B1G Game 1: Gophers @ Ohio State (12-28-16)

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Ignatius L Hoops

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Gophers at Ohio State: Opening the B1G season.

Kevin McGuff continues reeling in the transfers attempting to boost the Kelsey Mitchell dominated Buckeyes (10-4) into women’s basketball upper echelon. This year, former Georgetown transfer, Shayla Cooper, is joined by Sierra Calhoun (Duke), Stephanie Mavunga (North Carolina) and Linnae Harper (Kentucky (whom became eligible at semester’s end)). Thus far, OSU remains stranded at the Jim Foster base camp just below the summit. Their four non-conference losses are: South Carolina, 92-80; Baylor (Estero, FL), 85-68; Miami, 94-89 OT; and @ UConn, 82-63.

The Buckeyes have settled into being the second best team in the B1G; however, Minnesota has won the last FIVE regular season contests including last season's thrilling OT victory at Williams arena.

Of note: Stephanie Mavunga has missed four games during the non-conference season. I think all due to McGuff getting some rest for her knee.

Random Numbers:

Points per game: Ohio State (88.4); Minnesota (77.8).

Free throw percentage: Ohio State (.691); Minnesota (.690) OSU is 10th in B1G and Minnesota 11th (no I don’t know what’s happened to the Gophers free throw shooting. In the Kent State game, Hedstrom took the technical and missed both.)

Three point percentage: OSU (.317) and Minnesota (.330). OSU is 11th in B1G and Minnesota 10th.


Probable Starters:

Kelsey Mitchell: 5’8” G Jr: (Leading B1G with 22.4 points per game (45-120 from three))
Stephanie Mavunga: 6’3” F Jr (13.3 ppg and 11.8 rebounds pg)
Shayla Cooper: 6’2” F Sr (11.6 ppg and fancies herself a three point shooter (9-38))
Sierra Calhoun: 6’0” G So. (11.1 ppg)
Asia Doss: 5’7” G Jr

Others:
Alexa Hart: 6’3” F Jr (Former starter who has her moments)
Makayla Waterman: 6’3 F So (Good for providing a jolt of the bench)
Linnae Harper: 5’8” G Jr


And if you haven't heard: Bryanna Fernstrom is scheduled to make her Gopher debut.
 



The 2 big girls have to play well and without Hubbard need a huge scoring game from Wagner
 

Fernstrom didn't start but in early. Wagner not having the start we'd hope for. Bunnies being missed.
 


thatjanelpick said:
Fernstrom didn't start but in early. Wagner not having the start we'd hope for. Bunnies being missed.
Click to expand...

Wrong formula with Mitchell scoring 21 so far and Fernstrom 10. Fernstrom just picked up her 4th foul with us losing 65-43 @ the end of the 3rd. Wagner with only 8 points.
 



Wish we would have had more time to get Fernstrom in the line up before the Big season. Sunday could be really brutal because you know Brenda likes to pile it on teams. Ugly start to the conference with a blowout loss 87-62.
 



This team sucks. If anyone thinks they are getting more than 6 wins in the B1G, they are delusional! Stollings needs to go.
 

24 turnovers for the Gophers. Slow start to the game for Fernstrom, but she settled in a bit and ended with 12 points and 10 boards. Also a decent game for Edwards with 9 points and 7 boards. Wagner 5 of 23 from the field, 0 of 9 from three. Tinjum 0 of 8 from the field, but 11 boards. 14 points for Bell on 4 of 14 from the field, 6 turnovers. In a brief moment at the end of the game, I liked the hustle shown by Kaposi. Could have used Hubbard as another ball handler, but it wouldn't have affected the outcome. OSU more talented, deeper. Bring on Maryland? (Tongue-in-cheek.)
 

Fernstrom seemed slow and tentative. Hopefully some of that is opening day jitters. She plays good straight up defense.

OSU seemed to scout Minny well. They owned them on the backcourt pressure. Bell kinda wild and bad decisions.

Officiating was pretty bad. They were letting them play on some muggings, and also calling some touch fouls. I thought this one was an especially egregious non-call.

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Not much to add: the turnovers and poor shooting were covered above. The most excitement was the end of the first half run cutting the lead to nine with a chance to cut it to seven. Then the Buckeyes got 4 late points (2 at the buzzer) and that was that.

19-28 from the free throw line: the Gophers got to the line and drew fouls on the players they wanted to get in foul trouble; but didn't take advantage.

After a shaky start, Fernstrom looked good in the low block and turned in a solid 19 minutes even with the 5 fouls.

The OSU press seemed to take the Gophers by surprise, kind of like in last seasons B1G opener at Rutgers.

Carlie just can't have very many games like this.


Starters:

Tinjum
Edwards
Hedstrom
Bell
Wagner


Minutes Played:

40 Hedstrom: 10 points
37 Wagner: 12 points (0-9 from three)
35 Bell: 14 points, 5 assists & 6 turnovers
29 Tinjum: 11 rebounds
19 Fernstrom: 12 points, 10 rebounds, 5 fouls
16 Edwards: 9 points and 7 rebounds
11 Starr
5 Brunson
4 Barnes
3 Kaposi
1 Bello
 



Wagner has not played well on the road. Not a go to player that we though she would be. Need to get Hubbard back.
 

Bell actually had 6 turnovers. I wasn't particularly happy with Tinjum's play in this game. You could have reported more negative stuff on her. 0-8 shooting; 5 turnovers; 0 assists. This one play miffed me when she had a wide open big, but she decided to drive it into 3 players, and of course it didn't end well.

OSU started out as high energy as I've ever seen them in the Mitchell era. So they knew the Gopher trend to dig an early and deep hole against the better teams. They played good defense (which takes energy) most of the time, which was a surprise. I was hoping they'd run out of gas in the 4th quarter, but the damage too much by then.

Nothing in this game points to particularly great preparation or adjustments. Grade D on the coaching for me. The pbp guy (OSU) was curious why Edwards, who started so well wasn't seeing much floor time. Tinjum's play reinforces the notion that maybe playing Edwards and Fernstrom together might be worth a shot. Aren't they like 4 deep in centers?
 

The game looked too fast for Tinjum. Again, Bell had too many turnovers, but I was encouraged with the fact that she was trying to get the ball inside to Fernstrom. I hadn't seen Fernstrom since her Iowa State days. It doesn't seem that she can run the court all that well, but she'll be a factor in half-court offensive sets if she can get low on the block and , on defense, she should be able to clog the middle. And as much as Wagner has struggled on the offensive end, I thought she worked hard on defense and actually played decent defense against OSU.
 

Shades said:
Bell actually had 6 turnovers. I wasn't particularly happy with Tinjum's play in this game. You could have reported more negative stuff on her. 0-8 shooting; 5 turnovers; 0 assists. This one play miffed me when she had a wide open big, but she decided to drive it into 3 players, and of course it didn't end well.

OSU started out as high energy as I've ever seen them in the Mitchell era. So they knew the Gopher trend to dig an early and deep hole against the better teams. They played good defense (which takes energy) most of the time, which was a surprise. I was hoping they'd run out of gas in the 4th quarter, but the damage too much by then.

Nothing in this game points to particularly great preparation or adjustments. Grade D on the coaching for me. The pbp guy (OSU) was curious why Edwards, who started so well wasn't seeing much floor time. Tinjum's play reinforces the notion that maybe playing Edwards and Fernstrom together might be worth a shot. Aren't they like 4 deep in centers?
Click to expand...

Yep, I slighted Bell on the turnovers. She had six. All of them well earned. That said, like the 20 point Wagner, we don't have an alternative to Bell playing well. In general, I thought Kenisha played a solid game. I still wish she'd made that layup in the first quarter when she beat like three Buckeyes got to the rim unopposed and then tried to scoop it in.

The Gophers seemed set up to break the press; but sometimes the ball would just get stuck in Hedstrom's or Tinjum's hands. Plus, as the color announcer said, " you think they learn that diagonal passes don't work".

Last night Fernstrom got into early foul trouble, so any thoughts of pairing Bryanna with Edwards probably went out the window. The two centers still combined for a decent stats (21 points and 17 rebounds). Obviously, Stollings didn't want to play Barnes, Lamke and T. Bello last night.
 

It was only one game, her first game, so we can't really judge Fernstrom as foul-prone just yet. It could have been the poor officiating in this one game. Playing them together may make Fernstrom less foul prone because she'd have some help in the paint. They need to try different things is all I'm saying, unless they're content with losing (looking pathetic) against the better teams. I'm huge on winning.


I felt a little bad for Bell that it was decided that Hedstrom would be her helper against the backcourt press. She's not terribly agile or the best ball handler. Curious why Wagner wasn't considered for that role. But still, Bell looked like a true freshman with her decisions out there and OSU took full advantage. Bell is supposed to be fast. Attack the press with your speed. Make them foul you. Don't pick up the dribble when they present the press and look for help. They need to work on this in practice the most. That and FT shooting.

There seems to be something amiss with this team. Here I thought this would the best team ever as far as team chemistry, and the opposite seems true. They don't seem to be having fun out there.... seem to be lacking camaraderie. Maybe I'm reading too much into it. We'll see how it goes.
 

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