Gophers vs. North Carolina - 11/19/10

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Our lack of depth is amplified by Devoe's suspension.. I hope these boys are ready to play, because we are not deep. After foul-prone Colt and young Hollins, I don't think I'd feel good about our chances with anyone else getting double digit minutes at this point.

Each of our starters had at least 32 minutes... North Carolina had no one play more than 25 minutes today. I'm glad Tubby limited the bench play, though.. I think early on we're up maybe 6.. he tried out the hockey sub method and the lead was cut quickly, even after a quick trey by the young and trigger-happy Sulpher Sniper.

Get some rest gentlemen. Tomorrow is the first game of the season we're not supposed to win.

BTW - we play tomorrow at 7:30pm CT on ESPNU. If we win, we play Sunday night at 6:30pm CT on ESPN2. If we lose, we play Sunday at 4:30pm CT on ESPN2.
 

If the game is in the 80s or 90s, the gophers are SOL. Keep it low scoring and slow, and the gophers bigs have a chance to beat UNC. The athleticism that UNC has on the edge makes even Rodney Williams blush.
 


Rosemountian said:
If the game is in the 80s or 90s, the gophers are SOL. Keep it low scoring and slow, and the gophers bigs have a chance to beat UNC. The athleticism that UNC has on the edge makes even Rodney Williams blush.
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Couldn't disagree more with that statement. Should be a good game though. Can't wait.
 

Their wings dont hold a candle to Rodneys athletic ability.. Rodney vs Barnes will be a HUGE game for Rodney to proove his pro stock
 


Gopher Warrior said:
Our lack of depth is amplified by Devoe's suspension.. I hope these boys are ready to play, because we are not deep. After foul-prone Colt and young Hollins, I don't think I'd feel good about our chances with anyone else getting double digit minutes at this point.

Each of our starters had at least 32 minutes... North Carolina had no one play more than 25 minutes today. I'm glad Tubby limited the bench play, though.. I think early on we're up maybe 6.. he tried out the hockey sub method and the lead was cut quickly, even after a quick trey by the young and trigger-happy Sulpher Sniper.

Get some rest gentlemen. Tomorrow is the first game of the season we're not supposed to win.

BTW - we play tomorrow at 6:30pm CT on ESPNU. If we win, we play Sunday night at 6:30pm CT on ESPN2. If we lose, we play Sunday at 4:30pm CT on ESPN2.
Click to expand...

Wrong..7:30 CT
 


Somehow I think the Barnes/Williams matchup is going to be very important.
 

Wasn't really being serious when I said Williams would blush. I will say that UNC is a lot faster and more athletic than the gophers with the exception of Williams. A lower scoring game favors the gophers. Make them play Big Ten Basketball.
 



We need to bring our "A" game, control the tempo of the game, and make our FT and we could win.
 

Some notes from today's game that the Gophs can hopefully keep up or improve on:

* Rodney looked really good today with his drives to the basket and his pull-up jumpers. Hope he can keep it up tomorrow.
* Ralph and Trevor did work out there today. I sure hope that carries over; it should for Ralph as he has been looking forward to playing UNC forever.
* We were out rebounded 55-46, completely unacceptable considering the size advantage we had. Let's hope Colton can get it together tomorrow and contribute here.
* The Toppers stole the ball 12 times and we had 19 turnovers. That is way too many, we need to take care of the ball better against UNC.

That said, the team as a whole looked really good today and seems to have gotten most of the kinks worked out from the first 2 games. I sure hope they can put up this good of an effort tomorrow and knock down some more FTs. Go Gophers!

P.S. Suck it Hilltopper fans... it was a blast reading their forum now that they have their tails between their legs as opposed to the last 3 days when they were sure they would win.
 


I also immediately thought of the matchup of Williams and Barnes. I really hope Rodney doesn't get into foul trouble. I'm not sure who else would guard him. Well, I suppose Hollins would. Should be a very interesting match. This is a much different type of team than we're used to.
 



I think actually were we hold an advantage is at PG, if Al can have his way with Larry Drew (which he should) I think this can be a reallly good game. Get it General!
 

I can tell you this, if harrison has not played a quality team, and if anyone in the tourney is gonna shut him down, it will be rodney.
 

I'm not sure what will happen today but last night sure was fun.
 

kenpom.com says 76-71 UNC, gives us a 31% chance of winning.
 

Trevor and Al are our advantages.

UNC has no one that can bang with Trevor. Henson is a stick and while Zeller added some weight during the offseason, he's more of a feel player and not a banger.

Al is a better point guard than Drew, Marshall, or Strickland. They're better scorers but Al is better at everything else. They're all poor defenders and turn the ball over way too much.

UNC is a good shot blocking team with Henson and Zeller, just as we are. Where they hold a definitive advantage is on the wing. Bullock and Barnes are going to be very tough to guard.

It's been a while since UNC has played any defense. I think we can score on them. The question is can Hoff, Hollins, Armelin, and Rodney keep up with their wings.
 


Lots of stuff to clean up after last night. Half court offense looked stagnant at times, turovers were bad in the first half, as mentioned that rebounding stat is unacceptable, and FREE THROW SHOOTING! The scary part is that they really didn't play all that well last night and still had a slight blowout of a win against a good team. Let's see what happens tonight.
Win = I will be ecstatic
Keep it close = I will still be very happy
 

North Carolina has played 2 bad teams so far. We are going to be the first real team they face and we are the best defense that some of their players have ever played against so far. I think that will be a factor through the first half at least and their freshmen will hopefully be rattled. Hopefully that's enough to give us a good shot at the game.
 

Gopher07 said:
kenpom.com says 76-71 UNC, gives us a 31% chance of winning.
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I'll take the 31% chance if winning. If we weren't sooooo unpracticed and inefficient at freethrows, I'de like to think we have a 50-50 chance. We are averaging over 11 missed freethrows per game and our oppenents 8. How can we expect to spot a team like NC 3 points and win?
 

mattw1067 said:
North Carolina has played 2 bad teams so far. We are going to be the first real team they face and we are the best defense that some of their players have ever played against so far. I think that will be a factor through the first half at least and their freshmen will hopefully be rattled. Hopefully that's enough to give us a good shot at the game.
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That's a good point. I dont' know how long it's a factor, but it might help us jump out to an early lead at least.
 

Roland Brooks

Vegas has it at

-6 and 153 over/under

-6 tells me Vegas has some respect for the Gophers!
 


daxter said:
We need to bring our "A" game, control the tempo of the game, and make our FT and we could win.
Click to expand...

I agree that we need to control the tempo but we need to do it by slowing them down defensively. If we slow down much on offense we are toast. Our offense is not good in slow mode.
We can't have 18-20 turnovers however- if we are in the 12-14 range the game will be a good one.
 

Not outrebounded

I'm not sure where Mattw1067 got his numbers, but he box score shows that we outrebounded WKU 40-39. We did give up 17 offensive rebounds, while only managing 10 ourselves, but that was more a product of shooting percentages (WKU=37.5%; Minn=62.5%) than anything else. WKU just had a lot more misses to rebound. Overall I thought we rebounded ok (Mbakwe got 10, Ralph got 8 and Rodney got 7) considering what a weakness it's been for years.


mattw1067 said:
Some notes from today's game that the Gophs can hopefully keep up or improve on:

* Rodney looked really good today with his drives to the basket and his pull-up jumpers. Hope he can keep it up tomorrow.
* Ralph and Trevor did work out there today. I sure hope that carries over; it should for Ralph as he has been looking forward to playing UNC forever.
* We were out rebounded 55-46, completely unacceptable considering the size advantage we had. Let's hope Colton can get it together tomorrow and contribute here.
* The Toppers stole the ball 12 times and we had 19 turnovers. That is way too many, we need to take care of the ball better against UNC.

That said, the team as a whole looked really good today and seems to have gotten most of the kinks worked out from the first 2 games. I sure hope they can put up this good of an effort tomorrow and knock down some more FTs. Go Gophers!

P.S. Suck it Hilltopper fans... it was a blast reading their forum now that they have their tails between their legs as opposed to the last 3 days when they were sure they would win.
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We're so unpracticed at freethrows?

MN1nAZ said:
I'll take the 31% chance if winning. If we weren't sooooo unpracticed and inefficient at freethrows, I'de like to think we have a 50-50 chance. We are averaging over 11 missed freethrows per game and our oppenents 8. How can we expect to spot a team like NC 3 points and win?
Click to expand...
 

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