***OFFICIAL ILLINOIS AT MINNESOTA IN-GAME THREAD!!!!***

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#2Gopher said:
First time I had ever seen someone do that. Pretty bad.
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I got the feeling the he and Mason know each other, I really don't think he was legitimately trying to go for the steal just messing around. Not really anything to get worked up about. Glad they weathered the storm when Illinois came back and pulled away late. Not a perfect effort but good to get a BIG W in fairly easy fashion.
 


howeda7 said:
If this is a preview of his B1G playing time, I won't be shocked if Harris transfers.
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He probably knew what he was getting into.
Pretty clear he is backup PG next year if he stays imo
 

Some guy said:
He probably knew what he was getting into.
Pretty clear he is backup PG next year if he stays imo
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Hopefully. Being 1,000 miles from home to be welded to the bench is a bad combo.
 

Cayman said:
It looked like Mason kinda tossed the ball at him afterward, maybe it was in good fun.
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Hope you're right and probably are. I was hoping to see the handshake but was unable to.
 


Some guy said:
He probably knew what he was getting into.
Pretty clear he is backup PG next year if he stays imo
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Do you mean SG? Harris shouldn't be handling the ball except in rare cases. He's a fantastic shooter, but his ball handling is a liability.
 

MinneStoa said:
Do you mean SG? Harris shouldn't be handling the ball except in rare cases. He's a fantastic shooter, but his ball handling is a liability.
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So is his defense. But I don't understand why you can't get him 4-5 minutes/game and let him get a few shots up.
 


howeda7 said:
If this is a preview of his B1G playing time, I won't be shocked if Harris transfers.
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He's a freshman; give him time. He's not getting on the court because he needs to gain strength and defensive awareness. He's a smart kid and will figure it out.

We've already seen IW improve on defense from the start of the season. Jamir can do the same.
 



howeda7 said:
If this is a preview of his B1G playing time, I won't be shocked if Harris transfers.
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Game conditions will dictate his PT. Illinois had very physical ball pressure and probably not the best game for Harris. IW hardly played and Fitzgerald played 30 seconds.

Hurt ate a bunch of DNPs last year as will Harris this year. Thats the way it goes on a veteran squad. Long term he will find plenty of minutes with his ability to can the three.
 

Some guy said:
He probably knew what he was getting into.
Pretty clear he is backup PG next year if he stays imo
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Right now I can't imagine Pitino not getting another point guard in the spring (probably a grad transfer if he can). At this point, it's difficult to have full confidence in Washington. Harris should play a lot next year and will get more minutes this year.
 

What a nice win! Great to see a balanced attack and be 13-3! Hoping we can keep the momentum going the next couple games and set up a HUGE home game against Purdue...
 

Hand wringing!

I read 3 posts in this thread and know all I need to know
 



I'll start with the positive and that was that the first ~15 minutes or so were really, really good. That was as locked in as I've seen the Gophers this year in terms of helping then helping the helper on the defensive end. That type of defense was much more the norm last year and it was really good to see this group get back to that. Bakary Konate's minutes in the first half might have been the best of his Gopher career as he was a legitimate positive factor on the court against a high major team. I can't remember the last block I saw from Bakary and I am almost certain I've never seen him block a shot and then recover the ball himself. Great minutes from Bakary and hopefully he will be able to build on those.

Where did the defense go? Late in the first half, Illinois started getting all the way to the basket on seemingly every possession. When they didn't finish at the rim, they had a guy there to put back the miss. To start the second half, the Gophers allowed Illinois to score 12 points on their first 7 possessions...and this includes two possessions that ended in turnovers! That's not how you open a half on your home court, especially when the defense had already regressed prior to halftime.

Where the "F" is the killer instinct with this team? The Gophers had a double digit lead for about 20 minutes of game. They literally had an entire half's worth of play to put this game away and they failed to do so. They could have gotten rest for Nate Mason and gotten game experience for Hurt, Harris, and Fitzgerald. When you let a team hang around just on the edge of a blowout for that long, things like tonight happened.

There was one possession where the Gophers were up just 5 with about 3:30 left to play and the entire possession was Dupree McBrayer dribbling the ball. Dupree (don't blame him, nothing seemed to be going on) was forced to put up a contested shot as the shot clock ran down (he'd literally been dribbling for 28-30 seconds) airballs it but it kicks to Nate Mason in the corner for a 3 to put the Gophers up 8. If that one incredibly fortunate bounce doesn't go our way, we are having a very different discussion here. The Gophers were all sorts of of out of shape and that sequence basically ended the game.

One last point: From the point where the Gophers entered the bonus to when I stopped keeping track because the game was in hand, they converted on 3 of a possible 12 points from the free throw line. This was Nate Mason, Dupree McBrayer, Amir Coffey, and Jordan Murphy. You can't essentially hand the other team opportunities like that.

Hopefully we see more of the team from the first 15 or so minutes of the game, that team can go places.
 

WriterGoph said:
What a nice win! Great to see a balanced attack and be 13-3! Hoping we can keep the momentum going the next couple games and set up a HUGE home game against Purdue...
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True. Unfortunately, the bench didn't provide much except for some nice defensive work by Konate in spots. Also, the problem with starting out with Rutgers, Nebraska, Illinois, and Indiana with three of those games at home is that the schedule get tougher after that.
 

cjbfbp said:
True. Unfortunately, the bench didn't provide much except for some nice defensive work by Konate in spots. Also, the problem with starting out with Rutgers, Nebraska, Illinois, and Indiana with three of those games at home is that the schedule get tougher after that.
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Sure it does. But I'd rather have it this way and have a good chance to start out 4-1 before we face a top 15 team again. I think we can all remember so many years where the Gophers had a BRUTAL start to the B10 schedule - last year with Michigan State and @ Purdue?!
 

MNVCGUY said:
I got the feeling the he and Mason know each other, I really don't think he was legitimately trying to go for the steal just messing around. Not really anything to get worked up about. Glad they weathered the storm when Illinois came back and pulled away late. Not a perfect effort but good to get a BIG W in fairly easy fashion.
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I could be wrong and have no inside info on their relationship, but I disagree. #24 was an instigator in half 2. He got super frustrated at one point, and picked up 3 fouls in less than 2 minutes. There were several plays that didn't get called where he could have. He constantly was testing the refs to see how close to Mason he could get IMO. I wouldn't use the word dirty, but I am not a fan of how alstork plays.
 

Man oh man, we need to work on that zone-offense in practice. I don't know if the Tubby curse lives on or not, but damn are we bad against a 2-3.... If I was an opposing coach, I would sit back in a 2-3 and make MN shoot 3's and play one on one all day.. That was the story of this game IMO. When they were in man to man, the gophers dominated. When they switched to zone, we couldn't score a basket for our life.
 

ForecastingAWin said:
I could be wrong and have no inside info on their relationship, but I disagree. #24 was an instigator in half 2. He got super frustrated at one point, and picked up 3 fouls in less than 2 minutes. There were several plays that didn't get called where he could have. He constantly was testing the refs to see how close to Mason he could get IMO. I wouldn't use the word dirty, but I am not a fan of how alstork plays.
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It was a punk move. Alstork was on edge the whole game and should have been T-ed up for all his chirping to the refs. I admire how scrappy Illinois plays but their guards could have been called for many more fouls given how physical they were toward our guards.
 

Solid win tonight, Illinois played extremely hard and you knew they would shoot better in the second half. The Gophers were fantastic in executing their game plan in the first half. They were locked in on defense, crashed the glass and got out in transition at every available opportunity, which nullified Illinois pressure defense early. Illinois was 1-for-19 early, and it was largely due to a great defensive effort by the Gophers.

You know they would make some shots to start the second half, and the Gophers weathered the storm. Konate gave some valuable minutes tonight, defended mostly without fouling and grabbed some key rebounds.

Murphy was a stud despite not making a ton of shots from the field. His presence was felt on defense, on the glass and at the free-throw line. Nate Mason had a gutty performance, playing 37 minutes 10 days removed from the ankle injury. He only had 2 days of practice leading into the game and said on the radio he was exhausted. He was more aggressive offensively in the second half and made the biggest shot of the game with the corner 3.

Illinois is a tough team that will give a lot of Big Ten opponents problems if it plays with that kind of energy every game. Make a few more shots and they'll win a handful of games. We have to accept at this point that the Gophers bench won't contribute a lot offensively in a game. Their job is to defend and hold serve while a few starters get rest. The issue will come into play if there's foul trouble among the starters. Our starting 5 can play with virtually anyone in the country.

Solid win, now do it again against Indiana Saturday. What a weird team the Hoosiers are, beat Notre Dame not that long ago and suffered a bad loss at Wisconsin on Tuesday. Welcome to college basketball.
 

ForecastingAWin said:
Man oh man, we need to work on that zone-offense in practice. I don't know if the Tubby curse lives on or not, but damn are we bad against a 2-3.... If I was an opposing coach, I would sit back in a 2-3 and make MN shoot 3's and play one on one all day.. That was the story of this game IMO. When they were in man to man, the gophers dominated. When they switched to zone, we couldn't score a basket for our life.
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Interesting you say that considering Illinois never played a 2-3 zone.

But I agree that the issues in the game arose from them not attacking the basket against the zone.
 

Some guy said:
Interesting you say that considering Illinois never played a 2-3 zone.

But I agree that the issues in the game arose from them not attacking the basket against the zone.
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Well congrats. You used my post about how we struggle vs zone to stroke your ego and show how much you know about college bball. I submit to you from here on out.

I don't care what zone it is, match up, 1-2-2 zone, 1-3-1, 2-1-2, box and 1 or even the super rare, never heard of before 2-3. My point was that Minnesota struggles against the zone. There is simply not enough ball movement.
 

You idiot, they used a 1-1-1–1-1 zone for a good portion of the game and the Gophers tore it up, for the most part. ;-)
 


Illini fan back again. My 2 cents..

Your bigs are beasts, Murphy/Lynch might be the best the most valuable 1-2 punch in the Big Ten offensively and defensively. However; seemed like a few of the 'blocks' were fouls. But, it was expected, two really solid players.
Illinois lost the game in the first 8 minutes shooting an abysmal 1-19 from the field, dug ourselves a deep deep hole.
Was underwhelmed with the play of Coffey and Washington, what have you guys seen from them this year? Thought they would impact the game more. Coffey was one of my favorite gophers to watch last year, kid has legit NBA potential.
We hardly play our 3-2 zone, but seemed like it was pretty effective against you guys.
That airball/block that was tapped to Mason in the corner at the end of the game was the dagger. He is one of my favorite guards in the big ten, you guys have a special player.
The BTN guys kept mentioning the "rivalry" that we have, but never really saw you guys as our rival (More Iowa, Mizzou, Indiana) but thinking about it, seems like we always play tight games for 20 years+ now.
As much as I HATE to admit, you guys have a great young coach in lil Patino. We return everyone besides Alstork (who had a very petty steal at the end of the game), and add a 5* MCD-All-american next year. The mentality and toughness of our young team, versus the last 5 years of Groce is great to see, and could easily see our "rivalry" become more legit. We are going to eventually learn to win close games,but Illini basketball will be back to its winning culture soon with Underwood, guy is legit. Good luck the rest of the way!
 


GopherFan1996 said:
Illini fan back again. My 2 cents..

Your bigs are beasts, Murphy/Lynch might be the best the most valuable 1-2 punch in the Big Ten offensively and defensively. However; seemed like a few of the 'blocks' were fouls. But, it was expected, two really solid players.
Illinois lost the game in the first 8 minutes shooting an abysmal 1-19 from the field, dug ourselves a deep deep hole.
Was underwhelmed with the play of Coffey and Washington, what have you guys seen from them this year? Thought they would impact the game more. Coffey was one of my favorite gophers to watch last year, kid has legit NBA potential.
We hardly play our 3-2 zone, but seemed like it was pretty effective against you guys.
That airball/block that was tapped to Mason in the corner at the end of the game was the dagger. He is one of my favorite guards in the big ten, you guys have a special player.
The BTN guys kept mentioning the "rivalry" that we have, but never really saw you guys as our rival (More Iowa, Mizzou, Indiana) but thinking about it, seems like we always play tight games for 20 years+ now.
As much as I HATE to admit, you guys have a great young coach in lil Patino. We return everyone besides Alstork (who had a very petty steal at the end of the game), and add a 5* MCD-All-american next year. The mentality and toughness of our young team, versus the last 5 years of Groce is great to see, and could easily see our "rivalry" become more legit. We are going to eventually learn to win close games,but Illini basketball will be back to its winning culture soon with Underwood, guy is legit. Good luck the rest of the way!
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Interesting game to call out Coffey. He had an extremely efficient game and was the main catalyst for that early scoring run. He excels in transition, so when we were running, he was great.

16 points on 6-9 (2-5 3pt) shooting. 4 rebounds 3 assists and no turnovers. I thought he had a great overall game but faded in usage in the second half.
 

Yeah I think Coffey had a solid game as well.
Illinois made a nice come back in this game and I hope they can continue to improve throughout the season.
 

As I predicted on page 1, a real yawner. I only caught the first 10 minutes and the last few...never got close!

All jokes aside, good game from the Gophers. I thought Mason lacked a quick first step and struggled at times against #24 pressuring him, but he was fantastic once we got into sets
 

UpAndUnder43 said:
As I predicted on page 1, a real yawner. I only caught the first 10 minutes and the last few...never got close!

All jokes aside, good game from the Gophers. I thought Mason lacked a quick first step and struggled at times against #24 pressuring him, but he was fantastic once we got into sets
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Overall a pretty solid game by the Gophers. There are a few areas to clean up. 1. Too many turnovers by the guards on exchanges where they are getting pressured out high and too much dribbling. 2. They need to hit more of their open threes. They had a bunch of chances to really put the dagger on Illinois and they just couldn't drain the threes to do it. 3. They had defensive intensity to start the game and then they lost it. They need to play hard defensively, more consistently. 4. Not much from the bench- except that Konate gave them some nice defensive play. A good team has to occasionally get a win that is inspired by a bench player, and the Gophers have not had that yet.

I am still optimistic about this team but some of these things need to improve to see them in a top 2 or 3 position in the conference.
 

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