***OFFICIAL MICHIGAN STATE AT MINNESOTA IN-GAME THREAD!!!!***


He said there was zero reason to believe this team would even be ranked.

We weren't ranked on January 3rd. We weren't close to being ranked on January 3rd. At full strength less Curry, we'd have 7-9 B1G wins right now and playing for our tournament bid life tonight. Of course it's hard to measure, but it's clear that we had no bench and it was going to be our undoing. And even with increased playing time, those guys haven't gotten much better with the exception of IW.
 

Not really. We were on the bubble with everyone but Curry. Even with him, we're not a top 10 team.

Again, you said there was zero reason to believe they would even be ranked. I agree, 10th would be unlikely. Top 25? Absolutely possible.
 

Not really. We were on the bubble with everyone but Curry. Even with him, we're not a top 10 team.

There is no bubble on January 3
No one is on the bubble January 3
 

Again, you said there was zero reason to believe they would even be ranked. I agree, 10th would be unlikely. Top 25? Absolutely possible.

Possible. But unlikely as I already stated above. To be ranked we'd probably have to be 10-4 or better in the B1G and that's unlikely.
 


There is no bubble on January 3
No one is on the bubble January 3

Lunardi had us last 4 in or last 4 out. Of course there is, but I'm not interested in arguing about it.
 

Hurt has been a legit bright spot in this game, at least defensively. Bridges has been pretty well contained all game.
 

Possible. But unlikely as I already stated above. To be ranked we'd probably have to be 10-4 or better in the B1G and that's unlikely.

Pretty much the same team won 8 in a row last year. That gives me reason to believe they could be in that position.
 




Based on how we are being beat badly at home, who is better Purdue or MSU?
 

Based on how we are being beat badly at home, who is better Purdue or MSU?

I'd take Purdue. I am not overly impressed with MSU. They play sloppy and seem to go through stretches where they expect their talent alone to carry them. They may be more talented than Purdue but Purdue is better coached and more cohesive.
 

Pretty much the same team won 8 in a row last year. That gives me reason to believe they could be in that position.

We looked pretty good in a handful of those, but our run involved beating, what, 2 tournament teams? And a few games went down to the wire?

We’ve been consistently a 35-40 ranked KenPom team through that stretch last year and early this season. Nothing really convinces me that we’re 20 or more spots better than that at full strength. I don’t have a problem with thinking that rating is a bit off and we’re #20-25, but not much higher.
 

There are some very negative people who will continue to ignore how shorthanded this team is and rip my post but...

I'm about as happy as one can be with this team. The final score was not evident of the level of effort we showed tonight. After MSU's unreal start, We played hard on the defensive end and I thought we played well defensivley as a team.

On the offensive end, we didn't play great. Part of that is due to the mismatchtes we have but we also missed a lot of shots. Could have been a lot closer if Mason was making his shots. Not blaming him, but he is our main volume scorer and it is tough when he is not carrying us.

Can't fault the effort and nothing in this game changes my opinion that we will be a good team next year assuming we don't get devestated with injuries again.
 



We looked pretty good in a handful of those, but our run involved beating, what, 2 tournament teams? And a few games went down to the wire?

We’ve been consistently a 35-40 ranked KenPom team through that stretch last year and early this season. Nothing really convinces me that we’re 20 or more spots better than that at full strength. I don’t have a problem with thinking that eating is a bit off and we’re 20-25, but not much higher.

Yeah. @Ill, @Rutgers, Iowa, IU, Michigan, @MD, PSU, Neb. IU was a buzzer beater and Iowa and Michigan OT. It was a fun streak, but we didn't beat anyone the caliber of this year's MSU, Purdue or even OSU.
 



Dear God how do we get out from under this clown dakich or dipsh*t or whatever his name is. 90% of the game talking about MSU and anything and everything not related to this game. I get this is a lopsided game but Jesus make an effort.
 

2-10 against the spread last 12. The line on this game was 10. Seriously, how is that possible?
 

Not really. We were on the bubble with everyone but Curry. Even with him, we're not a top 10 team.
Nah this was a team even without Curry that would've had a chance to get to the sweet 16. If you have Lynch, Coffey, and McBrayer healthy to this point you would've beat Indiana twice, Northwestern twice, Maryland, Iowa, and Nebraska for sure and I'd give them a decent chance to beat Ohio State too. Watching the team beat Illinois you could see the way this team could really turn it on when they needed to. This is a season of what could've and should've been.
 

Nah this was a team even without Curry that would've had a chance to get to the sweet 16. If you have Lynch, Coffey, and McBrayer healthy to this point you would've beat Indiana twice, Northwestern twice, Maryland, Iowa, and Nebraska for sure and I'd give them a decent chance to beat Ohio State too. Watching the team beat Illinois you could see the way this team could really turn it on when they needed to. This is a season of what could've and should've been.

It's funny how people view the world differently. I could see us losing any of those games. To think we'd have won them all makes me LMAO.

Did you see this team when they had all those players? Completely overrated was what all I saw.
 

Nah this was a team even without Curry that would've had a chance to get to the sweet 16. If you have Lynch, Coffey, and McBrayer healthy to this point you would've beat Indiana twice, Northwestern twice, Maryland, Iowa, and Nebraska for sure and I'd give them a decent chance to beat Ohio State too. Watching the team beat Illinois you could see the way this team could really turn it on when they needed to. This is a season of what could've and should've been.

They'd have 5 more wins or so. But it's hard to argue that Lynch alone flips an 18 point game against OSU, or both of them make up 23 points at NW, etc. They'd be 8-7 or 9-6 right now. Far from a lock for the NCAAs, the hopes which would have just taken a massive and possibly fatal blow tonight.
 

2-10 against the spread last 12. The line on this game was 10. Seriously, how is that possible?

It's been easy money betting against the Gophers last few weeks. As long at McBrayer and Coffey not playing, they might not lose under double digits the rest of the way.
 

There are some very negative people who will continue to ignore how shorthanded this team is and rip my post but...

I'm about as happy as one can be with this team. The final score was not evident of the level of effort we showed tonight. After MSU's unreal start, We played hard on the defensive end and I thought we played well defensivley as a team.

On the offensive end, we didn't play great. Part of that is due to the mismatchtes we have but we also missed a lot of shots. Could have been a lot closer if Mason was making his shots. Not blaming him, but he is our main volume scorer and it is tough when he is not carrying us.

Can't fault the effort and nothing in this game changes my opinion that we will be a good team next year assuming we don't get devestated with injuries again.

I thought the defensive effort was better for sure. Mike guarded Bridges much of the time and played good D with his feet, which I'm not used to seeing from this team.
 

Watching the team beat Illinois you could see the way this team could really turn it on when they needed to.
So you are basing this team's potential for greatness off of beating the opponent that may tie for last place in the conference?
 

So you are basing this team's potential for greatness off of beating the opponent that may tie for last place in the conference?

Lol on the $ with that one.

In that game, Illinois looked like a 3rd grade team for the first 5 or 6 minutes while we looked pretty good. Illinois then gradually outplayed us for the majority of the remaining 35 minutes on our home court. At the time a perfectly fine victory where we fumbled around a bit for the finals 30 minutes, but a very strange example.
 

So the Purdue loss was the second biggest margin of defeat in the history of Williams Arena at 34 points. Tonight the Gophers got beat by 30 which I would assume is a safe bet for a top 5 biggest margin of defeat in the Barn. It's very likely that we've experienced two of the biggest five blowout losses in the history of Williams Arena this season. That has occurred despite the presence of a returning All B1G first team point guard in Senior Nate Mason and a power forward that is one of the more difficult match ups in the conference and a likely All B1G (not first team due to record) Junior in Jordan Murphy. Just the presence of those two alone should be enough to avoid this type of futility. On a talent level, I'd rather have what Pitino had tonight than what he had in his horrific year 3 where they were not blown out to this degree. Joey King for his many faults, would at least take a charge on occasion. When was the last time you saw someone on this team do that? When was the last time you saw someone make a spectacular effort for a loose ball?

Once again, this team came out and let the opposition get way too comfortable on its home floor. Even before the Lynch suspension, how many games at the Barn started with a bunch of wide open looks for the opposition? Some of the non-conference cupcakes were getting very comfortable shooting in the Barn and when you let MSU just get wide open 3's they're going to hit a large percentage of them.

How about the Gophers on offense? When you make the decision to start Michael Hurt and Bakary Konate, you better insist on ball and player movement EVERY possession. Instead the Gophers passed the ball around the perimeter and Nate, Isaiah, or Jordan would end up taking a terrible forced shot as the shot clock was expiring. I can't really blame the players for those terrible shots (though Nate Mason's terrible shot selection in transition is another matter) as they weren't running anything to get someone a look.

Both Fitzgerald and Hurt looked badly out of place tonight. Obviously the same can be said of Bakary and Gas, but they are gone after this year. If Pitino returns, he has some difficult conversations/decisions ahead of him with both of those guys.

The only positive of the night was Isaiah Washington continuing to flash his potential. On the negative side, he was one of the major offenders with the lax defense to start the game and he also showed very little effort defensively at the end of the game.
 

This full team could really score, but couldn’t string together stops if they needed it. My hope is the young guys buy into some sort of defensive scheme next year. This team is the worst defensively we’ve had in years.
 

Vegas and everyone is out of their mind. I'm a huge gopher fan but have been cashing in last 11 games. My buddy is in Vegas now and I told him tonight Mich. State was his bailout play of the night. Not to mention Mich. State was only giving Minn 3 second half. Easiest money out there these days. Vegas usually tight with their lines but not even close with many of these games.
 

If Pitino returns, I hope Coyle demands that he make changes to the staff and go get a defensive guru like coach Mo.
 

Prove me wrong...if we had our four missing guys active and healthy...we'd be ahead at the half. I'm very confident the mood on the board would be totally different. It would definitely be two Top 10 teams in the country battling.

You are exactly right 60s Guy. We had an really excellent team, now we have a really bad one. They tried hard. Hurt, Konate and Gaston are not Big Ten players and didn't figure to play much of a role- now they play big minutes.
 




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