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

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tinyarch said:
I listened to Coach P on Gopher's weekly last night. He is not taking this game lightly at all and he's not going to let the team take it lightly either. He was calling for the Barn to rock like it did against ohio and becky.

I'm not sure if there is another thread regarding the weekly, but it was great to hear Coach talk. Two things that stood out. First, he said that the Gopher's defense has been very solid despite what Amelia says (yes, he called out Amelia). He claimed that the problem was that the kids would commit a foul late in the shot clock. Second, he talked about calling Elliot to get into the game and watching Elliot jump up, slip on his own towel and face plant on to the hardwood. He said it was one of the funniest things he's seen and he wished that the camera's had caught it. Thankfully Elliot jumped right up and wasn't hurt. Coach is great to listen to.
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From the Barn said:
I hope he doesn't believe that the defense is any good, and that he's just sticking up for his guys. The defense is horrible. Avoiding stupid fouls is probably the most important part of defense, right after getting defensive rebounds. Gophers are bad at both.
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He was talking mostly about the D in the second half against Northwestern. The defense was very solid. They held them to 20 pts in the second half and 30% shooting.......25% in the second half. Learn to know what you are talking about.
 

station19 said:
He was talking mostly about the D in the second half against Northwestern. The defense was very solid. They held them to 20 pts in the second half and 30% shooting.......25% in the second half. Learn to know what you are talking about.
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I know exactly what I'm talking about. But thanks.
 

From the Barn said:
PPG is meaingless. Points per possession matters a lot more.

Opponent Average PPP in BIG play PPP allowed by Gophers
NU .878 1.013
Purdue .991 1.006
Indiana .973 .95
Wisconsin 1.122 1.18
NU .878 .81

So what the last 5 actually say is the defense was above average vs. NU on Sunday, about average against Indiana, and pretty horrible the other 3 games.
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I don't know if I would call Wisconsin and Purdue pretty horrible... It's slightly worse than the average.
 


The defense in general isn't very good, though they do seem to have an ability to dial it up when need be. That being said, against Illinois it shouldn't matter. They love shooting jumpers and they're terrible at it. Just need to get the rebounds (and there should be plenty of them) and avoid turning the ball over on the other end.
 



mcal24 said:
I don't know if I would call Wisconsin and Purdue pretty horrible... It's slightly worse than the average.
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Fine, let's go with slightly worse than average. 1 Horrible,1 good, 1 average, and 2 slightly worse than average games represents the best stretch of defense the team has played this season. That is a huge problem.
 

From the Barn said:
PPG is meaingless. Points per possession matters a lot more.

Opponent Average PPP in BIG play PPP allowed by Gophers
NU .878 1.013
Purdue .991 1.006
Indiana .973 .95
Wisconsin 1.122 1.18
NU .878 .81

So what the last 5 actually say is the defense was above average vs. NU on Sunday, about average against Indiana, and pretty horrible the other 3 games.
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I wouldn't call it meaningless afterall the only stat that matters is the scoreboard, as long as the offense clicks I think any coach in America would take 60ppg. However it's those days you gove up 87 or 94 that will kill you, but I guess that would go without saying.
 

Down with Goldy said:
The defense in general isn't very good, though they do seem to have an ability to dial it up when need be. That being said, against Illinois it shouldn't matter. They love shooting jumpers and they're terrible at it. Just need to get the rebounds (and there should be plenty of them) and avoid turning the ball over on the other end.
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Yeah, our guards must stay at home and defensive rebound against Illinois, they miss badly and produce many looooong rebounds with back iron bricks. We can't give them second chances.
 



From the Barn said:
PPG is meaingless. Points per possession matters a lot more.

Opponent Average PPP in BIG play PPP allowed by Gophers
NU .878 1.013
Purdue .991 1.006
Indiana .973 .95
Wisconsin 1.122 1.18
NU .878 .81

So what the last 5 actually say is the defense was above average vs. NU on Sunday, about average against Indiana, and pretty horrible the other 3 games.
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Stats without context are meaningless. These stats don't say as much about our defense as it says about our defensive rebounding and offensive turn overs. We gave up a ton of easy buckets in those games which makes another teams offense look great. Even though our half court defense was decent, it was the 20 points on layups we gave up on T/Os and put backs in the paint that screwed us (and why we lost two of those games we should have won!)
 

You can be critical of the defense, but look at this roster at its current state:
* Andre is on one leg...his lateral movement is lacking.
* Mathieu is quick, but also short and prone to foul trouble (thus, all we show for majority of game is a token press)
* King has given us some offense as of late at 4 position, but he's a liability on defense.
* Elliot looks bad at moments, but I think a lot falls on him when others are either gambling or just flat out bad on defense assignments.
* Austin and McNeil are solid on defense.
* Mo and Malik are more of the mindset that their offense will outscore their defensive inefficiencies.
* Oto and Mav are just buying time for others to get back on court.

With all that said, we're still in contention for an at-large bid.
 


Shawn Bradley Guy said:
You can be critical of the defense, but look at this roster at its current state:
* Mathieu is quick, but also short and prone to foul trouble (thus, all we show for majority of game is a token press)
* Elliot looks bad at moments, but I think a lot falls on him when others are either gambling or just flat out bad on defense assignments.
* Austin and McNeil are solid on defense.
* Mo and Malik are more of the mindset that their offense will outscore their defensive inefficiencies.
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McNeil really struggles with young-guy fouls. He'll get better, but right now he's a big time foul machine.

Mathieu may be too cautious at times.

Mo and King foul with shocking frequency.

The Minnesota defense isn't good. Illinois' offense isn't good. Gophers can't bail them out -- make the Illini beat you by shooting well, not by getting to the line or a lot of second chance, high-percentage shots.
 



Video of Pitino discussing the Illinois game:


Go Gophers!!
 




I'm looking for Mathieu to have a big game tonight. Illinois just isn't quick enough to guard him.
 

afurry91 said:
Lol. So much emotion.
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The way to make me smile right now is to replay from the :14 mark over and over and over and over. Its almost as good as "Playoffs?!?!" I'm unsure if it was unintentional but I freaken love it.

I've admitted it before, but my mancrush on coach P is overflowing.
 


Taking my dad to the game tonight. Super pumped.

thats all i got.
 

Taking my brother as well for his birthday! Should be a wild time!!
 



Will only be able to watch the first half. Might be best this way, now I won't be worrying about losing to the worst team in the conference.
 

It sure would be nice to see a low turnover game by the boys.
 

afurry91 said:
Hey if ya can't blow out a last place team at home, who can you blow out?
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Gophers have a good habit of not blowing out any decent opponents, yet sticking in every game (other than Arkansas). One of those teams that plays a lot of close games, just the way it is. I'll be happily surprised if the Gophers get a blowout win. Expecting less.
 

MadtownGopher said:
Will only be able to watch the first half. Might be best this way, now I won't be worrying about losing to the worst team in the conference.
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Mom not gonna let you stay up late with the 8pm start? Bummer, madison wisconsin guy.
 



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