B1G Game 16: Gophers Visit Nebraska (2-20-22)

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Embarrassing defense AGAIN. The coaching is awful. Scalia should transfer to a top 15 school. Wasting her time….
 

Roland Brooks said:
Embarrassing defense AGAIN. The coaching is awful. Scalia should transfer to a top 15 school. Wasting her time….
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Scalia is a phenomenal shooting talent but she is not blameless for the team's play. She needs to be a better court leader and she needs to produce more assists and fewer turnovers. On the season she has 45 assists and 57 turnovers. That is awful for any player much less a guard, especially a point guard. I could happily live with that if she didn't seem like such an awful teammate and court leader. I brought a friend to the Northwestern game and, unprompted, he pointed to Scalia, as she was leaving the game for a breather in the second half, and asked why is she so angry all the time. Our defense was horrible again and the opposing teams defense was great. Apparently the players don't bring the energy and the coaches can't bring it out of them. So disappointing... If I was a top 15 school I wouldn't bring Scalia in unless I had very strong upperclass leadership on the team that would hold her accountable and only if Scalia was going to play shooting guard, exclusively.
 


It is one thing to get beat but to get beat without any competitive spirit says a lot about the leadership of this team. But according to Souhan, Whalen's coaching or leadership should not be called into question.
 


Ragnor said:
Scalia is a phenomenal shooting talent but she is not blameless for the team's play. She needs to be a better court leader and she needs to produce more assists and fewer turnovers. On the season she has 45 assists and 57 turnovers. That is awful for any player much less a guard, especially a point guard. I could happily live with that if she didn't seem like such an awful teammate and court leader. I brought a friend to the Northwestern game and, unprompted, he pointed to Scalia, as she was leaving the game for a breather in the second half, and asked why is she so angry all the time. Our defense was horrible again and the opposing teams defense was great. Apparently the players don't bring the energy and the coaches can't bring it out of them. So disappointing... If I was a top 15 school I wouldn't bring Scalia in unless I had very strong upperclass leadership on the team that would hold her accountable and only if Scalia was going to play shooting guard, exclusively.
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Bunyan said:
I thought Powell left.
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This is the Marcus Carr offense. The PG gets a high ball screen and goes from there. It was the same when Kenisha Bell was a Sr. The player is doing what they are told or until corrected.
 

MNGirlsHoops said:
This is the Marcus Carr offense. The PG gets a high ball screen and goes from there. It was the same when Kenisha Bell was a Sr. The player is doing what they are told or until corrected.
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It is but we got wings that are catch and shoot players and post players that arent scorers. Deja has been a really good player for us but shes a really poor ballhandler/passer and Diva cant create on offense. Right now teams are denying the wings and doubling the ballscreens on top forcing LBK/Kadi to make a play or forcing Scalia/Smith to go 1on1. We're an easy team to defend. This is also a really poor passing team so imo options are limited on what they can do offensively. I'd like to see them get out and run a bit more.
 

Ragnor said:
Scalia is a phenomenal shooting talent but she is not blameless for the team's play. She needs to be a better court leader and she needs to produce more assists and fewer turnovers. On the season she has 45 assists and 57 turnovers. That is awful for any player much less a guard, especially a point guard. I could happily live with that if she didn't seem like such an awful teammate and court leader. I brought a friend to the Northwestern game and, unprompted, he pointed to Scalia, as she was leaving the game for a breather in the second half, and asked why is she so angry all the time. Our defense was horrible again and the opposing teams defense was great. Apparently the players don't bring the energy and the coaches can't bring it out of them. So disappointing... If I was a top 15 school I wouldn't bring Scalia in unless I had very strong upperclass leadership on the team that would hold her accountable and only if Scalia was going to play shooting guard, exclusively.
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I think we need to remember that Scalia is not a point guard, but is playing the position as an emergency back-up. Our point guard left the team. The back-up point guard missed the season with an injury and our 3rd PG option, Alexia Smith, just hasn't been what we hoped she would be for that position. Admittedly, Scalia is not a great defender, which I think has as much to do with not being particularly athletic as desire/effort. She's a basically a long-range shooter, who has developed the ability to drive to the hoop and score once in a while. I love having her as one of the best 3-point shooters in the league, but I've never had any great expectations out of her beyond that. I think with this team, her main job is to score.
 

Chico Gopher said:
I think we need to remember that Scalia is not a point guard, but is playing the position as an emergency back-up. Our point guard left the team. The back-up point guard missed the season with an injury and our 3rd PG option, Alexia Smith, just hasn't been what we hoped she would be for that position. Admittedly, Scalia is not a great defender, which I think has as much to do with not being particularly athletic as desire/effort. She's a basically a long-range shooter, who has developed the ability to drive to the hoop and score once in a while. I love having her as one of the best 3-point shooters in the league, but I've never had any great expectations out of her beyond that. I think with this team, her main job is to score.
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Scalia has been bringing energy and is consistent.. this team has issues beyond this season -
I predict an overhaul of the roster, we already lose 5 seniors, I dont see Klarke coming back, I think Lex is 50/50, Strande 50/50.
Rose, Kadi and Scalia are the 3 main players coming back IF they come back.
I think Whalen inherited a talented group of kids and didn't get anywhere with them and now she is facing a rebuilding year that might last for multiple years.. It just takes to long to rebuild with freshman, its not the norm in this day.
 



I agree that this is going to be a major rebuild. Ideally, Whalen and staff will see who they have coming back and review the players they have coming in (including Borowicz and Czinano) and then look to fill holes in the transfer portal. I'm still 'glass half-full' on Rose, if she can make some improvements in her game. I've seen Kadi for 3 years now and I think she'll be best coming off the bench. Still way too many turnovers and she's an average shooter at best. I realize that Scalia has been pushed into a point guard role out of necessity and I applaud her taking on that task. But I'm hoping that she'll be strictly a shooting guard next year when we have other point guards available. I've been encouraged that Smith has slowly become a more confident scorer. I don't think that makes her the starting PG for next year, but possibly an able bench player. And with whatever group we end up with next year, I'm hoping they have at least a couple of players who bring the energy game after game, kind of like how LBK is bringing that now. I think Katie could be one of those players, but I'm not sure how much she'll play and that's something that's difficult to do if you are not playing a lot. Sorry...rambling again.
 

It will be difficult to pull quality players from the transfer portal after this season. Minnesota isn't a preferred destination for most players. I'm going to guess they will target non-impact, ex-Minnesota players that want to play near home. Should have played the underclassmen this year versus the 5th year senior crew. That what the majority of good coaches would have done. I'd rather lose playing the future pipeline then 5th year players.
 

If at the beginning of the season our crystal balls indicated that we would be 5-11 in the Big Ten and tied for 10th on 2/22/22, we might have decided to play our underclassmen instead of our seniors. However, we tried to win as many games as we could with the most experienced players. I had hoped we would at least finish in the middle of the standings, make a post season tournament, and attract impact players. I don't think the upside potential of our underclassmen is greater than who have been playing. Somehow, the Gophers need to pick up an impact post player in the transfer portal. Hopefully, one or two of our freshmen recruits will be able to make big contributions.
 

MOGopher said:
It will be difficult to pull quality players from the transfer portal after this season. Minnesota isn't a preferred destination for most players. I'm going to guess they will target non-impact, ex-Minnesota players that want to play near home. Should have played the underclassmen this year versus the 5th year senior crew. That what the majority of good coaches would have done. I'd rather lose playing the future pipeline then 5th year players.
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You cant play young kids for the sake of playing them, there are always a couple kids recruited that you just flat out missed on, they will never play. I'm sure if they were close to playing they already would of. Are they committed at practice, do they practice hard, do they care, are they in the gym, the weight room......
Who should be playing even without knowing all the above?
The only kid I might try to mix in with the starters is Hedman instead of Mershon.
Strande is maybe the other one, but she wasnt at the last game, so not sure what her deal has been all year. Outside looking in, Strande isn't showing the same promise she did last year as a Freshman.
 



walleye said:
If at the beginning of the season our crystal balls indicated that we would be 5-11 in the Big Ten and tied for 10th on 2/22/22, we might have decided to play our underclassmen instead of our seniors. However, we tried to win as many games as we could with the most experienced players. I had hoped we would at least finish in the middle of the standings, make a post season tournament, and attract impact players. I don't think the upside potential of our underclassmen is greater than who have been playing. Somehow, the Gophers need to pick up an impact post player in the transfer portal. Hopefully, one or two of our freshmen recruits will be able to make big contributions.
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When this team has been getting blown out in games and down 20-30, even 50 points in a game (poor shooting, turnovers, fouls, etc.). Sorry, its time to play the underclassmen - i don't care what promises you made older players or starters about playing time. The starters or 'so called' best players have failed at that point, it's time to see what other players can do and place players in various roles to see performance. Playing your starters to the end to have them get their stats versus playing others for game experience is a failed strategy (and not a winning one for sure). No other BIG10 team does that. No crystal ball needed.
 

MOGopher said:
When this team has been getting blown out in games and down 20-30, even 50 points in a game (poor shooting, turnovers, fouls, etc.). Sorry, its time to play the underclassmen - i don't care what promises you made older players or starters about playing time. The starters or 'so called' best players have failed at that point, it's time to see what other players can do and place players in various roles to see performance. Playing your starters to the end to have them get their stats versus playing others for game experience is a failed strategy (and not a winning one for sure). No other BIG10 team does that. No crystal ball needed.
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Amen!!
 

BBJones said:
Amen!!
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"it's time to see what other players can do and place players in various roles to see performance".

Of course, isn't that exactly what you've been doing in practice every single day since the season started? Most of the coaches that I've spent time with feel that practice is where you find out what your players can or can't do and where you test them in different roles to figure out where they can succeed once you get them into a game. They watch and see what their players are capable of every single day.

Or are we saying that what happens in practice has nothing to do with what a player will do in a game situation?

I'm not saying don't empty your bench when you're down 20 points with a couple of minutes left to play, nor am I saying that it's impossible for a player that hasn't done the things you need to see consistently in practice, suddenly is able to showcase their main skill for a few minutes in a game. But most coaches play the people they trust the most, and they develop that trust by what they see in practice every day. In our teams case, since I'm not at practice, it's hard to know exactly what our coaches are specifically looking for from specific players to earn game-time, but I'm pretty sure that just desperately throwing mud against the wall to see if it sticks today is not part of the philosophy.
 

Chico Gopher said:
"it's time to see what other players can do and place players in various roles to see performance".

Of course, isn't that exactly what you've been doing in practice every single day since the season started? Most of the coaches that I've spent time with feel that practice is where you find out what your players can or can't do and where you test them in different roles to figure out where they can succeed once you get them into a game. They watch and see what their players are capable of every single day.

Or are we saying that what happens in practice has nothing to do with what a player will do in a game situation?

I'm not saying don't empty your bench when you're down 20 points with a couple of minutes left to play, nor am I saying that it's impossible for a player that hasn't done the things you need to see consistently in practice, suddenly is able to showcase their main skill for a few minutes in a game. But most coaches play the people they trust the most, and they develop that trust by what they see in practice every day. In our teams case, since I'm not at practice, it's hard to know exactly what our coaches are specifically looking for from specific players to earn game-time, but I'm pretty sure that just desperately throwing mud against the wall to see if it sticks today is not part of the philosophy.
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So many of the starting players on this team are out of condition, poor defenders, poor passers, poor shot selections. The coaches must see that every day in practice. We as fans see it every game. They still play on. When players do not perform in games, you replace them with other players to see what they can do. That does two things, tells the players in the game that "you can be replaced and playing time is not a guarantee" and gives other players an opportunity to play and compete. Not good to promise minutes to kids to attract them to the team or keep them from leaving the team. I believe Powell is a good indication of that. IMO, She should have been sat a long time ago. When they finally sat her - she left. Probably, because she didn't get the 35+ minutes she was promised regardless of performance. I still see a few promises lingering out there and likely more coming next year.
 

MOGopher said:
So many of the starting players on this team are out of condition, poor defenders, poor passers, poor shot selections. The coaches must see that every day in practice. We as fans see it every game. They still play on. When players do not perform in games, you replace them with other players to see what they can do. That does two things, tells the players in the game that "you can be replaced and playing time is not a guarantee" and gives other players an opportunity to play and compete. Not good to promise minutes to kids to attract them to the team or keep them from leaving the team. I believe Powell is a good indication of that. IMO, She should have been sat a long time ago. When they finally sat her - she left. Probably, because she didn't get the 35+ minutes she was promised regardless of performance. I still see a few promises lingering out there and likely more coming next year.
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The game against Penn State has meaning. There is still a chance to do well in the Big Ten tournament. It is important to finish strongly to build for the future and for recruiting. I think the gophers should play the best players and I think the coaches know who they are.
 

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