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

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Horrific body language throughout from Henley and Payne today.
 



golfing18now said:
Game Day threads for this team might not be right for you.
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By my count I am at ~26 years on the Gopherhole both on and off game threads. I have earned the right to be here. The problem is the team is so bad this year that the only people on Gameday are a couple of grumpy old men complaining and a guy making fun of them for being grumpy old men.

I hate it but this is where we are at right now...
 


Repeating 50+ others posters:

If we don't add a high quality transfer guard this offseason, we're in large trouble again next year.

If we do, could be a nice jump if Garcia, Cooper and Battle come back. Fox and Ihnen healthy. Evans and Christie contribute. Keep Payne and JOJ improving. Henley and Carrington seem more likely to hopefully contribute later down the road.

For now, we hope for another win.
 

cjbfbp said:
You have to consider each free throw attempt as half a shot. If those are included, Gophers took 57 shots to Northwestern's 66.
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57 is still very low. Looking at other P6 games no one is that low if you add in the free throws.

9 less shots when you’re a poor shooting team is a death sentence.
 






Didn't see the game. My mother called right before tipoff and talked to/with me for an hour-and-a-half! Hey, she turns 97 on Wednesday, so she pretty much gets to do whatever she wants. After she hung up, I checked the score and decided it wasn't worth watching the rest of the game.
 

short ornery norwegian said:
Didn't see the game. My mother called right before tipoff and talked to/with me for an hour-and-a-half! Hey, she turns 97 on Wednesday, so she pretty much gets to do whatever she wants. After she hung up, I checked the score and decided it wasn't worth watching the rest of the game.
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Mother's and dad's deserve the time...good for you!
 

Battle is our best FT shooter (83%) yet he has only gone to the line 23 times in 17 games. I just don't understand why he doesn't take the ball to the basket more. It's unacceptable that one of your two best player shoots less than two FTs/game. He just seems content to cast away from long distance, especially when he's shooting 37%, and that has improved greatly over the last few games.
 






big10guy said:
Battle is our best FT shooter (83%) yet he has only gone to the line 23 times in 17 games. I just don't understand why he doesn't take the ball to the basket more. It's unacceptable that one of your two best player shoots less than two FTs/game. He just seems content to cast away from long distance, especially when he's shooting 37%, and that has improved greatly over the last few games.
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He loses the ball almost every time he drives to the basket.
 

jblass said:
Well he started the game. I have not seen a lot that tells me why he should be a starter. He can’t shoot, he has trouble handling the ball, what am I missing? Don’t get me wrong, I like Payne but his game has a ways to go.
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If he was on the block, we’d only be saying he’s got to get better at free throws. An exaggeration, because he is inexperienced on the block too BUT he has flashes there…to say he looks good at the top of the circle in the Big Ten, I don’t think that day is in the next 3 years. Why is he still out on the floor handling the ball is the question? He belongs on the block like Cockburn in past years…other teams muscle bigs.
 
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MonikerSchmoniker45 said:
He loses the ball almost every time he drives to the basket.
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And Battle isn’t quick enough to get to the rim plus finishing at the rim is also not a strength. He’s an excellent catch and shoot shooter. He’s good on curls, and coming off screens but we don’t do that. He’s good at step backs and and lateral slide step shots but it’s gotta be somebody late on a close out because of penetration or transition but we don’t do that either because 1. We aren’t good at it but 2. It’s not practiced- Henley could learn to drive and kick. 3 We don’t choose our spots to play fast.
 


Just read the new Pioneer Press article and was happy to see Coach Johnson acknowledge this:

“(It) didn’t seem like we valued much on either side of the ball,” head coach Ben Johnson said on the KFXN-FM postgame show. “Having 15 turnovers, obviously, to finish the game and not giving yourself a chance possession-wise. … We weren’t an engaged group that was going to be able to make this a fight.”

www.google.com

Amparo A. HERNANDEZ

*CORRECTION* Also survived by brothers, Rudy and Nacho. (Full notice ran Sunday.)
www.google.com www.google.com
 

60's Guy said:
And Battle isn’t quick enough to get to the rim plus finishing at the rim is also not a strength. He’s an excellent catch and shoot shooter. He’s good on curls, and coming off screens but we don’t do that. He’s good at step backs and and lateral slide step shots but it’s gotta be somebody late on a close out because of penetration or transition but we don’t do that either because 1. We aren’t good at it but 2. It’s not practiced- Henley could learn to drive and kick. 3 We don’t choose our spots to play fast.
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Yep. Battle is an excellent sniper and would be a good second scorer. The issue with Battle is that he is taking too much on himself, beyond his capabilities, doesn't trust his teammates (I get it to a degree) and in general, doesn't make the other players better. Henley is going to get better, it is happening. Today he made some really good passes to make shots for others. He is going to have to get a 5-10 pull up jumper perfected and learn that he is not always going to get to the bucket. Some teams you can do that to, but NW isn't one of them as they collapse and help on every drive and feed to the post (something we almost never do).

The announcers talked about the drive and kick as well as the post feed and kick a bit today. They said about Payne that he needs to learn to catch in the post, kick it and then repost. I would love to see the Gophers run a little two man game with Battle on the wing and Payne in the low post and everyone else cleared. Give him the feed and see if they double- if they do- kick it for the 3.
 

MennoSota said:
Just read the new Pioneer Press article and was happy to see Coach Johnson acknowledge this:

“(It) didn’t seem like we valued much on either side of the ball,” head coach Ben Johnson said on the KFXN-FM postgame show. “Having 15 turnovers, obviously, to finish the game and not giving yourself a chance possession-wise. … We weren’t an engaged group that was going to be able to make this a fight.”

www.google.com

Amparo A. HERNANDEZ

*CORRECTION* Also survived by brothers, Rudy and Nacho. (Full notice ran Sunday.)
www.google.com www.google.com
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How many times will he say that? This isn't the first. Ben is super likable but he has to be the guy that coaches that out of them.
 



Was hanging with the kiddos today and only saw the box score. I can see it went poorly.

Any bright spots?
 

bc2211 said:
Was hanging with the kiddos today and only saw the box score. I can see it went poorly.

Any bright spots?
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The bright spot was that I decided to stop watching about 10 minutes in and do something else.
 


MonikerSchmoniker45 said:
He loses the ball almost every time he drives to the basket.
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I don't agree with that at all, he is good at pull up jumpers while driving, he doesn't have a lot of elevation and doesn't finish around the basket much when he drives.

Ola-Joseph, Cooper, and Payne had 11 turnovers among them. Very sloppy play especially from Cooper. Tough to overcome that many turnovers.
 

RogueGopher said:
Henley and Payne: 4-12 FT
Rest of team: 12-14

That's a positive take away, kind of.

Also, Battle is all the way back now.

Back to back 20 point games, shot really well. Awesome.
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How come some of these guys aren't shooting underhand Rick Barry style yet?
 

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