GAME #16: Gophers (12-3, 1-1) @ Penn State (9-6, 0-2) [BTN, 1/8, 6:00PM]

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EG#9 said:
No doubt about it, this was an ugly game, but I'd much rather win ugly against PSU than play really well and lose against tOSU or MSU. I wouldn't have thought it was possible for the Gophers to win a road B1G game with the Hollins' going 5-17 for 18 points.
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Exactly, the alternative to winning an ugly game is usually losing an ugly game. Everything about the environment there made it hard to play basketball. Terrible officiating, terrible arena, even the rim's sounded like they were garbage. We need to be thankful that we didn't witness an inexperienced mistake from the plethora of characters on this team that had never seen a B1G road game before.

I thought Joey King showed some confidence on offense while he was out there. He made some aggressive moves. He's going to get eaten alive by Sam Dekker, Payne, McGary etc, but when he plays that next level down hes got a chance to contribute.
 

So I watched the replay on BTN earlier and I took away one thing from the game. If you see an opposing player lying on the ground and you are near by, fall over him and the idiot B1G refs will call a foul on the player on the ground. Whatever these guys get paid to officiate the games its way too much. Just pathetic.
 

Down with Goldy said:
I've always been an Oto defender, but this game might have turned the tide for me. I wrote this on my blog:

He has no idea where to go on defense, and that goes for both his positioning as well as things like hedging on screens and help defense. These things aren't new, but as his playing time becomes more and more high profile they just stand out more and more. Then he does things like, let's a pass go through his legs five hole style and then falls down trying to go after it which leads to a Penn State lay-up, or he let's himself get pushed under the basket on a Penn State free throw leading to a Nittany Lion rebound in a big, big, big spot. And it's not like it's just this game, you can point to at least 2-3 mistakes of his each game, easy. I think he's got some offensive ability as the jump shot seems to have come back as Pitino's given him more confidence to take open shots, and he brilliantly slipped a screen at one point and then nailed the 18 footer, but I really don't know if he can offset his piss poor defense with his mediocre offense. Then again, the only other choice at the 4 spot is a Joey King who completely panics any time he has the ball in a non scoring position, so really Pitino is pretty well screwed here.
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I made a similar observation in this thread about half way through the game. He really has no sense of his surroundings on the basketball court. He definitely isn't a guy that is going to hustle and go all out for a loose ball or rebound. He is extremely timid and at times appears to be sleep walking through the game.
 

Dr.Don said:
What a total bunch of bull$hit.
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+1

Anyone that thinks Austin shouldn't be starting isn't paying attention to the game as a whole. He provides us one of the best offensive options (going to have bad nights), a better chance on defense and a guy that can get to the ball.
 

DeAndre could be the MVP if he keeps it going. Austin should be solid in all facets of the game as a Sr. He seemed out of sorts against PSU and looked uncoordinated at times with his footwork.

PSU has to be kicking themselves for not putting this game away as they outplayed the Gophers in most categories.
 


howeda7 said:
I believe Austin was guarding Newbill much of the night as well and he went scoreless. I doubt that is a coincidence.
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Newbill fouled out in 14 minutes.

Ugly game but congrats on the road win. PSU has talent but they have played pretty poorly since losing a 20pt lead to Princeton in the last 7 minutes of the game.

Ref's were pretty brutal. Frazier fouled out with 4 fouls. Literally. The scorekeeper made a mistake and gave him a foul that was actually on #1, John Johnson. It was the play where our guy tried to take a charge at the end of the game. Frazier was barely in the picture.
 

Gophers7NatTitlesBadgers0 said:
So I watched the replay on BTN earlier and I took away one thing from the game. If you see an opposing player lying on the ground and you are near by, fall over him and the idiot B1G refs will call a foul on the player on the ground. Whatever these guys get paid to officiate the games its way too much. Just pathetic.
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That was a pretty crazy call. At the very least Andre was trying to protect himself from getting stepped on.
 

LPcreation said:
Newbill fouled out in 14 minutes.

Ugly game but congrats on the road win. PSU has talent but they have played pretty poorly since losing a 20pt lead to Princeton in the last 7 minutes of the game.

Ref's were pretty brutal. Frazier fouled out with 4 fouls. Literally. The scorekeeper made a mistake and gave him a foul that was actually on #1, John Johnson. It was the play where our guy tried to take a charge at the end of the game. Frazier was barely in the picture.
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I agree, those Ref's were brutal, and PSU got screwed way more than the Gophers. It was just an ugly game on both sides with no intensity or fire all game long. Ross Travis was the only one out that there that looked like he wanted it.
 

MadtownGopher said:
I made a similar observation in this thread about half way through the game. He really has no sense of his surroundings on the basketball court. He definitely isn't a guy that is going to hustle and go all out for a loose ball or rebound. He is extremely timid and at times appears to be sleep walking through the game.
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I'll go back to my default defense of Oto.

If not him, then who. We got what we got. The key is, is Pitino pounding the ball into our PF trying to generate out of them, or running the offense through them? I would say absolutely not. Pitnio knows we don't have players at that position and doesn't send them to the post. They almost exclusively run flares rather than rolling to the hoop.

The Oto/King complaints are old already and we are in game 3 of the B1G season.
 



Winasota Gopher said:
I'll go back to my default defense of Oto.

If not him, then who. We got what we got. The key is, is Pitino pounding the ball into our PF trying to generate out of them, or running the offense through them? I would say absolutely not. Pitnio knows we don't have players at that position and doesn't send them to the post. They almost exclusively run flares rather than rolling to the hoop.

The Oto/King complaints are old already and we are in game 3 of the B1G season.
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My only complaint is that it doesn't look like Oto has much passion. He just doesn't seem to care if he gets beat. He has talent, but his mindset is terrible. That IS something he should be able to improve. So I don't understand the "oh well he is all we have so whatever" argument. Every player on this team should be striving for improvement and in Oto's case it is the mental aspect of the game.
 

Quincy Lewis summed it up perfectly, "Win is a win, let's go home."

Agree, Q. Let's take the money and run.

Now let's see what we can do against a talented, but enigmatic & banged-up MSU squad. Sparty is far from unbeatable, and the Gophers should play like they're using house money.
 


SelectionSunday said:
Quincy Lewis summed it up perfectly "We won, let's go home."

Agree, Q. Let's take the money and run.

Now let's see what we can do against a talented, but enigmatic & banged-up MSU squad. Sparty is far from unbeatable, and the Gophers should play like they have house money.
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+1 I'll take 13-3 and 2-1 in the B1G.
 



We are getting awful rebounding from the PF spot. King and Oto are combining for a whopping 5.7 rebounds a game. Austin Hollins is out-rebounding both by himself by a wide margin. Their lack of athleticism and toughness really hurts us. A certain transfer would be huge for this team. I won't say his name but it rhymes with Chuckles.

Any road win in the big ten is a good win. We got some breaks at the end of the game but I'll take it. If we can win 1 out of the next 4 I like our chances to be a bubble team and possible make the tourney.
 

jaymil said:
Any road win in the big ten is a good win. We got some breaks at the end of the game but I'll take it. If we can win 1 out of the next 4 I like our chances to be a bubble team and possible make the tourney.
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Gophers will win 1 (maybe 2) of the 4. Best chances are Saturday (@ MSU) and at home vs. (undefeated?) Wisconsin. Pretty decent chance Sparty will be flat after big win over OSU. Let's face it, the Gophers aren't Ohio State, and perhaps the Spartans will play accordingly (like they did when they blew the 17-point 2nd half lead). Of course, Matta's adjustments & OSU's stout defense had a lot to do with that.
 

SelectionSunday said:
Gophers will win 1 (maybe 2) of the 4. Best chances are Saturday (@ MSU) and at home vs. (undefeated?) Wisconsin. Pretty decent chance Sparty will be flat after big win over OSU. Let's face it, the Gophers aren't Ohio State, and perhaps the Spartans will play accordingly (like they did when they blew the 17-point 2nd half lead). Of course, Matta's adjustments & OSU's stout defense had a lot to do with that.
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I would be shocked if we win 2 of the 4. Hope you are right though! I think winning 1 would be quite the accomplishment. My biggest hope is that Pitino doesn't let this potential losing streak snowball like Tubby did.
 

SelectionSunday said:
Gophers will win 1 (maybe 2) of the 4. Best chances are Saturday (@ MSU) and at home vs. (undefeated?) Wisconsin. Pretty decent chance Sparty will be flat after big win over OSU. Let's face it, the Gophers aren't Ohio State, and perhaps the Spartans will play accordingly (like they did when they blew the 17-point 2nd half lead). Of course, Matta's adjustments & OSU's stout defense had a lot to do with that.
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I hope you are right. Winning zero of the next four wouldn't eliminate them from the picture, but wouldn't allow for too many more opportunities for resume enhancing wins. Winning one of the next four would probably be a reasonable goal. Winning two of the next four would put them on the right side of the bubble, for sure. Winning three or four would completely change expectations for this year.
 

SelectionSunday said:
Gophers will win 1 (maybe 2) of the 4. Best chances are Saturday (@ MSU) and at home vs. (undefeated?) Wisconsin. Pretty decent chance Sparty will be flat after big win over OSU. Let's face it, the Gophers aren't Ohio State, and perhaps the Spartans will play accordingly (like they did when they blew the 17-point 2nd half lead). Of course, Matta's adjustments & OSU's stout defense had a lot to do with that.
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Man, I would love to see us take any of these next 4, but a win against an undefeated UW at home would be awesome.
 

jaymil said:
We are getting awful rebounding from the PF spot. King and Oto are combining for a whopping 5.7 rebounds a game. Austin Hollins is out-rebounding both by himself by a wide margin. Their lack of athleticism and toughness really hurts us. A certain transfer would be huge for this team. I won't say his name but it rhymes with Chuckles.

Any road win in the big ten is a good win. We got some breaks at the end of the game but I'll take it. If we can win 1 out of the next 4 I like our chances to be a bubble team and possible make the tourney.
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I don't disagree with you, but I briefly looked at Oto's and King's combined numbers and thought they can't be all that far off the B1G average. Of the 8 players receiving consistent minutes I think these two are the most likely to improve going forward. Oto is receiving consistent minutes and has a defined role for the first time and King was a valuable contributor in the MVC. Once again I don't disagree, particularly defensively, but I'm not all that unhappy with their early performance either.
 

Travis is a short pf, 6'6" 225. He is so much stronger than what we are playing at pf. Oto and King are swing forwards who are supposed to be shooters. Oto has improved, King is clanging in only 27%. Think of Travis as a stronger version of Jason Stamper and yes your next question we are in trouble against the Dawson's, Ross', and Hayes' of the Big ten. Hindsight is 20-20 of course but Travis is putting up 11 p, 8 reb, on 45%, and even shooting 30% on 3's.

gopherlaney said:
I have only seen Ross Travis play a few times in college, is he good or our PF's that bad?
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I am totally prepared to be 2-5 after this next stretch. 3-4 would be a late Christmas present. Whatever doesn't kill them during this stretch will make them stronger, though, and I expect they'll be getting better and making some hay in the subsequent parts of the season. Still no assurance of any certain number of conference wins, but no doubt Richard will be approaching this strategically from the standpoint of the team's mental state and preparation. In a strange way, this schedule plays into either the reality or perception that they can be improving into the late season.
 

Austin the senior is really struggling on offense

Unfortunately we are one of the smallest teams in the big ten. Would you start Smith with the two Dre's. We would be 5'10", 6'1", and 6'2" in the backcourt. It is fustrating that a senior guard cannot score in the halfcourt when his 3 pt shot is off, which is very common for him. Also Austin plays the best defense on the team.


Gopherguy0723 said:
Good win despite Austin Hollins once again. He cannot continue to perform like he has. If he does, a change in minutes or a change in starters may be necessary.
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Dekker has been playing the 4, and moving to the 3 when Bo has to play Hayes, who is him most physical player but he hates playing freshmen. McGary plays center, when he is not hurt. Payne i guess plays more of a 4 with his outside shot on offense so i guess you would want King or Oto out there versus EE on the 3pt line. People being shocked at how weak we are at pf have been sleeping ever since Buckles wasn't allowed to join our team. Our only hope was that our stretch guys would be lights out shooters to make up for the easy ones we are giving up. Oto is much improved and King is highly disappointing with 26% 3 pt shooting. But you play with what you have and playing Mo with EE may get attempted yet against Wisconsin when hayes is in or maybe against Mich ST. if we are getting killed.

Winasota Gopher said:
I thought Joey King showed some confidence on offense while he was out there. He made some aggressive moves. He's going to get eaten alive by Sam Dekker, Payne, McGary etc, but when he plays that next level down hes got a chance to contribute.
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Speaking of Wisconsin, I just looked at their schedule. WOW did they get lucky this year or what? They only play Michigan State and Ohio State once and BOTH games are at home? Gotta believe they could be the favorites to win the conference just by that alone.
 

WilliamsArenaGuy said:
You can complain about anything you want with Oto, but not the play where he lost it between his legs leading to the layup. That was 100% on Dre. It was a lazy, terrible, unacceptable pass. One handed at that.
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Fair enough. I think it was the falling down that got to me.
 

At this point, I just want W's, I really don't care how they get 'em. If they all look like last night, it'll be rough on the nerves, but I'll take it! LOL
 

It was not a pretty win, but very glad the Gophers persevered. Frazier is a really good player. Malik and Mathieu came up big down the stretch.

What comes first in turning the program around if you are Penn State. Getting people to show up and support a below average team and make the pitch to recruits? Or somehow recruiting way over what the fans deserve and then the fans start to attend when they start to win?
 

Monty519 said:
At this point, I just want W's, I really don't care how they get 'em. If they all look like last night, it'll be rough on the nerves, but I'll take it! LOL
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For sure, also for the sole reason, like it or not, we got a young head coach. He needs to experience these situations in the B1G BEFORE he's got the talent he wants in the building to build up his experiences. Its ugly for fans, but its part of the "Process".
 

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