand...

I agree with most of what you said. I do think coffee will be better from the outside than he was last year. I also think having Washington will allow mason to have fewer off games because we can move him to different spots to find him space. Last year we couldn’t do that.
 


Goldteam said:
We are going to struggle more than people think due to not having great shooters. I get exactly what you are saying. We can simply overpower the teams we are playing now.

I think we are going to have stretches where we lose games because we don't score.

I know exactly what you are saying.

In games where mason is off, we will struggle. I don't think we are really any better than last year.
Click to expand...

Really? You don't think Murphy is immensely improved? You don't think Amir, Reggie or Hurt have improved? You don't think having two backup guards on scholarship (Washington and Harris) will provide more depth than only having Springs come off the bench? Do you think that last years team could have gone on the road and beat a borderline top 25 squad in the second game of the season by double digits? I don't think so. Our starting 5 has gotten a lot better and our bench now has more bodies in the rotation than last year that will only get better. It's hard to not say this team will be better.
 

Bordergopher said:
Interesting take on the situation. I’ve watched every game and do not agree with your 60%-70% estimate. I would probably say more like 20%. They certainly have had some bad stretches of play in each game. The fact is, though, that every team does. I’ve watched some higher-ranked teams and seen some pretty bone-headed stretches of play. I think that our margin of victory has been a decent indicator that you should take a deep breath. This next stretch of tough games will tell us a lot. I’m predicting a very pleasant result for the men in maroon and gold. Go Gophers!


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Click to expand...

I don’t see them playing poorly while averaging 90+ a game. I see a team that lets up sometimes on defense because they know that they are faster and more athletic then their opponents. They just know even if another team outshoots them percentage wise or with threes that they can also score at will and out score anyone. This gets more interesting when competition gets stronger.
 


Goldteam said:
We are going to struggle more than people think due to not having great shooters. I get exactly what you are saying. We can simply overpower the teams we are playing now.

I think we are going to have stretches where we lose games because we don't score.

I know exactly what you are saying.

In games where mason is off, we will struggle. I don't think we are really any better than last year.
Click to expand...

If you look at the stats the shooting has been pretty good, could be a slump at some point but Coffey, McBrayer, and Harris are shooting at a high percentage from the three, team is at 51% overall and 37% from the 3, those are not bad numbers at all.

This team can score so many ways, I question their defense when they get against tougher opponents.
 

I think it's kind of ridiculous to suggest that some lack of outside shooting will make the Gophers really streaky and prone to bad losses. I would argue that post scoring and rebounding don't slump nearly as often, and that's really where this team will get their clutch buckets in B1G play.

Gophers don't need to live and die with 3 balls when they have multiple experienced guys who can get their own buckets at a 55-60% clip inside.
 

balds said:
Is it just me, or the Gophers not playing very well this year? Should I be enthused that they can be off and win big? Should I be enthused that they have so much more room for improvement?

Or should the little warning signs be making me (us) nervous?

I estimate that we've played poorly for about 60-70% of minutes so far this year. Taking 8-10 minute stretches off won't cut it if we want to get where we all want to be.
Click to expand...

I think you mis-spelled Timberwolves as Gophers. Then your post would have been spot on :cool:

Go Gophers!!
 


We look like a top 25 team definitely. Defense has been a little lackluster but offense has been on fire. Improve our defense and we are a final four team even with this bench. Both freshmen guards looks good. Hurt and Fitz look good. Konate didn't but let's hope he improves. We are in great shape OP.
 

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