Game 11: Gophers host Chicago State (12-12-22)

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Ignatius L Hoops

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Chicago States current NET ranking is 359 out of 361. And it is well earned. The Cougars have started the season 0-11. That comes on the heals of a 4-23 season leading to a coaching change. Andrea Williams is now in charge and will bring Chicago State to the Twin Cities facing Minnesota on Monday and St. Thomas on Wednesday.

Last season, the Cougars dropped their last nine games; which puts them on a twenty game losing streak. Breaking the streak at Williams Arena doesn't look likely. The Cougars and Gophers have played one common opponent, Western Illinois. The Leathernecks defeated CSU 59-45 while Minnesota defeated the Leathernecks 75-45. Chicago State and Minnesota have faced off on two previous occaisions (1998 and 2006) and the Gophers are 2-0.

After the last two physical outings, a recovery game is probably welcome.
 

I REALLY hope we can have a bounce back game and praying this isn't a close game.. because IT REALLY shouldn't be at all.. Chicago State isn't tall at all.. believe their tallest players are 6'1.. only have 2 players who avg double figures in scoring and its like 10 or 11 ppg.
 

This is a game the Gophers can play poorly and win by 30, Chicago State looks brutal. Good game to schedule in the middle of a 4 game week.
 


spokesman-recorder.com

MN hosts Chicago State’s women and men hoopsters | Minnesota Spokesman-Recorder

Andrea Williams has coached at all three NCAA Division levels over her nearly 30-year career.
spokesman-recorder.com spokesman-recorder.com

MSR's" Charles Hallman interviews Chicago State's Head Coach Andrea Williams:

Andrea Williams has coached at all three NCAA Division levels over her nearly 30-year career. Her latest stop is Chicago State, who hired her in July to coach the Cougars women’s basketball team.

“We are going to compete,” predicted Williams in an MSR interview before CSU embarks on a two-game Twin Cities swing next week, beginning at Williams Arena against the host Gophers Dec. 12, then moving to St. Paul to play at University of St. Thomas Dec. 14. “We are going to do our best and show up in that environment.”

Williams began her coaching career at Edinboro University of Pennsylvania (1995-97), then as head coach at Division II Waynesburg (Pa.) University (1997-99). She also held assistant coaching positions at Oakland University (2016-19) and Purdue Fort Wayne (2015-16), South Florida (2008-10), Jacksonville University (2004-08), the U.S. Naval Academy (2002-04), and the University of Tampa (1999-2002).


Her HC experience came at Fort Valley State for three years (2019-21) and six seasons at U.S. Air Force Academy (2010-15). Williams might be the first Black woman to coach at two of the country’s military training colleges.


“Basketball has taken me many places,” said the Indiana native. Williams graduated from Vincennes University (associate degree) and Edinboro University (B.S. degree in physical education). Her first post-college job was in teaching, but when offered a coaching job by her former coach, Williams jumped at the opportunity and hasn’t looked back since.

Chicago State is a historically Black public university located on the city’s South Side. In recent years the school has been struggling as a women’s hoops program. The challenge of turning things around, of returning to a Division I school back in the Midwest was just too much to pass up, Williams said.

“It’s a big challenge turning it in the right direction,” she admitted. “We want to recruit Chicago as best as we can, then the state of Illinois. We like to keep home-grown talent home.”

Williams is the second of five Black female head coaches that Minnesota will face this season. “I’ve been in coaching for 20-some years,” she pointed out.

“You got to be good role models. We are trying to show that there is a spot in this sport [for Blacks to coach] on the bench. I’m willing to take this program to a level it hasn’t had.”
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this game kind of feels like a TRAP game for our young Gophs..

Chicago State is 0-11 on the season but dating back to last season.. they haven't won SINCE FEB 5TH.. so 20 straight loses..

they only have THREE players over 6ft.. have had 25+ TO's their last 4 games..
 

Gophers overwhelming Chicago State 8-0 to start.
 

28-10 lead as I write this. I'm not surprised they're up by this much. This team needs a game like this to gain confidence for the upcoming conference schedule.
 

I like the 11 points and 7 rebounds from Micheaux plus the 6 points, 6 rebounds, and 5 assists from Borowicz. Nice first half so far up 54-30.
 



This is the kind of game that you give your players some defensive goals for the 2nd half. Want to hold 'em to no more than 55 points. No more 3's in the 2nd half. No more than X-amount of paint points. Tell your bench to run through the offense and make sure you get a good post look on every half court set. Every 3-ball in the half-court should come from inside-out or a skip or ball reversal. No more than 5 turnovers in the second half. Don't just win, work on the stuff needed to compete against good teams. I've seen that kind of thing help teams keep their focus against teams they're clearly superior to.
 


Mallory Heyer had 19 points, including 2 of 4 on 3-pointers.

Isabelle Gradwell had 11 points, including 3 of 5 on 3-pointers.

If they're trying to work on that, it worked.

Rose had a team-best .765 points per minute, beating out Heyer.

Battle had 10 rebounds.

Can't take too much from this mismatch game.

The other team had 27 fouls but only 13 turnovers. Minnesota had 12 turnovers; I believe 14 or lower is the goal.

Amaya Battle and Katie Borowicz each had 4 assists.

Counts made an impression on the stats sheet on only 6 minutes.

Etc. See stats sheet.

1670900115437.png
 
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Heyer is 'sneaky' good. Love how active Czinano is. Great to see Hammond, Ratzlaff and Counts get on the board. Off shooting night for Mara. 10 boards for Battle.
 



happy to see Counts and Ratzlaff PLAY the final 4 minutes or so.. GLAD they both scored..

Mal had such a WONDERFUL game her and Oberg really played well off each other imho

Rose and Katie picking up FOUR fouls by the middle of the 3rd against this team was kind of frustrating to see.. just some silly fouls..

Mara shot seems off but looks so good out of her hands.. 5-16.. if she knocking down shots like she was in the first couple.. she gets 30 easy..

Maggie imho has some of the best post moves.. always HUSTLING out there too, finished with 10/7

good to see Gradwell hit a couple 3's would be nice if these next 3 games kind of gets her offense rolling.. and gain some confidence along with Cayton who finished with 8/4

still to many missed free throws.. 25-39
 

Nice win. They didn't have a ton of pressure so they could really focus on moving the ball, running their plays, and trying some things. I wish they would have had this game earlier in the season and build up to Iowa and the Big Ten in a stepwise fashion.

Many players got time and are improving. I think Heyer is the most improved player. I think she started out the season a little slowly. She has become a strong rebounder and her ball handling, shooting, and defense have improved, too. Increased confidence is a probably a big factor.

Oberg has improved and provides good minutes in relief of Rose. If they can split their minutes more equally, then they will have more energy and hopefully less foul pressure.

Gradwell is making good offensive and defensive contributions, and should help the team a lot. Go Gophers.
 

walleye said:
Nice win. They didn't have a ton of pressure so they could really focus on moving the ball, running their plays, and trying some things. I wish they would have had this game earlier in the season and build up to Iowa and the Big Ten in a stepwise fashion.

Many players got time and are improving. I think Heyer is the most improved player. I think she started out the season a little slowly. She has become a strong rebounder and her ball handling, shooting, and defense have improved, too. Increased confidence is a probably a big factor.

Oberg has improved and provides good minutes in relief of Rose. If they can split their minutes more equally, then they will have more energy and hopefully less foul pressure.

Gradwell is making good offensive and defensive contributions, and should help the team a lot. Go Gophers.
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Gradwell has figured out the speed of the B1G it seems.. coming from the Horizon League, she looked a little slow the first couple games defensively.. but she has really picked it up.. had some great blocks in the PSU game.. and even got Clark in Iowa, but ofc they called a foul because Clark fell to the floor.. hoping she can find her offense, she would be a HUGE help in big ten play.. if she could knock down 1-2 3's a game..
 

I’ve been impressed with Oberg passing the last couple of games seems to have developed a nice connection with Heyer.
 

The NET ranking was right; Chicago State is one of the three worst teams in division 1. Other than Katie and Rose accumulating fouls things went pretty well. I was a little surprised Whalen went back to the starters at the beginning of the fourth; but the options are limited I guess.

The start of the second quarter was interesting. A bit of garbage time broke out amongst the Gophers. Lindsay, not pleased, called timeout. I could hear Lindsay's voice from the huddle over the rather sparse crowd. In the post game interview she was asked about the timeout and mentioned one of the problems was that we were driving seams that weren't there. Anyway, things were much more organized after the TO.
 


Good game for the Gophers. They aren’t that far off as a squad. Yes I know this competition was not good, but teams need these games mentally. The energy on this team still feels so much better than the last couple of years.

I’ve followed this team for a long time. Ratzlaff and Counts are legit walk ons. Some obvious nerves from Ratzlaff considering she missed bunnies and free throws but the girl got to the basket 4 times. It’s just important to have that depth.
 

www.yahoo.com

Women’s basketball: Gophers pick up the pace, rout winless Chicago State

After her team suffered its only lopsided loss of the season last Saturday in Iowa City, Minnesota coach Lindsay Whalen had her team work on pace. She wanted the Gophers to play faster. “Getting up the court quicker, cutting, harder screening — just doing things more intentionally, in everything...
www.yahoo.com www.yahoo.com

Pioneer Press:

After her team suffered its only lopsided loss of the season last Saturday in Iowa City, Minnesota coach Lindsay Whalen had her team work on pace. She wanted the Gophers to play faster.

“Getting up the court quicker, cutting, harder screening — just doing things more intentionally, in everything we do — even in practice,” she said. “Everything is game speed. We worked on it a lot.”

In other words, the Gophers weren’t going to get a breather on Monday against a winless team from Chicago State. Whalen wanted her team to push the ball, move the ball and take good shots against the Cougars.

After a 105-54 victory at Williams Arena, Whalen was happy with the results.
Click to expand...
 

Scheduling these types of teams is good for the young kids, as a team MN isn't to far off.
I think the next iteration is when they are expected to win BIG games.
There are still some issues that I dont see progress - for example if the ball goes into Rose it isn't coming out. she has so much potential, but I still see the same mistakes game after game.
Heyer has been a surprise, I thought she had just an average AAU & HS year her senior year as I was concerned she had topped out. Her outside shot has dramatically improved and she runs the floor with the best.
Battle was a good shooter in her middle school years, somebody tried to change her shot. She will need to work on that, teams will start playing off her.
 

MNGirlsHoops said:
Scheduling these types of teams is good for the young kids, as a team MN isn't to far off.
I think the next iteration is when they are expected to win BIG games.
There are still some issues that I dont see progress - for example if the ball goes into Rose it isn't coming out. she has so much potential, but I still see the same mistakes game after game.
Heyer has been a surprise, I thought she had just an average AAU & HS year her senior year as I was concerned she had topped out. Her outside shot has dramatically improved and she runs the floor with the best.
Battle was a good shooter in her middle school years, somebody tried to change her shot. She will need to work on that, teams will start playing off her.
Click to expand...
Spot on!
 

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