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


here's my question:

can the Gophers take the attitude and hustle they showed vs Indiana and have that same type of performance when Garcia, Payne and Carrington are back?

I mean, dudes, you're in last place. you had better be playing scrappy and diving for loose balls.

on TT, love the effort but he is so limited. I honestly think he would be better off playing for a low-major team, but that's up to him.
 

here's my question:

can the Gophers take the attitude and hustle they showed vs Indiana and have that same type of performance when Garcia, Payne and Carrington are back?

I mean, dudes, you're in last place. you had better be playing scrappy and diving for loose balls.

on TT, love the effort but he is so limited. I honestly think he would be better off playing for a low-major team, but that's up to him.
I hope Ben finds a way to way to properly utilize TT. He has a skillset that is valuable and is not redundant. He is tall and active and I'm sure annoying to play against. The truth is that if he could finish inside, he'd probably be our best player.

I'd love to see 8-10 minutes per game of TT just being a 7" pest. Being super active, setting screens, deflecting passes, using some fouls. There is a legit use for these high energy bigs.
 

I hope Ben finds a way to way to properly utilize TT. He has a skillset that is valuable and is not redundant. He is tall and active and I'm sure annoying to play against. The truth is that if he could finish inside, he'd probably be our best player.

I'd love to see 8-10 minutes per game of TT just being a 7" pest. Being super active, setting screens, deflecting passes, using some fouls. There is a legit use for these high energy bigs.
I agree that, if he wasn't being blown over by the wind with every attempt to attack the rim, he would play more often. But for 7' he plays like a slinky that gets moved in any direction from side to side. He may be one of the weakest 7 foot basketball players in D1. He has some skills, but he's just weak. We don't have a great need for a 7' kid who takes catch and shoot shots from 3 pt range at a 25% accuracy rate.
 

I agree that, if he wasn't being blown over by the wind with every attempt to attack the rim, he would play more often. But for 7' he plays like a slinky that gets moved in any direction from side to side. He may be one of the weakest 7 foot basketball players in D1. He has some skills, but he's just weak. We don't have a great need for a 7' kid who takes catch and shoot shots from 3 pt range at a 25% accuracy rate.
Yeah, we'd probably be in last place if we gave him more minutes... never mind lol In all seriousness, TT is soft but he is getting more aggressive and confident working inside. He boxed guys out at times last night far better than he ever did last year or even earlier in the year. Got stuffed multiple times by Indiana's best all-time shot blocker so not too worried about that. Especially at the end of the game when TT clearly gassed. He was asked to do about 100x more than at anytime during the season and he gave it his all. Of all people here you are the one to preach patience but you have given up on TT? Something doesn't add up. Why patience for all but TT, cause he was a Pitino recruit?
 


I hope Ben finds a way to way to properly utilize TT. He has a skillset that is valuable and is not redundant. He is tall and active and I'm sure annoying to play against. The truth is that if he could finish inside, he'd probably be our best player.

I'd love to see 8-10 minutes per game of TT just being a 7" pest. Being super active, setting screens, deflecting passes, using some fouls. There is a legit use for these high energy bigs.

He's not very good and I don't see him improving much. If he stays and plays >7 minutes/game next year it will be another terrible season
 

Who is a better career 3pt shooter—TT or Ihnen? Who averages more rebounds per 40 minutes? Who is a better shot blocker?

I’m not doing the leg work but the excessive criticisms of TT are the same stuff said about Ihnen 3 years ago. Before a couple major knee injuries.
 

I hope Ben finds a way to way to properly utilize TT. He has a skillset that is valuable and is not redundant. He is tall and active and I'm sure annoying to play against. The truth is that if he could finish inside, he'd probably be our best player.

I'd love to see 8-10 minutes per game of TT just being a 7" pest. Being super active, setting screens, deflecting passes, using some fouls. There is a legit use for these high energy bigs.
Nothing against TT but If this is true it explains a lot about the current state of the program.
 

He's not very good and I don't see him improving much. If he stays and plays >7 minutes/game next year it will be another terrible season
I don't think he's real good overall either, but there are ways to utilize him effectively in a zone defense right now. He covers a lot of ground in a zone, and if he only learned to box out he'd be more effective. Offensively, he's been a liability when playing outside because he's not secure with the ball (but he did much better last night), and although he scored on a jump hook last night he remains a 3 point shooter, and so far not a real good one statistically.

I have to think the frontline will be a bit too crowded for him next year if he wants playing time. But he showed something last night and had a lot of fight to him, to his credit.
 





He's not very good and I don't see him improving much. If he stays and plays >7 minutes/game next year it will be another terrible season
I just think if you really limit his role, don't role him out there and run the exact same thing you do when Garcia or Payne are the C, he could have some functionality.

But I hear you, he does struggle at a lot of parts of the game. He just does some things better than most of our players.
 




One thing the gophers have going in their favor heading forward is damn, the big 10 is down and weak.

I just watched Iowa and MSU and talk about average. We saw Indiana last night.

They could make a huge leap if they get a better backcourt.
 

One thing the gophers have going in their favor heading forward is damn, the big 10 is down and weak.

I just watched Iowa and MSU and talk about average. We saw Indiana last night.

They could make a huge leap if they get a better backcourt.

On the flipside though, we have 1 win in a down big 10.

What if all those teams improve as well?
 

On the flipside though, we have 1 win in a down big 10.

What if all those teams improve as well?
true, but the gap is not that far. This whole conference is blah!
 

Yeah, we'd probably be in last place if we gave him more minutes... never mind lol In all seriousness, TT is soft but he is getting more aggressive and confident working inside. He boxed guys out at times last night far better than he ever did last year or even earlier in the year. Got stuffed multiple times by Indiana's best all-time shot blocker so not too worried about that. Especially at the end of the game when TT clearly gassed. He was asked to do about 100x more than at anytime during the season and he gave it his all. Of all people here you are the one to preach patience but you have given up on TT? Something doesn't add up. Why patience for all but TT, cause he was a Pitino recruit?
I appreciate the effort he gave. He really can't do anything about being the living embodiment of Gumby. That's just the body he was given. I hope he sticks around. He's only a sophomore and he'll get stronger. He's just not a starter and he can't play man-to-man defense so he comes with limitations.
I have no gripes with TT. He's just not someone to place your hopes in.
 

On the flipside though, we have 1 win in a down big 10.

What if all those teams improve as well?
Yep, but some of those teams are losing their best players while it may be that our best player is coming next season. The upside to the Gophers is what I like.
 

Yep, but some of those teams are losing their best players while it may be that our best player is coming next season. The upside to the Gophers is what I like.

Thats fair.

Though many of these teams can reload in the portal much easier too. Also why its so hard to know project teams a year out because rosters change so much. Heck, preseason 1 week before is even pretty meaningless.

Crazy thing is theres a decent chance that big lug Eddey is back.
 

BS. He had position. He should have gotten the ball with any effort and maybe draw a foul too.
Seriously? Nobody thought Race T. was going to shoot a skud-missle off the front of the rim that bounce like that. Tough rebound. He boxed-out. Just a weird play. You can blame TT for a lot of things, but this wasn't for a lack of effort.
 

Seriously? Nobody thought Race T. was going to shoot a skud-missle off the front of the rim that bounce like that. Tough rebound. He boxed-out. Just a weird play. You can blame TT for a lot of things, but this wasn't for a lack of effort.
It was JOJ not TT. Not hating on him either. Just a play that was at a critical moment where we could have done better.
 

It was JOJ not TT. Not hating on him either. Just a play that was at a critical moment where we could have done better.
You're right....I was reading the thread about TT before I typed the response, but my point remains....just a weird brick rebound that he couldn't pull in. The effort was there.
 

You're right....I was reading the thread about TT before I typed the response, but my point remains....just a weird brick rebound that he couldn't pull in. The effort was there.
He did the box out but never got his feet off the ground or his hands up for the rebound. Maybe he did as much as he could but the fact remains it could have been better if he had gone for the rebound. It wasn’t that far over his head.
 

I hope Ben finds a way to way to properly utilize TT. He has a skillset that is valuable and is not redundant. He is tall and active and I'm sure annoying to play against. The truth is that if he could finish inside, he'd probably be our best player.

I'd love to see 8-10 minutes per game of TT just being a 7" pest. Being super active, setting screens, deflecting passes, using some fouls. There is a legit use for these high energy bigs.
If he is the 13th guy on the roster why wouldn't you want him if he is okay with that, especially with the attitude and hustle he shows.
 

TJD is 6’9” and I would guess 240 and is going to play in the nba.

JOJ is 6’7” and 215 and might be playing in the MIAC in 2 years.
Man is that off. Guess you need spring training, huh?
Sometimes the guy you’re going against is just better than you are.

Plus it was a perfect miss as it just rocketed off the front of the iron.
 

If he is the 13th guy on the roster why wouldn't you want him if he is okay with that, especially with the attitude and hustle he shows.
They might keep him, depending on what others decide. The bottom line is that they have to shake a couple of scholarships open to get some good guard play. Let's see who wants to be here and how they fit. No doubt TT would be a great 12th or 13th guy and may yet become a rotation player who can make a difference. He's not there yet but big guys take time.
 

Two days later, and my cachongas are still steamed. There are a number of ways to slice why they lost that game, but the officiating was definitely one of them. It caused me to ponder, during the game, whether I'd rather have more competent refs who are prima donnas and make indulgent calls from time to time or whether the current landscape of less competent officials is better.
 

Two days later, and my cachongas are still steamed. There are a number of ways to slice why they lost that game, but the officiating was definitely one of them. It caused me to ponder, during the game, whether I'd rather have more competent refs who are prima donnas and make indulgent calls from time to time or whether the current landscape of less competent officials is better.
How about the clockers table?
 


on the rebound off the missed FT - after the game, Ben Johnson said JOJ was cramping up and he was not going to put him into the game, but when TT fouled out, Johnson had no choice and put JOJ back in, even though he was far from 100%.

on officiating - just listened to the most recent "talk Gopher Buckets" podcast with Luke Buer and Ryan James. Worth a listen. James goes on a pretty funny rant about the way officials treat the Gophers as opposed to the way they treat the 'star' big men in the league like Edey, Dickenson, etc.

lot of other good info on the podcast talking about guard play, rotations, turnovers, and recruiting. had a lengthy discussion on Jamison Battle and some of the issues that he's been dealing with.
 




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