Iowa at Minnesota Post Game Thread

Actually I did not summarize your post which said we played good defense overall ... . I said the defense fell a little short of that description because we were outrebounded badly and gave up 18 second and third shots, many of which resulted in points for Iowa. When the other team brings the ball down the court and ends up scoring after one or more missed shots it is not good defense.
A defense did not do the job until they finish the possession with a turnover or a rebound.
 


I love that this is a tracked stat that Pitino is paying attention to. It gives a good reason to believe the offense we have seen the last two games will be the norm and not the exception.
Agreed. Obviously the players have to actually make the passes and the specific offense Pitino runs can make ball movement easier or harder, but it's good to see that there's at least a conscious effort to improve the ball movement
 

What minutes would you have given Mutaf in the past two games?
Somewhere in here I said much the same...not sure there was the right opportunity in the past two games. St Louis wouldn't be fair to him because of their aggressiveness and quickness to experiment....not a good situation to likely succeed.
Iowa we had a defensive game plan that probably doesn't fit Mutaf perfectly in experience, quickness, recognition etc and more importantly offensively we were making threes as a team.

So, I'm just saying I'd like to see him get an opportunity when we need points. Had he played in the first half, in the second half when Iowa extended their end of the first half run to a 17 to 2 run in the second half...somewhere before that. He seems to be instant offense....just wanna see more.
 



IA had 78 shots, 11 more than MN.
IA had 38 FTs, 9 more thanMN.
IA had 55 RBs to 38 for MN.
If IA had even played mediocre defense they would have won going away.
 

Somewhere in here I said much the same...not sure there was the right opportunity in the past two games. St Louis wouldn't be fair to him because of their aggressiveness and quickness to experiment....not a good situation to likely succeed.
Iowa we had a defensive game plan that probably doesn't fit Mutaf perfectly in experience, quickness, recognition etc and more importantly offensively we were making threes as a team.

So, I'm just saying I'd like to see him get an opportunity when we need points. Had he played in the first half, in the second half when Iowa extended their end of the first half run to a 17 to 2 run in the second half...somewhere before that. He seems to be instant offense....just wanna see more.

So as long as the opponent is slow, or undersized, or he doesn’t need to play defense—you think he is good to go?
 


I watched the game late, late at night. I knew the Gophers had won but no other details. I was very very confused when they were down 7 with like 43 seconds left how they actually won to the point that I wondered if I somehow had bad information. We've been on the wrong side of that type of thing a ton during both the Pitino and Tubby years but I can't recall such an unlikely victory in the waning seconds.

First half I thought the Gophers played really, really well. I though they might win going away. If I was watching live, the sequence at the end of the half where Gabe missed the wide open 3 and then Iowa nailed a 3 would have seemed huge. That was a potential 11 point lead at half that all of a sudden was just 5. Even beyond that sequence the Gophers could have been up by much more going in to the half. They got good shots on almost every possession offensively and could have hit a higher percentage and they also played without Robbins due to foul trouble. I (mistakenly) thought the rebouding would improve with Robbins back in the second half.

I believe it was a 17-2 run for Iowa that took them from down 8 to up 7 that spanned the end of the first half through the start of the second. I don't feel like the Gophers played bad during this stretch. They missed a comical number of open shots during this period including Gach losing the handle on the ball on a wide open dunk. The defense was weak in transition, but strong in the half court, but the rebounding was still atrocious. From that point on though, I thought the Gophers played really, really bad for the majority of the 2nd half. They didn't handle the zone well despite playing offense next to their bench. The offensive rebounding by Iowa became almost comical and the first shot defense started to wane as well. At one point the stat was Iowa had 18 offensive rebounds to Minnesota's 19 defensive rebounds, which is crazy. The first 3 by Marcus Carr to cut it to 3 was an unreal invidual effort, the second was a great shot but also a special shout out to Brandon Johnson for the screen then the re-screen which freed Carr and gave him a great look.

Overtime was the Brandon Johnson show as the top of the key 3 opened up the scoring and his baseline 3 was basically the dagger. I still think the Gophers own defense could have been better in the overtime period, but it was at least closer to what we saw in the first half. It was interesting to me that we saw much more of Mashburn Jr. in crunch time (late in regulation and OT) than we saw of Both Gach. I would guess that Gach was deemed responsible for some of the defensive breakdowns but haven't seen an explanation.

I mentioned numerous times that I thought Minnesota matched up well here, so the result wasn't a big surprise to me. Iowa simply cannot defend and the Gophers can (and did) score against them. I was very surprised that they won without getting Garza in any sort of foul trouble and even more surprised that they won while getting dominated on the boards something I didn't think had any chance of happening. I am not sure I recall a Gopher team ever giving up 27 offensive boards in a game. To do it against a team that is not athletic nor particularly physical is a major warning sign going forward. They won't win many games the rest of the season if they can't control their defensive boards significantly better than that. I'd have to go back and watch the game a second time to see who the major offenders were, but it seemed like an entire team issue.

Regardless of what happens the rest of the year, Brandon Johnson has a memory to last a lifetime. As a grad transfer from a MAC school, you can't ask for many bigger moments than he had last night. Hopefully, this is just a jumping off point for Brandon and he becomes a ~15 ppg player and threat from the arc going forward.

More concerned about Gabe offensively after this game than any of the previous ones. He was getting practice jumpers and missing them. You simply cannot get better looks with more time to get it off than Gabe did and he simply couldn't knock them down. I believe the one 3 he did make was actually his toughest attempt. He did do a very nice job on Weiskamp and was aggressive getting to the free thrown line, but the shot might be broken right now. That's a bad sign when Mashburn Jr went 2-10 from the field (lots of wide open looks as well) and Tre Williams didn't get on the floor (and has a full year of shooting very poorly on his resume) .

What can you say about Marcus Carr? This program has been decidedly anti-clutch for as long as I can remember. Carr has two game winners and now a shot that sent a game to OT in less than 40 games as a Gopher. Really refreshing to see someone come up big in crunch time.
 



I watched the game late, late at night. I knew the Gophers had won but no other details. I was very very confused when they were down 7 with like 43 seconds left how they actually won to the point that I wondered if I somehow had bad information. We've been on the wrong side of that type of thing a ton during both the Pitino and Tubby years but I can't recall such an unlikely victory in the waning seconds.

First half I thought the Gophers played really, really well. I though they might win going away. If I was watching live, the sequence at the end of the half where Gabe missed the wide open 3 and then Iowa nailed a 3 would have seemed huge. That was a potential 11 point lead at half that all of a sudden was just 5. Even beyond that sequence the Gophers could have been up by much more going in to the half. They got good shots on almost every possession offensively and could have hit a higher percentage and they also played without Robbins due to foul trouble. I (mistakenly) thought the rebouding would improve with Robbins back in the second half.

I believe it was a 17-2 run for Iowa that took them from down 8 to up 7 that spanned the end of the first half through the start of the second. I don't feel like the Gophers played bad during this stretch. They missed a comical number of open shots during this period including Gach losing the handle on the ball on a wide open dunk. The defense was weak in transition, but strong in the half court, but the rebounding was still atrocious. From that point on though, I thought the Gophers played really, really bad for the majority of the 2nd half. They didn't handle the zone well despite playing offense next to their bench. The offensive rebounding by Iowa became almost comical and the first shot defense started to wane as well. At one point the stat was Iowa had 18 offensive rebounds to Minnesota's 19 defensive rebounds, which is crazy. The first 3 by Marcus Carr to cut it to 3 was an unreal invidual effort, the second was a great shot but also a special shout out to Brandon Johnson for the screen then the re-screen which freed Carr and gave him a great look.

Overtime was the Brandon Johnson show as the top of the key 3 opened up the scoring and his baseline 3 was basically the dagger. I still think the Gophers own defense could have been better in the overtime period, but it was at least closer to what we saw in the first half. It was interesting to me that we saw much more of Mashburn Jr. in crunch time (late in regulation and OT) than we saw of Both Gach. I would guess that Gach was deemed responsible for some of the defensive breakdowns but haven't seen an explanation.

I mentioned numerous times that I thought Minnesota matched up well here, so the result wasn't a big surprise to me. Iowa simply cannot defend and the Gophers can (and did) score against them. I was very surprised that they won without getting Garza in any sort of foul trouble and even more surprised that they won while getting dominated on the boards something I didn't think had any chance of happening. I am not sure I recall a Gopher team ever giving up 27 offensive boards in a game. To do it against a team that is not athletic nor particularly physical is a major warning sign going forward. They won't win many games the rest of the season if they can't control their defensive boards significantly better than that. I'd have to go back and watch the game a second time to see who the major offenders were, but it seemed like an entire team issue.

Regardless of what happens the rest of the year, Brandon Johnson has a memory to last a lifetime. As a grad transfer from a MAC school, you can't ask for many bigger moments than he had last night. Hopefully, this is just a jumping off point for Brandon and he becomes a ~15 ppg player and threat from the arc going forward.

More concerned about Gabe offensively after this game than any of the previous ones. He was getting practice jumpers and missing them. You simply cannot get better looks with more time to get it off than Gabe did and he simply couldn't knock them down. I believe the one 3 he did make was actually his toughest attempt. He did do a very nice job on Weiskamp and was aggressive getting to the free thrown line, but the shot might be broken right now. That's a bad sign when Mashburn Jr went 2-10 from the field (lots of wide open looks as well) and Tre Williams didn't get on the floor (and has a full year of shooting very poorly on his resume) .

What can you say about Marcus Carr? This program has been decidedly anti-clutch for as long as I can remember. Carr has two game winners and now a shot that sent a game to OT in less than 40 games as a Gopher. Really refreshing to see someone come up big in crunch time.
EG I appreciate the time and energy you put into these post game analyses, but there’s always an unrealistic emphasis on the negative. We played even with the number 4 team in the nation and yet your take away is that we played really really badly.

I hope your critiques and notes come out of a second watch of the game, because otherwise you might be missing a lot of basketball that is not perfect, but entertaining.
 

Analysis is simple. They hit 17 3's.

They won't do that again.
 

I watched the game late, late at night. I knew the Gophers had won but no other details. I was very very confused when they were down 7 with like 43 seconds left how they actually won to the point that I wondered if I somehow had bad information. We've been on the wrong side of that type of thing a ton during both the Pitino and Tubby years but I can't recall such an unlikely victory in the waning seconds.

First half I thought the Gophers played really, really well. I though they might win going away. If I was watching live, the sequence at the end of the half where Gabe missed the wide open 3 and then Iowa nailed a 3 would have seemed huge. That was a potential 11 point lead at half that all of a sudden was just 5. Even beyond that sequence the Gophers could have been up by much more going in to the half. They got good shots on almost every possession offensively and could have hit a higher percentage and they also played without Robbins due to foul trouble. I (mistakenly) thought the rebouding would improve with Robbins back in the second half.

I believe it was a 17-2 run for Iowa that took them from down 8 to up 7 that spanned the end of the first half through the start of the second. I don't feel like the Gophers played bad during this stretch. They missed a comical number of open shots during this period including Gach losing the handle on the ball on a wide open dunk. The defense was weak in transition, but strong in the half court, but the rebounding was still atrocious. From that point on though, I thought the Gophers played really, really bad for the majority of the 2nd half. They didn't handle the zone well despite playing offense next to their bench. The offensive rebounding by Iowa became almost comical and the first shot defense started to wane as well. At one point the stat was Iowa had 18 offensive rebounds to Minnesota's 19 defensive rebounds, which is crazy. The first 3 by Marcus Carr to cut it to 3 was an unreal invidual effort, the second was a great shot but also a special shout out to Brandon Johnson for the screen then the re-screen which freed Carr and gave him a great look.

Overtime was the Brandon Johnson show as the top of the key 3 opened up the scoring and his baseline 3 was basically the dagger. I still think the Gophers own defense could have been better in the overtime period, but it was at least closer to what we saw in the first half. It was interesting to me that we saw much more of Mashburn Jr. in crunch time (late in regulation and OT) than we saw of Both Gach. I would guess that Gach was deemed responsible for some of the defensive breakdowns but haven't seen an explanation.

I mentioned numerous times that I thought Minnesota matched up well here, so the result wasn't a big surprise to me. Iowa simply cannot defend and the Gophers can (and did) score against them. I was very surprised that they won without getting Garza in any sort of foul trouble and even more surprised that they won while getting dominated on the boards something I didn't think had any chance of happening. I am not sure I recall a Gopher team ever giving up 27 offensive boards in a game. To do it against a team that is not athletic nor particularly physical is a major warning sign going forward. They won't win many games the rest of the season if they can't control their defensive boards significantly better than that. I'd have to go back and watch the game a second time to see who the major offenders were, but it seemed like an entire team issue.

Regardless of what happens the rest of the year, Brandon Johnson has a memory to last a lifetime. As a grad transfer from a MAC school, you can't ask for many bigger moments than he had last night. Hopefully, this is just a jumping off point for Brandon and he becomes a ~15 ppg player and threat from the arc going forward.

More concerned about Gabe offensively after this game than any of the previous ones. He was getting practice jumpers and missing them. You simply cannot get better looks with more time to get it off than Gabe did and he simply couldn't knock them down. I believe the one 3 he did make was actually his toughest attempt. He did do a very nice job on Weiskamp and was aggressive getting to the free thrown line, but the shot might be broken right now. That's a bad sign when Mashburn Jr went 2-10 from the field (lots of wide open looks as well) and Tre Williams didn't get on the floor (and has a full year of shooting very poorly on his resume) .

What can you say about Marcus Carr? This program has been decidedly anti-clutch for as long as I can remember. Carr has two game winners and now a shot that sent a game to OT in less than 40 games as a Gopher. Really refreshing to see someone come up big in crunch time.
That sequence at the end of the 1st half reminded me of the Gophers at Wisconsin in '97. Charles Thomas missed a too-early 3 that would've put them up 13, and Bucky comes down and gets a buzzer three to cut it to 7. That was only one of four games the Gophs lost that year.
 

Analysis is simple. They hit 17 3's.

They won't do that again.
There are a lot of things about that game that won't happen again. They will find different ways to win perhaps by rebounding better. I hope this is a solid year. The team has potential, some depth and Carr is a clutch closer, an even better version of Vince Grier. I hope that doesn't ruin your day.
 





Take notice, with only 2 Minnesota boys on the court....keep finding those diamonds in the rough Pitino
 

IA had 78 shots, 11 more than MN.
IA had 38 FTs, 9 more thanMN.
IA had 55 RBs to 38 for MN.
If IA had even played mediocre defense they would have won going away.
Agreed. Wins are not likely to continue with rebounding stats like those. Illinois out-rebounded the Gophers 53-35, and St. Louis out-rebounded the Gophers 41-34.
 

Agreed. Wins are not likely to continue with rebounding stats like those. Illinois out-rebounded the Gophers 53-35, and St. Louis out-rebounded the Gophers 41-34.

Yeah and the unfortunate thing is Murphy isnt going to come walking thru the door anytime soon. Miss the days when he would be surrounded by 3 opposing rebounders and would still come down with the ball.
 


Analysis is simple. They hit 17 3's.

They won't do that again.

I'm shocked. USAF is being negative about the Gophers again. That's never happened before!

Remember everyone, he's the guy that runs and hides when the Gophers win, and then can't stop posting when they lose. Admittedly cheers for the team to lose...
 

Have never and will never understand cheering for losses. They happen plenty on their own no matter who they are. Said before this year i thought we would be top 5 and i feel a great deal better about that now with the small things i look for.
 

Even the 17 3’s made was on 43 attempts, for a team percentage of 39.5% for the game. Better than average for us, but not like absurdly high. And we hit at least 5 of them in overtime. I remember 4 from Johnson and 1 from Robbins in OT. That means we tied Iowa in regulation by shooting somewhere around 32% from 3 in the first 40 minutes of the game, and that’s a performance this team is perfectly capable of repeating.
 

I'm shocked. USAF is being negative about the Gophers again. That's never happened before!

Remember everyone, he's the guy that runs and hides when the Gophers win, and then can't stop posting when they lose. Admittedly cheers for the team to lose...
Lol. I run and hide when they win? You quoted my post ABOUT THE WIN.
 

Analysis is simple. They hit 17 3's.

They won't do that again.

Five of which came in OT. And they still shot under 40% from three. Your analysis in shite.
 

Some games you'll always remember watching...

I started watching the game a bit after 10PM after the kids went to bed (recorded of course). Just after midnight, there were about 40 seconds left, we're down by 5, and the wife comes into the room complaining of leg pain. Long story short, I turned off the TV and ended up taking her to the ER (was a false call -- worry was a blood clot had formed in her leg). Because of COVID they wouldn't let me into the ER, so at about 1AM sitting in my truck in the hospital parking lot, I started watching the rest of what I thought was going to be 40 seconds to a loss. Quite the turnaround. Made sitting in a truck in a hospital parking lot with something like 5 degree temps at 1AM and not being able to know what the situation was with the wife in the ER, a whole lot better. I'll remember this game for a while... Thanks Goph's :clap:
 
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Some games you'll always remember watching...

I started watching the game a bit after 10PM after the kids went to bed (recorded of course). Just after midnight, there were about 40 seconds left, we're down by 5, and the wife comes into the room complaining of leg pain. Long story short, I turned off the TV and ended up taking her to the ER (was a false call -- worry was a blood clot had formed in her leg). Because of COVID they wouldn't let me into the ER, so at about 1AM sitting in my truck in the hospital parking lot, I started watching the rest of what I thought was going to be 40 seconds to a loss. Quite the turnaround. Made sitting in a truck in a hospital parking lot with something like 5 degree temps at 1AM and not being able to know what the situation was with the wife in the ER, a whole lot better. I'll remember this game for a while... Thanks Goph's :clap:

Neat story. Good to hear your wife is well. If game had been played with fans, imagine some would have filed out and missed the end. Those that stayed wouldve raised the roof. I imagine there would have been quite a few fans driving up from iowa expecting a nice, comfortable, enjoyable evening watching a double digit win. We were bad hosts.
 

Neat story. Good to hear your wife is well. If game had been played with fans, imagine some would have filed out and missed the end. Those that stayed wouldve raised the roof. I imagine there would have been quite a few fans driving up from iowa expecting a nice, comfortable, enjoyable evening watching a double digit win. We were bad hosts.
I can just imagine IWOA fans leaving early because of the bad weather, and by the time they get to their cars hearing the game's going to OT, and while they're headin' South on I-35 for the long drive back home, they can listen to us hammering them for the win.
 

I can just imagine IWOA fans leaving early because of the bad weather, and by the time they get to their cars hearing the game's going to OT, and while they're headin' South on I-35 for the long drive back home, they can listen to us hammering them for the win.

A beautiful scenario. Only thing missing is a flat tire. :) .
 

100%. The Gophers of old would have been done when Iowa took an eight point lead halfway through the second half. Not this team. Even though they had started hitting their shots....the Gophers picked it up and started making some themselves. Brandon Johnson hit a three when the Gophers were down seven. When the Gophers were down eight....it was Mashburn who hit a midrange shot to bring it down to six....and then once again....Brandon Johnson with a three on the next possession to bring it back to three.

When OT hit....it was game over. Even Gonzaga couldn't have done anything to catch up to the hot shooting of Johnson.

Couple things. This team is one of, if not the most talented Pitino has had. It is also the most deep.
I had said earlier that I think this team has alot of talent and I was excited about it.

That said. Iowa is not a top 5 team. I laughed and laughed when I read that. They just do not play defense, never have. They are a good squad, no doubt. But this Big Ten will test any team this year and I just do not see them sitting on top of the conference when this all shakes out.

There are still going to be bumps in the road. There honestly isn't a single easy out on the schedule the rest of the way.

GREAT, GREAT WIN. But I am not ready to proclaim everything has changed here yet. Let's see some sustained winning. Love the direction so far this season though.
 




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