Gophers sound like they are struggling in first half...

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...Mbakwe is dominating but not much else is going well for Minnesota against NSIC expected bottom-feeder Bemidji State. Andre is missing 3s and Minnesota is giving up 3s. Also, I haven't heard anything from Oto. Frustrating, frustrating, frustrating. Three and a half minutes to go...
 

You should change your name to Negative because I have never seen you post anything but negative comments. How about Andre Hollins having 6 assists and 0 turnovers at half? That is pretty *&^!#*&^!#*&^!#*&^!#ing awesome, considering no one knew if he had the court vision and ball handling ability to play PG.
 

Madtown...you need to understand that the only knowledge some basketball fans have regarding any player is the scorebook.
 

MadtownGopher said:
You should change your name to Negative because I have never seen you post anything but negative comments. How about Andre Hollins having 6 assists and 0 turnovers at half? That is pretty *&^!#*&^!#*&^!#*&^!#ing awesome, considering no one knew if he had the court vision and ball handling ability to play PG.
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Posted not by me:

"I know it's early, I know. But still no offensive flow and no shooters have shown up yet. Up 16-12 with just under 8 minutes to play. Also, too sloppy taking care of the ball. Same early mistakes as last year. Hopefully we can clean them up.

Going into the game I was hoping to see very few turnovers and some decent 3-point shooting.

Also, just noticed Andre Hollins' uni has "DRE HOLLINS" on the back. I like that."
 

Neutral, I'm sorry if you actually are a Gopher fan, but until you post something positive, I'm just going to assume you are a Badger fan. Yes, it appears the Gophers got off to a slow start in the first half but you were very quick to start a NEGATIVE thread that contributed very little. You could have easily posted in the game thread, but instead you decided to start this thread.
 


Dude, it was a glorified Tuesday night practice, take a deep breath.
 

MadtownGopher: How many NCAA championships have YOU won?
 


No negative comments to other posters unless you have won a NCAA championship. I have memorized it from numerous posts from the leather goods selling stalker guy
 




I have no idea what you are referencing but I'm just a little annoyed with Neutral's never ending posts ripping Tubby and our players. At some point if you are a fan, you gotta see some positives in what we have going on, like Andre's ability to be a facilitator tonight. Check out Neutral's past posts, 90% are negative. It didn't take him long to start a negative thread tonight, even though he could have easily vented in the game thread. There are enough trolls and fake gopher fans on this site that it is difficult to tell who is actually a Gopher fan sometimes.
 

What exactly is the positive in keeping a bad D-2 team within 10 for most of the game? There was nothing in the first thread of the post to rip the person for being too "negative." He took no shots at anyone.
 

jamalo said:
What exactly is the positive in keeping a bad D-2 team within 10 for most of the game? There was nothing in the first thread of the post to rip the person for being too "negative." He took no shots at anyone.
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Did you watch a second of the game? Nothing looked good?
 



The good - Trevor down low and Andre Hollins seems to be a pretty good point guard but for Pete's sake - we still can't guard the 3 or make any!!!
 

It sounds like Sampson looked pretty good too, at least via Marcus' tweets. I'm looking forward to watching the game myself tomorrow when BTN broadcasts it.
 

Saw nothing unexpected. Looks like a team that should finish somewhere around 7th to 10th place in the conference. If Tubby gets this team to the tournament, he will have done a helluva job.
 

This team has a higher ceiling than 7th. There will be a huge drop off next year losing our senior front court. They need to make run this year.
 

Gopher Warrior said:
Saw nothing unexpected. Looks like a team that should finish somewhere around 7th to 10th place in the conference. If Tubby gets this team to the tournament, he will have done a helluva job.
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How does that Marquette team look?
 

Gold Vision said:
This team has a higher ceiling than 7th. There will be a huge drop off next year losing our senior front court. They need to make run this year.
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I agree - the future looks very shaky. This year they could* make a run in this conference (by run I mean finish in the top half of the conference), but if I had to pick whether it's more likely they would finish in 9th place or worse OR 5th place or better, I'd go with the 9th place or worse. They have a couple of excellent players and they could reach the tournament... but, I could see things getting pretty ugly as well. [PS - if anyone wants to do the 9th or worse vs. 5th or better bet, I'm game]

zambam said:
How does that Marquette team look?
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Exciting. I'm expecting a top 6 Big East finish and a tourney berth, but hoping they can finish in the top four of the conference and get to the Sweet Sixteen again. The conference BS that is going on is upsetting, though.
 

You suck.

Gopher Warrior said:
Saw nothing unexpected. Looks like a team that should finish somewhere around 7th to 10th place in the conference. If Tubby gets this team to the tournament, he will have done a helluva job.
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Go away.
 

Gopher Warrior said:
I agree - the future looks very shaky. This year they could* make a run in this conference (by run I mean finish in the top half of the conference), but if I had to pick whether it's more likely they would finish in 9th place or worse OR 5th place or better, I'd go with the 9th place or worse. They have a couple of excellent players and they could reach the tournament... but, I could see things getting pretty ugly as well. [PS - if anyone wants to do the 9th or worse vs. 5th or better bet, I'm game]
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5th to 9th would have been a more accurate guess for this team.

I'm willing to bet you don't post as Warrior Gopher on Marquette boards.
 


GophersOnTheRise said:
You offer a lot of bets for a message board full of people you'll probably never see. How would you recieve/send money if someone accepts the bet?
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Receive. PayPal or in person (I'm at most games). Usually though I prefer to make bets where the loser sends the winnings to charity. It's fairly easy to spot me (odd, obese, dorky, etc) & I've met a number of folks on the board. PM if you've got some dough to burn.
 

I'm surprised you're making that comment after one exhibition. I know you aren't very high on the Gophers this year, but 7th - 10th? Just curious... do you think your range would've been different before the scrimmage? I'm just surprised that it sounds like you're implying anything better than 7th would be somewhat of a surprise to you.

Gopher Warrior said:
Saw nothing unexpected. Looks like a team that should finish somewhere around 7th to 10th place in the conference. If Tubby gets this team to the tournament, he will have done a helluva job.
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It's probably more likely that neither of you pay, assuming nothing happens if the team does somewhere in the middle of that. Any serious injury to Mbakwe or Sampson, or both Andre and Welch, and you probably win. Those guys don't get injured and you probably lose or neither loses.

Gopher Warrior said:
Receive. PayPal or in person (I'm at most games). Usually though I prefer to make bets where the loser sends the winnings to charity. It's fairly easy to spot me (odd, obese, dorky, etc) & I've met a number of folks on the board. PM if you've got some dough to burn.
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GW, I agree the most likely scenario is 6th-8th, but I'm taking a flyer on the Gophers finishing 5th (maybe even 4th).

How about for $10 (I'm good for it if I lose)? You win if the Gophers finish 9th-12th, I win if they finish 5th or better.

For clarity's sake, should we go with the Gophers' B1G Tournament seed? Or does a tie for 5th/8th = 5/8 no matter the seed? I'll let you make the call.

I'll feel a lot better about the wager if the Gophers split (or better) their 2-game road swing to start the B1G season. Lose both and they'll be climbing up hill the rest of the way.
 

Get used to the gophers giving up the three especially early in the season. It happened a lot last year with experienced perimeter defenders. Bucknell could beat us if we don't adjust. I just cannot help commenting that if you have "no post threat" does it make sense to double team the post?

Yes I know if the defense is working correctly and getting deflections it still works, but at what point does that happen. I am not a huge fan of the ball-line defense.
 

Agree on the ball-line defense. There is NO reason to help when we've got post defenders like Trevor and Ralph playing against bad post players (and there aren't many great inside scorers in the Big Ten anymore anyway). Seriously, Tubby, let's get rid of that system.
 

jmag21 said:
Agree on the ball-line defense. There is NO reason to help when we've got post defenders like Trevor and Ralph playing against bad post players (and there aren't many great inside scorers in the Big Ten anymore anyway). Seriously, Tubby, let's get rid of that system.
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Ya, Jared Sullinger sucks.
Anyway, the thing is if you got a guy slashing you need a guy like Trevor or Sampson in there to help. Tonight those 2 were alternating guarding a three point shooter so when they helped there guy was left open. In the actual season, I doubt we would put either of them in a match-up like that and I would not be shocked if in that situation we went zone, assuming Bemidji had no post threat. (I haven't seen the game so I don't know what kind of offense Bemidji ran)
 

Regarding our 3 ball defense, I am sure it looks pretty bad and can leave a bad impression as we continue on with the same defensive philosophy. However, it is not the 3 ball defense that has gotten us into the trouble in reality. Statistically speaking, our opponents have not been making them to critically hurt us with any consistency. It is just that when the ball line defense fails, it does so utterly and completely along the perimeter. However, that does not mean the opponents make them at will when our defense falters. Of course, one can argue that eventually the law of large numbers may catch up with us, and the opponents will make them at a higher % with better consistency. But, until they do so, if Tubby feels that shutting down the interior is the priority, he may do so. Especially, with the possible depth issue in the frontcourt in case that Mo gets redshirted, it is not such a bad idea as our opponents will have to think twice about attacking our bigs.

Of course, with the defensive philosophy, we will be relatively more vulnerable to the teams with lots of 3 ball threats with little interior offense. For that, I agree that Tubby needs to make tactical adjustments. But, abandoning the whole system seems premature.

The biggest problem over the past two seasons, I think, was that we did not have enough good man-to-man defenders on the perimeter. Once Nolen went down, Tubby chose to leave the perimeter more open, it seems. And, I do not believe it necessarily was a tactical mistake. We just need to keep track of our guards/wings and how they cope with it. If there is a room for improvement because some of them are good defenders, then Tubby should do so depending on match-ups.

Again, I am not saying the 3 ball defense is not a problem at all. But, it may not be as big a problem as many seem to think.
 

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