***OFFICIAL MINNESOTA AT IOWA IN-GAME THREAD!!!***

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Bad way to lose this one, but I think we are seeing some regression towards the mean. I never expected us to play that well in non-con, but hopefully we can stack up a handful of wins down the stretch to end the year. Tourney hopes are pretty much over imo.
 

MinnGopher said:
Bad way to lose this one, but I think we are seeing some regression towards the mean. I never expected us to play that well in non-con, but hopefully we can stack up a handful of wins down the stretch to end the year. Tourney hopes are pretty much over imo.
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Yep!

I just wish we had some young freshman to watch going forward. TT seems very awkward to me and I don't think he will be much.

Next year we will start seeing some freshman.
 

Dakota2 said:
Everybody who was concerned last summer was proven right (to be concerned) before we played a game. Anybody could look at the roster and see two guys recruited from high school to play Big Ten or comparable-level basketball. Willis and Curry, who has had four or five major surgeries and not the athlete he was as a freshman.

Ihnen is a Big Ten player but he blew out his knee looking at paint on the gym floor or something. In the portal Fox was considered a newly-minted major player. He blew out his knee picking a rose or something.

Battle was no sure thing but has proven to be a BIG player despite going 1 forever today. Everyone else is known to be then and now not Big Ten talent.

So we're to be terribly upset if this team, with little Big Ten talent, doesn't boatrace Penn St, NW, MD, and Nebby, all of whom do have actual Big Ten rosters?

Don't think so. Coaches did a great job running through non-conference and stealing two league games. Already surpassed all reasonable expectations. A win or two more will be amazing.
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Agree with everything up until the last sentence. The Gophers have been competitive in just about every game outside of Illinois and Ohio State. I would be amazed (in a bad way) if they only managed two more wins.
 

kg21 said:
Yep!

I just wish we had some young freshman to watch going forward. TT seems very awkward to me and I don't think he will be much.

Next year we will start seeing some freshman.
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Seriously? Thompson has flashed in his limited minutes. I think he has a TON of potential.
 

And now we fall back in the ‘ I knew we would be bad this season’. This is how we 8 yrs of Pitzy.
 


MinnGopher said:
Bad way to lose this one, but I think we are seeing some regression towards the mean. I never expected us to play that well in non-con, but hopefully we can stack up a handful of wins down the stretch to end the year. Tourney hopes are pretty much over imo.
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What tourney?

The NCAA tourney was long gone.

NIT? Still have a shot if they can really win a lot of these easier ones.
 

Reality is starting to set in. The team exceed expectations during the non-conference schedule but lack of overall talent and numbers starting to show up in the conference season.

Ben Johnson and his staff have done a great job getting the team to be competitive almost every night. Couldn’t ask for a whole lot more than that this year as Johnson starts laying the foundation of his program.
 
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Tully55 said:
My comment was referring to 2nd half play. Out played in all facets of the game. This was a winnable game jast as the BG game.
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Still not close to the same as the BG game. This was on the road in a game where we were 13 point underdogs.
Disappointing second half but nothing like the BG game.
 

stocker08 said:
Agree with everything up until the last sentence. The Gophers have been competitive in just about every game outside of Illinois and Ohio State. I would be amazed (in a bad way) if they only managed two more wins.
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I hope so too. But strictly going by talent and reasonable expectations any game we win in conference is a surprise and every loss, while disappointing, is really not a surprise.
 






Dakota2 said:
I hope so too. But strictly going by talent and reasonable expectations any game we win in conference is a surprise and every loss, while disappointing, is really not a surprise.
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By "talent" I think you are referring to recruiting rankings. But that doesn't always translate. We might not have as much star power....but the Gophers do have a lot of experience....which can go a long ways. Penn State, Northwestern, Nebraska, and Maryland are all very winnable games.
 




Still have a loss to give. This just hurts the cushion a bit, but we were playing with house money on this one anyways. Just waiting for that 8 game win streak.
 

Our final point spreads have been, on the whole, decent. Sure a 12 point loss to a Fran-less Squak-eyes is unpleasant, but pain would be much worse if Little Ricky were poisoning, er, coaching this team.

I don't get a feeling that we are being toyed with by our opponents, except in the Illinois and Purdue games. Today seems to be an aberration.

Ski-U-Mah!
 


MUgopher32 said:
What tourney?

The NCAA tourney was long gone.

NIT? Still have a shot if they can really win a lot of these easier ones.
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What tourney do you think? The NCAA one that people refer to as the tourney? Lol. I know this is an unlikely scenario, but if we beat Iowa and take care of business against the non ranked teams (NWx2, PSUx2, Maryland, Nebraska), we could have been in the hunt with a good B1G tourney showing. Wins in those games and L's to WI, IU, OSU would have put us at 18 wins. Like I said unlikely but now the opportunity is gone.
 


MinnGopher said:
What tourney do you think? The NCAA one that people refer to as the tourney? Lol. I know this is an unlikely scenario, but if we beat Iowa and take care of business against the non ranked teams (NWx2, PSUx2, Maryland, Nebraska), we could have been in the hunt with a good B1G tourney showing. Wins in those games and L's to WI, IU, OSU would have put us at 18 wins. Like I said unlikely but now the opportunity is gone.
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No, like I said the NCAA one has been long gone. Hence why I asked the question. The wins you suggested were not going to move the needle at all.
 


Ewert86PC said:
Still better than an RP effort.

Ben > Babaloo
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Not yesterday. Overall yes, I like what I see. But the record is what it is. It is turning out to be the year that most thought it would be 2-9 is not good.

The good news is that when Ben has equal personnel to the opposition or better (non conference) we win. Next year we will start to see what he can do with better talent....although Willis will be a big loss.
 

I know a lot of fans were/are happy about the effort on defense and more movement on offense, relative to Pitino.

But those things do have a cost, in terms of physical exertion. And without much bench depth, well, these guys are human.

Anyone think there could be a factor starting to creep in of the starters are just starting to get ground down? Or not (yet)?
 

MUgopher32 said:
No, like I said the NCAA one has been long gone. Hence why I asked the question. The wins you suggested were not going to move the needle at all.
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Would have added a couple of quad 1 wins, and we wouldn't have a quad 2 loss I dont think. Not sure how that wouldn't put us in contention. Like I said, it would put us in the hunt and we would have to perform in the B1G tourney. Really isn't outlandish to think that 17-11 and 9-11 wouldn't put us on the bubble.

EDIT: We also currently have the 11th strongest SOS in the country. Would buy us some good will
 

leib0039 said:
I was one who thought we would get demolished a lot. Despite being 13th in the league I've felt better about the team. The last 9 games will be telling, no more "well they are just better ". We get the NW, PSU, NEB MD of the world. If we win 5-7 of the games I'll be pretty happy. 3-4 will be meh, if we win 2 or less I think those of us who were concerned will be proven right. I hope I'm wrong!
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NW, Maryland, and Penn State actually look decent too. We just need to take care of Nebraska and pull off some more wins. Nothing is guaranteed.
 

MinnGopher said:
Would have added a couple of quad 1 wins, and we wouldn't have a quad 2 loss I dont think. Not sure how that wouldn't put us in contention. Like I said, it would put us in the hunt and we would have to perform in the B1G tourney. Really isn't outlandish to think that 17-11 and 9-11 wouldn't put us on the bubble.

EDIT: We also currently have the 11th strongest SOS in the country. Would buy us some good will
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Iowa would be Q1.

Potentially Northwestern. But losing to us combined with other potential Ls could drop them off quickly.

Gophers NET would still be really poor if they just won the games you suggested.

Mathematically you are correct they havent(and really still are not eliminated) but the chances died long ago. Beating Iowa and both Penn State and NU(competent teams) twice im guessing was like a kenpom 3% odds

I'm just hoping they perform well against these teams and win enough to get into NIT contention.
 


stocker08 said:
Seriously? Thompson has flashed in his limited minutes. I think he has a TON of potential.
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A seven footer that can shoot the three causes problems in defending the Gophers. Even today he is disruptive, as he gets better it is going to be that much harder to defend them when he is on the court.
 

jovs said:
A seven footer that can shoot the three causes problems in defending the Gophers. Even today he is disruptive, as he gets better it is going to be that much harder to defend them when he is on the court.
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Yep, as he gains some weight and learns how to defend he has a chance to be a solid weapon. Glad he is seeing more minutes as the season goes on here but he still has a long ways to go before he will be ready to excel at this level.
 

stocker08 said:
By "talent" I think you are referring to recruiting rankings. But that doesn't always translate. We might not have as much star power....but the Gophers do have a lot of experience....which can go a long ways. Penn State, Northwestern, Nebraska, and Maryland are all very winnable games.
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I think we will split with Penn State and Northwestern, beat Nebraska, pick off Indiana on Senior Day, think the boys will get up for that one. Maryland, I'm not sure, it's there last game, Danny Manning's a dead man walking, who knows how they'll come out that day. I could see us sweeping Penn State, but we go at Nebraska on the 9th, home vs Penn State on the 12th at Ohio State on the 15th, at Penn State on the 17th vs NW on the 19th, tough stretch and could have tired legs with our lack of depth, but good warm up for the BTT.
 

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