***OFFICIAL BALL STATE AT MINNESOTA IN-GAME THREAD!!!***

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Chico Gopher said:
Nice game. Peaks and Valleys. Good turnover numbers, though the pace of the game was slower than the Gophers have been trying to play this season. Credit to Ball State for keeping it a half-court game most of the way.

Gotta give credit where credit is due. Kira, the analyst is much improved. I think her job tonight might be the best, and most consistent that anybody has done in the 2nd chair on a Gophers Big 10+ broadcast in the 2 seasons I've watched. I thought she made several great points (the same observations that I would expect from a professional analyst), was concise with decent pace and actually sounded as if she'd spent some time hanging around the gym and doing her homework. IMO, she is much improved in the last 2 months. Don't know if anybody here has any contact with her instructors or mentors, but color me impressed with her efforts tonight. Still rough around the edges, but for the first time, I actually felt that somebody on a Big 10 + Gophers basketball broadcast really showed some promise. I think she deserves a pat on the back. Keep getting better kid!!
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This the same gal from the first BTN+ game? The one who sounded scared and confused about the sports ball match? If so.....huge improvement.
 



couldn't watch at 7. I'm halfway through the recording but my god—Isaiah Inhen is legitimately this man's Kryptonite. His code cannot process the input: Isaiah Inhen causing total system failure. cracking me up. also seems to be oblivious to his co-host’s correct pronunciation a number of different times.

Uhn-een
EEn-EE-en
EEn-EE-nun
En-hEEn
EE-non
EEn-ian
en-EEn-ian
EE-nen-EEn
en-EE-nen-EEn
 

Go4POV said:
His poor free throw shooting is a liability. Since we will need his minutes to rebound and he can not shoot other than layups or dunks, he will get fouled. Teams will just play hack-a-shaq when he goes to the hoop In a close game
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Fox wont even be in the game when we need to hit free throws. Another genius take!
 


UpAndUnder43 said:
I assume you’re free to leave and return for the men’s game?
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I have tickets to both so I won’t be testing the system.
gophereric30 said:
Fox wont even be in the game when we need to hit free throws. Another genius take!
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I’m still mystified how someone playing basketball for so many years, practicing almost literally, everyday, can be such horrendous free throw shooters. The frightening part about Fox is that last night was not a pressure situation. The game was in hand. What happens when you’re down three with a minute to go? I suppose it can’t get worse than zero for five.
 

gophereric30 said:
Fox wont even be in the game when we need to hit free throws. Another genius take!
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Don't we always need to hit free throws? Did I say he'd be in the game in the final minutes in a close game? Disagreeing with someone is one thing, being a jerk about it is , well, you know ...
 


Bayfieldgopher said:
Not anymore than Hawkins inability to defend in the paint. Every player has a liability. The ones that hurt the team the most are the players that should get limited minutes. Fox makes things happen and most are good. Same with Hawkins the past 3-4 games.
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They have to develop a system to help out Hawkins when he has to defend in the paint, otherwise he will just be exploited each and every game.
 
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gophereric30 said:
Fox wont even be in the game when we need to hit free throws. Another genius take!
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I once did a rather in-depth analysis of free throw shooting in regards to games won/lost.
A finding which might surprise you: FT points scored early in a game count equally to your total points as FT points scored late in the game.
 

jovs said:
They have develop a system to help out Hawkins when he has to defend in the paint, otherwise he will just be exploited each and every game.
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Probably just my imagination, but it seemed like they were caught in switches defensively, Hawkins on Jihad for example, more than ever. Although it also seemed like they did do some digging on opposing players that had the ball down low.
Anderson torched them, obviously.
 

fan of Ray Williams said:
Probably just my imagination, but it seemed like they were caught in switches defensively, Hawkins on Jihad for example, more than ever. Although it also seemed like they did do some digging on opposing players that had the ball down low.
Anderson torched them, obviously.
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One thing I liked on defense last night was what Mitchell did twice. Both times he saw that the player with the ball had nowhere to pass but one way and Mitchell jumped that lane and got steals- one a break away layup. Those are huge.
 

bga1 said:
One thing I liked on defense last night was what Mitchell did twice. Both times he saw that the player with the ball had nowhere to pass but one way and Mitchell jumped that lane and got steals- one a break away layup. Those are huge.
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Have to admit, Mitchell has been a better player than I thought he would be.
 



fan of Ray Williams said:
Have to admit, Mitchell has been a better player than I thought he would be.
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Agreed. Also, a bit more competitive edge to him than I would have expected. One of our crew was grousing about getting a T in the Nebraska game, which isn't good, but we also haven't had a guy willing to mix it up much in a long time. Maybe Sutherland had a little of that in him in CBJ first year, but we have generally been pretty soft and reluctant to fight back. It needs to be corralled to prevent disaster, but it is nice to see fire in the belly of a player once in a while.
 

fan of Ray Williams said:
Probably just my imagination, but it seemed like they were caught in switches defensively, Hawkins on Jihad for example, more than ever. Although it also seemed like they did do some digging on opposing players that had the ball down low.
Anderson torched them, obviously.
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They don't fight through picks, not sure if they just always switch by design, if it's by design it works better if they have a bunch of 6'6" or 6'7" guys.
 
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Holy Man said:
Agreed. Also, a bit more competitive edge to him than I would have expected. One of our crew was grousing about getting a T in the Nebraska game, which isn't good, but we also haven't had a guy willing to mix it up much in a long time. Maybe Sutherland had a little of that in him in CBJ first year, but we have generally been pretty soft and reluctant to fight back. It needs to be corralled to prevent disaster, but it is nice to see fire in the belly of a player once in a while.
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Gotta agree with your compadre, the Nebraska one was a little over the top, but he does seem like he will compete.
 

MNVCGUY said:
It feels like Mitchell and Hawkins are really settling in and figuring out how to function at this level. Have been really impressed with Mitchell's offensive game. He is very wiling to take the shot.
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Me, too, just wish he went to the line a little more often.
 


on FT - in a tight, late-game situation, the ball is more often than not going to be in the hands of the guards. If Fox is on the court, you can have him make the entry pass on out-of-bounds plays - because he does appear to be a good passer.

FWIW - FT % thru 12 games
Betts 100%
Mitchell 85.7%
Garcia 85.5%
JOJ 80.8%
Carrington 78.9%
Hawkins 77.8%
Christie 76.2%
Ihnen 58.3%
Fox 44.4%
Payne 41.2%
Wilson 25.5%
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Team - 70.7%
 

short ornery norwegian said:
on FT - in a tight, late-game situation, the ball is more often than not going to be in the hands of the guards. If Fox is on the court, you can have him make the entry pass on out-of-bounds plays - because he does appear to be a good passer.

FWIW - FT % thru 12 games
Betts 100%
Mitchell 85.7%
Garcia 85.5%
JOJ 80.8%
Carrington 78.9%
Hawkins 77.8%
Christie 76.2%
Ihnen 58.3%
Fox 44.4%
Payne 41.2%
Wilson 25.5%
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Team - 70.7%
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Significant improvement from last year in this department. If we get into some close games in conference play going to the line will hopefully not kill us. Biggest frustration is that Payne will have to be on the bench late in tight games to keep teams from just hacking him and sending him to the line. Was hoping we would see more improvement out of him at the line in year 2 but so far that does not appear to be the case.
 

MNVCGUY said:
Significant improvement from last year in this department. If we get into some close games in conference play going to the line will hopefully not kill us. Biggest frustration is that Payne will have to be on the bench late in tight games to keep teams from just hacking him and sending him to the line. Was hoping we would see more improvement out of him at the line in year 2 but so far that does not appear to be the case.
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It is frustrating about Payne. I think he will get better- his form is decent. It's mental, right now he treats a free throw shot like a hot potato - he just wants to get rid of it. He needs to slow down a tad and he will be all right. If he can become a 60% plus FT shooter (which he can) in the second half of the year- it's worth the risk of having him on the floor.
 

bga1 said:
It is frustrating about Payne. I think he will get better- his form is decent. It's mental, right now he treats a free throw shot like a hot potato - he just wants to get rid of it. He needs to slow down a tad and he will be all right. If he can become a 60% plus FT shooter (which he can) in the second half of the year- it's worth the risk of having him on the floor.
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Yep....can live with 60% from a big guy. Sub 50% is much tougher to swallow. It is weird because watching him at the line it seems like he is doing ok but then you see the percentage and it is really low. Hopefully he gets it figured out because it will make him even more valuable if teams can't afford to just put him on the line late in games.
 

MNVCGUY said:
Significant improvement from last year in this department. If we get into some close games in conference play going to the line will hopefully not kill us. Biggest frustration is that Payne will have to be on the bench late in tight games to keep teams from just hacking him and sending him to the line. Was hoping we would see more improvement out of him at the line in year 2 but so far that does not appear to be the case.
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IMO free throw shooting at this level is probably 80% mental. I mean, by the time these guys get to this level, they have shot 100,000 free throws in almost every situation we can imagine. Unless their shooting form is completely jacked up (which rarely seems to be the actual problem) it seems to be mostly a matter of a players 100% belief that he's making the free throw with-out even thinking about it.

Lots of different things can crop up from game to game, minute to minute that can mess with a players confidence to make any given free throw.

Or maybe, "for a reason I can't explain, my finger was a quarter inch off from where it usually is when I shoot, and I missed. And now I'm wondering why I missed that first one and damm, I just missed another one!"
 

Chico Gopher said:
IMO free throw shooting at this level is probably 80% mental. I mean, by the time these guys get to this level, they have shot 100,000 free throws in almost every situation we can imagine. Unless their shooting form is completely jacked up (which rarely seems to be the actual problem) it seems to be mostly a matter of a players 100% belief that he's making the free throw with-out even thinking about it.

Lots of different things can crop up from game to game, minute to minute that can mess with a players confidence to make any given free throw.

Or maybe, "for a reason I can't explain, my finger was a quarter inch off from where it usually is when I shoot, and I missed. And now I'm wondering why I missed that first one and damm, I just missed another one!"
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Paralysis by analysis
 

Thus far 2 players have started in all 12 games, Hawkins and Ola-Joseph
5 have appeared in all 12, add Ihnen, Mitchell and Fox to the above
Hawkins has the 3rd most rebounds on the team with 47, Garcia 67, Payne 54
Ola-Joseph is shooting .611 from 3, Christie is at .426, Mitchell .391
Hawkins leads in total minutes played, averaging 28.8
Parker Fox is .815 inside the arc
Mitchell leads in 3 point attempts with 64, Christie has 54
In spite of missing 3 games, Garcia still leads in FG attempts with 112, Mitchell with 107
Hawkins with 33 turnovers and Mitchell with 23
Mitchell leading all regular rotation players with .857 from the line
Really amazing stat is Garcia with only 8 fouls on the year
 

fan of Ray Williams said:
Thus far 2 players have started in all 12 games, Hawkins and Ola-Joseph
5 have appeared in all 12, add Ihnen, Mitchell and Fox to the above
Hawkins has the 3rd most rebounds on the team with 47, Garcia 67, Payne 54
Ola-Joseph is shooting .611 from 3, Christie is at .426, Mitchell .391
Hawkins leads in total minutes played, averaging 28.8
Parker Fox is .815 inside the arc
Mitchell leads in 3 point attempts with 64, Christie has 54
In spite of missing 3 games, Garcia still leads in FG attempts with 112, Mitchell with 107
Hawkins with 33 turnovers and Mitchell with 23
Mitchell leading all regular rotation players with .857 from the line
Really amazing stat is Garcia with only 8 fouls on the year
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Pretty sure the answers will be all over the place, but I'm interested in what we think about this. With-out references or even considering any statistics; strictly your "Eye Test"; which 2 players have been the most important when the Gophers are playing well? And, with-out any reliance on stats, what are they doing that make you believe they are the best?
 

Chico Gopher said:
Pretty sure the answers will be all over the place, but I'm interested in what we think about this. With-out references or even considering any statistics; strictly your "Eye Test"; which 2 players have been the most important when the Gophers are playing well? And, with-out any reliance on stats, what are they doing that make you believe they are the best?
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Most important and best are different categories for me and could easily arrive at different conclusions. I’d put Hawkins in important because if the need for a point guard to control the game, care for the ball and make open shots. When he hasn’t cared for the ball, we have been awful. I would also put Garcia in the important category because he is the one guy on the roster who can take over a game almost by himself. The embarrassment at Ohio State was much less so because he demanded the ball and scored. He single handed got them back in the game after the disastrous start.
 

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