B1G Game 17: Minnesota visits Rutgers (2-28-19)

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Ignatius L Hoops

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How Many Shoes Can Drop?

Normally I'd wait until after tonight’s game for the game thread; but Rutgers is spewing comment intensive debris today.

Following Rutger’s (10-5) second half collapse and loss to Minnesota (8-8) at Williams Arena, Rutgers is 1-3 with Wisconsin visiting Piscataway on Monday night. Wait! there’s more lost than just games: in the past week, two players have been dismissed (Caitlin Jenkins and Ciani Cryor), a transfer player’s past arrests (Alexis Morris) have been reported and Hall of Famer, C Vivian Stringer, took a leave of absence. The remainder of the Scarlet Knights will be coached by interim head coach Tim Eatman. This is the second time in three years that Minnesota has faced Rutgers without Stringer on the side lines. In February 2017, following the death of her mother, Stringer missed the Rutgers/Minnesota contest in Minneapolis. It was a 80-46 Gopher win.

This season’s Gopher win at Williams Arena against then first place Rutgers was crazy. First, the Scarlet Knight’s Caitlin Jenkins was suspended and did not make the trip to Minneapolis. Then, after committing 14 first half turnovers, Minnesota trailed 17-23 at the half. But a Gophers 22-10 third quarter burst put the Maroon and Gold ahead for good salvaging a 60-46 victory. It was the second win in what became a six game Minnesota winning streak. Stasha Carey was the only Scarlet Knight in double figures with 16 points. For Minnesota, Bell scored 19, Pitts (14 points and 7 rebounds), Brunson (13 points) and Taiye Bello (11 points and 21 rebounds).

Rutgers is limping to the finish; but, the Scarlet Knights did considerable damage early in the season getting a win at Maryland, defeating Michigan State at the RAC and sweeping Indiana. With three games remaining (Wisconsin, Minnesota and at Ohio State) Rutgers still looks NCAA bound. However, Senior Night in Piscataway should be an interesting experience for Minnesota not to mention Rutgers.


B1G Wins: Northwestern 45-41, @ Maryland 73-65, Penn State 74-61, @ Illinois 71-60, @ Nebraska 62-56, Purdue 65-63, Michigan State 78-62, @ Penn State 69-61, Indiana 69-64, @ Indiana 61-69

B1G Loss: @ Iowa 66-72, @ Minnesota 46-50, Maryland 48-62, Ohio State 39-59, @ Michigan 76-86.


Starters:

5’5” G Jr Ciani Cryor (Dismissed)
6’2” F Sr Stasha Carey (13.5 points, 6.2 rebounds in 30.3 minutes/game)
5’3” G Sr Charise Wilson (7.9 points, 1.9 rebounds in 28.7 minutes)
5’11” G So Arella Guirantes (11.6 points, 5.1 rebounds and 28.1 minutes)
6’3” C Sr Victoria Harris (3.9 points, 4.3 rebounds in 17.8 minutes)


Others:

6’1” F So Tekia Mack (5.8 points, 3.2 rebounds in 13.6 minutes)
6’3” C Jr Jordan Wallace (1.0 point, .6 rebounds in 4.7 minutes)
5’7” G Fr Noga Peleg Pelc (3.4 points, .9 rebounds in 13.7 minutes)
6’0” G Sr Sierra Calhoun (3.5 points, 1.3 rebounds in 14.3 minutes)
 

If Wisconsin can knock off Rutgers tonight, that could be potentially huge for Minnesota Big Ten tournament seedings, as I tried to demonstrate in the Other Big Ten games thread. I’ll be cheering for the Badgers a lot this week.
 

Cryor is (was?) second in assists in the conference, even though she plays for a team that is not notably gifted on offense. In other words: Huge loss.
 

thatjanelpick said:
Cryor is (was?) second in assists in the conference, even though she plays for a team that is not notably gifted on offense. In other words: Huge loss.
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Yes, Cryor averaged 6.1 assists/game in B1G play. She only played three non-conference games because of her early season suspension.
 

Well, sometimes "you reap what you sow". In other words, they're recruiting players/transfers who have behavior risks...and now they are paying the price. Most other BIG programs not taking the risks that Rutgers has been taking with the players they're signing.
 


Is it possible that CVS had to resort to grad transfers given her age and health? I can see where a transfer only needs to be concerned who the coach is for one year vs. an incoming top recruited freshman committing to 4 years to a coach who may not be there long (71+4=75). And I also suspect that other coaches recruiting against Rutgers could hint at such a potential outcome (really though, would any Division 1 coach stoop that low?).
 

Rutgers defeated Wisconsin 73-53. Pelc replaced Cryor in the starting lineup. Wisconsin is really bad. Rutger's press put the game away early. The Badgers had 24 turnovers mostly caused by the press. The Scarlet Knight's had 20 turnovers mostly caused by sloppiness. Eatman, filling in for Stringer, spread out the playing time. Only two Rutgers players played 26 minutes. In case I haven't said this before, the Badgers are really bad.
 

Ignatius L Hoops said:
Rutgers defeated Wisconsin 73-53. Pelc replaced Cryor in the starting lineup. Wisconsin is really bad. Rutger's press put the game away early. The Badgers had 24 turnovers mostly caused by the press. The Scarlet Knight's had 20 turnovers mostly caused by sloppiness. Eatman, filling in for Stringer, spread out the playing time. Only two Rutgers players played 26 minutes. In case I haven't said this before, the Badgers are really bad.
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...and, yet, the Badgers killed the can't-win-outside-Breslin Spartans in Madison. The Gophers should win both of these next two.
 




She's getting better in these interviews. Thanks for the post.
 

Pitts is heating up in the second quarter! Need to slow down our TO's.
 

Pitts 4-7 from deep, plus 1-1 for Perez. Altogether shooting .625 on threes in first half.

And 9 turnovers. Definitely gotta slow down the turnover rate.
 




The TO bug has bitten us again. Need Bell to heat up and show composure handling the press.
 

They might lose me for the remainder of the year if they lead for the majority of the game and blow it at the end again....
Show me you learned something from a week ago.
 

The Gophers look like deer in headlights out there. Even though it's still close, I can tell they aren't going to win this one.
 

Rutgers did a good job making the game ugly and using their size. Bell was pretty terrible on both ends tonight. Time to focus on winning the big ten tourney.
 


The more we lose, the more difficult recruiting gets and that is the absolute life blood of a successful basketball program!!
 

I hate it when Gamer is right about away games.

They out-benched us 5 to 1 bench players.

We out-turnovered them 5 to 2 in 4th quarter. A bona fide recipe for teams to beat us. Bottom line: we gotta cut the turnovers in half. I’m not sure how you practice “not turning over.”

They outrebounded us 36 to 28. Partly due to Taiye in foul trouble.
 
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We just don't have the depth of talent to handle athletic, aggressive teams that can play 8-10 players deep. As in shape as our starting 5 must be, it seems the wear down physically and mentally just enough to become prone to more fouls and turnovers in the second halves of games. I look forward to Lindsay recruiting complete teams where talent runs deep into the bench.
 

CutDownTheNet said:
I hate it when Gamer is right about away games.

They out-benched us 5 to 1 bench players.

We out-turnovered them 5 to 2 in 4th quarter. A bona fide recipe for teams to beat us. Bottom line: we gotta cut the turnovers in half. I’m not sure how you practice “not turning over.”

They outrebounded us 36 to 28. Partly due to Taiye in something e foul trouble.
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I dont think it was due to Taiyes foul trouble, Rutgers was just more physical and pounded us in the paint. When we went man they posted up and scored at will and when we went zone we couldnt rebound outta it.
 

Beyond the obvious TO's we also will struggle to win when Bell does not score close to her average. Hope they come back to beat MSU @ home.
 

Ultimately, I don't think this loss matters much, other than maybe forcing them to play one more game in the BTT. A win probably wouldn't have changed the fact that they need to win the BTT to get to the NCAA tournament, which is a definite possibility. I think they could do very well if they do find a way into the NCAA tournament...
 

Gopherlife said:
Ultimately, I don't think this loss matters much, other than maybe forcing them to play one more game in the BTT.
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Yeah, they lost the opportunity for the double bye after the Maryland loss.

Gopherlife said:
A win probably wouldn't have changed the fact that they need to win the BTT to get to the NCAA tournament
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It's been that way for a while.


Gopherlife said:
which is a definite possibility.
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:rolleyes:


Gopherlife said:
I think they could do very well if they do find a way into the NCAA tournament...
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You must be seeing a different team than me. They had a week of rest and preparation for this game, and they looked worse than ever.
 
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Considering the Gophers' often lazy passing and careless ball handling, it appears their minds are some place else during long stretches of games. As soon as they establish a seemingly comfortable lead, they let down and allow the opponent back in the game. Is this lack of talent? Or poor game preparation? As an aside, did Stallings leave the program w/o recruiting any incoming talent at all for 2018-19?
 

Shades said:
Yeah, they lost the opportunity for the double bye after the Maryland loss.



It's been that way for a while.




:rolleyes:




You must be seeing a different team than me. They had week a rest and preparation for this game, and they looked worse than ever.
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I think they would be better than whatever seed they would be given if they did qualify. Aside from the best teams that have a great center/forward, I think they could be a tough matchup for the rest of the teams.
 

Well, it's time to set our sights on the BIG tourney. That's our only hope for an NCAA berth (and that was probably true heading into the Rutgers game). As much as I've complained about the non-conference schedule, that may well be a moot point now. It's always been my feeling that a team that can't finish .500 in conference play should not be eligible for NCAA tourney regardless of how good the conference is. (The exception, of course, is winning the conference tourney.) It's time to stop complaining about the tourney ranking systems (RPI, SOS, NET) and time to use the EYE test. If you've watched this team play this year, you'll surely have to admit that they are not NCAA worthy. Gophers are one starter and a couple of bench players short this year. I don't want to pick on Perez, as she's been thrown into a starting role and she is not the reason the Gophers lost the last two games, but she's not giving them much offensively and she's now started enough games to where she shouldn't be as tentative as she still is. Six-person rotations are seldom successful, but there's not much to choose from on the bench. I'm hoping that next year's recruits and a healthy Hubbard will give Whalen more options in her second season.
 

Anybody notice that as of late, Pitts is developing Banham-like range on her 3?


She started out the year a little bit off on her shooting but then gradually got her shooting form locked-in again. Not only is she hitting from 5 feet behind the arc, but many of those are going right down the center of the net, hardly an inch off-of center. Add to that Perez shooting over 50% too, on average, and I think we've come close to being a three-point shooting team once again. Perhaps not quite enough shooters to make up for the lack of Hubbard and graduated Wagner (and since Brunson's and Bell's 3-point percentages are a little less than what you want). But last few games, we've been getting more points off threes than the norm for this year (and Pitts averaging about 23+ points).
 

She has been on a tear lately ! Loved the smile on her face yesterday after she dropped her 6th 3 in a row. So great to see her confidence growing strong the second half of this season. She has doubled her scoring average.
 

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