Game 4: Gophers Host Boston College (11/19/17)

[Ignatius L Hoops]

Sunday Night Basketball

Simply put, Boston College is a last place power five conference team. Last season’s 2-14 conference record earned them dead last in the ACC. Erik Johnson, BC’s head coach, now entering his sixth year, expects a lot of growth from his sophomores. Thus far the Eagles are 2-1 with home wins over Bryant, 65-42 and Fordham, 55-52. The two wins sandwich a loss at Dartmouth, 57-68.

In the last two games, Fordham and Dartmouth, the Eagles played seven players including a couple of Aussie’s: 6’1, So, F Georgia Pineau from Victoria who is their second leading scorer (10.3/game) and leading rebounder (10.3/game). (She should be a fun matchup for Destiny Pitts). And 5’9”, So. G Taylor Orlepp from Adelaide who is the third leading scorer at 9.3 points per game.

Boston College’s leading scorer is 5’10” Fr G Milan Bolden-Morris (14.3/game). Also playing is 6’3” Sr. F Katie Quandt from Lakeville.


The Gamer chart shows this as an 88-62 Gopher win. For reference, VCU was shown as an 89-60 Gopher win. BC seems worse than VCU. I believe the last time Minnesota played Boston College was 2008 when Sylvia Crawley was the Eagles head coach. Minnesota won that one 80-60.

 

[Shades]

Pitts gets the start. I was wondering when that was going to happen.

 

[overpass]

BC only has 7 active players. Run them off the floor.

 

[tripledouble]

A very unimpressive win for the Gophers against an undermanned team picked to finish at the bottom of the ACC. This team still doesn't play defense and they're in for a big surprise when they play some better teams.

 

[Ignatius L Hoops]

Destiny Pitts got her first start in the 78-68 win over Boston College. I think she only subbed out for brief rests. Kiki Bell meanwhile needed no rest and continued as the Gophers best player. Kiki was sensational with 31 points and 10 rebounds. 23 of those points were in the first half where once again Hubbard and Wagner seemed on distant planet. Diva and Carlie finished the game a combined 6-25 from the field (2-13 from three). Like I said last game, Carlie and Diva need a good dose of whatever Kiki uses.

Taiye Bello played the most minutes at the post which certainly added to the team's energy and rebounding. Taiye also became the first Gopher to foul out.

Wagner's minutes were limited by early foul trouble. It was a night they could have been limited by play.

Once again, Minnesota started with a press; but it was beatable. However, the first half went fairly well and ended with the Gophers leading 43-29. They begin to pull away in the second before indifferent play (NOT FROM BELL) let the Eagles back into shouting distance.

Minutes Played (Starters in Bold)

39 Bell (31 points, 10 rebounds, 5 assists and 3 steals)
35 Hubbard
34 Pitts (14 points and 16 rebounds)
25 T. Bello
25 Wagner
19 Brunson
15 Edwards
4 Gonzalez
2 Kaposi
2 Fernstrom

 

[tripledouble]

It seems like the Gophers are "dabbling" with the press. As I recall, they are using it only for a few minutes in the first half of each game. Am I right with that? If so, why aren't they using it more often? Shouldn't they be practicing it in games if they intend it to be an occasional part of their defensive system. They certainly have a deep enough bench to have the full-court press be a more prominent part of their defense.

Was that Wagner's worst game as a Gopher? She finally came alive a bit in the second half. From what I've seen the first four games, Bell seems to be the most improved player. I hope Brunson is OK. In watching the game on BTN Plus, I noticed that she had to leave the court and she never played again. I would have liked to see more minutes for Paloma tonight, especially with Wagner struggling as much as she did. I felt a bit sorry for BC, having only 7 players available to play. That's got to be a difficult situation for a coach.

 

[Ignatius L Hoops]

It was a poor game by Wagner. It's the third straight game she's got off to a poor start. And the slow start stands out when Bell is hitting threes, grabbing rebounds, scoring off drives, etc. I think it seemed like her worse game if only because Carlie's a senior. It was capped with a turnover with under 2:00 minutes to go where with the Gophers just making sure passes to keep the clock running Carlie tried a sort of a no-look, side shovel flip that went directly to a BC player at mid-court. We can't have both Carlie and Diva ineffective at the same time.

Brunson returned to the bench and to the game in the fourth quarter. After Brunson got run over and went out of the game, down the tunnel, I think the on court lineup was Kaposi, T. Bello, Pitts, Bell, and Wagner. I don't recall another time Kaposi and T. Bello played at the same time.

"Dabbling" is a good description. I think they've worked on the press early because it's a bit unseemly to use it late in 30 point blow outs. It will probably work better with Bello than with Edwards and Ferstrom on the back end.

 

[Shades]

I guess early foul trouble equates to a "poor start". Seemed like Hubbard was equally ineffective offensively with 10 more minutes.

In the postgame interview, Stollings said the team was deep enough that they could afford an off night by a player. She also pointed out that any game against a team in the ACC will prove to be a challenge. We have two more games against the ACC coming up.

 

[Shades]

In watching the game on BTN Plus

Speaking of BTN Plus, am I the only one who is struggling finding games for BTN Plus on the online schedules? On the Gophersports.com schedule, they don't show games on BTN Plus after Boston College. On the BTN2GO.com schedule, they show 5 games in December including
12/3 E Michigan
12/13 Cal Poly
12/22 UC Riverside
12/28 @Northwestern
12/31 Nebraska

But no games show up on BTN Plus for January & February. I thought whenever BTN or some other major broadcaster wasn't showing the games, BTN Plus was always an option.

 

[gpher]

A very unimpressive win for the Gophers against an undermanned team picked to finish at the bottom of the ACC. This team still doesn't play defense and they're in for a big surprise when they play some better teams.

Very unimpressive indeed, it's all about coaching choices. Their starting center had 3 fouls in the first half and 4 early in the second. We should have went after her and passed the ball into the post and made her play defense and probably fouled out or been forced to play less aggressive and allowed our post some easy paint points. Then she would have probably fouled out, their next center was 5'10''. Again easy paint points if you could get someone to pass the ball inside. That then forces more of their players to collapse to the paint to help and open up the outside for more open looks from outside. It's not rocket science.

 

[Ignatius L Hoops]

Speaking of BTN Plus, am I the only one who is struggling finding games for BTN Plus on the online schedules? On the Gophersports.com schedule, they don't show games on BTN Plus after Boston College. On the BTN2GO.com schedule, they show 5 games in December including
12/3 E Michigan
12/13 Cal Poly
12/22 UC Riverside
12/28 @Northwestern
12/31 Nebraska

But no games show up on BTN Plus for January & February. I thought whenever BTN or some other major broadcaster wasn't showing the games, BTN Plus was always an option.

I'm not sure why they aren't listed on the Gopher schedule. The Illinois schedule for instance lists conference games on btnplus if they aren't on BTN or ESPN. So I think it's just a quirk. In September BTN sent out this press release:
http://www.bigten.org/sports/w-baskbl/spec-rel/090717aaa.html

For the fourth consecutive year, every Big Ten women’s basketball conference game will be produced and distributed by BTN, BTN Plus or an ESPN network, highlighting the 2017-18 Big Ten women’s basketball television package that was announced Thursday by the Big Ten and its television partners.

Big Ten women’s basketball teams will be featured on national television at least 63 times during the 2017-18 season. BTN will televise at least 54 games and the ESPN family of networks will carry nine contests, with all remaining conference games airing live on BTN Plus.

By the way, speaking of Hubbard: I've been critical of both Carlie and Diva's slow first half starts in an offense designed around them.