B1G Game 3: Gophers Visit Ohio State (1-4-18)

On New Year’s Eve in Columbus, the Buckeyes raced out to an 11-0 lead against Indiana. Before long it was 27-7. When the 1st quarter ended, the Buckeyes led 32-13 helping Ohio State cruise to an 85-70 victory. With Waterman still out with an injury, OSU played seven players. The starting five, as usual, all played well over 30 minutes each.

There’s no mystery to the Buckeyes (2-0), we know the starting five-four guards and a post with Kelsey Mitchell dominating play. Versus the Hoosiers, the scoring was spread out. Mitchell netted 22, Harper 19, Mavunga 14, Calhoun 13 and Doss 7. The two subs (Hart and Caretti) totaled 10.

In their 73-61 opening B1G win over Nebraska, the Buckeyes let the Huskers creep back into the game late in the fourth quarter. Nebraska’s posts experienced some success against OSU scoring more than half the Husker points. Minnesota obviously does not have that post scoring option. That’s the bad news. The good news is that Minnesota’s guards match-up reasonably well with the Buckeyes. And it’s not as if the Gophers can’t defeat Ohio State: In 2016, Wagner and Edwards teamed up for one of the great Gopher highlights. It never gets old:


Last season, in Minnesota’s first match-up with Ohio State, the Buckeyes blitzed the Gophers 29-18 in the first quarter on the way to an easy 87-62 victory. The Gophers committed 24 turnovers and never put together a credible threat. In the return match at Williams Arena the Gophers jumped out to a first quarter 14-13 lead. Ohio State recovered to a 39-31 halftime advantage; but the Gophers rallied to cutting the lead to 64-61 following a Wagner (34 points) three with about 8 minutes remaining. That was as close as it got. The Buckeyes finished off Minnesota 88-76.


The Buckeyes are 13-2 (2-0 in conference).

Notable non-conference wins: They have two wins against Stanford (8-6). The first in Columbus ended 85-62 while the second in Las Vegas went overtime with the Buckeyes prevailing 94-82. Also in Vegas, the Buckeyes routed Florida Gulf Coast (14-3) 103-62.

Notable non-conference losses: In one of the games of the year, the Buckeyes lost at home in OT to Louisville (16-0) 95-90. OSU could not stop the Cardinals Asia Durr who scored 47 points, 13 in OT. The Buckeyes also lost at Duke (11-3) 69-60. OSU erased a 17 point third quarter deficit but could not finish the rally.


Starters:

6’3” F Sr Stephanie Mavunga 14.9 points per game and 11.8 rebounds
5’8” G Sr Kelsey Mitchell 25.8 points per game
6’0” G Jr Sierra Calhoun 13.0 points per game
5’8” G Sr Linnae Harper 15.6 points per game and 9.2 rebounds
5’7” G Sr Asia Doss 9.2 points per game

The Bench:

6’3” F Sr Alex Hart
6’1” G So Jensen Caretti

Get the bags out for this game.

Shades said:

Get the bags out for this game.

Click to expand...

Embarrassing ! We are getting blown out and sadly this shows our lack of talent against a good team. They are shooting over 50% from the field and with 6 minutes left we are @ 33%. Really never saw this team making the NCAA tourney but was hoping they would be more competitive.

One word...."Buyout".

Starters looking better against OSU scrubs.

Looks like Pitts went crazy from 3 to make the score look respectable. Wagner finishes with 12 and Bell with 8. I started the emails to Coyle last year and I understand that with getting PJ and paying Pitino more why they didn't pull the trigger on women's BB. Sure hope he does it this year and he has answered all of my emails.

MIN carves it down to a respectable 16 pt loss after being down 40.

Gopher scoring by quarter: 12, 8, 19, 36 for a total of 75. We got to see the Buckeye bench-it's not pretty.

Mavunga scored 25 points in 26 minutes.


Minutes Played (Starters Bolded) Yes Fernstrom started.

39 Pitts
36 Wagner
35 Hubbard
34 Bell
14 Bello
14 Edwards
11 Fernstrom
11 Brunson
5 Kaposi
1 Lamke

Shades said:

MIN carves it down to a respectable 16 pt loss after being down 40.

Click to expand...

Moral victory time for Stollings? Maybe we should look to extend her? Truthfully, she should be given a one way bus ticket back to where she came from. What a joke. The U of M should be ashamed that this team has sunken to this level of play. Deserved to lose by 40, but I think the OSU coach told his team to let us score and make the game more respectable so as to keep Stollings employed here. I can't even imagine her being able to get another D1 head coaching job if she were fired tomorrow. Her team wouldn't even win the Horizon League with her recruiting and coaching. But that's where this team belongs at best. And that's all on Stollings. This is her team. Her style of play. Her defensive philosophy. Her game management. etc... Like I said before, Stollings should be coaching in the MIAC at best. Disgusting that we weren't even competitive tonight until their scrubs came in. At this point, I'm almost longing for the good old days of Borton. How sad is that! Thankfully we have some softer opponents on the docket. Maybe then we can win a couple games and forget about how poor Stollings really is as a coach and how sad it is that this program continues to underachieve year after year.

.

GringaGopher said:

Embarrassing ! We are getting blown out and sadly this shows our lack of talent against a good team. They are shooting over 50% from the field and with 6 minutes left we are @ 33%. Really never saw this team making the NCAA tourney but was hoping they would be more competitive.

Click to expand...

It is embarrassing, the only thing I disagree with is the lack of talent. I believe if we had a coach that could make an adjustment or play a balanced game, we would be more competitive. We play the same game every time we hit the court. Very easy to scout our offense and we shouldn't even have to watch this 7th grade defense, also very easy for our opponents to scout. I think we have the talent to compete in the Big 10 much better than we are showing. Again if a Post player blinks wrong they are pulled, meanwhile our star guard can start 2 for 11 and not score in the first half but that is OK.

Frankly, I'm not surprised at all. Stollings will always be severely outclassed by any decent power five coach. Anyone that has had the misfortune of watching her team (s) concept of defense can see it.

Sent from my SM-G360V using Tapatalk

gpher said:

It is embarrassing, the only thing I disagree with is the lack of talent. I believe if we had a coach that could make an adjustment or play a balanced game, we would be more competitive. We play the same game every time we hit the court. Very easy to scout our offense and we shouldn't even have to watch this 7th grade defense, also very easy for our opponents to scout. I think we have the talent to compete in the Big 10 much better than we are showing. Again if a Post player blinks wrong they are pulled, meanwhile our star guard can start 2 for 11 and not score in the first half but that is OK.

Click to expand...

I agree with your take. Sometimes its hard to judge talent when it just may be the coaching. How did the LA Rams go from the lowest offensive output last year to the top scoring offense in the league this year? They brought in a new coach. People always want to put in on the players. And yes sometimes they have to just compete and fight through and it's on them. But we have seen this defense suck for three years now. As far as the post rotation tonight, each time a post in the first quarter or two had something go wrong they were yanked. No chance to play through and get in a rhythm. It's been like this for how many games now? I realize Pitts ended up with solid looking offensive stats. But watch her defense through the first two quarters. It was abysmal. More than once she failed to rotate, help, and was caught out of position. Only the post would end up pulled. This team needs to commit to Fernstrom and Bello in my opinion. Higher ceilings. Let them work through issues and gain confidence. The musical chair post rotation helps no one. Our offense is so focused on Bell driving and Wagner and Pitts and Hubbard just jacking threes. Not a lot creativity offensively. When our outside shooting fails, we're just dead as a team because we aren't getting the points in the paint we should be able to. Again I have no clue with they even brought in Fernstrom if they won't use her. Her Freshman stats at ISU:
## Player GP-GS Min--Avg FG-FGA Pct 3FG-FGA Pct FT-FTA Pct Off Def Tot Avg PF FO A TO Blk Stl Pts Avg
44 Fernstrom, Bryanna. 31-25 594 19.2 112-253 .443 15-64 .234 39-61 .639 32 68 100 3.2 62 0 13 39 36 9 278 9.0
Sophmore stats:
44 Fernstrom, Bryanna. 15-12 310 20.7 55-122 .451 3-18 .167 24-40 .600 23 77 100 6.7 30 0 4 14 34 9 137 9.1

Not to pick on Fernstrom, but how can you go from that as ISU in your first two years to barely getting minutes at the U of M. To me it's on the coaching staff. Her ISU stats alone would help this team even if she never improved beyond that. She's had some really good games, but then looking at the stats, she barely plays the next game. I didn't see the Nebraska game, only checked the stats after, but did she even play? Was she hurt?

Also, look at Allina Starr. Again a transfer brought in that scraped the bench last year. (unable to copy and paste Hamptons stats as good as ISU's..sorry)
This year: shooting .409% with a 12.7 pts per game average playing 36 minutes a game. Granted she's not playing on a great team, but her stats come against some decent non conference teams (UNC, Oregon, TCU, Virginia, Temple etc...) and she did help Hampton beat UNC who we lost to.

I could go on and on, but it's depressing. I really hoped this year we could compete at the NCAA tourney level. Ohh well, maybe next year, or the year after.

Even if it were "on the players," who recruited most of (and "develops") them?

I still think that the Gophers have some talent. No, not enough to place them with the likes of OSU or Maryland, but certainly enough to be in NCAA tourney bubble discussions...if they were well-coached. What in the world is Stollings doing with the post position? She starts Fernstrom against OSU after not playing her or barely playing her the previous two games. I'm not against starting Fernstrom, but I don't understand why we are this far into the season and Stollings has yet to pick a post player (or two) and stay with them. She used 4 players in the first half against OSU tonight. And I'm convinced that if she had 7 post players, she would be using all of them. She's like a mad scientist who seems to think that she is smarter than everyone else and is out-thinking herself. Anyone else notice the poor clock management at the end of the first quarter? I don't understand why we've gone so many years without a decent coach for this program...and that includes Borton. The Gopher women's program has the potential to be one of the top programs in the conference and to go year after year without an NCAA tourney team should not be acceptable for fans and, more importantly, for the athletic department.

Yes, Stollings absolutely blows. Unlike many though, I've said so on this forum for several years now. How she did not make a respectable tournament run at least once with the likes of Banham, Zahui, Shae Kelley, and Wagner is despicable to be quite frank.

And I don't see any of her teams smelling the NCAA tourney before she's canned.

gophsfan said:

Deserved to lose by 40, but I think the OSU coach told his team to let us score and make the game more respectable so as to keep Stollings employed here.

Click to expand...

I don't know why that would be. Stollings beat McGuff in that video above when Ohio St was ranked #5.

gophsfan said:

I can't even imagine her being able to get another D1 head coaching job if she were fired tomorrow.

Click to expand...

Maybe a mid-major like where she came from.

gophsfan said:

At this point, I'm almost longing for the good old days of Borton. How sad is that!

Click to expand...

I was actually in favor of Borton staying another year since she recruited this nice group of Banham, Zahui, and Wagner and felt she deserved to have a shot with Wagner included in the mix. I also worried about Wagner bailing after her coach was let go. I think I was the only one who felt that way.

A a couple of minor observations: for three years Stollings' teams ran highly successful inbound plays-especially from under the hoop. We consistently got several open looks and layups against all teams. This season, even those have disappeared.

Like Tripledouble (and most everyone else) I'm confused about the post position. Since we run very few post oriented plays the only reason for the "rotation" must be defensive; but, if so, then why would you start Fernstrom which allowed Mavunga to run freely down the court for easy buckets?

Outside of the post position, this team has talent. Nevertheless, the upcoming stretch of Michigan State, @ Penn State, @ Rutgers, Wisconsin, Iowa, @ Wisconsin, @ Iowa, and @ Purdue looks ridiculously loseable.

Ignatius L Hoops said:

A a couple of minor observations: for three years Stollings' teams ran highly successful inbound plays-especially from under the hoop. We consistently got several open looks and layups against all teams. This season, even those have disappeared.

Like Tripledouble (and most everyone else) I'm confused about the post position. Since we run very few post oriented plays the only reason for the "rotation" must be defensive; but, if so, then why would you start Fernstrom which allowed Mavunga to run freely down the court for easy buckets?

Outside of the post position, this team has talent. Nevertheless, the upcoming stretch of Michigan State, @ Penn State, @ Rutgers, Wisconsin, Iowa, @ Wisconsin, @ Iowa, and @ Purdue looks ridiculously loseable.

Click to expand...

I really enjoy most of what you post on this sight and other times I wonder if you know anything about the game. Mavunga took off early and beat the whole team down the court for that lay up only to get fouled from behind by Wagner. When an opposing post player does that, we have a guard assigned to drop back and play defense to stop the breakaway until the rest of the team gets back. That didn't happen. Mavunga did this once and you make it sound like it went on all night. The fact that we don't run any post oriented plays is the problem. It's all about a balanced attack. If a team does not have this balanced attack, they will not be successful.

Stollings seems to give starting positions to whoever looks the best in practice. I' ve heard her say before she likes keeping a competition going. But then she gives them the quick hook when she sees it's not working very well in the game time situation. Kaposi, for instance, early in the season. Fernstrom in last night's game. Fernstrom starting seems like a poor scout to me. Mavunga has gotten very quick, and Fernstrom has about the slowest reflexes I've ever seen on a post player. Seems to me Bello should have been the obvious choice for the bulk of the minutes, although I'm not exactly sure about her defensive abilities either. She's always been coached by Stollings.

Other than the level of talent difference, I thought we're pretty similar to Ohio St. Neither team likes to play defense unless it's required and both use a 4 guard system. Whenever OSU did ratchet up the defense it seemed to rattle the Gophers. I've never seen them look so frantic in their play, although there were some shades of the SD game. If they could have hit shots early on maybe they had a chance in this game. Bell seemed to have suddenly lost her swag as she would brick layup after layup, and her drive and dish post passes are terrible.... wild and unpredictable and usually thrown too hard.

The Gophers should consider using the Lynx/Timberwolves practice facility whenever the Timberwolves aren't using it. They have that automated feedback system setup there that seems to have really helped the Lynx tremendously with their shooting in just one off season.

We seemed to get a lot of deflections in this game, so that's a good sign. But most of these deflections either went out of play or back to OSU. Just wasn't our night.

Strangely enough, I'm not down on Stollings any more now than I have been. I thought her methods lost us the Nebraska game, not any one particular player. I was hopeful to be competitive in this game IF WE COULD HIT MOST OF OUR SHOTS, but we're a transition offense and three point reliant team. If you can't hit the shots you're not going to win and you could lose to the point of embarrassment.

I understand not trapping OSU. They are a veteran unit. But in general I'd like to see more trapping and more emphasis on defense. Sound like a broken record? If I never see the zone defense again I'd be so happy. Trouble is the players are so used to it. It's all they know. Would they be able to drop it now.

Michigan St at home should be a winnable game. Hopefully the team can regain some of their swag by then.

gpher said:

I really enjoy most of what you post on this sight and other times I wonder if you know anything about the game. Mavunga took off early and beat the whole team down the court for that lay up only to get fouled from behind by Wagner. When an opposing post player does that, we have a guard assigned to drop back and play defense to stop the breakaway until the rest of the team gets back. That didn't happen. Mavunga did this once and you make it sound like it went on all night. The fact that we don't run any post oriented plays is the problem. It's all about a balanced attack. If a team does not have this balanced attack, they will not be successful.

Click to expand...

Good point. It happened once. However, Fernstrom was immediately removed from the game. Was she removed for not getting up court? I'm not sure; but Stollings quickly made the switch to Edwards. My general, unexpressed concern, was that if your're not going to start Fernstrom against a half court team like Northwestern why would you start her against a running team like Ohio State?

Shades said:

Michigan St at home should be a winnable game.

Click to expand...

If the talent levels are relatively equal, and it sounds like they are, Suzy Merchant will coach Stollings' socks off. Michigan State by double-digits, even though they're in a little bit of a rebuilding year.

Ignatius L Hoops said:

Good point. It happened once. However, Fernstrom was immediately removed from the game. Was she removed for not getting up court? I'm not sure; but Stollings quickly made the switch to Edwards. My general, unexpressed concern, was that if your're not going to start Fernstrom against a half court team like Northwestern why would you start her against a running team like Ohio State?

Click to expand...

I went back and watched that play this AM. Edwards was already going to come in when the breakaway occurred. She then came in for the Mvunga free throw. Your other question seems to have everyone stumped. Fernstrom 0 minutes against Nebraska when our starting post had 1 pt. for the game then she starts the next game. Like I have said before, let the post players play through some mistakes like the rest of the team is allowed to do. They are playing scared and without confidence. Not good

gpher said:

I went back and watched that play this AM. Edwards was already going to come in when the breakaway occurred. She then came in for the Mvunga free throw. Your other question seems to have everyone stumped. Fernstrom 0 minutes against Nebraska when our starting post had 1 pt. for the game then she starts the next game. Like I have said before, let the post players play through some mistakes like the rest of the team is allowed to do. They are playing scared and without confidence. Not good

Click to expand...

You're correct. After Wagner and Fernstrom ran a pick and roll resulting in Bryanna losing the ball out of bounds, Edwards was called to sit next to Nikki. Edwards was waiting to check in before Mavunga beat Wagner and Fernstrom down the court. When Bryanna came off the court, Marlene had a conversation with her which included pointing to the offensive end. The Mavunga run out had nothing to do with Fernstrom's removal.

SelectionSunday said:

If the talent levels are relatively equal, and it sounds like they are, Suzy Merchant will coach Stollings' socks off. Michigan State by double-digits, even though they're in a little bit of a rebuilding year.

Click to expand...

Yesterday it was Ms Merchant's socks that went a-missing.