GAME #21: Gophers (15-5, 4-3) @ Nebraska (9-9, 1-5) [BTN, 1/26, 5:00PM]

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MadtownGopher

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Going from the Wisconsin game to this game brings to mind Robert Plant's lyrics from Going to California..."I wonder how tomorrow could ever follow today."

But with that having been said, the Gophers gotta take Nebraska seriously as evidenced by Nebraska's win over tOSU. So in the immortal words of Admiral Ackbar...



Go Gophers!
 

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p>Malik Smith will replace Hollins in the starting lineup. Smith's defense is the biggest concern, according to Pitino. <a href="https://twitter.com/search?q=%23Gophers&src=hash">#Gophers</a></p>— Marcus R. Fuller (@GophersNow) <a href="https://twitter.com/GophersNow/statuses/427129396109926400">January 25, 2014</a></blockquote>
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<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p>Pitino said going inside is even more important with Hollins out. Mo Walker, who had 18 pts vs. Wisconsin, needs to continue to be a factor.</p>— Marcus R. Fuller (@GophersNow) <a href="https://twitter.com/GophersNow/statuses/427129986944737281">January 25, 2014</a></blockquote>
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<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p>Mo Walker said Austin Hollins will be counted on even more as a leader with Andre Hollins out. <a href="https://twitter.com/search?q=%23Gophers&src=hash">#Gophers</a></p>— Marcus R. Fuller (@GophersNow) <a href="https://twitter.com/GophersNow/statuses/427134312715005952">January 25, 2014</a></blockquote>
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Pound the ball inside to EE and Mo. EE will want to perform well in his home state and Mo's confidence is riding high. Nebraska's front court is weak (11th in the B1G in blocked shots), we have an obvious edge inside. I also think the Wisconsin game was a spring board for Austin to break out of his funk and he plays well and hits some shots tomorrow. While I see the game being close I think we pull away at the end and win. Last year games like this were usually a loss, not this year.
 


jaymil said:
Pound the ball inside to EE and Mo. EE will want to perform well in his home state and Mo's confidence is riding high. Nebraska's front court is weak (11th in the B1G in blocked shots), we have an obvious edge inside. I also think the Wisconsin game was a spring board for Austin to break out of his funk and he plays well and hits some shots tomorrow. While I see the game being close I think we pull away at the end and win. Last year games like this were usually a loss, not this year.
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Agreed. This team needs to come up with wins like this without their best scorer. With Hollins POSSIBLY out for 4 weeks, it's important to steal a couple wins without him, starting tomorrow. Neb. is the worst team in the league with NU winning 3 of 4 (before Iowa). But it's a road game in the B1G. Nothing is ever easy away from The Barn. I expect this one to come down to the final minutes of the second half. Pitino's coaching acumen will be tested in this one. How will the team adjust without Dre? That's big.
 

Difficult and crucial game for this team, with Nebraska playing good ball of late.

What Malik needs to do as big guard is keep himself between his opponent and the goal. I'd expect them to play a mixture of man and zone and see what works better.
 

BigGopherFan said:
Agreed. This team needs to come up with wins like this without their best scorer. With Hollins POSSIBLY out for 4 weeks, it's important to steal a couple wins without him, starting tomorrow. Neb. is the worst team in the league with NU winning 3 of 4 (before Iowa). But it's a road game in the B1G. Nothing is ever easy away from The Barn. I expect this one to come down to the final minutes of the second half. Pitino's coaching acumen will be tested in this one. How will the team adjust without Dre? That's big.
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You're pushing it.
 

As far as how this team will play without Andre...call me an optimist, but I'm just not worried about it. If he had gone down later in the game than he did, and we hadn't gotten to see how the team responded, then, maybe I'd have a different outlook. Gophers have already essentially played a game without him, and won in convincing fashion. TBQH i'm actually kind of excited to be able to work some other guys in and get them heated up for a Big 10 Tourney and (hopefully) NCAA run. We already know what we have with Andre, it could be a blessing in disguise to get our bench guys some minutes to step up.
 



WhoFellDownTheGopherHole? said:
As far as how this team will play without Andre...call me an optimist, but I'm just not worried about it. If he had gone down later in the game than he did, and we hadn't gotten to see how the team responded, then, maybe I'd have a different outlook. Gophers have already essentially played a game without him, and won in convincing fashion. TBQH i'm actually kind of excited to be able to work some other guys in and get them heated up for a Big 10 Tourney and (hopefully) NCAA run. We already know what we have with Andre, it could be a blessing in disguise to get our bench guys some minutes to step up.
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We essentially won two more games in the last 4 game stretch than we expected. If Andre were to miss several games we could very well lose some games we expected to win.

In the Wisky game we shot close to 60% and in the second half we made all our FT's and 3pt shots. I believe we also had only one or zero turnovers in that half. That is not going to happen in every game.

Nebraska game will be interesting.
 

Should be a very interesting game. Anyone making the trip down?
 

station19 said:
We essentially won two more games in the last 4 game stretch than we expected. If Andre were to miss several games we could very well lose some games we expected to win.

In the Wisky game we shot close to 60% and in the second half we made all our FT's and 3pt shots. I believe we also had only one or zero turnovers in that half. That is not going to happen in every game.

Nebraska game will be interesting.
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I agree that we shot well, but we also took very easy shots. As far as 3pt shots go, we got 12 pts TOTAL from 3s, so our 3pt shooting % didnt make a hugely meaningful difference in the game
 

fryguy22 said:
I agree that we shot well, but we also took very easy shots. As far as 3pt shots go, we got 12 pts TOTAL from 3s, so our 3pt shooting % didnt make a hugely meaningful difference in the game
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I agree and we shot easy shots because that is the area of Wisky's weakness. We played extremely well, but we can't expect for things to go that well every game without Andre. We could possibly lose a couple game because of not having Andre and that would wipe out the gains we made in the last 4 games. You don't lose your top scorer and stay the same.
 



Game opened as a PK. The road is a tough place for our Gophs.
 


More important than the play of Smith replacing Andre, in my opinion, is the play of the guys replacing Smith's role. We need Mav and McNeil to play well. They were both solid against Wisconsin and need to step up tomorrow.
 

Little Dre will be the key. As long as he keeps his hands off - while defending, he'll play many minutes and likely will be the difference in the game.
 

The biggest key to this game in my opinion will be the Gophers ability to hit a few threes. The Gophers new game plan seems to be to attack the rim and pound the paint, and Nebraska defensively won't be able that. But Miles is a smart coach, so I fully expect them to go zone and pack it in and force the Gophers to beat them from the outside (this is what they did to Ohio State). With the team's best 3-point shooter on the shelf, Malik, Austin, and yes even Mav are going to have to hit some threes to open that zone up.
 

Jason Groth said:
More important than the play of Smith replacing Andre, in my opinion, is the play of the guys replacing Smith's role. We need Mav and McNeil to play well. They were both solid against Wisconsin and need to step up tomorrow.
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^ This is what people should be talking about (and, to further elaborate, that Mav is now our backup PG and will play extended minutes at the point if Mathieu gets in foul trouble, as he has done several times).

Nebraska has played two conf games at home -- they beat Ohio State and lost to Michigan by 1 point. They're a completely different team at home.
 

Down with Goldy said:
The biggest key to this game in my opinion will be the Gophers ability to hit a few threes. The Gophers new game plan seems to be to attack the rim and pound the paint, and Nebraska defensively won't be able that. But Miles is a smart coach, so I fully expect them to go zone and pack it in and force the Gophers to beat them from the outside (this is what they did to Ohio State). With the team's best 3-point shooter on the shelf, Malik, Austin, and yes even Mav are going to have to hit some threes to open that zone up.
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Tomorrow will be a good situation for Joey King.
 

I'm going to get a bit algebraic on your ass.... I think Nebraska is a bit under rated right now and we might be a bit overrated according to our schedules. If you take it as a given that you need to win your home games and it's a bonus to win on the road [-(home losses)+(road wins)] here is how the conference at the moment shakes out.
MI +4
MI St. +3
IO +2
MN E
WI +1
PU -1
NW -2
OS E
IN -1
IL -2
NE -1
PS -3
 

The key to winning what could be a sneaky tough game? Stay on Petteway and Gallegos like stink on $hit! Those two are their everything. Petteway is their driver and all-around scorer (but can't hit perimeter jump shots), and Gallegos knocks down threes.
 


I think Pitino will do what he's been doing all year, find a weakness in the opponent and attack it. I see the Gophers winning with ease...but what do I know.
 

I am worried about this game. Nebraska has only lost once at home in a closely contested game with Michigan. It looks like most of the sports books have this game as a pick'em or Minnesota -1 as of this moment, and shockingly Minnesota is only 4-9-1 against the spread in its last 14 games (per covers.com). I do like that the Gophers struggled in Iowa City following a big win last week and likely will be focused on putting forth a better performance following a big win this week.

I hope Elliott doesn't come out too jacked to either put on a show in his home state or show that he can score like Mo. I felt like he got a little anxious on the offensive end against Wisconsin after replacing Mo. I am sure the coaches are reiterating to him how important his defense, rebounding, and outlet passes are to this team. I'll be interested to see if Pitino puts Austin on Petteway, he's gone for 15 or more in every B1G game to date. Petteway is susceptible to the turnover though and Austin has quick hands.
 

Gallegos is inconsistent as all heck. Hopefully he lays another egg today.

Would like to see Minnesota turn Nebraska over a bunch today.

Even though I like the Gophers in this game, it isn't Wisconsin again.. today, Minnesota plays the REAL Big Red.
 

EG#9 said:
I am worried about this game. Nebraska has only lost once at home in a closely contested game with Michigan. It looks like most of the sports books have this game as a pick'em or Minnesota -1 as of this moment, and shockingly Minnesota is only 4-9-1 against the spread in its last 14 games (per covers.com). I do like that the Gophers struggled in Iowa City following a big win last week and likely will be focused on putting forth a better performance following a big win this week.

I hope Elliott doesn't come out too jacked to either put on a show in his home state or show that he can score like Mo. I felt like he got a little anxious on the offensive end against Wisconsin after replacing Mo. I am sure the coaches are reiterating to him how important his defense, rebounding, and outlet passes are to this team. I'll be interested to see if Pitino puts Austin on Petteway, he's gone for 15 or more in every B1G game to date. Petteway is susceptible to the turnover though and Austin has quick hands.
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Nebraska is 1-5 but has only played two home games. Against common opponents they've done about as well as the Gophers have, except they've had trouble sealing the deal a couple times. The Gophs are going to have to play well to beat the Huskers.
 

Bad Gopher said:
Nebraska is 1-5 but has only played two home games. Against common opponents they've done about as well as the Gophers have, except they've had trouble sealing the deal a couple times. The Gophs are going to have to play well to beat the Huskers.
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Exactly. Gophers have played one game without Andre and everything went according to plan in that game. The Gopher fan base is way too confident of a victory in this game.
 

Time for reality check - Nebraska is a difficult game

I am reading all the projections and prognostications about the prospects for a trip to the dance. As much as I also believe in this team and the coaching, we must remember that the players have to execute perfectly to win, especially on the road. This game is not a gimme by any stretch.
If the players execute today, they will win this game. However, do not be shocked if the Gophers lose today. Nebraska had Michigan beat and lost at the buzzer. They have beat OSU and played some other teams tough. Defensive focus, maniacal perimeter execution, strong play inside with Mo and EE exploiting a natural mismatch , and being able to stay out of foul trouble will be keys to our victory today. This game is one step in the journey to March madness. Win or lose this game we are in the hunt for a seeding. Life is always difficult on the road in this conference.
 


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