B1G Game 1: Gophers visit Northwestern (12-28-17)

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Ignatius L Hoops

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Change is everywhere in Evanston. Northwestern (7-7) is playing at historically quirky Beardsley Gym while Welsh-Ryan Arena is being remodeled and the best class in Wildcat history, Nia Coffey, Christen Inman and Ashley Dreary graduated. However, there are some familiar returning faces; Pallas Kunaiya-Akpanah and Abi Scheid to name two. Not to forget Joe McKeown now in his 10th season.

Northwestern won five of their first six; but then finished non-conference play losing six of eight. Last season Northwestern finished 8-8 in the B1G (20-11 overall). After not being selected for the NCAA tournament, the Wildcats turned down a WNIT invitation. Welsh Ryan Arena was not available for post season games plus the Wildcats seemed ready to close down a very emotional season which included dealing with the death of Jordan Hanking.

One thing that hasn't changed is Wildcat height. Starters, Scheid and Kunaiya-Akpanah, are 6’2” and the Wildcats bring two 6’4” players (Abbe Wolf and Oceanna Hamilton) off the bench. Controlling Scheid and Kunaiya-Akpanah (a double double machine) will be key to a Gopher victory. Scheid is exactly the type of roaming, shoot from anywhere, post player that gives Minnesota trouble.

Last season at Williams Arena, against Northwestern’s height Marlene Stollings went small. Taiye Bello started at the post and played 25 minutes. Jessie Edwards played 15 and Fernstrom did not get off the bench. Minnesota, behind 25 points from Carlie Wagner won 71-61. It wasn’t easy. Entering the fourth quarter, Northwestern led 48-46. Kunaiyi-Akpanah played 15 minutes with 8 rebounds and 4 points. Abi Scheid played 20 minutes with 3 points and 1 rebound.

Injuries: Starting guard Jordan Hamilton has missed three straight games with an injury. In the Wildcats Friday win over Eastern Illinois starting guard Lydia Rohde left the game late in the first quarter following a collision along the end line with an Eastern Illinois player. Rohde sat at the end the bench the remainder of the game. I suspect a concussion.


Starters:

5’10” G Fr Lindsey Pulliam 14.7 points per game
6’2” F Jr Abi Scheid 13.1 points per game
6’2” C Jr Pallas Kunaiya-Akpanah, 9.9 points and 10.2 rebounds per game
5’8 G So. Byrdy Galernik
5’10” G Sr Lydia Rohde

Common Opponent Georgetown, Minnesota won 73-63 at Georgetown while Northwestern’s Abi Scheid missed a last second game winner as the Wildcats fell 55-54 to the Hoyas in Nashville, Tennessee.

Wins: @ Chicago State, Oakland, UT Martin, Santa Clara, (N) Auburn, Stony Brook, Eastern Illinois

Lossess: (N) Chattanooga, (N) Georgetown, @ Syracuse, UW Milwaukee, DePaul, @ Missouri State, Green Bay 57-63.
 



Is the audio out on the stream? I'm getting nothing.

Edit -- came back right after I posted that.
 

Gophers hit 7 threes in the 2nd quarter and lead 47-37 at half.

Bell working on a triple double with 14 points, 8 assists, 6 rebounds.
 


Cats don't have an answer for Bell, who has 14 points, 8 assists, 6 boards, and 0 turnovers at the half. Wagner and Pitts each with 12 points at the half. Maybe it's just me, but I don't understand the continued fascination the coach has with Edwards. She's just not athletic enough to be much of a contributor. I'd rather roll the dice with Bello. Pulliam for Northwestern looks like a nice player.
 

tripledouble said:
Maybe it's just me, but I don't understand the continued fascination the coach has with Edwards. She's just not athletic enough to be much of a contributor. I'd rather roll the dice with Bello. Pulliam for Northwestern looks like a nice player.
Click to expand...

Agreed, she looks quite slow. Dawkins was annoyed within the first couple minutes of the game and got Bello off the bench.
 

overpass said:
Agreed, she looks quite slow. Dawkins was annoyed within the first couple minutes of the game and got Bello off the bench.
Click to expand...

Gophers shoot 10-23 from 3 and 43.5% from the field which contributed to the big lead.
 

Bell with a BIG POW type game, just short of a triple double, including 10 assists and 0 turnovers. Pitts with a nice start to her BIG career with 22 points and 11 boards, 7 of 11 from the field. I'm viewing the first two games of the BIG season as "must win" games for our Gophers, so this was a nice win, especially given how decisive it was. An improved Nebraska team is next, but that's a game the Gophers should also win.
 



Kiki Kicked Butt, Pitts was prime time and the Gopher guards overwhelmed the Wildcats. About the only concern in the second half was not getting the ball to Edwards. Jessie would scream for it; but the pass wouldn't come until the D arrived. The other negatives were Carlie's five turnovers most of which were unforced. Those are nits. More important, it's cool opening the conference with a comfortable win-especially when I recall the grinder games we've had in Evanston.


Minutes Played (Starters Bolded)

35 Pitts
33 Wagner
32 Bell
32 Hubbard
25 Edwards
16 Brunson
15 Taiye Bello
5 Kaposi
4 Fernstrom
3 Garrido Perez
 

Although I've been critical of the Gopher post players, I'll acknowledge that playing post with this Gophers team isn't the easiest thing to do. The Gophers have two posts who are somewhat non-athletic and don't run the court well. So unless the Gophers are in their half-court offense, those posts often don't get a chance to participate in the offense. And also, if you look at the game against Northwestern, you'll see (as Iggy aptly pointed out) that Edwards was wide open at least two or three times under the basket and no one got the ball to her. My biggest complaint about two of our posts is that they don't anticipate rebounds and are often caught flat-footed. It's befuddling to think that Zahui B was an All-American in Stollings' system. But maybe that was due to the fact that she was just a much better athlete and basketball player. With Stollings' fast-paced offense, it seems that she needs to make a point of recruiting post players who can run the court and are more athletic. If she had done that previously, maybe Gopher fans wouldn't be grousing about the post play or lack of it, and the post rotation.
 

tripledouble said:
Although I've been critical of the Gopher post players, I'll acknowledge that playing post with this Gophers team isn't the easiest thing to do. The Gophers have two posts who are somewhat non-athletic and don't run the court well. So unless the Gophers are in their half-court offense, those posts often don't get a chance to participate in the offense. And also, if you look at the game against Northwestern, you'll see (as Iggy aptly pointed out) that Edwards was wide open at least two or three times under the basket and no one got the ball to her. My biggest complaint about two of our posts is that they don't anticipate rebounds and are often caught flat-footed. It's befuddling to think that Zahui B was an All-American in Stollings' system. But maybe that was due to the fact that she was just a much better athlete and basketball player. With Stollings' fast-paced offense, it seems that she needs to make a point of recruiting post players who can run the court and are more athletic. If she had done that previously, maybe Gopher fans wouldn't be grousing about the post play or lack of it, and the post rotation.
Click to expand...

I am a fan of the big post players, when I heard we were getting Fernstrom from I state I did a little research on her. Did you know she was Freshman of the week 3 times in the Big12. She also lead the Big 12 Freshman class in scoring for the whole year. She was on her way to another very successful Sophmore year before transferring. Since coming here she has had some very good games only to play 2 minutes the next game. Example last year She put up 18 pts and 10 rbs against MSU and sat the next few games only to play about 2-3 minutes those games. Not a recipe for success. The same thing happened this year when she put up 17 pts 9 rbs vs E. Mich. only to sit the bench ever since. Since reading this posting I looked at some stats.
Fernstrom .40 points per min played
Edwards .28 points per min played
Bello .31 points per min played

That means Fernstrom is scoring at a rate 30% better than Edwards and 23% better than Bello
With all that aside, The Post players on the Gophers are all climbing an uphill battle because if they blink wrong they are going to get pulled, mean
while we can have the guards start the game 0 for 5 shooting and still keep right on playing. You can say they need to do that to get them in the groove but that also works for the post players. No matter who is in, let them play through a mistake or 2. My prediction is we will not make the tourney unless we have a more balanced attack. Passing the ball inside once per half will not cut it.
 

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