MLive.com: Up next for Michigan: Experienced, but desperate, Minnesota

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BleedGopher

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per MLive.com:

As he has so many times regarding so many teams, John Beilein pointed to the age discrepancy.

"They have a very experienced team, just a ton of fourth- and fifth-year guys playing for them," the Michigan coach said Thursday on WTKA 1050-AM of U-M's upcoming opponent, the visiting Minnesota Golden Gophers. "So it's going to be a challenge again and that's what we're going to see all year long."

As it is, Beilein has seemingly pointed out opposition experience all year long. His Wolverines are compiled of six freshmen, a redshirt freshman, two sophomores, two juniors and one senior. This has been repeated like Poe's raven.

When it comes to Minnesota, though, it actually bears repeating.

These Gophers are old -- older than Bill Murray "golfer/gopher" jokes. Coach Richard Pitino's starting lineup features a redshirt senior (center Maurice Walker), two seniors (point guard DeAndre Mathieu and shooting guard Andre Hollins) and two juniors (guard Carlos Morris and forward Joey King).

http://www.mlive.com/wolverines/index.ssf/2015/01/michigan_minnesota_4.html

Go Gophers!!
 

"Experienced, but desperate Minnesota"

Good description. I think the whole team should read that, including Pitino. Based on their experience, physical maturity, and adequate talent they should be capable of winning the majority of games over the rest of their schedule.
 

cjbfbp said:
"Experienced, but desperate Minnesota"

Good description. I think the whole team should read that, including Pitino. Based on their experience, physical maturity, and adequate talent they should be capable of winning the majority of games over the rest of their schedule.
Click to expand...

Couldn't agree more.

For all the hand-wringing about what this team doesn't have, given the state of Big Ten basketball in particular (still a dogfight, but a great opportunity to climb into the top 5) and college basketball as a whole, there's no reason this team shouldn't be in the NCAA Tournament. Take a look around. Watch other games.

The Gophers can compete with and beat their share of the teams that will end up in the NCAA tourney. There's certainly enough experience (one of the oldest teams in college basketball, I believe) & enough good pieces in place to get there. It's time to start winning a good chunk of these "winnable" games we all talk about. When you have 3 senior & 2 junior starters, heading in the right direction means finishing "winnable" games, not finding ways to lose 'em.

Beat Michigan.
 




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