Minnesota suffers first loss of season 67-75 in Big Ten opener against Michigan State | Gopherhole

Donate To GopherHole


Is this what a well coached team looks like. I saw plays that got us open looks. A team on the floor vs. individuals playing. A defense that maximizes what we have and hides our weaknesses. Color me impressed. We were outmatched athletically, but BJ went toe to toe with one of the greats of college basketball coaching and did not look like he was out of place.
 

gophernut1 said:
Is this what a well coached team looks like. I saw plays that got us open looks. A team on the floor vs. individuals playing. A defense that maximizes what we have and hides our weaknesses. Color me impressed. We were outmatched athletically, but BJ went toe to toe with one of the greats of college basketball coaching and did not look like he was out of place.
Click to expand...
I think this is what we all thought would happen, but man we played hard. Could have given up and lost by 25. Dont know what the rest of the season will bring us, but have to think were on our way up after this game. Like what I see from johnson as a coach. If pitino was coaching with this group we lose by 30.
 

gophereric30 said:
I think this is what we all thought would happen, but man we played hard. Could have given up and lost by 25. Dont know what the rest of the season will bring us, but have to think were on our way up after this game. Like what I see from johnson as a coach. If pitino was coaching with this group we lose by 30.
Click to expand...
Complete spitball guess here. But I’ll say 15-17 wins. Hopefully they win the three NC games left., and then they gut out some wins against Nebraska, Penn State, Northwestern and Rutgers. They’ll have to have a couple hot shooting nights to upset a couple teams and teach 17 wins. But that might get them an NIT invite? I’d call that a win this year.
 









hungan1 said:
This team has spirit and are fighters. They are fun to watch.

They will upset some teams along the way. I hope they happen at The Barn.

The key is to stay healthy.
Click to expand...
Have to stay healthy and shots have to fall. Has been well documented that they are sacrificing offensive boards in order to get back on defense so if the initial shots aren't falling like last night, they are going to be in trouble since there won't be a ton of second chance opportunities to be had.

In the game thread some were comparing the 3 point shooting to last year and yes, while the percentage of made 3s was similar, it didn't feel like they were taking bad 3s and the guys taking them have shown they can make them, they just had an off night. You can see the system they are trying to run on offense and defense. There were many times under Pitino where there was really no identity at all to the team, just looked like 5 guys out there playing pickup ball.
 

This was the best D team we have faced. MSU focused on defending the 3. My guess is that will be the norm going forward. MSU had the luxury to rotate 3 different defenders on Battle and pretty much kept Payton and others out of the lane. Gotta get Sutherlin back to full strength
 

GoldenMAV30266 said:
Complete spitball guess here. But I’ll say 15-17 wins. Hopefully they win the three NC games left., and then they gut out some wins against Nebraska, Penn State, Northwestern and Rutgers. They’ll have to have a couple hot shooting nights to upset a couple teams and teach 17 wins. But that might get them an NIT invite? I’d call that a win this year.
Click to expand...

You forgot Maryland. They're having some issues this season. They should win their remaining nonconference games as those feature a weaker group of opponents than they've beaten already. That gives them a base of 10 wins. If they win 8 (maybe 7) conference games, they should get an NIT bid provided that the NIT tournament is played this year and returns to a 32 team tournament (up from 16 last season).
 



gophernut1 said:
Is this what a well coached team looks like. I saw plays that got us open looks. A team on the floor vs. individuals playing. A defense that maximizes what we have and hides our weaknesses. Color me impressed. We were outmatched athletically, but BJ went toe to toe with one of the greats of college basketball coaching and did not look like he was out of place.
Click to expand...
Agree 100%. Constant ball and player movement. Tough D. Mostly quality shots. Really liked the fight and effort. They were down the most of the game and my wife said “why are you watching this they are down by like 20 and there were s only like 11 minutes left” I replied with “that’s an eternity in college basketball and this team doesn’t quit. It’s not Pitino’s Gophers anymore it’s Ben Johnson’s”. She was like ok whatever. Trust me when they cut it to 6 late I definitely made sure she heard me. She was honestly very surprised. Fun game to watch.
 



I love Coach Johnson's demeanor on the sidelines. On a few of the bad calls that went against us, he stayed cool. Instead of screaming or whining, you could see him calmly talking to the officials. That will gain him respect, and hopefully the benefit of doubt on calls in the future. He always seems to be under control and has a calm intensity about him. It also seems like our players spend less time/energy reacting to bad calls. At times, they will turn to complain, but catch themselves and own up to it. It must be something this staff has emphasized. It's not an easy thing to do, but I really respect it.
 

go_gophers said:
I love Coach Johnson's demeanor on the sidelines. On a few of the bad calls that went against us, he stayed cool. Instead of screaming or whining, you could see him calmly talking to the officials. That will gain him respect, and hopefully the benefit of doubt on calls in the future. He always seems to be under control and has a calm intensity about him. It also seems like our players spend less time/energy reacting to bad calls. At times, they will turn to complain, but catch themselves and own up to it. It must be something this staff has emphasized. It's not an easy thing to do, but I really respect it.
Click to expand...
Along those lines, I really like Loewe’s demeanor out there. MSU commits felony assault against him with no call, and Loewe just takes a second to brush it off before getting back to work. There have been a few times this year he hasn’t got the call, but he is all business.
 

MNVCGUY said:
Have to stay healthy and shots have to fall. Has been well documented that they are sacrificing offensive boards in order to get back on defense so if the initial shots aren't falling like last night, they are going to be in trouble since there won't be a ton of second chance opportunities to be had.

In the game thread some were comparing the 3 point shooting to last year and yes, while the percentage of made 3s was similar, it didn't feel like they were taking bad 3s and the guys taking them have shown they can make them, they just had an off night. You can see the system they are trying to run on offense and defense. There were many times under Pitino where there was really no identity at all to the team, just looked like 5 guys out there playing pickup ball.
Click to expand...
I was one of those.

I wanted them to draw up plays to get some open 2’s instead. Basketball is not just 3 point shots and layups.

Thats the only negative of the game for me. Otherwise I loved everything else
 

matt said:
Along those lines, I really like Loewe’s demeanor out there. MSU commits felony assault against him with no call, and Loewe just takes a second to brush it off before getting back to work. There have been a few times this year he hasn’t got the call, but he is all business.
Click to expand...
It reminds me of John Thomas at Purdue in 1997. Brian Cardinal gives him a cheap-shot shove in the back well after the whistle, and John just gives him a look over his shoulder like, really?

I love this team and how they play. Man, if they make the shots they normally make, this is a closely contested ballgame. They missed some early, and MSU played their usual good basketball, and I think our guys got discouraged a little and let down at times. It was this more than fatigue in my observation. You can bet the coaches are emphasizing, in future games, to just keep grinding and not let your heads get down.

What is Michigan State ranked? No. 22? I think they're easily top 20 and maybe top 15, and they played a good game last night, and the Gophers played sub-par and were still within range late. The Spartans have some things to clean up, but I'd be surprised if they're not playing in the second weekend of the Tournament.
 

There is absolutely 0 way to say the start of this year has been anything but a great success. The team is playing great, Ben seems to be set up for some nice success. Our only loss was a close-hard contested game against Mich St, there is no shame in that. The only bit of water I will put on the fire is that there is a lot of "this is my favorite team ever, man this is amazing, Ben is the best!" Thus far yes those are true, but I hazard a guess that if you comb through the boards around Jan 17th last year after beating Mich St, Iowa, OSU, and Michigan by 18 there was a lot of "This team is amazing, Pitino finally has it figured out, LOVE THIS TEAM" I very much hope after another 20+ games we are saying the same thing, but the MN Sports fan in me will remain a bit apprehensive until I get a bit bigger body of work. I don't think that is unreasonable. I have been wrong about this team thus far this year, I am very happy to say that. Well done team/Ben/program thus far!
 

I think some of the mistakes we made can be corrected and are coachable moments (e.g. not boxing out and allow MSU to get that rebound on the late free throw). You make just a few of those threes, and look out! I enjoyed the game last night...looking forward to the next one. I think we'll surprise a team or two this season.
 

leib0039 said:
There is absolutely 0 way to say the start of this year has been anything but a great success. The team is playing great, Ben seems to be set up for some nice success. Our only loss was a close-hard contested game against Mich St, there is no shame in that. The only bit of water I will put on the fire is that there is a lot of "this is my favorite team ever, man this is amazing, Ben is the best!" Thus far yes those are true, but I hazard a guess that if you comb through the boards around Jan 17th last year after beating Mich St, Iowa, OSU, and Michigan by 18 there was a lot of "This team is amazing, Pitino finally has it figured out, LOVE THIS TEAM" I very much hope after another 20+ games we are saying the same thing, but the MN Sports fan in me will remain a bit apprehensive until I get a bit bigger body of work. I don't think that is unreasonable. I have been wrong about this team thus far this year, I am very happy to say that. Well done team/Ben/program thus far!
Click to expand...
I'm curious to see whether they can build on what they've already done over the rest of the season. We know that defense is an emphasis, but will they continue to sharpen and improve? Can they play composed and poised against the better teams, or will they wilt under the heat? From this point forward, it's almost all really good teams.

I like that they have seven players they can trust. We weren't sure of that at the start. Sure it'd be better if they had nine, but at least we have seven.
 

Besides wishing they would have shot better last night, seemed like Sutherlin wasn't sure about going to the hoop for awhile. (Maybe it was the knee thing.) Hopefully he gained some confidence on that slash to the rim and dunk towards the end.
 

I'll add one piece of disappointment. We know 1) Sparty likes to run when they have an opportunity, and 2) the Gophers don't crash the offensive boards because they want to get back on defense, and they pride themselves on getting back on defense and not getting beat in transition. MSU beat us in transition at least a couple times, once off a made free throw, which shouldn't happen.
 

Bad Gopher said:
I'll add one piece of disappointment. We know 1) Sparty likes to run when they have an opportunity, and 2) the Gophers don't crash the offensive boards because they want to get back on defense, and they pride themselves on getting back on defense and not getting beat in transition. MSU beat us in transition at least a couple times, once off a made free throw, which shouldn't happen.
Click to expand...
I noticed the same thing. That’s a wake up call to the team about the athletes and effort level they will face day in and day out in conference play.
 

Good effort, good game, sometimes things just don't go your way.
 


I know I'm probably drinking the Kool Aid when I write this but I feel like this is a safe space where I am surrounded by people with a little red mustaches.

But I came out of this game maybe even more pumped up about our team and definitely more pumped up about our future (and I was already stoked).

Michigan State is a real team. They have a lot of athletes, skill guys, they are the typical Michigan State team. They are not going to lose very many games where they shoot almost 50% from three.

I also don't think we played particularly well. Obviously a lot of that is from MSU, but some of it is just happens. We missed a number of easy looks. I think we took some shots too quickly, especially early in the game and there were a couple of times we lost people in transition. We also missed a number of open threes (we also took more contested ones too).

If you would have told me a month ago to guess the score in a game where Michigan State is hitting their 3s, we are missing easy baskets, and we aren't hitting our 3s. . . I would have guessed we'd lose by 20-30.

The reason we stuck in the game was because we still played really smart basketball. We almost never turned the ball over. We kept spacing on offense. We didn't always take the best shots but we still used winning concepts. We challenge on defense and they play really hard. I was curious to see what happened the first time we got "punched" and they responded like someone who has been in a ton of fights and expects to win.

We lost. We did some bad things. But I think we're going to continue to be a tough out every night.
 


You must log in or register to reply here.



Top Bottom