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

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UpAndUnder43 said:
If I never hear Caron Butler announce another game, it will be too soon.
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Resorted to the mute option.
Totally amazed we pulled it out. Glad to see Coffey redeem himself - not ready for prime time at the point. Closing image of Oturu's brutal free throws wont help me sleep...
 

Some observations:

1. Lots of Gophers seemed to slipping on the floor, many weird TO's tonight
2. Coffey and Murphy played aggressively on O in the final 4 and it won them the game
3. That redirection under the defensive basket by Oturu also won them the game
4. GH posters need to chill out with the in game prediction stuff, a complete joke
5. The game is never over until it's over
6. Minnesota sports will always have to overcome the odds, you're not cursed, you were born into the wrong sports fandom
7. This team needs reliable PG play... I'm looking at you IW (I know it's in there somewhere)
8. 3-0... some of you need to relax

GHF
 

stocker08 said:
I'd say that the poster calling a game over that is tied with five minutes remaining is the one that needs to settle down.
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It's almost always tongue in cheek. Sorry it upsets you so much.
 

UpAndUnder43 said:
Agreed on Curry but Stockman gives OK minutes. Better than I expected. And better than BK or Gaston
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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.
 

We just can’t make it easy on ourselves. Twice this year already we could’ve buried a P5 team and we let them stick around. It seems to me like the same problems that have plagued Pitino teams in the past (stagnant stretches on offense, poor shot selection, bad free throw shooting, etc.) are back again. Really need a PG to emerge because I don’t think Coffey is it.

That being said this team has a lot of talent and it’s a credit for our guys to not get down once we blew the lead. Gabe is a stud and we have a lotta nice pieces. Hopefully we can find a way to put a full 40 minutes together.
 


Frank Grimey Grimes said:
Sloppy sloppy game for us. But to have 20+ turnovers and still win, that is impressive.(Or really sad, i'm not sure). Either way, a win is a win. I am really excited to see this team when Curry is back, having that extra depth will be huge when Murphy and Outru are both in foul trouble.
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As excited as I am to get Curry back (especially given Murph's propensity to commit stupid fouls), our guard play is our Achilles heal right now. This game was probably a wake up call for my expectations for this team.
 


IMO, IW should start at PG going forward, but I'm not sure how you pull Gabe, McBreyer or Coffey out....
 

Coffee really struggled tonight. A win is a win, but he absolutely needs to play better for us to have a chance against Washington in a few days.
 



Frank Grimey Grimes said:
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.
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I thought that Washington got the offense moving and drawing fouls in a productive way. Coffey just couldnt handle the role against this team.
 

Lot of young guys on a neutral court against a P5 team. First game away from home as a gopher for Omersa, Stull, Oturu, Kalscheur and Stockman (I know two of them have played and traveled with other teams). A&M has some players with experience. Fouls were the story of the game (both teams) but the Gophers won. They’ll get better. And I expect them to leave Canada 5-0
 

howeda7 said:
It's almost always tongue in cheek. Sorry it upsets you so much.
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I just find it funny that you need to post it to make yourself feel better in case they do in fact lose. Maybe so that you can come and say "see? I knew they were going to lose." Whatever makes you feel better. It's mostly sad and pathetic.
 

Final thought: I think we need to temper our expectations for Curry. He hasn’t played since March 2017. Not saying he won’t be helpful but it takes time. 21-22 months, maybe more? I know he was practicing and I do think he’ll be better this year than Omersa is, but he isn’t necessarily a savior.
 



stocker08 said:
I just find it funny that you need to post it to make yourself feel better in case they do in fact lose. Maybe so that you can come and say "see? I knew they were going to lose." Whatever makes you feel better. It's mostly sad and pathetic.
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Find one time I've ever said that. Chill out.
 

We had difficulties rebounding out of the zone. I thought this may be a tough game, with A+M playing a good Gonzaga team out west a few days ago. Overall I’m glad they pushed us.
 

WindyCityGopher said:
Some of the worst shots are being taken by our upperclassmen. Have to have more from them.
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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.
 

Moonlight said:
I thought that Washington got the offense moving and drawing fouls in a productive way. Coffey just couldnt handle the role against this team.
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True, he had a couple of perfect alley-oop passes that our guys could not finish. I'd like to see us start IW, Dupree, Coffey, Murph and Oturu against Santa Clara and see how it goes. I know Gabe has been fantastic, but we need a different look...I strongly fear we will be exposed if we roll into conference play without a true PG.
 

Frank Grimey Grimes said:
True, he had a couple of perfect alley-oop passes that our guys could not finish. I'd like to see us start IW, Dupree, Coffey, Murph and Oturu against Santa Clara and see how it goes. I know Gabe has been fantastic, but we need a different look...I strongly fear we will be exposed if we roll into conference play without a true PG.
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That's probably the best line-up. So unfair to Gabe though
 

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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howeda7 said:
That's probably the best line-up. So unfair to Gabe though
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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...
 

Frank Grimey Grimes said:
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...
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I’m ok with having some leadership on our second team
 

Coffey at the point is painful to watch. He has zero handle. Just a brutal game all around. Got the win but that was not impressive at all.
 

Love how the team kept their heads, stayed calm, got tough on defense and the boards, and moved the ball well on offense late to pull this one out. They could've folded like a cheap tent, but they didn't. This'll be a good game to study for both positives and negatives. There was definitely a false sense of security at halftime, leading the game even with all the turnovers. It's almost good they gave up the lead, if only to demonstrate that, no, you can't expect to win games being so careless with the ball.
 

howeda7 said:
Lighten up. It's a game thread. We're Gopher fans. If we can't be fatalistic, what's the point?
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Because you do it every game, multiple times a game. It’s stupid.


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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.
 
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Frank Grimey Grimes said:
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...
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No. He needs to be on the floor. I hope we don’t have to start IW. He just makes some stupid decisions.

I really wish Carr was eligible.


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- Stockman is a big upgrade from Konate last year. Defends a little better (alters shots a little more too with height) and will finish his buckets when open.

- Brock Stull sharpshooter off bench? I love it. That head/pump fake before nailing the top of the arc three was niiiiice.

- Overall, feels like the #Gophers will be much more of a threat from beyond the arc this year. That will pay dividends. McBrayer, Washington, Coffey, Stull, Kalscheur, Hurt, and even Murphy are all nice threats. Last year, they had 6 players in the 30% range and one lower volume player, Hurt, over 40% (0.7 attempts per game). Looking at some of the top teams from last year, it seems like the trend was to have at least a couple of high-volume 3pt shooters over 40%. I think Kalscheur, McBrayer, and Stull can crack 40% with multiple attempts per game. Maybe Washington or Coffey could surprise and be one of them.
 
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Coffey didn’t have his best night. But he is a great player. It just seems he would be better suited as the two guard with Washington at the point. We really are at one true point guard right now. Who knows though maybe Coffey will come back and blow us out of the water at point against Santa Clara and Washington. But last night (even though he is frustrating to watch at times) the offense seemed to flow better with Washington at point.
 

XMan said:
Coffey didn’t have his best night. But he is a great player. It just seems he would be better suited as the two guard with Washington at the point. We really are at one true point guard right now. Who knows though maybe Coffey will come back and blow us out of the water at point against Santa Clara and Washington. But last night (even though he is frustrating to watch at times) the offense seemed to flow better with Washington at point.
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Coffey seemed really off last night. He isn't a great ball handler but he has seemed much better then what he showed in this game. Love how this team looks to push the ball up court and in general is very unselfish. Obviously need to clean up the turnovers although they did do a better job of protecting the ball in the second half as they had 16 turnovers in the first half and just 4 in the second. Strangely we built up the big lead with all the turnovers and had to fight back in the second half.

Free throw shooting was bad last night. Wasn't great in first two games but has to be much better then it was last night if this team wants to win close games against good teams. 56% won't get it done.

The freshman have some growing up to do as expected but the potential of this trio is really exciting. Kalscheur played really well early but vanished some in the second half. Omersa is going to make some exciting plays and he is going to make some real head scratchers but he is fun to watch. Oteru is also going to be very good once he really adjusts to the college game.

Like a lot of others I am really impressed with Matz through 3 games. He isn't going to be confused with a star player but he as given the team some really good minutes off the bench. Love that this team has a number of guys that can hit 3s as well. Tough to defend teams with multiple options outside the arc.

This team is going to have some ups and downs but if the lineup can stay in tact and Curry can come back healthy the potential is there for a really solid season. If they can play a little more under control I really like the style of play they are using. Fun basketball to watch.
 

I see nothing wrong with Kalscheur coming off the bench. Coffey is a negative at the point and really neuters his skillset. If Coffey can’t contribute in the half court at PG, then you gotta put Washington in there and let Coffey take one of the wing positions. Having Kalsheur off the bench isn’t a bad thing and it’s not like he won’t start consistently next year when McBrayer graduates...
 

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