***OFFICIAL MICHIGAN STATE VS MINNESOTA NCAA TOURNAMENT IN-GAME THREAD!!!!***


They need to get a 4 who can start ahead of Omersa, a back-up PG and a back-up center. The 4th/5th scholarships can be transfers if necessary.
 

Some of you call Murphy the best player you've seen as a gopher.

Yet we will be fine next year. We finished below .500 in the big 10 with the best player you've seen in a gopher uniform.

I wish I knew what I was missing about next year.

Do I need to dumb this down for you RolGnav?

You're all over the place with this comment. So are you mocking the "Murphy the best player we've seen as a gopher" or mocking the people saying we will be fine next year, or taking a jab at Murphy? Also, are you on the "we will suck more next year" or the "we will be fine next year" side because that will help us figure out what to tell you what you are missing about next year.
 

Guard play wins games. We had a wing playing PG and our only natural PG that could play was in the dog house for a month. With the addition of Carr and hopefully a spring PG (to what I’m guessing replace IW) the team should flow much smoother.

I think the improvement of having a real PG will offset the loss of Murphy. But better? Not at the moment. We'll see how the roster fills out.
 

They call Murphy the best gopher they've seen, yet we will be better next year.

I try not to laugh sometimes, but after a game like this, the comedy is good for the soul

Some people wonder if you enjoy tonight more than Thursday.

I’m not sure too many are saying we will be great next year but they have a chance to be pretty good. It’s not out of the question that Coffey is a first team all conference player next year. We’ll see what we get out of the transfers. Do we pick up a good transfer or two that can play right away? A lot of uncertainty but it’s not crazy to think they could have a better season next year. We’ll see.
 


You're all over the place with this comment. So are you mocking the "Murphy the best player we've seen as a gopher" or mocking the people saying we will be fine next year, or taking a jab at Murphy? Also, are you on the "we will suck more next year" or the "we will be fine next year" side because that will help us figure out what to tell you what you are missing about next year.

I'm not taking a jab at Murphy at all.

Some here are calling him the best gopher ever or that they've seen.

We lose him, right? So I'm wanting an explanation on the positivity next year.
 
Last edited:

I think the improvement of having a real PG will offset the loss of Murphy. But better? Not at the moment. We'll see how the roster fills out.

That only helps if we have improved shooting, if not, we need Oturu and a transfer to pick up what we lost with Murphy. That's what happened in this game, first half, we had zero inside game. That led to us chucking up 3s, and we are not very good at shooting. We had zero post game, and just relied on Coffey driving the paint. Can't win like that... so if we don't get improved shooting next year, improved PG play may not help much now that we lost a big part of our inside game.
 

Some people wonder if you enjoy tonight more than Thursday.

I’m not sure too many are saying we will be great next year but they have a chance to be pretty good. It’s not out of the question that Coffey is a first team all conference player next year. We’ll see what we get out of the transfers. Do we pick up a good transfer or two that can play right away? A lot of uncertainty but it’s not crazy to think they could have a better season next year. We’ll see.

You may be dumb, but if I was enjoying tonight...........I'd be begging for Pitino to be signed to a lifetime contract.
 

You may be dumb, but if I was enjoying tonight...........I'd be begging for Pitino to be signed to a lifetime contract.

I think you may want Pitino gone so bad that you’re not disappointed when they lose. It’s not dumb to think that since you rarely post anything positive even after they play well and win big games.
 



I think you may want Pitino gone so bad that you’re not disappointed when they lose. It’s not dumb to think that since you rarely post anything positive even after they play well and win big games.

I thought I posted positive all night on thursday. Check that out and get back to me.

Oh, and I'm not disappointed at all they lost, especially to MSU.........it's what I live for. I got up this morning hoping to see the carnage.

Great call, buddy. I'm busted!
 

I thought I posted positive all night on thursday. Check that out and get back to me.

Oh, and I'm not disappointed at all they lost, especially to MSU.........it's what I live for. I got up this morning hoping to see the carnage.

Great call, buddy. I'm busted!
Your truly a richard

Sent from my SM-G960U using Tapatalk
 

I thought I posted positive all night on thursday. Check that out and get back to me.

Oh, and I'm not disappointed at all they lost, especially to MSU.........it's what I live for. I got up this morning hoping to see the carnage.

Great call, buddy. I'm busted!

It took me all of 10 seconds to see if you’re lying or not. You didn’t post a single thing on Thursday or anything about it afterwards. You come out of hiding after losses. Unless you have multiple accounts here? Like alter egos, one positive all the time, one negative.
 

It took me all of 10 seconds to see if you’re lying or not. You didn’t post a single thing on Thursday or anything about it afterwards. You come out of hiding after losses. Unless you have multiple accounts here? Like alter egos, one positive all the time, one negative.
This guy achieved my 'ignore' list months ago. Obviously has a high need for attention and why bother?

Hard to see the team go down this way - but I'm glad we got this far. Thursday was a real highpoint, and Richard solidly earned his return for next year with that. I hope to see him continue to improve his roster management and consistency. I can't really think about next year - but this was a huge year to move the program in a positive direction and that happened.
What am I going to do with all my free time?
 



Everything changed when Murphy couldn't play tonight. He said post game he could barely tie his shoes this morning, what a terrible way for such an awesome career to end. Looked like we didn't really know what to do offensively because its predicated on Murphy playing 30+ minutes.

Without him, MSU out-rebounded the Gophers 45-19. We also shot 2-of-22 from 3 after shooting 11-of-27 in the same arena 2 days ago. MSU locked up Kalscheur, he had one open look the whole game. He and McBrayer went a combined 0-of-12 from the field, 0-of-7 from 3. Coffey had to carry the load because nobody else could score.

Curious to see how the Gophers build off this. Omersa gave some pretty good minutes, but needs to improve a ton in the offseason. Obviously have to get a competent post player to compliment Oturu. I expect Coffey back, he's got a lot to work on to get to the NBA. I thought IW was decent tonight, gave a spark offensively when nobody other than Coffey could make a shot.

Michigan State did what they do. They imposed their will against a depleted squad. I thought it was amazing we even got within 9 in the second half before Winston took over. If Carr can be half that player, the Gophers will be in great shape.
 

Why did Oturu only play 19 minutes? Was he hurt? He scored the first bucket of the game then disappeared, because the team shot a bunch of contested 3s. I was disappointed with the coaching job this game. Go down low to your best post player and then it frees up Coffey and the other guards to shoot the outside shot. I feel that Pitino threw in the towel when he knew Murphy wouldn’t play after 4 minutes. Oruro was 4-6! Get the big guy the rock!
 


As much fun as it was to be in the arena on Thursday, it was the exact opposite tonight. Oturu got the first 2 points of the game...and then Michigan State got the next 11 prompting a timeout from Pitino. At that point Murphy was taken out of the game and because my seats were so close to the Gopher bench it was obvious something was wrong as he never sat down. He went behind the bench to stand and alternated between standing and laying down. The end result was that it felt like the game was already over around the 12 minute mark of the first half with the Gophers down a dozen or so an it becoming clear that Murphy was not coming back in to the game.

It's a real shame that we didn't have Murphy tonight, because the crowd was ready to help something special happen. Everyone was on their feet and roaring as the Gophers made their run to cut it to 9 in the second half. This was by far the highlight of my night as sad as that is. What is too bad is that if Omersa would have just finished that alley-oop and Coffey made a bunny on the possession following the missed oop, that run would have cut it to 5. Throw in making just a single one of the many missed 3's to that point and it would have been a two point game. I don't think there is a scenario where they could have won with the players they had available, but there were certainly a lot of missed opportunities that could have made this game a lot more interesting. I guess the only solace I can take in the Gophers performance today was that only 2 of the 8 games were competitive and we were the only team that lost a first team All Conference player 2 minutes in to the game.

Cassius Winston was the difference. That late clock 3 to end the Gophers momentum was such a killer. We just haven't had a guard who can end a rally by himself like that in years probably since Bobby Jackson (Cassius isn't that level of talent, but he is obviously good).

If there was one surprise positive performance I took out of this game, it was Jarvis Omersa. He really battled Michigan State down low and matched their physicality in fighting for rebounds. He still does not show any feel on the offensive end of the court, which is a major concern, but his motor is outstanding. He was basically putting on his own dunk contest in pregame and just never seems to run out of energy.

Amir really battled. If we had more Jordan at full strength, this game could have been interesting. I hope his emotional send off at the end of the game doesn't mean he's leaving too. Should have started a "1 more year" chant myself, but didn't do it.

Our guards/wings simply weren't strong enough and/or tough enough tonight. There were so many times Jarvis was battling for boards and nobody else from the Gophers would join the fight with him.

I hope Pitino doesn't take too much blame for this one. I do wonder if playing Murphy those first few minutes was what lead to the early deficit and if, in hindsight, he should have subbed him out earlier. The reality of it is, the Gophers played virtually the entire game with only 2 available bigs and they were both Freshman...and they played long stretches of the game where 3 guys who were not even in the rotation all season were on the floor together. That's just not a recipe for success. I do think we should expect Pitino to recruit better depth and develop that depth, but when the situation gets as dire as it did tonight, there's few if any teams that could overcome that.
 

There's something to be said about college football and bowl games. At least 30+ teams end the year with a win and a smile on their face. In basketball, unless you are the the NCAA or NIT champ, it kind of sucks.
 

I would like to add that if we had a true point guard to distribute the ball appropriately, it would have been a different game (even without Murphy) and that can’t be blamed on the coaching staff as they and all of us assumed that Carr would be eligible. I guess that’s what we get for assuming...
 

I would like to add that if we had a true point guard to distribute the ball appropriately, it would have been a different game (even without Murphy) and that can’t be blamed on the coaching staff as they and all of us assumed that Carr would be eligible. I guess that’s what we get for assuming...

This isn't accurate. The coaching staff did not expect Carr to be eligible when they took him as a transfer. It was only after several surprising waivers were granted that Summer/Fall that they felt like Carr would be eligible to play this season.
 

I actually saw some reasons for hope tonight. No Murphy. No Stock. No Curry. GK couldn’t score. DM couldn’t score. And yet, they put a brief second half scare on the best team in their own conference, forcing the best player in the conference to bail them out. And Murphy got his curtain call in front of a maroon and gold traveling crowd. A fitting finality to a quality season.

Me too cnc. I just got back from Iowa and while I was disappointed with the result I was proud of the team and the effort. Omersa showed us some potential. IW had a nice performance. The team played inspired defense that can become part of a winning culture. I think that the future is good for Minnesota basketball.
 

Was that Dennis Rodman on the floor? I remember before the season Pitino talking about the nonstop energy of Omersa. Saw some of that tonight.
 

Completely agree. He will be able to guard 1-4s. Ultimate goal would be for him to develop a shot that gives him 30% from three. That way he can at least keep defenses from sagging off him.
 

There are a lot of simultaneous "we had no chance without Murphy" and "next year will be fine without Murphy" takes going on here.

Whats wrong with that.. the composition of each team, every season, is different. This team, especially at the end, was based on Murphy and Oturo providing an inside out attack. Limit the opposing team to one shot, etc. No Murphy and its done.

Next years team will be completely different, and heck, they may make the sweet 16. The offense will be different to suit the roster, which won't be set for a few months. If Washington is in fact staying, toss in Marcus Carr and we are set at PG when we had NO pg this year. There will be some talented players coming into the fold in the next month or two. That recipe may actually result in a great year, who knows.
 

Positive...... those freshman and sophomores gained valuable playing time in the NCAA Tourney. I dont think you can duplicate that.

Onions were being cut when Murphy got the curtain call

Sent from my SM-G960U using Tapatalk
 





Top Bottom