Pitino will have a long career here (and so will Washington for 4 years)

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KillmeNow said:
It's taken a long time, and probably a lot of coaching and instruction for IW's game to come along. There is NO WAY anyone considered IW one of the Top 6 players on this team, early in the season. No one really filled in and contributed like a 6th man should or normally does. But Harris got 2 starts and Fitz got 1 while IW had zero, going into the Michigan game. Fans were questioning whether IW would be able to take over for Mason next year and were already speaking doom and gloom and how next year's team wouldn't be any better than this years hobbled squad is playing. They were talking down Hurt, no one was even talking about Fitz, partly because most games he simply didn't contribute anything. In our losses to Miami, Neb and Ark, Fitz had a grand total of 0 pts, 0 rbs, 0 assts, but 5 PFs.

Washington was throwing up 3 ptr after 3 ptr with only a few ever going in. He was starting to show some ability to get to the basket, but not an ability to dish it to an open guy. Very few were bragging about IW's play, most were criticizing it or just talking about how they hoped he'd get better come next year. But I WAS talking him up. I saw his potential, and I posted about it here. I posted about how before Lynch and Coffey went down, I was seeing progress in his game. And in Hurt's and Harris' as well.

Then the injury/suspension, followed almost immediately by a run of 6 games in 14 days, 4 of them road games, so no time to get in the gym and figure out how best to manage the situation. Yet all of you brilliant coaching geniuses, from your armchairs, not a one of you that I remember was suggesting to cut the roster down to our best 6-7 players and go for it. Pitino is the one who figured that out, once he had time to get into the gym and work with the team.

As soon as the suspension happened, our next game was the home gave vs IU, a game that was only lost by 4 points. Not a ton of time to prepare for that game and to play without 2 of our best players.

Then 5 games in 11 days, 4 of them road games, the only home game vs arguably the #1 team in the country, Purdue, the road games vs Maryland, OSU and NW, none of whom are too shabby, and we had leads at halftime vs 3 of those 4 teams, but got tired and gassed and faded at the end. Simple as that. We did get a road win vs PSU.

Not sure when McBrayer aggravated his leg and stopped practicing, but that couldn't have helped in anyway.


So going 1-4 over that 5 game stretch may have happened even if we had Lynch and Coffey? Maybe we go 2-3? 3-2 possibly? But without those guys and with McBreyer hobbled as well, how hard is it to understand that they could lose 4 of those games?


We started out 2-1 in conference, those are the only 3 games Lynch played in. Coffey played in 2 of the next 8 games, and shouldn't have. He wasn't being allowed to practice, and wasn't supposed to come back until Feb 2nd. But he tried playing in those 2 games and ended up aggravating his injury, so was he even close to 100% in the 2 games he played? And Dupree hasn't been practicing, just playing in games, and he's clearly not even close to 100% and just can't defend well right now. If you watch him, you can see he's in pain and slowed down by his injury. Those are 3 of our Top 6 players. Add Curry not playing and that is 4 of our Top 6. 4 of our Top 7 if you must insist on IW being in the mix, or maybe 3.5, since Dupree at least contributes some on offense.

Coming home from the 5 games in 11 days mostly on the road stretch, we still had to play a NW team that isn't the pushovers they used to be, either, just 3 days after playing OSU in Madison Square Garden.


So the first time the team had time to rest and then get a couple practices in, were the week leading up to the Iowa game. And who knows, maybe Pitino just didn't feel ready to make the switch yet, maybe he felt that it wouldn't work vs Iowa? I've read people mention how Michigan had the perfect team to try it out on, that if it would work, it would work vs Michigan but that it won't or wouldn't work vs other teams, like Purdue especially. So just because it almost worked vs Michigan, doesn't mean its the key to beating other teams. Does it make me think that maybe we can win a few of our remaining games? It does. But now teams might prepare for that and figure out a game plan and a way to beat it. Michigan probably didn't see that coming.


And the Michigan game was the 1st game of a 3 games in 7 days stretch, and we'll finish the season with another 3 games in 7 days. All so that we can cram in our Conf tourney a week early.


Not the best season to pick to lose 3.5 of our best 7 players, while only starting with 12 before the Curry injury, because of Stockman.




So yes, dpodoll68, losing 3.5 of your Top 7 players WILL make any team drop from top 1/3-1/4 of the conf down to bottom 1/3-1/4 of it.


Especially when going on little 11 day runs with 5 games, 4 of them on the road right after first losing 2 of those 3.5.


And some say that Mason might be playing in some pain?

Murphy twisted his ankle in a game, did that affect his performance that game or maybe even in the next game? Harris missed at least one game. Gaston was out for 6 of the first 11 conf games. Not saying he was a big contributor, but even a minute or two once or twice in a game can help the guy he's going in for.


Your trying to minimize the extent of this situation is laughable and kind of pathetic and makes it look like you just hate Pitino and are trying to make up ways to criticize him.
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Great post!
 



dpodoll68 said:
I'm not sure who you're talking about, but your statement doesn't apply to the Gophers. The Gophers' top 6 players (including Lynch) are Murphy, Lynch, Mason, Coffey, McBrayer, and Washington. I watched 90% of the game yesterday and I saw 4 of the 6 playing at least 32 minutes. Anyone could've predicted that the Gophers would be worse without Lynch than with him, but one player (two counting the time that Coffey has missed) doesn't make you go from one of the top 2-3 teams in the conference to one of the 2-3 worst. We still have our 2 best players healthy and playing every game. They are both 1st-team All Big Ten kind of players, and just on those two we should be at worst an 8- or 9-win team in the Big Ten, not the one that has gone 1-8 and will likely end up with 4 or 5 Big Ten wins (if we're lucky). That's coaching, and it's unacceptable when the coach recruited the entire roster and has had 5 years to do so.

Shortening the rotation and actually playing the 6-7 best remaining players (regardless of position) led us to almost pulling a big upset win yesterday. Why did it take him 8 games to figure this out? That's coaching.
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I disagree about Curry. If he was healthy, he'd be our best player off the bench in my opinion.

With all the injuries and suspension, I think everyone would expect some kind of fall off. My disappointment has been with how they have lost some of these games. There's still a lot of talent on the floor. They just look bored and confused too often. The blame for that goes to the players and the coaches.
 



GophersInIowa said:
I disagree about Curry. If he was healthy, he'd be our best player off the bench in my opinion.
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I totally forgot about Curry when typing my response, to be honest. He'd definitely be starting and playing a lot of minutes right now if he hadn't been hurt.

GophersInIowa said:
With all the injuries and suspension, I think everyone would expect some kind of fall off. My disappointment has been with how they have lost some of these games. There's still a lot of talent on the floor. They just look bored and confused too often. The blame for that goes to the players and the coaches.
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Agreed - exactly. As I mentioned previously, our 2 best players have been healthy and played in every game. A drop-off is to be expected, but not this kind of drop-off.
 



KillmeNow said:
It's taken a long time, and probably a lot of coaching and instruction for IW's game to come along. There is NO WAY anyone considered IW one of the Top 6 players on this team, early in the season. No one really filled in and contributed like a 6th man should or normally does. But Harris got 2 starts and Fitz got 1 while IW had zero, going into the Michigan game. Fans were questioning whether IW would be able to take over for Mason next year and were already speaking doom and gloom and how next year's team wouldn't be any better than this years hobbled squad is playing. They were talking down Hurt, no one was even talking about Fitz, partly because most games he simply didn't contribute anything. In our losses to Miami, Neb and Ark, Fitz had a grand total of 0 pts, 0 rbs, 0 assts, but 5 PFs.

Washington was throwing up 3 ptr after 3 ptr with only a few ever going in. He was starting to show some ability to get to the basket, but not an ability to dish it to an open guy. Very few were bragging about IW's play, most were criticizing it or just talking about how they hoped he'd get better come next year. But I WAS talking him up. I saw his potential, and I posted about it here. I posted about how before Lynch and Coffey went down, I was seeing progress in his game. And in Hurt's and Harris' as well.

Then the injury/suspension, followed almost immediately by a run of 6 games in 14 days, 4 of them road games, so no time to get in the gym and figure out how best to manage the situation. Yet all of you brilliant coaching geniuses, from your armchairs, not a one of you that I remember was suggesting to cut the roster down to our best 6-7 players and go for it. Pitino is the one who figured that out, once he had time to get into the gym and work with the team.

As soon as the suspension happened, our next game was the home gave vs IU, a game that was only lost by 4 points. Not a ton of time to prepare for that game and to play without 2 of our best players.

Then 5 games in 11 days, 4 of them road games, the only home game vs arguably the #1 team in the country, Purdue, the road games vs Maryland, OSU and NW, none of whom are too shabby, and we had leads at halftime vs 3 of those 4 teams, but got tired and gassed and faded at the end. Simple as that. We did get a road win vs PSU.

Not sure when McBrayer aggravated his leg and stopped practicing, but that couldn't have helped in anyway.


So going 1-4 over that 5 game stretch may have happened even if we had Lynch and Coffey? Maybe we go 2-3? 3-2 possibly? But without those guys and with McBreyer hobbled as well, how hard is it to understand that they could lose 4 of those games?


We started out 2-1 in conference, those are the only 3 games Lynch played in. Coffey played in 2 of the next 8 games, and shouldn't have. He wasn't being allowed to practice, and wasn't supposed to come back until Feb 2nd. But he tried playing in those 2 games and ended up aggravating his injury, so was he even close to 100% in the 2 games he played? And Dupree hasn't been practicing, just playing in games, and he's clearly not even close to 100% and just can't defend well right now. If you watch him, you can see he's in pain and slowed down by his injury. Those are 3 of our Top 6 players. Add Curry not playing and that is 4 of our Top 6. 4 of our Top 7 if you must insist on IW being in the mix, or maybe 3.5, since Dupree at least contributes some on offense.

Coming home from the 5 games in 11 days mostly on the road stretch, we still had to play a NW team that isn't the pushovers they used to be, either, just 3 days after playing OSU in Madison Square Garden.


So the first time the team had time to rest and then get a couple practices in, were the week leading up to the Iowa game. And who knows, maybe Pitino just didn't feel ready to make the switch yet, maybe he felt that it wouldn't work vs Iowa? I've read people mention how Michigan had the perfect team to try it out on, that if it would work, it would work vs Michigan but that it won't or wouldn't work vs other teams, like Purdue especially. So just because it almost worked vs Michigan, doesn't mean its the key to beating other teams. Does it make me think that maybe we can win a few of our remaining games? It does. But now teams might prepare for that and figure out a game plan and a way to beat it. Michigan probably didn't see that coming.


And the Michigan game was the 1st game of a 3 games in 7 days stretch, and we'll finish the season with another 3 games in 7 days. All so that we can cram in our Conf tourney a week early.


Not the best season to pick to lose 3.5 of our best 7 players, while only starting with 12 before the Curry injury, because of Stockman.




So yes, dpodoll68, losing 3.5 of your Top 7 players WILL make any team drop from top 1/3-1/4 of the conf down to bottom 1/3-1/4 of it.


Especially when going on little 11 day runs with 5 games, 4 of them on the road right after first losing 2 of those 3.5.


And some say that Mason might be playing in some pain?

Murphy twisted his ankle in a game, did that affect his performance that game or maybe even in the next game? Harris missed at least one game. Gaston was out for 6 of the first 11 conf games. Not saying he was a big contributor, but even a minute or two once or twice in a game can help the guy he's going in for.


Your trying to minimize the extent of this situation is laughable and kind of pathetic and makes it look like you just hate Pitino and are trying to make up ways to criticize him.[/QUOT

This is spot on. Without all the injuries, would have had a decent chance of back to back sweet sixteen appearances, that's the bottom line.
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This is spot on. Without all the injuries, would have had a decent shot at back to back sweet sixteen appearaces. That's the bottom line.
 

ltf said:
KillmeNow said:
It's taken a long time, and probably a lot of coaching and instruction for IW's game to come along. There is NO WAY anyone considered IW one of the Top 6 players on this team, early in the season. No one really filled in and contributed like a 6th man should or normally does. But Harris got 2 starts and Fitz got 1 while IW had zero, going into the Michigan game. Fans were questioning whether IW would be able to take over for Mason next year and were already speaking doom and gloom and how next year's team wouldn't be any better than this years hobbled squad is playing. They were talking down Hurt, no one was even talking about Fitz, partly because most games he simply didn't contribute anything. In our losses to Miami, Neb and Ark, Fitz had a grand total of 0 pts, 0 rbs, 0 assts, but 5 PFs.

Washington was throwing up 3 ptr after 3 ptr with only a few ever going in. He was starting to show some ability to get to the basket, but not an ability to dish it to an open guy. Very few were bragging about IW's play, most were criticizing it or just talking about how they hoped he'd get better come next year. But I WAS talking him up. I saw his potential, and I posted about it here. I posted about how before Lynch and Coffey went down, I was seeing progress in his game. And in Hurt's and Harris' as well.

Then the injury/suspension, followed almost immediately by a run of 6 games in 14 days, 4 of them road games, so no time to get in the gym and figure out how best to manage the situation. Yet all of you brilliant coaching geniuses, from your armchairs, not a one of you that I remember was suggesting to cut the roster down to our best 6-7 players and go for it. Pitino is the one who figured that out, once he had time to get into the gym and work with the team.

As soon as the suspension happened, our next game was the home gave vs IU, a game that was only lost by 4 points. Not a ton of time to prepare for that game and to play without 2 of our best players.

Then 5 games in 11 days, 4 of them road games, the only home game vs arguably the #1 team in the country, Purdue, the road games vs Maryland, OSU and NW, none of whom are too shabby, and we had leads at halftime vs 3 of those 4 teams, but got tired and gassed and faded at the end. Simple as that. We did get a road win vs PSU.

Not sure when McBrayer aggravated his leg and stopped practicing, but that couldn't have helped in anyway.


So going 1-4 over that 5 game stretch may have happened even if we had Lynch and Coffey? Maybe we go 2-3? 3-2 possibly? But without those guys and with McBreyer hobbled as well, how hard is it to understand that they could lose 4 of those games?


We started out 2-1 in conference, those are the only 3 games Lynch played in. Coffey played in 2 of the next 8 games, and shouldn't have. He wasn't being allowed to practice, and wasn't supposed to come back until Feb 2nd. But he tried playing in those 2 games and ended up aggravating his injury, so was he even close to 100% in the 2 games he played? And Dupree hasn't been practicing, just playing in games, and he's clearly not even close to 100% and just can't defend well right now. If you watch him, you can see he's in pain and slowed down by his injury. Those are 3 of our Top 6 players. Add Curry not playing and that is 4 of our Top 6. 4 of our Top 7 if you must insist on IW being in the mix, or maybe 3.5, since Dupree at least contributes some on offense.

Coming home from the 5 games in 11 days mostly on the road stretch, we still had to play a NW team that isn't the pushovers they used to be, either, just 3 days after playing OSU in Madison Square Garden.


So the first time the team had time to rest and then get a couple practices in, were the week leading up to the Iowa game. And who knows, maybe Pitino just didn't feel ready to make the switch yet, maybe he felt that it wouldn't work vs Iowa? I've read people mention how Michigan had the perfect team to try it out on, that if it would work, it would work vs Michigan but that it won't or wouldn't work vs other teams, like Purdue especially. So just because it almost worked vs Michigan, doesn't mean its the key to beating other teams. Does it make me think that maybe we can win a few of our remaining games? It does. But now teams might prepare for that and figure out a game plan and a way to beat it. Michigan probably didn't see that coming.


And the Michigan game was the 1st game of a 3 games in 7 days stretch, and we'll finish the season with another 3 games in 7 days. All so that we can cram in our Conf tourney a week early.


Not the best season to pick to lose 3.5 of our best 7 players, while only starting with 12 before the Curry injury, because of Stockman.




So yes, dpodoll68, losing 3.5 of your Top 7 players WILL make any team drop from top 1/3-1/4 of the conf down to bottom 1/3-1/4 of it.


Especially when going on little 11 day runs with 5 games, 4 of them on the road right after first losing 2 of those 3.5.


And some say that Mason might be playing in some pain?

Murphy twisted his ankle in a game, did that affect his performance that game or maybe even in the next game? Harris missed at least one game. Gaston was out for 6 of the first 11 conf games. Not saying he was a big contributor, but even a minute or two once or twice in a game can help the guy he's going in for.


Your trying to minimize the extent of this situation is laughable and kind of pathetic and makes it look like you just hate Pitino and are trying to make up ways to criticize him.[/QUOT
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ltf said:
ltf said:
KillmeNow said:
It's taken a long time, and probably a lot of coaching and instruction for IW's game to come along. There is NO WAY anyone considered IW one of the Top 6 players on this team, early in the season. No one really filled in and contributed like a 6th man should or normally does. But Harris got 2 starts and Fitz got 1 while IW had zero, going into the Michigan game. Fans were questioning whether IW would be able to take over for Mason next year and were already speaking doom and gloom and how next year's team wouldn't be any better than this years hobbled squad is playing. They were talking down Hurt, no one was even talking about Fitz, partly because most games he simply didn't contribute anything. In our losses to Miami, Neb and Ark, Fitz had a grand total of 0 pts, 0 rbs, 0 assts, but 5 PFs.

Washington was throwing up 3 ptr after 3 ptr with only a few ever going in. He was starting to show some ability to get to the basket, but not an ability to dish it to an open guy. Very few were bragging about IW's play, most were criticizing it or just talking about how they hoped he'd get better come next year. But I WAS talking him up. I saw his potential, and I posted about it here. I posted about how before Lynch and Coffey went down, I was seeing progress in his game. And in Hurt's and Harris' as well.

Then the injury/suspension, followed almost immediately by a run of 6 games in 14 days, 4 of them road games, so no time to get in the gym and figure out how best to manage the situation. Yet all of you brilliant coaching geniuses, from your armchairs, not a one of you that I remember was suggesting to cut the roster down to our best 6-7 players and go for it. Pitino is the one who figured that out, once he had time to get into the gym and work with the team.

As soon as the suspension happened, our next game was the home gave vs IU, a game that was only lost by 4 points. Not a ton of time to prepare for that game and to play without 2 of our best players.

Then 5 games in 11 days, 4 of them road games, the only home game vs arguably the #1 team in the country, Purdue, the road games vs Maryland, OSU and NW, none of whom are too shabby, and we had leads at halftime vs 3 of those 4 teams, but got tired and gassed and faded at the end. Simple as that. We did get a road win vs PSU.

Not sure when McBrayer aggravated his leg and stopped practicing, but that couldn't have helped in anyway.


So going 1-4 over that 5 game stretch may have happened even if we had Lynch and Coffey? Maybe we go 2-3? 3-2 possibly? But without those guys and with McBreyer hobbled as well, how hard is it to understand that they could lose 4 of those games?


We started out 2-1 in conference, those are the only 3 games Lynch played in. Coffey played in 2 of the next 8 games, and shouldn't have. He wasn't being allowed to practice, and wasn't supposed to come back until Feb 2nd. But he tried playing in those 2 games and ended up aggravating his injury, so was he even close to 100% in the 2 games he played? And Dupree hasn't been practicing, just playing in games, and he's clearly not even close to 100% and just can't defend well right now. If you watch him, you can see he's in pain and slowed down by his injury. Those are 3 of our Top 6 players. Add Curry not playing and that is 4 of our Top 6. 4 of our Top 7 if you must insist on IW being in the mix, or maybe 3.5, since Dupree at least contributes some on offense.

Coming home from the 5 games in 11 days mostly on the road stretch, we still had to play a NW team that isn't the pushovers they used to be, either, just 3 days after playing OSU in Madison Square Garden.


So the first time the team had time to rest and then get a couple practices in, were the week leading up to the Iowa game. And who knows, maybe Pitino just didn't feel ready to make the switch yet, maybe he felt that it wouldn't work vs Iowa? I've read people mention how Michigan had the perfect team to try it out on, that if it would work, it would work vs Michigan but that it won't or wouldn't work vs other teams, like Purdue especially. So just because it almost worked vs Michigan, doesn't mean its the key to beating other teams. Does it make me think that maybe we can win a few of our remaining games? It does. But now teams might prepare for that and figure out a game plan and a way to beat it. Michigan probably didn't see that coming.


And the Michigan game was the 1st game of a 3 games in 7 days stretch, and we'll finish the season with another 3 games in 7 days. All so that we can cram in our Conf tourney a week early.


Not the best season to pick to lose 3.5 of our best 7 players, while only starting with 12 before the Curry injury, because of Stockman.




So yes, dpodoll68, losing 3.5 of your Top 7 players WILL make any team drop from top 1/3-1/4 of the conf down to bottom 1/3-1/4 of it.


Especially when going on little 11 day runs with 5 games, 4 of them on the road right after first losing 2 of those 3.5.


And some say that Mason might be playing in some pain?

Murphy twisted his ankle in a game, did that affect his performance that game or maybe even in the next game? Harris missed at least one game. Gaston was out for 6 of the first 11 conf games. Not saying he was a big contributor, but even a minute or two once or twice in a game can help the guy he's going in for.


Your trying to minimize the extent of this situation is laughable and kind of pathetic and makes it look like you just hate Pitino and are trying to make up ways to criticize him.[/QUOT
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Right on!!!!!!
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KillmeNow said:
AND... We BEAT PSU, in their own Arena.

So what is your point, really?


And "this team is fully capable of a much better performance than we've seen for most of this stretch"?

Says who? Fully 1/3rd of the team, mostly from the best half, are either not able to play, or are playing injured.

OMG, are you that blind???

EG, you are usually one of the more intelligent and sensible posters here, how on earth is it that you can't see this???


You just aren't paying enough attention. The team isn't doing very well, so why would you, right? I can't blame you. But that's not an excuse.


Look at the schedule, see when they played, and who they played, and how often they played, and who was healthy enough to play, and who was playing despite not being healthy enough, and honestly come back after looking all of that up, and tell me that you think this team should be winning more of these games?


I mean, yes, granted, Iowa is not very good. But we were in their house. We are short staffed. We are hobbled. We are tired. Pitino should have pulled the plug awhile ago and given up on this season, honestly. But the players didn't want that. They play in games that they shouldn't be playing in. They should be resting up and recovering from serious injuries.

But this team DOES NOT GIVE UP!!!!


It's either the quality of the guys Pitino brings in that don't want to give up, or its Pitino himself that directly has figured out how to inspire this NEVER GIVE UP attitude in his players.

Not many coaches can get their players to feel inspired enough to win an NIT tourney after missing the Big Dance. But Pitino was able to.

Not many coaches can get their players to feel inspired enough to beat a highly ranked team at the end of a conf season where they are 1-13 or 1-14 so far? But Pitino figured out how to get them up for that game.

Not many coaches can get their players to feel inspired enough to win 8 in a row after losing 5 straight early in conference play, but Pitino figured out how to get them up for doing that last year.
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You my friend, are delusional. You’re love for Richie blinds you. I’ll guess you’re a younger fella.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 



Zeppelin Gopher said:
Is anyone even reading his posts? They're all rambling diatribes with zero structure.
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Apparently, since ppl are responding to my posts, someone IS reading them.

"rambling diatribes with zero structure"?? Dude, I'm not writing papers for a class or to be submitted to a boss. Do I ramble? Yeah, so what. I'm not trying to win some writing award.
 

Some Day...Maybe said:
You my friend, are delusional. You’re love for Richie blinds you. I’ll guess you’re a younger fella.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
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And the hatred of him blinds others! I'm not delusional or a "younger fella".


3.5 of the Top 7 players are not playing or not practicing and only playing in lots of pain.

4 road games & 1 home game vs soon to be #1 seed Purdue, in an 11 day period.

Not excuses, JUST FACTS.
 

El Amin Fan said:
This x1000. Dude needs to be much more concise and use much fewer paragraph breaks.
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Yeah, you are possibly right. BUT....

As soon as anyone simply says, "lots of guys are out, so...." The Pitino haters respond with, "So what, 2 of our best guys are still good enough to beat lots of teams" Which is a ridiculous bunch of bs.

Or they rag on the team for losing games they led at halftime.

Or they rag on the team for playing uninspired ball or playing bad defense.


All 3 of those are very easy to explain when you consider the schedule & # of injuries.



So I merely address ALL of those things at the same time, and point out things like playing 5 games in 11 days almost immediately after Lynch and Coffey went out.

And more and more things just keep popping into my head. So yeah, I ramble and my posts end up becoming unorganized.



Just amazes me how many genius coaches there are out there in Gopherland. How on earth is it possible that we never have any good ones to choose from when it comes time to hire one, I'd think that there would a be a long line of incredibly qualified GENIUS armchair QBs just dying to take the job? You all ARE qualified, right?
 




The team is struggling this year with Reggie Lynch not in the line up and the players that are out due to injury.

They are playing hard even in the games they lost. They never give up. This adversity will serve them well next season with the returning players and the three freshmen.
 

hungan1 said:
The team is struggling this year with Reggie Lynch not in the line up and the players that are out due to injury.

They are playing hard even in the games they lost. They never give up. This adversity will serve them well next season with the returning players and the three freshmen.
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I would say that is the case in some of the games. In others, they appeared that they would rather be watching Downtown Abbey than playing a Big Ten basketball game.
 

GophersInIowa said:
I would say that is the case in some of the games. In others, they appeared that they would rather be watching Downtown Abbey than playing a Big Ten basketball game.
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"The story of some inner city nuns who kick a$$"
 

GophersInIowa said:
I would say that is the case in some of the games. In others, they appeared that they would rather be watching Downtown Abbey than playing a Big Ten basketball game.
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That is EASY to say from the sidelines OR from your armchair.

Coffey didn't have to come back as soon as he did.

McBreyer could easily get away with taking a couple games off.

Who knows, really, who else is ailing or playing in pain???


But far too many fans, sitting comfortably in their armchairs, seem to treat these players like robots that should never get tired or fatigued or play at less than 100%.
 

hungan1 said:
They are playing hard even in the games they lost. They never give up.
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That's been the case the past two games.

But nobody with a straight face could praise our effort against Northwestern, Purdue, Ohio State etc.
 

Zeppelin Gopher said:
That's been the case the past two games.

But nobody with a straight face could praise our effort against Northwestern, Purdue, Ohio State etc.
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You mean the 4 out of 5 games on the road in 11 days stretch, just days after learning 2 of our remaining Top 6 players weren't going to be able to play???

It's tough when you have a full lineup of healthy players to win more than 3 road games and when you do win road games, its usually against the likes of the bottom 1/3rd of the conference. So, this would NOT include the likes of 2nd place OSU, 5th place NW and maybe not even 9th place Maryland, esp when that Maryland team has the 6th best RPI rating among B1G teams, and then its also hard to be the #3 ranked team in the country, even at home.

NOW... take out 2 of the remaining 5 players among the Top 6 on the roster, oh and count another as being hobbled, and losing in blowouts to Purdue, even at home, 2nd place OSU & 5th place NW are far more likely, ESPECIALLY when you cram all of those games into an 11 day period with only 1 of them being at home.




So no... maybe I won't "praise" their effort against those 3 teams you listed, but I sure in the he11 ain't going to rip on them either. And unless I'm injured and playing in the worst pain of the bunch, and still playing harder then them, I couldn't know how hard it has been for them. And neither can you armchair QBs.
 

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