Have the Gophers turned the corner?

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5. Continued improvement from freshmen - these guys are coming together and look more poised with every game! Need some more point production outside of Payne last night but they aren’t forcing it and the game will come to them if they keep the smart, hard effort up!

I like the improvement and I like the accountability. Carrington had a very active game a couple of weeks ago and it looked like it clicked for him that he needs to play hard and smart and let the rest come to him- then he was sick, missed some practices and has looked lethargic the last two games and got a relatively quick hook. Henley got a lot of PT early season, then had a few games with not much, and the last couple of games he has been very active in his minutes and earning more. For a bunch of kids that are used to playing 36 minutes a game and being the focal point, it has to be tough to figure out where you add value and how to contribute. Especially if your friends and relatives are thinking you could /should start at Duke or Kansas
 

short ornery norwegian said:
improvement - yes.

Turned the corner - too early to say.

like others, my biggest concern is the FR. I expected more out of Carrington. Henley also has a long way to go. Payne has the physical presence, but needs experience. Same with JOJ - gives good defensive effort, but a real work-in-progress on offense.

I wonder what - if anything - Betts might have been able to provide this year. But I suspect that red-shirting is probably the right decision.

but, if you want to be optimistic - next year the FR and Betts will all be a year older and more mature. Then add Evans and Christie to the mix, and you have - potentially - a very interesting roster. a quick or athletic PG would be the icing on the cake, if they can find one in the portal.

(saw a tweet that Evans and Christie are each under consideration for McDonald's All-American status. D*mn - two McDon's AA in the same class - that would be sweet)
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I saw an article a while back that posited Evans was a lock for AA honors.

One would raise our profile tremendously and two would be seismic for the program in the same class.
 

Did they play a good game or did the Buckeye play a not so good game?
 

RockChalk said:
Did they play a good game or did the Buckeye play a not so good game?
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well, sometimes what team A does can result in Team B not looking so good.

Other times, Team B just plays like dog cr*p.

it can be hard to tell which is which unless you really know Team B very well. Having not seen OSU play before, I can't say.
 

RockChalk said:
Did they play a good game or did the Buckeye play a not so good game?
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Buckeyes haven't been playing their best ball. Did I hear right that this is their third straight loss?

One way or another, I think an objective observer would say that both teams have their capabilities and their flaws.
 


RockChalk said:
Did they play a good game or did the Buckeye play a not so good game?
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I think its both. OSU has definitely struggled of late and did not look good most of the game, but Minnesota is cutting down the TO's, better shots, ok rebounding, improved offensive flow, and the D isn't looking like a night at Plaza de Toros Las Ventas. I think in short Minnesota is moving away from completely shooting themselves in the foot, to we won't beat ourselves and we hope you will screw up enough that we can win. They definitely aren't an unstoppable force on any part of the court, but they aren't completely beating themselves lately. This is a welcomed step at this point.
 

May be early to ask if we have turned the corner. Are we likely to shoot better than 50% every game? The couple B1G wins last year were like that. One or two guys caught fire and we won. Didn’t happen often enough, as we finished last.
Good to get a win. Now let’s go win a bunch. Then we can determine whether the corner has been turned.
 

ATLgopherfan said:
There were a few too many plays in the first half with blown assignments, OSU guys getting gimmes. I think JOJ especially was guilty of not always knowing where he needed to be. But it's a learning process and overall defense looked good.
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JoJ and Henley had tough nights defensively. I thought Carrington gave some good minutes in that side of the ball, but he's definitely not confident in his shot right now.
 

We’ve at least stopped the bleeding. At a minimum, we’ve started to at least show the effort needed to compete.

I think the situation around Payne is tough. He’s definitely one of our best players, and has a ton of potential. I also think that garcia is best at the 5 and battle is best at the 4, where they can each expose mismatches on offense. When Payne is in, garcia and battle slide down and I think they lose a bit of efficiency.

I don’t know if you can have Payne, garcia, and battle all on the floor at the same time. Not quite enough foot speed to defend all around, and the offense seems to clog a little.

Maybe they’ll figure out how to play together better - garcia and battle sure look a lot better on the court at the same time than they did at the start of the year.
 



goldenboy said:
May be early to ask if we have turned the corner. Are we likely to shoot better than 50% every game? The couple B1G wins last year were like that. One or two guys caught fire and we won. Didn’t happen often enough, as we finished last.
Good to get a win. Now let’s go win a bunch. Then we can determine whether the corner has been turned.
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It’s not like we caught fire from 3 - we shot 31%. 2 point shooting % feels a bit more sticky than 3 point shooting %, since a good shooting % from 2 often results from good ball movement and getting better shots, which is something that is repeatable.

It didn’t feel like we were hitting that many tough, contested shots last night, a lot of them were just good looks that we made.
 

skyman31 said:
It’s not like we caught fire from 3 - we shot 31%. 2 point shooting % feels a bit more sticky than 3 point shooting %, since a good shooting % from 2 often results from good ball movement and getting better shots, which is something that is repeatable.

It didn’t feel like we were hitting that many tough, contested shots last night, a lot of them were just good looks that we made.
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Agreed. Far less desperation heaves at the end of the shot clock last night, though the last 4 minutes were rough.
 

I believe we have turned a corner but not the corner. Still lots of improvement needed to even be in the middle of the pack.
I love the intensity Of the defense and the patience of the offense.
 

Bad Gopher said:
Buckeyes haven't been playing their best ball. Did I hear right that this is their third straight loss?

One way or another, I think an objective observer would say that both teams have their capabilities and their flaws.
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I think the Suckeyes were without Zed Key, a key inside component to their offense and defense. Being without a key player helps us. But they have been playing badly lately as well. It’s not always who but when you play them. That’s why the Wisconsin game eats at me. They lost a player and had an off night. Should have won that one.
 



Holy Man said:
I think the Suckeyes were without Zed Key, a key inside component to their offense and defense. Being without a key player helps us. But they have been playing badly lately as well. It’s not always who but when you play them. That’s why the Wisconsin game eats at me. They lost a player and had an off night. Should have won that one.
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You should probably watch the game or at least look at a box score before commenting. He played 30 minutes.
 

golfing18now said:
I hope Ben Johnson doesn't go Iron Five like he did at the end of last year. Getting experience for Joseph/Henley/Carrington should be the priority over eking out a win or two.
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Yeah if Ben goes Iron Five, it would completely ruin my assumption that we're rebuilding. That would totally switch things around...with me calling for his firing and most others appeased by the couple extra wins.
 

Gopher_In_NYC said:
I saw an article a while back that posited Evans was a lock for AA honors.

One would raise our profile tremendously and two would be seismic for the program in the same class.
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From what I remember, like 100 players or more get “nominated” for the McDonald’s AA game, but far fewer get selected and actually named as McDonald’s AA’s. It wouldn’t surprise me if Christie was nominated but has little chance of being selected. Evans I’d guess could get there though, unless his game just isn’t polished enough yet.
 

tikited said:
Garcia has been the biggest positive imo. Really struggled early on but has amped it up big time.
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Yeah you could tell he hadn’t played since last December and was missing Battle and some others. Teams really spotlighted on him with no punishment early.
 

skyman31 said:
We’ve at least stopped the bleeding. At a minimum, we’ve started to at least show the effort needed to compete.

I think the situation around Payne is tough. He’s definitely one of our best players, and has a ton of potential. I also think that garcia is best at the 5 and battle is best at the 4, where they can each expose mismatches on offense. When Payne is in, garcia and battle slide down and I think they lose a bit of efficiency.

I don’t know if you can have Payne, garcia, and battle all on the floor at the same time. Not quite enough foot speed to defend all around, and the offense seems to clog a little.

Maybe they’ll figure out how to play together better - garcia and battle sure look a lot better on the court at the same time than they did at the start of the year.
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Did you watch the game last night? That was their crunch time lineup. I would guess they were on the floor together around half the time.
 


Look, we won one, let me reiterate that, one, B1G conference game. This isn't turning a corner. This is not tripping and falling in a pothole, so you can push another sucker in it.

Until we start shooting FTs, as a team, at 75-80% rate, we will not be leveraging the gift points teams give us.
 

Ewert86PC said:
Look, we won one, let me reiterate that, one, B1G conference game. This isn't turning a corner. This is not tripping and falling in a pothole, so you can push another sucker in it.

Until we start shooting FTs, as a team, at 75-80% rate, we will not be leveraging the gift points teams give us.
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How so? Lost by three @ Wisconsin. Took Nebraska to OT. Won @ Ohio State.

Is this still the worst Gophers basketball team in recent history? Is this team still bound to win zero Big Ten games?

Do you know what the phrase "turning a corner" means?
 

Ewert86PC said:
Look, we won one, let me reiterate that, one, B1G conference game. This isn't turning a corner. This is not tripping and falling in a pothole, so you can push another sucker in it.

Until we start shooting FTs, as a team, at 75-80% rate, we will not be leveraging the gift points teams give us.
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Good grief, I don't see anybody claiming we're going to be playing on Sunday during the BIG Tournament. People are encouraged--and relieved--because this team started to look like they have at least a clue. There's an actual flow to the offense; they're playing harder and more cohesively on defense; they're rebounding much better; Garcia is having an impact. I get the bar had been set very low, but these recent games are also a hell of a lot more than "not tripping and falling in a pothole." Whatever that snarky shit is supposed to mean.
 

ethomasp31 said:
Did you watch the game last night? That was their crunch time lineup. I would guess they were on the floor together around half the time.
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Yeah, good point. I guess my main thought was that Garcia and battle both look best to me when they’re able to win with speed, since neither of them really back guys down, and pushing them down to the 3/4 takes that away a bit.

I don’t know the breakdown, but I’d be curious how many of Garcias points came while Payne was also in the game.
 

Ewert86PC said:
Look, we won one, let me reiterate that, one, B1G conference game. This isn't turning a corner. This is not tripping and falling in a pothole, so you can push another sucker in it.

Until we start shooting FTs, as a team, at 75-80% rate, we will not be leveraging the gift points teams give us.
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Well, very few teams shoot free throws at that percentage. If this team can average two out of three and we can get Cooper north of 70 percent, this team could be dangerous.
 

Bad Gopher said:
Well, very few teams shoot free throws at that percentage. If this team can average two out of three and we can get Cooper north of 70 percent, this team could be dangerous.
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Yeah, there are currently 6 teams in the country shooting 80% or above, and only 45 in all of D1 shooting 75% from free throws. That is very much not the norm.
 

Almost won at Wisconsin - approaching the corner.

Should have beat Nebraska at home - at the corner.

Beat Ohio State on the the road - turned the corner.

Beat Illinois at home - cruising down the road.
 


Might not be the right thread, but I really think the offense could make a big step up, if Battle would drive. Several times he got his man to jump out on the perimeter and instead of driving he side stepped and backed up to try to shoot a 3. Go to the hoop, get fouled or drop it off to Payne if his man slides over to help.
 

Bad Gopher said:
Buckeyes haven't been playing their best ball. Did I hear right that this is their third straight loss?

One way or another, I think an objective observer would say that both teams have their capabilities and their flaws.
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It was Ohio State's third loss although one of the previous 2 losses was to Purdue by 2 points and the other was on the road against Maryland.

Ohio State isn't a great team but they are a very good offensive team so holding them under 70 was impressive given they routinely score in the 80s and 90s.

Nice road win over a solid team and hopefully a step in the right direction for the Gophers.
 

RockChalk said:
Did they play a good game or did the Buckeye play a not so good game?
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Both.

If Ohio State plays well, they beat us most games. However, if we played like we did in some of our games this year, we get beat by 15.

Other than a couple of the worst teams in the Big 10, it will require both our opponents playing bad and us playing well for us to win.
 

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