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bga1

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That's what we are lacking. This team is in cruise control and can't seem to get out of it. There's plenty enough talent to smother the So Dak States of the world and we played tonight like we didn't care until 6 minutes to go.

Hopefully they will be able to flip the "on" switch starting next week, because this is about as bad as you can be defensively. Wide open three point shots for SDS all night long.
 

We have to trap and double team on top. Colt was great on the defensive shifts and Al finally got going the last 6 minutes. We can not play a standard man to man. And will teams continue to play hoff tough - it worked tonight and how many "bunnies" did we miss tonight? 8 or 9?
 

"The last 6 minutes..."

The five on the floor during the last six minutes were the veteran players from last year. They looked very comfortable playing together. They knew where everyone would be and could anticipate well and the offense looked smooth and effective. I would like to see more of this combination.

Nolen - Hoff - Joseph - RSIII - Colt45
 

rrjackIII said:
"The last 6 minutes..."

The five on the floor during the last six minutes were the veteran players from last year. They looked very comfortable playing together. They knew where everyone would be and could anticipate well and the offense looked smooth and effective. I would like to see more of this combination.

Nolen - Hoff - Joseph - RSIII - Colt45
Click to expand...

Sampson and Iverson do the high low post so well together. As good as Mbwake is, they lose that familiarity when he is on the floor.
 

I wouldn't be worried if it was just this game as teams often struggle in their last game before winter break. The fact that they have looked mediocre at best in every game since returning from Puerto Rico is a far greater concern.
 


I thought the effort, if not always the execution, was fine last night. SDSU played well; let's give them some credit. I didn't think the Gophers play that bad. It was an entertaining basketball game. I feel better about the Gophers' Big Ten prospects after last night than I did after most of the (home) nonconference games. The played especially well at crunch time, which is what I want to see starting Tuesday in Madison.
 

I agree SS; while the effort in some of the previous games was questionable, I thought they guys played pretty hard last night. Whether or not they played smart is a different matter (missing boxouts, wrong rotation, etc.). However, I did see a number of guys diving on the floor, trying to push it as much as they could (SDSU was getting back quite well), etc.

While is probably wasn't 100% all the time, it looked like they were "trying" harder than they were in say the EKU game.
 

Interesting because I have always thought Tubby was a coach who would not allow multiple games "off" the way these guys have looked for several weeks. He is obviously seeing something I'm not, because I have zero confidence in our defense, or our defensive effort.
 

I think Tubby is seeing that the other 5 kids on the floor are pretty good. The gap between the big 6 conferences and the mid-majors is closing as the middies get a lot better at recruiting. It used to be that the Gophers 2nd 5 was better than the other NC teams. Now the other guy has fellows who are as good as our 1st 5. The fault lies not with ourselves but in the stars. Look up and down the Big Ten, everybody has had close games.
 



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