Have not had a chance to watch either game, so I can't provide any incisive analysis, but a person can't be impressed by beating a bad team by only a few points. The Gophers are going to have to improve by leaps and bounds to be able to compete against Big Ten teams. Looking at the box score, the depressing part is being outrebounded - both offensive and total - yet again. Will we have a game this year where we're not outrebounded?
And when we outrebound somebody by 10 and lose by 20 will you be happy? The team with the most points wins. Rebounding is a factor but one of many. If a team's most dangerous aspect is running and finishing off missed shots, then rebounding is critical. That's not who we are. We don't often outlet and bang, bang we got a layout. How do they do that? That's not us. Every team needs offensive putbacks.
It is an emphasis for all teams but it's a knack, a skill, a trait of somebody's individual game more than anything and we don't have those guys. Buggs and Morris knife through and deliver one here and there.
What's important varies with each game depending on the opponent. You can't get destroyed on the boards and win typically but getting beat on the boards by a handful is not the deciding factor very often.
You gotta score...you gotta contest shots...you do have to minimize second chance points...they'll kill you...but you can do that and still get out rebounded and win. jmo