Michigan bullying Northwestern

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gopherMD

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Michigan, the #2 team in the country, is playing its starters with 7 minutes left in the game and a 27 point lead against NU who is minus its top 3 players -Cobb, Crawford and Hearn. Color me unimpressed. Why coaches with vastly superior talent feel the need to humiliate their depleted conference foes escapes me. Why not play your reserves who will get limited time in most games? Now with a 29 point lead at the 3 minute mark Michigan may sit Burke. I hope the Gophers kick Michigan's ass.
 


We can blow them out and still see lots of minutes for Big Mo, Wally, Oto, Welch, etc.
 

I don't think we can take this as an indication that Northwestern is a sure win. They might come to The Barn and shoot lights out, who knows. I also don't think this is an indication that Michigan is invincible. Tonight was a mismatch. Each game is different. The beauty of playing the games.
 

Dr.Don said:
I don't think we can take this as an indication that Northwestern is a sure win. They might come to The Barn and shoot lights out, who knows. I also don't think this is an indication that Michigan is invincible. Tonight was a mismatch. Each game is different. The beauty of playing the games.
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NU is a mess. Gophers will destroy them.
 


gopherMD said:
Michigan, the #2 team in the country, is playing its starters with 7 minutes left in the game and a 27 point lead against NU who is minus its top 3 players -Cobb, Crawford and Hearn. Color me unimpressed. Why coaches with vastly superior talent feel the need to humiliate their depleted conference foes escapes me. Why not play your reserves who will get limited time in most games? Now with a 29 point lead at the 3 minute mark Michigan may sit Burke. I hope the Gophers kick Michigan's ass.
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Reminds of the Big Ten tournament championship game against Ohio State back in 2010. With about 2 minutes ago with a ~25 point lead, Evan Turner was still on the floor and they were full court pressing.

According to the ESPN box score, Michigan outscored Northwestern by 21 in the first half, it was 51-30 Michigan. They only outscored Northwestern by 7 in the second half, so it would seem they at least took their foot off the gas a bit. I can understand where putting in your subs earlier instead of leaving the starters in and potentially running up the score seems to show more sportsmanship, but when you've got a 21 point halftime lead, couldn't putting in your subs with 10+ minutes left in the game appear insulting as well? Kind of like saying "look, my backups are better than your starters." Then if your guys just stop playing defense to make the score look more reasonable, that's still kind of rubbing their noses in it. It just seems like with a talent gap that wide, it's difficult to toe the line between neither running up the score nor ceasing to give a good effort after a sizable lead has been attained.

It's like how Wisconsin is suspiciously the only Big Ten football team that seems to hang 70 on at least one conference opponent for about 3 or 4 years now. As much as I want to knock them for it, it seems like their running game just breaks the other team's will, and despite the fact that the game is out of hand at halftime, there's still another half to play, and they can't just call it quits because they're winning by a lot.
 


Wolverines plumping up score with pumped up 3s hoping to rank #1. Basketball greed at its finest.
 

When a really good team plays well and a really bad team plays poorly, the result is what we saw last night. I hope we see the same thing Sunday night.
 



For those complaining about Michigan not letting up, you might want to look at this.

This writer put together a list of the top ten beat downs of all time. Check out #3...

http://bleacherreport.com/articles/115947-the-top-10-beat-downs-of-all-time/page/2

Note what the lead was at halftime and how much bigger it grew in the second half. Something tells me the winning team wasn't playing H.C., D.G., J.T., S.W. and T.W. for the majority of the 2nd half...
 

Dr.Don said:
I don't think we can take this as an indication that Northwestern is a sure win. They might come to The Barn and shoot lights out, who knows. I also don't think this is an indication that Michigan is invincible. Tonight was a mismatch. Each game is different. The beauty of playing the games.
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I totally agree with Dr. Don, here... Minnesota can not underestimate any of these Big 10 games...
 

Dr.Don said:
I don't think we can take this as an indication that Northwestern is a sure win. They might come to The Barn and shoot lights out, who knows. I also don't think this is an indication that Michigan is invincible. Tonight was a mismatch. Each game is different. The beauty of playing the games.
Click to expand...

Obviously no game is a "sure" win, but let's just put it this way, if Northwestern is in this with chances to win late in the game, the Gophers have not played well at all in all likelihood. If the fellas show up, so to speak, and bring that defensive intensity we've seen through many games this season, I have a hard time believing NU will be able to hang.
 

Monty519 said:
Obviously no game is a "sure" win, but let's just put it this way, if Northwestern is in this with chances to win late in the game, the Gophers have not played well at all in all likelihood. If the fellas show up, so to speak, and bring that defensive intensity we've seen through many games this season, I have a hard time believing NU will be able to hang.
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I thoroughly enjoy conversations with the word "if". Conditional statements using if (hypothesis), then (conclusion) can be cussed and discussed ad nauseum. To use a conditional to predict the future does not fly with me. You know, kind of like "If the dog would not have stopped to crap, then he might have caught the rabbit."
 



brucekaupa said:
For those complaining about Michigan not letting up, you might want to look at this.

This writer put together a list of the top ten beat downs of all time. Check out #3...

http://bleacherreport.com/articles/115947-the-top-10-beat-downs-of-all-time/page/2

Note what the lead was at halftime and how much bigger it grew in the second half. Something tells me the winning team wasn't playing H.C., D.G., J.T., S.W. and T.W. for the majority of the 2nd half...
Click to expand...

Guess again. Check the box score- Trey Burke-33 minutes, Tim Hardaway-33 minutes, Gerald Robinson -29 minutes, Morgan 21 minutes, Stauskas 28 minutes. Next 2 in 20 and 15 minutes. Last 6 players in 1, 2, 4, 4 5 and 7 minutes. This was a beat down on a team missing its 3 top players and the outcome was never in doubt.
 


Reading more about that game. I forgot: Knight benched his starters for the entire 2nd half.
 

If Mich shoots the 3 effectively, they are very tough. Classic case of whether the Gophers' defense can be disruptive and force contested, tough shots. Can Hollins brothers contain the 3, particularly more effectively than against Duke? Seemingly Dre's biggest challenge of the year.
 

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