The Gophers have lost 6 of their last 8 games.
Here are Nadine Babu’s post game notes, as always, they are not 100% exact as I type as they talk.
Rodney Williams:
(On his shoulder) It’s just sore now. I thought I was okay to go for a little but, but coach didn’t want it to get worse.
These games are especially hard to watch, especially when you can’t do anything to help your team. (sitting on the bench)
It was the little things like turnovers and transition defense. We need to get guys to find open spots when Trevor gets double teamed.
I’ll definitely be playing Thursday. (it’s his left shoulder that’s injured)
Trevor Mbakwe:
We gotta keep working, learn how to take care of the ball better.
You gotta win those home games. Yeah you do.
Elliott Eliason:
That one hurt to be honest, it’s hard to talk about your personal accomplishments when you lose (when asked about his solid game).
(On the Badgers) They are a hot team right now. We gotta get tougher, can’t have lapses.
(On struggles with perimeter D): We over helped, instead of staying on our guys. On tradition, they filled their lanes correctly.
Groce:
We executed some things really well.
Mbakwe is so good, so we felt like we needed to send a 2nd guy on him for a lot of the 2nd half.
We want to be an everyday organization, not a game day one. Every practice matters, etc.
Tubby Smith:
• I want to compliment Illinois on the job they did. They came in here and did what they needed to do, double teaming Trevor. A lot of things they did better than us today, it’s the same issues we’ve had before – taking care of the basketball. That’s a real concern. We keep talking about it and working on it. You gotta execute down the stretch and we didn’t.
• We correct one area, and another comes up. We turned it over a lot today in the post. The flurry at the end of the 1st half, was indicative of us not playing smart. You can’t win playing like that.
• I think some times you try to do too much, try to make the great pass, it’s not being cautious – because they wouldn’t have thrown it. Most time, I’d rather they just hold it, they threw bullet passes, to guys that weren’t looking.
• We found another way to lose a game, instead of finding ways to win. We’re sitting here with 17 wins, 5-6 and this was a huge game for us. Maybe we need to do some more as far as the psychology of winning, learning how to win in important games. We haven’t rose up. Whether it’s me making a call, or calling the right play.
• I didn’t see Andre Hollins change his offense or aggressiveness at all – he shot the ball 10 times. I didn’t see a chance in aggressiveness or confidence.
• We really worked hard on sharing the basketball, moving the ball, screening, and we did a good job early on. Weren’t able to finish around the basket. Andre struggled shooting the ball today, and against MSU.
• Elliott goes hard, blocks, assists, he was the 2nd leading assist guy. He moves his feet, he’s been playing well.
• We have a tendency to turn it over. The two guys that didn’t turn it over today were Austin and Joe. Good teams are pressuring us. There are mistakes of driving to the basket when we shouldn’t be. In the 2nd half Joe wasn’t making his hump shots, so we told him to cut to the basket. You’d hope if I’m passing to you, you’d make contact, but it didn’t happen.
• This was a game that we needed more depth…if you just make some shots, you can win the game. If you don’t make those whether Rodney is in the game or not, you’re not going to win.
• The group we had in was playing very well, it was hot, guys were exerting energy, guarding the 3, Mo gave us good minutes, Ingram did, Julian did after he settled down. If we could just turnovers in half, we’d be ok. Whether we need to slow it down…be more patient, we are just making some tough decisions with the ball. Let the offense come to you. Stay aggressive, we don’t want to take that away from our players, but not to the detriment to our team. We worked hard on trying to limit our dribbles. The guys want to put it on the floor. It’s just another blown opportunity for us.