As much fun as it was to be in the arena on Thursday, it was the exact opposite tonight. Oturu got the first 2 points of the game...and then Michigan State got the next 11 prompting a timeout from Pitino. At that point Murphy was taken out of the game and because my seats were so close to the Gopher bench it was obvious something was wrong as he never sat down. He went behind the bench to stand and alternated between standing and laying down. The end result was that it felt like the game was already over around the 12 minute mark of the first half with the Gophers down a dozen or so an it becoming clear that Murphy was not coming back in to the game.
It's a real shame that we didn't have Murphy tonight, because the crowd was ready to help something special happen. Everyone was on their feet and roaring as the Gophers made their run to cut it to 9 in the second half. This was by far the highlight of my night as sad as that is. What is too bad is that if Omersa would have just finished that alley-oop and Coffey made a bunny on the possession following the missed oop, that run would have cut it to 5. Throw in making just a single one of the many missed 3's to that point and it would have been a two point game. I don't think there is a scenario where they could have won with the players they had available, but there were certainly a lot of missed opportunities that could have made this game a lot more interesting. I guess the only solace I can take in the Gophers performance today was that only 2 of the 8 games were competitive and we were the only team that lost a first team All Conference player 2 minutes in to the game.
Cassius Winston was the difference. That late clock 3 to end the Gophers momentum was such a killer. We just haven't had a guard who can end a rally by himself like that in years probably since Bobby Jackson (Cassius isn't that level of talent, but he is obviously good).
If there was one surprise positive performance I took out of this game, it was Jarvis Omersa. He really battled Michigan State down low and matched their physicality in fighting for rebounds. He still does not show any feel on the offensive end of the court, which is a major concern, but his motor is outstanding. He was basically putting on his own dunk contest in pregame and just never seems to run out of energy.
Amir really battled. If we had more Jordan at full strength, this game could have been interesting. I hope his emotional send off at the end of the game doesn't mean he's leaving too. Should have started a "1 more year" chant myself, but didn't do it.
Our guards/wings simply weren't strong enough and/or tough enough tonight. There were so many times Jarvis was battling for boards and nobody else from the Gophers would join the fight with him.
I hope Pitino doesn't take too much blame for this one. I do wonder if playing Murphy those first few minutes was what lead to the early deficit and if, in hindsight, he should have subbed him out earlier. The reality of it is, the Gophers played virtually the entire game with only 2 available bigs and they were both Freshman...and they played long stretches of the game where 3 guys who were not even in the rotation all season were on the floor together. That's just not a recipe for success. I do think we should expect Pitino to recruit better depth and develop that depth, but when the situation gets as dire as it did tonight, there's few if any teams that could overcome that.