B1G Game 9: Gophers Host Ohio State (1-28-19)

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At this point theres no reason to bring Hubbard back this year even if shes healthy and probably time to start playing Staples more, maybe even see what Byrne can do.
 

whalenfan said:
At this point theres no reason to bring Hubbard back this year even if shes healthy and probably time to start playing Staples more, maybe even see what Byrne can do.
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If Hubbard only plays a few games, less than 9, can't she be reshirted anyway? Wasn't Banham redshirted even though she played something like 9 games?
 


EaganGopher22 said:
If Hubbard only plays a few games, less than 9, can't she be reshirted anyway? Wasn't Banham redshirted even though she played something like 9 games?
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Theyd have to file a waiver and leave it up to NCAA which maybe theyd get. I dont remember Banhams injury but usually players that get them play early in the year then get hurt. I think the cutoff is 30% of the games.
 


2-7 in the Big Ten.

"Never get your hopes up." - Alumni on Gopher Basketball

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Lets try other bench players. Since we keep losing, it wouldn't hurt to see what someone else would do with consistent minutes. We lose paint battles and shooting battles. Palma gives us absolutely nothing. Lamke is usually more productive on offense, but always a liability defensively. I think Irene is playing well, just not making shots yet. This was only her 2nd game starting. She is stretching the zone a little better- in return, destiny is finding more open shots in the zone. The starters need lighter practices if they are going to keep playing major minutes. This is why they burnout in the 4th. They are exhausted.
 

Bball 101 said:
Lets try other bench players. Since we keep losing, it wouldn't hurt to see what someone else would do with consistent minutes. We lose paint battles and shooting battles. Palma gives us absolutely nothing. Lamke is usually more productive on offense, but always a liability defensively. I think Irene is playing well, just not making shots yet. This was only her 2nd game starting. She is stretching the zone a little better- in return, destiny is finding more open shots in the zone. The starters need lighter practices if they are going to keep playing major minutes. This is why they burnout in the 4th. They are exhausted.
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They've cut their practices way down, barely practice over an hour a day now. I do think they need to get players rest but its not easy cuz the bench has given them nothing all year.
 

The players say something different...kehinde has played well when she has been played. I dont count the 3 min garbage minutes. She is a strong presence defensively and a good finisher and rebounder. Hopefully Irene proves me right with a good game Thursday. She isnt Diva, but if she can even stay a 3 point threat, things will open up. We can play faster with fresher legs also. That will allow keke to do what she does best. Play end to end. Half court basketball is killing them. This team had immense potential, but isnt being properly utilized. It is frustrating to watch. A team with a top creator/scorer, top shooter, top rebounder, and 2 post options! And they cant score 60?? Frustrating.
 



Bball 101 said:
The players say something different...kehinde has played well when she has been played. I dont count the 3 min garbage minutes. She is a strong presence defensively and a good finisher and rebounder. Hopefully Irene proves me right with a good game Thursday. She isnt Diva, but if she can even stay a 3 point threat, things will open up. We can play faster with fresher legs also. That will allow keke to do what she does best. Play end to end. Half court basketball is killing them. This team had immense potential, but isnt being properly utilized. It is frustrating to watch. A team with a top creator/scorer, top shooter, top rebounder, and 2 post options! And they cant score 60?? Frustrating.
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Irene played 39 minutes tonight and things didnt open up. She does play good defense and shoots it better than Brunson, this teams just frustrating because they are close to being a good team but no consistent shooters outside Pitts.
 

whalenfan said:
Theyd have to file a waiver and leave it up to NCAA which maybe theyd get. I dont remember Banhams injury but usually players that get them play early in the year then get hurt. I think the cutoff is 30% of the games.
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What you stated is pretty much true. To clarify a bit ...

There's been a recent change in medical redshirt rules for football, but I think the 2007 rules are still in place for NCAA basketball. See, for example, the following quote from http://www.news-gazette.com/sports/...ietly-updates-criteria-receiving-medical-reds

"A player can compete in 30 percent of a team's games – instead of 20 percent – in the first half of the season and still be eligible for a medical hardship waiver. For example, if Illinois plays a 28-game schedule and a player is injured in the eighth game, he still can meet the criteria for a medical hardship waiver. Under the old rule, he would have to be injured in or before the fifth game."

So, we're pretty much in the second half of the season now. And it's by definition impossible to play a player in second half of the season, then redshirt them for an injury. That rule is mainly intended to say that if you are playing already, then get injured in the second half of the season, too bad, you've used up your year of eligibility. It would be a lot weirder to "not play" a player at all during the first half of the season because they're already injured (as Hubbard is), but then play them a game or few in the second half, then apply for a medical redshirt. I believe that's impossible to do that.

In other words, if you start out injured and don't play early on, then you play even as much as one game in the second half of the season, that counts as your full year of eligibility, and you can't get a medical redshirt waiver.

On the other hand, if you're sitting out all year due to an injury, just waiting to see if you'll be cleared to play yet this year, and due to doctors recommendations that you not play this year you never play a single game, then by all means, you should be eligible for a medical redshirt waiver. They have to apply some time before the end of the season, I guess.

It's a decision for Hubbard in conjunction with her doctors' advice and Whalen's counseling, but I would think they would not play Hubbard this year unless her doctors swore on a stack of Bibles that there was absolutely no chance of her re-injuring (or slowing down the healing of) her ankle.
 
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The game seem to turn late in the first half when Pitts hit the open three after running the baseline giving the Gophers a 28-20 lead. Kevin McGuff, obviously annoyed that the only Gopher scorer on the court was somehow unguarded, called a time out, laid into his team and adjusted the D. Pitts didn't score again until the sometime in the fourth, I think. Even then, with the game out of reach, McGuff was annoyed that Destiny was open

The box and one apparently baffled the coaching staff. Maybe Shades can find a Coach Nick "attacking the box and one" video. Gawd! this was a winnable game.

Correction: Pitts hit a three half way through the third quarter tying the game at 37 and then one late in the fourth. 13 points in the first half and 6 in the second. Pretty effective D by OSU.
 
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CutDownTheNet said:
That OSU rookie Patty is fast like Bello and had some good moves. She'll be a good player for them someday.
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Oops, I mis-spoke. Frosh Patty is now officially already a star for OSU. She was high-point with 20 points and 6 rebounds.

OSU offense just runs all over the place, wearing down our tired P-2-P defense, until by the end of the shot clock they free up someone like Patty on a quick burst toward the basket, hit her with a crisp on-target pass, and it's two points.

Compared to that, our half-court offense is generally too slow, just pass it around, pass it some more, until at the end of the shot clock Bell presumes she has to do it all by herself. Today, we were actually quite a lot more active offensively, it was looking good for almost 3 quarters, actually. But OSU kept up the intensity in 4th quarter and we fell flat. Couldn't buy a basket. OSU had an explicit component of their strategy to let Kaposi shoot as many shots as she likes. It worked - she was zero for five shots. She did get 2 assists and 6 rebounds, though, so she was not a complete zero in the game. Bell could make only free throws til later in the game. Bell shoots 3-11 and has 7 turnovers. If you doc her a point for each turnover, that brings her 16 points down to a 9 point contribution to the effort. What was up with Lamke, I'm not sure. She did get 6 rebounds. But she shoots 1-7 and ends up with only two points. She was being jostled on all her bunny shots, in a way that was enough to make her miss her shots, but not serious enough for the refs to call a foul. She needs to work on hitting shots in spite of contact. Great effort by Bello, again with 18 rebounds. She would have got 20 rebounds, except that in the fourth quarter the Gopher team didn't get enough shots off (that they could miss, and Taiye could rebound and put back into the bucket for another rebound and two points). Her team-mates essentially denied her breaking the 20-rebound barrier.

What a shame to waste such a great effort by T. Bello and such a great shooting effort by Pitts.

But Kudos to OSU's Patty for proving that at least some B1G bench players can do what we wish our bench players would do.
 
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One sign of how far off the rails this game went was the Gophers having a four-guard line-up on the floor and none of the guards were Bell, the presumed team leader/best guard (and she was not in foul trouble). In the first half, anyway, the team played better without her, honestly.
 

https://gophersports.com/documents/2019/1/28//WBB_Postgame_1_28.pdf

Minnesota Head Coach Lindsay Whalen
On the offensive struggles:

“To give (Ohio State) credit they mixed up some defenses on us. They did a couple different things. Obviously, they were really focused on Destiny (Pitts) after the first half. She shot the ball great. I think the shots didn’t fall, but defensively at some point we got totally out of sorts and gave up 22 in the fourth. It was a two‐point game. We struggled to score. When you’re not scoring is when you need to stay even that much more committed to the defensive end, the game plan and all those things because then the floodgates kind of opened in the fourth. They made a big run to end the second and end the fourth. We obviously have to finish halves and finish games with a little more attention to detail and all of those things if we want to come out on top.”


On how the Ohio State run affected them:

“It’s tough when they’re able to. It’s only so long that your defense can hold. I felt like we got good looks. We have to see what we can do better and focus more on to make things go a little better on offense. If that’s how it’s going to go we’re going to have to really hold on defense. In the fourth it got away from us which was disappointing.”


On if there’s a common thread from the past couple of games:

“Yeah, I think at times. They did a good job at spacing us out at on the defensive end. (Aaliyah) Patty also had two big 3’s tonight. It feels like at a certain point either we were having trouble scoring and then we would press and then we would turn it over. It’s tough when the shots that we do get that are easy looks are not going in, then we got a couple guys pressing and then that’s when some turnovers happen or we don’t make the easy play or we don’t just make the next pass so that’s when it seems to snowball. We just got to keep working and keep sticking together. That’s all we can do.”

Junior Taiye Bello
On her rebounding success:

“I just knew that it’d be a big part of the game and especially when we’re not able to score as much. With the offense, we were struggling today with that, so it was important. Those possessions matter, those little possessions matter.”

Sophomore Destiny Pitts
On if the team felt frustrated as the game went on:

“I would say it’s very frustrating. We know how well we were playing in the first half and it just seems like some of these last couple of games, the second half we have not been focusing on our game play. And I think that kind of goes back to what we do in practice and we just need to get tougher as a team. Especially down the stretch, physically and mentally. The Big Ten is tough, but we have to come out and have a tough mindset and I think that’s what we’re lacking in right now.”
 

Bball 101 said:
The players say something different...kehinde has played well when she has been played. I dont count the 3 min garbage minutes. She is a strong presence defensively and a good finisher and rebounder. ...
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K. Bello can rebound approximately as well as T. Bello. They've been competing at it all their lives and the competition urges each one to get better. Taiye has had more playing time, so her rebounding technique is perhaps a bit better (and certainly game-proven) than Kehinde's. But Kehinde is an inch taller now, so that partly makes up for the difference in skill/experience.

As I noted in my last post on the thread "PPD: Despite Shooting Woes Destiny Pitts to Let it Fly." where I updated shooting percentages through the Purdue game, Kehinde has the best two-point shooting percentage on the team, at .571. This beats Annalese (.549) and Taiye (.533) by a bit. There's so little (shooting) data on Kehinde, of course, that any claim that she's the best shooter would be statistically unsound. But I think the time has come to give her some more playing time. I'd personally like to see them try (once in a while, strategically, perhaps not as the main offense just yet) a three-post/two-guard lineup featuring T. Bello and Lamke and K. Bello up front, with mostly Pitts at the shooting guard (backed by a rotation of Staples and Perez), and a rotation of Bell and Brunson at the PG. No team in the B1G could outrebound that front line. In fact, the PG and SG could go bombs away from deep all shot-clock (because a missed shot is almost as effective as an entry pass to a set of three good posts).

Bball 101 said:
... Hopefully Irene proves me right with a good game Thursday. She isnt Diva, but if she can even stay a 3 point threat, things will open up. We can play faster with fresher legs also. That will allow keke to do what she does best. Play end to end. ...
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Season three-point statistics through the Purdue game show that although Pitts is back on track and is definitely our best three-point shooter, her longish slump was enough to drag down her full-season three-point shooting such that Pitts was behind Garrido Perez in overall three-point shooting percentage (until today's game). Here's the numbers (through Purdue game, plus OSU game added for Pitts only):

Pitts two best games -> .710
Pitts (Ohio State game) -> 5/9 = .555
Pitts (Purdue game) -> 5/11 = .455
Garrido Perez (through Purdue game) -> 7/21 = .333
Pitts (season through Purdue game) -> 40/124 = .323
Brunson (through Purdue game) -> 11/35 = .314
Staples (through Purdue game) -> 11/37 = .297
Bell (through Purdue game) -> 9/31 = .290

Now, Perez made one of four three-pointer attempts in today's Ohio State game. That's below her average. That, plus Pitts good shooting, puts Pitts back in the lead for season average, as Perez moves down a notch or two on the three-point percentage chart.


But all five of Pitts, Perez, Brunson, Staples and Bell are capable of hitting threes on a good day. We should probably just let em shoot, and let Lamke, T. Bello, K. Bello and Kaposi grab the rebound and have them try again.

Bball 101 said:
... Half court basketball is killing them. This team had immense potential, but isnt being properly utilized. It is frustrating to watch. A team with a top creator/scorer, top shooter, top rebounder, and 2 post options! And they cant score 60?? Frustrating.
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Amen. Half court basketball is definitely our downfall, at least at the moment. But I saw signs of brilliance in today's play against Ohio State. I think one of our main problems in that game was just bad luck. The shots just didn't want to fall, it seems. Sometimes it goes that way. But I think we can fix it. We just need less inconsistency. We can't have these games where three out of five of our starters are ineffective, and the bench is less than ineffective. We need at least four out of five starters firing on all cylinders, all at once in a given single game. That's how we win.
 
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I wish they would play K Bello too. If her suster, can run rebound and block ****s I imagine Kahinde can too. If anything she give hard fouls and be defensive pressence. Fresh legs to pass to also. I hope the coaches can get her in the game.

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How on Earth does 25 get minutes before K. Bello? She's a twin of one of the leading rebounders IN THE COUNTRY. 25 is a walking turnover every time she's on the floor. Watch the tape. Nice girl, most likely. Works hard enough. But I find it hard to believe that she is better than anyone else on the team she's playing in front of...

Also might want to tell her (and 12, for that matter): stop taking shots. They're just not good takes. Ever. It makes matters worse when there's still 15 on the shot clock and teammates who could get a better look.

At this point in the season, why not see what others can do? How could it possibly look worse than almost every second half of Big Ten play for us?
 

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