GAME #27: Gophers (17-9, 6-7) v. Illinois (14-12, 3-10) [BTN, 2/19, 8:00PM]

[bga1]

The bold is huge and not considered or discussed enough. Especially with Mathieu. As Math goes so goes this team. Teams have learned take away the high ball screen and double or trap him constantly. Just don't let him get into the lane.

When Mathieu's game is off the offense goes in the tank and the confidence suffers. You'd like to think our two experience starters could pull us through but it doesn't happen. I expected more out of both Hollins this year, even though I never thought either were NBA types.

Edit: The baseline toss-in fail by Austin was mind-boggling. It already happened once in the game. Shouldn't that make you be sure not to let that happen again? How can you coach players out of bone-headed mistakes?

The line on the Gophers- make the center and power forward beat you and make the guards make high risk passes into the post. We have minimal scoring at the PF and we get 20 minutes (Mo) of a scoring threat at the low post. So there is very, very little interior threat from this team- so pressure the guards.

 

[ruppertflywheel]

Austin is what he is. Andre Hollins on the other hand needs to step up. He has had a very average junior year. This club whether we like it or not, has to live and die by the "3". We've average post play and very little at the forward position. For us too get in the dance, 3 things have too happen on the offense:
1. Big Dre needs too step up...
2. Smith needs his stroke back..
3. EE has too start playing better.
1.

 

[jovs]

Illinois had a nice game plan, they doubled Mathieu of the dribble, didn't allow him to penetrate and the Gophers were unable to find the open man.

Austin has always struggled offensively, especially in the B1G, he is what he is.

Teams have figured out how to guard Smith, he's shooting 20% from the three the last five games and has really been a non factor, I don't know who should get the minutes but he is killing them.

Physically the body can sustain high intensity for about 12 weeks then it starts to let down a bit, my guess that they are at that point in the season and just aren't able to perform at a high level, they look tired out to me.

 

[Bad Gopher]

Illinois had a nice game plan, they doubled Mathieu of the dribble, didn't allow him to penetrate and the Gophers were unable to find the open man.

Austin has always struggled offensively, especially in the B1G, he is what he is.

Teams have figured out how to guard Smith, he's shooting 20% from the three the last five games and has really been a non factor, I don't know who should get the minutes but he is killing them.

Physically the body can sustain high intensity for about 12 weeks then it starts to let down a bit, my guess that they are at that point in the season and just aren't able to perform at a high level, they look tired out to me.

We were talking during the game about how you attack that defense. We're going to see it more and more. You have to attack it the way you attack any zone. The times the Gophers did that, they got easy interior baskets. We could have taken candy from a baby all night if the forwards move without the ball and make themselves available on cuts.

I wonder if mixing up our primary ball handling duties is a way to do this. Andre bringing the ball up occasionally, getting double teamed and having DeAndre free to catch passes from the wing or high post and drive and dish. That might work. At least it would make us less predictable.

 

[station19]

Illinois had a nice game plan, they doubled Mathieu of the dribble, didn't allow him to penetrate and the Gophers were unable to find the open man.

Austin has always struggled offensively, especially in the B1G, he is what he is.

Teams have figured out how to guard Smith, he's shooting 20% from the three the last five games and has really been a non factor, I don't know who should get the minutes but he is killing them.

Physically the body can sustain high intensity for about 12 weeks then it starts to let down a bit, my guess that they are at that point in the season and just aren't able to perform at a high level, they look tired out to me.

A lot of factors contribute to laying an egg like last nite but you got it right with defending smith and math. Other than 2 Hollins and a little bit of EE, everyone is new this year along with the coach and his system. As the year goes by the opponents have scouted the team and make adjustments.

 

[Former Goofer]

That game was even uglier than Arkansas.

 

[WorkingMyTailOff]

The game started out so promisingly and the Gophers had a chance to bury the Illini early, but let them stay in it. It may have been he worst Gophers game I have ever watched. To the Illini's credit, their defense went from awful to very good by the middle of the second half. It helped that the Gophers could no longer handle to ball, inbound a pass or shoot with confidence. They trapped up top and then packed and pushed our big men (no one else was a threat to make a shot).

 

[The-Real-Truth]

I just got done watching the game and that familiar feeling of absolute disgust watching Gopher basketball is back. What went on in that 40 minutes of basketball was a clown show of the highest order. I don't care to get in to individual players because everyone was horrible, but the turnover show to begin the second half has to take the cake as the most ridiculous stretch of basketball of the entire season. Minnesota completely outclassed Illinois for about 7 1/2 minutes and then literally said "here, you take it". The only coaching issue I had tonight was the lineup with Mav,Daquein, Elliott that was out there for awhile in the first half...can't have 3 complete non shooters on the floor at the same time.

Obviously, any talk of the NCAA tournament goes away until the Gophers beat tOSU, Iowa, or Michigan.

What I am most disappointed about this season, is this team is not getting better as the season goes along. It's obvious that they're regressing and tonight was their worst performance of the season in a very important game against a team on a massive losing skid. This was exactly the type of crap we saw from Tubby Smith's teams year in and year out.

The second biggest disappointment for me is the Gophers have failed to make Williams Arena a tough place to win. The fans are there, the attendance is strong, but you can't lose to Northwestern AND Illinois at home. A 7-2 home record in the B1G is about the bare minimum for a "good" team most years. I thought things were back on track to protect home court after Indiana, but obviously that's not the case.

What really sucks is the players/program will still have the mental hurdle next year of always collapsing in February to get over. I've got a feeling we've lost a lot of fans who were brought back in with the performance tonight.

Are you trying to win them back by taking a jab at Tubby? How much longer will you and your likes be doing this?

 

[cncmin]

Are you trying to win them back by taking a jab at Tubby? How much longer will you and your likes be doing this?

In hindsight, that UW win was the turning point of the season - even though that game ended up as a victory, three very big things happened that game that changed the trajectory of the season:
1. Lost Dre at the critical part of the season, that one's obvious. He's still not 100%, and it shows on both ends of the court. With Dre coming back, and perhaps playing a lot injured, somehow that also seems to have contributed to Malik's sudden loss of confidence. Without Malik playing good minutes earlier in the season, this team wouldn't have been nearly as good.
2. Mo Walker had a giant offensive game, and has been fairly decent offensively ever since. The problem, however, is that EE was a stud on all ends of the court but offense prior to that - a defensive, rebounding, passing, screening, hustling fiend. Since Walker and EE never play on the court t the same time, Mo's big offensive output simply ended in both a major reduction in our biggest hustler, best passer, best screener, and best defender's time, while striking a pretty obvious blow to EE's confidence such that he's now making a lot of mistakes (including missed FTs and ball fumbling) that he wasn't having problems with previously. Meanwhile, Mo is doing a decent job putting the ball in the hoop, but he continues to provide almost nothing other than that. The next time I see him put a body on someone when the ball is shot on the defensive end will be the first, which is the biggest of a lot of egregious errors. It's my opinion that more than anything else, the early-season team was better than the current team due to Mo taking a lot of EE's minutes.
3. DeAndre gained a ton of confidence in his ability to get to the hoop that game. That, in turn, appears to have eliminated any and all thoughts he previously had to shoot outside, and because he won't shoot outside, defenders are having a much easier time defending him by just sinking about 3-6 feet off into the lane and picking his pocket or blocking him as he continues to drive into the lane.

IMO these three things were very devastating to the team and their confidence. Can it be fixed? Maybe. Dre needs to regain full mobility and confidence. Malik needs to realize how good he can be and get his head in the game (esp. defensive end). EE needs to regain his playing time. Mo can score significantly better, but EE is by far the more valuable player to the team (although apparently Pitino disagrees with me, since Mo has assumed a ton of new playing time). DeAndre needs to quit trying to drive every time and actually put up those open shots to start making the D play honest.

Just the way I saw/see it.

 

[ethomasp31]

In hindsight, that UW win was the turning point of the season - even though that game ended up as a victory, three very big things happened that game that changed the trajectory of the season:
1. Lost Dre at the critical part of the season, that one's obvious. He's still not 100%, and it shows on both ends of the court. With Dre coming back, and perhaps playing a lot injured, somehow that also seems to have contributed to Malik's sudden loss of confidence. Without Malik playing good minutes earlier in the season, this team wouldn't have been nearly as good.
2. Mo Walker had a giant offensive game, and has been fairly decent offensively ever since. The problem, however, is that EE was a stud on all ends of the court but offense prior to that - a defensive, rebounding, passing, screening, hustling fiend. Since Walker and EE never play on the court t the same time, Mo's big offensive output simply ended in both a major reduction in our biggest hustler, best passer, best screener, and best defender's time, while striking a pretty obvious blow to EE's confidence such that he's now making a lot of mistakes (including missed FTs and ball fumbling) that he wasn't having problems with previously. Meanwhile, Mo is doing a decent job putting the ball in the hoop, but he continues to provide almost nothing other than that. The next time I see him put a body on someone when the ball is shot on the defensive end will be the first, which is the biggest of a lot of egregious errors. It's my opinion that more than anything else, the early-season team was better than the current team due to Mo taking a lot of EE's minutes.
3. DeAndre gained a ton of confidence in his ability to get to the hoop that game. That, in turn, appears to have eliminated any and all thoughts he previously had to shoot outside, and because he won't shoot outside, defenders are having a much easier time defending him by just sinking about 3-6 feet off into the lane and picking his pocket or blocking him as he continues to drive into the lane.

IMO these three things were very devastating to the team and their confidence. Can it be fixed? Maybe. Dre needs to regain full mobility and confidence. Malik needs to realize how good he can be and get his head in the game (esp. defensive end). EE needs to regain his playing time. Mo can score significantly better, but EE is by far the more valuable player to the team (although apparently Pitino disagrees with me, since Mo has assumed a ton of new playing time). DeAndre needs to quit trying to drive every time and actually put up those open shots to start making the D play honest.

Just the way I saw/see it.

Thanks Mr. Eliason.....

 

[cncmin]

Thanks Mr. Eliason.....

haha yeah sorry about that; but I disagree vehemently with Pitino's decision on disposition of playing time (obviously). If anyone has +/- stats for the team split between these two guys' floor time (like they do in hockey) I'd really like to see it. From my viewpoint Mo would be significantly negative in this category - they seem to lose major ground on the scoreboard most of the time Mo's on the floor - though I cannot confirm my observed bias.

 

[ethomasp31]

I didn't see a lot of the pre B1G games....although Eliason looked very good against Syracuse.....but lately he has looked awful.

 

[victor04]

I just got done watching the game and that familiar feeling of absolute disgust watching Gopher basketball is back. What went on in that 40 minutes of basketball was a clown show of the highest order. I don't care to get in to individual players because everyone was horrible, but the turnover show to begin the second half has to take the cake as the most ridiculous stretch of basketball of the entire season. Minnesota completely outclassed Illinois for about 7 1/2 minutes and then literally said "here, you take it". The only coaching issue I had tonight was the lineup with Mav,Daquein, Elliott that was out there for awhile in the first half...can't have 3 complete non shooters on the floor at the same time.

Obviously, any talk of the NCAA tournament goes away until the Gophers beat tOSU, Iowa, or Michigan.

What I am most disappointed about this season, is this team is not getting better as the season goes along. It's obvious that they're regressing and tonight was their worst performance of the season in a very important game against a team on a massive losing skid. This was exactly the type of crap we saw from Tubby Smith's teams year in and year out.

The second biggest disappointment for me is the Gophers have failed to make Williams Arena a tough place to win. The fans are there, the attendance is strong, but you can't lose to Northwestern AND Illinois at home. A 7-2 home record in the B1G is about the bare minimum for a "good" team most years. I thought things were back on track to protect home court after Indiana, but obviously that's not the case.

What really sucks is the players/program will still have the mental hurdle next year of always collapsing in February to get over. I've got a feeling we've lost a lot of fans who were brought back in with the performance tonight.

Do you realize that Illinois has much better talent than we do? Yes they have been down, but losing to Illinois is not a big of mishap as you are making it out to be. They could be real good next year if the coach can continue to make some progress. About Northwestern, we lost to them after Andre was hurt, in addition they were on a hot streak at the time. Loses like that happen in the real world.

In terms of progressing as the season goes on I agree, its frustrating. Yet we were playing lights out for a good portion earlier in the season, plus Andre is still not close to being 100%. A dip was expected at some point, especially when your best player is not right.

If you really take an honest look at our roster you can't logically make the statement that "you cant lose to Northwestern And Illinois at home". In the grand scheme of things this season has already been a success in many regards, and to be on the cusp of making to the Big Dance is all anyone could of asked for to begin the season.

 

[GophersInIowa]

I think Austin gets unfairly ragged on because a lot of his contributions are the kind that don't always show up in the box score. Having said that, he has made a few dumb mistakes in the last couple weeks that are the kind that should not happen (not even once) over the course of an entire season.

I know people are probably starting to think I'm a relative of Austin or something, and I'm kinda getting sick of talking about this but I think you're right. I also think it has a lot to do with what kind of player we thought he would become. I think the same thing happened with Rodney Williams. He was a good player for us, but because he didn't live up to the "hype", we were more critical of him.

After his sophomore year, I thought Austin could be a overall great player. His offensive game has not progressed like most thought. He's a good defender though, I think it's ridiculous for anyone to say otherwise. His steal numbers have gone up in Big Ten play (2.2, 3rd in conference). Pitino stresses deflections and I've got to believe he leads the team by a good margin in that category. He is second on the team in rebounds, he averages nearly as many assists as the other Hollins (who play PG for part of the game). His turnovers can be head scratching at times, but overall he takes care of the ball pretty well (1.7 TO in 33 min).

I think pretty much everyone agrees he has been disappointing on the offensive side. But someone not living up to our expectations doesn't make him a bad player either.

 

[bemidjigopher]

I know people are probably starting to think I'm a relative of Austin or something, and I'm kinda getting sick of talking about this but I think you're right. I also think it has a lot to do with what kind of player we thought he would become. I think the same thing happened with Rodney Williams. He was a good player for us, but because he didn't live up to the "hype", we were more critical of him.

After his sophomore year, I thought Austin could be a overall great player. His offensive game has not progressed like most thought. He's a good defender though, I think it's ridiculous for anyone to say otherwise. His steal numbers have gone up in Big Ten play (2.2, 3rd in conference). Pitino stresses deflections and I've got to believe he leads the team by a good margin in that category. He is second on the team in rebounds, he averages nearly as many assists as the other Hollins (who play PG for part of the game). His turnovers can be head scratching at times, but overall he takes care of the ball pretty well (1.7 TO in 33 min).

I think pretty much everyone agrees he has been disappointing on the offensive side. But someone not living up to our expectations doesn't make him a bad player either.

Austin became what you hope all three star recruits become a good player that every winning team has, but on this team he's been asked to do more than he's capable of and that makes him an easy target to the casual fan. Rodney though was a top 60 recruit who stayed four years, he should've been a great player as a senior

 

[WanderingGopher]

In hindsight, that UW win was the turning point of the season - even though that game ended up as a victory, three very big things happened that game that changed the trajectory of the season:
1. Lost Dre at the critical part of the season, that one's obvious. He's still not 100%, and it shows on both ends of the court. With Dre coming back, and perhaps playing a lot injured, somehow that also seems to have contributed to Malik's sudden loss of confidence. Without Malik playing good minutes earlier in the season, this team wouldn't have been nearly as good.
2. Mo Walker had a giant offensive game, and has been fairly decent offensively ever since. The problem, however, is that EE was a stud on all ends of the court but offense prior to that - a defensive, rebounding, passing, screening, hustling fiend. Since Walker and EE never play on the court t the same time, Mo's big offensive output simply ended in both a major reduction in our biggest hustler, best passer, best screener, and best defender's time, while striking a pretty obvious blow to EE's confidence such that he's now making a lot of mistakes (including missed FTs and ball fumbling) that he wasn't having problems with previously. Meanwhile, Mo is doing a decent job putting the ball in the hoop, but he continues to provide almost nothing other than that. The next time I see him put a body on someone when the ball is shot on the defensive end will be the first, which is the biggest of a lot of egregious errors. It's my opinion that more than anything else, the early-season team was better than the current team due to Mo taking a lot of EE's minutes.
3. DeAndre gained a ton of confidence in his ability to get to the hoop that game. That, in turn, appears to have eliminated any and all thoughts he previously had to shoot outside, and because he won't shoot outside, defenders are having a much easier time defending him by just sinking about 3-6 feet off into the lane and picking his pocket or blocking him as he continues to drive into the lane.

IMO these three things were very devastating to the team and their confidence. Can it be fixed? Maybe. Dre needs to regain full mobility and confidence. Malik needs to realize how good he can be and get his head in the game (esp. defensive end). EE needs to regain his playing time. Mo can score significantly better, but EE is by far the more valuable player to the team (although apparently Pitino disagrees with me, since Mo has assumed a ton of new playing time). DeAndre needs to quit trying to drive every time and actually put up those open shots to start making the D play honest.

Just the way I saw/see it.

I pretty much agree with all of this. I don't think you can do anything at this point about the most important thing, though, which is Andre's injury. Too late to let him sit out longer, which is maybe what they should've done in the first place.

I do agree very much on the importance of EE, and that the team is better off with him on the floor -- when he's playing well. I think, however, that a fourth-year B1G player and team captain needs to summon the mental toughness to continue to play at a high level even when his minutes SLIGHTLY decrease due to some good offensive play by his backup. Pitino has kept EE as the starter every game, and it's not like his minutes went from 30 to 8 or something ... more like going from about 24-26 to about 18-20. The team needs him to step up and be the player he was earlier in the year, simple as that.

 

[Seany]

Just got finished watching this traveshamockery, and damn. This was a really, really, really tough loss to swallow. Well, not so much the fact we lost, as given how poorly we played, we absolutely deserved to, but just in giving away a game like that at home against a team which had been struggling terribly.

We pretty much flat-out sucked in virtually all assets, while on the flip-side, the Illini took full advantage of our suckitude and were simply the better team on Wednesday night, which was a bitter pill indeed, as it is galling to see your team lose games at home they've no right losing and which they absolutely cannot afford to, but yet still they do, and that made even worse by the thought that hey, this might just be the one that keeps us out of the tournament.

But what can you do (except for the love of fricken God try and play better the next game), as that's just basketball, a game in which there are inexplicable failures all the time.