Nice Win, Still Very Concerned

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Honyocker

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This was such a great win over NU. They have not played D like this since the Illinois win. I am still very concerned about the half-court offense. Today there were a lot of transition buckets because of the press, good D and lots of Wildcat misses. That will not always happen.

Against the 1-3-1 and matchup zone defenses, this team does not do well. They are getting marginally better. It is still a struggle to get the ball inside. Our big guys do not power the ball to the hoop to draw the foul very often. The inside-outside game is painful to watch at times. When the game slows down and it is a half-court game, we just do not grind well.

Let's hope our D and press can make our next three games transition games.
 

Honyocker, why do you always find a negative in a positive? good grief.
 


I don't. There is no reason for finding negatives in a 27 point thumping of an opponent. Check GopherLady's thread about Where's the Love!!!!!
 

Nothing personal Doc, but its not like we beat msu by 27 or something. The mildkittens played poorly, and we played better than we have in a long while. Just something to keep in perspective.
 


GortonsFisherman011 said:
Nothing personal Doc, but its not like we beat msu by 27 or something. The mildkittens played poorly, and we played better than we have in a long while. Just something to keep in perspective.
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Add into Coble and Moore MIA, anything less than a blow out would have been disappointing.
 

I was at the game. NW was clearly over matched tonight. Nice win at home. Yes, the half court offense didn't look that great, but the d was looking really good all night long. We needed the win big time tonight, now hopefully we can carry this momentum throughout the rest of the season.
 





Coble had the flu supposedly, not sure what Moore's issue was.
 


Gold Vision said:
not sure what Moore's issue was.
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I believe Carmody decided that Moore wasn't mentally in the game.

On the inbounds play after a timeout, Moore ran the baseline when attempting to pass the ball in. However, the previous play was not a Gopher basket, but a tip out of bounds (thus he wasn't allowed to run the baseline).

Carmody looked utterly disgusted with the play, and didn't even look at him when he ran to the bench.

He didn't go back in after that.
 

Hey Doc, you're allowed to look at a win critically and find flaws or things that need to be worked on. To not do so is to be a blindly homer fan, and maybe that's what you're going for, and there's nothing wrong with that. It's just not how everybody watches a game.

As for me, I'm going to sit back and be happy about this win. It was a good win, with a lot of energy and the best game they've played since Illinois. Hopefully they can win the remaining two home games, which would get them to the tournament.
 



A 27 point win in the Big 10 is solid. It's really hard to complain with that margin. The biggest positive to me is that I think there was room to improve on tonights performance and the half court offense could have been better. We made huge strides tonight on our 1-3-1 offensive performance and hats off to the coaches and players for their preparation. I think with some more practice we can get better yet against the 1-3-1. Good win, let's keep it going.
 

It's basic fundamentals, plain and simple.

Fake a pass, make a pass. How many times did we fake a pass tonight? I can count them on one hand. When you telegraph where you are going to pass in a zone, it's ridiculously easy to guard.

One thing I noticed specifically: the guards can throw it back and forth up top all they want. Really didn't get us very far. However, if we pass it to the release valve in the middle of the zone, we were WAY too eager to get rid of the ball. Once the person in the middle gets the ball, they should HOLD the ball for a second. It's the most important spot on the floor against the zone. Make the defense commit to what area of the "zone" they are going to guard. If either of the 2 wings from either side decide to double the ball, our two wings along at the free-throw line extended should cut to the basket for a 2 on 1.

We simply telegraph our passes, and when we finally get the ball a weak spot in their zone, we're way too eager to get rid of it. NU was jumping at nearly every ball fake we did make.

Fake a pass, then make a pass. It's how you attack the zone, whether you're in 4th grade rec league or the NCAA championship.
 

ShowinGoldyLove said:
It's basic fundamentals, plain and simple. Fake a pass, then make a pass. It's how you attack the zone, whether you're in 4th grade rec league or the NCAA championship.
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In 4th grade, most of us would just shoot over a zone.

Dribble penetration is how you beat it at higher levels.
 



I was happy to have any kind of win. Plus Wisconsin and Michigan lost - whuch really helps us!
 

BTN game announcers

A couple of really astute comments by the announcers for tonight's game.

> commented that this being the second game in a row (after Michigan) playing against a 1-3-1 zone probably helped the Gophers' preparation

> commented that in the half-court offense, the Gopher guards spend too much time with the ball in their hands (dead on accurate with this one, they spend way too much time out above the arc, passing and dribbling before even thinking about interior passing or penetration)

They had a number of good comments and analysis of the Rodents, this was just a couple I remembered.
 

Dr.Don ... You Have Me All Wrong

Dr.Don said:
Honyocker, why do you always find a negative in a positive? good grief.
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I watched the game with another coach and his comments were the same as mine. Both of us were very happy with the results of the game and love to watch that "clamp down" defense. However, like most coaches, we watch everything with a critical eye to the future. We just came off a pretty rough series of games and none of us want to see the team revert back to that kind of performance. The issue of how this offense can operate against a good 1-3-1 or match-up zone in future games is a logical question that I guarantee you Tubby is thinking about. Let's hope the Gopher D can change the tempo of future games so we can avoid depending on our half court O.

That's all. Not negative....just honest, hopeful and analytical about future games.
 

I guess I did take you wrong, Honyocker. I just felt so enthused about a blowout win, finally, and wanted to wait until today to review the game film and start breaking down the parts we need to work on. I wanted to enjoy the win for the night, and then today go back to work on things, hence I guess I over reacted to your post. My apologies. Dr.Don
 


'Yeah buts' feel a little better after the celebration is over, not when the cork pop is still echoing.
 

Dr.Don said:
...wait until today to review the game film and start breaking down the parts we need to work on. I wanted to enjoy the win for the night, and then today go back to work on things...
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Why are you breaking down game film?
 

From the Barn said:
I don't think Moore played at all in the second half, unless I missed something.
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Moore played the first 3:30 or so of the second half, made that turnover on the baseline, and never got back in the game.
 

No Problem, Dr.Don

Dr.Don said:
I guess I did take you wrong, Honyocker. I just felt so enthused about a blowout win, finally, and wanted to wait until today to review the game film and start breaking down the parts we need to work on. I wanted to enjoy the win for the night, and then today go back to work on things, hence I guess I over reacted to your post. My apologies. Dr.Don
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We are just wired a little differently.....but we both want the Gophers to WIN! The GopherHole is the melting pot of diverse Gopher fans....
 

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