B1G Game 10: Gophers Visit Northwestern (1-31-19)

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Now 3 Pt game. 29.9 seconds left. We are doing are best to give this game back.
 




Pitts puts it away at the FT line for us. Looks like we finally get rid of the monkey.
 






Tough 4th quarter but the gals didn't give up scratching a way to pull it off. Good for Pitts to put it away. That was huge.
 


Interesting. The announcers think Whalen outcoached NU coach out of 1st quarter and coming out of the half.
 

Winning is a good deodarant. Hopefully this will let them relax a little bit and start having more fun again.

Sent from my SM-J327P using Tapatalk
 




Thanks Destiny, we really needed this one:

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I don’t consider that a smart shot considering the situation. No praise from me.
 

For those who missed Burton's second consecutive end of the third quarter buzzer beater:


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Minutes Played:

40 Bell
40 Pitts
38 Brunson
33 Perez
19 T Bello
18 Lamke
7 Staples
5 Kaposi

In the post game radio interview Lindsay said she brought Bello (4 fouls) back earlier than she planned (6:44 remaining) because Lamke had emptied the tank.
 

Interesting to note that Lamke emptied the tank after only 18 minutes.
 


Perhaps it takes a lot more energy to be the post in a four guard rotation. More energy defending the middle, being the primary rebounder, etc.
 

Lamke was wearing a boot in some of the postgame pictures i seen.
 

tripledouble said:
Interesting to note that Lamke emptied the tank after only 18 minutes.
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She's used to 6 minutes on, then 4 minutes rest - and needs that recovery time for her body type. She went more like 8 minutes on, 2 minutes off in this game, which is a bit rough on the gas tank. Hope she's not developing an ankle issue like Hubbard or Tomancova.

Whay probably felt like keeping Kaposi minutes down, as she shot 0-8 in the last two games.
 


https://dailynorthwestern.com/2019/...rthwesterns-offense-struggles-in-a-home-loss/

Pressure.


The Golden Gophers played aggressively on defense from the start and forced the Cats into several mistakes in the first quarter. The most notable faults were the nine turnovers they committed in the opening frame. Burton said that although the team came in prepared to face different pressures, they were “a bit frantic.”

In addition, while NU doesn’t rely heavily on the 3-pointer, the Cats attempted a season-low seven from beyond the arc, partly due to Minnesota’s pressure.

“I wasn’t really looking for my shot at the three-point as much today, which isn’t necessarily a good thing,” Burton said. “We definitely have put a lot of emphasis on looking inside looking at our post players because when we do feed them, it’s pretty productive as well.”

Coach Joe McKeown also emphasized the team’s struggles shooting from three, noting the Golden Gophers were quick at getting back on defense and preventing open opportunities in transition. The significant pressure on sophomore guards Jordan Hamilton and Lindsey Pulliam as well as Burton, he said, prevented the team’s main perimeter threats from getting open shots.
 

The Gophers played eight players in rotation against a Wildcat team who played nine players. The Gophers defense forced 19 TOs including 10 steals.

In the end, the Gophers D limited NW to 37.7% shooting. More importantly, the Gophers clamped down any attempts by NW to come back. Most of the offensive scoring came from three players. Pitts and Bell played 40 minutes and score 19 & 17 points respectively followed by Brunson 38 minutes (14 pts), Perez 33 minutes (5), T Bello 19 (2), Lamke 18 (4), and Staples 7 (0).

IMHO, there lots of lessons learned from the previous Big Ten game. The Gophers blew away leads in several games in the second half playing against teams that have a better bench.

That is where more bodies on the team that can score and provide relief count. The team will be better next year with Hubbard returning, Sara Scalia joining the team and having more incoming players at their disposal (Grace Cumming, Jasmine Powell, Klarke Sconiers, Justice Ross). Hopefully, with one year under their belt current and this coming Summer to develop Freshmen Barbora Tomancova, Mercedes Staples, and Delaynie Byrne will come back more stronger and confident.

Some of the news folks have to grab the mantle and help the veterans. The Gophers have Pitts, Hubbard, Brunson, T-Bello, and K-Bello back.

They need more outside scoring threat, and for someone to emerge as a Post player who can help T Bello. Teams know to double team T Bello knowing there is no consistent threat to widen the defensive perimeter.

Gophers Take Down Northwestern on the Road
https://gophersports.com/news/2019/...phers-take-down-northwestern-on-the-road.aspx

MN/NW Box Score
https://gophersports.com/boxscore.aspx?id=8129&path=wbball
 
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It appears to me that Stallings had brought in only 1 recruit for this year, that is, Staples. Am I right about that? Did Stallings just figure 'I'm out of here' and sabotage the program by not bothering to do any recruiting? As I recall, she didn't leave until sometime in the summer. Was she going to be fired? Or was she fed up? Whatever the case, she left Whalen little new material to work with. Is there a story behind these devolopments?
 

Hrothgar said:
It appears to me that Stallings had brought in only 1 recruit for this year, that is, Staples. Am I right about that? Did Stallings just figure 'I'm out of here' and sabotage the program by not bothering to do any recruiting? As I recall, she didn't leave until sometime in the summer. Was she going to be fired? Or was she fed up? Whatever the case, she left Whalen little new material to work with. Is there a story behind these devolopments?
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Staples is a Whalen recruit. Stollings signed four. Two obtained their releases following the coaching change, one left after summer school and the other is on the team.
 

This was a quality 4th quarter effort leading to a W for the Lady Gophers. It could have gone the other way without heroics by Pitts.

We were without our usual 40ish rebounds and +10ish rebound margin. In fact we had a -9 rebound deficit. We made it work via good shooting, and a +10 steals margin, thanks to our pressure defense. However, in spite of all the steals, we ended with only a -4 turnover deficit. Meaning we had a lot of unforced turnovers. So turnovers are still an issue that needs work.

Note that all season we had too many turnovers, but it's just that against cream puff non-B1G teams, those teams had even more turnovers. Now we're playing the Big Ten, and they don't give us so many free turnovers.
 

Is Staples technically a Whalen recruit? She was already signed to Clemson. What recruiting could be done?
 

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