The gap in talent between BC and Minnesota was quite large. The gap on the scoreboard was not. I actually thought the team was playing very good defense to start the game. BC was struggling to even get the ball inside in the arc and was forced to settle for low percentage shots. Unfortunately the Gophers offense was bad with unforced turnovers and poor shooting. My opinion is the poor shooting affected the defensive effort and lead to some very uninspired minutes and a ridiculous 15 point deficit. This team needs to run an offensive system of some sort. They just don't freestyle well even if Both and Marcus are capable of making 1 on 1 attacks. One of the worst possessions of the game was in the first half where Marcus Carr took a no pass 3 and then allowed a transition layup in one on one defense on the other end. The best player on the team can't take a bad shot and then give poor effort on the other end.
The end of the 2nd half was why it's going to be hard to ever win with Pitino. Two point lead and like a 5 second difference between the game and shot clock. The ball simply cannot hit Inhen's hands there. As soon as Both got the ball off the Marcus Carr trap, he's got to hold it. Take a timeout if you get trapped like Marcus did. Pitino had to be at the ready to call a timeout there and he wasn't. The predictable two misses from Ihnen (a Gopher tradition!) then BC scores on the other end. Marcus wanted to go fast and get a shot, but Pitino calls a timeout. The result is BC completely shuts down the "play" forces Carr to his weak hand (and the sideline) and we settle for essentially a half court heave when we had 5 seconds and were in the double bonus. These things simply cannot happen and they just consistently happen late with Pitino. There were huge tactical errors last year that lead to blown late leads against Purdue, Iowa, and Maryland and the end game tonight was very reminiscent of those.
On the plus side, I really liked what I saw from Ihnen on the boards and defensively in the second half tonight. His length is a problem for players, but he's high waisted and not very strong so it's important to put him in the right positions to have the most impact. Jamal Mashburn Jr was fantastic in the run back from 15 down and played by far his best minutes of the season. Brandon Johnson (prior to his injury) again was coming up with the winning plays, especially rebounds, in crunch time that reminded me of a Freshman year Eric Curry. This was the first game all year where I'd agree with those who say the Gophers have depth.
