B1G Game 6: Gophers visit Rutgers (1-13-18)

Ignatius L Hoops

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James Naismith would be Proud

Any doubts about old school Rutgers (4-1) return were dispelled by Wednesday’s 47-33 loss at Purdue. Not only has the 55 defense reappeared in its suffocating glory; but so has the more than occasional contest where peach baskets and ladders would not impede a games progress. The Scarlet Knight’s retro offense eked out four first quarter points to trail Purdue 10-4. Rutgers followed that effort with a 6 point second quarter explosion sending them to the locker room trailing 25-10. The game was awesome in its tediousness. Purdue controlled the Scarlet Knights with a 2-2-1 zone press after made baskets. And facing a disrupting Boiler 2-3 zone Rutgers stilted offense shot 1-20 from three.

It was the easily worst game I’ve seen Rutgers play this season. Purdue which itself often appears liberated from caring about offensive ugliness was a full participate. Ugly versus ugly in West Lafayette.

Oddly, for such a low scoring game, Rutgers was not their normal hound you all over the court defensive selves. Usually, Rutgers makes opposing post players feel like they are playing in a broom closet with the brooms hacking away at their arms. On Wednesday, Purdue was able to operate one on one under the hoop. In general, the Boiler’s kept the ball moving and made it difficult for Rutgers to get their normal double and triple teams. It also helped that referee trio of Morris, Trammell and Inouye called Rutgers for hacking fouls which frequently go uncalled. In the game, the Scarlet Knights committed 20 fouls and Purdue 6.

Nevertheless, with Tyler Scaife’s return the Scarlet Knights have bounced back to relevancy. Earlier this year they defeated Purdue in Piscataway 58-50, won at Michigan State 61-58 and have home victories over Illinois 76-37 and Penn State 70-65. Rutgers is more than Scaife. In conference play C. Vivian Stringer has 9 player averaging more that ten minutes a game. She used 13 players on a frustrating Wednesday night.


The Purdue loss was Rutger’s third loss of the season. The other two were to South Carolina 78-68 and Washington State 63-60 at Flohoops in Estero Florida. Rutgers rallied late in both games.


Last Season: At Williams Arena the Gopher won easily 80-46 finishing off the Scarlet Knights with a 49-26 second half run. Bell and Hubbard each scored 19 points and Gadiva gathered 8 rebounds. Jazland Rollins scored 10 points with 8 rebounds for Rutgers.

Two seasons ago was the last time Minnesota faced Tyler Scaife. Minnesota dropped the first match-up in Piscataway 66-65 and won the second in Williams 85-72. Scaife scored 23 in the first and 16 in the return. Carlie Wagner scored 22 in each.



Starters with B1G Stats:

5’9” G Sr Tyler Scaife 15.5 points/game
6’2” F Jr. Stasha Carey 6.6 points/game and 6.6 rebounds/game
6’3” C Jr. Victoria Harris
5’7” G Jr Khadaizha Sanders
5’7” G Fr Kate Hill


Others:

6’3” C So. Jordan Wallace
5’10” G Gr Nigia Greene 7.5 points/game
 

http://www.scarletknights.com/news/...back-on-track-with-minnesota-on-saturday.aspx

Scaife is also among the active leading scorers in Division I:

1 Kelsey Mitchell , Ohio St. 2,998
2 Katelynn Flaherty , Michigan 2,431
3 Jasmine Nwajei , Syracuse 2,135
4 Victoria Vivians , Mississippi St. 2,013
5 A'Ja Wilson , South Carolina 2,013
6 Tyler Scaife , Rutgers 2,007
7 Kolby Morgan , Tulane 1,986
8 Tyra Buss , Indiana 1,968
8 Kahlia Lawrence , Mercer 1,966
10 Carlie Wagner , Minnesota 1,918
 

Wow, didn't realize Mitchell was already so close to passing Banham. Four games or so?
 

Gotta hit shots when they're open. Less passing might be good against Rutgers. They're on every sloppy pass.
 

pittspregame.jpg
 




Shooting 25% and only down 5 at the end of first. I'll take it.
Seems like another "should have stayed in bed" performance by Bell.
Ignoring wide open players at the three and forcing the me-ball.
 

Gophers have only played 7. Rutgers have played 11. Who's gonna get tired down the line?
 



Gophers in the bonus with 4:35 left. Let's take full advantage!
 

Not a good game by Bell, I know Rutgers defense is special but some of her TO seem to be just bad decision making. Diva keeping them in the game tho. Hope Pitts and Bell find their rhythm in the second half.
 


Staying close.... just can't get over the hump.
 



Tie ball game with 4:41 left in game! Nice fight in this team.
 





Ouch! We played hard and that final score is not indicative of the game as a whole. We kept fighting back. Home to the Badgers on the 18th for a win.
 

They’re going to look back and see some missed opportunities mostly missing layups, some uncontested. Good to see Pitts not be rattled on the road against a top 21 team. Good to see Wagner get her swagger back. Bell needs a couple of good games to get her confidence back. All and all not a bad road swing so close to sweeping in very tough environments! Maybe a turning point inn the season?
 


Well it was fun; especially the end of regulation.

2:35 Wagner for three 59-60 Rutgers
1:54 Wagner for three 62 all
1:06 Pitts sinks 3 free throws 65-64 Minnesota
:15 Pitts for three 68 all

And then there was Kiki's try. My reaction was somewhat like Jessie's. It looked like Bell couldn't decide whether to just take it over the rim or put it off the backboard. At least she put it up in time. Bell needs to get back on track against the Badgers.

Post production (Fernstrom, Edwards and Bello) 10 points, 12 rebounds and 2 turnovers. (Wagner pulled down 10 rebounds herself). They did let them play today. It was great to see Pitts relish the physical play even if we could have done without her running over a Scarlet Knight on a break late in the fourth quarter. A break that would have given us the lead at the time.


Minutes Played (Starters Bolded)

45 Wagner
45 Hubbard
45 Pitts
43 Bell

24 Bello
19 Edwards
4 Brunson
1 Fernstrom
 

So much for using that depth.

Only 6 players with significant minutes. Kinda tough to win in OT that way.

Rutgers had 7 players over 18 min and another one with 13 min. They played 12 in total.

Ferstrom started but I agree she's kinda slow to keep up with Rutgers posts. Would have been nice to test her out at some point to see if she could score on their good post defense.

Brunson was a good idea to relieve Bell, but she got the hook after a poor post lob.
 

Brunson was a good idea to relieve Bell, but she got the hook after a poor post lob.

Poor post lobs...we had a lot of those. I almost want to go back and total them up. In the first half, Bell flung one that Kristaps Porzingis couldn't have caught. In the second half, especially, we seemed intent on attempting low lobs to a fronted Edwards.
 

Although post play improved the last few games can’t help but think all the posts in the BIG must lick their chomps about carving thru Gophers defense. Let’s hope they can continue to improve in that area
 


C Vivian Stringer post game presser. She covers why they went inside, why they didn't use the 55 etc.
 


C Vivian Stringer post game presser. She covers why they went inside, why they didn't use the 55 etc.

Very interesting presser. Their coach was worried about Fernstrom at center. Well our coach with all the wisdom of Solomon played her 1 minute. It took Wagner 18 seconds into the game to turn the ball over but that's right I forgot, the guards could commit a felony on the floor and still play 45 minutes. I read some posters that are ok with this loss because we fought back and came close but still lost. You show me a good loser and I will show you a Loser. Rutgers is still Rutgers and if we would have used a balanced attack and used all our positions on the floor, we would have easily won. Example look at Nebraska. Our starting center (Edwards) scored 1 pt. Ohio state was all about the guards also. Mch. State we played a balanced attack and won and should have put the game away earlier except for free throws not dropping. Penn state was a nice balanced butt whooping on their home court, nice win. Stollings always seems to go back to allowing the guards to play the me ball offense along with playing her 7th grade zone defense. I have said it before, if you don't have a balanced attack I hope your fans are happy with close losses or good tries. I am not. This team has the talent I believe to go deeper into the Big 10 tourney but not when you don't use all your talent...
 

I'm not into moral victories, but nevertheless the Gophers effort in this game was terrific and it was a fun game to watch, except for the outcome. Way too many turnovers, especially from Bell and Hubbard. Pitts continues to impress as a freshman. If I were Stollings, I might have used Brunson a bit more to spell Bell, who was not having a good game. Fernstrom got a very quick hook, although in the short time she played, she didn't look like she was going to be effective against Rutgers, which makes me wonder why Stollings started her. That being said, I might have given her another stint later in the first half or early in the second. Someone said that "Rutgers is still Rutgers", but they were the #21 ranked team in the country and they have yet to lose a game at home. And nothing wrong with using a zone defense against Rutgers. Rutgers' Scaife was terrific and clutch, but she's one of the best players in the BIG so that's to be expected. The Rutgers player who really killed the Gophers was Carey, who finished with 23 points on 8-11 from the field. Next four games are against the Badgers and the Hawkeyes.
 

E2B6B11C-CDCD-4F95-92A5-57287D07D318.jpg
Fernstrom .41 pts per minute played
Edwards .27 pts per minute played
Bello .33 pts per minute played
That mean Fernstrom scores 35% more efficiently than Edwards and 20% more efficiently than Bello although the numbers can be skewed with Bello because she sometimes plays the 4

Here is an example of what I am trying to say. In this picture where should the ball have gone. Well it didn't, Wagner drove into coverage and missed the shot. Luckily she was bailed out with a foul. My point is if you are not going to pass the ball inside in this situation then you never will. As for the 3 post players and this is right off the stat sheet this morning
 

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Fernstrom .41 pts per minute played
Edwards .27 pts per minute played
Bello .33 pts per minute played
That mean Fernstrom scores 35% more efficiently than Edwards and 20% more efficiently than Bello although the numbers can be skewed with Bello because she sometimes plays the 4 position.

In conference play the relationship between Edwards and Fernstrom remains about the same: .26 to .40. However, Bello improves to .40. Adding rebounding doesn't seem to change the relationship.

Bello: 39 points in 97 minutes. (32 rebounds)
Fernstrom: 22 points in 54 minutes (15 rebounds)
Edwards: 28 points in 108 minutes (27 rebounds)

Bello does seem to have slight edge elsewhere: 3 assists, 7 turnovers, 6 blocks and 8 steals.
Fernstrom: 1 assist, 4 turnovers, 2 blocks and 2 steals
 




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