GAME #24: Gophers (15-8, 4-6) v. Indiana (14-8, 4-5) [BTN, 2/8, 7:15PM]
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Having to eject Bo Ryan and Mad Fran every game would get old.
station19
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Not to me.
BleedGopher
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Tom Powers: Gophers get big win on weird night at the Barn
Even though the action got frenetic toward the end, the Gophers stuck to their assignments. They continued to defend no matter which way the ball was bouncing on offense. They did not commit those panicky, agonizing fouls that often result in the game being decided at the free-throw line. Instead, they did what they were instructed to do.
The victory was a much-needed tonic for those Big Ten Blues, which in Minnesota typically occur near the middle of the conference season. From here on, who knows? But for one Saturday, everyone got to see a solid, successful effort. Not to mention a previously persona non grata head coach and a glimpse into the surprisingly weird Pitino family.
http://www.twincities.com/gophers/ci_25096656/tom-powers-gophers-get-big-win-weird-night
Go Gophers!!
Even though the action got frenetic toward the end, the Gophers stuck to their assignments. They continued to defend no matter which way the ball was bouncing on offense. They did not commit those panicky, agonizing fouls that often result in the game being decided at the free-throw line. Instead, they did what they were instructed to do.
The victory was a much-needed tonic for those Big Ten Blues, which in Minnesota typically occur near the middle of the conference season. From here on, who knows? But for one Saturday, everyone got to see a solid, successful effort. Not to mention a previously persona non grata head coach and a glimpse into the surprisingly weird Pitino family.
http://www.twincities.com/gophers/ci_25096656/tom-powers-gophers-get-big-win-weird-night
Go Gophers!!
bleedsmaroonandgold
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Great win. Little Dre's confidence reminded me of Westbrook, the way he ran the whole shotclock down near the end and then calmly created his own shot to drive the nail into the coffin. Let's see if the boys can get back to .500 now. Brother Pitino should always be in a chicken suit.
Breakin' The Plane
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Someone asked Claeys about stars after NSD. He said something along the lines of "The star system was basically invented to make money for recruiting services. Coaches don't care about stars, coaches care about kids." I'm starting to really buy into that. Sure, you get excited about a highly-ranked player, but good coaches know more about who can play than a recruiting evaluator ever will.
mnsportsgeek
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I would wager to say that they use recruiting services to get a lot of guys on their radar. Then evaluate them from there. Not everyone can send a highlight reel to their front door. There are too many kids in the country.
GophersInIowa
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Can anyone answer this?
Yup, they were on kiss cam.
Winasota Gopher
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If you have any chopps at evaluating talent at the hs level, it's safe to say you don't work for 247, E!SPN or rivals....
GophersInIowa
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Thanks, I bet that was funny.
Winasota Gopher
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march madness
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Anyone else notice there cannot be but an inch in height between the listed 6' Yogi, and 5'9" Lil Dre?
Winasota Gopher
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Watched my DVR last night of "The Journey" and because live sports don't like being DVR'd I was treated with the nice surprise of the final 3 minutes of this fabulous game from Saturday night. I watched the game dvr'd the first time through as well seeing as I had a prior engagement Saturday night, I ended up catching the whole game fast forwarding through it so not to keep my wife up too late and had the volume low, and didn't get to celebrate, watch, or analyze like I usually do if I'm by myself or watching the game live.
The final 3 minutes are remarkable with a series of fantastic plays from both teams. DeAndre getting back into the game was a pivotal turning point, coming out of a timeout with exactly 3 minutes to play is when he reentered the game only to pester Yogi Ferrell to a point of utter frustration. His on-ball defense was impeccable. On the series where Crean was forced to call a TO was a blessing as Dre and DeAndre screwed up a switch on a handoff and Yogi had just gotten loose as Crean called timeout, had Yogi scored there it would have added at minimum an extra 5 to 10 seconds to the clock which could have been a big swing. Instead IU went into a timeout, called up a play that lil Dre defended remarkably and Yogi was forced to throw up a highly contested 18 footer which, he drained, a remarkable shot.
The next series for the Gophs showed how out of sink this team gets when they are trying to drain clock rather than play at an up tempo pace. They struggle to create shots in late game situations, lazy screens were set all over the place and guys just generally run around. It's like Tubby's offense with movement, both completely useless. Joey King made a "decent" move in the post and then got stuck, created some space, stepped threw and thank god the refs called the goaltending otherwise we might have been looking at a completely different game again (also add in Yogi's 5-10 seconds had Crean not called TO). Vonleh is a beast, and someone asked who I was concerned with Josh Martin having to go up against next year, thats public enemy #1 right there.
Next IU series saw some more fantastic on ball defense and the ball go down to Vonleh. Fantastic weakside help from what seemed to be a Pitino coaching point late in the game because we forced numerous tips and TO in those situations down the stretch. Vonleh pivots into 'Dre and loses the ball. EE does a nice job not fouling in a situation where he normally gets called for breathing too loud. We recover the ball and our most cerebral and who we all look to being the team leader has a complete mental meltdown and doesn't call a timeout with a 6'10" beast harassing the hell out of him. TO and a bucket for Vonleh. Again, the kid is a stud and makes plays.
We bring the ball down and I think in years past we crumble here, and in my eyes, we kind of did. Another instance of us struggling to generate any sort of set play, I would have liked to see a TO here to settle everyone down and get something drawn up, and now that I think about it we actually might of, but I dont think we did, either way the results were not pretty if we did call a TO and if we didn't, we should have. Stand, stand, stand, run the underneath scissor cuts off of a completely missed screen attempt on both sides of the action, ball is denied going to Andre, who I would argue isn't the right guy to have the ball in that situation anyway, and we've got 10 seconds left on the clock. Another misstep and some grace being given to the Gophs and the IU guard on the ball reaches which, in this situation is just dumb basketball, the clock is running down, you are in perfect defensive position and you give it all away by reaching. Lil Dre retreat dribbles and puts his head down, gets what looked like a step on his defender, slows just enough to let him pass him up in full out recovery mode, jump stop, pulled the ball through and had enough momentum to keep Vonleh honest enough to stay on the weak side of the hoop during his contest and leave enough room for the layup. The play was pure art in motion from the moment Gordon reached. PANDEMONIUM.
The next play proved that things were going the Gophers way as Yogi sprinted down the court with both 'Dre's chasing leaving a WIDE OPEN Gordon on the far side of the court,the 3 could have made this an even bigger nail biter but the shot wasn't true and clanged off the back of the rim.
What I learned from those 3 minutes is exactly what Rand wrote today in is article about Pitino doing more with less, but this time in comparison to Tom Crean... How nice would it be to have a Yogi Ferrell, who can get his own shot, make his own shot and create shots for others, the complete package in late game situations. How nice would it be to have a Noah Vonleh who can erase others mistakes in a heartbeat as well as make plays on both ends. Coaching 4* and 5* is likely more difficult to get the team aspect going, but it's gotta be significantly easier in crunch time situations. Yogi has taken over many a game this year and Vonleh will do so for them as well. Pitino has his rag tag band playing harder than most would have ever imagined but the glaring lack of overall talent, no disrespect to any of our "superstars", in late game situations just has me on the edge of my seat at all times as I don't know where we are going to get a bucket from or if we will get the lucky call....
**exhales** it was fun rewatching those 3 minutes, thought I would share my feelings. I'm loving the process, certainly difficult to watch us loose to the likes of Purdue and Northwestern, but when they compete in these highly challenged games it makes those miseries a little easier to swallow. I honestly cannot remember if we had these types of games under Tubby, not trying to knock him at all, but it just feels soo much different this time.
The final 3 minutes are remarkable with a series of fantastic plays from both teams. DeAndre getting back into the game was a pivotal turning point, coming out of a timeout with exactly 3 minutes to play is when he reentered the game only to pester Yogi Ferrell to a point of utter frustration. His on-ball defense was impeccable. On the series where Crean was forced to call a TO was a blessing as Dre and DeAndre screwed up a switch on a handoff and Yogi had just gotten loose as Crean called timeout, had Yogi scored there it would have added at minimum an extra 5 to 10 seconds to the clock which could have been a big swing. Instead IU went into a timeout, called up a play that lil Dre defended remarkably and Yogi was forced to throw up a highly contested 18 footer which, he drained, a remarkable shot.
The next series for the Gophs showed how out of sink this team gets when they are trying to drain clock rather than play at an up tempo pace. They struggle to create shots in late game situations, lazy screens were set all over the place and guys just generally run around. It's like Tubby's offense with movement, both completely useless. Joey King made a "decent" move in the post and then got stuck, created some space, stepped threw and thank god the refs called the goaltending otherwise we might have been looking at a completely different game again (also add in Yogi's 5-10 seconds had Crean not called TO). Vonleh is a beast, and someone asked who I was concerned with Josh Martin having to go up against next year, thats public enemy #1 right there.
Next IU series saw some more fantastic on ball defense and the ball go down to Vonleh. Fantastic weakside help from what seemed to be a Pitino coaching point late in the game because we forced numerous tips and TO in those situations down the stretch. Vonleh pivots into 'Dre and loses the ball. EE does a nice job not fouling in a situation where he normally gets called for breathing too loud. We recover the ball and our most cerebral and who we all look to being the team leader has a complete mental meltdown and doesn't call a timeout with a 6'10" beast harassing the hell out of him. TO and a bucket for Vonleh. Again, the kid is a stud and makes plays.
We bring the ball down and I think in years past we crumble here, and in my eyes, we kind of did. Another instance of us struggling to generate any sort of set play, I would have liked to see a TO here to settle everyone down and get something drawn up, and now that I think about it we actually might of, but I dont think we did, either way the results were not pretty if we did call a TO and if we didn't, we should have. Stand, stand, stand, run the underneath scissor cuts off of a completely missed screen attempt on both sides of the action, ball is denied going to Andre, who I would argue isn't the right guy to have the ball in that situation anyway, and we've got 10 seconds left on the clock. Another misstep and some grace being given to the Gophs and the IU guard on the ball reaches which, in this situation is just dumb basketball, the clock is running down, you are in perfect defensive position and you give it all away by reaching. Lil Dre retreat dribbles and puts his head down, gets what looked like a step on his defender, slows just enough to let him pass him up in full out recovery mode, jump stop, pulled the ball through and had enough momentum to keep Vonleh honest enough to stay on the weak side of the hoop during his contest and leave enough room for the layup. The play was pure art in motion from the moment Gordon reached. PANDEMONIUM.
The next play proved that things were going the Gophers way as Yogi sprinted down the court with both 'Dre's chasing leaving a WIDE OPEN Gordon on the far side of the court,the 3 could have made this an even bigger nail biter but the shot wasn't true and clanged off the back of the rim.
What I learned from those 3 minutes is exactly what Rand wrote today in is article about Pitino doing more with less, but this time in comparison to Tom Crean... How nice would it be to have a Yogi Ferrell, who can get his own shot, make his own shot and create shots for others, the complete package in late game situations. How nice would it be to have a Noah Vonleh who can erase others mistakes in a heartbeat as well as make plays on both ends. Coaching 4* and 5* is likely more difficult to get the team aspect going, but it's gotta be significantly easier in crunch time situations. Yogi has taken over many a game this year and Vonleh will do so for them as well. Pitino has his rag tag band playing harder than most would have ever imagined but the glaring lack of overall talent, no disrespect to any of our "superstars", in late game situations just has me on the edge of my seat at all times as I don't know where we are going to get a bucket from or if we will get the lucky call....
**exhales** it was fun rewatching those 3 minutes, thought I would share my feelings. I'm loving the process, certainly difficult to watch us loose to the likes of Purdue and Northwestern, but when they compete in these highly challenged games it makes those miseries a little easier to swallow. I honestly cannot remember if we had these types of games under Tubby, not trying to knock him at all, but it just feels soo much different this time.