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

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Damn dropped 10 spots in KenPom after this game. Don't think it'll be as much in the NET, but we're getting close to maybe not making the NIT.
 

bga1 said:
A couple thoughts on this game...
-Really a poorly coached game by Ben- Indiana has Ware and Reneu each with 2 fouls in the first half. Right there you send it into Payne and Garcia every time up court.
-With the starters playing this poorly- why not play JOJ, Keinys, or Betts for a few minutes to inject some energy
- I have to assume that something has gone down between Ben and JOJ and JOJ is gone after this year. Zero minutes in a game like this? It seems JOJ would be a good Galloway matchup to me.
- Most every player but Fox stunk it up. Mitchell put out the effort on D at least- just couldn't make shots.

One of the poorest coached and played games I have seen.
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Terrible coaching. Gophers could not do anything right the last 10 min of the first half and our head coach does nothing but clap his hands. No subsitution; no timeouts; nothing. JOJ should take the first bus out of the Twin Cities. He has much to contribute, but its not here and certainly not with the current coaching regime. Playing only 6 or 7 deep is just completely stupid and the failure to believe in your players affects the teams play, IMO.
 

Go Gophs said:
Seasons over just like I stated when they lost to Illinois. It appears the team has given up. Lucky to beat a brutal Penn State team and now this embarrassment. Weakling Wednesday here we come
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🙄
 

billytwoshoes said:
Long time lurker here, what a first game to post in. I think the coaching staff deserves a lot of credit with this season, they have been generally very good. However, I am confused as to why we cant play any of the bench guys spot minutes? yeah maybe the staff doesnt feel like they are going to be overly effective but the other side is that playing 40 minutes at this point in the season is not reasonable. If i'm a bench guy after this game im looking for a new home. "If i cant get minutes when the starters arent putting in effort then what am i doing here?"
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I can't say anything about Ihnen, but JOJ hasn't earned minutes. The guy refuses to play with a motor and I don't blame Ben for refusing to play him until he shows some initiative.

I would have been fine with Jack Wilson, Keinys, Betts, and even Ramberg getting some run tonight though. The starters lacked juice and were playing sloppy.
 

WayOfTheGopher said:
Only way that they're gonna make the Big Dance is if they make the B1G tournament championship game. Which I highly doubt they'll be able to accomplish, but stranger things has happened before. So who tf knows.🤷
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They have to win the tournament now. No other way. They shot the other way tonight.
 


Bob_Loblaw said:
I can't say anything about Ihnen, but JOJ hasn't earned minutes. The guy refuses to play with a motor and I don't blame Ben for refusing to play him until he shows some initiative.

I would have been fine with Jack Wilson, Keinys, Betts, and even Ramberg getting some run tonight though. The starters lacked juice and were playing sloppy.
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While I agree with you that JOJ shouldn't be getting any minutes at the 3, I disagree that he hasn't earned minutes. He was averaging double figures every game he played 19+ minutes, which was the majority of the games until his minutes suddenly dropped to near nothing.

How do you average 10+ PPG without showing initiative? He should definitely be playing more in games where the Gophers are struggling to score.
 

Bob_Loblaw said:
Yep, you can't continue to waste scholarships with players who should never play (Wilson) and by not having a proper roster construction.

The following players are sharing potential minutes at the 4/5: Garcia, Fox, Ihnen, Payne, JOJ, Betts, and Wilson. We only have 4 players who can conceivably play 1-3.

Even if all our guards are back next season, we should add another guard (or two) to join Asuma.
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True.

Also, guard situation last year was worse. They improved a lot. If NIL was a factor, losing Battle at a glut position possibly helped stock guard better. Now they need more.

In another matter, some young bench guys hopefully contribute at some point.
 

Remember when Ben talked about "culture" during his awful first season? That we were supposedly building it? This was an awful "culture" loss. Indiana didn't even play particularly well, we just were completely lethargic from the opening tip. There have been a lot of home games where the effort has been nowhere near good enough early in games. The Rutgers game started out with their terrible offense having a 22-10 points in the paint advantage at one point in the first half. The Maryland game had Maryland almost set a season high for turnovers in the first half (the vast majority of those unforced) and they STILL lead us by 6. The atrocious home effort against Iowa. Down 15 at half to Nebraska and were down 20 plus at home against Penn State. That's 6 home games out of 10 that were really, really ugly at times and only one of those was against a tournament team (for the love of god, this year has been bad enough please don't let Iowa sneak in).
Before tonight, the metrics were not impressed with this team at all. On BartTorvik, 11 of the 14 Tubby/Pitino seasons were "better" than this season and a 12th (Pitino's last year) was tied with Ben's team at 62nd in the country. On Ken Pom, 13 of the 20 Gopher seasons prior to Ben Johnson were "better" than this season and a 14th (again Pitino's last year) was ranked in the same exact spot as this one (also 62nd). Even by the measure of the awful past two decades of Gopher Basketball prior to Ben Johnson's arrival this season is well below average (and that's before tonight is figured in to the equation).

Losing tonight also clinched that Ben Johnson will have fewer conference wins in three full seasons than Micah Shrewsberry had in two seasons at Penn State. He's also currently tied with Todd Lickliter in wins through 3 seasons with 15...of course Todd only played 18 game seasons, so Ben's had 4 more opportunities (would have had 5 but at MSU was cancelled last season). If he loses at Northwestern and loses first round of the B1G tournament...do you REALLY think this should go on for another year? Maybe we'll get our first win over Iowa or Wisconsin...or even a win over a top 25 team? In year 4? Could it happen?
 

has there been anything in the post-game interview about JOJ's status?
was it injury related or coach's decision?

If it wasn't injury related, it's really hard to understand why Johnson would rather go with a short bench and run starters into the dirt instead of giving a healthy player 5 or 10 minutes.

on the other hand, if it's some kind of disciplinary thing, I can see why they would keep that quiet.

either way, can't see him coming back.
 



GopherWeatherGuy said:
While I agree with you that JOJ shouldn't be getting any minutes at the 3, I disagree that he hasn't earned minutes. He was averaging double figures every game he played 19+ minutes, which was the majority of the games until his minutes suddenly dropped to near nothing.

How do you average 10+ PPG without showing initiative? He should definitely be playing more in games where the Gophers are struggling to score.
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I’d agree with you on JOJ should have seen the floor tonight considering how poorly we played.
But, he doesn’t look like he even wants to play right now. The last couple games he’s not taken his warmup pants off.
If his practice habits are similar to the vibe he’s been giving off recently I can see why he’s not been playing.
 

Gophers7633 said:
Damn dropped 10 spots in KenPom after this game. Don't think it'll be as much in the NET, but we're getting close to maybe not making the NIT.
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Unfortunately... this team is suddenly at risk of -- not a disaster -- not making anything.
 


Garcia had a tough matchup with Ware, doesn't explain everything. They doubled Garcia (at least sometimes, I didn't see all) when he was trying to go to the basket.

Clearly the #1 key to beating the Gophers is to limit, or eliminate, Garcia. It worked in other games.

So then Christie is positioned to torch the opponent. But he missed and missed his shots, or he turned the ball over. He's just a freshman in the Big Ten so not a big deal, but the outside has to destroy the opponent if they double up on Garcia.

So then Mitchell was the one shooting. He was OK. I don't expect him to carry the team.

I thought they would go more to Payne.

Hawkins made no sense. Missing layups, missing free throws. Turnovers.

Very little student section tonight. The place felt flat. Very different than the Ohio State phenomenal game experience.

It looks like almost all called in on the same day. I've had my off days at work or whatever.
 



Well that sucked.....

Fox was the lone true bright spot. He played with energy and effort, got totally hosed on the "charging" call that should have led to an and one opportunity for us. But Fox was awesome and gave everything he had.

Mitchell was ok, played a little out of control at times and unfortunately the shots weren't falling for him but he had some good looks and played hard.

Payne did well but was clearly dealing with the back issues that have plagued him all year and really limited him tonight after he took some hard falls.

Garcia, Hawkins, and Christie however were no shows and collectively played a horrible game. Sloppy turnovers, couldn't hit the broad side of a barn with their shots and just didn't play well at all.

Bummer to not have Carrington again although he may not have been any real help on the offensive end, but at least he plays hard and goes after loose balls.

JOJ remains a mystery, undisclosed injury, discipline issue.....something has been very off with him in the later part of the season. Outside of Fox there is just no spark off the bench right now for this team, so if the starters are off like they were tonight, bad things are going to happen.

Hopefully they can rebound and put together a much better effort against Northwestern this weekend. Disappointing way to end the home season after they had been playing some pretty solid basketball late in the year, especially at home.
 

GopherWeatherGuy said:
While I agree with you that JOJ shouldn't be getting any minutes at the 3, I disagree that he hasn't earned minutes. He was averaging double figures every game he played 19+ minutes, which was the majority of the games until his minutes suddenly dropped to near nothing.

How do you average 10+ PPG without showing initiative? He should definitely be playing more in games where the Gophers are struggling to score.
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Exactly. In many games he's played, he was the only one who drove the ball and scored. Maybe his defense keeps him off the floor? I don't get it.
 

Wow, JOJ is gone.

Carrington would have helped a bit, probably not enough to win.

This reminds me of the B1G tourney game where we played 6 guys only and lost a close one. We really needed to tap into that bench, get Betts or Ramberg in there, someone.
 


With about 3 minutes to go in game, all starters except for payne, were shooting 17% between them. Some of hawkins 3's werent even close. At one point they were like 6 of 34.
 

Dsigma42 said:
Damn, we know you hate the kid. Every post is about Mitchell doing something bad. Couldn’t praise him when he was making shots. Did he screw your family member, girlfriend? Just asking because the hate is getting old.
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I posted once about Mitchell, but go off. He’s a nice role player who should 3 and d and try to avoid driving. You need those guys on your team to realize what gets them In trouble though. He overall was ok last night. D was fine. Shooting was rough (he should not be shooting 27ft 3s nor trying to create a step back fadeaway). He gets in this mindset that he is a creator when this team struggles at times and it’s not the move for this team as it just compounds things. However that’s not all on him as the team also seems to try play outside their means when they struggle, just in different ways. Ben needs to coach that out of his guys
 
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Gopherbbdude said:
100% this.... blame anything else you want...... 100% shooting. 8 of 22 wins the game. Missed some wide open shots
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8-46 - 17% from 3 in the two games with Indiana. Obviously some of the credit for that has to go to Indiana but there were plenty of good looks from 3 last night that just wouldn't fall.

Turnovers played a big role in the debacle last night as well but yeah, when you can't hit shots you aren't going to win many games.
 


5/26 from three!! Tough to win with that. 18 turnovers.....
 

Spottedmuskie said:
Wow, JOJ is gone.

Carrington would have helped a bit, probably not enough to win.

This reminds me of the B1G tourney game where we played 6 guys only and lost a close one. We really needed to tap into that bench, get Betts or Ramberg in there, someone.
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He seems to fall into this. Very disappointing.
 
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Bad Gopher said:
Well, outclassed again, and this time outworked. That was one of the most unpleasant nights at Williams Arena in some time.
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I left with 7 minutes to go. I have never once done that. It was just disgusting to watch. There is no explanation for it. None.
 

EG#9 said:
Remember when Ben talked about "culture" during his awful first season? That we were supposedly building it? This was an awful "culture" loss. Indiana didn't even play particularly well, we just were completely lethargic from the opening tip. There have been a lot of home games where the effort has been nowhere near good enough early in games. The Rutgers game started out with their terrible offense having a 22-10 points in the paint advantage at one point in the first half. The Maryland game had Maryland almost set a season high for turnovers in the first half (the vast majority of those unforced) and they STILL lead us by 6. The atrocious home effort against Iowa. Down 15 at half to Nebraska and were down 20 plus at home against Penn State. That's 6 home games out of 10 that were really, really ugly at times and only one of those was against a tournament team (for the love of god, this year has been bad enough please don't let Iowa sneak in).
Before tonight, the metrics were not impressed with this team at all. On BartTorvik, 11 of the 14 Tubby/Pitino seasons were "better" than this season and a 12th (Pitino's last year) was tied with Ben's team at 62nd in the country. On Ken Pom, 13 of the 20 Gopher seasons prior to Ben Johnson were "better" than this season and a 14th (again Pitino's last year) was ranked in the same exact spot as this one (also 62nd). Even by the measure of the awful past two decades of Gopher Basketball prior to Ben Johnson's arrival this season is well below average (and that's before tonight is figured in to the equation).

Losing tonight also clinched that Ben Johnson will have fewer conference wins in three full seasons than Micah Shrewsberry had in two seasons at Penn State. He's also currently tied with Todd Lickliter in wins through 3 seasons with 15...of course Todd only played 18 game seasons, so Ben's had 4 more opportunities (would have had 5 but at MSU was cancelled last season). If he loses at Northwestern and loses first round of the B1G tournament...do you REALLY think this should go on for another year? Maybe we'll get our first win over Iowa or Wisconsin...or even a win over a top 25 team? In year 4? Could it happen?
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Zero chance Ben isn’t the coach next year. He’s exceeded most win expectations and Coyle seems to think we’ll be pre season top 25 next year. Just gonna have to hold on and keep rooting for them to be better. With the Michigan State win last night and a road game to NW we could be looking at weakling Wednesday and no NIT even despite an improvement in record this year.
 

WilliamsArenaGuy said:
I left with 7 minutes to go. I have never once done that. It was just disgusting to watch. There is no explanation for it. None.
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I was tempted, maybe for the first time since we got tickets in 1990. I stuck around in case any of my mates wanted rides to their far-flung parking spots.
 
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CentralGopher said:
Zero chance Ben isn’t the coach next year. He’s exceeded most win expectations and Coyle seems to think we’ll be pre season top 25 next year. Just gonna have to hold on and keep rooting for them to be better. With the Michigan State win last night and a road game to NW we could be looking at weakling Wednesday and no NIT even despite an improvement in record this year.
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I think it’s already been determined they have been eliminated from WW this year. They can finish no worse then 10th.
 


skiumah1 said:
This is most important to me. The combination of Hawkins, Mitchell, Carrington and Asuma is not an NCAA Tournament level backcourt. I know we like these guys and they've improved, but it's not.

Of course you're right we'll need at least a post or 2 as well simply for depths sake. But man Ben has GOT to make sure they are playable players. He needs to be able to get that level of guys.
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So much this. At this level, results matter. The age of extended patience is gone.

Last night, I lost faith in Hawkins. I've had enough of continuously taking 3-point shots when they aren't falling for him. Why doesn't CBJ do something about it? He seems afraid to put him on the bench.

Our inside the paint game has to get more opportunities.
 

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