B1G Tourney Game 1: Gophers versus Indiana (3-7-19)

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Agreed that we're not far from competing with the best in the conference. The "almost" win at Maryland is evidence of that. I've said before that I think a healthy Hubbard could have added two or even three more regular season conference wins. That being said, we also need to add some bench players that can contribute regularly if we're going to compete for the top spot in the BIG.
 

I don't think we can even comment on whether the Gophers should have "activated" Hubbard (or Tomancova), as we don't have specifics on their health statuses. With Hubbard, foot injuries need to be handled with caution. And the welfare of the player needs to be first and foremost over winning games. And Aesop is correct in saying that we have no idea of what Tomancova is capable of. My guess is that should would not have contributed much this year, especially after Lamke was moved to the bench and became the first person off the bench. But, who knows, Tomancova might be a contributor in the future. She'll have some additional competition for PT at the post next year, so we'll have to see how she fares.
 

Shades said:
Are we off to a good start? Where’s the freshmen representatives for All-League? Who will be the representatives next year?
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I have no idea. After glancing through the list of Gophers recruits for next year, I didn't see any top-five-in-the-nation recruits there, but I'm no expert, just expressing my views, as seen from a distance. I suspect the Gophers need to steal some top recruits from Uconn, Notre Dame, etc., in the future. I doubt that any of the 2019 Big Ten teams will get far in the NCAAs.
 

tripledouble said:
Tuned into BTN to watch a basketball game and a Patberg family feature broke out. BTN did the same thing in the Wisconsin game when they featured Marsha Howard's parents. I hate when they do that. It wouldn't bother me so much if they just showed the parents, but then the announcers had to talk about it all the time also.

Stating the obvious, the Gophers didn't play well. The Gopher defense in the first half was often non-existent. As Bell goes, so go the Gophers. She didn't shoot well against the Hoosiers and she made some bad decisions on offense. Pitts with a dumb taunting foul that led back to an earlier offensive series when she and Patberg were woofing. Bello too many turnovers in the lane. Perez a non-factor. Gophers shot FTs well and Pitts continued to show that she can put the ball on the floor and hit some baskets going to the hope. Don't know what was up with that ridiculously long three she took. I'm guessing Whalen didn't know what was up with that either.

Will we ever see the Gophers win the BIG conference tournament? The continuous early exits are disappointing.
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At the risk of writing too much in these posts, I couldn't agree with you more about the TV coverage. It was clear to me the announcers (and the BTN they work for) were in favor of Indiana over the Gophers, for obvious reasons. Everybody knows crowds at BIG tournaments are minimal, to non-existent. The only hope for more than a handful of fans in the stands in Indianapolis was for Indiana and Purdue to win games. So BTN hyped the instate teams to the max, especially Indiana's evening game. Then WI came along and beat OSU. BTN had no choice but to celebrate a little bit, but everyone knows OSU would be BTN's choice in that game. It is close enough to Indianapolis that at least a few OSU fans would have shown up for a later round OSU game. Let's face it, a Rugers/Iowa or Maryland/Iowa game would be played before an empty auditorium. Who's going to drive all the way to Indianapolis from halfway across the country?
However, I'm not suggesting the TV coverage influenced the Gophers's loss; they didn't bother to show up for the game. What I'm suggesting is that BTN had a financial reason for backing Indiana over Minnesota. I have no idea what reason the Gophers had for being so miserably prepared to play the Indiana game.
 

I really dont understand the We shoulda activated Hubbard and Tomancova thinking. Sure maybe with them we win a couple more games but whats the upside with that? Now instead of playing them a few more games we get an extra year with them, (I'm assuming Tomancova is eligible for a medical redshirt?). Anyway id much rather have Hubbard in 2 years then say 5-10 games this year. Also im sure the coaching staff sat down with her and mutually decided a redshirt was the best route, if she was even healthy at that time.
 


Hrothgar said:
I have no idea. After glancing through the list of Gophers recruits for next year, I didn't see any top-five-in-the-nation recruits there, but I'm no expert, just expressing my views, as seen from a distance. I suspect the Gophers need to steal some top recruits from Uconn, Notre Dame, etc., in the future. I doubt that any of the 2019 Big Ten teams will get far in the NCAAs.
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Everyone needs to remember how early these kids start getting recruited, they did a good job getting some decent recruits by quickly developing relationships this year but 2020 and 2021 will be the years we find out how good this staff recruits. Considering they had a 5 star 2020 from Texas on campus last week I'd say things are at least looking promising. Also remember how many transfers there are every year and we have 2 open schollies right now. I would be pretty surprised if they didnt look into some transfers this year.
 
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It's interesting to note that in today's first game (Friday's first game), BTN is focusing on Mikesell's dad. At least they haven't overdone it like they did with the Patbergs. I'll credit Monaco and Vera Jones, who were doing the Maryland game, for not overdoing it. Lisa Byington and Christy Winters Scott, the announcers who did the Gopher game, are "storyline" announcers who get caught up in the points which the production crew determines before the game. They're more interested in storylines than they are in the game itself. In last night's final game, their storyline was Ariana Harris and the blocked shots record at Purdue. Sure, it's worth noting that Harris is chasing that record, but the announcers beat it to death.
 

As someone pointed out, the lack of any impact first-year players on this Gopher team is not a good start for this coaching staff, although they are certainly not responsible for that. We'll have to see what next year's incoming group has to offer. IMO, the year after next year is the first year that we'll be able to see if Whalen and staff are able to recruit. My guess is that it's going to take some time to recruit the desirable top recruits, maybe 4-5 years, but we should start to get an indication with the 2020 and 2021 classes. IMO, the goal of this staff should always be to have a player on the all-conference freshman team. From what I've heard, Nebraska, OSU, and Maryland are among the conference teams that have good recruiting classes coming in, so it's not going to be easy to keep up with other conference teams. Maryland sets the gold standard for conference recruiting. They had some very good freshmen this year, with more coming next year. Also, I was very impressed with the freshman class that Amy Williams had this year at Nebraska. I think she had 4 frosh that contributed quite a bit, including two from Minnesota. It's Williams' second year at Nebraska and she has already shown that she can recruit. I would hope to see the same kind of progress from Whalen and staff.
 

whalenfan said:
I really dont understand the We shoulda activated Hubbard and Tomancova thinking. Sure maybe with them we win a couple more games but whats the upside with that? Now instead of playing them a few more games we get an extra year with them, (I'm assuming Tomancova is eligible for a medical redshirt?). Anyway id much rather have Hubbard in 2 years then say 5-10 games this year. Also im sure the coaching staff sat down with her and mutually decided a redshirt was the best route, if she was even healthy at that time.
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You need to reread those prior posts and digest them. I began by responding to someone saying we were much more than 'a couple chess pieces' from even competing at the top of BIG. I gave a hypothetical example that if Hubbard had been healthy all year and if we also had some other above average front court player (all year) we could have competed for a BIG title this year. My point that we weren't that far removed from it. Nobody, especially me, said that they should have played yesterday.
 



I think that Shades has been implying that the Gophers should have activated Hubbard sooner.
 

I think the Gophers could benefit from a 5 th year transfer player. I noticed on Raoul’s blog the Ariel Stephenson would be interested in transferring from Wake. She was a double figure starting point guard before being injured this year. I see she is from Virginia, maybe Hubbard’s and her cross basketball paths in their home state. A starting post player would be nice too.
 

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