***OFFICIAL OHIO STATE AT MINNESOTA IN-BATTLE THREAD!!!***

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MNVCGUY said:
He looks fast on TV but seeing him live, holy crap. It is like he is moving in fast forward while everyone else is going at regular speed. Can't wait to look at the tape of the broadcast to see that behind the back move he made to kill some time. That was some Globetrotters level stuff right there.
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Hawkins has some afterburners or a jet pack. He moves like a video game at times. Elijah Hawkins has been a god send at point guard this year.
 

Tucker32 said:
It was a fun time. Still wish more people would get off their butt and get to the game. It's loud with the crowd the way it was. I would love to get it back to what it was in the Clem heyday.
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Ticket prices too high. Sold a lot more tickets at 33 to $35 price point. There are a lot of seats in zones that are 50 to 55 dollar range that have obstructed views not great view of court. Even a price point of 42 dollars would sell more tickets.
 

I remember Rick Pitino in 2013 had a guard believe his name was Russ Smith? He was lights out on the court. I told my friends, if the Gophers could ever find someone like him we could win the Big Ten! Hawk could be that special guy! Score and dish at will. Fun to watch!
 

It was a nice win. I am not questioning that.

But - if you want to be a really good team, you have to close out games.
at the 3:38 mark, Gophers were up 75-59. they had a chance to put the game away - but over the next 2:07, OSU outscored the Gophers 11-4 to make it 79-70 with 1:31 remaining.

we've seen this before - game gets tight, other team puts on a press, and the lead shrinks.

There is still room for improvement. that is all I'm saying. there is still room for improvement. the Gophers can improve and need to improve if they want to close out the season strong and do something at the Conference Tournament.
 



Crowd in person as impressive as I’ve seen in years. Intense from the first minute. Gophers great start really helped. Student section was loud and full, if not particularly creative in its chants.

One of the most satisfying wins in a long time. Hang your head, Battle. You got yours but you lost! 😂
 

short ornery norwegian said:
It was a nice win. I am not questioning that.

But - if you want to be a really good team, you have to close out games.
at the 3:38 mark, Gophers were up 75-59. they had a chance to put the game away - but over the next 2:07, OSU outscored the Gophers 11-4 to make it 79-70 with 1:31 remaining.

we've seen this before - game gets tight, other team puts on a press, and the lead shrinks.

There is still room for improvement. that is all I'm saying. there is still room for improvement. the Gophers can improve and need to improve if they want to close out the season strong and do something at the Conference Tournament.
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Yes and it’s a learning curve.

They have said on multiple B10 broadcasts this season, Ben has been working on convincing them they are a March Madness team.

You have to believe, before you can achieve.

They now believe and you can see the confidence on the court, not blowing a huge lead is part of it, limiting big runs and responding with your own.

The next is keeping their focus and stepping on their opponents necks when they have a lead - that stone cold killer mentality.
 

Holy Man said:
Crowd in person as impressive as I’ve seen in years. Intense from the first minute. Gophers great start really helped. Student section was loud and full, if not particularly creative in its chants.

One of the most satisfying wins in a long time. Hang your head, Battle. You got yours but you lost! 😂
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We sunk his 🛳️
 

Gopher_In_NYC said:
Yes and it’s a learning curve.

They have said on multiple B10 broadcasts this season, Ben has been working on convincing them they are a March Madness team.

You have to believe, before you can achieve.

They now believe and you can see the confidence on the court, not blowing a huge lead is part of it, limiting big runs and responding with your own.

The next is keeping their focus and stepping on their opponents necks when they have a lead - that stone cold killer mentality.
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The coach knowing who to play when has been huge too. Lots of defense first subs.
 




With Battle, it's business. Meaning his team got taken out in a bag.

Only so much to go around, but enough for his team.
 

I have no idea how much NIL is in play, if any. In football it's huge. I will say with the better guard play this year that the team is better off without Battle. There are trade offs. What this team has now is better. Someone pointed out battle being a possible defense liability down the stretch in this game.
 

I'm blabbing.

I had a really good seat for this game, and it was astounding to see some of the plays that happened. I couldn't believe the value I was getting for my dollar.

Listen, I've seen many games in many sports, and I've seen countless concerts and theater shows. Many I can't remember. But now and then after a show I'd wake up and think about it. That's when you know you saw something really good, that it made you wake up thinking about it.

Yea...
 



SHGopher said:
I have no idea how much NIL is in play, if any. In football it's huge. I will say with the better guard play this year that the team is better off without Battle. There are trade offs. What this team has now is better. Someone pointed out battle being a possible defense liability down the stretch in this game.
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Clearly a defensive liability based on sub pattern. But he also had four fouls they were protecting from.
 



SHGopher said:
I have no idea how much NIL is in play, if any. In football it's huge. I will say with the better guard play this year that the team is better off without Battle. There are trade offs. What this team has now is better. Someone pointed out battle being a possible defense liability down the stretch in this game.
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If you have one guy that doesn't play defense- the whole system breaks down. I have to hand it to Battle- he delivered on the offensive end, so good for him. He just doesn't have a history of making a team better...maybe its bad luck or maybe he is just a one dimensional player.
 

short ornery norwegian said:
It was a nice win. I am not questioning that.

But - if you want to be a really good team, you have to close out games.
at the 3:38 mark, Gophers were up 75-59. they had a chance to put the game away - but over the next 2:07, OSU outscored the Gophers 11-4 to make it 79-70 with 1:31 remaining.

we've seen this before - game gets tight, other team puts on a press, and the lead shrinks.

There is still room for improvement. that is all I'm saying. there is still room for improvement. the Gophers can improve and need to improve if they want to close out the season strong and do something at the Conference Tournament.
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Similar take here. Once this team gets pressed and are forced into a half court offense they seem to stall. There were 3-5 possessions in a row where they failed to get a shot or it was a hail mary at the shot clock buzzer. Now that other teams see this deficiency it will happen more often, getting pressed, hopefully this will get resolved and improved upon.

Very good win last night. CONGRATS to the Gopher
 

short ornery norwegian said:
There is still room for improvement. that is all I'm saying. there is still room for improvement.
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There’s always room for improvement.

The moment you start thinking “hey, we’re pretty good!” is the moment your hunger for working hard to improve stops, and that’s when complacency sets in.

It’s human nature. But the more you can avoid it, the better.
 

bga1 said:
If you have one guy that doesn't play defense- the whole system breaks down. I have to hand it to Battle- he delivered on the offensive end, so good for him. He just doesn't have a history of making a team better...maybe its bad luck or maybe he is just a one dimensional player.
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Battle's shooting is the only thing that kept last night from being a complete blowout. And as much as having an offensive weapon like that is great, Battle would have been a horrible fit on the current Gopher roster.

Johnson has made the point that defense is important and if you want to play you have to put in effort on both sides of the court. It is probably a big part of why JOJ has seen his minutes cut and it may certainly have played a role in Battle deciding to take the money and run because he clearly does not want to play D and that was on full display last night.

Had Battle stuck around he would have been an awesome 6th or 7th man off the bench to come in and provide instant offense. But his game and the game Johnson wants his guys to play don't mesh so in the end it was probably best for everyone that he left.
 

Curious if anyone noticed was there any drama or reactions with Battle in the handshake line at the end of the game? The tv didn't show much.
 

gopherdudepart2 said:
Ticket prices too high. Sold a lot more tickets at 33 to $35 price point. There are a lot of seats in zones that are 50 to 55 dollar range that have obstructed views not great view of court. Even a price point of 42 dollars would sell more tickets.
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There were great tickets for $20 with no obstructed view (I bought some of them for people). Price point was no excuse not to be at this game.
 

Went to the game last night. First time ever. Even the cheap seats I was in were great sight lines, I thought.

In football it’s harder to see the action in person, I think.

But last night, I felt like I was closer somehow! The nuance of the athleticism and movement, for lack of better words, seems much more observable at the arena than on TV.

Very much enjoyed it!!
 

Tucker32 said:
There were great tickets for $20 with no obstructed view (I bought some of them for people). Price point was no excuse not to be at this game.
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Yep. $22 for me last night and I thought the view was great
 

short ornery norwegian said:
It was a nice win. I am not questioning that.

But - if you want to be a really good team, you have to close out games.
at the 3:38 mark, Gophers were up 75-59. they had a chance to put the game away - but over the next 2:07, OSU outscored the Gophers 11-4 to make it 79-70 with 1:31 remaining.

we've seen this before - game gets tight, other team puts on a press, and the lead shrinks.

There is still room for improvement. that is all I'm saying. there is still room for improvement. the Gophers can improve and need to improve if they want to close out the season strong and do something at the Conference Tournament.
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I get the point you are trying to make and I don't even really disagree as what you are describing has been an issue for this team.

But - this feels like a weird game to use as an example. Yes, Ohio State amped up the pressure and was able to trim the lead some late but they never got close enough to really make the game feel like it was in doubt. If anything, last night was a perfect example of the team learning from past mistakes and closing out the game strong.

There is always room for improvement on every team and I would contend that you can see this team growing and improving as the season goes on. The wins over Rutgers and Ohio State have been two of the most complete games this team has played this season.
 

Tucker32 said:
There were great tickets for $20 with no obstructed view (I bought some of them for people). Price point was no excuse not to be at this game.
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Yep....we sat in section 218 - phenomenal view of the court and the tickets were like $25 each with just $10 for parking in the Maroon lot next to football stadium. As far as sporting events go that was a great value in my opinion.
 

SHGopher said:
I'm blabbing.

I had a really good seat for this game, and it was astounding to see some of the plays that happened. I couldn't believe the value I was getting for my dollar.

Listen, I've seen many games in many sports, and I've seen countless concerts and theater shows. Many I can't remember. But now and then after a show I'd wake up and think about it. That's when you know you saw something really good, that it made you wake up thinking about it.

Yea...
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Uwe Blab away 🥳
 


MNVCGUY said:
Battle's shooting is the only thing that kept last night from being a complete blowout. And as much as having an offensive weapon like that is great, Battle would have been a horrible fit on the current Gopher roster.

Johnson has made the point that defense is important and if you want to play you have to put in effort on both sides of the court. It is probably a big part of why JOJ has seen his minutes cut and it may certainly have played a role in Battle deciding to take the money and run because he clearly does not want to play D and that was on full display last night.

Had Battle stuck around he would have been an awesome 6th or 7th man off the bench to come in and provide instant offense. But his game and the game Johnson wants his guys to play don't mesh so in the end it was probably best for everyone that he left.
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Agreed that Battle would have been a poor fit for this team. I don't have "inside information" about team chemistry from last year, but besides his liability on defense, it didn't seem like he was an asset for the team on the team chemistry side either.

And it is such a pleasure to see everybody working hard on defense and earning playing time based on their defensive efforts! That's good coaching.

It also doesn't hurt that you can now arguably state that the Gophers have 3 of the top 20 players in the conference in Garcia, Payne, and Hawkins. When was the last time you could say that?
 

RockChalk said:
Similar take here. Once this team gets pressed and are forced into a half court offense they seem to stall. There were 3-5 possessions in a row where they failed to get a shot or it was a hail mary at the shot clock buzzer. Now that other teams see this deficiency it will happen more often, getting pressed, hopefully this will get resolved and improved upon.

Very good win last night. CONGRATS to the Gopher
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This is such a bad take. People say this at the end of games all the time about teams all over the country, because almost every team struggles with it. The defensive team is being super aggressive, taking risks, and subbing out 1-2 players they could never afford to sub out earlier in the game. They would or could never play this way for extended periods during the game. Further, the offensive team is not attacking to score because they want to play the clock. The reason you don't see teams press earlier in the game is it wouldn't be as effective because the offensive team, in this case the Gophers, would attack and score. And, teams like OSU couldn't afford to take Battle and the other person (forget his number) they were taking off the floor the last 3-4 minutes. It's comparing apples to oranges with end of game vs something you would do the entire game. The Gophs didn't have any problem with the pressure they put on earlier in the game, and people forget about it because it didn't cause any problem.
 

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