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

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What a game, so fun to see the boys pull one out at the end. Great to see smiles on the faces of the players and fans postgame for once.

Attendance was crap but those of us in the house made some NOISE at the end!!

Hoping for a better crowd on Sunday, BEAT WISCONSIN
 


Holy Man said:
On the Battle steal and three pointer I still think it was happy fault for the Gophers by being late to foul and then getting the steal. Maybe not but I have to think they wanted to foul more quickly.
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If you watch the videos that have been posted just after the guy makes the pass that gets stolen he gets fouled by Henley I believe. Thankfully the refs didn't see it. Watching that end sequence there were a bunch of ways it could have ended in disaster for us but for one night at least the ball finally bounced our direction.

Off the top of my head
1. Late foul attempt on the turnover play that wasn't called
2. Ball Garcia mishandled that rolled to Battle and then he drilled the 3
3. Rutgers player not dribbling across halfcourt with nobody on him
4. Rutgers not pressuring Cooper until half court on the final play letting the ball roll and save time.

Nice to finally get the breaks for a change.
 

skyman31 said:
Fun fact: gophers did not lead for a single second of game time, and last held the lead at 18:22 left in the first half. That’s gotta be some kind of record.
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Indeed. Prolly a record if they both held the lead at 18:22 left in the 1st half and didn't lead for a single second.
 
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MNVCGUY said:
If you watch the videos that have been posted just after the guy makes the pass that gets stolen he gets fouled by Henley I believe. Thankfully the refs didn't see it. Watching that end sequence there were a bunch of ways it could have ended in disaster for us but for one night at least the ball finally bounced our direction.

Off the top of my head
1. Late foul attempt on the turnover play that wasn't called
2. Ball Garcia mishandled that rolled to Battle and then he drilled the 3
3. Rutgers player not dribbling across halfcourt with nobody on him
4. Rutgers not pressuring Cooper until half court on the final play letting the ball roll and save time.

Nice to finally get the breaks for a change.
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I didn't appreciate the comedy of errors in the moment, but Rutgers really misplayed the last two minutes. They are pressing the whole game with little resistance, not many steals, but slowing the Gophers down, and then no pressure in the back court on the last sequence. They are a defensive minded program, so it must be on the "card" what they will do in certain circumstances, but that really was a bad decision (one that I see frequently-i.e. not putting any pressure on the ball late in the game and allowing it to roll and preserve time). The bad bounces and execution failures are one thing, but bad strategy is squarely on the coach. The Scarlet Knights are choking it away.

Tangentially, I saw a few quotes originating from Michigan State suggesting divine retribution on them for not rescheduling their game with the Gophers that may have allowed them to play us last night.
 


Nice to get another win. Hopeful going forward but not getting my hopes up too high since I spent the large majority of the game frustrated with what I saw on the court. Still have a long ways to go to be counted on to beat the bottom teams reliably.
 

CentralGopher said:
Nice to get another win. Hopeful going forward but not getting my hopes up too high since I spent the large majority of the game frustrated with what I saw on the court. Still have a long ways to go to be counted on to beat the bottom teams reliably.
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Fair enough. I'm taking the win for a win while not overlooking that they give up too many easy baskets, and don't get enough 50/50 balls, and are not good free throw shooters.
 

MNVCGUY said:
If you watch the videos that have been posted just after the guy makes the pass that gets stolen he gets fouled by Henley I believe. Thankfully the refs didn't see it. Watching that end sequence there were a bunch of ways it could have ended in disaster for us but for one night at least the ball finally bounced our direction.

Off the top of my head
1. Late foul attempt on the turnover play that wasn't called
2. Ball Garcia mishandled that rolled to Battle and then he drilled the 3
3. Rutgers player not dribbling across halfcourt with nobody on him
4. Rutgers not pressuring Cooper until half court on the final play letting the ball roll and save time.

Nice to finally get the breaks for a change.
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You're spot on. And ironically, as I watched this game leading up to the last few minutes, I felt like Rutgers was blatantly lucky. Even the announcers commented that everything was seemingly going Rutger's way with bounces, luck, and momentum.

I'm thrilled the boys got to feel that elation last night. Let's keep it rolling and build up some hype into 2023/2024!
 

Holy Man said:
I didn't appreciate the comedy of errors in the moment, but Rutgers really misplayed the last two minutes. They are pressing the whole game with little resistance, not many steals, but slowing the Gophers down, and then no pressure in the back court on the last sequence. They are a defensive minded program, so it must be on the "card" what they will do in certain circumstances, but that really was a bad decision (one that I see frequently-i.e. not putting any pressure on the ball late in the game and allowing it to roll and preserve time). The bad bounces and execution failures are one thing, but bad strategy is squarely on the coach. The Scarlet Knights are choking it away.

Tangentially, I saw a few quotes originating from Michigan State suggesting divine retribution on them for not rescheduling their game with the Gophers that may have allowed them to play us last night.
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I have to wonder that if they had made both FTs, they play that out differently. Might as well put on pressure and then foul after getting past half court.

It also completely changed how the defenders reacted to Cooper. Because it was a 2 point game, Battle's defender left briefly to try to help on Cooper's drive. That wouldn't have happened if it were a 3 point game.
 



CentralGopher said:
Nice to get another win. Hopeful going forward but not getting my hopes up too high since I spent the large majority of the game frustrated with what I saw on the court. Still have a long ways to go to be counted on to beat the bottom teams reliably.
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Rutgers isn’t going to be playing on Weakling Wednesday as they are 10-9 and 9th in the conference as of today
 

Zeppelin Gopher said:
What a game, so fun to see the boys pull one out at the end. Great to see smiles on the faces of the players and fans postgame for once.

Attendance was crap but those of us in the house made some NOISE at the end!!

Hoping for a better crowd on Sunday, BEAT WISCONSIN
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less than 1000 tickets left per quick perusal of U of M ticket website - unfortunately, we will probably see a lot of red - wear GOLD
 

GophersInIowa said:
I have to wonder that if they had made both FTs, they play that out differently. Might as well put on pressure and then foul after getting past half court.

It also completely changed how the defenders reacted to Cooper. Because it was a 2 point game, Battle's defender left briefly to try to help on Cooper's drive. That wouldn't have happened if it were a 3 point game.
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I have zero doubt the fact it was a 2 point game and not a 3 point game factored into how they handled it. Still could have put enough token pressure on to keep Cooper from letting the ball roll as far as it did, especially when you factor in that he is not a super quick guard and is unlikely to be able to just blow by the defense.

Thankfully they didn't and we all got to see the team finally have a fun moment again....
 









Don't know if it was mentioned but did anybody else notice that Battle tried to intentionally foul with about 25 seconds left. It wasn't called and he ended up getting the steal.
 

RogueGopher said:
longest of all time? in any sport? that's awesome... love how we officiate games in the big ten conference. Give everyone a raise.
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guessing it was an exaggeration by that halftime crew (that it was the longest), but yeah, it was at least 9 minutes too long.
 

dannygopher9100 said:
As the refs were leaving the game, someone from the student section yelled at them about the review, and he replied, "It is too complicated for you guys to understand." I don't know what he meant, but I am curious if we will ever find out what they were reviewing.
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I’m surprised they didn’t nullify it because the Rutgers coach was on the court - he was actually near the ball, even. Should have been a T plus the ball with about 4-5 seconds left.
 
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Bad Gopher said:
Video of just the end sequence:

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Awesome video. Some additional thoughts:
1. Spencer clearly offensively fouled Henley with 55 seconds left, who had him trapped. Spencer not only initiated all of the contact, he did so with swinging elbows.
2. Watch Garcia’s box out on Spencer’s missed FT. That’s how you do it, boys and girls.
3. What was Rutgers doing passing it backwards in the backcourt with 15 seconds left? Their forward could have freely dribbled past half court and wasted a bunch of time off the clock (that was Battle’s steal play).
4. Henley’s putback with 7 seconds left was as important as the last shot. Great hustle and awareness. He was hustling like crazy the entire end of the game.
5. Cooper’s pass to Battle on the last shot was excellent. Drive and dish, get your body in the way of the defenders. Rutgers actually defended Battle well on that one.
6. Every time I watch it I can’t believe Battle missed the open 3 on his steal (with all the momentum) while making the far tougher three other shots.
7. For 3 thousand some fans, man were they loud at the end!
 

cncmin said:
Awesome video. Some additional thoughts:
1. Spencer clearly offensively fouled Henley with 55 seconds left, who had him trapped. Spencer not only initiated all of the contact, he did so with swinging elbows.
2. Watch Garcia’s box out on Spencer’s missed FT. That’s how you do it, boys and girls.
3. What was Rutgers doing passing it backwards in the backcourt with 15 seconds left? Their forward could have freely dribbled past half court and wasted a bunch of time off the clock (that was Battle’s steal play).
4. Henley’s putback with 7 seconds left was as important as the last shot. Great hustle and awareness. He was hustling like crazy the entire end of the game.
5. Cooper’s pass to Battle on the last shot was excellent. Drive and dish, get your body in the way of the defenders. Rutgers actually defended Battle well on that one.
6. Every time I watch it I can’t believe Battle missed the open 3 on his steal (with all the momentum) while making the far tougher three other shots.
7. For 3 thousand some fans, man were they loud at the end!
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Great observations!

Right after Henley's putback, I remarked to one of my season ticket mates how huge and heady that play was. It happened so fast, I wasn't even sure how that ball got back up and in.
 

Hadn’t noticed the interaction between Garcia and Battle. Nice moment. Also learned they are roommates on game night. With all the talk about how they don’t fit well together on the court, it is obvious they have a real friendship.
 

Holy Man said:
Hadn’t noticed the interaction between Garcia and Battle. Nice moment. Also learned they are roommates on game night. With all the talk about how they don’t fit well together on the court, it is obvious they have a real friendship.
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Leftys have to look out for each other 😎
 


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