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


The new floor, woof. My retinas. Hopefully I will get used to it.
Theoretically, its like a weathered barn grey. Get it? a Barn floor.
It's ok in person, but concerned its going to be hard to look at on TV.
Worse is the scoreboard stats with unreadable numbers. I'm glad that they're trying to get more info on it (assists and rebounds) but the numeral style is weird.
 

How's Brock and Matz looking?

Matz is better than I expected. Hugely fortunate that he was not able to complete his grad transfer to Cal. He will give us good minutes. He has offensive skills and you can’t teach 7’. On defense, stronger guys will easily back him down, but he doesn’t look like a complete bust defensively to me.

Stull seems a bit hesitant at times. He doesn’t appear very quick or athletic. However, from what I saw tonight, he looks to be a good passer (a number of assists), and a pretty smart player. Reputation as a good shooter, and you can’t have too many of those.


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Matz is better than I expected. Hugely fortunate that he was not able to complete his grad transfer to Cal. He will give us good minutes. He has offensive skills and you can’t teach 7’. On defense, stronger guys will easily back him down, but he doesn’t look like a complete bust defensively to me.

Stull seems a bit hesitant at times. He doesn’t appear very quick or athletic. However, from what I saw tonight, he looks to be a good passer (a number of assists), and a pretty smart player. Reputation as a good shooter, and you can’t have too many of those.


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Brock had 2 good threes in the last 10 minutes of the game when we forced his defender to block the drive giving him a wide open dish


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A few thoughts on the players:
Stockman can rebound, defend and is super tall. Definitely a helpful bench piece.

Gabe really impressed me. I love his game.

Oturu is a defensive stopper. Alters or blocks a lot of shots. Will be a huge boost. Can fill Reggie’s shoes and likely won’t get kicked off the team and out of school.

Stull can hoop. Understands the game. I like him.

Omersa is a freak athlete. Looks lost on defense at times but he’ll get the crowd out of their seats on more than a couple occasions. Looks taller than his listed height when he stands by Matz, Curry and Oturu

IW looks more confident, under control and his shot looks much better.

Returning guys all looked good.

A few thoughts on the game:
I LOVE the pace they ran at. Ball movement!!! Pushed it up the court. Not a ton of dribbling and standing. Transitions 3s, penetrate and dish, ran a bunch of nice high-lows with the freshman bigs.

Defensively they looked more organized. I realize UMD isn’t good but the principles were better.

10 guys tonight that can play. Curry and Carr would make 12. 12 guys I don’t hate seeing on the court would be amazing.
 


Theoretically, its like a weathered barn grey. Get it? a Barn floor.
It's ok in person, but concerned its going to be hard to look at on TV.
Worse is the scoreboard stats with unreadable numbers. I'm glad that they're trying to get more info on it (assists and rebounds) but the numeral style is weird.

Other pictures I've seen were OK. On TV it looked like they were playing on snow bank with lines.
 

A few thoughts on the players:
Stockman can rebound, defend and is super tall. Definitely a helpful bench piece.

Gabe really impressed me. I love his game.

Oturu is a defensive stopper. Alters or blocks a lot of shots. Will be a huge boost. Can fill Reggie’s shoes and likely won’t get kicked off the team and out of school.

Stull can hoop. Understands the game. I like him.

Omersa is a freak athlete. Looks lost on defense at times but he’ll get the crowd out of their seats on more than a couple occasions. Looks taller than his listed height when he stands by Matz, Curry and Oturu

IW looks more confident, under control and his shot looks much better.

Returning guys all looked good.

A few thoughts on the game:
I LOVE the pace they ran at. Ball movement!!! Pushed it up the court. Not a ton of dribbling and standing. Transitions 3s, penetrate and dish, ran a bunch of nice high-lows with the freshman bigs.

Defensively they looked more organized. I realize UMD isn’t good but the principles were better.

10 guys tonight that can play. Curry and Carr would make 12. 12 guys I don’t hate seeing on the court would be amazing.

Totally agree about the 10 players. They all belong on the court. It. Seems like a long time ago since we could say that. Add Carr soon and we would have serious depth. Washington was great tonight.


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Thanks for the recaps guys. Often these games will actually be shown on BTN a day or two after they are played, but I checked the listing and don't see it yet. Annoyingly, the replay of the Indiana exhibition game will be shown today. Indiana gets a disproportionate amount of their minor games played on BTN.
 

As said above, the best thing about last night's game is that I didnt feel alarmed. I remember last year seeing how we were thin at certain positions. And first time in many years that I didnt that someone who was on the floor should not be.
Thats the only real take away for me - players looked like players, and I liked what I saw of our new guys. Cautiously optimistic.
 



A few thoughts on the players:
Stockman can rebound, defend and is super tall. Definitely a helpful bench piece.

Gabe really impressed me. I love his game.

Oturu is a defensive stopper. Alters or blocks a lot of shots. Will be a huge boost. Can fill Reggie’s shoes and likely won’t get kicked off the team and out of school.

Stull can hoop. Understands the game. I like him.

Omersa is a freak athlete. Looks lost on defense at times but he’ll get the crowd out of their seats on more than a couple occasions. Looks taller than his listed height when he stands by Matz, Curry and Oturu

IW looks more confident, under control and his shot looks much better.

Returning guys all looked good.

A few thoughts on the game:
I LOVE the pace they ran at. Ball movement!!! Pushed it up the court. Not a ton of dribbling and standing. Transitions 3s, penetrate and dish, ran a bunch of nice high-lows with the freshman bigs.

Defensively they looked more organized. I realize UMD isn’t good but the principles were better.

10 guys tonight that can play. Curry and Carr would make 12. 12 guys I don’t hate seeing on the court would be amazing.

There is your team identity! It has taken awhile for Pitino to get the players and settle in on how he wants them to play (many would say too long, but it was an on the job learning process). This type of play will be exciting to watch and will do very well in recruiting top level players. Most elite players want to play in a system that is fast paced and gives them freedom on the offensive side, they just have to commit to doing the work on defense.
 

We are Eric Curry away from being a good, deep team. Murphy, Daniel, Matz are all ready to play against B1G competition. I think Jarvis is going to be a good player, but it'll take time. Hopefully the extra playing time with Eric being out will help him get to where he needs to be defensively.

I really like IW off the bench with the 2nd unit. I'm sure he'll get plenty of time with the starters as well, but if Carr doesn't get to play, I'm all for Coffey starting at the 1.
 

Also couldn't agree more with Pitino's assessment of Gabe. He does NOT look like a freshman out there. Smart player, good defender. It's the first time I've seen him play and I loved his ability to get to the rim (I realize they're playing Little Sisters of the Poor).
 

We are Eric Curry away from being a good, deep team. Murphy, Daniel, Matz are all ready to play against B1G competition. I think Jarvis is going to be a good player, but it'll take time. Hopefully the extra playing time with Eric being out will help him get to where he needs to be defensively.

I really like IW off the bench with the 2nd unit. I'm sure he'll get plenty of time with the starters as well, but if Carr doesn't get to play, I'm all for Coffey starting at the 1.

I strongly agree with these comments. Jarvis is lost defensively at times but he is an amazing athlete so that makes up for it a bit. If he can get better and Curry can get healthy...we have a lot of depth in the front court.

IW is relentless when attacking. Just keeps going at people. Its sometimes the wrong decision but he didn't seem to force as much last night and threw a couple really nice passes.
 



I strongly agree with these comments. Jarvis is lost defensively at times but he is an amazing athlete so that makes up for it a bit. If he can get better and Curry can get healthy...we have a lot of depth in the front court.

IW is relentless when attacking. Just keeps going at people. Its sometimes the wrong decision but he didn't seem to force as much last night and threw a couple really nice passes.
There's a good chance we see IW blossom this year when he has more passing options. No point in pretending you're going to pass to the post when the post cant handle a pass...
 

There's a good chance we see IW blossom this year when he has more passing options. No point in pretending you're going to pass to the post when the post cant handle a pass...

I've been preaching this as well. He lost a lot of assists by hitting BK in the chest with a pass that couldn't be handled
 

Hard to gauge a lot from playing a D-II team, but I loved Kalscheur's play last night. No hesitation, he was aggressive and wasn't afraid to take his guy into the lane. I knew he could shoot and defend, but his handles were better than I expected. Played like a veteran. I'm stunned he wasn't pursued by more programs, but happy he's a Gopher.

Oturu was fantastic. He's got good footwork in the post. With his skill and ability to defend, Murphy should have a monster year since opponents won't be able to key on him. Matz also looked solid. No disrespect to Konate and Diedhiou, but the fact that Stockman can walk and chew gum at the same time on the floor already puts him ahead of those 2. He'll give depth off the bench, and he also has some serviceable post moves.

Loved the pace they played at, hope they stay healthy enough to do it all season. Once they got a defensive rebound, there was an immediate outlet and the ball was down the floor in a few seconds. Pitino finally has the depth to play the free, up-tempo style he's been looking for consistently. And that's without Carr and Curry. This team is easily 10 deep with guys who can play, curious to see how it all looks when it matters against Nebraska-Omaha.
 

Hard to gauge a lot from playing a D-II team, but I loved Kalscheur's play last night. No hesitation, he was aggressive and wasn't afraid to take his guy into the lane. I knew he could shoot and defend, but his handles were better than I expected. Played like a veteran. I'm stunned he wasn't pursued by more programs, but happy he's a Gopher.

Oturu was fantastic. He's got good footwork in the post. With his skill and ability to defend, Murphy should have a monster year since opponents won't be able to key on him. Matz also looked solid. No disrespect to Konate and Diedhiou, but the fact that Stockman can walk and chew gum at the same time on the floor already puts him ahead of those 2. He'll give depth off the bench, and he also has some serviceable post moves.

Loved the pace they played at, hope they stay healthy enough to do it all season. Once they got a defensive rebound, there was an immediate outlet and the ball was down the floor in a few seconds. Pitino finally has the depth to play the free, up-tempo style he's been looking for consistently. And that's without Carr and Curry. This team is easily 10 deep with guys who can play, curious to see how it all looks when it matters against Nebraska-Omaha.

Gabe is one of those players who is so smooth and efficient with his movement that we (or at least I) mistook it for a lack of athleticism/explosion/handles.

He is a really good player.
 

IW looks more confident, under control and his shot looks much better.

The main thing he had to work on over the summer was his shot. The initial results are promising. If he can maintain a True Shooing Percentage of 50% or better, he will be an integral core player to the team's success.
 




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