Game 8: Gophers v Samford 12-1-25

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Ignatius L Hoops

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Last April, following a 12-19 (7-7 SoCon} season, Samford’s head coach, Carley Kuhns, resigned to pursue other coaching opportunities. A week later, she joined Brenda Frese’s Maryland staff. So, we’ll see her when the Terps follow the Bulldogs to Williams Arena.

Kuhns’ six seasons at Samford got off to a hot start. In season one the Bulldogs qualified for the NCAA tournament that never was. In season two they won the SoCon and made the WNIT. However, the last four seasons were pretty much the definition of “best of the lousiest and lousiest of the best”. There were three 7-7 conference records plus one at 6-8.

Kuhns was immediately replaced by promoting assistant coach Matt Wise to the big chair. Wise is best known for being the son of legendary Florida volleyball coach, Mary Wise.

Matt Wise said his first 48 hours on the job was spent keeping the entire team out of the portal. He was 11 out of thirteen.

Samford is 2-5 on the season with wins over Florida A&M and Stony Brook and loses to Nebraska 46-80, Florida 40-87, Alabama 45-84. Central Arkansas and Georgia State.

Two players to know;

Sophomore Brianna Rivera is a 5’5” guard transfer from Austin Peay. She is a three-point specialist who had 14 points in 25 minutes versus Nebraska.

Senior Emily Snoddy is a 6’5” center with 6 points and 7 rebounds in 19 minutes versus the Huskers.

I know I’m over the Husker talk limit; but here’s how a Big Ten team should look versus Samford:


Samford vs. Nebraska | Highlights | Big Ten Basketball | 11/08/25


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Samford vs. Nebraska | Highlights | Big Ten Basketball | 11/08/25
 
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Should be a winnable game. Hoping the coaching staff can implement offensive sets to give Grace, McKenna, and Tori (if she back) looks for open shots, they seem to be the team best shooters. I don’t know how you can correct shots at the rim that fall short, clang, bank etc. off the rim which has plagued this team for 3 years. Keep shooting? I do believe in this coaching staff, I know they know the issues and here’s hoping they figure out some way to unlock Braun and Battle🤞

Although disappointed in the results, glad they went through this past 3 schedule to prepare them for the conference schedule. I think they realize they have more work to do to be a NCAA tournament team. They are simply going to have to win games in the Big Ten.
 


Samford is bad, but Gopher shooting is still horrible. 0-9 from behind the arc won't get it done in the Big 10.
 

Yeah, this really isn't much more than a scrimmage for them. When you see that the Southern Women's basketball conference is 1 and 36 in NCAA tourney history, you know you're not really playing NCAA tourney caliber competition. Still a bit rough from Three in the third Qtr sitting at 2-14 currently.
 


Would like to see the Gophers play without Hart or Tonga for extended minutes in the 4th quarter. Need experience playing small.
 


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tonight's +/-

Amaya 43
Mara 31
Tori 28
Sophie 21
Glenn 20
GG 17
Tonga 12
Mackena 10
Nia 8
Klick 2
Senden -3
Zoey -4
 






MaxyJR1 said:
She will need to get more shots. I feel she is such an unselfish player, but it Battle and Braun keeps shooting this bad, they have to run through GG and McKinney and play great defense.
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Gophers112233 said:
I agree.. but to do that she has to get the ball more.. she only had 3 shots last night.. if you don't have the ball you can't shoot..
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Grace's teammates must love her. She hunts shots against teams with a pulse (or better), because she can score efficiently in a lot of ways, and defers to her teammates who need to get going against the bottom feeders. Her 4 double-digit shot-attempt games this season are Marquette, Kansas, USF and Alabama. Her minutes obviously go up in those games, but they are still 4 of her top 5 games in terms of shot attempts per minute.
 

BigTenGuy said:
Grace's teammates must love her. She hunts shots against teams with a pulse (or better), because she can score efficiently in a lot of ways, and defers to her teammates who need to get going against the bottom feeders. Her 4 double-digit shot-attempt games this season are Marquette, Kansas, USF and Alabama. Her minutes obviously go up in those games, but they are still 4 of her top 5 games in terms of shot attempts per minute.
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I honestly believe GG should get 9-12 shots a game.. maybe mara a bit more... but GG should NOT have less then 6 shots in any game..
 



Mara played outstanding defense last night against the nation’s best 3 point shooter, in fact the whole team played great team defense. Yes the competition is lower than the Big Ten but they showed a lot of hustle. If I heard correctly, coach P is concerned about the offense sounds like it might be a focus this week in practice. Would like to see more sets for Grace, Tori and McKenna too. I still like Mara taking shots, she needs to knock the rust off. It seems like she’s getting closer to the pre-injury Mara.
 

Katogopher said:
Mara played outstanding defense last night against the nation’s best 3 point shooter, in fact the whole team played great team defense. Yes the competition is lower than the Big Ten but they showed a lot of hustle. If I heard correctly, coach P is concerned about the offense sounds like it might be a focus this week in practice. Would like to see more sets for Grace, Tori and McKenna too. I still like Mara taking shots, she needs to knock the rust off. It seems like she’s getting closer to the pre-injury Mara.
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Still think their offense comes from defensive stops and following transition. Half court is not good.
 

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