GAME #16: Gophers (12-3, 1-1) @ Penn State (9-6, 0-2) [BTN, 1/8, 6:00PM]

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Tough 4 game stretch coming up. I'd like to get at least one win out of it.
 

gopherlaney said:
I have only seen Ross Travis play a few times in college, is he good or our PF's that bad?
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Pretty good player the last couple of seasons, AND PF is not one of our strengths.
 

I really try to stay upbeat about individual play, but this game was sooooooooo agravating. End of the game, you MUST make FTs...no excuses to miss. When the other team misses FTs, you must box out your man. Was soooo hard to watch Oto get pushed underneath the basket by his man with :35 seconds left and PSU gets the rebound. I understand having off nights, but no excuses for poor play during crunch time. I still love the Gophs and will continue to cheer for them no matter what.
 




I get so mad at Oto every game. Really nice kid who tries hard, just not cut out to be a BIG contributor.
 

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p><a href="https://twitter.com/Drizzy_AttackM">@Drizzy_AttackM</a> is <a href="https://twitter.com/search?q=%23LeagueBound&src=hash">#LeagueBound</a> I can't wait to play with this dude.</p>— Master Chief Martin (@JoshMartin_206) <a href="https://twitter.com/JoshMartin_206/statuses/421106790814584832">January 9, 2014</a></blockquote>
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MadtownGopher said:
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p><a href="https://twitter.com/Drizzy_AttackM">@Drizzy_AttackM</a> is <a href="https://twitter.com/search?q=%23LeagueBound&src=hash">#LeagueBound</a> I can't wait to play with this dude.</p>— Master Chief Martin (@JoshMartin_206) <a href="https://twitter.com/JoshMartin_206/statuses/421106790814584832">January 9, 2014</a></blockquote>
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wouldn't it be #AssociationBound?
 


<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p>Win is a Win! Let's go home! <a href="http://t.co/kuZiJgjMWt">pic.twitter.com/kuZiJgjMWt</a></p>— Quincy L Lewis (@TheQuincyLewis) <a href="https://twitter.com/TheQuincyLewis/statuses/421118417089732609">January 9, 2014</a></blockquote>
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Ugly game but I will take any kind of win. Really needed to get this game with the tough upcoming schedule. Really not a whole lot of bright spots especially in the 1st half but I thought both EE and Mo played pretty well offensively especially in the 1st half. The guards really struggled with shooting for the most part but guys stepped up some at the end to get the win. Austin really didn't play very well but was great to see him step up and get a huge steal late in the game. Reffing was horrible again tonight both ways and we may have got a few calls late but I definitely think Penn State had the better of it for at least the 1st half. Have to shoot free throws better and limit turnovers going forward especially during this 4 game stretch.
 



Good win despite Austin Hollins once again. He cannot continue to perform like he has. If he does, a change in minutes or a change in starters may be necessary.
 

Just remember that we went 1-8 in the B1G last year on the road. Good to get the first one tonight.
 

Gopherguy0723 said:
Good win despite Austin Hollins once again. He cannot continue to perform like he has. If he does, a change in minutes or a change in starters may be necessary.
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What a total bunch of bull$hit.
 

This is what is known as playing to the level of your competition.
 


GopherinPhilly said:
Just remember that we went 1-8 in the B1G last year on the road. Good to get the first one tonight.
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No stat better showcases how big of a disappointment last year's team was than that one. We had enough talent to AT LEAST make a sweet 16 run and we couldn't even win 2 conference road games.
 


Without Malik Smith and Lil Dre this team is 0-3. Austin Hollins needs to wake up. We can't afford him to check out for a huge chunk of the Big Ten schedule like last year.
 

Malik and Little Dre have been huge additions to this team. Probably better that most of us had expected.

Any possible JC players to fill the open scollarship?
 

Tully55 said:
I really try to stay upbeat about individual play, but this game was sooooooooo agravating. End of the game, you MUST make FTs...no excuses to miss. When the other team misses FTs, you must box out your man. Was soooo hard to watch Oto get pushed underneath the basket by his man with :35 seconds left and PSU gets the rebound. I understand having off nights, but no excuses for poor play during crunch time. I still love the Gophs and will continue to cheer for them no matter what.
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I've always been an Oto defender, but this game might have turned the tide for me. I wrote this on my blog:

He has no idea where to go on defense, and that goes for both his positioning as well as things like hedging on screens and help defense. These things aren't new, but as his playing time becomes more and more high profile they just stand out more and more. Then he does things like, let's a pass go through his legs five hole style and then falls down trying to go after it which leads to a Penn State lay-up, or he let's himself get pushed under the basket on a Penn State free throw leading to a Nittany Lion rebound in a big, big, big spot. And it's not like it's just this game, you can point to at least 2-3 mistakes of his each game, easy. I think he's got some offensive ability as the jump shot seems to have come back as Pitino's given him more confidence to take open shots, and he brilliantly slipped a screen at one point and then nailed the 18 footer, but I really don't know if he can offset his piss poor defense with his mediocre offense. Then again, the only other choice at the 4 spot is a Joey King who completely panics any time he has the ball in a non scoring position, so really Pitino is pretty well screwed here.
 

Down with Goldy said:
I've always been an Oto defender, but this game might have turned the tide for me. I wrote this on my blog: He has no idea where to go on defense, and that goes for both his positioning as well as things like hedging on screens and help defense. These things aren't new, but as his playing time becomes more and more high profile they just stand out more and more. Then he does things like, let's a pass go through his legs five hole style and then falls down trying to go after it which leads to a Penn State lay-up, or he let's himself get pushed under the basket on a Penn State free throw leading to a Nittany Lion rebound in a big, big, big spot. And it's not like it's just this game, you can point to at least 2-3 mistakes of his each game, easy. I think he's got some offensive ability as the jump shot seems to have come back as Pitino's given him more confidence to take open shots, and he brilliantly slipped a screen at one point and then nailed the 18 footer, but I really don't know if he can offset his piss poor defense with his mediocre offense. Then again, the only other choice at the 4 spot is a Joey King who completely panics any time he has the ball in a non scoring position, so really Pitino is pretty well screwed here.
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You can complain about anything you want with Oto, but not the play where he lost it between his legs leading to the layup. That was 100% on Dre. It was a lazy, terrible, unacceptable pass. One handed at that.
 

not sure this has been said but can someone PLEASE get Stephen Bardo to shut the hell up. The man is unlistenable. I had to mute the damn thing.
 

cncmin said:
Why display your ignorance, especially after a nice win?
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What's ignorant about it? You may have heard about a horrible child rape scandal that was essentially enabled by a poisoned hero worship culture in State College. If not, read the Freeh report. I didn't mean to ruin the nice win for you. Now, back to the thread at hand.
 

Gopherguy0723 said:
Good win despite Austin Hollins once again. He cannot continue to perform like he has. If he does, a change in minutes or a change in starters may be necessary.
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Where were you after the Purdue game?

I agree he needs to get better but he absolutely has to and will play a good amount of minutes the rest of the way. Remember he had a huge steal late in the game. He struggled shooting tonight but he had a couple of blocks, couple of steals, and zero turnovers.
 

Just finished watching. Definitely one to take the W, study film for a day, and forget it.

Anyone else feel like we were getting the home team calls? PSU basketball is a disaster, that team should not be playing this poorly.
 

GophersInIowa said:
Where were you after the Purdue game?

I agree he needs to get better but he absolutely has to and will play a good amount of minutes the rest of the way. Remember he had a huge steal late in the game. He struggled shooting tonight but he had a couple of blocks, couple of steals, and zero turnovers.
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I believe Austin was guarding Newbill much of the night as well and he went scoreless. I doubt that is a coincidence.
 

Really strange game tonight. The Gophers looked so much better than Penn State for the first 8-10 minutes, and then their performance took a nosedive. It seemed like the Gophers energy started to match that of the crowd at PSU (close to non-existent) with a few players being exceptions to that statement. The turnovers tonight reminded me of some of the dumb unforced turnovers of last year (the back court violation, travels when loosely guarded, etc) and this team isn't good enough to overcome those. One thing I was surprised by when looking at the box score that surprised me was that the Gophers actually made one more three than PSU. I couldn't think of four made threes in that game by the Gophers, seemed like they could never hit the open three that would cut the PSU lead or give them the lead. I wasn't concerned about the game until it got down to about 6 minutes left and the Gophers still didn't have the lead back. I felt like it was an eventuality until that point, but all of a sudden a 5 point PSU lead seemed like a significant concern with the Gophers continuing to not find any sort of groove. For about 30 minutes of game time tonight, the Gophers looked no better than PSU, which obviously isn't a good omen.

Now for the positive. How about Coach Pitino winning his very first B1G road game? That's really impressive, regardless of where that road game took place. Even more impressive is the fact that he did it taking over a team that won just one B1G road game last year and lost significant talent from that team. If we can expect Pitino to actually improve over the next 2-3 years as he learns the B1G and develops as a head coach, we could be looking at some really fun years.

What can be said about DeAndre Mathieu? He has to be the best Spring recruit for the Gophers since...? (Was Humphries technically a Spring recruit?) When was the last time a Gopher guard made a play in crunch time like Mathieu picking that kids pocket and going in for a layup to put the Gophers up 3? That was the play of the game and the type of clutch play that we've seen so little of over the last X number of years. How about the smallest guys on the court getting up and tipping in that Austin Hollins missed layup? Just great play from the kid. In the second half, his determination to keep getting in the lane and trying to make plays was the main reason why a 3-8 point PSU margin didn't grown to double digits. I am amazed by the energy with which Mathieu can play considering he picks up full court frequently on defense and is the main play maker on offense.

I can't say enough about Mathieu's performance, but the other standout was Malik Smith. It seems like some other programs can take this for granted, but it's great to have a guy who WANTS the ball to go to the line at the end of the game and believes he's going to hit those pressure free throws. We needed every bit of that 6-6 he put in the last ~35 seconds.

Eliason with another double double and four blocks...ho hum. The rebounding, shot blocking, and outlet passes are invaluable to this team with so little talent at the four spot.

No doubt about it, this was an ugly game, but I'd much rather win ugly against PSU than play really well and lose against tOSU or MSU. I wouldn't have thought it was possible for the Gophers to win a road B1G game with the Hollins' going 5-17 for 18 points.
 

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