Game 2: Gophers host Lehigh (11-13-22)

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Ignatius L Hoops said:
Share-it-and-shoot-it offense edged by one-on-five offense. Whalen was pretty much just along for the ride today-as were we all. Lehigh knew their offense and the Gophers couldn't stop the cuts through the paint or the threes-a deadly combo.

I repeat, please get some players to play with Braun
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I think they are trying….winning will help keep kids in Minnesota. Their 23 class will help.
 


Exciting game. Sure, there needs to be much improvement. However, this team competes hard, doesn't give up, and has much energy. You can teach X's and O's but it is harder to teach players how to compete. I was hoping that they would beat Lehigh comfortably but maybe they gained more from how they had to win this game. Kudos to Lehigh--they are a good team and played great.
 

Ignatius L Hoops said:
Share-it-and-shoot-it offense edged by one-on-five offense. Whalen was pretty much just along for the ride today-as were we all. Lehigh knew their offense and the Gophers couldn't stop the cuts through the paint or the threes-a deadly combo.

I repeat, please get some players to play with Braun
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The announcers said that the Gophers repeatedly were not stopping the cutting into the Gophers defense for easy scores, curl cuts.

Well, I hope the Gophers put in lots of time for that kind of defense training and also proper body positioning (boxing out) FIRST on rebounding. Playing good defense takes lots of reps and a dedication to do that, and then playing with passionate effort when defending.

Depth is not good.

I think the Gophers will be set next season at guard with what they have now and coming in.

Losing Nia Holloway at small forward probably was a big loss this year since Gradwell hasn't been getting it done, at least so far.

Depth beyond Czinano and maybe Oberg doesn't exist.

I'm sky-high on Braun, Battle, Borowicz (all guards) and Micheaux.

I think it's going to take a full year of quality defense reps and a dedication to that to get the defense into winnable shape. Right now it's bad.
 

That was a fun game to watch and a nice win for a young team - they have enough talent to win against some of these mid major to lower teams.
Braun certainly is a nice player, but up front there really isn't anything. Rose can look good at times(she should of scored every time down low) and then 2 or 3 times she didn't run the floor and Lehigh scored so it makes it hard to count on her.
Enjoy these wins the BIG is around the corner.
 


Mara Braun: 34 points, 4 steals, 12-26 in field goal shooting (.462), 5-13 in 3-point shooting (.384), 5-6 free throws, 3 rebounds.



Amaya Battle: 17 points, 2 steals, 2 blocks, 8-18 field goals (.444), 0-1 in 3-point shooting, 1-2 free throws, 9 rebounds, oddly only 2 assists.



Rose Micheaux: 13 points, 10 rebounds, 2 steals, 3-3 free throws.



Katie Borowicz: 12 points, 3-12 field goals (.250), 2-5 in 3-pointers (.400), 5 steals, 4-4 free throws.



Maggie Czinano (who got more time towards the end off the bench): 8 points, 3-6 field goals (.500), 2-3 free throws, 7 rebounds.



Mallory Heyer improved stats in the 2nd half: 12 points, 5-10 field goals (.500), 2-5 in 3-pointers (.400), 0 blocks, oddly only 4 rebounds.



Conclusions based on only 1 game (not real reliable):



-Battle is an amazing basketball player. Understandably, she’s too new as a freshman to fully grasp all that’s needed to be the point guard directing the offense or I think we’d see more assists there. Point guard is the field general position and takes time.



-Braun shot 39 shots plus 6 free throws. The strategy was at least partly to give the ball to the rock star shooter.



-Heyer needs to become a student of rebounding to get to the next level. She played fine but is capable of more by next year.



-The team is inexperienced and half-baked. Half of what we saw was like a pick-up game centered around raw talent.


-Lots of missed plays all around.



-If I was them, I would be overwhelmed with all I had to learn in such a short time. It takes time. I think Battle has the steepest learning curve due to her position. Braun’s position is more of a shooter position.



-Defense was bad. This will take time.



I don’t know. I’m just looking at stats. What do I know.
 

MNGirlsHoops said:
That was a fun game to watch and a nice win for a young team - they have enough talent to win against some of these mid major to lower teams.
Braun certainly is a nice player, but up front there really isn't anything. Rose can look good at times(she should of scored every time down low) and then 2 or 3 times she didn't run the floor and Lehigh scored so it makes it hard to count on her.
Enjoy these wins the BIG is around the corner.
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My apology, what does this term mean?

"up front there really isn't anything."
 

Today's +/-

Rose 5
Gradwell -7
Heyer 1
Braun -3
Katie B 11
Amaya 12
Oberg -9
Czinano 8
Cayton -7
Hammond -1

Season Total (if my math is correct)

Battle 45
Rose 34
Braun 17
Katie B 17
Hammond 17 (in limited minutes)
Heyer 15
Cayton 6
Gradwell 4
Oberg -8
 

Bfan said:
My apology, what does this term mean?

"up front there really isn't anything."
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Up front meaning forwards and centers. Sorry an old basketball term..
We thought Oberg would give us minutes, doesn't look like that is going to happen, so its Rose and then very limited..
 





adamj95 said:
Awesome come back win but looking at the stats, Minnesota took 96 shots and Lehigh took 68. That's 28 more shots and it took a last second 3 point shot to win the game. Only 11 turnovers which was nice to see but the shooting (or lack thereof) really held the gophers back all game. Still glad to be 2-0 with lots of work to do, better than 1-1 with lots of work to do. Go Gophers!
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Micheaux was a huge contributor to that woeful stat. She must have missed six or seven bunnies right under the basket because her position was often not good.
 












This was a very frustrating game to watch for >95% of the game so I need to get some things off my chest for some catharsis.

First of all, the elephant in the room is poor defense, you don't give up 99 points in a college game if you have played good defense and you have athletes that are anywhere in the same solar system. Same with giving up 56% of FGs and 46% of 3s. Our on ball defense seemed fine if not excellent! it was the team defense, switching, closing out on the 3 shooter and hustling back down the floor to matchup and mark open opponents.

Before I go any farther I want to say how impressed I was with Lehigh's team. Their talent was more refined, disciplined and efficient offensively and defensively today. Their team was just a bit less athletic and smaller.

Defense: On ball defense was good but team defense was miserable.
Micheaux was slow to close out on the 3 point line shooter at times and I remember one time when she was out on the 3 point line shooter she hedged too much to the left hand of the shooter and the shooter simply drove pretty much straight ahead along the baseline to the basket for a reverse layup. Slow closeouts on a 3 point shooter when playing a 3 point shooting team is a huge problem and is either effort, conditioning coaching or tentativeness. Micheaux showed a lot of effort and was doing a fantastic job diving for loose balls so I hope this is something that will get better with experience and the group just playing together more.

One time Oberg was under the basket taking a shot and the miss was pushed up the court to someone streaking down the court who Oberg would normally guard but Oberg was several steps behind. This is when somone has to step in with some help defense. This is something that can happen but teammates need to help out. There were too many situations like this all game.

Rebounding: our rebounding was poor until it started to come around in the 3rd quarter we were down several boards at the half and we were up 11 at the end of the game. Overall the team did a nice job sharing the rebounding duties with Micheax (10), Battle (9), Czinano (7).

Offense/Assists: There was too much hero ball at times. Shot selection seemed poor at times especially for Katie when driving on the inside in traffic. Mara had some bad ones too yet she still almost shot 50%. I'm not sure about Maggie but she had some awful ones in the last game and the scrimmage. We only had 17 assists compared to 25 for Lehigh. I would expect Lehigh to have more in a close game since they are less athletic but we do need more fluid passing. Some of this is probably due to youth and will get better with playing more together. They still seem to share the ball better than last years team.

Micheaux is getting better but she still has trouble finishing inside at times. She is so dynamic she needs to be more balanced when she takes her shots inside.

I like Oberg inside but they seem right to have Micheaux as the starter and getting most of the minutes in the post because she is quicker getting up and down the floor.

Being Good teammates: I am still not pleased yet with how the team seems to support each other at the free throw line. It seemed to get better at the end of the game but whoever is doing the free throws should get support from teammates in between shots at the begining of the game they weren't doing this. Maybe they need to do something like Lehigh and build in the players gathering behind the shooter and after the initial shot give her a back slap and then take their positions in the lane. If they need to build this into the in game routine they need to do it. They do this in volleyball at the D! level in between each point.

If this team can just play for each other, sacrafice for each other and keep their instensity they should be good on defense and offense.

As frustrating as this game was to watch it sure was a fun ending and I was glad I could be there to yell and make noise when we were on defense at the end of the game. I hope they learned and improve from this victory and we will feel like this is a good defensive team at the end of the season.

Looking forward to Thursdays game but disappointed I can't watch it since it is in Fargo and have to rely on the radio.
 




MINNEAPOLIS - Junior Mackenzie Kramer nailed a turnaround bank shot with 1.7 seconds to go against Minnesota to put the Mountain Hawks up by one, but Minnesota's Mara Braun answered with a game-winning 3-pointer to give the Golden Gophers a 101-99 win at Williams Arena Sunday afternoon.

"It feels like a gut-punch because you're there and you want it so bad for all of the players cause each and every one of them worked their tails off, and they made big play after big play after big play," said head coach Addie Micir. "But, when you take a step back and are just a basketball fan, what an awesome game and what an awesome game for Minnesota basketball."

Kramer, who finished with 26 points and 11 assists, is the first Lehigh player to record a double-double with points and assists since Erica Prosser scored 19 points and handed out 10 assists against Holy Cross on Feb. 26, 2011. Kramer shot 10-for-15 from the field, went 4-for-5 from deep and played all 40 minutes.

"She was great," Micir said. When we needed her to step up and be big, she did. It wasn't just with her scoring too. Obviously with her being able to dish the rock, she draws a lot of attention. So yeah, she lives for moments like this. She loves playing on this floor, and it was awesome for her to put on a show like that."

Senior Frannie Hottinger and sophomores Kaylee Van Eps and Meghan O'Brien were the other Lehigh players to finish in double figures. Hottinger had 25 points and Van Eps and O'Brien had 14 points. O'Brien established a new career-high for scoring. Hottinger added 12 rebounds for her second double-double in Lehigh's first three games.

Sunday's game was one that had many runs.

"What's going to stand out to me is how unfazed and unafraid we were," Micir said. "It was just awesome. Frannie, Kenzie, Ella's making big plays. People were just coming in and stepping up and being ready to go. It's not one person. It's not two people. It's a bunch of us. That's what we as a coaching staff are most proud of."

Lehigh shot a blistering 56 percent from the field and connected on 13-of-28 3-pointers. The 99 points scored matched the 99 scored against Navy on Jan. 19 as the second most in program history.

The Mountain Hawks shot 62.5 percent from the field in the opening quarter and led by as many as 10, before finishing the period with a 25-20 advantage.

Minnesota (2-0) battled back in the second quarter, but a Kramer jumper gave the Mountain Hawks a 42-39 lead at halftime.

Both teams started the second half hot from the field as Lehigh and Minnesota combined to score 63 points in the third quarter. Lehigh shot 65 percent from the field in the period and built its lead back up to eight. Minnesota came back to take a brief lead before the Mountain Hawks finished the quarter strong as Hottinger hit back-to-back jumpers to give Lehigh a 75-69 lead after three.

Lehigh enjoyed a healthy lead for most of the final quarter with an O'Briend jumper in the paint putting the Mountain Hawks up by 10 with 7:10 to play. The Golden Gophers refused to go away and eventually took a one-point lead with 1:15 to play after a pair of Braun free throws.

A Kramer jumper put Lehigh back up by one with just over a minute to play. After an exchange of free throws, Katie Borowicz hit a jumper in the paint to give Minnesota a 98-97 lead with eight seconds remaining.

It appeared Kramer's turnaround bank shot would be good enough to give Lehigh the win but Braun beat the buzzer with her fifth 3-pointer of the night to give Minnesota the victory.

Braun led all players with 34 points and was one of five Golden Gophers to reach double figures.

Minnesota overcame a sluggish offensive start to shoot 38.5 percent for the game. The Golden Gophers out-rebounded Lehigh 51-40 and scored 27 points off of 22 Lehigh turnovers.
 

This was an issue last year, too: #14 had three fouls in the first half and other Hawks also were in foul trouble. Why don't the Gophers take it to those endangered players?
 



Just out of curiosity, are those same people still on here that were questioning if the freshman would actually contribute and be as good as some of said they would? They seem to be quiet on here after the season started....mmm weird
 

Ragnor said:
This was a very frustrating game to watch for >95% of the game so I need to get some things off my chest for some catharsis.

First of all, the elephant in the room is poor defense, you don't give up 99 points in a college game if you have played good defense and you have athletes that are anywhere in the same solar system. Same with giving up 56% of FGs and 46% of 3s. Our on ball defense seemed fine if not excellent! it was the team defense, switching, closing out on the 3 shooter and hustling back down the floor to matchup and mark open opponents.

Before I go any farther I want to say how impressed I was with Lehigh's team. Their talent was more refined, disciplined and efficient offensively and defensively today. Their team was just a bit less athletic and smaller.

Defense: On ball defense was good but team defense was miserable.
Micheaux was slow to close out on the 3 point line shooter at times and I remember one time when she was out on the 3 point line shooter she hedged too much to the left hand of the shooter and the shooter simply drove pretty much straight ahead along the baseline to the basket for a reverse layup. Slow closeouts on a 3 point shooter when playing a 3 point shooting team is a huge problem and is either effort, conditioning coaching or tentativeness. Micheaux showed a lot of effort and was doing a fantastic job diving for loose balls so I hope this is something that will get better with experience and the group just playing together more.

One time Oberg was under the basket taking a shot and the miss was pushed up the court to someone streaking down the court who Oberg would normally guard but Oberg was several steps behind. This is when somone has to step in with some help defense. This is something that can happen but teammates need to help out. There were too many situations like this all game.

Rebounding: our rebounding was poor until it started to come around in the 3rd quarter we were down several boards at the half and we were up 11 at the end of the game. Overall the team did a nice job sharing the rebounding duties with Micheax (10), Battle (9), Czinano (7).

Offense/Assists: There was too much hero ball at times. Shot selection seemed poor at times especially for Katie when driving on the inside in traffic. Mara had some bad ones too yet she still almost shot 50%. I'm not sure about Maggie but she had some awful ones in the last game and the scrimmage. We only had 17 assists compared to 25 for Lehigh. I would expect Lehigh to have more in a close game since they are less athletic but we do need more fluid passing. Some of this is probably due to youth and will get better with playing more together. They still seem to share the ball better than last years team.

Micheaux is getting better but she still has trouble finishing inside at times. She is so dynamic she needs to be more balanced when she takes her shots inside.

I like Oberg inside but they seem right to have Micheaux as the starter and getting most of the minutes in the post because she is quicker getting up and down the floor.

Being Good teammates: I am still not pleased yet with how the team seems to support each other at the free throw line. It seemed to get better at the end of the game but whoever is doing the free throws should get support from teammates in between shots at the begining of the game they weren't doing this. Maybe they need to do something like Lehigh and build in the players gathering behind the shooter and after the initial shot give her a back slap and then take their positions in the lane. If they need to build this into the in game routine they need to do it. They do this in volleyball at the D! level in between each point.

If this team can just play for each other, sacrafice for each other and keep their instensity they should be good on defense and offense.

As frustrating as this game was to watch it sure was a fun ending and I was glad I could be there to yell and make noise when we were on defense at the end of the game. I hope they learned and improve from this victory and we will feel like this is a good defensive team at the end of the season.

Looking forward to Thursdays game but disappointed I can't watch it since it is in Fargo and have to rely on the radio.
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Most of the college coaches I've talked to over the years will tell you the two toughest things for young players to pick up are: #1 How hard you have to play, all the time, but especially on defense. #2 Team defensive concepts.

In terms of team defensive concepts, some players pick them up pretty quickly and others take a longer time for it to become instinctive. Along the way, there is inconsistency. And like an offensive line in football, 4 players can do it right, but the one player who's late, or not completely in sync can mess up the entire concept. I've seen more than a few players who were really good on-ball defenders, but took well into the season or more for ALL of the defensive rotations to become instinctive and automatic to them. Remember, some of the most talented players don't always have great defensive habits, because they've never needed them before.

Frustrating to watch right now, but hopefully (since they're young) they'll pick things up quickly and start to work well as a defensive unit sooner as opposed to later.
 

Chico Gopher said:
Most of the college coaches I've talked to over the years will tell you the two toughest things for young players to pick up are: #1 How hard you have to play, all the time, but especially on defense. #2 Team defensive concepts.

In terms of team defensive concepts, some players pick them up pretty quickly and others take a longer time for it to become instinctive. Along the way, there is inconsistency. And like an offensive line in football, 4 players can do it right, but the one player who's late, or not completely in sync can mess up the entire concept. I've seen more than a few players who were really good on-ball defenders, but took well into the season or more for ALL of the defensive rotations to become instinctive and automatic to them. Remember, some of the most talented players don't always have great defensive habits, because they've never needed them before.

Frustrating to watch right now, but hopefully (since they're young) they'll pick things up quickly and start to work well as a defensive unit sooner as opposed to later.
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Very interesting, I would have guessed defense would be easier but that is probably why on ball defense was good but not the team defense. I think I am most frustrated with the defense yesterday because I didn't understand how difficult it might be for young players and because the past couple years or so, the defense has been poor so I have been worried it has been conditioning, schemes, coaching or the players with the wrong temperment. Great post, love to learn new insight.
 

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