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

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TwistingMyMelon said:
Not quite true. We'd care (or at least some of us would). Personally, I'm indifferent to what non-fans think.

You know, much has been written about our lowly nonconference schedule but maybe an opponent like Missouri would have been better delayed for a couple of weeks. If you look at Nebraska, Penn State, and even Indiana to a degree you'll see that they have played no one of stature yet. That's probably a smart move for a team like PSU with a new coach and practically brand new team.

Johnson still seems unsure of his player rotations. Perhaps two or three more games against weaker opponents would have allowed him to see more combinations and allowed Payne further time to heal. Speaking of Payne, I thought he played well against Missouri and I'm not sure why he played only 18 minutes. I'm not sure why Ola Joseph who is one of our most aggressive scorers and currently has a true shooting percentage of 72.8% didn't play more than 22 minutes. It wouldn't hurt to cut a few minutes per game off Garcia's time either since he's currently averaging more minutes per game than he did last season.
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I’m not sure of the timing of the multi team event tournament they backed out of but I think it would have been at least a week deeper into the schedule and met the idea that you are suggesting with decent opponents further down the line. Chickening out of that really messed up the schedule and de facto forced their hand in getting at least one decent opponent in the preseason. Perhaps this was a game or two early, but there were few options after abandoning the tournament.
 

fan of Ray Williams said:
Last night reminded me of what Bob Knight said when Indiana was behind in a game against LSU.
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For those who don't know the quote: It was something to the effect that Knight thought there was no way they could win and then he looked at the other bench and saw Dale Brown and knew that they could still win. Classic!
 

bga1 said:
For those who don't know the quote: It was something to the effect that Knight thought there was no way they could win and then he looked at the other bench and saw Dale Brown and knew that they could still win. Classic!
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Dale and Bobby really respected each other, didn’t they?
 

TwistingMyMelon said:
Not quite true. We'd care (or at least some of us would). Personally, I'm indifferent to what non-fans think.

You know, much has been written about our lowly nonconference schedule but maybe an opponent like Missouri would have been better delayed for a couple of weeks. If you look at Nebraska, Penn State, and even Indiana to a degree you'll see that they have played no one of stature yet. That's probably a smart move for a team like PSU with a new coach and practically brand new team.

Johnson still seems unsure of his player rotations. Perhaps two or three more games against weaker opponents would have allowed him to see more combinations and allowed Payne further time to heal. Speaking of Payne, I thought he played well against Missouri and I'm not sure why he played only 18 minutes. I'm not sure why Ola Joseph who is one of our most aggressive scorers and currently has a true shooting percentage of 72.8% didn't play more than 22 minutes. It wouldn't hurt to cut a few minutes per game off Garcia's time either since he's currently averaging more minutes per game than he did last season.
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Payne had 10 points and 3 blocks in 14 minutes but Ben was afraid he would get fouled and miss free throws. If I am the opposing coach I dream of the Gophers not playing Payne. Makes it a lot easier to score.
 

bga1 said:
For those who don't know the quote: It was something to the effect that Knight thought there was no way they could win and then he looked at the other bench and saw Dale Brown and knew that they could still win. Classic!
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I heard that he said the same thing about Lou Henson when they were trailing Illinois.
 


bga1 said:
Payne had 10 points and 3 blocks in 14 minutes but Ben was afraid he would get fouled and miss free throws. If I am the opposing coach I dream of the Gophers not playing Payne. Makes it a lot easier to score.
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Well, since the guys who took them missed free throws too, I'm not sure he would have been much worse. Against Missouri's smallish lineup at the tail end of the game, I would have liked to see Payne go to the bucket. Ola-Joseph is also an aggressive inside scorer (and 9 for 11 on free throws so far this season) and he wasn't in near the end either.

The sooner we put some distance from this game the better. Glad they're playing again tomorrow.
 

Holy Man said:
I’m not sure of the timing of the multi team event tournament they backed out of but I think it would have been at least a week deeper into the schedule and met the idea that you are suggesting with decent opponents further down the line. Chickening out of that really messed up the schedule and de facto forced their hand in getting at least one decent opponent in the preseason. Perhaps this was a game or two early, but there were few options after abandoning the tournament.
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The MTE Minnesota dropped out of is the Main Event in Las Vegas; it starts tonight with San Diego State vs St. Mary's and Washington vs Xavier and finishes on Sunday. (Feel like I remember a little consternation back when Minnesota was still a participant about finding rooms in Vegas the same weekend as the F1 race.)
 

I read this thread backwards... At least it ends with positivity that way....

Sigh.. thank you cbj for accepting a position offered to you, regardless if you were ready. I sincerely wish you nothing but the best moving forward and I hope you learn from this experience...

Cut the cord.... Rip the band-aid off... Call Muss ..
 

DLib said:
He did turn the ball over a number of times before they sat him down. He was killing them in the second. Got the snowball rolling
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Hawkins’ play in the second half reminds me of DeAndre Mathieu’s play in his second year. He’d drive for the basket, get there, and get stuffed by a big guy just waiting for him. He got away with his moves in his first year (he was great) but by the second year everybody knew how to defend him.
 



bga1 said:
Payne had 10 points and 3 blocks in 14 minutes but Ben was afraid he would get fouled and miss free throws. If I am the opposing coach I dream of the Gophers not playing Payne. Makes it a lot easier to score.
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Especially when you're going in a shell on offense anyway. Payne likely comes down with a few offensive rebounds, but I would absolutely take a point per possession when we are up 20 (assuming he shoots 50% from the FT).
 

This is a game where, hopefully, Ben Johnson realizes that playing conservative is a recipe for failure. He had his team dominating Missouri and then they started playing conservative.
With a deep bench, this team needs to keep pushing and beat teams by as many points as possible, no matter how many points they are winning by. With this team, they need to learn how to finish teams by playing hard for 40 minutes. Ben has to let this team loose and encourage them to never look back when they get the lead.

I see a potential for an NCAA tournament bid in this team, but they can never look back after last night. They have to always play hard and push hard. Ben can't hold them back out of any fears. I would rather lose with my kids working hard, but being overmatched, instead of trying not to lose.
This game is Ben's moment to trust these kids that they will give him everything if he lets them loose.
 

FinnGopher said:
This is a game where, hopefully, Ben Johnson realizes that playing conservative is a recipe for failure. He had his team dominating Missouri and then they started playing conservative.
With a deep bench, this team needs to keep pushing and beat teams by as many points as possible, no matter how many points they are winning by. With this team, they need to learn how to finish teams by playing hard for 40 minutes. Ben has to let this team loose and encourage them to never look back when they get the lead.

I see a potential for an NCAA tournament bid in this team, but they can never look back after last night. They have to always play hard and push hard. Ben can't hold them back out of any fears. I would rather lose with my kids working hard, but being overmatched, instead of trying not to lose.
This game is Ben's moment to trust these kids that they will give him everything if he lets them loose.
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Good point about playing not to lose. That’s a disaster. My suggestion is work harder on consistent defense. They built the huge lead with 50% plus three point shooting. Glad the shooting is better but it will revert to the mean even within the same game. They missed a lot of open threes in the second half. That’s going to happen. Their defense was horrendous in the second half, especially not getting back after missed shots. Defense has to be better.

I think seeing an NCAA team is overly optimistic.
 

howeda7 said:
There's nothing to move on to. Instead of a tournament in Vegas next week, we have 2.5 weeks of cupcakes that will tell us exactly nothing.
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I enjoy most if your posts but your negativity is getting old.

How about give this team a chance to gel...get confident... be a team. This is the best team we've had in at least 3 yrs.

Or you can continue piss and wine about it.. .. seems like a lot of wasted energy to me.
 



FinnGopher said:
This is a game where, hopefully, Ben Johnson realizes that playing conservative is a recipe for failure. He had his team dominating Missouri and then they started playing conservative.
With a deep bench, this team needs to keep pushing and beat teams by as many points as possible, no matter how many points they are winning by. With this team, they need to learn how to finish teams by playing hard for 40 minutes. Ben has to let this team loose and encourage them to never look back when they get the lead.

I see a potential for an NCAA tournament bid in this team, but they can never look back after last night. They have to always play hard and push hard. Ben can't hold them back out of any fears. I would rather lose with my kids working hard, but being overmatched, instead of trying not to lose.
This game is Ben's moment to trust these kids that they will give him everything if he lets them loose.
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I guess Ben hasn't watched our football games this year. Maybe he would have picked a different role model if he had.
 

Gopherbbdude said:
I enjoy most if your posts but your negativity is getting old.

How about give this team a chance to gel...get confident... be a team. This is the best team we've had in at least 3 yrs.

Or you can continue piss and wine about it.. .. seems like a lot of wasted energy to me.
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What's negative about that exactly? Yes I wish we'd scheduled a decent NC schedule but what's done is done. The next 4 games can't tell us much of anything about this team's prospects. That's just a fact. There's two B1G games in a couple weeks.
 

It’s dangerous to assume San Francisco isn’t any good. They’ve been solid the last couple years (NCAA at-large in 2022), and their two losses this season have been close games vs. opponents expected to be good (Boise State, Grand Canyon). I thought Gophers would go 10-1 in the non-conference, and USF is the one I picked them to lose.
 

SelectionSunday said:
It’s dangerous to assume San Francisco isn’t any good. They’ve been solid the last couple years (NCAA at-large in 2022), and their two losses this season have been close games vs. opponents expected to be good (Boise State, Grand Canyon). I thought Gophers would go 10-1 in the non-conference, and USF is the one I picked them to lose.
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Nothing on the road is ever easy. After stuffing themselves with Thanksgiving feasts, they will be vulnerable.
 

FinnGopher said:
This is a game where, hopefully, Ben Johnson realizes that playing conservative is a recipe for failure. He had his team dominating Missouri and then they started playing conservative.
With a deep bench, this team needs to keep pushing and beat teams by as many points as possible, no matter how many points they are winning by. With this team, they need to learn how to finish teams by playing hard for 40 minutes. Ben has to let this team loose and encourage them to never look back when they get the lead.

I see a potential for an NCAA tournament bid in this team, but they can never look back after last night. They have to always play hard and push hard. Ben can't hold them back out of any fears. I would rather lose with my kids working hard, but being overmatched, instead of trying not to lose.
This game is Ben's moment to trust these kids that they will give him everything if he lets them loose.
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The bigger picture is that you don't want to employ a head coach who's still learning basic game management techniques on the job--who hasn't yet learned that the only way to lose that game is to do exactly what he did, so that's what he did. I mean, shit, even fans like us who've watched more than our share of basketball know to not do what he did. It was a conscious decision on thier part. It was clear they were milking the shot clock way too early in the game and settling for poor shots in the process. It was clear that Hawkins gives you a better chance to win down the stretch, even though he'd made a couple mistakes. How many more things is Johnson going to have to learn the hard way? (Answer, it's nonzero.)
 
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Bad Gopher said:
The bigger picture is that you don't want to employ a head coach who's still learning basic game management techniques on the job--who hasn't yet learned that the only way to lose that game is to do exactly what he did, so that's what he did. I mean, shit, even fans like us who've watched more than our share of basketball know to not do what he did. It was a conscious decision on thier part. It was clear they were milking the shot clock way too early in the game and settling for poor shots in the process. It was clear that Hawkins gives you a better chance to win down the stretch, even though he'd made a couple mistakes. How many more things is Johnson going to learn the hard way? (Answer, it's nonzero.)
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I’m offering myself as a low paid consultant to the program. It’s a good deal all the way around for the U.

I’m part of the intelligentsia you know.
 

Holy Man said:
I’m offering myself as a low paid consultant to the program. It’s a good deal all the way around for the U.

I’m part of the intelligentsia you know.
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The intelligentsia and the cultural elite!
 

One thing Johnson did was to keep Hawkins in at the end of the last game. He did at least that.
I still have trouble getting over that move. “Let’s see, no one on this roster was on a winning college team last year except Hawkins. Think I will keep him on the bench. So what if he’s a point guard that gets to the line a lot and makes all his free throws? I’m going to out think the opponent and keep him on the bench to close this one out”.
 



Holy Man said:
I’m offering myself as a low paid consultant to the program. It’s a good deal all the way around for the U.

I’m part of the intelligentsia you know.
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Hey, hey, hey
That’s my bit
Also, very presumptive!!!!🤣🤣🤣😉😉
 
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fan of Ray Williams said:
One thing Johnson did was to keep Hawkins in at the end of the last game. He did at least that.
I still have trouble getting over that move. “Let’s see, no one on this roster was on a winning college team last year except Hawkins. Think I will keep him on the bench. So what if he’s a point guard that gets to the line a lot and makes all his free throws? I’m going to out think the opponent and keep him on the bench to close this one out”.
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When your schedule is as bad as ours you don’t take you PG ( your best FT shooter) out of the only game that could build the team’s credibility with fans, in order to teach the kid a lesson.
 



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