***OFFICIAL MICHIGAN STATE AT MINNESOTA BIG TEN OPENER IN-GAME THREAD!!!***

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EG#9 said:
I like that they didn't quit, but the "comeback" from down 19 to down 9 at home isn't anything to write home about. It's much easier to do that than go from 12 down to down 2 or 8 down to up 2. Michigan State was in total control the vast majority of that game. Most teams are not going to win when the shoot as poorly as the Gophers did tonight and this Gopher team certainly isn't going to beat Michigan State by shooting poorly.

I do think that one of the lesser reasons why I really wanted an established coach in here showed up tonight in terms of respect from the officials. There were a number of times in the first half where the Gophers took it strong to the cup and faced contact and came away with neither a basket or free throws. That was probably the difference between being down double digits at half and being down like 6. Then you had the Loewe no call in the second. Obviously these calls had zero impact on the outcome of the game, but they will matter when playing more "beatable" opposition.

I don't really have any negatives or positives from this game as it doesn't really make me any more optomistic or pessimistic for the rest of the year. Not a great effort nor a poor one.

Favorite play of the game was the Sutherlin steal and slam in the second half. Type of play we just haven't seen much of over the past few years.

Brian Butch sounds like Dan Dakich to me and often makes "Dakich like" observations.
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We actually got it down to a 6 pts at the end. Two possession game shows a team that won't quit. We make an extra 3 and get even one of the egregious calls FOR us instead of against us and this is a ballgame. MSU has the studs and would have likely still won but I am impressed.
  • 17-3 assist/turnover ratio.
  • 9/29 rebounds were offensive showing that this team CAN change their game plan when needed.
  • 7 steals to MSU's 1
  • 9 second chance points to MSU's 8
  • Curry holding his own against a notoriously physical team to get a career high.
  • The heart to keep fighting.
A LOT of positives that I saw here.
 


EG#9 said:
I like that they didn't quit, but the "comeback" from down 19 to down 9 at home isn't anything to write home about. It's much easier to do that than go from 12 down to down 2 or 8 down to up 2. Michigan State was in total control the vast majority of that game. Most teams are not going to win when the shoot as poorly as the Gophers did tonight and this Gopher team certainly isn't going to beat Michigan State by shooting poorly.

I do think that one of the lesser reasons why I really wanted an established coach in here showed up tonight in terms of respect from the officials. There were a number of times in the first half where the Gophers took it strong to the cup and faced contact and came away with neither a basket or free throws. That was probably the difference between being down double digits at half and being down like 6. Then you had the Loewe no call in the second. Obviously these calls had zero impact on the outcome of the game, but they will matter when playing more "beatable" opposition.

I don't really have any negatives or positives from this game as it doesn't really make me any more optomistic or pessimistic for the rest of the year. Not a great effort nor a poor one.

Favorite play of the game was the Sutherlin steal and slam in the second half. Type of play we just haven't seen much of over the past few years.

Brian Butch sounds like Dan Dakich to me and often makes "Dakich like" observations.
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Man you are unbelievable! You blame the bad calls on Ben’s inexperience? So you didn’t see anything in tonight’s game to give you any positive impressions about the future?
 


Really incredible stats in this one:

MSU shoots 48% on 3s and out rebounds us 44-29 and we lose by 8 because we only turned the ball over 3 times. 3 turnovers versus MSU is crazy good.

Love the second half fight. People will come back to see that. We needed better shot selection in the first half. In the first half we forced shots. In the second half we got it in and then out for better looks. Lots of positives from this one, despite the loss.

Impressed with Ben!
 


If every other B1G team gets hot shooting and we go cold then it'll be a long season but I don't think it'll work out like that. Good hustle and smart play, on to Ann Arbor! I think the Wolverines are bit more beatable.
 


Angry said:
Yep exactly like the Iowa game last ye..
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Pitinos burner account? Gophers were only down 7 that game. Go look for yourself. This team was down 20 and only played 7 guys, yet still fought their butts off until the end. Pitinos teams would pack their bags and get the game over with as quickly as possible. Please head over to the New Mexico Board
 

stocker08 said:
Defense was fine. MSU hit threes at nearly a 50% clip. And they still only scored in the low 70s.
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MSU’s true shooting percentage was 62% and eFG% was 58%. 1.02 PPP. That’s not good defense.
Compare that to 46%, 44% and 0.89 PPP for the Gophers.
 



Gold Vision said:
MSU’s true shooting percentage was 62% and eFG% was 58%. 1.02 PPP. That’s not good defense.
Compare that to 46%, 44% and 0.89 PPP for the Gophers.
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They average 73 points a game, held them right about at that mark. And they hit some tough shots. Theres some room for improvment, but defense wasn't bad overall
 


bga1 said:
Really incredible stats in this one:

MSU shoots 48% on 3s and out rebounds us 44-29 and we lose by 8 because we only turned the ball over 3 times. 3 turnovers versus MSU is crazy good.

Love the second half fight. People will come back to see that. We needed better shot selection in the first half. In the first half we forced shots. In the second half we got it in and then out for better looks. Lots of positives from this one, despite the loss.

Impressed with Ben!
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I said this morning, let them shoot and if they hit so be it. Well they did so I guess thems the breaks
 

EG#9 said:
I like that they didn't quit, but the "comeback" from down 19 to down 9 at home isn't anything to write home about. It's much easier to do that than go from 12 down to down 2 or 8 down to up 2. Michigan State was in total control the vast majority of that game. Most teams are not going to win when the shoot as poorly as the Gophers did tonight and this Gopher team certainly isn't going to beat Michigan State by shooting poorly.

I do think that one of the lesser reasons why I really wanted an established coach in here showed up tonight in terms of respect from the officials. There were a number of times in the first half where the Gophers took it strong to the cup and faced contact and came away with neither a basket or free throws. That was probably the difference between being down double digits at half and being down like 6. Then you had the Loewe no call in the second. Obviously these calls had zero impact on the outcome of the game, but they will matter when playing more "beatable" opposition.

I don't really have any negatives or positives from this game as it doesn't really make me any more optomistic or pessimistic for the rest of the year. Not a great effort nor a poor one.

Favorite play of the game was the Sutherlin steal and slam in the second half. Type of play we just haven't seen much of over the past few years.

Brian Butch sounds like Dan Dakich to me and often makes "Dakich like" observations.
Click to expand...
You didn't take away anything positive from that game? Gonna be a long season for you
 




max2shifty said:
They average 73 points a game, held them right about at that mark. And they hit some tough shots. Theres some room for improvment, but defense wasn't bad overall
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Exactly. The Gophers largely kept them from getting into the lane for uncontested layups and easy buckets around the rim. Considering that most teams are going to have a major size advantage down low.....forcing outside shots is a big win. MSU just happened to be hitting theirs and the Gophers weren't.
 


max2shifty said:
They average 73 points a game, held them right about at that mark. And they hit some tough shots. Theres some room for improvment, but defense wasn't bad overall
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Raw point totals can be influenced strongly by game pace. Minnesota is #295 (of 358 teams) in PACE. Only Rutgers, Wisconsin, and Penn State in the Big Ten are lower. Virginia is the lowest in the country for that measure. Last night's game pace was right at the Gophers' season average.
 

underground629 said:
You didn't take away anything positive from that game? Gonna be a long season for you
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There definitely were some positives (for example, they kept playing hard and didn't quit) but EG has a point about the comeback. Being down by 19 but losing by 8 is a little like being down by 34-10 in a football game but scoring the last 10 points of the game late in the fourth quarter to make it a more respectable 34-20. You didn't quit but you never got very close to contention either.
 


Agree with CJB on game pace correlation to score and score differential. If the gophers had tried to play fast, they would have lost by 20-25. Glad they were deliberate.

MSU was bigger, faster, stronger, better shooting and with more depth. Additionally, the refs spent too much time making sure that Izzo's emotional needs were met. The one ref was particularly arrogant about his non call of the flagrant foul against Loewe. Paradoxically, the game will wipe away some of the irrational exuberance we've been feeling about the team and this team actually can play with the big boys. They are smart, disciplined and had a lot of open looks, particularly early. The shots just didn't go down.

Battle is in amazing shape. He plays forty minutes a night, works his ass off to get open without the ball, gets his shot off quickly, is unselfish, plays good defense and rebounds. A great find. I hope Johnson uses the December non conference games to get minutes for Thompson and Thiam. The minutes he's playing the top six guys isn't sustainable.

It has been a great season so far.
 

Gold Vision said:
MSU’s true shooting percentage was 62% and eFG% was 58%. 1.02 PPP. That’s not good defense.
Compare that to 46%, 44% and 0.89 PPP for the Gophers.
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D was solid, MSU hit some tough shots. Difference in this one was the 3s were falling for them and not for us. Couple more 3s go in for us and that game could have turned out very differently.

Team played hard, didn't give up when things started to look ugly and battled back against a team that will finish near the top of the Big Ten and will definitely be in the tournament.

Not bad for a shorthanded collection of nobodies going up against one of the top programs in college basketball.
 

jamiche said:
Agree with CJB on game pace correlation to score and score differential. If the gophers had tried to play fast, they would have lost by 20-25. Glad they were deliberate.

MSU was bigger, faster, stronger, better shooting and with more depth. Additionally, the refs spent too much time making sure that Izzo's emotional needs were met. The one ref was particularly arrogant about his non call of the flagrant foul against Loewe. Paradoxically, the game will wipe away some of the irrational exuberance we've been feeling about the team and this team actually can play with the big boys. They are smart, disciplined and had a lot of open looks, particularly early. The shots just didn't go down.

Battle is in amazing shape. He plays forty minutes a night, works his ass off to get open without the ball, gets his shot off quickly, is unselfish, plays good defense and rebounds. A great find. I hope Johnson uses the December non conference games to get minutes for Thompson and Thiam. The minutes he's playing the top six guys isn't sustainable.

It has been a great season so far.
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Nice post, keep it close like they did and they will beat a few teams they shouldn't.
 

Obi-Wan Okogie said:
Can't believe we hired this bum, Ben!
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It's of course totally fine, and encouraged, to celebrate how much better it has gone than was expected.

But the fact that there was zero disagreement in the bottom rung expectations, given how the roster had ended up at the start of the season, and given that Ben had never been a head coach before and was turned down by two lower schools, proves that the "argument" that Coyle "knew all along" is pure bunk, to the point of basically being a lie.

You're just taking pure advantage of hindsight.


You didn't bet a single dime that they'd have started 7-1 and would "only" lose to MSU by 8.
 

cjbfbp said:
There definitely were some positives (for example, they kept playing hard and didn't quit) but EG has a point about the comeback. Being down by 19 but losing by 8 is a little like being down by 34-10 in a football game but scoring the last 10 points of the game late in the fourth quarter to make it a more respectable 34-20. You didn't quit but you never got very close to contention either.
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This did NOT have the feel of one of the 4th Q scenarios that you paint. I didn't see any prevent defense where the D was given up short field passes. MSU had not emptied their bench. This was no fluke where someone starts throwing in circus-shot 3s. This comeback was EARNED!
 
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howeda7 said:
Apparently Fox was throwing down dunks in pregame warm-ups? I still think there's a chance he plays. Especially if we win a few B1G games in January.
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Interesting...Would be a nice mid-season addition getting ready for the push.

I hope I'm not being too optimistic, but I really feel like we are/will be right around the bubble / hopefully on the right side of it coming down the stretch.

It's so damn early in the year though, so much can happen.
 

MplsGopher said:
It's of course totally fine, and encouraged, to celebrate how much better it has gone than was expected.

But the fact that there was zero disagreement in the bottom rung expectations, given how the roster had ended up at the start of the season, and given that Ben had never been a head coach before and was turned down by two lower schools, proves that the "argument" that Coyle "knew all along" is pure bunk, to the point of basically being a lie.

You're just taking pure advantage of hindsight.


You didn't bet a single dime that they'd have started 7-1 and would "only" lose to MSU by 8.
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Agree that nobody thought they would be 7-1 and I would add that the eight point loss was a bit of an illusion. They were down 14-16 for a lot of the game.

The counter arguments to Johnson's track record are that, presumably, nobody in a hiring capacity knew him as well as Coyle and he was brought in specifically to recruit Minnesota. Coyle was tired of losing really good to great players to outside schools. Three years from now if Johnson is losing local players at the same rate as Pitino it's likely going to look like a bad decision.
 

As I watched the game I took this away from what I saw.

1) We have good ball movement.
2) We will live and die by the 3.
3) We only get one shot at scoring (we just don't have the bigs to have offensive rebounding) so we have to have great shot selection.
4) We play tough, team defense, but the other team will get more offensive rebounds and thus more attempts to score.
5) We must control tempo
6) We do a very good job not turning over the ball.

I really like this team. Our record may not show how fun this team is to watch. We will take our lumps. I really look forward to what Ben Johnson puts together in recruiting and transfers. I think people are watching and Ben is making a great impact for the future.
 

I think a few people may have gotten overly exuberant with the 7-0 start.

This team is still limited athletically.

I think Johnson and the coaches are doing a good job of maximizing the available talent and getting players to play hard and play smart.

But there will be rough nights in the B1G.

If the Gophers happen to lose a few games in a row, I hope fans won't turn on the team and coaches.

Before the season, people like Barreiro were saying the Gophers would not win a game in conference play.

it's not going to be that bad. but this team will still struggle against a lot of opponents.

it's like making sausage. it's not always pretty to watch. but the end results can be very tasty.
 

For the first ten minutes of the second half, it seemed like MSU didn't miss a shot. Love how fired up this team was when getting it back to single digits late in the game. Just no quit.
 

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