Putting On My Most Optimistic Cap

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SelectionSunday

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. … for the rest of the season.

Here are the teams I think the Gophers can beat. Not saying they will beat, but COULD beat.

Indiana at home — last night’s impressive win @ Illinois not withstanding, I still think Hoosiers are a little soft. And no Race T or Xavier J.

Maryland at home — I still don’t buy Terps.

Nebraska on road — improving, but they’re still Nebraska, our Weakling Wednesday comrades.

Northwestern on road — usually stout defensively but no offensive juggernaut.

Wisconsin at home — style of play invites close games. I honestly think this is the most likely of the 5 opportunities.

Question is, how many of these 5 can we get?

Am I crazy?
 

SelectionSunday said:
. … for the rest of the season.

Here are the teams I think the Gophers can beat. Not saying they will beat, but COULD beat.

Indiana at home — last night’s impressive win @ Illinois not withstanding, I still think Hoosiers are a little soft. And no Race T or Xavier J.

Maryland at home — I still don’t buy Terps.

Nebraska on road — improving, but they’re still Nebraska, our Weakling Wednesday comrades.

Northwestern on road — usually stout defensively but no offensive juggernaut.

Wisconsin at home — style of play invites close games. I honestly think this is the most likely of the 5 opportunities.

Question is, how many of these 5 can we get?

Am I crazy?
Click to expand...
I’ll answer the last question first and it has nothing to with your post—yes.

I think the Gophers will win a couple more games. Garcia, Battle once a month and some others are good enough to beat an average team playing poorly. This list is good but I also didn’t have them winning @ tOSU (who also lost to Nebraska 😳).
 

SelectionSunday said:
. … for the rest of the season.

Here are the teams I think the Gophers can beat. Not saying they will beat, but COULD beat.

Indiana at home — last night’s impressive win @ Illinois not withstanding, I still think Hoosiers are a little soft. And no Race T or Xavier J.

Maryland at home — I still don’t buy Terps.

Nebraska on road — improving, but they’re still Nebraska, our Weakling Wednesday comrades.

Northwestern on road — usually stout defensively but no offensive juggernaut.

Wisconsin at home — style of play invites close games. I honestly think this is the most likely of the 5 opportunities.

Question is, how many of these 5 can we get?

Am I crazy?
Click to expand...
2
 

They will have to shoot lights out again to get another win, like they did at OSU.

As bad as Nebraska has been, the Gophers are 5-10 vs them over their last 15 games, and have lost 3 straight. The Gophers have also never won at Pinnacle Bank Arena, 0-7.
 
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SelectionSunday said:
. … for the rest of the season.

Here are the teams I think the Gophers can beat. Not saying they will beat, but COULD beat.

Indiana at home — last night’s impressive win @ Illinois not withstanding, I still think Hoosiers are a little soft. And no Race T or Xavier J.

Maryland at home — I still don’t buy Terps.

Nebraska on road — improving, but they’re still Nebraska, our Weakling Wednesday comrades.

Northwestern on road — usually stout defensively but no offensive juggernaut.

Wisconsin at home — style of play invites close games. I honestly think this is the most likely of the 5 opportunities.

Question is, how many of these 5 can we get?

Am I crazy?
Click to expand...
i dont think your crazy but this hat you found and put on may be a bit to tight!

honestly though. 0-1 more wins is all we got in us
 


GopherWeatherGuy said:
They will have to shoot lights out again to get another win, like they did at OSU.

As bad has Nebraska has been, the Gophers are 5-10 vs them over their last 15 games, and have lost 3 straight. The Gophers have also never won at Pinnacle Bank Arena, 0-7.
Click to expand...
if only Kelly Pfiefer hadn't robbed us at the buzzer with the phantom foul call, we would be 1-6.
Life changing
 

SelectionSunday said:
. … for the rest of the season.

Here are the teams I think the Gophers can beat. Not saying they will beat, but COULD beat.

Indiana at home — last night’s impressive win @ Illinois not withstanding, I still think Hoosiers are a little soft. And no Race T or Xavier J.

Maryland at home — I still don’t buy Terps.

Nebraska on road — improving, but they’re still Nebraska, our Weakling Wednesday comrades.

Northwestern on road — usually stout defensively but no offensive juggernaut.

Wisconsin at home — style of play invites close games. I honestly think this is the most likely of the 5 opportunities.

Question is, how many of these 5 can we get?

Am I crazy?
Click to expand...

I sure hope we can put some wins together...late in the season in particular. We need a fun "big" win at home. A throwback to the Barn of yesteryear if you will. And we need a BTT win. We get those two and at least there's some semblance of positivity heading into a big offseason. If we can't muster more a single BT home win and lose first round of Weakling Wednesday...well, I'd hate to be in charge of season ticket sales.

Here's to some optimism and the Gophers finding a way to pull a few wins together.

Go Gophers!!
 


SelectionSunday said:
Am I crazy?
Click to expand...

Not at all. As the old saying goes: "Even a blind pig can find an acorn once in awhile." Minnesota is the worst team in the league but the last two teams (Purdue and IL) may be the worst possible matchups for the Gophers.

I would even go as far as saying that we might beat a team that is not on your list. For example, the fact that Iowa lost to Eastern Illinois and Nebraska by 16 shows that they can be surprisingly vulnerable on a bad night. Penn State has little post presence so at least the team won't have to expend so much energy trying to figure out how to contain someone like Edey.
 



Maybe if the opponent has to sit a few of the starters for some unknown reason. How the mighty have fallen. We went from a thread discussing if the Gophers turned the corner to trying to figure how we’ve ended up going the wrong way down a one way street.
 


Yeah, I think the Gophers can absolutely beat Indiana. If they play well, we'll have a tough time, but if they have a dud, we can definitely beat them.

There will probably be a win we don't see coming too.
 




One would hope in at least a couple games they'll shoot really well, or their opponent has a horrid shooting night. I'll say they win 2 more.
 


SelectionSunday said:
. … for the rest of the season.

Here are the teams I think the Gophers can beat. Not saying they will beat, but COULD beat.

Indiana at home — last night’s impressive win @ Illinois not withstanding, I still think Hoosiers are a little soft. And no Race T or Xavier J.

Maryland at home — I still don’t buy Terps.

Nebraska on road — improving, but they’re still Nebraska, our Weakling Wednesday comrades.

Northwestern on road — usually stout defensively but no offensive juggernaut.

Wisconsin at home — style of play invites close games. I honestly think this is the most likely of the 5 opportunities.

Question is, how many of these 5 can we get?

Am I crazy?
Click to expand...
I need some time to answer this. After the second half of Illinois and the Purdue game, I am really questioning our coaching. I really like Ben and want him to be successful, but what we are doing offensively creates very few good looks and we struggle to shoot already. There is so much standing around and so little movement. The players are so careless with the ball, and the shot selection is terrible - however, there is so little movement that any shot they are getting is contested.

Further, defensively, the effort is very suspect. Williams Arena historically is a very easy crowd. If the Gophers play hard the place rallies behind them. However, again, the effort is so suspect.

My hope is they can turn this around, but they need to get some movement on offense. Get rid of the two-man games and keeping the ball to one side of the floor. They need to start moving the ball, running an offense that creates some looks. They are not making defenses work at all.
 


I think we'll be settling for 1 or 2 of those W's, but I like your optimism...
 


"Do you believe in miracles?" "Yes!!"

Twice though?
 

Tucker32 said:
I need some time to answer this. After the second half of Illinois and the Purdue game, I am really questioning our coaching. I really like Ben and want him to be successful, but what we are doing offensively creates very few good looks and we struggle to shoot already. There is so much standing around and so little movement. The players are so careless with the ball, and the shot selection is terrible - however, there is so little movement that any shot they are getting is contested.

Further, defensively, the effort is very suspect. Williams Arena historically is a very easy crowd. If the Gophers play hard the place rallies behind them. However, again, the effort is so suspect.

My hope is they can turn this around, but they need to get some movement on offense. Get rid of the two-man games and keeping the ball to one side of the floor. They need to start moving the ball, running an offense that creates some looks. They are not making defenses work at all.
Click to expand...
This.

Edey was allowed to move about 6 steps per defensive possession. The passes were all 5ft. The ball never moves quickly. There is no skip passes, no movement. Allowing a dominant shot blocker/contester to stand in the paint eliminates any easy buckets. Not moving and passing eliminates nearly any open shot. Impossible to score much this way.
 

Tucker32 said:
I need some time to answer this. After the second half of Illinois and the Purdue game, I am really questioning our coaching. I really like Ben and want him to be successful, but what we are doing offensively creates very few good looks and we struggle to shoot already. There is so much standing around and so little movement. The players are so careless with the ball, and the shot selection is terrible - however, there is so little movement that any shot they are getting is contested.

Further, defensively, the effort is very suspect. Williams Arena historically is a very easy crowd. If the Gophers play hard the place rallies behind them. However, again, the effort is so suspect.

My hope is they can turn this around, but they need to get some movement on offense. Get rid of the two-man games and keeping the ball to one side of the floor. They need to start moving the ball, running an offense that creates some looks. They are not making defenses work at all.
Click to expand...
I agree with you. How fast can a coach make what sounds to be a major change in the offensive scheme? It doesn't seem like the players have even learned what he is asking them to do NOW yet.
Ben was talking about guys not knowing the plays....
 

UpAndUnder43 said:
This.

Edey was allowed to move about 6 steps per defensive possession. The passes were all 5ft. The ball never moves quickly. There is no skip passes, no movement. Allowing a dominant shot blocker/contester to stand in the paint eliminates any easy buckets. Not moving and passing eliminates nearly any open shot. Impossible to score much this way.
Click to expand...
What are we as fans seeing that obj isn't? Vice versa?
 

BarnBurner said:
What are we as fans seeing that obj isn't? Vice versa?
Click to expand...
Its really easy to say "do this" and its much harder to get guys who lack talent, athleticism, etc. to do it. I doubt we all know more than him...but whatever he is telling them, practicing, whatever...isnt working
 

bga1 said:
I agree with you. How fast can a coach make what sounds to be a major change in the offensive scheme? It doesn't seem like the players have even learned what he is asking them to do NOW yet.
Ben was talking about guys not knowing the plays....
Click to expand...
How have the fr progressed?

Payne - appears a bit more comfortable, very limited offensively hasn't changed, defense is about the same as earlier in the year
JOJ - Seems most comfortable of the 4, plays fairly well defensively, takes the opportunity to go the rim which I like - slight progress
Carrington - seems lackadaisical at times to me, plays some good D, shooting hasn't improved - about the same as earlier in the year
Henley - continues to play "too fast", take poor shots, etc. Perhaps marginal improvement?

Another 13 or so games to see if anything truly stands out for these 4. I continue to look at other teams fr and their abilities/performance and wonder how MN's guys will improve enough to match the others, translating to some wins.
 

bga1 said:
I agree with you. How fast can a coach make what sounds to be a major change in the offensive scheme? It doesn't seem like the players have even learned what he is asking them to do NOW yet.
Ben was talking about guys not knowing the plays....
Click to expand...
Yep. They are thinking out there way too much. I was at the game last night, and it was so evident they were trying to direct one another, etc. - instead of just playing. Illinois made a pretty drastic shift this year, moving to simply running a version of the flex because they weren't getting any shots, movement.
 

it's ugly right now. who knows what's up with Battle's back?

and Carrington - even if he wasn't having a great season - was another body who could give you minutes and hit an occasional shot.

right now, to the untrained eye, this looks like a team that has no confidence in themselves. how much of that is on the coach, and how much is on the players, is hard to tell.

they need a win in the worst way.

some writer or blogger noted that Coyle was in the interview room after the game listening to Johnson's session with the media. it was noted because apparently Coyle rarely shows up in those settings. whether it means something or not................................................
 


If Battle and Garcia can actually play at their best, we COULD win any of the remaining games. But this year something has been severely off with JMo, and it has negatively impacted this team dramatically.
 

short ornery norwegian said:
it's ugly right now. who knows what's up with Battle's back?

and Carrington - even if he wasn't having a great season - was another body who could give you minutes and hit an occasional shot.

right now, to the untrained eye, this looks like a team that has no confidence in themselves. how much of that is on the coach, and how much is on the players, is hard to tell.

they need a win in the worst way.

some writer or blogger noted that Coyle was in the interview room after the game listening to Johnson's session with the media. it was noted because apparently Coyle rarely shows up in those settings. whether it means something or not................................................
Click to expand...
Hopefully, Coyle didn't hear the coach say...after 19 weeks of practice my guys don't know the plays. I mean come on, in high school if you are lucky, you have 10 days before your first game and then you are on the treadmill of two games a week.
Not to mention you get less than half the time per day with the players.
 

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