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


What was worse Louisville gagging vs. Duke or Minnesota choking on another road trip?
 

On our final possession, it seems like it might’ve been smarter to try for a 2-for-1 (making the massive assumption we could get a decent look) as opposed to holding it for 25 seconds and then letting Murphy bowl into the guy from the free throw line. Why give Nebraska the last shot?

I wouldn’t have tried to rush. But when you can’t run it under 5 seconds I probably just would’ve run a regular offense and tried to get a good look at any time.
 

I don't want to keep going through this cycle and hearing fans every few years asking for the coach to be fired so we can bring the next great one in. I hope the next one IS great.

6 years is more than a few years.
 

Glad that people are blaming Pitino and not the refs...even though they were HORRIBLE down the stretch. The Gophers were lucky to get the lead back. Murphy made one absolute prayer banker and their entire offense was just Murphy going at multiple defenders for like the last 5 minutes of the game. My biggest grip about the entire game was the egregious decision by Pitino to not only run the clock down on the Gophers last possession but to go for a Murphy drive to the basket. There was a 15 second differential between the game and shot clocks. Nebraska was going to have plenty of time to get a good look regardless of what the Gophers did on their possession. They were on the road and the refs had just allowed a pretty physical Murphy score inside on the last possession that could have been called an offensive foul. How could you not think they might be a bit antsy to call an offensive foul on Murphy in this situation? Why not move the ball and attempt to get something easy? Maybe the Nebraska defense over helps or panics at some point. Once I saw Coffey dribbling the clock out, I though him getting ripped was a more likely outcome than the Gophers actually scoring a basket.

Has anyone seen a definitive replay on the out of bounds? I admit I didn't have a great angle, but it looked like it stayed in? Gophers didn't argue so I assume it was the right call? The especially brutal part of the call on Coffey was that the Nebraska player lost control of the ball before the official even blew his whistle. That was an egregious call with the way the game had been officiated to that point.

My biggest take away from this game will still be that Nebraska outscored the Gophers 35-20 over about 16 minutes of game time. There just was no excuse for that. The defense was atrocious in this stretch with a bunch of straight line layups in the first half then a bunch of wide open 3's to start the second. The offense feature little ball movement and almost not second chance opportunities. For much of this game, the Gophers didn't play like the team that still had NCAA aspirations.
 


What was worse Louisville gagging vs. Duke or Minnesota choking on another road trip?

For sure losing a game when never leading by more than 5 in the second half is a way bigger choke than blowing a 23 point lead with 12 minutes left
 

I guess I didn’t miss much that we haven’t seen all year. Great night to go on a date instead ��
 


This one really stung. Tonight is the first time this season where reality hit me that we will not make the dance pending a miracle. Honestly though, is this such a horrible thing? So we sneak in as an 11 seed. We are one of the worst three-point shooting teams in the country that have played a full 40 minutes in maybe 2/26 games? Do you really think we would pull a rabbit out of our hat on the big stage? No...It would be Middle Tenn St. all over again.

Pitino lost this one before the refs ever had a chance to make game-altering calls. The silver lining is Gabe and Oturu, our two best all-around basketball players, are playing for the name on the front of their jersey and that won't change when the coach does. Coffey won't go anywhere as a senior and I'm sure Carr would feel it out for a year (no clue if he will contirbute).

We need to move on. Good teams get lucky. Bad teams don't. We never get lucky.

Getting to the dance at all is good. Getting blown out in the 1st round is better than an NIT championship in my book. I’d be happy if this university just quit accepting NIT bids. It’s a garbage tournament full of uninteresting bad teams and an embarrassment that we have played in it so much.
 





I like Pitino, but I also like having Minnesota in the NCAA tournament.
 





The best argument you have is a strawman argument. That should tell you something. Sadly it is starting to look like you probably just can't get it.

It is stupid what he is saying. Who would you have subbed and when? It didn't work out, I get that but players have to rest and those were the guys we had. Oturu went out at about the 12 minute mark. 8 minutes is a good long run for him and Matz didn't hurt us. Washington hasn't been good and Murphy was fouling so Stull and Omersa were the options....unless he goes to Hurt, which perhaps he should have.
 


On our final possession, it seems like it might’ve been smarter to try for a 2-for-1 (making the massive assumption we could get a decent look) as opposed to holding it for 25 seconds and then letting Murphy bowl into the guy from the free throw line. Why give Nebraska the last shot?

Yes. There's too much time there to just dribble for 25 seconds. Run a play. Oh, except we don't really do that.
 


The returning talent on this roster is actually pretty decent if no player turnover, but it's hard to see Washington sticking around. Regardless, this year is toast. Not sure where the additional wins are going to come from.

Yes. Except we have no PG. Like having a great football team with no QB it's a problem. Carr might be decent, but if IW leaves we have no back-up.
 

Yes. There's too much time there to just dribble for 25 seconds. Run a play. Oh, except we don't really do that.

That’s a good point. I’d run my regular offense there. That wasn’t that different from our regular offense
 

6 years is more than a few years.

It started the year we had the sex scandal for some of these guys. Ewert PC? It seems like it started for him year 2.
 

The last call was complete crap. The other ref had just as good a look at it, ducked his head to get a better look as the play was unfolding, and did not blow the whistle. Should have been a W but its an L and thats a microcosm of the Pitino tenure at Minnesota.
 

I wouldn’t have tried to rush. But when you can’t run it under 5 seconds I probably just would’ve run a regular offense and tried to get a good look at any time.

Waiting until there's 8 seconds left on the shot clock to start the offense in that situation is a fatal error. No matter when you score, early or late, you're giving the Huskers plenty of time to run their offense on the other end. Give yourself a good chance to score, which means running a plan A with enough time for a plan B and/or an offensive rebound. There's only one thing more annoying than the cliched approach of waiting until that deep in the shot clock, and that's doing so when it makes no sense to or even hurts your cause. Give yourself a f*ucking chance to make a game-winning play! Don't leave it to your defense on the other end or, even worse, the stripes.
 

Yes. Except we have no PG. Like having a great football team with no QB it's a problem. Carr might be decent, but if IW leaves we have no back-up.


Carr might be the most overrated player in gopher history to this point in his career.
We scored some points for an 0-18 ACC team. I Don’t really expect him to be a savior.
 

I like Pitino, but I also like having Minnesota in the NCAA tournament.

I like coaches who field teams capable of competing well most of the time and run clean programs. I'm not going to ask Pitino to have a drink with me or come to my house for dinner. We're never going to be pals so his other qualities aren't relevant to me.
 



It is stupid what he is saying. Who would you have subbed and when? It didn't work out, I get that but players have to rest and those were the guys we had. Oturu went out at about the 12 minute mark. 8 minutes is a good long run for him and Matz didn't hurt us. Washington hasn't been good and Murphy was fouling so Stull and Omersa were the options....unless he goes to Hurt, which perhaps he should have.

If you have a bench like we do, you have to do a better job of staggering the rest. You have to have Stull, Hurt, Matz, and Omersa out there at some point, yes, but you need to pick and choose your spots better and try to not have them out there as a group.
 

Definitely go with starters all 40 minutes. How stinking dumb can Pitino get?

There are plenty of games this year where Stull and Omersa have not played. And they should not have played tonight.
 

Getting to the dance at all is good. Getting blown out in the 1st round is better than an NIT championship in my book. I’d be happy if this university just quit accepting NIT bids. It’s a garbage tournament full of uninteresting bad teams and an embarrassment that we have played in it so much.

I do not disagree with your sentiments towards the NIT. I am not comparing the dance to the NIT saying, "well at least we can win some games in the NIT." The point is, regardless of this game, we are not a tournament team. We would get beat in the tournament (liklely in Dayton). More frustrating would be making the tournament and Pitino keeping his job when there are a handful of solid coaches out there TODAY, that we have a chance at.
 




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