B1G Game 11: Gophers Host Rutgers (2-2-20)

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Ignatius L Hoops

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Piscataway Mystery Theater​

Over the last season or so, Rutgers (6-3) Women’s Basketball has been lightly obscured inside a wafting Raritan River fog of mystery. I suppose that’s to be expected for a university located in Piscataway, a word of uncertain origin, on the banks of the (old) Raritan, another word of uncertain origin. Some mysteries we can clear up; others we cannot.

Where was C. Vivian Stringer for Six Months?

Here’s a recent update from Yahoo Sports.

https://sports.yahoo.com/rutgers-vi...ck-year-after-leave-of-absence-201247461.html

In November 2018, Stringer reached the milestone of 1,000 wins. But by February 2019, she was stepping away from the game. She says she had given everything she could. She found herself staying up until the wee hours of the morning and ingesting caffeine pills before closing up shop each night. After 40-plus years of that routine, her body had had enough. Her doctors told her things had to change quickly.

“I just needed to back off and take more care of myself and give more responsibilities to everybody else,” Stringer said.

[Associate Head Coach Tim] Eatman was notified shortly after Rutgers' February 21 loss to Michigan last season that Stringer’s doctors were pulling her away from the game. Stringer didn’t leave a plan and had zero contact with the team for six months.

Eatman says he wasn’t worried. He was prepared for this moment. In her 24 years coaching Rutgers, Stringer had developed a well-oiled machine that he could lead seamlessly during her absence.

Before she left, and before news broke to the public, Stringer made sure to contact highly touted center Maori Davenport and her other committed recruits. None of them transferred or decommitted based on Stringer’s decision.
…

Once Stringer was ready to get back on the sideline, Rutgers gave her the freedom to restructure the way she runs the program. The Scarlet Knights bumped down their practice time and eliminated early-morning sessions. Stringer says if 7 a.m. practices continued, that would have been it for her.

This season their practices begin at 2 p.m. — guaranteeing her a full eight hours of rest each night.

“Coaching basketball is far more than wins and losses. It's a source of pride in who they are, and we want to play the best of the competition,” Stringer said. “It’s more important to me that I demonstrate what it means to be a strong woman that they know who they are, and they get far more from basketball than just playing basketball."
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Why Has Noga Peleg Pelc Disappeared?

Noga Peleg Pelc (whose name could be broken into titles for sequels to Melville’s Typee and Omoo) appeared in the Scarlet Knights first Big Ten game (8 games over all) and then has disappeared from the bench as mysteriously as Judge Crater (we should be able to use historical references on a college board). Last season, against Minnesota in game 1, she started, played 13 minutes and fouled out. Which is itself mysterious. In game two she came off the bench, played 13 minutes and scored 6 points.

Last Season’s Game Related Mysteries:

Minnesota faced Rutgers twice last season. In the first game, at Williams Arena, Minnesota, trailing 23-17 at the half, ground out a 60-46 win. The main mysteries from that night were: Where was Rutgers leading rebounder, Caitlen Jenkins? It turned out she was suspended for a violation of team rules. Why did starting point guard Ciani Cryor only play 16 minutes? Who knew?

Not surprisingly, Rutgers efforts even seemed to mystify Stringer. From the Star Tribune game story:

Afterward, Rutgers coach C. Vivian Stringer was blunt. “We didn’t come to play,’’ she said. “I think we halfway went at it. Minnesota wanted it more. I’m surprised they didn’t ask why we’re here.’

The return match on Senior Night in Piscataway marked Stringer’s second, then unexplained, absence from the team bench with Tim Eatman filling in as head coach. Before the game, two mysteries from the previous contest were resolved; both Cryor and Caitlin were dismissed from the Scarlet Knights. For Minnesota it was their second trip to the East Coast in a week. The first trip was the unbelievable collapse at Maryland and there seemed to be a hangover effect. Arella Guirantes, who had scored, 2 points in Minneapolis, went off for 25 leading the Scarlet Knights to a 60-46 comeback win. Minnesota’s 42-38 lead at the end of three disappeared in a Rutgers 22-12 fourth quarter onslaught. Having a breakout game, Guirantes scored 14 in the final quarter. Destiny Pitts led Minnesota with 25 and had 5 of Minnesota’s 20 turnovers.

Are the Scarlet Knights as Good as Their Record?

Their wins are against the Badgers, Purdue, Penn State, Nebraska and Illinois (twice) which have a combined record of 16-41. And even some of those wins weren’t impressive. A couple of examples:

In the B1G opener, in Madison, Rutgers trailed Wisconsin by as many as 15 points and by 11 entering the fourth quarter. The Scarlet Knight press fueled a 20-8 Rutgers run to a 64-61 victory. Guirantes posted 22 points, 11 rebounds and 8 assists. Tekia Mack scored 17 with 7 rebounds and Khadaizha Sanders 11 points.

Against Purdue in Lafayette, Rutgers scored 8 of the last 10 points to win 59-53. Guirantes had 22 points, Jordan Wallace 12, Sanders 10 and Mael Gilles 10.

Of course the Scarlet Knights have defeated Illinois twice a task we’ve been unable to accomplish even once the last two seasons. Still this is a winnable home game especially if it turns into a scramble and scrums.

Who is Tim Eatman?

Yes, we know that the associate head coach, who joined the Rutgers staff in 2015, first worked for Stringer at Iowa during the 1994-95 season. He was a well-traveled assistant coach with stops at Mississippi State, Houston, Iowa, Kansas, Louisville, Arkansas, Boston College, Northeastern and Rhode Island. Along the way, Eatman was a head coach at his alma mater, Talladega, and Illnois-Chicago.

But his first contact with Stringer was recounted in this article from last Spring.

https://www.nj.com/rutgerswomen/201...-rutgers-win-a-big-ten-title-for-her-now.html

Eatman was a 19-year-old point guard at Talladega College in 1985, but he already realized his future in basketball wasn’t as a player. His mother, Shirley Eatman, was the head girls basketball coach at Aliceville High, and Alabama state high school rules prohibited her from coaching her players in AAU competition. So she asked her son to handle the team.

Eatman agreed with a question and a realization. He asked if they could go find a few more good players to make the team better, and decided he needed to start working on his craft as a coach. So he hit the road for a clinic in Nashville.

One of the featured speakers? C. Vivian Stringer, the head coach at Iowa then.

“I saw her speak, and said, ‘That’s who I want to work for,'" Eatman recalled earlier this week. After Stringer was done, he approached her and told her. Stringer asked Eatman how old he was. When he told her his age, she informed him he should graduate college before they started talking about a job.

Then, an invitation to work her camp later that year. So Eatman did that, hopping on a Greyhound bus in Alabama and riding it all the way to Iowa, resting and sleeping as much as he could along the way to ensure he’d have as much energy as possible to make a good first impression once he arrived.

“That’s how our friendship and relationship started," he said. Eatman would eventually join Stringer’s staff at Iowa for a year in the early 90s, and then reunite with her at Rutgers four seasons ago.
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Arella Guirantes doesn’t need mystery to be scary.

Guirantes is 4th in B1G scoring at 19.8/game and 3rd in steals with 2.4/game. And she likes to get inside and spin around post players for up and under buckets. Needless to say, you don’t beat Rutgers without controlling Guirantes. Here’s her last six games:

TeamPtsRebAsstMin
Illinois218635
Nebraska166537
Penn State104234
Michigan State282139
Michigan162239
Illinois209435

B1G Wins: @ Wisconsin 64-61, @ Purdue 59-53, @ Illinois 75-51, Nebraska 69-65, @ Penn State 62-57, @ Illinois 72-41.

B1G Losses: IU 56-66, Michigan State 55-66, @ Michigan 57-71

Probable Starters (B1G Stats):

HGTPOSYRPLAYERMINAVGREB
5’11”GRJrArella Guirantes37.319.85.9
5’7”GGSrKhadaizah Sanders34.111.43.8
6’1”F/GJrTakia Mack32.49.05.9
6’3”CSrJordan Wallace23.07.25.7
6’1”FJrMael Gilles27.94.44.4


Bench (B1G Stats):

HGTPOSYRPLAYERMINAVGREB
5’7”GSoZipporah Broughton15.64.11.0
6’2”FRFrTyia Singleton10.32.42.4
5’7”GGSrDanielle Miglore7.33.50.8
5’6”GRSoAlexis Morris8.11.00.7
6’4”CFrMaori Davenport8.41.62.3
 


Some quick highlights from the Rutgers win over Illinois including a couple of Guirantes' inside finishes.
 

As a reminder, you can watch today's game on ESPN2. The "big game" doesn't start until 5:30 PM so no need to watch all that pre-game hype from 2 - 4 PM.
 


MN up 15-14 at end of 1st. Diva sporting the big hair (compared to usually being tied up). She hit a 3, maybe the new look will help?
 


Rutgers can really make games ugly, just so big and physical and they get after it on defense. Gophers gotta stay out of foul trouble.
 

Down 27-30 at half. Too many turnovers, lots of traveling calls.
 

Brunson up late from halftime. Sitting for now. Wonder if ill effects from the flagrant foul hit she took earlier...
 




MN up after end of 3rd. Bello with double-double already. Both sisters see significant time on the floor together this quarter.
 

Could really use Brunson here, Rutgers pressure getting to them.
 





Overtime! A couple of big plays down the stretch by the Gophers!
 

Can't believe we were able to get to a tie at the end of regulation. 57-57. Key turnover by Rutgers stepping on the line under basket. What a pass in by Scalia!
 

61-61 double overtime. Looks like Brunson must be injured, out for rest of game. T Bello could wind up with 20+ rebounds.
 






Kind of a frustrating game to watch but they never gave up! Great job ladies!
 

Great game! Got some much needed breaks to make up for some of those turnovers.

I think a case was made to start both Bello sisters. The paint defense was sooooo much better.... instrumental in this win down the stretch.
 
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Good game for the Gophers. Bad game for the heart.
Pitts was in the house for the entire game, btw, not too far from the Gopher bench.
 

Oh, and I have a new least-favorite player in the B1G: Tekia Mack. Not sure if she yelled at her teammates or the refs more.
 




Shades said:
She can always come out of the transfer portal.
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Nice hint, @Shades! Hope that unbeknownst to us, Pitts and Whalen are working on some kind of truce deal, with sentence being games missed.

Anyway, really great to have her there! And for her to get to see her mates do battle with the dragon, and end up slaying the dragon in 2OT.
 

Also, not knowing the status of never-players Cummings, Sconiers and Ross, with Brunson in the locker room for (most of) the second half, am I right that when Masha A fouled out, that left the Gophers with a grand total of five eligible players?
 

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