GAME #19: Gophers (14-4, 3-2) @ #14/16 Iowa (14-3, 3-1) [BTN, 1/19, Noon]

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Very good shot at 9-9 an top 6 finish IMO, which would meet my (high) expectations and exceed all media expectations for this season. Also would be good for 20 wins and tourney birth.
 

WBLGold said:
I think the officials have been very consistent. The will officiate the second half completely different than the first half. That happens almost every game

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I was getting ready to rip you, then I read your second sentence.

EE may have a history of complaining but he gets more ****ty calls against him than anyone else.
 

GuyFawkes said:
Honestly that run by Iowa at the end of the 1st half gave them all the momentum and ended pretty much any confidence we had...btw what a dumb 5 second call that was on Dre, possibly a 5pt swing, credit to Iowa though, very good team, But I don't think they are miles ahead of us like I thought coming in, and that is not a dig on Iowa, its a compliment to our team
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Yes Iowa is miles ahead of Minnesota and this is not a dig at Minnesota. It's the reality of the situation right now. Iowa in their 4th year under this coach are deep and talented while Minnesota is in the very first months with their coach.
 

Gopherguy0723 said:
Hollins was not the problem today. He was much better than Smith and others.

However, he should never be allowed to shoot a three unless the clock is winding down or he is squared up and completely wide open. He is a huge liability on offense.
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I don't know if anyone else has noticed, but Austin is doing a poor job of boxing out a baseline defender in the 2-3 zone. In general, he's not doing a good job getting his body on his man. Several times today when Iowa got an offensive board it was because Austin didn't square his body into his defender, and then made it worse by giving up on the physicality before the ball came off of the rim, which went right into the Iowa offensive rebounder's hustling hands. Austin's shooting and ball handling may come and go (and he takes too much criticism here for this), but playing with fundamentals should never be lost, especially by a long-starting senior.

De'Andre needs to shoot the damn 3 when he's open. As the announcers said, if you're not going to be a threat when wide open, you're hurting the team. We saw enough of that with Tubby ball. The difference in this situation is that I believe Pitino wants him shooting, he just won't pull the trigger.

What you saw today was what happens when EE doesn't play a lot of minutes. EE is the difference between this team being good enough to be a top-5 B1G team and a bottom-tier B1G team. Mo is simply not a B1G-caliber C, and since there is no big power forward to replace EE, this team struggles in all facets of the game with him off of the court for long periods of time. The biggest issue is that Mo doesn't move his feet or position well on D, which not only leads to inside opportunities for the other team, but it also drags the guards inside to help, which then opens up the outside. The disaster you saw today from Iowa from 3-point range was, IMO, largely a result of the defense sagging inside to help an out-manned Mo Walker. Mo lost the weight, which is great. Now he needs to work on concentrating on defensive footwork to be a B1G-viable backup center come his senior season.
 

station19 said:
I was getting ready to rip you, then I read your second sentence.

EE may have a history of complaining but he gets more ****ty calls against him than anyone else.
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Still doesn't top the *#(@job B1G refs did to Colton Iversen, but yes, there is little doubt EE gets picked on. The Big-White-Guy-in-a-Minnesota-Uniform-Reffing-Conspiracy is real.
 


Goldy Gopher said:
Iowa has a real nice team but IMO they got a ton of calls today that greatly benefited them.
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I think a stretch of horrific non-calls on one series of Minn possession with ~5 mins. left was the topper for me. The driver got fouled (no-call), King got pushed hard toward the baseline on the first offensive board (no call), then when that shot was missed (with ton of body pushing on the shooter's back), King got pushed hard out of the play again (no call); then finally when Iowa got the rebound, their guy took two long steps and obviously dragged the back foot about 8 inches forward (no traveling call).

This said, the favoritism was not out of the ordinary for a "big" B1G road game (unless it's at Williams, where the favoritism disappears), and Iowa won this game by shooting extraordinarily well and simply out-hustling the Gophers. They got the loose balls and were the more physical team pretty much the entire game.
 

cncmin said:
I think a stretch of horrific non-calls on one series of Minn possession with ~5 mins. left was the topper for me. The driver got fouled (no-call), King got pushed hard toward the baseline on the first offensive board (no call), then when that shot was missed (with ton of body pushing on the shooter's back), King got pushed hard out of the play again (no call); then finally when Iowa got the rebound, their guy took two long steps and obviously dragged the back foot about 8 inches forward (no traveling call).

This said, the favoritism was not out of the ordinary for a "big" B1G road game (unless it's at Williams, where the favoritism disappears), and Iowa won this game by shooting extraordinarily well and simply out-hustling the Gophers. They got the loose balls and were the more physical team pretty much the entire game.
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of course it does.
 

cncmin said:
I don't know if anyone else has noticed, but Austin is doing a poor job of boxing out a baseline defender in the 2-3 zone. In general, he's not doing a good job getting his body on his man. Several times today when Iowa got an offensive board it was because Austin didn't square his body into his defender, and then made it worse by giving up on the physicality before the ball came off of the rim, which went right into the Iowa offensive rebounder's hustling hands. Austin's shooting and ball handling may come and go (and he takes too much criticism here for this), but playing with fundamentals should never be lost, especially by a long-starting senior.

De'Andre needs to shoot the damn 3 when he's open. As the announcers said, if you're not going to be a threat when wide open, you're hurting the team. We saw enough of that with Tubby ball. The difference in this situation is that I believe Pitino wants him shooting, he just won't pull the trigger.

What you saw today was what happens when EE doesn't play a lot of minutes. EE is the difference between this team being good enough to be a top-5 B1G team and a bottom-tier B1G team. Mo is simply not a B1G-caliber C, and since there is no big power forward to replace EE, this team struggles in all facets of the game with him off of the court for long periods of time. The biggest issue is that Mo doesn't move his feet or position well on D, which not only leads to inside opportunities for the other team, but it also drags the guards inside to help, which then opens up the outside. The disaster you saw today from Iowa from 3-point range was, IMO, largely a result of the defense sagging inside to help an out-manned Mo Walker. Mo lost the weight, which is great. Now he needs to work on concentrating on defensive footwork to be a B1G-viable backup center come his senior season.
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Excellent, excellent post, especially that last paragraph. Hard to argue about EE and Lil Dre being our most essential players. That they were in foul trouble and the Gophs kept themselves in the game for a while, maybe this loss wasn't as bad as it seems. DeAndre doesn't get into foul trouble often, but I'll bet if Elliott bought a ticket and watched from the stands he'd still end up being called for at least one block.
 

Puss effort overall. The two unforced travels and five second call by our three most experienced players are absolute killers. King isn't ready for this and may never be. Our on the ball D is rough but perhaps the officiating plays into that. Ups and downs with the squad will happen but we need more from our experienced guys in the second half of games like these.
 



Not a bad loss at all as someone put it. What constitutes a good road loss? Losing by 30 points and completely melting down does not leave me encouraged like you seem to insinuate. Yes, Iowa has a great team, but you cannot get embarrassed like Minnesota did in the second half. If this team wants to take the next step they have to at least be competitive and they were not competitive today. I am disappointed with this loss, but think that this team still has a chance to finish 500 in the Big Ten. but to say this was not a bad loss I think needs to be reconsidered.
 

BigGopherFan said:
Not a bad loss at all as someone put it. What constitutes a good road loss? Losing by 30 points and completely melting down does not leave me encouraged like you seem to insinuate. Yes, Iowa has a great team, but you cannot get embarrassed like Minnesota did in the second half. If this team wants to take the next step they have to at least be competitive and they were not competitive today. I am disappointed with this loss, but think that this team still has a chance to finish 500 in the Big Ten. but to say this was not a bad loss I think needs to be reconsidered.
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Um, ya. Good thing they didn't lose by 30.

This is no worse a loss than when the Badgers kept it close at Williams Arena but let it get away and lost by 17 to the best team in the Big Ten in 1997. They rebounded to beat the Gophers in Madison on the last day of the season to make it into the NCAA tournament.

You might not realize how good Iowa is, so I'll give you a break.
 

BigGopherFan said:
Not a bad loss at all as someone put it. What constitutes a good road loss? Losing by 30 points and completely melting down does not leave me encouraged like you seem to insinuate. Yes, Iowa has a great team, but you cannot get embarrassed like Minnesota did in the second half. If this team wants to take the next step they have to at least be competitive and they were not competitive today. I am disappointed with this loss, but think that this team still has a chance to finish 500 in the Big Ten. but to say this was not a bad loss I think needs to be reconsidered.
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A good loss is one that you're expected to lose that boosts your SOS and RPI. A bad loss is the opposite. Obviously you need some signature wins, but it wasn't in the cards today.

With that said, I guarantee the players took it harder than the fans. Pitino sounds like he made sure of that.
 

cncmin said:
Still doesn't top the *#(@job B1G refs did to Colton Iversen, but yes, there is little doubt EE gets picked on. The Big-White-Guy-in-a-Minnesota-Uniform-Reffing-Conspiracy is real.
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Could make for good a sign(s) in the student section.:)
 



We played well for 18 minutes. Iowa played great for 22 minutes.

We're 3-3. Time to move on to the next game.
 

Feast or Famine.

That's the story for this squad. (not trying to be critical - just my opinion).

This group of players has the ability to look very good when they're forcing turnovers and hitting shots.
They also have the ability to look very bad when they're not forcing turnovers and not hitting shots.

That leads to steaks and valleys - often during the same game.

Get used to it, and stock up on the antacids.
 

short ornery norwegian said:
Feast or Famine.

That's the story for this squad. (not trying to be critical - just my opinion).

This group of players has the ability to look very good when they're forcing turnovers and hitting shots.
They also have the ability to look very bad when they're not forcing turnovers and not hitting shots.

That leads to steaks and valleys - often during the same game.

Get used to it, and stock up on the antacids.
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I don't take antacids. I substitute with beer.
 

short ornery norwegian said:
Feast or Famine.

That's the story for this squad. (not trying to be critical - just my opinion).

This group of players has the ability to look very good when they're forcing turnovers and hitting shots.
They also have the ability to look very bad when they're not forcing turnovers and not hitting shots.

That leads to steaks and valleys - often during the same game.

Get used to it, and stock up on the antacids.
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Medium Rare, with a pan sauce please. Oh and a nice merlot or cabernet. Maybe some Hidden Valley on the Romaine if you insist.:cool02:
 

My summation.

Iowa is deep and explosive offensively. It's a credit to McCaffery the roster he's put together in just his 4th season.

The Gophers are neither.

The Gophers played matador defense.

Do that vs. a team that has Final Four potential and the end result is gonna' be you get spanked.

Learn from it and move on.

Gophers still have the opportunity to finish 2-2 during this brutal top 25 stretch.

Beat Bucky.
 



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