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

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Gopheritnow said:
I am puzzled over the BJ angst about Hawkins foul late in the game. It’s obvious it wasn’t an assigned foul, since in that case Hawkins would have grabbed the guy, not a reach in attempt at a steal. As for Carrington that was also stupid, and he was called on the carpet on the sidelines. Was it fun to watch, nope. Very aggravating, but to think that Johnson called for those plays isn’t being reasonable or fair. Consistent mistakes and slothfulness have consequences as Ole Joseph is finding out. As for the overall offense I think that no offense will ever look efficient if you continue to miss wide open 3’s as is evidenced by our being last in the league in that category. Overall think there is no lack of effort, which as much as anything indicates the impact a coach has on his team.
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Johnson on the postgame interview said the plan was to foul Bouie in that situation up 3. I know that some coaches will play it out and some will foul, but don't use Hawkins to be the fouler. He is to valuable to waste his foul on.
 

GrampaGopher said:
Johnson on the postgame interview said the plan was to foul Bouie in that situation up 3. I know that some coaches will play it out and some will foul, but don't use Hawkins to be the fouler. He is to valuable to waste his foul on.
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Agree on Hawkins. I have no issue with the Gophers fouling in that situation, but doing it so quickly when NW was in a tough spot on the court and there was still ~20 seconds left was dumb. They could have gotten a turnover or let more time run off the clock and still foul before NW was a in a position to take a 3.
 

Dakota2 said:
Agree on first half offense only because the threes didn’t fall. But we need to evaluate team performance based on offense and defense combined.

Garcia is not a natural low post player so I don’t mind where he is getting the ball. Payne has to get the ball low.
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Agreed the D was solid.

Garcia is decent in the post though. I know he doesn't want to play there but I think he's more effective there than hanging on the 3 line. I am fine with him shooting an open 3 once in a while, but don't roam consistently 18-20 feet from the basket. He's shooting 25% from outside the arc this year. I think he's probably more of a 30-35% 3 PT guy, but either way. Point holds.

When Hawkins, Christie, Payne and Garcia can get it flowing together, we're tough to beat.

Mitchell is a solid 5th when he's smart with shot selection.

This Mich St. game coming up on Tuesday night is the most anticipation I've had for a game in the Ben Johnson era for sure.
 




Gopher_In_NYC said:
Really? Did you watch the game?

FTs

MN 16-21 = 76.2%

NW 13-20 = 65%


They’re still growing as a team and still have a ways to go with their offensive, teams improve and coalesce throughout a season. Hawkins makes many excellent passes for assists that most PGs don’t make, the flip dish to Payne for the monster jam, for example.

Both Payne and Garcia made excellent cross court passes for threes, that’s a sign of growth as it wasn’t happening earlier.

Their D was stellar yesterday, with everyone engaged consistently for the most part and excellent help D, especially by Payne.

This team is a BUY now and two wins back to back (by nine points) are a harbinger of said BUY. I expect a 5+ point win Tuesday against Sparty.
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I saw one sequence where Payne got the ball at about 10 feet from the bucket and he was slow to release it. There was a stoppage and I saw Ben motion for him to quickly move the ball back out from that position as the lane was clogged. They are learning.

I thought it was Garcia's best game defending, including some time spent on Buie.
 


bga1 said:
I saw one sequence where Payne got the ball at about 10 feet from the bucket and he was slow to release it. There was a stoppage and I saw Ben motion for him to quickly move the ball back out from that position as the lane was clogged. They are learning.

I thought it was Garcia's best game defending, including some time spent on Buie.
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Great point on Garcia; they mentioned in one sequence, where he showed exceptional footwork, he’s in his best shape ever. Great to see guys bought in and worked hard in the offseason, sign that Ben is a coach they respect.

I can’t wait for Tuesday😃
 
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Gopher_In_NYC said:
Great point on Garcia; they mentioned in one sequence, where he showed exceptional footwork, he’s in his best shape ever. Great to see guys bought in and worked hard in the offseason, sign that Ben is a coach they respect.

I can’t wait for Tuesday😃
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Garcia takes too many shots a foot inside the three point arc. Take the three or go to the basket. He shoots free throws well enough to be aggressive going to the basket.
 

Holy Man said:
Garcia takes too many shots a foot inside the three point arc. Take the three or go to the basket. He shoots free throws well enough to be aggressive going to the basket.
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My comment was about his defense; it’s okay to be happy and come to grips that you may have been wrong about CBJ.

Maybe a serenity prayer 🙏 might help?
 




Zeppelin Gopher said:
This is a bizarre comment after the last 2 games. We were 23-26 against PSU and 16-21 yesterday (and absolutely nails in crunch time).
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Agree. Hitting clutch free throws down the stretch has been key in the last 2 victories. The free throw thing I really a Payne issue, the other key guys are solid at the line.
 

I’m gonna say something I’ve felt for awhile: Cam Christie reminds me of a young Kobe! He’s young but… omg!
 




DEGopherfan said:
I’m gonna say something I’ve felt for awhile: Cam Christie reminds me of a young Kobe! He’s young but… omg!
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Every three he shoots, I think it's going in. I believe he feels that way too.
 

GFBfan said:
Every three he shoots, I think it's going in. I believe he feels that way too.
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As soon as I saw the pass coming to him, I knew it was going in. Has such a consistent shot release. Has really good shot preparation
 

MNVCGUY said:
Agree. Hitting clutch free throws down the stretch has been key in the last 2 victories. The free throw thing I really a Payne issue, the other key guys are solid at the line.
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The truth is we have been spotty. We have lost games due to poor free throw shooting. The last two games give us good reason to believe we will be solid the rest of the way.
 

Dakota2 said:
The truth is we have been spotty. We have lost games due to poor free throw shooting. The last two games give us good reason to believe we will be solid the rest of the way.
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It has been a little shaky at times but overall we have 3 guys that are really bad from the line (Payne, Fox, Ihnen) and everyone else is over 70% for the season.

Outside of Wisconsin I can't think of games this year where poor free throw shooting led to our downfall and even against Wisconsin we only got to the line a handful of times.

The big thing to me is that the free throw shooting has been significantly better than last year and yeah these last 2 wins were iced at the free throw line. The bummer of course being that Payne is still really really struggling at the line. He has to find a way this off season to get that percentage up to at least 50% if not somewhere closer to 60%. It is a massive hole in his game right now.
 

MNVCGUY said:
It has been a little shaky at times but overall we have 3 guys that are really bad from the line (Payne, Fox, Ihnen) and everyone else is over 70% for the season.

Outside of Wisconsin I can't think of games this year where poor free throw shooting led to our downfall and even against Wisconsin we only got to the line a handful of times.

The big thing to me is that the free throw shooting has been significantly better than last year and yeah these last 2 wins were iced at the free throw line. The bummer of course being that Payne is still really really struggling at the line. He has to find a way this off season to get that percentage up to at least 50% if not somewhere closer to 60%. It is a massive hole in his game right now.
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No reason Payne can't get to 70%, about where Edey is this year.
 

Dakota2 said:
No reason Payne can't get to 70%, about where Edey is this year.
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I feel like all but the most uncoordinated people on the planet can be trained to make at least two-thirds of their free throws. It's a skill, like factory work. Making widgets.
 

Bad Gopher said:
I feel like all but the most uncoordinated people on the planet can be trained to make at least two-thirds of their free throws. It's a skill, like factory work. Making widgets.
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Clearly you didn't watch the halftime free throw shooting contest at Saturday's game. Those two students showed a shocking display of shooting ineptitude. 😱😏
 

FinnGopher said:
Clearly you didn't watch the halftime free throw shooting contest at Saturday's game. Those two students showed a shocking display of shooting ineptitude. 😱😏
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The worst I’ve ever seen.

Pregame half court contest had a participant who didn’t get the ball to the free throw line.

I would think they look for volunteers not just random students. If you have zero chance, why volunteer?
 

Payne's back to back blocks were the play of the game. The recovery to get back up to get the second was incredibly impressive. As discouraging as the last 30 seconds of regulation was, the response to win in OT was encouraging and incredibly surprising. The Gophers were lucky that Boo Buie missed a fairly easy 3 point play with the 5'8-5'9 Hawkins fouling him with 5 seconds left. 3 awful decisions in those final 30 seconds between the very early foul up 3 on one of the best players in the Big Ten to then getting trapped in the corner on the inbounds up 2 to then Hawkins setting his feet and lauching from 45 feet with 2.8 seconds remaining in the game. I didn't mind not helping on Buie on what would become the game tying free throws because I believe you absolutely cannot allow a 3 point attempt there, but I question why Hawkins was the guy tasked with checking Buie. In OT, the Garcia 3 really got things going after an ugly long jumper or 2. I think Northwestern really helped us out by fouling guys in OT as we were able to extend the lead at the line as opposed to having to execute on offense.

I am more than a bit baffled by the response to this game. I believe we had something like 16 points in the first 18 minutes of the game or something crazy like that. Deep in to the 2nd half this looked like a pretty uninspiring home loss. Obviously credit to Ben Johnson, the staff, and the players for fighting back to take the lead and then responding to win in OT after some poor decisions/plays to end regulation. I just don't get some of the elation I see from a section of the fan base over this. I understand being excited about how the game ended, but I don't see how the game as a whole showed that great things are coming here. Northwestern currently has one conference road win (against PSU I think) and the line on the game was anywhere from a pick to NW -1.5. I have seen some people suggest we are getting better as the season goes along. We started out 3-1 and have went 2-4 since that point with wins at Penn State and home against Northwestern. As far as individual players it seems like we are getting less from Ihnen, Carrington, and Ola-Joseph as the season moves forward and more from Christie and Fox. The next 3 games of MSU, @iowa, @ Purdue will go a long to telling the story of where this team is in year 3.
 

This is what I mean by disingenuous posters. NW was largely considered the 4th best team in the conference coming into the game and probably still are. The 3 road losses they had prior to the game came to the only teams ranked in the conference. Obviously not a big win.
 

Zeppelin Gopher said:
This is a bizarre comment after the last 2 games. We were 23-26 against PSU and 16-21 yesterday (and absolutely nails in crunch time).
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Even after the last two games they are twelfth in the B1G in FT%. In terms of players who do shoot well, only three players on the team have shot more than 50 FT's this year and one of them is Payne. A high FT% in a high pressure situation doesn't mean that much--yes, better than nothing--if the player rarely gets to the line. The only player I trust at the line late in a close game is Garcia.
 

Johnnyboy18 said:
This is what I mean by disingenuous posters. NW was largely considered the 4th best team in the conference coming into the game and probably still are. The 3 road losses they had prior to the game came to the only teams ranked in the conference. Obviously not a big win.
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There are only 3 teams in the conference that I would consider good(or better): Purdue, Illinois and Wisconsin. MSU may get there by the end of the year, but they're 4-8 against Q1 and Q2, so they are definitely on the bubble like NW and Nebraska are. NW and Nebraska could go either way as far as making the tournament.

This is a good win in that, if we want to get to the point of making the tournament, we need to beat the fringe tournament teams, which Nebraska and NW are. So that's definite progress. But we also have had some bad losses/performances this year as well.

This MSU game is huge. Not only would it be a Q1 win(Johnson's 4th of his tenure), but MSU is historically a great program, with great coaches and players. To me this would signal significant growth as a program. And it's a very winnable game, given MSU's struggles on the road. And we'd jump to 4th in the conference with a split against MSU. It stinks we only get Wisconsin, Illinois and Purdue once this year, and neither of Purdue/Illinois at home.
 

EG#9 said:
I am more than a bit baffled by the response to this game. I believe we had something like 16 points in the first 18 minutes of the game or something crazy like that. Deep in to the 2nd half this looked like a pretty uninspiring home loss. Obviously credit to Ben Johnson, the staff, and the players for fighting back to take the lead and then responding to win in OT after some poor decisions/plays to end regulation. I just don't get some of the elation I see from a section of the fan base over this. I understand being excited about how the game ended, but I don't see how the game as a whole showed that great things are coming here.
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Elation over a win that started in an uninspiring way is the counter to being ticked off when they play well and blow it at the end. This team has had both. The good news is that they show the ability to hang with anyone. That's a big step in the progression.
 

Good Win! That was a must....Gotta go beat Sparty!!!!!
 

EG#9 said:
Payne's back to back blocks were the play of the game. The recovery to get back up to get the second was incredibly impressive. As discouraging as the last 30 seconds of regulation was, the response to win in OT was encouraging and incredibly surprising. The Gophers were lucky that Boo Buie missed a fairly easy 3 point play with the 5'8-5'9 Hawkins fouling him with 5 seconds left. 3 awful decisions in those final 30 seconds between the very early foul up 3 on one of the best players in the Big Ten to then getting trapped in the corner on the inbounds up 2 to then Hawkins setting his feet and lauching from 45 feet with 2.8 seconds remaining in the game. I didn't mind not helping on Buie on what would become the game tying free throws because I believe you absolutely cannot allow a 3 point attempt there, but I question why Hawkins was the guy tasked with checking Buie. In OT, the Garcia 3 really got things going after an ugly long jumper or 2. I think Northwestern really helped us out by fouling guys in OT as we were able to extend the lead at the line as opposed to having to execute on offense.

I am more than a bit baffled by the response to this game. I believe we had something like 16 points in the first 18 minutes of the game or something crazy like that. Deep in to the 2nd half this looked like a pretty uninspiring home loss. Obviously credit to Ben Johnson, the staff, and the players for fighting back to take the lead and then responding to win in OT after some poor decisions/plays to end regulation. I just don't get some of the elation I see from a section of the fan base over this. I understand being excited about how the game ended, but I don't see how the game as a whole showed that great things are coming here. Northwestern currently has one conference road win (against PSU I think) and the line on the game was anywhere from a pick to NW -1.5. I have seen some people suggest we are getting better as the season goes along. We started out 3-1 and have went 2-4 since that point with wins at Penn State and home against Northwestern. As far as individual players it seems like we are getting less from Ihnen, Carrington, and Ola-Joseph as the season moves forward and more from Christie and Fox. The next 3 games of MSU, @iowa, @ Purdue will go a long to telling the story of where this team is in year 3.
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The elation, I suspect, has more to with clinging to the first evidence in 2.5 years that their opinions might be right. There are a select few who seemingly cannot comment on the game, coaching, outcomes, without making it about themselves. Their interest in this board appears rooted in their desire to be correct and not in being part of a broader fanbase. when their posts are strictly basketball, I enjoy reading and reacting. When they pat themselves on the back, I’m reminded of how low the bar has dropped.

CBJ has done enough to earn another year imo, but this is a really really really bad big ten.
 

Johnnyboy18 said:
This is what I mean by disingenuous posters. NW was largely considered the 4th best team in the conference coming into the game and probably still are. The 3 road losses they had prior to the game came to the only teams ranked in the conference. Obviously not a big win.
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Perhaps you and I conflate cynical and disingenuous. I would not consider the post disingenuous since that is how the poster posts and I’m convinced it’s absolutely sincere and not simply agenda pushing. It’s been that way for years. His standard is perfection and anything less results in a post like this one. Largely facts (the last 30 seconds were not well played) and shooting was off in the first half but not acknowledging that Northwestern is a pretty good team.

My takeaway was primarily that they struggled to make shots and fell behind by ten or close to it twice and then fumbled into overtime and still won. That would have been nearly impossible the last several years. Best evidence of progress is the team not giving up and I think that is significant.
 

bc2211 said:
The elation, I suspect, has more to with clinging to the first evidence in 2.5 years that their opinions might be right. There are a select few who seemingly cannot comment on the game, coaching, outcomes, without making it about themselves. Their interest in this board appears rooted in their desire to be correct and not in being part of a broader fanbase. when their posts are strictly basketball, I enjoy reading and reacting. When they pat themselves on the back, I’m reminded of how low the bar has dropped.

CBJ has done enough to earn another year imo, but this is a really really really bad big ten.
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Are you sure it's not just college basketball that is bad. Very few teams loaded with experienced players that have played multiyear's on the same team anymore.
 

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