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

[short ornery norwegian]

His buyout is north of $5 million. He's not going anywhere. You had 8 scholarship players available tonight, and it's really 7 with McBrayer basically playing on one leg. He's slow to close out on shooters and can't explode driving the line, no lift on that left leg.

There isn't a coach in college basketball who could win consistently with this situation. The season ended when Lynch was suspended and Coffey went out. You can't win games with 3 starters out and virtually half the team not practicing due to injury. You can only watch so much film, they can't apply much to practice because guys are dinged up and need to rest.

Not having Coffey tonight was killer with his length on both ends of the floor. It changed everything.

Nate Mason was horrible tonight. Complained about contact in the lane and didn't get back on defense, and his shot selection was awful. He had at least 2 threes that airballed to the side of the rim, not sure I've ever seen that before. BK not being able to corral a rebound, which led to a Bohannon 3, was the back-breaker. It got back up above double digits after that and we could never recover.

Nice to see Jelly and Fitzgerald step up tonight, but this team needs Mason at his best to have any shot to win.

Remember, next year the front-court is Murphy, Curry, Oturu, Stockman and Jarvis assuming everyone stays healthy. That's a hell of a lot more depth than we've had in a long time.

for the record, that is one returning starter, a guy coming off an ACL, two true freshmen, and a transfer who just sat out a season, and who, in his last year at Louisville, averaged 4.1 minutes a game, with averages of 1.7 points and 1.2 rebounds a game. Yes, it's more depth if healthy bodies is all you need for depth. But that still leaves a lot of questions. For the Gophers to really have better front-line depth, the two Freshmen will need to make a serious contribution immediately. If they need time to adjust to college ball, the depth becomes a lot thinner.

 

[stocker08]

His buyout is north of $5 million. He's not going anywhere. You had 8 scholarship players available tonight, and it's really 7 with McBrayer basically playing on one leg. He's slow to close out on shooters and can't explode driving the line, no lift on that left leg.

There isn't a coach in college basketball who could win consistently with this situation. The season ended when Lynch was suspended and Coffey went out. You can't win games with 3 starters out and virtually half the team not practicing due to injury. You can only watch so much film, they can't apply much to practice because guys are dinged up and need to rest.

Not having Coffey tonight was killer with his length on both ends of the floor. It changed everything.

Nate Mason was horrible tonight. Complained about contact in the lane and didn't get back on defense, and his shot selection was awful. He had at least 2 threes that airballed to the side of the rim, not sure I've ever seen that before. BK not being able to corral a rebound, which led to a Bohannon 3, was the back-breaker. It got back up above double digits after that and we could never recover.

Nice to see Jelly and Fitzgerald step up tonight, but this team needs Mason at his best to have any shot to win.

Remember, next year the front-court is Murphy, Curry, Oturu, Stockman and Jarvis assuming everyone stays healthy. That's a hell of a lot more depth than we've had in a long time.

Well put.

 

[gophereric30]

No one expected a ton of wins after losing Lynch and Coffey. But I certainly expected more competitive showings than we've seen. There's no excuse for getting run by double digits every game, especially by a bad Iowa team.

Come on really? Look at what happened tonight. You really think with the guys that we have that we are a legit big ten team that with 8 scholarship players available that we will win any games let alone a road game? We can rip on pitino, we can rip on whoever, but seriously I know Iowa is bad but if we had our guys available tonight we win this game easily. Hello everyone wake up, I don't like it either but with Coffey and lynch out and us shorthanded quit trying to think we're gonna win games. We run out of gas and we dont have a big ten competitive team out there so quit getting upset when we lose to bad teams. It's what will be happening rest of year. Nobody including myself likes this, we show flashes, but with the guys we have to play it's not gonna happen in a 40 minute game. It's nobody's fault but seriously somebody tell me why this team without Coffey and lynch in a 40 minute game should win games. They run out of gas and don't have enough competitive players now to win in what we like to think is the best basketball conference. Unfortunate but true!

 

[Goldteam]

Come on really? Look at what happened tonight. You really think with the guys that we have that we are a legit big ten team that with 8 scholarship players available that we will win any games let alone a road game? We can rip on pitino, we can rip on whoever, but seriously I know Iowa is bad but if we had our guys available tonight we win this game easily. Hello everyone wake up, I don't like it either but with Coffey and lynch out and us shorthanded quit trying to think we're gonna win games. We run out of gas and we dont have a big ten competitive team out there so quit getting upset when we lose to bad teams. It's what will be happening rest of year. Nobody including myself likes this, we show flashes, but with the guys we have to play it's not gonna happen in a 40 minute game. It's nobody's fault but seriously somebody tell me why this team without Coffey and lynch in a 40 minute game should win games. They run out of gas and don't have enough competitive players now to win in what we like to think is the best basketball conference. Unfortunate but true!

If you literally can't win a game with what we have then you start Washington and Harris and play for the future. That is exactly what they should be doing by the way.

Mason and McBrayer are boring me to tears anyway.

If IW and Harris were getting the minutes, I'd have a reason to watch too.

 

[gophereric30]

If you literally can't win a game with what we have then you start Washington and Harris and play for the future. That is exactly what they should be doing by the way.

Mason and McBrayer are boring me to tears anyway.

If IW and Harris were getting the minutes, I'd have a reason to watch too.

Absolutely! Have to start playing Washington and everyone more. Why not get more minutes. We're playing for nothing right now.

 

[34Gopher]

Mason's attitude is driving me nuts, there has to be an underlying rift between he and Pitino. If memory serves me correctly Pitino was quoted after the Providence game that he and Nate had a 30 minute talk in the hotel room prior to the game about needing to be on the same page. Maybe that resolved matters in the short term, but that can't be ideal to have that happening two games into the year from your senior captain and all Big 10 PG.

 

[GophersInIowa]

Come on really? Look at what happened tonight. You really think with the guys that we have that we are a legit big ten team that with 8 scholarship players available that we will win any games let alone a road game? We can rip on pitino, we can rip on whoever, but seriously I know Iowa is bad but if we had our guys available tonight we win this game easily. Hello everyone wake up, I don't like it either but with Coffey and lynch out and us shorthanded quit trying to think we're gonna win games. We run out of gas and we dont have a big ten competitive team out there so quit getting upset when we lose to bad teams. It's what will be happening rest of year. Nobody including myself likes this, we show flashes, but with the guys we have to play it's not gonna happen in a 40 minute game. It's nobody's fault but seriously somebody tell me why this team without Coffey and lynch in a 40 minute game should win games. They run out of gas and don't have enough competitive players now to win in what we like to think is the best basketball conference. Unfortunate but true!

We still have two all conference players on the floor. Mason was the biggest issue last night. He plays well we probably win.

 

[gophereric30]

We still have two all conference players on the floor. Mason was the biggest issue last night. He plays well we probably win.

I agree! The problem is teams pretty much know if they focus on shutting down mason, murphy, and mcbrayer they will win. We need monster games from all 3 every night and thats just not gonna happen. Iowa is bad but there not that bad. They had 6 guys in double figures. When 2 of our top 3 guys go 4 for 21 shooting not sure having 2 all conference players out there really matters.

 

[abrams]

Washington was OK tonight but man do we settle for mediocrity if that's our standard. IW was 6-15 from the floor and 0-5 from the 3 point. He did go 3-3 from the line with 7 assists. It's a start. His shot has this weird hitch in it, all wrists. He needs to drive, dish or take the shot if open. Maybe there is hope for IW. Mason was horrid last night.

 

[bga1]

Washington was OK tonight but man do we settle for mediocrity if that's our standard. IW was 6-15 from the floor and 0-5 from the 3 point. He did go 3-3 from the line with 7 assists. It's a start. His shot has this weird hitch in it, all wrists. He needs to drive, dish or take the shot if open. Maybe there is hope for IW. Mason was horrid last night.

6-15 is about Nate Mason's career average-40%. Look it up. I have been and remain a big fan of Mason btw- even though he has not reacted real well to the situation this year (and it has been a tough one). For a frosh IWs night last night was not mediocre. 15 points 7 assists is a great night for a frosh.

 

[BballJones]

6-15 is about Nate Mason's career average-40%. Look it up. I have been and remain a big fan of Mason btw- even though he has not reacted real well to the situation this year (and it has been a tough one). For a frosh IWs night last night was not mediocre. 15 points 7 assists is a great night for a frosh.

And only 1 TO!

 

[bizzle22]

6-15 is about Nate Mason's career average-40%. Look it up. I have been and remain a big fan of Mason btw- even though he has not reacted real well to the situation this year (and it has been a tough one). For a frosh IWs night last night was not mediocre. 15 points 7 assists is a great night for a frosh.

He had a solid night, but I wouldn't call it a breakout game or anything. I like the 7 assists/1 TO much more than I like the scoring efficiency. (15 pts on 15 shots)

 

[bga1]

He had a solid night, but I wouldn't call it a breakout game or anything. I like the 7 assists/1 TO much more than I like the scoring efficiency. (15 pts on 15 shots)

baby steps....

 

[GringaGopher]

Mason's attitude is driving me nuts, there has to be an underlying rift between he and Pitino. If memory serves me correctly Pitino was quoted after the Providence game that he and Nate had a 30 minute talk in the hotel room prior to the game about needing to be on the same page. Maybe that resolved matters in the short term, but that can't be ideal to have that happening two games into the year from your senior captain and all Big 10 PG.

Agree, it is painful to see him so disengaged.

 

[Heracles]

They lost 2 players (not counting Curry because he didn't play minute this year). They didn't lose the whole team. If you can't get more than 5-6 competent basketball players on your team after 5 years, it's a failure. Injuries happen. Good teams and good coaches weather them, relatively speaking. Dropping more games and struggling is understandable. Dropping every single one in embarrassing fashion isn't.

Going from possible Final Four contender to gettin blown out by terrible teams because of an injury and a suspension goes deeper than bad luck.

Not saying he should be fired, I think he'll be alright. But, why shouldn't he be criticized for the shortcomings of this team's roster?