GAME #26: Gophers (16-9, 5-7) @ Northwestern (12-13, 5-7) [BTN, 5:00PM]

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station19 said:
Much better chance of beating Iowa at the Barn that winning at OSU.
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I think we match up well with Ohio State. Iowa is too deep, athletic, and talented, I think that is the least likely win of the next 5.
 

Huge win, really feels like we are kind of back in the drivers seat to get to the dance. I feel like home wins against PSU and Illinois would do the trick, and those seem like about as close to gimmes as we can hope for in this gauntlet of a conference. Maybe we can take care of business at home against Iowa, or steal one at OSU or Michigan to get to 9-9. If we go .500 in conference in a transition year, I'll call that a success for Dick Pit's first year.

Kept feeling like those turnovers were going to kill us, and we had some really boneheaded ones. Nice to see us come out on top in a game where we didn't play our best. Managed to take care of business down the stretch.
 

station19 said:
Pitino says it was one of the best defensive games they've had. Way too many SILLY turnovers.
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Couldn't agree more. Played man-to-man most of the time and got real tough guarding shooters in the second half, minus a couple of lapses. A test of mental toughness as much as anything.
 

Always nice to get a win in a game where you don't play your best. A lot of sloppy turnovers that really shouldn't be happening. I thought the refs had a few questionable calls late, watching the replay it looked like Austin had called timeout before the 5 second call, then Malik was called for a hold right after the NW players had just done the same thing to get the 5 second call, and the shot from NW that hit the top of the backboard was allowed to be played out but the same situation for the Gophers was blown dead and called out of bounds. Free throw shooting wasn't very good tonight but I really thought the defense was good and especially Austin who seemed to be on Crawford most of the game and shut him down. Austin wasn't great offensively but he did hit the big 3 pointer that I thought was the biggest shot of the game. EE and Mo looked much better in the 2nd half and Mathieu did too. McNeil continues to get better as the season progresses as well which is always good to see. Also does it seem like every time we play Northwestern someone on their team has a career game?
 

Once again, Mav is the good luck charm.

Could have been a much more comfortable game without all those turnovers. That continues to be the disturbing trend.
 


MadtownGopher said:
I think we match up well with Ohio State. Iowa is too deep, athletic, and talented, I think that is the least likely win of the next 5.
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That is my feeling too, I would love a win over Iowa but I just don't think we match up real well with them and while Ohio State is shooting the ball better than when we beat them at The Barn they still aren't a great shooting team and I like our chances despite it being at Ohio State.
 

gopherMD said:
A nice win for the Gophers. DeAndre steps up big time when no one else will. NU gets 2 points from their best player, Crawford, and lose their center in crunch time. I guess splitting the series means NU and the Gophers are equal, case closed. The rest of the schedule is daunting. The rest of the team needs to show up for them to have a chance.
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You realize MN didn't have Dre Hollins for the game at home and we lost by a missed layup? Crawford disappears all the time.
 

Wait! BigGopherFan was banned? How will we get our critical, but fair and objective views about how Nebraska and NW are better teams than the Gophers?
 

bleedsmaroonandgold said:
Huge win, really feels like we are kind of back in the drivers seat to get to the dance. I feel like home wins against PSU and Illinois would do the trick, and those seem like about as close to gimmes as we can hope for in this gauntlet of a conference. Maybe we can take care of business at home against Iowa, or steal one at OSU or Michigan to get to 9-9. If we go .500 in conference in a transition year, I'll call that a success for Dick Pit's first year.

Kept feeling like those turnovers were going to kill us, and we had some really boneheaded ones. Nice to see us come out on top in a game where we didn't play our best. Managed to take care of business down the stretch.
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I appreciate your optimism, but in this conference, there are no gimmies. None. Beating Illinois and Penn State at home is going to be as hard as any game this season. Minnesota is headed in the right direction for a Tournament berth and I love Pitino, but there just isn't enough high-level talent on this roster to even entertain the passing notion of a gimmy. But I agree, I think they should win those games. I also think they could be Iowa at home too. OSU is possible as well, though not likely.
 



stocker08 said:
Wait! BigGopherFan was banned? How will we get our critical, but fair and objective views about how Nebraska and NW are better teams than the Gophers?
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NU is NOT better than Minnesota. Not in this universe. That's laughable. Lol. Careful about Nebraska, though. They might just be in a better place than Minnesota right now. Game-changing players, energetic young coach, top-notch facilities and fan support.
 

I have very little good to say about this game, but am THRILLED to see the Gophers get the victory.

This team did everything possible to give away a game today with all of the unforced turnovers and inability to hit free throws. DeAndre Mathieu played a great second half and the Walker/Eliason duo were both effective in the second half which has been a rarity over the past few weeks.

Thank god Austin Hollins hit that three, because a) it was badly needed and b) he had been having one of the worst games of his career

Key sequence of the game to me was the Northwestern possession where Joey King fell asleep on his box out and allowed an offensive rebound. I believe the Gophers were called for 2 non-shooting fouls on that possession as well and it ended up with Northwestern having the ball for over 90 seconds. That's a ton of time for guys to stay in their stance and move their feet, and the Gophers didn't give up any points.

Very interesting to see Daquein McNeil getting playing time during crunch time, he's continuing to improve. I thought we were a little too conservative down the stretch with the ball and a 5 point lead. With a little over 2 minutes to go, I don't think you run the clock down and settle for a Joey King turnaround jumper.

Lets hope getting back in the "W" column flips a switch for this team and we start to see some improvement. If Nebraska can win 5 of 6 in this league, it's not too much to ask for the Gopher to win 4 of their final six and finish with a winning conference record.
 

Weisbrod said:
NU is NOT better than Minnesota. Not in this universe. That's laughable. Lol. Careful about Nebraska, though. They might just be in a better place than Minnesota right now. Game-changing players, energetic young coach, top-notch facilities and fan support.
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You haven't posted since 2011 and you start posting again 5 minutes after Big Gopher Fan was banned?
 

EG#9 said:
I have very little good to say about this game, but am THRILLED to see the Gophers get the victory.

This team did everything possible to give away a game today with all of the unforced turnovers and inability to hit free throws. DeAndre Mathieu played a great second half and the Walker/Eliason duo were both effective in the second half which has been a rarity over the past few weeks.

Thank god Austin Hollins hit that three, because a) it was badly needed and b) he had been having one of the worst games of his career

Key sequence of the game to me was the Northwestern possession where Joey King fell asleep on his box out and allowed an offensive rebound. I believe the Gophers were called for 2 non-shooting fouls on that possession as well and it ended up with Northwestern having the ball for over 90 seconds. That's a ton of time for guys to stay in their stance and move their feet, and the Gophers didn't give up any points.

Very interesting to see Daquein McNeil getting playing time during crunch time, he's continuing to improve. I thought we were a little too conservative down the stretch with the ball and a 5 point lead. With a little over 2 minutes to go, I don't think you run the clock down and settle for a Joey King turnaround jumper.

Lets hope getting back in the "W" column flips a switch for this team and we start to see some improvement. If Nebraska can win 5 of 6 in this league, it's not too much to ask for the Gopher to win 4 of their final six and finish with a winning conference record.
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Play 'em one at a time, and anything can happen.

Good takes.
 



We got a road win while getting very little from Austin, Smith or Andre. That's huge. One of these games those three will light it up and we will surprise somebody. Opposing teams are trying to keep the ball out of Andre's hands knowing that it puts the ball in the hands of weaker ball handlers. We have to solve that.
 





Dequan McNeil is gonna be one of my favorite gophers ever... If he was 3 inches taller I wouldn't care Austin was graduating....
 

It's not just the turnovers....it's the totally stupid/careless ones. I've never seen anything like it.
 

Just back from Welsh-Ryan and am very happy they got of out there with a win. Any road win in the B1G is tough, and at Northwestern isn't any different, although it has to have the least imposing home court advantage in the conference. A few thoughts:

-- This is my first time seeing this year's team in person and I'm in awe of how damn quick DeAndre is off the dribble. Seeing him on TV doesn't do it justice. His 3 at the end of the first half was absolutely what we needed to wake up.
-- The defensive pressure was notably more intense in the second half. It seemed every NW shot was contested.
-- I was sitting with a group of Gophers fans and we couldn't believe how sloppy the team was with the ball, especially Austin. His 5 second violation on the inbounds play during the last minute was something unacceptable from a senior.
-- Daquein is slowly developing into a really nice player. I'm excited to watch his continued development.
-- Even with a nice second half block, EE really has done virtually nothing for the second half of the conference schedule after an encouraging start to the season. And you can tell Pitino must feel that same way, as Mo is getting more minutes, especially at crunch time.
-- My 7-year-old got a great handshake from Coach Pitino (and a "thanks for coming!") and DeAndre after the game. Man that dude has huge hands for a guy his size.

This was a big win, now we need to hold serve at home (Iowa is going to be difficult, but it's possible).
 

stocker08 said:
Hold the phone. Only one of them thinks that NW is a better, more talented team. Both think that Nebraska is a better team however.
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Actually, I think Weisbrod had a sports column for some small newspapers around the state. Is that right Weisbrod?
 

So do most pundits think we need to get to 8 wins to be "comfortable"?
 

station19 said:
It's not just the turnovers....it's the totally stupid/careless ones. I've never seen anything like it.
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It's aggravating and the Gophers have more than their share, but we also look at it through Gopher eyes. Other teams do stupid things also, but we often attribute it to a good play by a Gopher. Case in point. Crawford's charge at the end. Yes, Mo was in position, but geez, he had time to grab a snack if he was the old Mo. Really dumb of Crawford to keep coming from that far away when the defensive player was already in position. Not about to check, but we can't be the only fans in the league who spend so much time bitching after a win.
 

That was a must have win. Thanks for the road win boys.
 

BarnBoy said:
So do most pundits think we need to get to 8 wins to be "comfortable"?
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Comfortable? I'm not sure about that. I think that would land us on the right side of the bubble.....but "comfortable" is tough to assume.


I completely agree about McNeil. As a true freshman, he looks awfully poised on the court. Really doesn't appear to make any mistakes. Good size too. He fights for rebounds with guys who are quite a bit taller. Very promising.
 

Mulligan said:
It's aggravating and the Gophers have more than their share, but we also look at it through Gopher eyes. Other teams do stupid things also, but we often attribute it to a good play by a Gopher. Case in point. Crawford's charge at the end. Yes, Mo was in position, but geez, he had time to grab a snack if he was the old Mo. Really dumb of Crawford to keep coming from that far away when the defensive player was already in position. Not about to check, but we can't be the only fans in the league who spend so much time bitching after a win.
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I think that charge call came about 20 seconds after I posted to get EE in the game so Mo didn't have to play D! Being wrong in such a good way is very pleasant.

Do note: I'm sure if Mo could get to that spot, then certainly EE could have as well. But, it's pretty likely the refs would have called EE for a foul on his chest or something, dude always gets called. Perhaps that's why Pitino left Mo in there with a 5-point lead? Can't figure out why else he chose to do that; if NU scored, they could have replaced EE with someone else for FT purposes, so that probably wasn't the reason.
 

Mulligan said:
It's aggravating and the Gophers have more than their share, but we also look at it through Gopher eyes. Other teams do stupid things also, but we often attribute it to a good play by a Gopher. Case in point. Crawford's charge at the end. Yes, Mo was in position, but geez, he had time to grab a snack if he was the old Mo. Really dumb of Crawford to keep coming from that far away when the defensive player was already in position. Not about to check, but we can't be the only fans in the league who spend so much time bitching after a win.
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We're just more thorough.:rolleyes:
 

"Completely comfortable", which means needing zero wins in the Big Ten Tournament, would be 9-9. Sure, they could still sneak in at 8-10 without a BTT win, but that scenario would mean a far from comfortable Selection Sunday.
 

cncmin said:
I think that charge call came about 20 seconds after I posted to get EE in the game so Mo didn't have to play D! Being wrong in such a good way is very pleasant.

Do note: I'm sure if Mo could get to that spot, then certainly EE could have as well. But, it's pretty likely the refs would have called EE for a foul on his chest or something, dude always gets called. Perhaps that's why Pitino left Mo in there with a 5-point lead? Can't figure out why else he chose to do that; if NU scored, they could have replaced EE with someone else for FT purposes, so that probably wasn't the reason.
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Mo was moving his feet pretty well on defense all night. He may have had lapses, but he was doing well overall. I can't help but see it as a commentary on how little faith Pitino has in Elliott at this moment in time.
 

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