***OFFICIAL GOPHERS AT WAKE FOREST IN-GAME THREAD!!!***

Donate To GopherHole
S

Stan

Well-known member
Joined
Nov 20, 2008
Messages
4,832
Reaction score
2,997
Points
113
Danny Manning will be on the sidelines tonight opposite Richard Pitino. But there will be no "Miracles" to help him out. This is a game we should win, and obviously need to win. GET 'ER DONE PITINO!!!!!!!
 


Wake is 3-2 at home this season:

beat UNC-Asheville 80-69
lost to Iona 81-85 (Gaels are a good team)
beat Nicholls State 75-48
beat Mount Saint Mary's 83-49
lost to Delaware State 65-72 (DSU, which lost by 50 to Iona, is not a good team)
 

Wake Forest Record is 4-3.

They appear to be strong inside the paint. They are 22nd in the nation with taking 2p field go attempts. What scares me even more is that they are 5th in the nation with 308 total rebounds this season. This game is going to be critical for EE, Mo and Buggs (Buggs was one of our top Offensive rebounders even with limited time). They are strong on defensive and offensive rebounds as they play their offense to setup inside the paint to block out. Expect these fellas to crash the boards hard.

They too are strong defensively, but are also plagued with forced turn overs. I wonder if our speed will play to our advantage by pressuring wake forest on both sides of the court to make them take poor — forced — decisions.

My gopher goals for this game:

1) Improved Freethrows. Wake Forest is foul crazy. They play hard and we will be on the line quite a bit. What's worst is that Wake Forest is 3rd in the nation with successful free throws sinking 135 of 193 attempts (69% as a team).

2) Both Dres seeing the court better and with the rest of the team dishing the ball to the best opportunity to score instead of forcing drives, shots and poor passes. I'm hoping they can control our offense and really improve our efficiency. Overall I'd like to see a more clean offense as wake forest is going to battle more in the paint I think our perimeter game should be a strong suit tonight.

3) Be a 10 Turnover team. I want our turn overs to be cut in half (20 against St. Johns). <-- this is the key to our prolonged "offensive identity" it's a sign that we are making good offensive decisions (even under presssure) and taking good shots.
 

woozee said:
Wake Forest Record is 4-3.

They appear to be strong inside the paint. They are 22nd in the nation with taking 2p field go attempts. What scares me even more is that they are 5th in the nation with 308 total rebounds this season. This game is going to be critical for EE, Mo and Buggs (Buggs was one of our top Offensive rebounders even with limited time). They are strong on defensive and offensive rebounds as they play their offense to setup inside the paint to block out. Expect these fellas to crash the boards hard.

They too are strong defensively, but are also plagued with forced turn overs. I wonder if our speed will play to our advantage by pressuring wake forest on both sides of the court to make them take poor — forced — decisions.

My gopher goals for this game:

1) Improved Freethrows. Wake Forest is foul crazy. They play hard and we will be on the line quite a bit. What's worst is that Wake Forest is 3rd in the nation with successful free throws sinking 135 of 193 attempts (69% as a team).

2) Both Dres seeing the court better and with the rest of the team dishing the ball to the best opportunity to score instead of forcing drives, shots and poor passes. I'm hoping they can control our offense and really improve our efficiency. Overall I'd like to see a more clean offense as wake forest is going to battle more in the paint I think our perimeter game should be a strong suit tonight.

3) Be a 10 Turnover team. I want our turn overs to be cut in half (20 against St. Johns). <-- this is the key to our prolonged "offensive identity" it's a sign that we are making good offensive decisions (even under presssure) and taking good shots.
Click to expand...

4) Control the defensive boards and attack the weak-side offensive boards. We have to aggressively want the ball.
 


woozee said:
1) Improved Freethrows. Wake Forest is foul crazy. They play hard and we will be on the line quite a bit. What's worst is that Wake Forest is 3rd in the nation with successful free throws sinking 135 of 193 attempts (69% as a team).

.
Click to expand...

I made a thread earlier this season expressing concern about free throw shooting. I just looked it up, we are 349 out of 351 in Division-1 FT%. The only two teams worse than us are San Francisco and Savannah St.
 

bleedsmaroonandgold said:
I made a thread earlier this season expressing concern about free throw shooting. I just looked it up, we are 349 out of 351 in Division-1 FT%. The only two teams worse than us are San Francisco and Savannah St.
Click to expand...

"But free throws don't matter." Or something.
 

bleedsmaroonandgold said:
I made a thread earlier this season expressing concern about free throw shooting. I just looked it up, we are 349 out of 351 in Division-1 FT%. The only two teams worse than us are San Francisco and Savannah St.
Click to expand...

Serious question.....what % does the 175th (midpoint) team shoot?

EDIT: found it. If they were shooting an "average" percentage, that would have translated to an extra 2.7 points per game. Material -- yes. A game changer -- probably not. Obviously, I'm not taking into consideration the front ends and what happens after a made free throw. Free throw shooting doesn't exist in a vacuum.
 

golfing18now said:
Serious question.....what % does the 175th (midpoint) team shoot?

EDIT: found it. If they were shooting an "average" percentage, that would have translated to an extra 2.7 points per game. Material -- yes. A game changer -- probably not. Obviously, I'm not taking into consideration the front ends and what happens after a made free throw. Free throw shooting doesn't exist in a vacuum.
Click to expand...

I'll bet we lose a game by less than 2.7 at some point this year (or by slightly more than 2.7, but in a situation where it was within 2.7 at the end and they scored some free throws when we had to foul. And we seem to be a perennial bubbler where one game seems likely to be the difference between in or out of the tournament.

The thing that bothers me the most about free throws is that there are no real mitigating circumstances. A player is on the line, and he wants to make the free throw, so he gives it is best effort in a predictable and controlled setting. There are lots of potential good explanations for other statistics. For example, a team could be poor at offensive rebounding percentage because their strategy is to quickly retreat because they want their half court defense set.
 




Today's platitude contribution!
If Gophers lose tonight, team is in trouble, and we are on the road. I expect a win, but don't think it will come easily.
 

BOUNDOUTPASSDUNK said:
Today's platitude contribution!
If Gophers lose tonight, team is in trouble, and we are on the road. I expect a win, but don't think it will come easily.
Click to expand...

We are at a point where, with the nonsense that is left on our out of conference schedule, nothing between now and the Big Ten season we do will help us in any meaningful way besides preventing a catastrophic loss.
 

Couldn't watch the last two games. Looking forward to watching tonight. Hoping things aren't as bad as I've read on here. :eek:
 



What's been most disheartening is to see this team dominated by seniors play what I'll call soft or weak: turnovers, missed free throws, dropped rebounds, frustration fouls - these things must be cleaned up for MN to be a tourney team. The talent is there imho, but the team has to toughen the heck up! Play like poised seniors on a mission!
 

Can there be ONE game where the announcers don't talk about Mo's weight loss?? That's old news.
 

If Mo gave more shot fakes they could talk about that.
 


I feel like I'm watching this game from the clouds! Yikes...could the camera be placed any higher up in the arena??
 

"As Hollins took off and forgot to dribble" -announcer
*Basically sums up his ball-handling skills
 

Gophers go on a mini-run and Bobby Knight spends the whole time talking about NBA vs College coaching. Shut up Bobby!
 

Squirrel has had a great game so far. Andre's been pretty solid too!
 

This may be the ugliest game - the play style, the announcers, the arena - that I have ever seen...
 

Joey King isn't a very consistent shooter for being such a strictly one dimensional player. On a good team he wouldn't be a starter, but we don't really have any other options!

Update: Got scared on his shot with a defender swooping in. Called on an up and down. REALLY limited in most phases of the game.
 

I don't think Dre can miss a three when he's wide open.. Why does he love to shoot them contested is beyond me! :p
 

Wake Forest is very bad, yet we can't hang onto the big lead.
 

Shot fake.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 

EE could be a good player in a four years when he is a senior. Wait, he is a senior...
 

Our bigs love to dribble in traffic


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 

Pound a shot every time Bobby says "shot fake."
 

Come on.. You all know what it's like to "drive a Cadillac through a bunch of farm equipment."
 

You must log in or register to reply here.



Top Bottom