Blowout No. 2 for Gophers, yet concerns still present

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Definitely a good first half against an overwhelmed opponent. Great defensive pressure once again.

Problems. (esp 2nd half)

1) Turnovers and sloppy passing.
2) 3 point shooting is suspect. Missed a lot of open 3's in the 2nd half.
3) Gophers used their athleticism to get to balls, but didn't always position themselves well for rebounding. Against quality D1 opponents it could lead to the Gophers getting only one shot on offense while giving up rebounds on the defensive end.
4) Who is going to step up and take the big shot when the Gophers need it? The first two games don't give us a clue.

Overall, however, there are definitely more positives than negatives.

I liked the high/low action of our bigs. Eliason did a very nice job of drawing people to him at the free throw line and then passing to cutters or to people who posted their guy up on the blocks. It was nice to see an offense other than the "Swing" being used. I liked seeing motion, running 4 out and 1 in. We had good looks when we moved the ball, but we just didn't drop the open three. Finally, a pet-peeve...when a kid gets a 12 foot shot from the side...use the darn backboard for goodness sakes!
 

Something else from last night, we picked up a TON of fouls in the second half. Toledo was in the double bonus with more than 10 minutes left in the second half. We had 24 total fouls, so the we probably had at least 15 in the second half alone.

As for who can step up and take the big shot, I'm confident in Austin and Julian's capabilities to do that, potentially Dre as well, but his shot seems a little off so far, hopefully he starts hitting it again before too long.
 

One of the things to keep in mind is that this team, albeit somewhat sloppy, is clearly lightyears ahead of last years team. There were games where I wasn't sure the outcome of the game until late and now we are complaining about blow outs not being better?

Intensity, ball pressure, rebounding are all things that will improve as the quality of opponent improves. I personally think the shooting is from more of a lack of focus then of ability- that lack of focus created turnovers, poor ball movement etc.

Playing against cupcakes when you need wins is one thing, but when you are striving for sweet 16 or better, you need quality opponents and we will get that in two weeks. No reason to get wound up either way until the quality of our opponents changes.
 

tinyarch said:
4) Who is going to step up and take the big shot when the Gophers need it? The first two games don't give us a clue.
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People need to open their eyes and realize Austin is going to be our go-to guard/wing. He has a sweet stroke and can create for himself. Not to mention he's our smartest player. I want him to have the ball in crunch time and I'm sure Tubby does too.
 


Hammer em' said:
One of the things to keep in mind is that this team, albeit somewhat sloppy, is clearly lightyears ahead of last years team. There were games where I wasn't sure the outcome of the game until late and now we are complaining about blow outs not being better?
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Standards are higher this year. People are trying to project the problems that will keep them from making noise in the tournament this year. To me, when you're up 30, it's hard to get any kind of real grasp on a team cause it's obvious the focus isn't the same.

The fact that the lead was as big as it was does mean a lot, cause as you said, many of our "cupcakes" last year were in doubt well into the 2nd half. This team is much better at this point, and if we start getting contributions from Mbakwe and Big Mo, they could be quite dangerous. But they will definitely have to take better care of the ball. It'll be interesting to see when they get a push back, how they respond, cause that will mean far more than how they respond to being up 30.
 

MadtownGopher said:
People need to open their eyes and realize Austin is going to be our go-to guard/wing. He has a sweet stroke and can create for himself. Not to mention he's our smartest player. I want him to have the ball in crunch time and I'm sure Tubby does too.
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Yeah, but I really see him regressing this year. (Sarcasm)
 

MadtownGopher said:
People need to open their eyes and realize Austin is going to be our go-to guard/wing. He has a sweet stroke and can create for himself. Not to mention he's our smartest player. I want him to have the ball in crunch time and I'm sure Tubby does too.
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Definately dominated early last night, because of the substitution pattern can't really tell if he can sustain that type of effort. Tubby doesn't stick with a player that gets hot, I wish he would keep someone in the game if they are hot until they start missing.
 

jovs said:
Definately dominated early last night, because of the substitution pattern can't really tell if he can sustain that type of effort. Tubby doesn't stick with a player that gets hot, I wish he would keep someone in the game if they are hot until they start missing.
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Well he dropped 20 against American the game before. He had like 10 points in the first 4 minutes against Toledo last night. If we really wanted to put it on them last night he could have had another 20 point game.
 



MadtownGopher said:
Well he dropped 20 against American the game before. He had like 10 points in the first 4 minutes against Toledo last night. If we really wanted to put it on them last night he could have had another 20 point game.
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Totally my point. Substitutions and getting guys meaningful minutes and staying healthy are the goals of games like last night. There is no doubt we could have hung 100 last night if we needed too.
 

He was pulled early because he picked up 2 fouls in the first 5 minutes of the game. That's pretty much standard practice regardless of how well a player is contributing.
 

The Gophers put on a very poor performance in the second half and I was kind of surprised their was no thread on it last night. I was also surprised that Tubby didn't appear to ever really get on the team (from what they showed on the broadcast) for their poor play. Tinyarch did a nice job of mentioning may of the issues that came up, but I would add that the defense was lackluster at best and that the Gophers continue to look very uncomfortable in their half court offense.

Perimeter shooting and ball handling continue are certainly issues to monitor in the next two games prior to Battle for Atlantis. I'd also like to see the half court offense lead to more open shots. This team can do some nice things in the open court and should rebound better than last year, but it's going to have to execute better when it's forced to run its half court sets.
 




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