B1G Game 7: Gophers @ Iowa (1-21-17)

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Ignatius L Hoops

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Saturday Showdown


Any many ways it’s the Megan Gustafson show for the 3-3 Hawkeyes. Lacking their normal run ignitor the three pointer, the Hawkeyes have turned to Megan Gustafson’s inside power. They’ve also turned away from the platoon system used during the non-conference season to more standard rotation.

From three point range the Hawkeyes are a very un-Hawkeye like 23-120 (.267). And they are turnover prone, averaging 17.6 per game in B1G play. A part of the problem may be youth. Iowa started two freshmen, two sophomores and one senior against Rutgers.

Saturday’s game will be Girl Scout day and Go Red for Women Day; Lisa Bluder expects a big crowd.


Last Match-Up: Unforgettable:



Iowa kicked off the conference season with a surprise loss to Illinois (since revenged) followed by a “hang on” victory over Nebraska. It has been L, W, L, W, L, W, so the Hawkeyes are scheduled for a loss.

B1G wins: Nebraska, 75-72, Illinois, 78-58; @ Rutgers, 71-59.

B1G losses: @Illinois, 70-65; @ Penn State, 71-58; Maryland, 98-82.


Common Opponent: Kent State, Iowa won 83-48 and Minnesota won 92-62.



Starters:

Megan Gustafson: 6’3 F So. (19.5 points/game and 8.5 rebounds/game) (31.2 minutes/game)
Tania Davis: 5’3” G So. (12.0 p/g) (33.3 minutes)
McKenzie Meyer: 5’9” G Fr. (5.8 p/g) (20,2 minutes)
Ally Disterhoft: 6’0” G Sr. (11.5 p/g) (34.5 minutes)
Kathleen Doyle: 5’9” G Fr. (9.8 p/g) (30.5) (originally committed to Nebraska; but switched to Iowa after Connie Yori resigned)

Others:

Chase Coley: 6’3” F Jr. (14.8 minutes/game)
Christina Buttenham: 6’3” (16.7 minutes/game)
 

Well, any team that loses to Illinois is beatable. But the Hawkeyes will probably still be a slight favorite at home. The Gophers are getting better at defending the perimeter (baby steps) and if they can defend as well against Iowa as they did against Illinois , the Gophers could have a chance for a road win. Iowa not shooting well from 3, but they have players who are capable of doing that...Disterhoft, Doyle, Davis and even Meyer and Buttenham. Will be interesting to see if the Gophers can stop Gustafson and, if so, whether that will primarily be Edwards or Fernstrom. I'm thinking that Fernstrom might have the best chance to do that, but I'm certainly not sure. Iowa is another turnover-prone team, like the Gophers, and the team with the fewest turnovers is likely to win.
 


http://www.hawkcentral.com/story/sp...eps-beating-minnesota-would-big-one/96844970/


"This Minnesota win would be really big for us," Iowa coach Lisa Bluder said. "First of all, it would give us two in a row, but they’re higher than us in the RPI right now. So this would be a really good RPI win for us. And so those are the things we have to look forward to."

Bluder’s one of the few college coaches who openly discuss RPI and how vital a role it plays in today's game.

But she hesitates to publicly state her own road map or to set a golden number of wins for Iowa to return to the NCAA Tournament.

"(We’re) really not looking at: 'We have to have this many wins to get in the tournament,' but kind of looking at each one individually," she said. "Because I think if you look at all 10 of them, it can get a little bit insurmountable at times — thinking about what you have to do. Take baby steps, right?"

Chase Coley has been a key bench player in Iowa’s latest baby steps (its solid performance against Maryland and win at Rutgers).

She logged seven points and two boards in 15 minutes against Maryland and eight points and four boards in 17 minutes against Rutgers. Before those games she’d averaged 3.1 points and 3.8 boards in just north of 13 minutes per game.

Bluder’s starting to give Coley more time, and Coley's starting to do more with that time — especially defensively. She’s big enough to guard the post and quick enough to stretch out to cover a power forward. That helps Ally Disterhoft avoid mismatches when there's just one big on the floor...


..."I [Coley] hate losing to my friends because then I’ve got to deal with it," she laughed. "I’ll get texts from Kenisha (Bell) after the game if we lose, so I want to beat them."

Bell and Carlie Wagner pace Minnesota’s offense with 16.8 points and 19.6 points per game, respectively. But Wagner, a 5-foot-10 guard, is definitely the top option. She’s taken the fifth-most shots in the country (352).

Minnesota’s strongest on the boards, hauling in the country’s fourth-most rebounds (876) and ninth-most offensive rebounds per game (16.5). Iowa is tied for 20th with 29.2 defensive rebounds per game.
 

Minnesota is 4th in the nation in rebounding? I would have never guessed. Doesn't seem like it.

Do we lead the country in turnovers? That wouldn't surprise me.
 


Shades said:
Minnesota is 4th in the nation in rebounding? I would have never guessed. Doesn't seem like it.

Do we lead the country in turnovers? That wouldn't surprise me.
Click to expand...

The most recent NCAA stats places us sixth behind Baylor, Troy, New Mexico, Ohio State and Maryland. In rebound margin we are 129th.

Turnovers? We rank 235 (17.1/game) out of 345. Iowa is worse at 239.
 

Shades said:
Minnesota is 4th in the nation in rebounding? I would have never guessed. Doesn't seem like it.

Do we lead the country in turnovers? That wouldn't surprise me.
Click to expand...

With all the missed shots they have plenty of opportunities.
 

I thought it looked promising early on, but now down 10 with 8:33 left in game.
 




What happened to the Gophers defense in the second half? Hubbard was Gophers best player today. It wasn't a factor in the outcome, but I still don't see why Lamke is getting minutes over Edwards and Fernstrom...and is playing instead of Barnes. Iowa's Gustafson was the best player on the court today. Wagner 6 for 20 from the field. Bell 4 for 14. Edwards 2 for 7. Tinjum had a great first half but disappeared in the second.
 

I was hoping Iowa would wear down, but it looked like the opposite happened.
 

Shades said:
I was hoping Iowa would wear down, but it looked like the opposite happened.
Click to expand...

We take a 1 point lead into halftime and get blown out in the second half. I did not understand Stollings substitution patterns in this game but this was a beatable Iowa team.
 

It was a lackadaisical end to the first half (almost 3 minutes without a score plus some silly decision making) followed by a lackadaisical start to the second half which allowed Iowa to grab the lead.

The second half continued as an ugliest layup miss competition-one that Carlie shouldn't even be a part of at this stage of her career.


Starters:

Edwards
Hedstrom
Bell
Wagner
Hubbard


Minutes Played:

39 Wagner
37 Bell
31 Hubbard
28 Edwards
25 Tinjum
24 Hedstrom
6 Fernstrom
4 Lamke
3 Brunson
2 T. Bello
1 Kaposi
 




Wagner was forcing some tough layups and didn't have her 3 pt shot. Others missed some easy layups.

Noticed they were playing man defense, but it was way too late for it.
 


...
Conference
Saturday, January 21, 2017
Lisa Bluder
Women's Basketball
LISA BLUDER: First of all, I thought our crowd was
great today. I really appreciate them coming out,
supporting us, giving us some great energy, especially
in that first half when it was kind of back and forth. But
I thought after the first quarter, our defense was pretty
good, especially our two-point defense. I thought we
did a great job defensively on Carlie Wagner in the
second half, holding her to two baskets in the second
half, and you know, Tinjum had 10 at the half, she
ended up with 10.
So I think we did a good job adjusting and keeping
aware of where those kids were in the second half.
Kathleen Doyle kind of led us the first half and Tania
Davis did so in the second half. It's nice to have two
players on the court that are able to do that. Tania has
a season-high eight assists and only one turnover
today, and Megan has her 10th double-double of the
year, and it really feels good. Because I feel like this is
four good games that we've put together in a row now.
Q. Really convincing win against a good team, this
has to do a lot for the confidence?
LISA BLUDER: Yeah, winning is good for a lot of
things, definitely for building confidence though. We've
got to take this into Maryland. We know that's a tough
place to go again play them right away. But, again, I
just feel like we're playing very well right now, and that
feels good for our players. I think they're having fun out
there and playing confidently, and that's what you want
your players to do right now.
Q. The importance of coming out of the locker
room at halftime, this is two games in a row you've
kind of controlled the third period. Just the
benefits of that coming out?
LISA BLUDER: Yeah, I mean, I guess I'd like to do it
right from the start if we could. That would be nice.
But coming out with strong effort in that third quarter
and giving yourself a cushion going into the fourth
quarter is certainly a good thing.
Q. Talking about the momentum you have going, is
the bye coming at a bad time? Is this a time you
want to continue playing games?
LISA BLUDER: I kind of do. It's also hard sitting on a
loss and having a bye right after a loss. I don't know
what's worse. You're on a roll and you want to keep
going. I guess, really being able to practice and work
on some things this week after a win is not a bad thing.
Because I think you come to practice with a little more
pep in your step after a win than after a loss.
Do people say pep in their step anymore?
Q. You don't see the final statistics, but I know you
had your assist-to-field-goal ratio is high again.
That's nice to see.
LISA BLUDER: Love that. You know, we've had a little
bit of an issue of taking care of the basketball. It was
nice to see only 11 turnovers and I think three of those
were charges, so great job taking care of the ball. And
I love the high assists. I mean, we have 24 on 31
baskets. That just shows great team work. I think
that's a fun style to play, and I think our players really
enjoy that.
Q. You had 16 first half points in the paint as a
whole, and in the third quarter you had 14 alone.
Do you think you put a lot of emphasis on that
during halftime to have your guards attack the zone
and hit the bigs down low?
LISA BLUDER: Yeah, it ended up being 13 to 38 paint
points, and when you're scoring 38 points in the paint
against the zone, that's pretty good. That's a focused
effort on getting the ball inside against the zone. I
didn't really care how they did it, whether it was hitting
our post players or hitting a quarter. But we felt we
needed to get the ball inside versus Minnesota.
Q. I know it's still early, but there is such a clump in
the middle of the Big Ten. This puts you alone in
fifth. How critical is it to be on the high end of that
when you get to March?
LISA BLUDER: Yeah, and a win over Minnesota when
we play them one time is really important. Last year
we lost in a buzzer beater at their place in our solo
meeting. So when we play these teams once, it's nice
to be able to win, because head-to-head competition at
the end of the year, it bumps you ahead of them. And
when you're only playing three doubles, that's pretty
important.
Plus it was a good RPI victory. They're in the 40s in
the RPI. I don't know if they will stay there rest of the year,
but certainly right now that's a good RPI victory for us as well.
Click to expand...
 

beavergopher said:
This coach sucks dog crap. Thanks Teague.
Click to expand...

Norwood Teague is the person to blame. This is 100% true. He hired a coach that finished in the bottom half of a bad conference - think about that for one second. VCU was 8th in their conference in the 2013-2014 season - 8th. They won 22 games that year but that includes the following wins (Elon, Texas Pan-American, Texas Arlington, UNC Greensboro, Wagner, UMBC, Florida A&M, and New Jersey Institute of Technology - this is not a joke - these were 8 of VCU's wins). And yet, that gets her the opportunity to be the Head Coach at a Big 10 University. I don't blame Stollings for accepting the job - I blame Teague for offering it to her in the first place. Her resume is so under qualified for the job she got and over the past three years she has shown that she has no business holding the position she does. The young women on this team deserve someone different as their leader - they deserve an opportunity to be led by someone that can make a positive difference. In her first year as Head Coach she had the WNBA 2nd pick and LOST in the NCAA tourney. In her 2nd year she had the WNBA 4th pick and DID NOT MAKE the NCAA tourney. This year will be her worst of the three. The arrow is not pointing in the right direction. I hope for the sake of the program that Mr. Coyle corrects the mistake that Norwood Teague made and that the 2017-2018 season has different leadership. Coach Stollings needs to go.
 

As Bluder noted, of the Hawkeyes 11 turnovers three of them were charges (Edwards drew all three).

And Iowa's 38 paint points compared to Minnesota's 18 (Bluder said 13 but the box score said 18)....It wasn't for lack of inside shots.
 

Elon is decent nowadays.

The red flag for me was during the press conference for the Stollings hire, when asked how many serious candidates he had for the job he stated "I'm not going to dignify that with an answer." What? Seemed like a guy with more than one thing to hide. Ended up purging him. You could make an argument to purge his actions.

Stollings hasn't been all bad as far as recruiting. Kelley was pretty key. The return of the Minnesota players Starr, Fernstrom, and Bell were all moves we loved. Hubbard is the jewel of the freshman class, our own steady-eddy Alston. The others, meh. Tinjum is an attempt at a Kelley redo, and although she's a bit better than I expected, she falls short of that mark.

Stollings views on defense make her an easy mark. She's kind of a Corey Gaines of college. Defense isn't important if your offense is great. Well, the offense is stumbling.

It seems most of the progress shown against the Illinois team kinda vaporized. I'm still trying to think positive. If there's any point of the schedule where the Gophers can get a big winning streak going it's starting with the next game at home against Ohio St. Play ball denial against Mitchell and I think they got a shot. Ohio St struggled a bit with Rutgers. Then it's a home game against Mich St. Play ball denial against Jankoska and they should have a good shot at winning. Then it's onto a road game against Nebraska, which should be one of the easiest road games.
 

Moments5 said:
Norwood Teague is the person to blame. This is 100% true. .
Click to expand...

Technically yes; although Mike Ellis hired Stollings at VCU before following Teague to Minnesota and Ellis played the key role in bringing Marlene to Minneapolis.
 

Ignatius L Hoops said:
Technically yes; although Mike Ellis hired Stollings at VCU before following Teague to Minnesota and Ellis played the key role in bringing Marlene to Minneapolis.
Click to expand...

Ahh yeah weren't they part of that Villa 7 thing? Including Pitino? That I've heard nothing about since.
 

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