1 game in 3 weeks....Blessing or a Curse?

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MNVCGUY

MNVCGUY

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With our shortened bench I wonder if this long layoff could actually prove to be a positive. Clearly there will be some rust to deal with but this break should have also given guys a chance to rest up after the first 11 games of the year and heal any bumps and bruises that they picked up along the way.

Hopefully they come out well rested and ready to take on the remainder of the Big Ten schedule. Sucks to lose whatever momentum they may have gained over the nice start, but the rest for guys logging a ton of minutes could also prove very valuable.

What do you guys think, is the long layoff good or bad for the team?
 


Curse IMO

Edit to explain. I worry that the roster had a chip on it’s shoulder… IMO that chip has been important to the current season record. I worry that the chip has been eroded and the season already feels like a success compared to expectations.
 

Bulldog13tv said:
Curse IMO

Edit to explain. I worry that the roster had a chip on it’s shoulder… IMO that chip has been important to the current season record. I worry that the chip has been eroded and the season already feels like a success compared to expectations.
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I think for fans the season feels like a success to this point for sure. I bet the players are still really excited for the chance to prove what they can do in conference games though.
 

Since Illinois has also been shutdown, I think the experience of our top 7 guys turns this into an advantage against Illinois. Both teams will need to knock the rust off, but our age will benefit us here.
That being said, I have no clue how we stop Cockburn.
 


MennoSota said:
Since Illinois has also been shutdown, I think the experience of our top 7 guys turns this into an advantage against Illinois. Both teams will need to knock the rust off, but our age will benefit us here.
That being said, I have no clue how we stop Cockburn.
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We don't stop him, we just have to make him work at both ends and try to frustrate him as much as possible. The reality is we have nobody that can match up with him (most teams don't) so in some ways you let him get his and try to stop the rest.
 

Illinois has been off for exactly the same amount of days we have, so both teams could be rusty or rested, but I also know we have a lot of veterans who know how to handle themselves, were at home and I think Underwood said after the Arizona loss that they needed to get alot tougher or they were in trouble when they came up to Minnesota.
 

I think we'll be rusty and come out slow. But Ben has had plenty of time to prepare.
 

Absolutely a curse. It's like starting all over. Conditioning is gone...just can't simulate game conditions in practice. Emotions, stress, competition, crowds, environment, mindset etc all have a different effect than whatever you dream up to try and mimic the real thing. Our second team ain't exactly offerring much resistance in practice...that means you are playing 3 on 3 to get quality work in...except the game is 5 on 5. Kids ain't dumb...you can't fool em with this is a real game...we got refs, we got a clock and scoreboard.

Ben had a magical start to the year. He has to do it all over again. That's ridiculously harder than keeping it rolling.

If you had a player playing lights out and they go down for a week or more with sickness or injury....it is 1 in a 100 they ever play as well as they were prior to missing time. Sure, guys like Jordan and LeBron it's like riding a bike...not so for the other 99%. And not so for teams either.
A week without a game after playing 10 games seems like a month and starting over....three weeks...can't imagine.
 



Lots of teams going through the same thing. Just looked up some and then got tired of it.

Duke 13 days
UCLA 26 days
USC 19 days
Arizona 12 days
Colorado State 24 days
Nebraska went 11 days
Indiana went 11 days
Ohio State went 22 days
Penn State went 22 days
Northwestern same as Gophers, 13 days
Rutgers went 18 days
 

A blessing because of our short bench. This should give the high minute guys enough rest to continue that pace through the B1G schedule. My concern is for the bench players that were getting some more minutes before this break.
 

60's Guy said:
Absolutely a curse. It's like starting all over.
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I think you're vastly over-stating it. It's not unusual to have an 9-10 day break over finals. Sure, I'd have rather played the Alcorn State game, but that one game being cancelled doesn't derail everything up to now. And delaying the Illinois game 48 hours certainly doesn't. We'll be rusty the 1st 10 minutes. So will Illinois.
 

I'd say curse. Ohio State needed to pull a rabbit out of their asses to beat Nebraska last night. After a long layoff.
 



Good thing, you can't really work on things when season is in full swing. Sure you make adjustments, and game plan but I'd bet Johnson will be able to throw some wrinkles in. Treat it like bowl game prep.
 

60's Guy said:
Absolutely a curse. It's like starting all over. Conditioning is gone...just can't simulate game conditions in practice. Emotions, stress, competition, crowds, environment, mindset etc all have a different effect than whatever you dream up to try and mimic the real thing. Our second team ain't exactly offerring much resistance in practice...that means you are playing 3 on 3 to get quality work in...except the game is 5 on 5. Kids ain't dumb...you can't fool em with this is a real game...we got refs, we got a clock and scoreboard.

Ben had a magical start to the year. He has to do it all over again. That's ridiculously harder than keeping it rolling.

If you had a player playing lights out and they go down for a week or more with sickness or injury....it is 1 in a 100 they ever play as well as they were prior to missing time. Sure, guys like Jordan and LeBron it's like riding a bike...not so for the other 99%. And not so for teams either.
A week without a game after playing 10 games seems like a month and starting over....three weeks...can't imagine.
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Two things, defense always carries over and Illinois has been off for the exact same amount of time
 

I'll stick with my curse reasoning. Ben said he didn't recognize his team last night.
 

The Gophers seemed more effected by the layoff than Illinois. But we probably beat them one of of 10 times in any case. I'm glad we weren't playing NW/PSU/Nebraska and dropping a very winnable game.
 

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