What I learned tonight (but I already knew)

Some guy

Well-known member
Joined
Aug 1, 2014
Messages
22,508
Reaction score
11,762
Points
113
Gophers won’t win 30 games
Gophers bench is below average
If Murphy plays bad, gophers play bad.
Coffey and Mason lose their cool too often.
Team focused too much on the rest.
Mcbrayer is a better 6th man than 5th man.
Konate looks like I would look if I played in a 5th grade basketball tourney. Bad but not small.

Team is more likely to finish 3rd than 1st.
 

Pitino cannot make in game adjustments.

Sent from my SM-N950U using Tapatalk
 

What did I learn? These guys didn't want to win tonight.

Sent from my SM-G360V using Tapatalk
 

Yep, they didn’t want to win. Really? They just didn’t play well.

McBrayer is a starter and strong player, not a better 6th man. If you watched him tonight he was doing a lot well that others around him weren’t, defensively and without ball on offense. He is still moving a little slow and looked tired from the issue he had with his health last week.

Murphy started year strong, but Mason is who makes this team go. He seemed a little off tonight, but I’m sure he wanted to win.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 

You gotta be really dam good to lose two games or less in conference. Only top 5-ish quality teams can pull off big ten seasons with 2 or fewer losses. In terms of national rank, this Minnesota team is clearly closer to 10-15 or below than it is to being top 5. Still, it is dumb to "waste" an inevitable loss on a game you should have won - but it happens (we did it to IU a few years ago).

Better to have them pissed off for a month of practice.
 


Ah yes, the “they didn’t want it bad enough” argument. Dumb.

Don’t forget that Dupree is still recovering and lost 20 pounds.

Based on the OP you’d think he’d predict us to finish last, not 3rd.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 

Also, all ya'll seemed quick laughing at Wisconsin. I picked MN to finish ahead in conference, but I wouldn't be shocked in the slightest if Wisconsin A) finished ahead in conference or B) went farther in march than this MN roster.

IQ IQ IQ, avoiding turnovers, defense and shooting. Watch.
 

during the course of a season, virtually every team in the country - even really good teams, will have one or two games where they just "don't have it" and take a surprising loss. Of course, the flip side is also true - a lot of teams will also pull off surprising victories over higher-ranked opponents.

The Gophers lost a road game in the B1G. Wasn't the first - won't be the last.

The Gophers will have a good season.

But - if they want to have a great season, they do need to find more production from the bench. Not having Curry hurts, but was Curry going to be a big scorer? They really need someone to come off the bench and score 7, 8, 9 points a game on a regular basis. If nothing else, let Harris come in and bomb up a couple 3's. Hey, he might get hot.

My big question/concern is Fitzgerald. Before the season, I remember hearing reports that talked about how well he was playing in pick-up games and so forth. But, when he comes into games now, he looks tentative and a step slow. Hopefully, he just needs more minutes to improve. If he doesn't improve, the lack of front-line depth is really going to hurt.
 

Free Harris. Hope Fitz gets better. Play Hurt more in the mean time (and tell him to shoot 3's when he's open.)
 



Team is more likely to finish 3rd than 1st.
It was a pipe dream to ever believe that this team would beat out Michigan State. Half of Michigan State's team was Top 100 coming out of high school. They have NBA 1st round draft picks. The Gophers have two consensus top 100 players. They are a good team largely due to the fact that guys like Mason & Murphy have proven to be underrated coming out of high school.

This Gopher team would get dominated by the '97 team. There is no Bobby Jackson to seemingly always make the clutch play in crunch time.

Gopher basketball is often depressing. **** it. I'm going to bed.
 

Hard to win a game when you shoot 30%. Funny thing in basketball: you actually have to get the ball through the round metal circle thing. We didn’t do that very well. Shooting well covers up other bad play. Shooting poorly makes it look like you played poorly. I know that’s over-simplifying, but I’m sticking with it.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 

Hard to win a game when you shoot 30%. Funny thing in basketball: you actually have to get the ball through the round metal circle thing. We didn’t do that very well. Shooting well covers up other bad play. Shooting poorly makes it look like you played poorly. I know that’s over-simplifying, but I’m sticking with it.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

100% agree. You can be faster and more athletic than the other team, but you still have to put the ball in the basket. I've always thought the lack of quality jump shooters would cost us some games and that was the case tonight.

Sure, it was a conference game on the road. But we better figure out how to fix what went wrong, because this was nowhere near the toughest road game on our schedule and we looked awful. I didn't recognize the team in maroon. Even good teams have bad games every now and then. Hopefully just a blip on the radar.
 

Pitino cannot make in game adjustments.

Sent from my SM-N950U using Tapatalk

I guess, they rushed the guards double teaming them out front, I did not once see a dump down to the open man in the middle, not one adjustment the whole game to take advantage of this.
 



Yep, they didn’t want to win. Really? They just didn’t play well.

McBrayer is a starter and strong player, not a better 6th man. If you watched him tonight he was doing a lot well that others around him weren’t, defensively and without ball on offense. He is still moving a little slow and looked tired from the issue he had with his health last week.

Murphy started year strong, but Mason is who makes this team go. He seemed a little off tonight, but I’m sure he wanted to win.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
If you think that level of effort on both ends is good enough to win games, then I don't know what game you were watching.

Their level of focus and effort last night was simply putrid. They coasted through most of that game.

It was all over their body language and in the bench. No excitement, no motivation. Just blank stares with no emotion.

That's called not being dialed in. If it makes your delicate sensibilities feel better, just say Nebraska wanted to win a lot more. Because it was obvious they did.

Sent from my SM-G360V using Tapatalk
 

Also, all ya'll seemed quick laughing at Wisconsin. I picked MN to finish ahead in conference, but I wouldn't be shocked in the slightest if Wisconsin A) finished ahead in conference or B) went farther in march than this MN roster.

IQ IQ IQ, avoiding turnovers, defense and shooting. Watch.
And what does any of this have to do with Wisconsin? Good lord, playing an awful game in Lincoln isn't some refereundum on the Badgers...[emoji57]

Sent from my SM-G360V using Tapatalk
 

If you think that level of effort on both ends is good enough to win games, then I don't know what game you were watching.

Their level of focus and effort last night was simply putrid. They coasted through most of that game.

It was all over their body language and in the bench. No excitement, no motivation. Just blank stares with no emotion.

That's called not being dialed in. If it makes your delicate sensibilities feel better, just say Nebraska wanted to win a lot more. Because it was obvious they did.

Sent from my SM-G360V using Tapatalk

“Delicate sensibilities...” Wow. Relax a little bit. It’s a long season.

Yes, NE seemed more dialed in, and that still doesn’t mean the Gophers didn’t want to win. They had an off night.

Funny coming from a guy who defends PJ against the calls that he didn’t want to win. Same thing - there is a difference between not playing well, being off your game, and not wanting to win. Give NE some credit for that, they played great team defense, rebounded well, etc


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 

Teams watch tape and see we don't know how to defend the pick and roll. And yes they doubled our guards on top and we made no adjustments for that. Coach needs to hire an assistant that can coach and let pitino do what he does best which is recruit.
 

I guess, they rushed the guards double teaming them out front, I did not once see a dump down to the open man in the middle, not one adjustment the whole game to take advantage of this.
We are so guard-centric that the big men are forgotten. This applies to game play and recruiting.

Sent from my SM-N950U using Tapatalk
 

PANIC

WE LOST A GAME

THE SKY IS FALLING
 

Only saw a little of second half, outside shooting will be our Waterloo. I was happy to see IW take it to the hoop once, he seemed to provide a tiny spark. Seemed like we did very little screening down low to get Lynch or Murphy a little space & this made our half court sets tough. Harris & Hurt need to step up with outside shooting. Still one game, first B1G Road game with a target on our back. When you’re ranked, every team will want to bring their best against you.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 


LOL, I get it, ya'll have had so many years of bad basketball coaching and teams you have forgotten how to be fans. Let me help.

They had an off night
Its only a single data point, of many
The team we see now will not be the same team in February. Same for the other teams
The players are exactly as we thought they would be at the beginning of the season - seasoned Starters and the rest (We are thin - Curry would have made the difference)
There are lessons to be learned from it - especially on the coaching side
Not everything was negative last night - they showed some courage bringing it to 8, it was more experience for all players.
Get used to it - everyone has you in the cross-hairs when you are ranked - especially opposing fans
Keep in mind there is usually 5 opposing guys on the court and their goal is to beat you - sometimes everything is dropping for them - for whatever reason
Playing on the road in the Big Ten is always tough - never a gimme.
We are going to lose a couple more that we should have won and perhaps win a couple that we should lose
Losing games you should win are generally laid at the feet of the coach and not an individual player
We may not win the Big Ten - but I like our chances.
Wisconsin may finish ahead of us (as many anyone else in the conference at this point) but I like our chances.
Underachieving is finishing in the middle of the conference, overachieving is winning it. I am guessing that we probably finish where everyone expected in the preseason predictions
It gets worse than this - Does anyone remember 2 years ago?
Does anyone remember how we started the Big Ten last year?
It will be a good year - looking forward to cheering at the games and at home.
Future years will be good also - Pitino is bringing in great players and getting better as a coach.

Does this help? Questions?
 

Dumb contested shots and butter fingers. Need to stop driving into double and triple teams and throwing up garbage shots. I was pretty worked up last night but then realized this team was never going to win every conference game and neither did the 97 team.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 

What worries me the most is the defense. There will be nights like this where the calls don't go our way and we can't make shots. Our offense is pretty cut and dry pick and roll so there will be times where teams just shut that down. However, outside of shutting down a few horrible teams (Alabama A&M, Western Carolina) we haven't played good defense this year.

Something called USC Upstate put up 77 against us, Niagara 81, Alabama 84 (I won't get into the 3 guys piece), Miami 86, and now a bad Nebraska team with 78. Providence scored 74. What's the deal? Just easy easy baskets.
 

during the course of a season, virtually every team in the country - even really good teams, will have one or two games where they just "don't have it" and take a surprising loss. Of course, the flip side is also true - a lot of teams will also pull off surprising victories over higher-ranked opponents.

The Gophers lost a road game in the B1G. Wasn't the first - won't be the last.

The Gophers will have a good season.

But - if they want to have a great season, they do need to find more production from the bench. Not having Curry hurts, but was Curry going to be a big scorer? They really need someone to come off the bench and score 7, 8, 9 points a game on a regular basis. If nothing else, let Harris come in and bomb up a couple 3's. Hey, he might get hot.

My big question/concern is Fitzgerald. Before the season, I remember hearing reports that talked about how well he was playing in pick-up games and so forth. But, when he comes into games now, he looks tentative and a step slow. Hopefully, he just needs more minutes to improve. If he doesn't improve, the lack of front-line depth is really going to hurt.

Pretty much nailed it. Loses are going to happen and nights when the shots aren't falling are as well. The hope is that these games are few and far between but this team was never going to run the table in conference play this year, it just wasn't going to happen.

Agree 100% that we have to find a way to get more scoring off of the bench. Washington should hopefully be good for 5-10 a game but someone out of the Hurt, Konate, Fitzgerald, Harris group has to start scoring a little. Don't need to do a ton offensively but have to get something.

Fitzgerald is definitely struggling and the reality of the knee injuries he had is that he may never really be healthy again. He had a few games earlier in the year where he looked solid, hopefully he can figure out a way to be a productive member of the rotation. He was being counted on to pick up some of the slack with the loss of Curry and so far he is not getting it done. As has been discussed many times the loss of Curry was a massive blow to the bench this year. Those guys need to step up and help out the starters more then they are right now, hopefully they can figure out a way to do that over the course of the season.

Last night's game was disappointing but as you said, the Gophers are still going to have a really good season and hopefully when we look back on this one it will just a frustrating blip on the radar.
 

They can't pass out of a double and no adjustments to get some low post touches to Murphy in the second half. Nebraska got almost all 50/50 balls. Team thinks it is better than they are? Not good enough to coast and get a road victory in the B1G.
 

Gophers looked tired. didn't shoot well.

but the sky is definitely not falling.

this Team is good. just not last night.
 

Lol only when he loses right, but yes a genius when they win . Right Genital Ewarts?
No, it is a consistent thing.

bemidjigopher, you are being served notice to refrain from name calling.

Sent from my SM-N950U using Tapatalk
 

“Delicate sensibilities...” Wow. Relax a little bit. It’s a long season.

Yes, NE seemed more dialed in, and that still doesn’t mean the Gophers didn’t want to win. They had an off night.

Funny coming from a guy who defends PJ against the calls that he didn’t want to win. Same thing - there is a difference between not playing well, being off your game, and not wanting to win. Give NE some credit for that, they played great team defense, rebounded well, etc


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
The situation with football is completely different and you know it. We already know you can't stand Fleck, so there's also that.

Bottom line was Nebraska was far more focused and their overall effort was far superior.

If this team is as serious about winning at a high level as they say they are, then games like last night are completely unacceptable. You can't simply put on your uniform, walk on the court and think that's going to be enough.

Gotta bring it in games you're supposed to win. Last night showed a complete lack of focus and intensity that is required from truly elite teams.

Sent from my SM-G360V using Tapatalk
 

If you don't show up on the road, your chances are very slim to win.

<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>


The team did not share the ball and over the last three games struggles when teams play well defensively. Coffey at one point tried driving the ball 1 on 3. People complain about the officials, but when one team is getting the ball in great position to score and the other is playing one one all night, the calls are going the way of the team with good position. When you play one on one, the defense is in position and the offense can't just run into them and get bailed out.
 




Top Bottom