***OFFICIAL DRAKE AT MINNESOTA IN-GAME THREAD!!!!***

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tikited said:
For a team that has zero future NBA players, they sure act like they do. That needs to change.
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That's an odd conclusion. What exactly do you mean they act like future NBA players and what's your evidence?
 

There was no foul on the last shot, the Drake bench never even reacted. Much more contact on Coffey on the steal than anything on that 3 (looked like no contact at all).

This was just a horrific game and I am going to direct my criticism towards Pitino first since the effort and body language of the players has been discussed thoroughly. I have no idea what type of "offense" this team is running. Drake was able to get a number of open looks from the 3 out of their offense, and the play by play guy on BTN was correctly pointing out that they were running good stuff. You know what he pointed out exactly once? Minnesota running something nice. The vast majority of the game consisted of few passes on the offensive end and even fewer good looks despite the competition. Look back at the second half and the number of tough shots Amir Coffey made. There was no "offense" there, It was just Amir going one on one and usually ending up with a difficult look. A lot of Murphy's buckets were the same way, and we already know the moves where Jordan takes more than a dribble are WAY less effective against high major teams than they are against the mid and low majors. How about some simple stuff that should be the focus of practice? Dupree (and to a lesser extent Nate Mason and Amir Coffey) dribble inside the 3 point line to take long two point shots. These are the worst shots in basketball, yet we have multiple guys seeking them out. In the first half we had at least two possessions end with one pass or less (in the front court at least) with a guy taking a long two. This was a weakness of Dupree and Nate in the past, and it hasn't been corrected at all this season. These long twos are almost always missed and it's a pretty simple thing to limit in your offense. What about the bigs? Reggie Lynch continues to bring the ball down to his waist (or seemingly lower) every time he has the ball in the paint. This resulted in numerous strips, at least one block, and a lot of empty possessions. It's not a new thing with Reggie either...keep the ball high. Can we see something resembling a half court offense that involves MORE movement both movement of players and movement of the ball?

Defensively, so much of it is effort and Dupree (though he had a terrible first half offensively) was one of the few really getting after it on that end of the court. Isaiah might have the worst body language on the team, but to me it starts with the Seniors Nate Mason and Reggie Lynch. Nate's not been playing well on the defensive end of the court for much of the season and was noticeably frustrated and didn't hustle back after he missed a 3 tonight. Reggie reaction is to smile and laugh when he gets called for one of his unnecessary fouls. He was on the bench SMILING when got his 3rd foul to open the second half against Arkansas. When he had the terrible unnecessary 4th foul against MTSU in the NCAA and Pitino was irate, the on court audio caught Reggie telling coach to "calm down" like he didn't just make a horrific decision in the most important game of the year. I won't ask Reggie to walk around with the demeanor of an Anthony Mason or Charles Oakley, because that's clearly not his nature but his body language as a Senior should be better than this. We can't ask Isaiah to act in a manner that are Seniors don't, and right now that bad body language is coming from all areas of the team.

This would have been a loss without some spectacular individual offensive plays from Coffey and Murphy late, especially Murphy's O-board and put back and 1 in a one possession game. That came off a good look from Dupree in the corner and I am sure I wasn't the only one who was breathing a huge sigh of relief when Murphy corralled that miss and got a bucket.

Hopefully the long break without a game will allow this team to get back on track. There's major issues on both ends of the court and a ton of work to do.
 

From being there, I don't get some of these posts, we really didn't play that bad, I would say the body language was from their shots not falling, but they were moving the ball, they weren't just dribbling on the perimeter. Drake played an inspired game, sold out for every loose ball and gotta give credit on that where it's deserved. Lynch was a beast at the end blocking those shots, this ten day break couldn't come at a better time for this team.
 

I'm just looking at the last couple of pages of this thread now, so maybe the point I'm about to make has been made.

I was hoping that Pitino would start the second half with Gas (who looks more fluid than Konate), Hurt and Harris. Some of the starting five weren't playing very hard.
 

bemidjigopher said:
From being there, I don't get some of these posts, we really didn't play that bad
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i was also there, and we did play that bad. That first half was the worst half of basketball I've seen from a MN team in quite a while.
 


brucekaupa said:
i was also there, and we did play that bad. That first half was the worst half of basketball I've seen from a MN team in quite a while.
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You didn't watch the last two games, or the post sex tape games two years ago then, the defense was there, the shots just weren't falling
 

EG#9 said:
There was no foul on the last shot, the Drake bench never even reacted. Much more contact on Coffey on the steal than anything on that 3 (looked like no contact at all).

This was just a horrific game and I am going to direct my criticism towards Pitino first since the effort and body language of the players has been discussed thoroughly. I have no idea what type of "offense" this team is running. Drake was able to get a number of open looks from the 3 out of their offense, and the play by play guy on BTN was correctly pointing out that they were running good stuff. You know what he pointed out exactly once? Minnesota running something nice. The vast majority of the game consisted of few passes on the offensive end and even fewer good looks despite the competition. Look back at the second half and the number of tough shots Amir Coffey made. There was no "offense" there, It was just Amir going one on one and usually ending up with a difficult look. A lot of Murphy's buckets were the same way, and we already know the moves where Jordan takes more than a dribble are WAY less effective against high major teams than they are against the mid and low majors. How about some simple stuff that should be the focus of practice? Dupree (and to a lesser extent Nate Mason and Amir Coffey) dribble inside the 3 point line to take long two point shots. These are the worst shots in basketball, yet we have multiple guys seeking them out. In the first half we had at least two possessions end with one pass or less (in the front court at least) with a guy taking a long two. This was a weakness of Dupree and Nate in the past, and it hasn't been corrected at all this season. These long twos are almost always missed and it's a pretty simple thing to limit in your offense. What about the bigs? Reggie Lynch continues to bring the ball down to his waist (or seemingly lower) every time he has the ball in the paint. This resulted in numerous strips, at least one block, and a lot of empty possessions. It's not a new thing with Reggie either...keep the ball high. Can we see something resembling a half court offense that involves MORE movement both movement of players and movement of the ball?

Defensively, so much of it is effort and Dupree (though he had a terrible first half offensively) was one of the few really getting after it on that end of the court. Isaiah might have the worst body language on the team, but to me it starts with the Seniors Nate Mason and Reggie Lynch. Nate's not been playing well on the defensive end of the court for much of the season and was noticeably frustrated and didn't hustle back after he missed a 3 tonight. Reggie reaction is to smile and laugh when he gets called for one of his unnecessary fouls. He was on the bench SMILING when got his 3rd foul to open the second half against Arkansas. When he had the terrible unnecessary 4th foul against MTSU in the NCAA and Pitino was irate, the on court audio caught Reggie telling coach to "calm down" like he didn't just make a horrific decision in the most important game of the year. I won't ask Reggie to walk around with the demeanor of an Anthony Mason or Charles Oakley, because that's clearly not his nature but his body language as a Senior should be better than this. We can't ask Isaiah to act in a manner that are Seniors don't, and right now that bad body language is coming from all areas of the team.

This would have been a loss without some spectacular individual offensive plays from Coffey and Murphy late, especially Murphy's O-board and put back and 1 in a one possession game. That came off a good look from Dupree in the corner and I am sure I wasn't the only one who was breathing a huge sigh of relief when Murphy corralled that miss and got a bucket.

Hopefully the long break without a game will allow this team to get back on track. There's major issues on both ends of the court and a ton of work to do.
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Great post. Mason and Lynch are the guys I put this on right now. Senior leaders and they are not leading right now. Mason has made a bunch of bone headed plays recently and Lynch has looked out of sorts for a few games now. These guys should be showing the way in effort and court smarts and they aren't doing it.
 

bemidjigopher said:
From being there, I don't get some of these posts, we really didn't play that bad, I would say the body language was from their shots not falling, but they were moving the ball, they weren't just dribbling on the perimeter. Drake played an inspired game, sold out for every loose ball and gotta give credit on that where it's deserved. Lynch was a beast at the end blocking those shots, this ten day break couldn't come at a better time for this team.
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Agree for the most part. I don't think people understand the reality of D1 college basketball: there's really not a big talent difference between the top programs and lower level D1. There are more and more fine players and a limited number of D1 teams to play for. There will be more and more David vs. Goliath upsets due to the leveling of talent level. With the 3 point shot, most games come down to who's hot and who's not.
 

bemidjigopher said:
the defense was there, the shots just weren't falling
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Drake shot nearly as poorly as we did in the first half, yet led by four.

I understand that we will go through stretches where shots don't fall. What troubles me is when the offensive plan appears to be to drive into traffic with the intention of throwing up a crappy shot and hoping to draw a foul.
 



I'm not surprised it was a close game. Drake will be vastly improved from its 7-24 team last year, and I think the preseason prediction of being last in their league is garbage. The Gophers looked like a team frustrated by a pair of double digit losses, paired with shots not falling early. Don't forget also that they have finals, and that matters with college kids. Plus, they didn't have a ton of time to prepare after losing Saturday night.

It was a bad match-up for the Gophers. They struggle to defend the 3 and were facing one of the better 3-point shooting teams in the country. If they bring the energy and effort they had in the second half early, it's a 15-20 point win and nobody says a word. This group needs a mental break, and what matters is they got the win with 10 days before their next game.

Hurt is afraid to fail right now. He needs to be more aggressive and take his shot when it's open. Got to have a threat to score off the bench other than Washington.

The good thing is the Gophers won, and a lot of Power 5 teams are losing "buy games" to non-conference opponents. And somehow, Fitzgerald needs to find his confidence. He's gone from possibly being a major contributor to barely sniffing the floor. His size and length will be needed in Big 10 play, but first and foremost, Pitino has to trust that he'll make good decisions on the floor and earn the playing time.
 

Don't want to start a new thread for this: what do people think about Pitino's comments on fans booing? To me, the best thing a coach can do is ignore stuff like that. once you comment on it, you make it a bigger story - which is why the Strib is playing it up.

My personal opinion - the fans who were booing do not want the Gophers to lose. They want to see the Gophers play better. I would hope the coaches and players also want to see the Gophers play better.

But again, being critical of the fans doesn't work for a coach. it's a lose-lose situation. Pitino is still a pretty young coach, and chalk this up as something he still needs to learn.
 

To me, the booing was directed mostly at the final non-play at the buzzer...the lack of clock awareness. That's booable
 

Small Ball

We play two post players in a time where a majority of teams have 4 players with perimeter skills and quickness. Some big ten teams play two post players our lineup will matchup with them much better.
It's great getting an easy two from Murphy against a guard, but it sucks when the 4 guard offense kills us in space and trades it for wide open three's!!

Pitino needs to try and play some small ball on occasion against these smaller teams whose only hope is beating us with made 3's!

Mason and Washington
Mcbrayer and Coffey
and mostly Murphy in the middle.

Trouble is nobody on the bench, in this scenario could play out in space right now. Lynch could play the post. Fitz cant move laterally, Hurt tries. Oturu and Omersa's lateral quickness will be much appreciated next year.
 



Pitino's comments were spot on, booing is counter productive.

If you pay for your ticket you have the right to be frustrated and express it, but you better be the first person up and trying to cheer those guys to play harder and be loud when the opponent is on D, sadly that's not the case.
 

NWMetroGopherFan said:
I'm not surprised it was a close game. Drake will be vastly improved from its 7-24 team last year, and I think the preseason prediction of being last in their league is garbage. The Gophers looked like a team frustrated by a pair of double digit losses, paired with shots not falling early. Don't forget also that they have finals, and that matters with college kids. Plus, they didn't have a ton of time to prepare after losing Saturday night.

It was a bad match-up for the Gophers. They struggle to defend the 3 and were facing one of the better 3-point shooting teams in the country. If they bring the energy and effort they had in the second half early, it's a 15-20 point win and nobody says a word. This group needs a mental break, and what matters is they got the win with 10 days before their next game.

Hurt is afraid to fail right now. He needs to be more aggressive and take his shot when it's open. Got to have a threat to score off the bench other than Washington.

The good thing is the Gophers won, and a lot of Power 5 teams are losing "buy games" to non-conference opponents. And somehow, Fitzgerald needs to find his confidence. He's gone from possibly being a major contributor to barely sniffing the floor. His size and length will be needed in Big 10 play, but first and foremost, Pitino has to trust that he'll make good decisions on the floor and earn the playing time.
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I especially liked your first paragraph. The kids are clearly not having fun. They never seemed to even enjoy the good plays down the stretch last night or seem happy for each other.Maybe they just need to get away from basketball for a few days. But I do wonder if something is going on in the locker room. Is it basketball they aren't enjoying right now or are there frays in the social fabric? They say that winning cures everything but this joyless time doesn't seem to portend a lot of winning.
 

underground629 said:
That's an odd conclusion. What exactly do you mean they act like future NBA players and what's your evidence?
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I was replying to someones post but didn't reply with the quote.

I just don't see any one player that will be an NBA player unless Coffey improves a ton.

The other part was the attitude feel I'm getting from the team when they struggle. Things aren't going their way and they are reacting poorly.
 


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