Illinois is where....

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Costa Rican Gopher

Costa Rican Gopher

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We can separate ourselves from the Illinois, Mich St, OSU pack & officially join the Indiana & Michigan top-tier. If we want to be an elite team we have to beat a good, but beatable Illinois team.

Then on to Indiana with a chance for a signature win! Let yourself dream a little here....imagine the energy in the Barn if we pulled off an upset of Indiana & came home to face Michigan for sole possession of 1st place in the B1G? I'd buy a scalp for that game regardless of price.
 

Yeah, the Illinois game is where we truly prove we belong. A loss against Indiana at their barn wouldn't change that.
 






We match up fairly well against Illinois. They like to spread four around the arch and screen for Brandon Paul. Our mix of athleticism and physicality are kind of the perfect storm for Illinois' half court offense. I would also like to see Austin guard Paul a little bit.
 


Yeah, my anxiousness for this Illinois game is at an all time high. Time to go on the road and prove we are as elite as our ranking would indicate.
 



RoyalGopher said:
We match up fairly well against Illinois. They like to spread four around the arch and screen for Brandon Paul. Our mix of athleticism and physicality are kind of the perfect storm for Illinois' half court offense. I would also like to see Austin guard Paul a little bit.
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Defensively, I feel like the Gophers can play with most teams in the country because we have the athletes at pretty much every position to be able to at least be decent defensively since we have pretty good length, speed, and size to matchup IMO.

The thing that will probably make or break this two game trip, I'm thinking, is whether we can take care of the ball well enough to keep teams from getting too many chances in broken floor situations. Not only is that giving up easy buckets, it's getting the crowd excited, and building momentum in their favor. It goes without saying you don't wanna give the crowd more reasons to get hyped up.
 

As long as we can get out on jump shooters we should be fine. Illinois doesn't exactly like to pass or attack the basket.
 


I'm pretty optimistic about Assembly Hall week. Last year we should have won @Illinois (I was at that one) and we actually won @Indiana. Both games we didn't have Mbakwe and Dre had yet to turn into his dominant self.
 



I look for Illinois to try pressure Dre into turnovers, but Austin will be there to help Dre, will either take on Illinois by himself or feed the paint and we will dominate this game.

The Dr. has spoken. Gophers win by 5 or more.
 

Dr.Don said:
I look for Illinois to try pressure Dre into turnovers, but Austin will be there to help Dre, will either take on Illinois by himself or feed the paint and we will dominate this game.

The Dr. has spoken. Gophers win by 5 or more.
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I agree with you, Don. I think if the Gophers limit their turnovers to around the 10-12 mark, and shoot their norm from the field that we'll win this one without too much trouble. They won't have an answer for Trevor or Rodney down low and it's hard to miss a lay up whether you're at home or on the road.
 

We will have the rebounding edge, especially on offense. Illinois will make 3-pointers, so it's all about limiting their open looks.
 

Not sure Illinois has an answer for Williams, combined with Mbwake's presence I would hope the Gophs can completely control the middle.
 

Gopher Bandanna Guy said:
I'm guessing we'll have a fair rebounding advantage against the Illini too? Watched a couple of their games earlier this year, and they didn't seem to be a team real interested in boarding misses. Looks like they average a couple more boards per game than Northwestern, who was abyssmal. Thoughts?
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Per game rebounding is a unicorn statistic (you can believe it is real all you want, but it does not exist.) Required reading: http://basketballprospectus.com/article.php?articleid=829

Which brings us down to the blindingly obvious and indeed fatal flaws with this thing: Pace and misses. Teams that play fast-paced games with lots of misses, both their opponents' and their own (see the problem already?), will rack up a high number of rebounds. But of course there's nothing about a faster-paced team that truly makes them a better rebounding group than a slower-paced outfit. And since when should you actually need to miss your own shots to look "better" statistically?
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Now if we want to talk about rebounding percentages, Illinois is much better than Northwestern on the offensive glass and worse than Northwestern (yes, this is possible) on the defensive glass.
 

From the Barn said:
Now if we want to talk about rebounding percentages, Illinois is much better than Northwestern on the offensive glass and worse than Northwestern (yes, this is possible) on the defensive glass.
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This combined with the fact that we are the best offensive rebounding team in the country could be the tipping point to put the game in our favor.
 

Seth Davis likes us against the Illini.

Seth Davis ‏@SethDavisHoops
Gophers! I like their inside muscle. Built for the road. RT @DevinThompson22: Minnesota or Illinois! Who wins?
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Sounds like he's going with IU on Saturday.

Seth Davis ‏@SethDavisHoops
Hoosiers really need to make a stand--and they will RT @CoCoWilliams35: Minn or IU on Saturday?
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I'd love to see the Gophs run the table, but realistically, no one is going to run the table in the B1G this year. I would not be surprised to see the regular-season league champion with 3 or 4 losses. It all comes down to defending the home court, and stealing a game or two on the road when you're an underdog on paper.

So, If the Gophs take a losss or two in the next week, let's try not to go nuts and start jumping off the bridge - or the bandwagon. We'll leave that to Pat Reusse.
 

Good topic. I agree 2 wins and MN vaults into Big Time status. Split and I think MN is about where they are now, maybe inching up a tad. But I do think with a 2-1 record over the next three they are way up there.

Lose the next three and I think we slide some, fair or not. I would be "ok" with 1-2 over the next three games, and dont think that damages MN to much.
 

1-2 would be easy to stomach once you look at the schedule and realize this is easily our hardest stretch of the season. It's nice that we end the season with some cupcakes, or at least as close as it gets to cupcakes in the Big Ten this year.
 

Please fill in the blanks...

If the Gophers ___________________________________

Then the Gophers ________________________________
 

Dr.Don said:
Please fill in the blanks...

If the Gophers __________________________________

Then the Gophers ________________________________
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If the gophers win the next 3 games, (@ill, @indiana and Michigan) then the gophers will be #2.
 

MadtownGopher;635343[B said:
]1-2 would be easy to stomach once you look at the schedule and realize this is easily our hardest stretch of the season[/B]. It's nice that we end the season with some cupcakes, or at least as close as it gets to cupcakes in the Big Ten this year.
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+1
 

From the Barn said:
Now if we want to talk about rebounding percentages, Illinois is much better than Northwestern on the offensive glass and worse than Northwestern (yes, this is possible) on the defensive glass.
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I'm still trying to comprehend a team that could be worse on the defensive boards than Northwestern... yowza.
 

I don't like our chances over the next 2 games. It's really hard to win on the road in the B1G and even tougher against the upper division. Going 1-1 should be considered a major victory. Going 0-2 won't be the end of our season.

Folks - the B1G is tough enough this year that I think it's entirely possible we lose 7 or 8 games and we still have the talent and ability to make it to the Elite 8.

Then add in that the #2 team in the country and possibly the most impressive over the past month visits the following game. Wow! 0-3 is entirely possible and still not something that ends our aspirations. 1-2 is what a reasonable person might expect. 2-1 is great success (Borat impression). 3-0 and we're getting #1 votes in the polls, going from the #8 team to the #2 or #3 team in a little over a week.
 


You can bet Illinois will be fired up for their game against us, and the crowd will be into it. They are a streaky team, and I fear they're likely to be hot against us. Our D is going to have to be focused from the get-go to prevent that.

I don't know what the line is, but I'd be surprised if we're favored at Illinois.
 

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