***OFFICIAL GOPHERS AT UW-MILWAUKEE IN GAME THREAD!!***

[scher215]

I understand correlation. I have 15 credits of doctoral level statistics and research methods in my educational background. GW's statement was idiotic and he deserves to be mocked. Ceteris paribus, free throw shooting matters. Weak free throw shooting teams who are successful have other significant strengths; good free throw shooting teams who aren't successful are diminished by other weaknesses. GW (and you) appear to understand just enough to have confidence in your own foolishness. As I recall, a similar simplistic analysis years ago on NBA data revealed that turnover rate wasn't correlated that much with winning percentage. Are you going to argue with a straight face that turnovers don't matter?

So all we have to do to make the final four this year is start shooting 90% from the free throw line. Excellent, hopefully Pitino spends all of practice doing that.

No one has argued free throws don't matter , period. Just that there are far more impactful things that matter more- assists, turnovers, rebounding, 3 point shooting, even getting to the FT line for example. You can have an average FT team that is great at those other things be successful, but if you are average at those other things and great at FT's you probably won't be as successful.

The point being, the Gophers and most teams have much bigger issues than spending 4 hours a day working on free throws instead of running a competent offense and defense. If Pitino said tomorrow all he was doing in practice now was shooting free throws. No more instruction on offense, defense, rebounding, etc. he should be fired on the spot.

 

[dtrain19]

I'm usually a beacon of positivity but last night was disheartening. The constant dribble drives and cutters into the paint allowed by our defense was terrible. The refusal of anyone but Murphy to rebound consistently was frustrating. Mason did not look like himself at all. This team is screaming for a floor leader and I have no idea who that will be. It won't be Joey or Carlos I don't think. Thought Mason would be that guy. At times it looked like they were playing to not mess up instead of just playing. I'm all over the place with this post. Think it's time for some early Christmas cheer. Go Gophers!!

 

[HOOP DREAMS]

Agree that Hurt might not play, but I definitely see Curry playing a lot backup to Murphy

Hurt is white, can't play for the Gophs... but if he played for South Dakota he'd kick our ass

 

[Goldy Gopher]

I don't see Hurt contributing a lot next year. We have 6 regular contributors coming back (Buggs, Mason, Konate, McBrayer, Murphy and Dorsey), two transfers who will play and Coffey. That is 9 guys without mentioning Curry and Hunt. I just don't see enough minutes available for Curry and Hunt to both play significant minutes.

I could easily see Hurt replacing Buggs in that rotation. It really depends if Buggs is still going from game to game with the highs and lows and making crucial mistakes. If he is I could see Pitino opting to play Hurt who is gonna give a more consistent effort and all around game.

 

[book]

Refs seem to know we are a bad team and we often get crap calls. Two goal tending calls and Morris shot at the end could have counted but disallowed (I knew he would then miss the one and one!) Free throws are now killing us - missing one and ones are like another TO. Cant wail til next year and some talent (especially with some bigs) Ever seen uglier shots from our center?

 

[golfing18now]

Indeed it does. To those who say that Pitino should be given another year because everyone knew this would be a rebuilding year, I ask: Should a Minnesota coach (especially one with little successful history) be given a pass to field a team this bad even in a rebuilding year?

If he completely loses the players and three guys want to transfer at the end of the year, then I would be willing to listen to the people that want to have him fired now.

However, if the players are still buying in and we see better effort as the year goes on, then no. Under that scenario, he should be given year four with a better, more experienced roster to deal with.

Truthfully, I am more bothered by last year than I am by this year thus far. I expected growing pains this year given all the losses from last year's team. I'm not ready to throw in the towel based on a bad two or three week stretch.

 

[cjbfbp]

If he completely loses the players and three guys want to transfer at the end of the year, then I would be willing to listen to the people that want to have him fired now.

I can agree with that. Even if this year is really lousy, he probably won't have failed badly enough to be fired. Even mass desertions might not do it. I think firing him may have been easier had the knuckle headed former AD not given him a raise and an extension (I'm assuming that his termination buyout was increased as well, but that assumption may not be correct). Apparently Teague's radar for hiring coaches and judging whether they deserved compensation increases was every bit as good as his radar for judging a woman's interest in him.