***OFFICIAL TEXAS A&M VS MINNESOTA IN GAME THREAD***


Find one time I've ever said that. Chill out.
It's just odd. What are you trying to accomplish? If it's trying to sound like the basketball board ahole.....mission accomplished I guess?

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Absolutely, he had some key moments in this game. But even he got into foul trouble. I really don't trust Omersa, so having Curry back will be a breath of fresh air hopefully.

My biggest concern after this game is Coffey playing the point going forward. He was sloppier than usual, but other teams are going to try and exploit him when he is handling the ball. Washington needs to find his place on this team, I feel like he hasn't been bad when he is on the court... something just isn't clicking just yet. The Santa Clara game will be a good game to work out some issues against a bad opponent.
Washington has all the skills to be a very good point guard. Unfortunately, he is undisciplined, impatient and lacking intelligence regarding his role. He tends to want to do too much, too quickly. He's like a Jr High kid making out with a girl behind the shed. [emoji41]
 

Agreed. Pitino has some tough decisions ahead. I actually think that Mcbrayer should be the 6th man if IW starts, but he is a Senior and a captain. We will see...

Totally agree with that. I think Kalscheur is a better overall player than McBrayer already. Plus McBrayer's game is better suited for the sixth man role, because he's a little more trigger-happy. The team two years ago with Springs starting and a healthy McBrayer and Curry coming off the bench was ideal. Maybe we can eventually get to that point this year.
 


Washington has all the skills to be a very good point guard. Unfortunately, he is undisciplined, impatient and lacking intelligence regarding his role. He tends to want to do too much, too quickly. He's like a Jr High kid making out with a girl behind the shed. [emoji41]
I somewhat disagree. Washington is a pretty good floor general, which requires some intelligence. He’s just not a good shooter. That really hurts, especially since our big men, Murphy and Oturu, have no range. I think we gotta see Washington in the starting lineup against Santa Clara. Maybe IW will be more inspired to play D if he knows he can secure a spot in the starting lineup
 

My random thoughts:

1. Really ugly game.
2. Refs called a ridiculous number of ticky-tac fouls.
3. Sloppypasses, telegraphed passes, poor Coffey dribbling, and I’ll-advised playground alley-oop attempts led to most of the turnovers. 4. We missed a ton of free throws.
5. How in the heck did we win this game?
6. I thought Stull had nice minutes and has a calming effect on the team. I hope he gets more minutes.
7. Coffey is OK as half-court point-forward, but bringing the ball up against competent pressure will be a disaster. Sorry Richard, your son is not a point guard.
8. Omersa is often lost on the court, but also fun to watch. There will be LOTS of growing pains with him.
9. Great to have Gabe, Stull, Coffey, Dupree all as good 3-pt shooters.
10. Stockman better than most predicted.
11. Murphy still commits dumb fouls. Hurts team because we need his offense.
12. This is a fun team to watch. Go Gophers!


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1. yes

2. yes

3. Coffey was flat out awful playing the point. I would rather see McBrayer. At least McBrayer understands what he can't do. Of course, IW showed that he is the only true point.

4. Ugh...no kidding. That's part of what allowed them to come all the way back..

5. 3 and D. We took a fair number of 3s and made a decent percentage. Their 3 point shooting was poor. Our defense was actually pretty good for most of the game.

6. Agreed. In fact, I'd rather see him play the point over Coffey as well.

7. Indeed. He is also a finisher by nature so playing him so many minutes as a point reduces the number of situations that play to his strengths and increases the situations that play to his weaknesses.

8. I like him. I thought he gave some decent defensive minutes and was able to compensate at least on that end when Murphy was on the bench. He definitely has the quickness and athleticism for this level. If he's a fast learner he could be a pretty significant contributor by January.

9. Yes.

10. He's about what I expected for a little used European big man coming from an elite program. On the offensive end, decent shooting skills and fundamentals. On the defensive end, a bit on the physically weak side. He can catch and secure the ball which is a massive improvement over Bakary.

11. Yes and Omersa had four fouls in 13 minutes. We need to pray that Curry returns healthy before January.

12. I didn't see the early part of the game where they got out to a big lead so most of what I saw was them defending their lead. A win is a win, but I'd say watching last night's game was a bit more frustrating than fun.
 

The crazy thing about last nights game was the extent to which we managed to capitalize on their turnovers.
We turned the ball over more, but beat them on points scored off turnovers.

And both teams had the same number of fouls, but we outscored them from the line despite a poor made percentage by sheer number of opportunities.

Murphy misses his double double by being benched early, but Oturu matched his total of 7. Team were almost identical on rebounds.
Murph is going to have to play smarter early, knowing that every team he faces now is going to have a game plan of getting him into foul trouble and on the bench.

Coffey can play point guard but he needs to be closely supervised by IW or Dupree.
 

I somewhat disagree. Washington is a pretty good floor general, which requires some intelligence. He’s just not a good shooter. That really hurts, especially since our big men, Murphy and Oturu, have no range. I think we gotta see Washington in the starting lineup against Santa Clara. Maybe IW will be more inspired to play D if he knows he can secure a spot in the starting lineup

IW plays much better when he's paired with scorers. Like it or not, his approach is to eastablish that he can hit the outside shot (which he did early) and then show he can drive the lane (which no one else was having real success with last night) and then set up the scorers.
He was important last night even if not likable.
 



I think/hope it will click with IW one day. Be a point guard first. If he took this approach he would be gold! He love of the 3 and that stupid jelly crap is frustrating to watch. Drive and dish is what he should focus on.
 

Washington has all the skills to be a very good point guard. Unfortunately, he is undisciplined, impatient and lacking intelligence regarding his role. He tends to want to do too much, too quickly. He's like a Jr High kid making out with a girl behind the shed. [emoji41]

Mennosota u mean like how coffey played tonight? Anyone who has watched coffey play knew this would PG will not work. He can’t dribble not strong with the ball. I been saying this ever since it was brought up by Richard coffey. Plus it takes away from Coffey biggest strength which is getting out running and receiving a pass for a layup. I have never seen Washington be this sloppy like what coffey was doing last night. Sure he will take a few bad shots but he get so more easy layups for others. Washington needs to run the point. Yes coffey Mcbrayer can fill for short stints
 

IW plays much better when he's paired with scorers. Like it or not, his approach is to eastablish that he can hit the outside shot (which he did early) and then show he can drive the lane (which no one else was having real success with last night) and then set up the scorers.
He was important last night even if not likable.


I made this point last night and will agree with you because you made it better than I did. People want him to pass all the time, which is great, but at one point he was on the court with Omersa, Hurt, Stockman and Coffey. Who should he be kicking the ball out to? A covered Coffey? He has to produce in those situations.

If you put him out there with Kalscheur, McBrayer, Murphy and Oturu (not starting, just as a lineup) he has 4 guys he can pass to and then he does.
 

My random thoughts:

1. Really ugly game.
2. Refs called a ridiculous number of ticky-tac fouls.
3. Sloppypasses, telegraphed passes, poor Coffey dribbling, and I’ll-advised playground alley-oop attempts led to most of the turnovers. 4. We missed a ton of free throws.
5. How in the heck did we win this game?
6. I thought Stull had nice minutes and has a calming effect on the team. I hope he gets more minutes.
7. Coffey is OK as half-court point-forward, but bringing the ball up against competent pressure will be a disaster. Sorry Richard, your son is not a point guard.
8. Omersa is often lost on the court, but also fun to watch. There will be LOTS of growing pains with him.
9. Great to have Gabe, Stull, Coffey, Dupree all as good 3-pt shooters.
10. Stockman better than most predicted.
11. Murphy still commits dumb fouls. Hurts team because we need his offense.
12. This is a fun team to watch. Go Gophers!


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Great assessment!

1.yes
2. Yes but we needed to adjust better. Also, if refs were gonna call that, Pitino needed to put an extra shooter out there to open up the lane to drive with Amir and jelly.
3. I was screaming at the TV with all the TOs.
4. This should have cost us the game but it didnt.
5. again, no idea.
6. Stull is a nice player who can shoot. Hes a bit slow but he hit some clutch shots. He can not play point.
7. 100%. I think Pitino thought he'd have Carr so relying solely on Amir was not expected. However I trust Amir WAYYYY more than I trust jelly. I have zero confidence in jelly. When things get tight, he loses his mind. Hope that changes.
8. Omersa plays like a freshman. Wish he could redshirt, take a year to learn from Murph and then have him for his 5th year.
9. Gabe is soooooo valuable to this team. He is the most reliable player we have. You know exactly what you're going to get: great defense, ball movement, spacing, and a phone booth jumper.
10. Yes. Glad we have Matz. So refreshing to have a guy be able to catch a pass in the lane and finish at the rim.
11. Murph is still frustrating. He will play like a mad man then disappear on the court for minutes at a time. He still needs to do the effort plays to win: hedge ball screens, dive on loose balls. 2-3 times last night, murph could have dove on a loose ball. He didn't, TAM got the ball, and scored.
12. Fun? Yes. Frustrating? Yes.
 



I like Matz off the bench very undervalued for this spot
Stull such a smart player calming influence does everything right. More minutes
Get coffey back on the wing so he can finish in transition
We still won after all the turnovers that’s a good sign
Gabe,Daniel, Omersa if only Richard could recruit Minnesota kids ha
Defense better than last year. Love the coaching changes and new ideas. Saw some zone a few different sets on offense
We actually won a game feels like a first where we gave up a big lead and came back and won. We lost everyone last year like this.
 


I think/hope it will click with IW one day. Be a point guard first. If he took this approach he would be gold! He love of the 3 and that stupid jelly crap is frustrating to watch. Drive and dish is what he should focus on.

We weren’t watching the same game I guess. If you took your post and replaced “IW” with “Coffee” and “jelly” with “driving into the teeth of the defense”, I’d say we saw the same thing. How many empty trips were utterly avoidable... man.


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I was impressed with A&M's athleticism against Gonzaga and felt like they played them pretty tough in the first half (didn't watch the second half, but they ended up getting blown out) they just didn't shoot it well. I felt like they could give the Gophers some trouble, and part of them getting back in the game was them hitting some low percentage shots (for good shooters, much less what A&M had shown previously).

The good: This team was good enough to be up by 10 at halftime (same amount Gonzaga lead A&M by at home) while committing SIXTEEN turnovers and going 5-10 from the line. The response in crunch time on the defensive end was also a major positive. The Gophers were the victims of at least one horrific call late that game A&M two free throws, but I don't believe they allowed a made FG in like the last 3 minutes (ESPN doesn't have the play by play for me to check). How about Brock Stull's game? He hit a couple 3's including a big one in the second half that seemed to help push this game back to comfortable win territory (how nice would that have been? I didn't need this stress) and was really solid with his decision making. Matz Stockman also stepped up with a couple huge baskets in the second half when things started to get shaky (the first time).

The bad: Wow was there a lot of bad. I could be wrong, but I would guess Amir Coffey was like -15 in the on/off metrics at one point. When the lead got away from us in the first half and again when it went away for good in the second half, Amir was a key factor. Maybe Isaiah had to have a blow in the second half, but I didn't like removing him for Amir given his struggles in the game even though I realize he's the only other option. It's concerning to me how badly Amir struggled as the primary ball handler because A&M doesn't even really have the prototype pitbull get up in your chest PG to hound him. We needed Isaiah to handle the ball and Pitino is going to have to depend on Isaiah whether he want to or not. The turnovers are the biggest concern as I think Murphy will always be turnover prone, so we really need other guys to take care of the ball. The lack of a clutch factor on Gopher rosters seems to be a never ending issue. We've got out best players going to the line late, and they can't step up and knock down a couple of free throws? Meanwhile guys like Happ who can't shoot at all hit two clutch ones in the Barn or like tonight A&M's big guy goes 4-4 late. The other thing that is concerning is blowing huge leads. At some point, Pitino teams need to learn to put the game away early.

Edit forgot to add a couple things I really loved: The Gophers had one possession that ended with Jordan Murphy having the ball just outside the paint with about 5 seconds on the shot clock, he was kind of stuck without a shot but made a beautiful big to big pass to Matz for a layup as the clock expired. The second thing I loved was in the first half where Jarvis Omersa ripped the ball out of an A&M players hands. That was a physical, bordering on mean, play that we haven't seen much of since the days of Stamper and Puchtel.

You made a great post, appreciate your thoughts!

Just wanted to comment on the bold section. When they needed the FT's most, Murphy went 2/2 and Coffey went 3/4. I agree that missed FT's almost cost them the game, but they made the clutch attempts when they needed them most. I'm concerned about their foul shooting, but clutch FT's from their best players won them the game last night.

On a separate note, I agree with another poster who said that Coffey running the point removes from the best of his skill set. When IW feeds him in transition Coffey is most valuable. Interesting experiment with Coffey at PG that will likely benefit the team for spelling IW during the season, but I think we're all in agreement that there's only one PG on this team... love it or hate it
 

Texas A&M lost 4 starters. They are your typical young athletic team who cannot take good shots, shoot 3's, and have issues executing. They play good defense at times averaging 9 steals and 5 blcks per game. They can make incredible athletic plays at the rim.
3pt %=22%. Playing a zone is a no brainer. Running with them probably not the best idea. Playing big ten half court basketball would be the easy way to win.

The fact we had 20 turnovers to there 14 is telling. Our free throws have to improve.
Have to play IW at the point. Do not allow him to shoot 3's unless its a pass from inside back out.
Agree that posting Coffey should be a no brainer when they have a 6-2 guy on him.

Disappointed that with athletic guys like McBrayer and IW that they cannot average over one steal per game. We average 5 per game right now.

Santa Clara is a bad team.
Washington also struggles from 3 (31%):Nowell shooting 56% and backup Green shooting 39%, no one else is hitting. Crisp is struggling from deep.

Hope we use the zone a lot. Maybe box and one Nowell with Dupree? They average 7 blocks per game.
 

And worst turnovers.

I keep thinking, holy crap where would this team be without the surprising good play from Kalscheur?

Also, we shot around 40% from 3 tonight and still almost lost to a bad team. That is not a good indication of a lot of future success.

I disagree. Correcting turnovers is easier than a bad shooting team becoming a good shooting team.
 

I think/hope it will click with IW one day. Be a point guard first. If he took this approach he would be gold! He love of the 3 and that stupid jelly crap is frustrating to watch. Drive and dish is what he should focus on.

Agreed. He really isn't that far away. His decision making is much better than last year, you can tell he is listening to the coach, its just sometimes the old habits pop back up, but the progress he has made makes me very hopeful. I think the shooting thing is in his head now, he needs to just relax and get that out of his mind.
 

Agreed. He really isn't that far away. His decision making is much better than last year, you can tell he is listening to the coach, its just sometimes the old habits pop back up, but the progress he has made makes me very hopeful. I think the shooting thing is in his head now, he needs to just relax and get that out of his mind.

I feel like the only way for him to realize his potential and master the offense to sync with his skill set is...playing time. The structured game is such a steep learning curve for a street ball guy, but the dude continues to have terrific potential.
 

It's just odd. What are you trying to accomplish? If it's trying to sound like the basketball board ahole.....mission accomplished I guess?

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I'm not trying to accomplish anything, outside of a tongue in cheek reverse jinx.

What do any posts on a game thread accomplish? It's 10-15 people watching the game and venting /cheering. And a couple getting really upset about what others post apparently.

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I feel like the only way for him to realize his potential and master the offense to sync with his skill set is...playing time. The structured game is such a steep learning curve for a street ball guy, but the dude continues to have terrific potential.

I think I pretty much agree. Give IW the keys. Always hear point guards are born, not made. Coffey can spell him if they want. Based upon what we saw end of last year and beginming of this season, seems that it is best to give Washington these nonconf. games to hit his stride.
 

Washington is the only played on the team that can beat pressure with the dribble.
If other teams scout, they will pressure Coffey every time he runs point. He is so bad with his off hand and quickly gets out of control.
 

If IW can go just a little bit more Celtics Rondo and feed the other players, he would be amazing! Fact is he draws the defense with his drives and creates lots of easy opportunities for dunks/jumpers/threes.
 

If IW can go just a little bit more Celtics Rondo and feed the other players, he would be amazing! Fact is he draws the defense with his drives and creates lots of easy opportunities for dunks/jumpers/threes.

I've said it multiple times in this thread, but he does more of that when he has guys on the court with him who can play.

Surrounding him with Omera, Stockman, Hurt, etc is not going to help him want to pass.
 

I agree that IW needs to play the point. He needs to understand his role like Tum Tum did for Izzo at Mich St. He rarely shot the ball. IW can hit the 3 ball when it's part of the offense (inside-out). That will come when he settles into his role more. His ability to penetrate and dish when under control is very good. I'm sure that the coaches are all over this and the team will keep getting better. IW will be a very good player to lead this team by mid-season and for two more years. So many positives! Let's just hope for no injuries. It's gonna be a fun year. Really good years ahead for Gopher hoops.
 

im sure its been said on here. but dang did we stink at the free throw line. I guess except when it mattered late. but man we are going to lose some close games because of that
 




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