The first thing I want to talk about in this game was the officiating. I have not been this mad about officiating in a long, long time. The first 24 minutes or so (to the first media timeout in the second half) felt like a fix was in with how ridiculous the calls were. Dupree was fouled a minimum of 3 times with no call, Jordan Murphy fouled multiple times, Nate Mason, Amir Coffey, and Reggie Lynch at least once a piece. The vast majority of these would have been shooting fouls and on more than one occasion the non-calls lead to numbers going the other way. This would have been ok IF the same was being done on the other side of the court. It wasn't. The Gophers were called for multiple touch fouls on the perimeter (Hurt, Fitzgerald) rebounding fouls (Murphy) and on and on. It was legitimately comical how often the Gophers attempted shots in the paint in the first half and how rarely the whistle was blown given what was being called on the other end. I couldn't even be upset with the Gophers own poor performance at halftime because I was seething at the officiating.
With that being said, the Gophers wasted their one game margin of error for the B1G season already. If you are hoping for a B1G title, undefeated at home is now a MUST. @Maryland, @ Michigan, @ Purdue, @ Northwestern, @Penn State...probably need to go 3-2 in those road games now...and don't even think about losing @Wisconsin, @Iowa, or @Indiana...and the Wisconsin and Indiana games are certainly going to be better competition than tonight was. Most teams will have a bad loss in their conference schedule, but having it this early when the team is healthy is BRUTAL.
Defensively: Way too many f'ing open 3's given up. Terrible reactions to pick and roll which includes guys being way too willing to switch in to mis-matches and zero urgency to switch back. Several times the Gophers gave up wide open 3's and then gave up the offensive rebound as a cherry on top, that's not what got them to 11-7 last year and this type of defense is going to lead to a terribly disappointing season. Very early in the game, when the Gophers were down 5-0, they were lucky not to be down more like 12 or 14 with the open looks they were giving Nebraska. The issues on the defensive boards and defending the 3 were there against Rutgers too...very disappointing to not correct either.
Offensively: What the F' is the plan? Zero ball movement early, no real effort to get the ball to Jordan Murphy with SPACE to do something. They honestly looked like they had no clue how to score on a mediocre at best Nebraska squad. Lack of 3 point shooting continues to show up and we really need somebody to fill in that Akeem Springs role of being able to knock down some 3's in a limited role. Akeem also was a bigger guard (weight wise) and could be a positive on the defensive end, so that's a big contrast to freshman Jamir Harris who didn't play in this game. I'd love to see the Gophers use Amir more as the primary ball handler in half court sets. I actually think Amir (and at times Dupree) are better creators than Nate if we're just going basically iso ball.
I've seen enough of Bakary Konate to last a lifetime. Him getting scored on by Tshimanga and then not being able to finish that dunk was so aggravating.
Once again, we get NOTHING out of the bench as far as scoring except from Washington. How the F' did Pitino think it was a good idea to give a scholarship to a transfer that had to sit out this year? It's just f'ing unreal how little anyone outside of the top 6 contributes (top 7 if Curry was available) and I just can't believe he couldn't make that judgment last Spring. If these guys can't contribute against Nebraska, they certainly aren't going to help us against the better teams in the B1G.