***OFFICIAL MINNESOTA AT MISSISSIPPI STATE IN-GAME THREAD!!!***

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short ornery norwegian said:
didn't watch the game. (was watching the Vikes' debacle with the sound off, and listening to the Gophers on the radio).

So, people who watched the game, chime in on this: On Twitter, Ryan James made a lot of mention of the Gopher coaches switching up defenses - going from man-to-man to zone, and even using different types of zones. Burns said that caused Miss State some problems as they tried to adjust.

nice to have a coaching staff that can make adjustments.
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Going zone definitely worked. They didn't seem to be expecting and had a couple of empty possessions. We did overdo it once or twice and get confused ourselves.
 

Just finished watching the recording. Wow. I am shocked by this team. I fully expected them to get exposed by Mississippi State. I was totally wrong.This shows that these guys will compete with a number of Big Ten teams on nights they shoot it well. They did have problems on the boards but otherwise played a great game. I am impressed, big time, with what Ben has done so far.
 

fan of Ray Williams said:
Only turned it over 4 times.
Better on free throws today 11-13
12-29 on 3's
29 for 59 overall
Battle never left the court, Stephens with 39 minutes, Loewe and Willis each with 38
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And despite all the minutes, only Curry had foul trouble (4), Loewe had 3, no one else with more than 1. Johnson's emphasis obviously is to prevent transition and fast break baskets - give up the offensive rebound, but minimize turnovers and get back on defense quickly. Also the low number of fouls also can be directly attributed to the lack of stupid "over-the-back" fouls when trying for that offensive board (how many MN bigs have been guilty of that over the years).
 


bga1 said:
Just finished watching the recording. Wow. I am shocked by this team. I fully expected them to get exposed by Mississippi State. I was totally wrong.This shows that these guys will compete with a number of Big Ten teams on nights they shoot it well. They did have problems on the boards but otherwise played a great game. I am impressed, big time, with what Ben has done so far.
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Shooting it well will be key. Making in excess of 50% may be a tall order. BJ has done a great job thus far.

One troubling thing to me - Willis dribbling down the clock ala Carr.
 





I really questioned the ability to defend a more athletic higher end team, if they can do that they can play with anybody.
 



bga1 said:
Just finished watching the recording. Wow. I am shocked by this team. I fully expected them to get exposed by Mississippi State. I was totally wrong.This shows that these guys will compete with a number of Big Ten teams on nights they shoot it well. They did have problems on the boards but otherwise played a great game. I am impressed, big time, with what Ben has done so far.
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Yes, the composure of this team is really impressive. I just don't know how long the starters can keep up this pace -------

Battle - 40 minutes
Curry - 30
Stephens - 39
Loewe - 38
Willis - 38

It sounds like Sutherlin is day to day so maybe it won't take long for him to return.
 



GophersInIowa said:
Really good win! We gotta learn to finish off games so they don’t have to go down to the wire but still awesome to see them pull it out once again. 7-0 and there’s still a lot of things we can improve upon. Great sign.
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True. Gotta finish, but to not fold when the game was tied speaks volumes about the chemistry and teamwork these dudes have. I'm excited about being in this year's final four......
 



cjbfbp said:
Yes, the composure of this team is really impressive. I just don't know how long the starters can keep up this pace -------

Battle - 40 minutes
Curry - 30
Stephens - 39
Loewe - 38
Willis - 38

It sounds like Sutherlin is day to day so maybe it won't take long for him to return.
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Surprised Ramberg got a few minutes, but that's good. Probably hyperbole on my part, but might have been the best coached game by a Gopher men's basketball coach in....I don't know....a very long time. (Can't help but think if they just had Ihnen and Fox. Not even asking for more than that.)
 


Obi-Wan Okogie said:
Apologies I totally blanked on her.
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All good. I like Whalen. Her coaching seems to be improving and recruiting is obviously going better.

Reeves is on a level l her own. Finch is proving to be good. Johnson off to a nice start but it’s early obviously
 



cjbfbp said:
Yes, the composure of this team is really impressive. I just don't know how long the starters can keep up this pace -------

Battle - 40 minutes
Curry - 30
Stephens - 39
Loewe - 38
Willis - 38

It sounds like Sutherlin is day to day so maybe it won't take long for him to return.
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Crazy that they won that game short handed, without sutherlin. That’s some coaching!
 

A very gratifying win and a very gratifying season. These guys can't buy a rebound but they compensate for it by discipline, strategy, tactics, experience, togetherness, hustle, shooting and more shooting.
I thought it was a good hire because I thought Johnson would recruit Minnesota well, but I could not have predicted this.
 

UpAndUnder43 said:
All good. I like Whalen. Her coaching seems to be improving and recruiting is obviously going better.

Reeves is on a level l her own. Finch is proving to be good. Johnson off to a nice start but it’s early obviously
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In an interview she did for the Strib a few years ago, Reeve said that, when she got her first college head-coaching job, she didn't know what the heck she was doing. The obvious sympathetic reference was to Whalen, who was just starting at that point. Everyone has to start somewhere and build on where they're at.
 

I'll admit, was wasting my time watching Vikings. Absolutely shocked by this result. I may have been completely wrong. Go Gophers.
 


Before the season started, I said this team would be lucky to win a conference game. I'm no longer thinking that way. Yes, they'll still take their lumps in conference play, but I'm impressed with the coaching. They're playing D, sharing the ball, and the spacing on offense has been solid. And also the experience of the players is showing. Some of these guys have been around college ball for a long time now and they're not likely to make the same mistakes that some first-year players might make. If Johnson can recruit, he has the chance to build something here.
 

I wanna take a second to appreciate Loewe, Stephens, Willis, Daniels, Sutherlin, and Ogele. These guys were all willing to give their last season of college basketball to a program with a new head coach, that frankly looked like a mess throughout the off-season, and was predicted to be absolutely horrible. They took a chance on Minnesota for their final year, and are playing their hearts out. If the season can continue at anything remotely like this, these guys will have done more in a single year to change the perception of and culture within Minnesota basketball than any group I can think of.

Now, don’t get embarrassed in the big 10 and make me regret posting this, but based off everything I’ve seen so far, I’m not quite as worried about that as I was before.
 

skyman31 said:
I wanna take a second to appreciate Loewe, Stephens, Willis, Daniels, Sutherlin, and Ogele. These guys were all willing to give their last season of college basketball to a program with a new head coach, that frankly looked like a mess throughout the off-season, and was predicted to be absolutely horrible. They took a chance on Minnesota for their final year, and are playing their hearts out. If the season can continue at anything remotely like this, these guys will have done more in a single year to change the perception of and culture within Minnesota basketball than any group I can think of.

Now, don’t get embarrassed in the big 10 and make me regret posting this, but based off everything I’ve seen so far, I’m not quite as worried about that as I was before.
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I've been starting to think that, if there were any year to attend the postseason banquet, this might be the year.
 

Another note, if (and its a big if) Fox can come back in January I was thinking it would be smart to red shirt him, but if they can be frisky would be nice to have another competent big
 

I watched the game tonight (knew the result) and wow what a pick me up after watching the Vikings earlier in the day. I am conflicted on what to say as I am hesitant to put too much praise out there as that seems like the death knell for anything positive surrounding this program.

I loved the shot making on both sides. I thought any win by the Gophers this year over a decent to good team would occur with a score in the 50's or low 60's where the Gophers effort and some positive variance would be key. I definitely think the Gophers shot about their heads in this game, but Mississippi State made their share of tough ones as well.

Late in the game (it may have changed, don't have the box score up), the Gophers had just 3 turnovers for the game and had like 3 fouls (zone obviously helped with that stat) in the second. Those are winning numbers.

I was really impressed with Mississippi State. They have athletes all over the court, a really good PG, and Rocket Watts coming off the bench. There won't be many more athletic teams than them on the schedule. I think this should hold up as a really good win all season though it's very early and college basketball can always get strange.

Obviously it was surprising to win, but it was more surprising to win without Sutherlin. I didn't think we could afford a single injury in our top 7. They said it was a knee on the broadcast and I hope it's not something that will keep him out long.

That's the best I've ever seen Willis play. His game on both ends of the floor in getting out to the 14-0 lead was really impressive. He then bookends that fantastic start with the monstrous 3 after the game was tied.

That's the best I've seen Daniels play and I was surprised to not see him on the floor more in the second half. He had at least two great defensive plays in the first half against very good athletes.

The Battle flame thrower to start the second half was out of this world. I felt like Battle took some ill advised shots in the first half that contributed to Mississippi's State's comeback, but that 2nd half stretch made up for it and then some.

Stephens had a very strange game. He made 2-3 very tough contested jumpers, but also missed 2-3 wide open jumpers during key times when the Gophers really needed a basket.

Not sure what the answer is to the long scoring drought from the field before Willis' late 3. It didn't seem like the shot quality went down significantly or they were playing tight. Glade they were able to bounce back, but certainly want to put teams away when you have those leads. If I was watching live, I would have thought the banked in 3 at the end of the half was the beginning of the end. Granted it wasn't a very imposing environment in Starkville, but we've seen far less cause recent Gopher teams to unravel.

It's absolutely ludicrous that this was Minnesota's first back to back road wins since 2017!

Credit to Ben Johnson and his staff for the start to the season. Even if they put together a better roster, I wouldn't have expected them to be undefeated at this point in the season. Hopefully further praise continues to be warranted as the season moves forward.
 

Bob_Loblaw said:
As a MN basketball fan, the difference between our current coaches and our coaches last year is insane.

Whodda thunk nepotism would lead to bad hires?
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Live by the mega tongue, die by the mega tongue
 

UpAndUnder43 said:
I’m not watching but following on my phone.

How are they dealing with the big guys?
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I have no idea why MSU didn’t pound it inside all game, but I would guess it has to do with poor coaching. MSU took 29 three pointers in this game. That is not how you beat the Gophers.

MSU won the rebounding battle 42-27! That should tell them something about how to beat the Gophers.
 

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