***OFFICIAL GOPHERS VS MICHIGAN STATE IN-GAME THREAD!!!***
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DrinoneMays9
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You guys might be drunk. We just lost to a team who is missing Valentine. Without him they barely crack the Top 25. Lets praise the effort though....YIKES! Does King even see the floor for any other Big 10 team!?
station19
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Twinsfan007
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Don't feed the troll guys ^
Positives today for me were Kevin Dorsey showing some signs of becoming a nice player and getting something out of Bakary Konate. I did find it amusing that the only time all year that Bakary has displayed anything close to a vertical leap...it was on a goal tend. Team wise, this was the best defensive effort of the season as far as guys being assignment sound and not giving up so many easy baskets. Michigan State certainly isn't a top 10 team without Valentine and they haven't even played like a top 25 team without him. Murphy missed some crucial bunnies in the second half, but his rebounding late was impressive and his hot start was the only reason the Gophers stayed in it early. The Gophers turning it over just 4 times was another team positive.
Free throws were huge today. MSU went 17-20, the Gophers 12-19. Joey King was awful for the vast majority of the game and Pitino was in a tough spot with Konate in foul trouble and deciding between Diedhiou and King as both were negatives on both ends of the floor. As crazy as it sounds given how poorly he's played for most of the year, Pitino really made a mistake by not playing Konate more. The MSU lead ballooned to 10 with him on the bench and, much like Murphy against Ohio State, it would have been nice to roll the dice on a 5th foul a bit earlier given the talent gap.
It would be nice to feel like we got the benefit of the whistle at home. A couple big plays were Carlos not getting the and 1 in the first half, then missing the front end of a 1-1. Then late in the 2nd you had the play where King took the charge or flopped on Costello and the ref called it on King. Costello makes the first free throw, misses the second, no call on an MSU player fouling Dorsey on the rebound attempt, and MSU gets a jumper to go for a 3 point trip. Obviously not why the Gophers lost, but I think a lot of teams get the benefit of all 3 of those potential whistles on their home court in the Big Ten.
Free throws were huge today. MSU went 17-20, the Gophers 12-19. Joey King was awful for the vast majority of the game and Pitino was in a tough spot with Konate in foul trouble and deciding between Diedhiou and King as both were negatives on both ends of the floor. As crazy as it sounds given how poorly he's played for most of the year, Pitino really made a mistake by not playing Konate more. The MSU lead ballooned to 10 with him on the bench and, much like Murphy against Ohio State, it would have been nice to roll the dice on a 5th foul a bit earlier given the talent gap.
It would be nice to feel like we got the benefit of the whistle at home. A couple big plays were Carlos not getting the and 1 in the first half, then missing the front end of a 1-1. Then late in the 2nd you had the play where King took the charge or flopped on Costello and the ref called it on King. Costello makes the first free throw, misses the second, no call on an MSU player fouling Dorsey on the rebound attempt, and MSU gets a jumper to go for a 3 point trip. Obviously not why the Gophers lost, but I think a lot of teams get the benefit of all 3 of those potential whistles on their home court in the Big Ten.
DrinoneMays9
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The sad thing is that I bet most posters on this board are in the top half of there job or profession. We have a bunch of great "Holers" on this board and I love coming here from time to time to see the banter. Why is it that a bunch of smart, well educated people continue to accept mediocrity with the B-Ball and Football programs!? I will keep cheering my arse off but c'mon....We should be better.
GopherinPhilly
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You are a freaking donkey faced troll with your head up your butt hole. Go play in a busy street.
I completely agree with everything in this post, but it's just the wrong day/time to post it. This team has been so painful to watch this year, that most of us are just happy to have watched a team that appeared semi-competent. Big picture, you are completely right, but their is nothing that can be done about this season now. If you're going to put yourself through watching the team this year, and can't see some bright spots in a game like today's, than you will drive yourself crazy.
Winasota Gopher
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+1 on all of this. I think king got the minutes as he opens up the defense a bit. Konate is a mjor problem for ball movement and when we were looking for driving lanes to get to the ft line or kick out threes king is a better option. Now obviously king wasn't providing but I get the idea.
That all said my biggest gripe with the posts on this forum about pitino's coaching ability is that he has sooo few options. Sure that's a self inflicted wound, but you can't really judge his coaching ability when he literally has 2 maybe 3 offensive options and defensively he can only scheme teams, has no lock down defender option or anyone to game plan around.
Way out of line.
Goldy Gopher
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Definite step forward today. Very good effort defensively and liked the way Pitino changed defenses more today. On the offensive end we got a number of good looks that just didn't go and I liked the aggressiveness in driving the ball today thought we should have had a few more free throw opportunities out of it as well. Konate was the biggest surprise to me today and he wasn't great but he competed much harder and played tougher than he has in any game to this point. The freshmen continue to look pretty solid Murphy is solid, Dorsey was more aggressive and hit a couple jumpers today, McBrayer continues to be solid on defense and he was a good shooter coming in so I hope his jumper gets on track pretty soon here, and Gilbert didn't get any shots but brought good energy playing good defense and diving for a couple loose balls in taking Buggs usual minutes. I know Michigan State isn't the same team without Valentine but they are still a good team and really if we shoot better at the foul line and make a few more of the good looks we missed in the 2nd half we win that game. The key is to continue to build on this performance need to keep taking steps forward can't afford to take a step forward against Michigan State today and then move backwards again at Penn State Tuesday.
Goldy Gopher
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Agreed for me watching these games you can see positives with Pitino. Like today him changing defenses more kept Michigan State off balance offensively quite a bit. You could also see both coaches and players on the bench calling out MSU plays so you know they were well prepared. He also picked his spots with the press today as he knew Michigan State wants to run and right now they have the better athletes so it probably wouldn't have been a great idea to try and press them for 40 minutes. I also liked the looks we got out of timeouts most of today and I think he usually is pretty good with plays out of timeouts. The problem for some is they can't see the positives because we don't get the result. Like out of halftime King got a very good open look from 3 but he missed it some don't look at it as good coaching because the shot was missed but others see that it was a good play call to try to get King going out of halftime coming of screens and getting the open look for 3.
Gopher2017
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I just can't with this team. We have no one who wants to lead and some of that falls on the coaching. We're terrible. State is not the all and powerful State without Valentine. Glad I decided to spend time caulking the shower rather than waste time watching the majority of this game.
Perhaps we should just give the Gophers more time.
Perhaps we should just give the Gophers more time.
I have my doubts. Today's effort was better than what we've seen recently but this team still doesn't seem good enough to me to win 6 conference games. In the last two games without Valentine, Michigan State was taken to overtime by Oakland on a neutral floor and was mauled at Iowa. We should have a fair chance in the next three games although I'm not confident about any of them.
End of the season is my guess. I'm assuming he has a chance to graduate this year and would be a grad transfer.
It was a very solid effort, Murph was impressive. A solid effort in my eyes for around 37 minutes. The game can go either way up until that time. Then execution got out of control. This team while 0-2 does appear to be improving, and improving is not just based on these last two games.
I'm glad you could still find time to come here to moan and complain about one of our better efforts of the season, even though you didn't watch the game.
GopherinPhilly
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Guy is a donkey and a troll and his patronizing compliment was out of line. Feel free to disagree, but this wasn't his first shot at "holers" who should be smarter and demand more but don't because we aren't his kind of super fan.
He was probably having trouble caulking the shower with the water running and needed to vent.
It's not about accepting mediocrity. But this team is what it is. All we can ask for the remainder of this year is maximum effort and signs of improvement from the underclassman. Today we saw those things, so it's a good day. If you can watch this game and still come away pissed and angry, I suggest you don't watch any more games this year. There's no point.
Ha. He seems like one of the 'don't accept mediocrity' types. Caulk it right or not at all.
You're on a roll, howeda. And I'm with you. What does it even mean at this point in time - 'I'm not accepting mediocrity'? And now what?
It just doesn't make sense to sound the same whiny message today, unless of course you don't actually watch the games.
Positives:
- Dorsey had a bit of a break out game, and I think we can look for more contributions from him.
- Murphy is figuring out some things and didn't get in foul trouble.
- Konate might be settling down, and it actually seemed advantageous to have him out there at times.
- Defense was much better - they seemed like a team today. MSU had to work for their points.
Fun to see Andre Hollins at the game, hanging out with Rachel. It was good that we looked decent with all the recruits at the game as well.
It just doesn't make sense to sound the same whiny message today, unless of course you don't actually watch the games.
Positives:
- Dorsey had a bit of a break out game, and I think we can look for more contributions from him.
- Murphy is figuring out some things and didn't get in foul trouble.
- Konate might be settling down, and it actually seemed advantageous to have him out there at times.
- Defense was much better - they seemed like a team today. MSU had to work for their points.
Fun to see Andre Hollins at the game, hanging out with Rachel. It was good that we looked decent with all the recruits at the game as well.
MennoSota
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This is a good analysis, Moonlight.
Put me in the "pleased with the game" category. Team played very hard, just not the same level of mature talent as MSU. No shame in that.
Positives:
1) only four TOs. To me that reflects good coaching. Go back and luck at TO #s for Tubby's teams.
2) Konate: He is not there yet but you can tell he is working his tail off.
3) Dorsey: Agree with earlier post that he took a step forward today. Competed well against the best.
4) Mason: Smooth operator. Maybe tried a little too hard toward the end.
5) Murphy: Per usual; needs a strong head fake near basket.
Positives:
1) only four TOs. To me that reflects good coaching. Go back and luck at TO #s for Tubby's teams.
2) Konate: He is not there yet but you can tell he is working his tail off.
3) Dorsey: Agree with earlier post that he took a step forward today. Competed well against the best.
4) Mason: Smooth operator. Maybe tried a little too hard toward the end.
5) Murphy: Per usual; needs a strong head fake near basket.
One more positive - 47 of our 61 points were scored by freshmen and sophomores. We had one lineup with all four frosh and Konate and they hung with a good, mature MSU team. The future is bright.
+1.