***OFFICIAL ARKANSAS PINE-BLUFF AT MINNESOTA IN-GAME THREAD!!!***

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CPTMidnight said:
It is possible that Ben was trying some different things and did not care if APB closed the gap at times. I was not watching that closely.
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seems CBJ does that every game. is this team just soft? borrowing from andrew lloyd webber: they're not good, they're not bad, they're just nice
 


CentralGopher said:
Dude plays some of the best D out there and you want to sit him.
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I just dont see what you see. He got bowled over by a 205 pound guard that looked really good. He is out of position constantly. He is not strong enough to play 4s and not quick enough to play SF. He is a floater on defense and looking to get the weakside block. His team defense needs a lot of work. Payne needs to get healthy. No way he will be able to match up against big ten bigs for 25+ minutes.
 


rivergopher said:
I just dont see what you see. He got bowled over by a 205 pound guard that looked really good. He is out of position constantly. He is not strong enough to play 4s and not quick enough to play SF. He is a floater on defense and looking to get the weakside block. His team defense needs a lot of work. Payne needs to get healthy. No way he will be able to match up against big ten bigs for 25+ minutes.
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I agree!!!!
 



TD12 said:
Mitchell averaging 2.2 TO/Game and 2.2 Assists /game??? He just doesn't bring the value as a lead guard.
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The fact that he isn’t a lead guard primarily might lead us all to that conclusion. He needs to be serviceable for a handful of minutes per game, not number one point guard.
 

fan of Ray Williams said:
Hawkins had two spectacular feeds in a row at about the 6:00 mark in the 1st half. First one he penetrated the lane and fed Garcia an underhand pass for a slam and then had a steal and fed an alley oop to Ola-Joseph. Amazing plays.
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Both awesome passes and plays.

Only time all night there was any juice in the crowd.
 

Johnson went against what he normally does thus far this year and left Payne and Hawkins in with 2 fouls in the first half. Both picked up their 3rd in between the 4 and 3 minute mark.
Mitchell did handle the point for the last 3:20 of the 1st half after Hawkins picked up his 3rd foul.
 
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After all the dust settled and Gophers covered, all is fine. None of us should complain too much this early in the season as CBJ clearly was experimenting with reserves in second half. We had a nice lead, and its too bad Betts et al couldn't earn more minutes and close it out without starters having to come back in.
Moving forward, I think CBJ has learned that Hawkins IS our PG, not Christie, Mitchell, or even Carrington who are all loose with the ball. BTN teams will pressure MN.
Starters are Garcia, Hawkins, Payne, JOJ, Carrington. First subs in are Fox, Mitchell, Ihnen, and Christie. Need to see Thor in SF. MN is fine, and could win 10 BTN games with good inside out play.
 

TD12 said:
Ihnen needs to start playing like he is 6'10. Another guy who I call a "FLOATER" He wants to do 2 things, shoot the 3 and try to block shots. He hasn't shot the ball well since the first game. I would start Fox ahead of him..send him a message.
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Actually, 2nd game (UTSA) was when he had the unexpected explosion. He didn't take as many shots in the 3rd game (Missouri) but shot the ball pretty well in that one. I thought the game against Pine Bluff clearly was his worst. I almost wish he wouldn't have shot the 3 pointer so well against UTSA because I hate it when he settles for jacking up a bunch of those. His ball handling seems better now than it was before the injuries. He should take it inside more and use his length.
 

Ihnen is so long, and (at a lower level) plays like Kevin Durant. He needs to shot fake more, and weave to the basket with wide vision. Needs to earn his minutes after Payne comes back fully imho.
 



fan of Ray Williams said:
Johnson went against what he normally does thus far this year and left Payne and Hawkins in with 2 fouls in the first half. Both picked up their 3rd in between the 4 and 3 minute mark.
Mitchell did handle the point for the last 3:20 of the 1st half after Hawkins picked up his 3rd foul.
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For the most part, CBJ doesn’t have disciplined players. Leaving them in with two fouls is a mistake, especially against a cupcake. It takes a lot of care to dance around early fouls. Maybe he’s trying to see what might happen when playing a good team and there isn’t enough flexibility. But I doubt it.
 

TD12 said:
Ihnen needs to start playing like he is 6'10. Another guy who I call a "FLOATER" He wants to do 2 things, shoot the 3 and try to block shots. He hasn't shot the ball well since the first game. I would start Fox ahead of him..send him a message.
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I doubt he needs be sent that message...he's missed two years. He needs confidence not something else to worry about.
Pretend he's 6'3....he views himself as a point guard....he is what he is, not what some people want him to be.
Yet, he's in a group tied to be our second leading scorer, second leading rebounder, and second best three point shooter. He is our best perimeter defender. So, he is significantly contributing.
Until Christie came along I have been saying for years Ihnen has the most basketball potenntial of anyone on the team. He will get better, but he is not ever going to be an inside banger....he's a perimeter player.
 


MNVCGUY said:
Payne's number will go up as he gets healthy but nice to see a team with some depth that doesn't have to rely on the same 5-6 guys every night for heavy minutes. Hopefully that helps keep guys fresher as they get into the grind of the conference season.
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Payne's problem is probably going to bother him all season. It's hard for a foot injury to fully heal when you are playing basketball.
 

Holy Man said:
For the most part, CBJ doesn’t have disciplined players. Leaving them in with two fouls is a mistake, especially against a cupcake. It takes a lot of care to dance around early fouls. Maybe he’s trying to see what might happen when playing a good team and there isn’t enough flexibility. But I doubt it.
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Only thing I could come up with is that he figured he’d let them play because he has somewhat of a bench. Maybe with Payne, allow him to get some uninterrupted minutes. With Hawkins, I don’t know. He had that tough match up with Williams. But that being said, Hawkins had that nice little stretch with Garcia and Ola-Joseph after collecting his 2nd foul.
 

Chico Gopher said:
In watching the highlights this morning, I see that some of the Williams makes were on some pretty deep 3's (looked like one was at least 30 feet out) with a fairly decent close-outs coming at him on some of the makes. When I saw on Live Stats that he was knocking down all those early 3's, I was wondering about the defensive match-up and if his scoring was a result of poor defense or he was just having one of those nights.

Seems that he cooled off a lot, or the Gophers got into him better in the second half. The range that some of these players have now as compared to 10 years ago is amazing. Stephan Curry effect?
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He only hit one from 35 feet the second half. Several the first half. You usually don't want to try to guard a quick guy closely when he has the ball 35 feet from the basket. You let him shoot because most nights he's two for ten at best from that range.

Milton was the guy we entered the game wanting to stop. We did, mostly by Carrington.
 

I think with Hawkins he was experimenting...he's always going to have two fouls. Like death and taxes. If he doesn't, neither team has any team fouls. :)
 

Wet_Blanket_Guy said:
In response to you and @upnorthkid : After not watching the second half one could make the argument that, purely looking at a box score, that isn’t the worst shot distribution in the world. Of the 2pts, how many were long 2s? That’s the worst shot in basketball and you are statistically better to take a step back and shoot the 3pt shot. In the first half I saw a ton of good looks from 3, they just didn’t drop (Carrington should be told not to shoot it unless he at first goes hard to the rim and makes a layup and hits a free throw first). Also, the overwhelming height advantage we had goes both ways…yes we should’ve pounded it down their throats for layups (think Payne in the first half when he had a hell of a seal deep on the block)…but one could say shooters could’ve felt more confident when shooting treys that we would’ve most likely gotten the offensive rebounds.

Again, didn’t watch the second half because of apathy due to opponent.
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My view is : under what circumstances are the threes being taken?
The 3s we took last night were far too often taken without probing the defense.
An early in the clock 3 should only be shot wide open by one of the best shooters on the team.
Too many early 3s against a team we should physically dominate IMO
It appeared to me that the guys all knew that victory was certain so everyone wanted their turns at scoring. I thought Ben corrected that in that last 10 minutes and it looked better
 

EG#9 said:
We've had a bad half in every game now. Lost the second half to Bethune Cookman 38-34, won the second half vs UTSA 48-46, lost second half 38-30 vs Missouri, won the first half vs SC Upstate 31-29, won the second half vs UAPB 35-31. It appears not to be just one thing... giving up 46 points in a half to UTSA is inexcusable as is only scoring 35 in a half against a Pine Bluff team that gave up 100 to Incarnate Word and Missouri.

San Francisco will be a bigger test, but a win also likely won't mean anything on our resume. They have lost to Boise State and Grand Canyon already.
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I agree that San Francisco won't mean much on our resume, but Boise St is a projected NCAA tournament team and Grand Canyon was the preseason pick to win the WAC. Both are very solid teams.
 

Holy Man said:
For the most part, CBJ doesn’t have disciplined players. Leaving them in with two fouls is a mistake, especially against a cupcake. It takes a lot of care to dance around early fouls. Maybe he’s trying to see what might happen when playing a good team and there isn’t enough flexibility. But I doubt it.
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We do have a bunch of undisciplined players (unfortunately).

But generally speaking- coaches place way too much emphasis on early foul trouble, and overreact when automatically pulling a kid with two first half fouls.

Obviously some of this depend on which player, but picking up two quick fouls shouldn't guarantee you spend the rest of the half on the bench.
 

At the 18:10 mark of the 2nd half Johnson replaces all 5 right after Hawkins tried to feed Ola-Joseph and it ended up a turnover. Prior to that Carrington had missed on a drive to the basket, appeared that he might have been upset about not getting the foul called. AK-PB misses a runner and then Garcia missed terribly on a 3 pointer. At the other end Carrington does a good job defensively on Milton. Garcia rebounds the miss and Ola-Joseph is blocked at the other end. Williams takes a 3 pointer that Ola-Joseph didn't seem to have any interest in contesting. Another defensive rebound by Garcia, the failed pass from Hawkins to Ola-Joseph and everyone comes out.
He had them ready to go in prior to the last turnover. So that wasn't what prompted it.
Guess we haven't seen that since Tubby.
 
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fan of Ray Williams said:
At the 18:10 mark of the 2nd half Johnson replaces all 5 right after Hawkins tried to feed Ola-Joseph and it ended up a turnover. Prior to that Carrington had missed on a drive to the basket, appeared that he might have been upset about not getting the foul called. AK-PB misses a runner and then Garcia missed terribly on a 3 pointer. At the other end Carrington does a good job defensively on Milton. Garcia rebounds the miss and Ola-Joseph is blocked at the other end. Williams takes a 3 pointer that Ola-Joseph didn't seem to have any interest in contesting. Another defensive rebound by Garcia, the failed pass from Hawkins to Ola-Joseph and everyone comes out.
He had them ready to go in prior to the last turnover. So that wasn't what prompted it.
Guess we haven't seen that since Tubby.
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I believe it was the defense and the lack of defense... Lots of guys standing around not helping.

Lack of hussle as well
 

fan of Ray Williams said:
At the 18:10 mark of the 2nd half Johnson replaces all 5 right after Hawkins tried to feed Ola-Joseph and it ended up a turnover. Prior to that Carrington had missed on a drive to the basket, appeared that he might have been upset about not getting the foul called. AK-PB misses a runner and then Garcia missed terribly on a 3 pointer. At the other end Carrington does a good job defensively on Milton. Garcia rebounds the miss and Ola-Joseph is blocked at the other end. Williams takes a 3 pointer that Ola-Joseph didn't seem to have any interest in contesting. Another defensive rebound by Garcia, the failed pass from Hawkins to Ola-Joseph and everyone comes out.
He had them ready to go in prior to the last turnover. So that wasn't what prompted it.
Guess we haven't seen that since Tubby.
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I definitely wasn't expecting him to make that move, but was refreshed to see it after the poor start. It's nice being able to take guys out when they don't bring it.
 

60's Guy said:
I doubt he needs be sent that message...he's missed two years. He needs confidence not something else to worry about.
Pretend he's 6'3....he views himself as a point guard....he is what he is, not what some people want him to be.
Yet, he's in a group tied to be our second leading scorer, second leading rebounder, and second best three point shooter. He is our best perimeter defender. So, he is significantly contributing.
Until Christie came along I have been saying for years Ihnen has the most basketball potenntial of anyone on the team. He will get better, but he is not ever going to be an inside banger....he's a perimeter player.
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Agreed that Ihnen is a perimeter player, and there are many that want to make him a power forward and keep him close to the basket. That's not his makeup, and I've coached enough kids to know that when they're "basket facing" players, it's awfully hard to get them to adopt turnarounds, jump hooks, etc. from the post.

That doesn't mean he can't be effective, he will be, although I thought he played poorly last night. Good defender, can rebound, and he can shoot it. He does have limitations in terms of his passing and decision-making, and his rotations on defense at times. He has put the ball on the floor and driven to the basket occasionally, and he'll need to continue that as guys press up on him. But he won't be a true post player, no matter what anybody wants to try.

And one thing left unsaid that I saw in the game. Carrington has stunk up the place with his shooting, and he's even fallen down a few times for no apparent reason, but he was the guy often guarding Milton, who was their leading scorer and was somewhere close to top five in the country in scoring average-I know all their games weren't against North Carolina, but that kid is good. I think he was 2 for 7 from the field in this game. Carrington's shooting will emerge at some point, and the guy is right now their best defender and he can rebound. He's got a good future on this team, and helps in a lot of ways beyond his scoring.
 

Formerswish said:
Agreed that Ihnen is a perimeter player, and there are many that want to make him a power forward and keep him close to the basket. That's not his makeup, and I've coached enough kids to know that when they're "basket facing" players, it's awfully hard to get them to adopt turnarounds, jump hooks, etc. from the post.

That doesn't mean he can't be effective, he will be, although I thought he played poorly last night. Good defender, can rebound, and he can shoot it. He does have limitations in terms of his passing and decision-making, and his rotations on defense at times. He has put the ball on the floor and driven to the basket occasionally, and he'll need to continue that as guys press up on him. But he won't be a true post player, no matter what anybody wants to try.

And one thing left unsaid that I saw in the game. Carrington has stunk up the place with his shooting, and he's even fallen down a few times for no apparent reason, but he was the guy often guarding Milton, who was their leading scorer and was somewhere close to top five in the country in scoring average-I know all their games weren't against North Carolina, but that kid is good. I think he was 2 for 7 from the field in this game. Carrington's shooting will emerge at some point, and the guy is right now their best defender and he can rebound. He's got a good future on this team, and helps in a lot of ways beyond his scoring.
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Carrington feel like Kalscheur part two to me. Does a lot of good things but seems to get in his own head on shooting
 


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