***OFFICIAL MINNESOTA AT OHIO STATE BUCKEYES IN-GAME THREAD***

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I will give you all one positive for the night: Lynch will be our starting center next year. And even if Lynch's offensive game needs work, he has to be light years better than Konate on defense, right? (Someone please assure me I am right.)
 

Goldy Gopher said:
At the time I'm sure he was thinking he just needed some depth with big men to help last seasons veteran team try to make a tournament run and took some chances and they haven't gone real well. I'm sure looking back now and seeing how last year ended up he wouldn't have took those chances and would have held those scholarships for a plan A guy rather than the risky gamble type guys.
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Disagree Goldy, Pitino thought he had his center for the future.
 

scher215 said:
It's not so much his shot selection. It's his general offensive play. He kills any and all ball movement. He catches. Then jab steps, stares at his defender, jab steps again, stares at the mascot, then drives. By the time he makes his move the defense has fully recovered and he's gotten himself a fairly make-able one on one matchup and shot. Instead of a potential wide open look if he would just move the ball or drive as soon as he catches. The Gophers are a terrible passing team and Morris is a big reason why.
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Wrong! Carlos doesn't stare at the mascot. He takes the mascot and the ball to Starbucks for a double latte grande.

Carlos is where ball movement goes to die.
 


minny01 said:
Both were the only bigs that he could get that late in the recruiting period.
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There were probably some others who were available but maybe he thought these two had better "upside." At the beginning of the season, Bakary actually looked he might have some potential but he's regressed.
 


cjbfbp said:
There were probably some others who were available but maybe he thought these two had better "upside." At the beginning of the season, Bakary actually looked he might have some potential but he's regressed.
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Count me in as someone that thought he was going to be good player.
 

GopherWeatherGuy said:
Agree and it would be nice if a guard other than Morris could actually hit a 3.
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We have a freshman shooting guard who can't shoot - or at least hasn't so far (McBrayer). He does some good things out there, but your 2 needs to be able to make a 3.
 

phipho said:
The second half was so sad, my wife who does not watch sports at all summed it up. "The grey team passes it around so well, why doesn't your team do that more honey?" Its going to be a long year. i hope the reports of the saviors coming around the corner next year are right. sigh
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Out of the mouths of babes (I assume she's a babe :)).
 




Ohio St. has to be the most athletic team in the big ten. We looked slow, short, and outclassed. We will never beat this type of team with what Rick is trying to do. I like what Iowa does with size, physical players, and smarts, and they make the game into half court against superior athletes.

Mason is having a sophomore slump. I guess teams were really concentrating on stopping Dre Hollins last year! So now teams can make sure Joey doesn't get open 3's. Let morris shoot. Backdoor bugs. Outsmart-postition the African big men. Get Muphy in freshmen foul trouble. Let Dorsey and Mcbrick shoot 3's. Dorsey was a horse crap 3pt shooter in high school, mcbrick was a good one. He might come around.

Tough year to watch. You cant play in the big ten without strength, smarts, and being physical underneath. EE was in the doghouse last year, he could get 25 minutes a game on this team.
 

march madness said:
Ohio St. has to be the most athletic team in the big ten. We looked slow, short, and outclassed.
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Yes, I couldn't help but start thinking the same thing last night. I think we have 2-3 promising freshmen, but even so, look at the young talent the Buckeyes have. Collectively it's significantly better than the Gophers'. Really shows how far we have to go to even get to the top half half of the Big Ten, even if for only a season or two.
 

SelectionSunday said:
Yes, I couldn't help but start thinking the same thing last night. I think we have 2-3 promising freshmen, but even so, look at the young talent the Buckeyes have. Collectively it's significantly better than the Gophers'. Really shows how far we have to go to even get to the top half half of the Big Ten, even if for only a season or two.
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We looked like highschoolers against an NBA team.

I dissagree with the other commenter saying that Pitino won't be able to win with his style. Just look what we did for 15 minutes when we sped the game up and got those athletes out of a situation where they could muscle us around. It flustered the hell out of them. Its not impossible to see a future where we play that style for 40 minutes and don't start the game in a 12 point hole.

It's going to be an UGLY ass year, but I'll enjoy those stretches where we see glimmers of hope....
 

Winasota Gopher said:
We looked like highschoolers against an NBA team. I dissagree with the other commenter saying that Pitino won't be able to win with his style. Just look what we did for 15 minutes when we sped the game up and got those athletes out of a situation where they could muscle us around. It flustered the hell out of them. Its not impossible to see a future where we play that style for 40 minutes and don't start the game in a 12 point hole. It's going to be an UGLY ass year, but I'll enjoy those stretches where we see glimmers of hope....
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Lyles and Harris just shredded us apart.

Hopefully Coffey can play a bit like that Lyles and Dorsey becomes that quick defensive pest we have heard about.
 



SelectionSunday said:
Yes, I couldn't help but start thinking the same thing last night. I think we have 2-3 promising freshmen, but even so, look at the young talent the Buckeyes have. Collectively it's significantly better than the Gophers'. Really shows how far we have to go to even get to the top half half of the Big Ten, even if for only a season or two.
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I wonder if this is truly the mistake - thinking we can recruit the same caliber of athlete as the top programs, and instead we get second tier athletes who can't make free throws. We end up with guys who don't have elite anything - elite athleticism, elite skill, elite size or strength. A bunch of guys who are decent at a bunch of things but not excellent at anything. Meanwhile, we're getting owned by SDSU, which has guys with great skills who run circles around our players and never miss a free throw or easy shot. Or we get challenged in an exhibition by a D2 team with outstanding size and strength that pushes our wannabe athlete projects around like rag dolls.

Instead of trying to "out-athlete" these other Big Ten teams, we should go after good basketball players. Wisconsin has been the template. Their primary strategy is recruiting size and skill, which they can find in our region. And, of course, they'll take an elite athlete when they can get one (e.g. Dekker, who was local). Size and skill can win you a lot of basketball games, especially if you can teach your players to play defense in a way that takes advantage of size and skill (again, as opposed to trying to play a defense geared towards elite athletes when all you can recruit are second-tier athletes).
 


phipho said:
Question, Does Pitino get even mildly upset with bad calls, bad plays etc. He seems intent on clapping and whistling, thought I'd turned into a European soccer match.
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His one game with Ed Hightower chucked his jacket and Tie into the stands
 

Gold Vision said:
Lyles and Harris just shredded us apart.

Hopefully Coffey can play a bit like that Lyles and Dorsey becomes that quick defensive pest we have heard about.
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No doubt. Our lack of depth, youth and most importantly absolutely nothing even remotely close to a rim protector definately showed against those two.
 

Toughts on the game.
We need Murphy, the game went from a three point game to an 18 point game after his fourth foul, 38 minutes of Joey King as your best post player is a recipe for disaster. Morris was good squirrel tonight, made some shots, got some steals, even gave up a lay up to Gaston. King had a rough night, Buggs was useless, team really needs him if they're going to do anything. The rest of the year Buggs has an opportunity to show that he can be counted on as a senior next year or he will get buried on the depth chart by the new comers. Liked that they didn't quit after the bad start, too bad Murphy went out with four fouls. I know people rag on Mason, but besides Morris he was the only one trying to make something happen. When his shot wasn't falling he started driving to the hoop, didn't get the calls tonight, but most nights he will, he'll come out of his slump, he's not under the radar anymore, I am guessing not having Mo and Dre are contributing to his lower assist numbers, especially when you consider the tradeoffs for Walker. Glad to see Dorsey play, thought him and Mcbreyer played good defense, they're not going to be scorers this year though. Gilbert should get more run going forward, on to Sparty keep grinding
 

Bad Gopher said:
I wonder if this is truly the mistake - thinking we can recruit the same caliber of athlete as the top programs, and instead we get second tier athletes who can't make free throws. We end up with guys who don't have elite anything - elite athleticism, elite skill, elite size or strength. A bunch of guys who are decent at a bunch of things but not excellent at anything. Meanwhile, we're getting owned by SDSU, which has guys with great skills who run circles around our players and never miss a free throw or easy shot. Or we get challenged in an exhibition by a D2 team with outstanding size and strength that pushes our wannabe athlete projects around like rag dolls.

Instead of trying to "out-athlete" these other Big Ten teams, we should go after good basketball players. Wisconsin has been the template. Their primary strategy is recruiting size and skill, which they can find in our region. And, of course, they'll take an elite athlete when they can get one (e.g. Dekker, who was local). Size and skill can win you a lot of basketball games, especially if you can teach your players to play defense in a way that takes advantage of size and skill (again, as opposed to trying to play a defense geared towards elite athletes when all you can recruit are second-tier athletes).
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Well said. I was always skeptical when people said that Pitino's "alleged" style (in reality, I don't think his teams have much of a style and it is the opponent who more often than not sets the tempo of the game) would result in recruiting more elite athletes and greater success in the conference. I doubted that we could out recruit Ohio State, Indiana, Michigan, Michigan State, and Maryland with any consistency and that in a game that depended upon athleticism, we would more often than not be out matched.

As you say, Bo Ryan was the master of understanding how he could compete with the top teams without recruiting quite the same caliber of athletes. But, as another poster mentioned above, Fran McCaffery has also done pretty well while normally scoring in the lower end of the conference recruiting rankings. In fact, the highest rated recruits of McCaffery's tenure (Woodbury and Gessell) overall have had rather disappointing careers. What McCaffrey does have this year is one very good player (Uthoff who was a transfer - but only a 3 star by most ratings) surrounded by some competent veterans and capable energy players who play well as a team. We have a roster that is limited in active numbers by design and includes two dead spots and some really poor shooters among its active players. Part of this is on the coach (and not just the recruiting part). The two African centers should be playing better than they are by now. Maybe they can't do much but Pitino needs to figure out a way to get them a little more involved and productive even with their limitations.
 

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