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

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cncmin said:
Every trait you said there is characteristic of players choking. Been there, done that myself. It sucks. It has nothing to do with coaches. If you want to blame Pitino for anything tonight, the big mistake down the stretch was not getting the ball into Oturo's hands on the inbounds where MD was fouling. Oturo was the only one consistently making FTs tonight. Gabe had just alligator-armed the previous, Carr the same. The ball should have gotten to Oturo. Still, as a coach, you have to have confidence that your starting guards will hit FTs. To not show that confidence might, to me, suggest a negative attitude by the coaching staff. But that simply wasn't the case. A couple of pretty good players choked. They will continue to be pretty good in the future, and will be on the good side of all of this in future games. It sucks to be a player, a coach, a fan of this, but I'm not sure what else could/should have been done. Further, a low-end shooter on MD made a 1000-foot contested 3 to end the game, one which hit the side rim. The D there was about perfect. Possession prior to that, their best player missed a long 3 that bounced straight into the hands of MD's only rebounder near the hoop. D was good there too (but someone needed to box out Smith). Sometimes it's just better to be lucky. End of story.

It wasn't all that long ago that a team led by some pretty decent football coach blew yet another big lead, this time in a bowl game. To cap the loss, the other team's kicker had to make a 52-yard FG, or the Gophers would have won. Of course he made it, and the next thing you know, the Gophers hired Tim Brewster and the football program went from pretty decent into the ditch. Am I comparing this situation to that? I guess so. Be careful what you all wish for. We all wish the basketball program was better, and of course part of that lies on the coach. But I'm not sure there is a PJ Fleck available out there to lead the bball program to the top. Maybe. The program has as much chance to fall as rise with a coaching change. I'm indifferent at this point. I'll cheer for them regardless.
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Unfortunately, this case is Tim Brewster screwing up the game and people would be ecstatic to hire Glenn Mason caliber talent, even in the hindsight seen through elite rose colored glasses.
 

Outsider said:
You don’t seem to understand, don’t blow a 17 point lead during the second half and you don’t need the free throws.
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How did this incompetent idiot get such a poor team to be leading by 17 over the 9th ranked team?
 

cncmin said:
I'm sorry, but that makes no sense. Players choking is a mental issue only the most elite world athletes can solve, and even they often choke. It's just unfortunate that players choking seems to be more common in MN sports than elsewhere. I don't know what that has to do with "coaching staff".
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I don't want to tag this loss to past Gophers or MN teams. I want the Gophers Men's basketball coach to reiterate what Fleck has said around forgetting the past and instill confidence in his team. I want the Gophers basketball team to continue to attack the basket when they are up by 10 or 5 or whatever points in the closing minutes of the game. Enough of the drawn out possessions that come up empty and the turnovers due to ball pressure. If there is ball pressure get around your guy and pass to the open man.
The only consolation in this loss is that the team had lost enough similar games earlier in the season so winning this and the other games ahead was very unlikely and would have still placed the team as a bubble team.
 

Goldteam said:
The reason I ask, is I've wanted Pitino gone for 2 years, so I was cheering for them to lose. It appears this board wants us to lose. How pathetic. Hell, even GopherWriter now wants them to lose.

What the hell is this world coming too?
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I don’t want them to lose, otherwise I wouldn’t set my night up so I can sit for two hours and watch them play. This was excruciating to watch the second half. I said it earlier and I’ll stick to it, Richard has had his chance, it’s time for a different person to get a crack at it.
 




How is it even a debate about if his coaching was a reason we lost? How many time did we fail to inbound the ball or have a stupid turnover? I lost count. This is a trend, just like the Iowa game where we had back to back 10 seconds in the back court. The team never looks prepared when plan A goes wrong, it’s plainly obvious to see.
 

bga1 said:
How did this incompetent idiot get such a poor team to be leading by 17 over the 9th ranked team?
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They shot out of their ass in the first half is how. It happens.

Also, what's his nuts for Maryland had some of the cheapest ass fouls one could ever see and sat the whole first half.
 



WorkingMyTailOff said:
I don't want to tag this loss to past Gophers or MN teams. I want the Gophers Men's basketball coach to reiterate what Fleck has said around forgetting the past and instill confidence in his team. I want the Gophers basketball team to continue to attack the basket when they are up by 10 or 5 or whatever points in the closing minutes of the game. Enough of the drawn out possessions that come up empty and the turnovers due to ball pressure. If there is ball pressure get around your guy and pass to the open man.
The only consolation in this loss is that the team had lost enough similar games earlier in the season so winning this and the other games ahead was very unlikely and would have still placed the team as a bubble team.
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Very good points, and I can rally with you around this! There are certainly many areas in which the late-game plans are falling short, which isn't helping the problems.
 

Goldteam said:
They shot out of their ass in the first half is how. It happens.

Also, what's his nuts for Maryland had some of the cheapest ass fouls one could ever see and sat the whole first half.
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I see. If the players make shots- good/lucky players. If they miss free throws, dumb coach.
 


bga1 said:
How did this incompetent idiot get such a poor team to be leading by 17 over the 9th ranked team?
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Basketball games are 40 minutes long.

He's coaching to a sub-.400 B1G record over 7 years. 20 minutes of good performance isnt the measuring stick to apply.
 



Winasota Gopher said:
Agreed, anyway you cut it. Pitino is at fault.

Do you move on from him or not? If it's my call, I wait to see if Danny O comes back and if he does Pitino actually has a roster with a bit of depth next year. It might be worth going one more year that way and ensure you get the recruits he has already locked up.

If Danny O goes pro, which he will. Team is terrible next year. Burn it down and get someone new in here.

Pitino has been my favorite coach in some time from a personality standpoint. But I cant say I've liked his product on the court any more than any of the last 3 coaches. At least Tubby had a style. I fucking hated it, but at least I knew what it was.
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Agree with 95% of this, but I hated observing Tubby ball. And the dude left almost zero talent his last two classes.
 

bga1 said:
How did this incompetent idiot get such a poor team to be leading by 17 over the 9th ranked team?
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You mean the same idiot who couldn’t figure an offensive play early in the second half to combat a zone defense and pissed away a 17 point lead.
 

cncmin said:
They weren't up by 10 with under 2 minutes left. The game was consistently in doubt, success riding on whether the Gophers would make FTs or MD would make their shots. The latter happened, but not the former. Therefore, L.
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Up 8 with 2:06. My bad. Maryland wasn’t putting us on the line intentionally. We didn’t have to keep shooting free throws.
 

USAF said:
Basketball games are 40 minutes long.

He's coaching to a sub-.400 B1G record over 7 years. 20 minutes of good performance isnt the measuring stick to apply.
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20 minutes where the other team's best player sat on the bench for most of it.
 

bga1 said:
I see. If the players make shots- good/lucky players. If they miss free throws, dumb coach.
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11-0 run by Iowa to end the game

11-1 run by Maryland to end the game

So you are saying it's the players. Well then, recruit smarter, better players.

You don't have much that the coach is responsible for. You might as well hire yourself as coach for 300,000. We save the U big money and it will never be your fault.
 
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I really really wanted it to work out here for Pitino. I find him to be refreshingly genuine and transparent as a coach.

....but these types of losses are so tough. I don’t completely blame him for tonight, but he is ultimately the captain of his ship and the results fall on him. It just seems like it has never clicked for him here except for one season.

I genuinely think he’s a better coach than some give credit for, but I am really concerned that apathy around this program is setting in and I think keeping him only drives that apathy further and for that he needs to go. I wish him the best of luck, I think he will find a lot of success as a mid major coach somewhere on the East Coast.
 

bga1 said:
I see. If the players make shots- good/lucky players. If they miss free throws, dumb coach.
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47-80....Another year and a half he could get 100...I've changed my mind, I think we should bring him back.
 


kansasgopher said:
why is this the fault of the coach? young men missed free throws at a critical part of the game. grow up. it sucks. like you guys would have made them. they tried their best. move on to the next game
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The game came down to free throws because we have a terrible coach. It's not his fault our guys missed free throws (they do play too many minutes), but it isn't his fault that those free throws went down. It's his fault that this game came down to those free throws.
 

bga1 said:
How did this incompetent idiot get such a poor team to be leading by 17 over the 9th ranked team?
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We couldn't miss in the first half and their best player played 2 minutes. Did you watch the game?
 

Goldteam said:
11-0 run by Iowa to end the game

11-1 run by Maryland to end the game

So you are saying it's the players. Well then, recruit smarter, better players.

You don't have much that the coach is responsible for. You might as well hire yourself as coach for 300,000. We save the U big money and it will never be your fault.
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The coach is going to get fired because he hasn't won I am not arguing that. The players blew this game. Sorry, that's just a plain fact. Those were the people missing the free throws. You are a small person that is looking to blame someone you can't stand.
 

FWIW, I think pitino should be gone. This game did not determine that though. If they had won, he still should have lost his job at the end of the season barring a magical run in the NCAA tourney.

But this loss isn’t on him. Players play. They had a great first half. Bad second half. He could have coached better but they were in position to win and missed free throws.
 

Bob_Loblaw said:
We couldn't miss in the first half and their best player played 2 minutes. Did you watch the game?
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Yep, watched it. We played well, and then we kept playing well and then we didn't. At the end we failed to make a bunch of 15 foot shots unguarded and their guy hit a 30 footer guarded. Game over.
 


Gold Vision said:
This much talent?? We have two above average players on the roster. We’re consistently seeing guys falter at the end of the games because they’re dead tired from playing too many minutes. They missed the free throws short because they had no legs.
This isn’t an excuse for Pitino, it‘s an indictment of poor roster management.
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Just to be clear, you are restating my own opinions antagonistically. We are saying the same thing, except I would say Carr and Oturu are not just above average, but the two best individual players we’ve had at one time since... before I’ve been a fan. Roster construction as a whole (lack of depth at key positions) has been the shortcoming that’s manifested in late game situations.

But we agree. IMO, Pitino goes as Oturu goes this offseason.
 

UpAndUnder43 said:
FWIW, I think pitino should be gone. This game did not determine that though. If they had won, he still should have lost his job at the end of the season barring a magical run in the NCAA tourney.

But this loss isn’t on him. Players play. They had a great first half. Bad second half. He could have coached better but they were in position to win and missed free throws.
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This.

Any other take is just angry people being stupid and then we can add in a few trolls who are not actual Gopher fans.
 

bga1 said:
Yep, watched it. We played well, and then we kept playing well and then we didn't. At the end we failed to make a bunch of 15 foot shots unguarded and their guy hit a 30 footer guarded. Game over.
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Couldn't you do these mental gymnastics with just about every loss? Wait, you do.
 

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