B1G Game 15: Gophers Host Rutgers (2-17-22)

Ignatius L Hoops

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THEY STILL HAVEN’T FOUND WHAT THEY’RE LOOKING FOR…

On this season’s craziest Sunday, when Northwestern defeated Michigan in double overtime and Wisconsin recovered from a 22-point third quarter deficit to knock off Purdue, Rutgers (the Big Ten’s worst offense) made some noise in Piscataway. The Scarlet Knight’s 28 (!) fourth quarter points erased an 8-point deficit and delivered not only a victory over Penn State; but also halted an 0-12 start to the conference season. Rutgers, which averages 54 points and 4 threes per game in Big Ten play, scored 71 points and went 9-17 from beyond the arc. Adding to the crazy, graduate guard Victoria Morris, who was 0-7 from behind the arc in conference games, went 2-2 from three. Rutgers finally got to celebrate a Big Ten win at the RAC.

I’d just started believing that Rutgers could match the 0-18 record put up by Michigan’s 1993-94 team That would’ve been a memorable achievement. Anyway, I skimmed through the yearly standings looking for no win futility. The most recent winless season was Illinois’ 0-16 effort in 2017-18. There were four other 0-16 seasons: Michigan in 2005-06, Northwestern in 2001-02 and 2000-01, and Minnesota in 1995-96.

Unfortunately, the winless hook that could’ve made this Rutgers season memorable has dissolved. I’m sure the players are fine with it; but the rest of us must turn to wondering what’s up at Rutgers. But it’ll probably be season’s end, or summertime, or next fall before questions surrounding the Scarlet Knights are answered. A once mighty program has fallen on its own sword.

SOME QUESTIONS: is C Vivian Stringer returning? If not, is acting head coach Timothy Eatman returning? Eatman has had an awful season, so I don’t see a particular ground swell for him. Who’s going to play for the Scarlet Knights. They went big on portal players to fill this year’s roster. Subsequently most of the playing time is taken up by grad students. Player development hasn’t seemed a high priority.

There isn’t really much left to discuss about the current lineup. The starters have been shuffled and reshuffled. Rutgers has played a bit better and a few players have emerged:

Ball State transfer, Osh Brown, has lived up to expectations. She racked up her ninth double double of the season against Penn State. Not surprisingly Brown leads Rutgers in scoring, rebounding and minutes played.

Sayawni Lassiter, the Florida State transfer, has also been on a recent run. Against Ohio State she scored 15 points (5-8 from three) and versus Penn State 11 points (3-5 from three).

Both Brown and Lassiter are grad students and won’t return next season. As is third leading scorer Shug Dickson, who arrived from Missouri.

It would be best for Minnesota to do what they did in the first meeting-except we can skip Lindsay Whalen’s appendectomy. And of course, we need to replace Jasmine Powell’s 19 points, 4 rebounds and 5 assists in the 62-49 win. For Rutgers, Osh Brown had 13 points and 10 rebounds and Shug Dickson led the Scarlett Knights with 17 points. Whatever Rutgers was looking for this season is now of far less importance than what the winter thaw will bring to Piscataway.



RUTGERS B1G RECORD (1-12):

Wins:
Penn State 71-62

Losses: Maryland 59-73, @ Penn State 48-52 and @ Purdue 58-60, Minnesota 49-62, @ Michigan 47-76, @ Northwestern 63-68, Wisconsin 45-49, Ohio State 71-80, @ Maryland 55-72, Michigan State 45-61, @Nebraska 38-50 and @ Ohio State 57-61..



Osh Brown Last Six Big Ten Games:

TeamPtsRebAsstMinFoul
Ohio State2482384
Maryland10120372
Michigan State1060255
Nebraska13111383
Ohio State1192361
Penn State20111371


Lasha Petree Last Six Big Ten Games:

TeamPtsRebAsstMinFoul
Ohio State1830321
Maryland701160
Michigan State1520333
Nebraska200210
Ohio State821161
Penn State1742374






Probable Starters:

HGTPOSYRPLAYERMINAVGREB
6’1”FGSOsh Brown32.512.59.2
6’0”GSrLasha Petree24.49.52.0
6’2”FRJrTyia Singleton21.75.26.2
5’10”GGSSayawni Lassiter21.24.52.4
5’9”GGSJailyn Mason20.41.60.8


Others:

HGTPOSYRPLAYERMINAVGREB
5’10”GGSShug Dickson26.38.12.6
5’8”GGSVictoria Morris12.33.81.2
5’11”GJrAwa Sidibe14.53.01.5
 

That second quarter was about as bad as the Iowa game. Rushed shots and a couple of really dumb turnovers. Rutgers should be up more than they are. Rebounding is atrocious. Hope the can regroup in the second half.
 



Shooting 25% from the field and not being able to get a rebound is gonna lead to a rough night.
 



FELL in the TRAP game hard... a week off pretty much.. and that's how we come out.. no energy or anything.. didn't really seem like we wanted to be there honestly..
 

The substitution pattern was crazy bad.. Helgren playing in the third when it fell apart was a head scratcher. This was a game we needed to play Kadi 30+ minutes for matchup reasons. Just a terrible lineup we kept putting out there time after time.
We had 5 days to prepare, with the season on the line we weren't prepared and no adjustments were made
 

The substitution pattern was crazy bad.. Helgren playing in the third when it fell apart was a head scratcher. This was a game we needed to play Kadi 30+ minutes for matchup reasons. Just a terrible lineup we kept putting out there time after time.
We had 5 days to prepare, with the season on the line we weren't prepared and no adjustments were made
maybe it just seemed like it but didnt Kadi play most of the 2nd quarter when Rutgers went on a big run? It seemed like she missed a few layups in that stretch.
 



The substitution pattern was crazy bad.. Helgren playing in the third when it fell apart was a head scratcher. This was a game we needed to play Kadi 30+ minutes for matchup reasons. Just a terrible lineup we kept putting out there time after time.
We had 5 days to prepare, with the season on the line we weren't prepared and no adjustments were made
Is this a coaching issue or players not buying in? Or just a bad outing?
 

Is this a coaching issue or players not buying in? Or just a bad outing?
I think bad outing (hopefully).. we just beat Northwestern and Michigan State.. one of those games where nothing went right.. we didn't really play like we did against Northwestern and Michigan State, no energy.. nobody was really looking for their shot at all.. once again Smith doesn't attack at all.. back to squared one with her after a great game against Michigan State.. we had off since Thursday and RU played sunday and they looked like the fresher team.. we needed to attack more to get better shot.. settled for a lot of contested shots
 

watching on my IPad from Arizona, but this team seems to have no touch on their layups, they seem to slam the ball hard against the
backboard. Crazy this team shots better at 3 points attempts vs 2 pointers
 

Brutal. Only LBK seemed to have energy for the whole game. We're playing on Wednesday in the Big Ten tourney if this keeps up. The teams below us are now racking up wins while we lose. Got to come back against Nebraska, which will not be easy. I agree with the TRAP game theory, as well.
 



Bleh...Sleepy time basketball. In the second half the Gophers were 9-25 from the field and 3-10 from three while Rutgers was 17-33 from the field and 4-9 from three. We killed from the line though: 18-20 compared to the Scarlet Knight's 8-8. Prep for this game was dreadful. Again, we get too many non shooters on the court and life gets hard for Winters and Scalia.
 

Disappointing game. Need to make one substitution at a time. Take one spark plug wire off and the engine will still run. Take more than one wire off at a time and the engine stalls. It allows the other team to get big runs. They never recovered from Rutgers' big second quarter run.
 

maybe it just seemed like it but didnt Kadi play most of the 2nd quarter when Rutgers went on a big run? It seemed like she missed a few layups in that stretch.
Kadi struggled offensively, but she is athletic on the D end.. this game was a terrible matchup for us. I know everybody is like how do you lose to Rutgers, but this was a terrible matchup for us and we made it worse by not playing a more athletic linuep.
.. but Kadi did play 24 min, her stat line going into the 4th was 1 rebound
 

Is this a coaching issue or players not buying in? Or just a bad outing?
I believe it is a coaching issue that has led to players not buying in. When players do not by in to what the coaches are selling they either leave or stay and go through the motions. I think you can see a little of both on this team. IMHO.
 

I believe it is a coaching issue that has led to players not buying in. When players do not by in to what the coaches are selling they either leave or stay and go through the motions. I think you can see a little of both on this team. IMHO.
What explains the nice little streak after Powell left? Do you think that the team won and competed well despite the coaches?
 




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