3 Big Issues +1

Honestly, I don't give a **** if we win a Conf title or finish 8th in the conf, because honestly all that matters is how we perform in the NCAA tourney.

If IW figures out how to run the point, and if Curry progresses, and if the team stays healthy, can we win 4-6 games in the NCAA tourney?

Free throws? **** that, if we can't improve on that then none of this might matter? But if we shore up everything else, even free throws might not be able to stop us. SO, can we shore up everything else? Murphy is obviously going to get a ton of attention from the defense, the question is whether the rest of the team can respond and take advantage??? This is where Coffey could shine and role players will be needed to take turns having good games.


What are our biggest negatives, and can those negatives be overcome? Can we make a 4-6 game run in March???
 

Honestly, I don't give a **** if we win a Conf title or finish 8th in the conf, because honestly all that matters is how we perform in the NCAA tourney.

If IW figures out how to run the point, and if Curry progresses, and if the team stays healthy, can we win 4-6 games in the NCAA tourney?

Free throws? **** that, if we can't improve on that then none of this might matter? But if we shore up everything else, even free throws might not be able to stop us. SO, can we shore up everything else? Murphy is obviously going to get a ton of attention from the defense, the question is whether the rest of the team can respond and take advantage??? This is where Coffey could shine and role players will be needed to take turns having good games.


What are our biggest negatives, and can those negatives be overcome? Can we make a 4-6 game run in March???

Players and coaches and boosters care. When your winning your conference your packing fans in and getting high donations, national attention and so on. Plus, finishing 8th is pretty terrible and in danger of not making the tourney.
 

You nailed the 3 big concerns from tonight and going forward. Though you could add shooting in general to #1, though yes, our FT was embarrassing tonight.

Big Ten teams know Murphy well, and they are shutting him down. We obviously need much more from him and the last few games we're not coming close to getting it.

Very disappointing second half for many reasons. The euphoria of the wisconsin win seems so long ago.

Go Gophers!!

We struggle against teams that have lightening quick PG's. We saw it against Texas A & M, we saw it against Maryland. Amir can't stay in front of a guy like Cowan. Gabe can't stay in front of a guy like Cowan. IW might have the quickness, but he's so bad defensively that he's like a cardboard cut out.

Murph can't hang when we play a team with 1) two quality big men that 2) are taller than him. We saw it against Wisconsin, we saw it against Maryland. His limited offensive game isn't worth much against that type of length/athleticism & he's not able to grab every rebound against those kinds of guys.

The good news is we don't play many teams with PG's as quick as Cowan, or a pair of bigs like Smith/Fernando.
 

We struggle against teams that have lightening quick PG's. We saw it against Texas A & M, we saw it against Maryland. Amir can't stay in front of a guy like Cowan. Gabe can't stay in front of a guy like Cowan. IW might have the quickness, but he's so bad defensively that he's like a cardboard cut out.

Murph can't hang when we play a team with 1) two quality big men that 2) are taller than him. We saw it against Wisconsin, we saw it against Maryland. His limited offensive game isn't worth much against that type of length/athleticism & he's not able to grab every rebound against those kinds of guys.

The good news is we don't play many teams with PG's as quick as Cowan, or a pair of bigs like Smith/Fernando.

Amir is our only hope for guarding a player like Cowan and if he was not quite quick enough, then the game was essentially over. It seemed to me on Tuesday that the game was lost early in the second half if the Gopher defense could not do something to slow down Cowan and Maryland.

They scored on almost every possession for a while, and I was screaming at the TV for a zone or at least doubling Cowan to get the ball out of his hands. I am not sure that Coffey was guarding Cowan on most possessions either, as he was our only man to man option.

I know we all blame the Maryland zone for ending he game, but I think our inability to stifle, or even slow down Maryland like we stifled a slower, punchlless non-athletic team like Wisconsin did us in. Coffey and the Dupree banked in 3 held if off, but the lack of D ended the game.

It all starts with defense, and this loss reminds me a lot of the loss to Miami last year before the wheels fell off completely.

Murphy is bothered by taller, athletic defenders, but he does not get the calls and takes an enormous amount of illegal contact after sealing off defenders and rising to the rim to finish, with no calls. The ball does not just move off to the side or fall way short, without a clear block, if Murphy is not getting hacked and grabbed. Officials make the assumption of contact all the time, yet the screw Murphy all the time.
 




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