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

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That was terrible decision making by Mason.
 


I am really looking forward to April when I no longer have to worry who is better, Konate or Diediou. I love the Gophs and will always cheer for them no matter the situation, but we are bringingfeathers to a knife fight.
 


While the loss is certainly disappointing, I have to give some credit to our guys for not letting this game get completely out of hand. It felt like it was going to turn into Purdue 2.0 but it never got that bad. Good to see Fitzgerald play well.

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Tully55 said:
I am really looking forward to April when I no longer have to worry who is better, Konate or Diediou. I love the Gophs and will always cheer for them no matter the situation, but we are bringingfeathers to a knife fight.
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We'll always talk about who was better. It'll be like Ginger or Mary Ann.
 



15-45 shooting for the MMM boys won't cut it. Top it off the defense is broken without Lynch- the big guys cannot cover.
 



Tully55 said:
I am really looking forward to April when I no longer have to worry who is better, Konate or Diediou. I love the Gophs and will always cheer for them no matter the situation, but we are bringingfeathers to a knife fight.
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Konate dropped his feather on the way to the fight.
 

NCAA hopes are on life support unless we can pull of a huge upset on Saturday. Really sucks that we gave away a home game now.
 

howeda7 said:
Really sucks that we gave away a home game now.
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We wouldn't beat OSU at home either. We're clearly overmatched against OSU. We had a chance tonight at Maryland without Jackson but we blew it soon into the second half and never recovered. Calling a timeout a few minutes into the half may have helped.
 

I wish someone on the coaching staff knew how to defend pick and roll- we get exposed on this every game. And when we run pick and roll our guards get pushed out and no passing lanes available. Do they even watch films?
 



manny77 said:
I wish someone on the coaching staff knew how to defend pick and roll- we get exposed on this every game. And when we run pick and roll our guards get pushed out and no passing lanes available. Do they even watch films?
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The coaching staff coached a little better when Lynch and Coffey were playing.... that's a hint for you.
 

Konate and Diedhou may be the worst 4-year players in the history of the program. That said, both are quality young men who have represented the U well and will go on to do good things in the future, I am sure. Its really not their fault they were recruited into a level of competition beyond their ability.
 

bga1 said:
The coaching staff coached a little better when Lynch and Coffey were playing.... that's a hint for you.
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Maryland has run that back pick with the lob against us for the past 4 years and we have yet to defend it. They got 10-14 points off it tonight. I sure wish we could have made an adjustment. If it were personale, it wouldn't keep happening year after year. In this case, it's defensive scheme and failure to communicate.
 

Frank Grimey Grimes said:
While the loss is certainly disappointing, I have to give some credit to our guys for not letting this game get completely out of hand. It felt like it was going to turn into Purdue 2.0 but it never got that bad. Good to see Fitzgerald play well.

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I agree. After Maryland’s torrid shooting early in the second half gave them a large lead, we brought the deficit back to 11 time and again. When you look at the stats, it really came down to shooting. If Mason and McBrayer had shot like they did against Penn State, we would have won this game. The unfortunate reality is that this game was more of the norm whereas the Penn State game was the aberration. We just can’t consistently shoot that well.


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Frustrating game. Two double digits runs in a comically small amount of time (less than two minutes) one in each half were huge. Maryland shot the ball out of their minds, especially in the second half where they started something like 10-11 including a made 3 late in the shot clock from a 10% shooter with a hand in his face. The most disappointing aspect of the game defensively for the Gophers was the inability to defend the high ball screen and continually giving up lob dunks because of it. The high ball screen has been a huge part of the Gophers offense for years...and our guys don't know how to defend it? Huerter was huge for Maryland. The Gophers had just went up by 3 in the second half and he comes off a double screen and hits a fairly tough 3 to tie it. The next possession he comes down and makes a nice pass on a ball screen action to give one of his bigs an easy dunk and all of sudden the Gophers are down 2...and they never recover. The kid is a 37% 3 point shooter AFTER this game but went 4/5 tonight.

For the Gophers on the offensive end, the biggest frustration to me was the number of easy looks that were missed at the basket. Murphy seemingly missed 4-5 bunnies, Mason missed 1-2 on drives, Washington missed both his drives to the basket, etc, etc. The other frustration to me was the inability or unwillingness to look for the 3 more often. There was a long stretch of the game where the Gophers continued to go inside and ignored trying to get Harris or McBrayer some good looks and they only got back to attempting 3's once the game was basically out of hand.

It's strange to say about a game that was in double digits much of the second half, but this was a game the Gophers certainly could have won. The only positive I can take from the game is that Harris and Fitzgerald both chipped in on the offensive end. Isaiah seemed to have no issue getting to the basket in this game and I would have liked to see him get a little longer leash. Unfortunately nothing good came of his drives in either of his short stints on the court.
 

When we lost the two starters, I opined that this would be the perfect time to start playing defense. Obviously that's easier said than done when you consider our remaining centers are not what you would call "basketball players." Still, that would be the only way to end up with a respectable league record. When you shoot the way the Gophers shot against Penn State, it presents the illusion that defense is unnecessary, but you're not going to shoot that way every night. I appreciated the TV analyst last night who was ridiculing our team for refusing to guard people. We could use a little more honesty like that in our own local media.
 

You couldn't pick a worse time to have four games in 7 days. This team isn't guarding anyone, and it's largely a complete lack of communication. Murphy was one of the biggest culprits last night, not talking to any of the guards on the back screens that led to the lobs. Konate had issues as well, because he's slow and not remotely athletic.

We made Cekovsky look like an All-American, and he's a non-factor if Lynch is playing. Murphy had issues with his length on both ends of the floor. We also got torched when we went zone, and you can't do that when you have guys like Konate and Diedhiou who have no clue how to play it. Mason also inexplicably left Cowan open on multiple occasions in the second half for easy 3s. It's easy to tell a lot of these guys haven't been in defensive pairings together in practice. They're not communicating and not helping each other. That leads to Maryland getting whatever shot it wants, whenever it wants.

The offensive issues were largely shot selection. Sure, they had some good looks that didn't go in, but we were getting frustrated by attacking the lane and getting hacked with no call, missing contested shots or dumping off to a big who can't catch the pass. I'd also like to see us use our ball screens more. The bigs are coming up to set them, but they're either not staying set long enough or the guards are't using them.
 

This game seems to the probable norm for rest of the year. Too much dead wood on the roster.
 

Last night I observed two things that need to change (obviously there is more). First, Murphy needs to be used to swing the ball at the free throw area rather than at the point or down on the blocks. When Murph gets it inside the ball goes into a black hole and stops moving. Opponents converge and Murph is going 1 on 3. He'll lose that battle 9 out of 10 times. When Murph gets the ball at top of the key, he is too far out to be a threat. Work him at the elbows of the lane.
Second, stop running a straight-up 2-3 zone. It is dreadfully easy to score on that zone because we don't have the size up top to obstruct passing lanes. Instead, if we use a zone, make it a match up zone that is disguised as a man to man defense. The problem is we have no time to practice that kind of zone. The outcome is we must play man to man on defense which provides its own problems with our current lineup.
 

One thing I forgot to mention (and going back to read other posts I am not sure anyone did), but Gaston missed a shot so badly that you would think he's never played basketball before. He took a shot from around the elbow and it rocketed off the backboard...like it was a one handed heave from beyond half court. He's had an all time "highlight" in each of the last two games. I'd love to get the backstory of 1. How he was evaluated and 2. how he is still on the roster 4 years later.
 

lateral quickness

They could do a better job. But seriously what players do we have with excellent length and lateral quickness?
BK, Diedhiou, Murphy, Fitz, Hurt...all no's. Even Lynch who is a good shot blocker cannot move laterally.

This is why I am excited for next years front court. Oturu can move, as can Omersa! If Curry can recover he had pretty decent lateral movement also. Coffey has good length and quickness.

Now the backcourt has the quickness in Washington, McBrayer, and Harris. But can we count on Washington making the leap? Gabe isn't a quick player but he can score.



manny77 said:
I wish someone on the coaching staff knew how to defend pick and roll- we get exposed on this every game. And when we run pick and roll our guards get pushed out and no passing lanes available. Do they even watch films?
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Bad Gopher said:
When we lost the two starters, I opined that this would be the perfect time to start playing defense. Obviously that's easier said than done when you consider our remaining centers are not what you would call "basketball players." Still, that would be the only way to end up with a respectable league record. When you shoot the way the Gophers shot against Penn State, it presents the illusion that defense is unnecessary, but you're not going to shoot that way every night. I appreciated the TV analyst last night who was ridiculing our team for refusing to guard people. We could use a little more honesty like that in our own local media.
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Good post. I'm afraid we were never that good of a defensive team. Just one with the best shot blocker in NCAA. Now that he is gone, true colors come through.
 

EG#9 said:
One thing I forgot to mention (and going back to read other posts I am not sure anyone did), but Gaston missed a shot so badly that you would think he's never played basketball before. He took a shot from around the elbow and it rocketed off the backboard...like it was a one handed heave from beyond half court. He's had an all time "highlight" in each of the last two games. I'd love to get the backstory of 1. How he was evaluated and 2. how he is still on the roster 4 years later.
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I'm glad they didnt run him off roster. Makes me like Pitino even more. But a good lesson on being careful with your schollies.

GD every now and then makes a nice offensive play, where I'm like, why doesnt he play more? But coach sees him in practice everyday, throwing up the bricks you just described
 

JimmyJamesMD said:
GD every now and then makes a nice offensive play, where I'm like, why doesnt he play more? But coach sees him in practice everyday, throwing up the bricks you just described
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Very true... Still, it's hard to believe he doesn't offer more than Konate, BK has taken a step in the wrong direction IMO.
 

EG#9 said:
One thing I forgot to mention (and going back to read other posts I am not sure anyone did), but Gaston missed a shot so badly that you would think he's never played basketball before. He took a shot from around the elbow and it rocketed off the backboard...like it was a one handed heave from beyond half court. He's had an all time "highlight" in each of the last two games. I'd love to get the backstory of 1. How he was evaluated and 2. how he is still on the roster 4 years later.
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I'm also glad they didn't run him off, Gaston and Bakary were the result of not being able to sign any center and took those two as a last resort, Oturu is the first real center Pitino has recruited out of high school, a long time coming but the recruiting mistakes early on probably made it much worse, I think they will have two guys, Stockman and Oturu, that can catch and shoot next year that are going to be better than what is available now, with Curry back and playing some center they will actually have three.
 

Konate, bless his heart, does not have the fine motor skills to play the game. Gaston is hilarious to watch with some of his on-court antics.
 

Block M said:
Konate, bless his heart, does not have the fine motor skills to play the game
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That's why I've been was amazed watching his bother.. fluid, athletic... guy just looks and moves like a natural hoops player.
 

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