B1G Game 18: Gophers visit Michigan State (3-1-25)

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Ignatius L Hoops

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Reversal.

Last season, Michigan State and Minnesota (both led by first year Big Ten head coaches) met twice during conference play. On January 20th, the Gophers cruised to a 69-50 home victory behind an 18 point and 15 rebound out burst from Mallory Heyer. For emphasis, Heyer was 5-9 from three. Supporting a strong defensive effort, Sophie Hart scored 12, Grace Grocholski added 11 points and 6 rebounds, and Mara Braun contributed 10 points and 7 rebounds in 34 minutes.

The Spartans were led by the now departed DeeDee Hagermann with 18 points and Julia Ayrault with 9 points and 8 rebounds.

The win advanced Minnesota to 4-3 in the conference and dropped Michigan State to 3-4. It was to be the Gophers apex in the conference standings.

Hosting the February 5th return match in East Lansing, the Spartans prevailed 76-65. While Heyer posted 14 points and 11 rebounds, it was Janay Sanders leading the Gophers with 23 points. And unfortunately, the now injured Braun had started her injury stint. For MSU, it was Ayrault upping her game to 16 points and 7 rebounds.

The loss dropped Minnesota to 4-7 in conference play and elevated Sparty to 7-4. The Gophers finished conference play 5-13 while MSU finished 12-6 earning a trip to the NCAA tournament where they fell to North Carolina 59-56.

This Saturday’s regular season finale pits a 10-7 Michigan State versus an 8-9 Minnesota still searching for a signature win.

Three Spartans to watch:

MSU is lead by 6’3” junior forward and Oregon transfer Grace VanSlooten averaging 16.3 points and 6.4 rebounds in 27.4 minutes.

Theryn Halleck is a 5’10” junior guard averaging 15.7 points and 2.3 rebounds in 27.4 minutes.

Julia Ayrault is a 6’2” graduate guard averaging 13.8 points and 7.4 rebounds in 27.1 minutes.

Here’s hoping Heyer can recapture her beast mode.
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I like how Torrie Mckinney has handled the ball up the court and her speed may be an asset against MSU press. She seemed hesitant to drive and shoot yesterday. The kid's got guts when she drives but other teams like to foul her really hard. Same with Grace. G she gets hammered a lot on drives to the basket. Hopefully the refs are not all home cooking on Saturday for the Spartans. Battle too, I notice she got chopped and hacked driving against Washington. Gophers are a little due for the refs to call some of these excessive riding plays, the bumps and blatant chops across the wrist. I know I'm a Homer but would like to see the Big 10 refs square up some of these calls. I know you have to play through it too, but Gophers are due some calls going into Big 10 tournament.
 
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some of the calls last night were baffling.. they called Amaya for a foul when she had her arms straight up defending Sellers and Sellers pushes off her, and they called the foul on Amaya.. I think 3 or 4 times they pushed Sophie without a single call.. we haven't gotten many calls the last two home games that's for sure.
 

It would be nice if the Gophers started out playing confidently
With a little more urgency and more focused. To me they haven’t looked or played like a team on a mission. They really could use a W tomorrow as their tourney hopes are slipping away. Can’t play tight and you need someone who isn’t afraid to shoot either. I think McKinney needs to stay out of foul trouble and start scoring earlier in the game. Need to prove to themselves that they can beat teams that are higher than them in the standings. This team should be past the moral victories stage. Go Gophers!
 


gopherdudepart2 said:
I like how Torrie Mckinney has handled the ball up the court and her speed may be an asset against MSU press. She seemed hesitant to drive and shoot yesterday. The kid's got guts when she drives but other teams like to foul her really hard. Same with Grace. G she gets hammered a lot on drives to the basket. Hopefully the refs are not all home cooking on Saturday for the Spartans. Battle too, I notice she got chopped and hacked driving against Washington. Gophers are a little due for the refs to call some of these excessive riding plays, the bumps and blatant chops across the wrist. I know I'm a Homer but would like to see the Big 10 refs square up some of these calls. I know you have to play through it too, but Gophers are due some calls going into Big 10 tournament.
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I'd like to see Tori develop a pull-up jump shot. With her speed, she often has the defense back on its heels. There have been many times where if she would just stop, she'd have a wide open shot.
 


There must be a rule that if you average 5 or less points a game, you will not miss against the Gophers. Sotelo... averages 5.4 ppg coming into today, had a total of 6 points in her team's last four games....

Already has 8 points and two 3-pointers in the first quarter... like literally almost every game a nobody who averages 5 or less ppg goes off against them.
 

Totally different levels of basketball between Gophers and MSU offensively, MSU flies around and passes , Gophers dribble dribble, miss. Gophers can’t hang on to the ball on stolen passes and rebounds. Gophers are lucky to be in it. We just don’t have consistent shooters
 



bball_craz_31 said:
There must be a rule that if you average 5 or less points a game, you will not miss against the Gophers. Sotelo... averages 5.4 ppg coming into today, had a total of 6 points in her team's last four games....

Already has 8 points and two 3-pointers in the first quarter... like literally almost every game a nobody who averages 5 or less ppg goes off against them.
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Coach P seems to call other teams' bluff when it comes to non-scoring threats. Can't guard everyone as well as you'd like but might as well focus on the stars.
 

This game is there for the taking. Michigan State is 3-5 in the second half of BIG play, including victories over Wisconsin and Northwestern. Not impressed with Sparty. Gophers can punch their ticket with a good half of basketball.
 

MaroonMagic said:
Coach P seems to call other teams' bluff when it comes to non-scoring threats. Can't guard everyone as well as you'd like but might as well focus on the stars.
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Opposing teams seem to leave Rose open but she hasn’t been able to make them pay. I did like Klick taking a couple of shots unfortunately like her fellow teammates they don’t go in.
 




We really could use some jumpers. Even when we have position, we lose the rebound.
 





MSU 29 bench pts. Us 4. We let the shot clock be the extra defender way to often. Leads to a lot of turnover or tougher shots.
 


Once again...not enough offense. MSU has 9 more shot attempts. Taken 10 more 3 pts attempts which have led to 8 more makes which is the difference in the game.
 

MEDIOCRE, what a disappointing end to the regular season. Can’t get over the hump and beat good teams. Seriously the weakest bubble in NCAA history and they probably won’t make it. Even poor teams pull an upset once in a while. Please hit the portal and get a reliable consistent scorer
 

Is there anyone on this coaching staff that can draw up some offense? This is pathetic. Dribble with head down or throw the ball at Hart’s feet thinking she is going to catch the ball is not working. Another rank loss.
 

Tori, GG, and Battle showed up. Unfortunately, that's not enough.
 

DietCokeFan said:
Is there anyone on this coaching staff that can draw up some offense? This is pathetic. Dribble with head down or throw the ball at Hart’s feet thinking she is going to catch the ball is not working. Another rank loss.
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We certainly don't hear announcers say "the Gophers are setting up the offense"
 

DietCokeFan said:
Is there anyone on this coaching staff that can draw up some offense? This is pathetic. Dribble with head down or throw the ball at Hart’s feet thinking she is going to catch the ball is not working. Another rank loss.
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I like Dawn but this was not her best coaching year. Need more from the bench. They had like 10 games they could have started everyone on the bench and still won. She either has no bench talent or did a bad job not developing them. Too many times starters looked tried.
 

Katogopher said:
MEDIOCRE, what a disappointing end to the regular season. Can’t get over the hump and beat good teams. Seriously the weakest bubble in NCAA history and they probably won’t make it. Even poor teams pull an upset once in a while. Please hit the portal and get a reliable consistent scorer
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Not like 25 ppg sitting on the bench injured or anything. A consistent scoring option....What would you call Mara?

Gopher Mac said:
I like Dawn but this was not her best coaching year. Need more from the bench. They had like 10 games they could have started everyone on the bench and still won. She either has no bench talent or did a bad job not developing them. Too many times starters looked tried.
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What bench? Cause they started the season 8 deep with Woodson, Stewart and Mckinney off the bench. Weird how two season-ending injuries can hurt depth....
 
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Gopher Mac said:
I like Dawn but this was not her best coaching year. Need more from the bench. They had like 10 games they could have started everyone on the bench and still won. She either has no bench talent or did a bad job not developing them. Too many times starters
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To think if this coaching staff would have worked on developing players in the horrendous non conference maybe we wouldn’t have to witness the starters gasping for air every game.
 

DietCokeFan said:
To think if this coaching staff would have worked on developing players in the horrendous non conference maybe we wouldn’t have to witness the starters gasping for air every game.
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Ok let's come at this a different way. Obviously all you great coaching D1 minds know so much more. Dawn and the staff are awful and terrible.

What coaches do you think we should go out and get? Who is coming here? What great basektball mind that is deemed worthy of the holier than thou standards of this board?

reminder, Dawn has two back-to-back 20 win seasons despite Mara Braun ,her best player, for 25 games this year, and didn't have Mara for 14 of the 36 games last year.

So she is at 66 career games as gopher coach and hasn't had her best player for 39 of those games. With her She has wins over at Michigan, Michigan State and Nebraksa last season at home and this year has no Quad 3 or 4 losses.


But by all means... she can't coach so I'm curous what coach you all think is coming that is up to your standards.
 

bball_craz_31 said:
Ok let's come at this a different way. Obviously all you great coaching D1 minds know so much more. Dawn and the staff are awful and terrible.

What coaches do you think we should go out and get? Who is coming here? What great basektball mind that is deemed worthy of the holier than thou standards of this board?

reminder, Dawn has two back-to-back 20 win seasons despite Mara Braun ,her best player, for 25 games this year, and didn't have Mara for 14 of the 36 games last year.

So she is at 66 career games as gopher coach and hasn't had her best player for 39 of those games. With her She has wins over at Michigan, Michigan State and Nebraksa last season at home and this year has no Quad 3 or 4 losses.


But by all means... she can't coach so I'm curous what coach you all think is coming that is up to your standards.
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You literally say the same thing every post. Fans can be upset, annoyed or whatever we want to feel because this coaching staff has simply not done anything.
Her not developing players in the non conference or the ability to draw up offense is extremely frustrating. Her defense mentality in the BIG is not working.
We all know you love Dawn and this staff and that is perfectly fine; but, we when we as fans have frustrations that can also be fine.
 

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