I will start my thoughts by praising the 2nd OT play/response from Amir Coffey. This Freshman goes to the bucket, is fouled by Jok on the play with no call, and finishes anyway. Coffey, who'd clearly been angered by a number of plays prior in this game, seemed to be really set off by this one. What does he do? Steals the f'ing ball on the next Iowa possession and takes it in for the dunk! Almost game over there. Well done Amir, well done.
I am completely baffled by this performance from Jordan Murphy. His entire game changed and so much of it simply appeared to be because of two things: effort and focus. Examples of that effort were clear for everyone to see, especially with his work on the glass and the shot blocks. What about focus? I observed in this game that Jordan was actually getting in a defensive stance off the ball! In the first overtime, Jordan had a huge steal late that he simply never would have gotten in any other game this season. He was active, alert and ready to make a play on the ball and he did just that. I don't know if I should be praising Murphy for his performance or wondering why it hasn't been there more often? What was really odd to me was how much more explosive he appeared. Jordan looked like he was dunking on a Nerf hoop tonight and I haven't seen that all year. I hope we see this Murphy more often the rest of the year.
Nate Mason, just continues to give us the type of floor leader you can win with. Today, he was credited with 7 assists and just 1 turnover. If we didn't need him to score, I think we'd appreciate his game even more. It so crucial to have a point guard who rarely makes mistakes and Mason is that guy. I knew he had a favorable matchup tonight and he took advantage with 25 points. I was a little disappointed with his defense at times (I thought he could really harass Bohannon), but we needed him for a ton of minutes, so in hindsight it's probably a good thing he wasn't up in his grill.
Obviously it's disappointing that we lost another double digit lead at home and had a much tougher game with Iowa than expected, so there's obviously quite a few negatives to get to. I listened to the post game on the radio and Pitino said that he though Reggie Lynch went up soft a lot tonight and that this team will take another step (or something to that effect) when Reggie gives them more on offense. This was huge tonight as Reggie missed a number of bunnies tonight. The boxscore has him at 1-9, but I think it would be fair to say the majority of those misses were right at the rim. Reggie had a great game on the defensive end, but this team doesn't score enough to be able to afford missing the easy ones.
The response to the 2/3 trap was disappointing. I believe Iowa brought it out in the first half a bit and we didn't have much of a problem with it, but in the second half...it got really ugly. Having a very safe lead erased like that on your home court is discouraging. I felt like Pitino waited too long for the timeout and the appropriate time would have been after the second consecutive Dupree turnover in the same area of the court (in fairness to Dupree, he was fouled on the first one). Instead, Pitino subbed in Akeem for Dupree and the turnovers continued. As much as I can't stand McCaffery I'd like to point out what a great job he does coaching basketball. His teams traditionally can't really defend anyone 1 on 1 and this years group was especially atrocious in non-conference play. What does he do? He mixes in zone and the 2/3 trap and tries to patch together an acceptable defense from a group of guys who are pretty talented offensively.
Depth, depth, depth! Well, I think it's pretty clear that Michael Hurt wasn't the issue. Against Illinois, Gilbert missed a 3 and got beat for a bucket in his limited time on the court. Tonight, Gilbert airballed a 3 got caught sleeping on defense and got beat for a dunk, and then went 1-2 from the free throw line. It's not that Pitino can only trust Lynch, Murphy, Coffey, Springs, Mason, McBrayer, Curry, and Konate...it's that nobody outside of those 8 has given us anything positive since Hurt hit a big 3 against Northwestern. To take this further, Konate is clearly limited in many ways and becomes a liability if we have to play him late in close games or for long stretches at a time. I think at least a small part of the reason this team blows so many leads is that our main guys have to log so many minutes every game. It would be nice if this team could step on a teams throat once or twice and allow these guys to get some rest. We're up 11 at home against Iowa, 15 against MSU, as much as 18 against Ohio State, double digits against Maryland...play a two minute stretch and finish it off.
Last possession of first OT. The put the ball in Nate's hands and let him try to score on his own has failed how many times now? In fairness to this specific time if Nate goes straight up instead of fades to his right, he goes to the line for two shots (he was actually probably fouled anyway). If we're going to isolate one guy, I'd love to see Amir get a shot. He can get his shot off easier than Nate and the guy defending him will likely not be as comfortable in an iso from the middle of the floor as the typical point guard is.
I feel like they dodged a huge bullet tonight as a loss would have been a completely disaster and dropped this team to 1-4 on its home court. I hope this win can finally get them over the hump in terms of executing in late game scenarios. It was really great to see them respond after Bohannon hit that bomb to put Iowa ahead in the 2nd overtime.
Fan support: Wow, did you guys sound great in the last ~5 min of this game! I wish we could have that type of noise level and engagement for more of the game. I would imagine it's more fun for everyone when they get up and get involved! If you are the type to get up and get loud try to get it going in the first half.
Final thought: Did someone get to the Iowa fan who was whistling when the Gophers were on the free throw line? It was incredibly noticeable for awhile, but I didn't notice it late in the game.
Rutgers at 11 AM will be a test for these guys. 45 minutes for Mason and Coffey and 39 for Murphy and Springs. Much easier to bounce back after a W though!
