***OFFICIAL MINNESOTA AT PITTSBURGH BIG TEN/ACC CHALLENGE IN-GAME THREAD!!!***

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Spaulding!No! said:
Did we win?
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I don't understand this one. I get trolls posting things for likes and moreso to get reactions (which I realize I am doing now). These posts which come every game, whether football or basketball, are just stupid and are not inflammatory at all though. What is the point Spaulding? Did I miss something? Or is your life just that boring? At least post something that fires people up if you want to troll you sad, sad person
 


Gophs24 said:
Man are the bigs in the big ten salivating getting the chance to play us. We should be able to sneak a few games out in big ten play but some of these games will be hard to watch our bigs getting ate alive down low
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I’m actually looking forward to that. I want to see if this staff can install a plan to slow down a team that will have an advantage in size, speed…keep them engaged while getting blown out, and still get them to play hard, etc. It could give us an idea on what this staff is really all about, and what they can get from the kids now and in the future.
 

EG#9 said:
I am more concerned about this team after this game than I was going in. Pitt is HORRIBLE. They are coming off a 10 point home loss to UMBC and they also lost to the Citadel at home....by 15!

The Gopher bigs just cannot play at this level. That was made clear tonight. Major concern that when Ben had to go away from Curry and Daniels that it was the bench player from D3 Ogele who came in to the game instead of Thompson. There was a key play late after a foul where Ogele asked to switched sides with Battle between free throws. Gophers were up 1. The free throw was missed and Ogele doesn't get the rebound. The Panthers get the board and go straight back to the line to take the lead back which they wouldn't relinquish untile Loewe's tip in late.

A new concern this game was Loewe in particular was really uncomfortable handling the ball against high major (sort of) guards. It was a good decision by Ben to put the ball in the hands of Stephens on that last possession as the lack of foot speed from the other Gopher players seemed like a bigger issue than I anticipated.

Marquette and Iowa State are both currently winning games against better competition while playing a bunch of guys with eligibility beyond this year that were not on those teams last year. We're winning games (which is great!), but against lesser competition and playing one guy who with eligibility beyond this year. Once we stop winning games...things will get real bleak.
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BFD! Ben knows we are very weak inside, he has two major inside players sitting on the bench injured for the season. His roster was counting on those players to fill in the holes on the inside. It is all part of the game and a good coach gets the team to try and overcome it. Just enjoy the ride. We have to play with who we have and bitching about the obvious holes accomplishes nothing.
 


We are 6-0 with Benball. Going into the season, most probably didn't expect that especially without Fox/Ihnen and no quality 5 players.

Its been a joy watching these guys battle and play their hearts out as a team. Recruits have to realize that will be the style that Ben coaches and what he will get from his future players.
 



Lol, Pitt lost to Citadel folks, lets calm down.
 



alchemy2u said:
BFD! Ben knows we are very weak inside, he has two major inside players sitting on the bench injured for the season. His roster was counting on those players to fill in the holes on the inside. It is all part of the game and a good coach gets the team to try and overcome it. Just enjoy the ride. We have to play with who we have and bitching about the obvious holes accomplishes nothing.
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My favorite thing about the win , no matter the opponent is these guys are cohesive, defensive and willing to win a rock fight. That is the culture this staff is committed to. There will be games where the opponent will put the hurt on this roster but not on the principles or the program. These guys are close together.
 


BarnBall said:
How many games will the Gophers win in the Big Ten?

My guess: 7
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I don't know how many they will win. As I've said multiple times, I think there will be a couple of big upsets at Williams (assuming no injuries to starters and Sutherlin). Maybe it starts next Wednesday against MSU. Who the hell knows.
 

EG#9 said:
I am more concerned about this team after this game than I was going in. Pitt is HORRIBLE. They are coming off a 10 point home loss to UMBC and they also lost to the Citadel at home....by 15!

The Gopher bigs just cannot play at this level. That was made clear tonight. Major concern that when Ben had to go away from Curry and Daniels that it was the bench player from D3 Ogele who came in to the game instead of Thompson. There was a key play late after a foul where Ogele asked to switched sides with Battle between free throws. Gophers were up 1. The free throw was missed and Ogele doesn't get the rebound. The Panthers get the board and go straight back to the line to take the lead back which they wouldn't relinquish untile Loewe's tip in late.

A new concern this game was Loewe in particular was really uncomfortable handling the ball against high major (sort of) guards. It was a good decision by Ben to put the ball in the hands of Stephens on that last possession as the lack of foot speed from the other Gopher players seemed like a bigger issue than I anticipated.

Marquette and Iowa State are both currently winning games against better competition while playing a bunch of guys with eligibility beyond this year that were not on those teams last year. We're winning games (which is great!), but against lesser competition and playing one guy who with eligibility beyond this year. Once we stop winning games...things will get real bleak.
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Not new for an objective person. However, we have been told here that there are not issues with ball handling on this team and pressure will not be an issue.
 



Unregistered User said:
I’m actually looking forward to that. I want to see if this staff can install a plan to slow down a team that will have an advantage in size, speed…keep them engaged while getting blown out, and still get them to play hard, etc. It could give us an idea on what this staff is really all about, and what they can get from the kids now and in the future.
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We saw some of it last night with their zone and fronting the post. Bigs will feast sure, but if we shut everyone else down we can have a shot. We have holes obviously and that was expected this year.
 

builtbadgers said:
My favorite thing about the win , no matter the opponent is these guys are cohesive, defensive and willing to win a rock fight. That is the culture this staff is committed to. There will be games where the opponent will put the hurt on this roster but not on the principles or the program. These guys are close together.
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Capel and Pitt tried to step on the throat midway in the second half and run and jump Willis. We broke it and made 3 passes and got Battle an open three. He then went on to score 5 more. Weak minded teams would’ve folded there. This one didn’t and it was awesome to see.
 


Sam Freeman could have helped hugely against Hugly last night. He could have meant a lot to this team on defense against big bodies- such as every team in the Big Ten has. If we had some presence on the boards and defensively at center, I am beginning to be convinced we could have won 6-8 games with this coaching and these players. As it stands right now, it is going to be difficult to impossible to stop more talented opposing teams in the Big Ten from having their way in the paint.

Otherwise I am pretty impressed with how we are playing with what we have. We will win a few games when Battle or Willis get red hot from outside and there might be a couple of teams in the Big Ten that we can beat with a normal shooting effort.
 

fan of Ray Williams said:
I'm convinced it's defense. Loewe drew #2, who has been averaging 13.2 a game going in. He ends up 2-8 and 6 pts.
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Liking that somebody else noticed that. Although it would be nice if he were more effective on the offensive side, you just cannot overstate the importance of having a guy who can lock down, or at least drastically slow down, one of the other teams offensive stars.

I also appreciated the fact that an article last night pointed out a defensive screen call that allowed Willis to slightly adjust what he was doing defensively on a late game possession that kinda blew up the plan for Pitt and forced a tough shot.

I like the idea of establishing a defensive identity and recognizing the importance of all those little things that most fans don't notice, but are essential buy-ins if you want a quality Big Ten basketball team. Will it pay-off this year? Probably not. But as the Gophers improve the roster over the next few years with better athletes, the expectation that they will buy in to doing all the little things, and be talented enough to do so or not play, will mean a much brighter future for this team.
 

kix4kix said:
Lol, Pitt lost to Citadel folks, lets calm down.
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It's not that I think Pitt is good, it's that I knew Pitt would stink coming into the season and I still thought we would lose this game.

I thought we were going to be really bad this year and lose to other bad teams (especially on the road). So the win is exciting. It's exciting, for me at least, because Ben has this rag tag bunch outperforming my expectations. They are doing it in a way where I can picture how the team will be playing a more talented roster in the next couple years.

We are likely going to have a many nights where we get to lament about losses, so enjoy the wins. Being maybe a pinch illogically optimistic about the outlook of things we like makes the frustrating a little more palatable.
 

BarnBall said:
How many games will the Gophers win in the Big Ten?

My guess: 7
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I would think somewhere in that range also. I'm going to temper my expectations with this team. If we can steal an upset here or there in B1G play it would be great.
 


alchemy2u said:
Ben knows we are very weak inside, he has two major inside players sitting on the bench injured for the season. His roster was counting on those players to fill in the holes on the inside.
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Why was he "counting on those players?" Bad things happen all the time. Lets go through the list of some Gopher front court men during the Pitino era:

Gaston - simply could not play
Bakary - you didn't want him playing more than 10 minutes a game if you could help it
Josh Martin - quit the team and transferred after a few games
Reggie Lynch - big impact player but suspended and never played again
Eric Curry - injured; lost substantial time and never regained what he lost
Michael Hurt - couldn't play at this level
Davonte Fitzgerald - injured and lost a full year after a sit-out transfer year; not so good when he played; for all practical purposes, a bust
Jarvis Omersa - nuff' said
Liam Robbins - quality big man; unfortunately he played only 23 games before being injured and transferred afterward. He still hasn't played at his new school and probably wouldn't have played yet if he remained here.

I REPEAT: BAD THINGS HAPPEN ALL THE TIME! YOU ALWAYS NEED INSURANCE PLAYERS. ANY COACH WHO DOESN'T INCORPORATE THAT SENSE OF PESSIMISM IN HIS THINKING IS A FOOL.

We had two freshman commits when Ben Johnson was hired. One of them stayed and another did not. So far it looks like the wrong one stayed. Pohto is averaging 17.3 minutes a game, 7.2 points per game, 3.5 rebounds a game, a player efficiency rating of 19.7, and a win shares per 40 minutes number of .175. These numbers are pretty darn good for a freshman big man. It's still early but Pohto clearly looks like he can play at this level. If Johnson didn't try to convince him to stay, he looks like a fool right now. Treyton Thompson has played a grand total of 5 minutes so far. Of course, he is from Minnesota and that matters more than player quality to some people who post on this board.

There were still some serviceable transfer big men available when our two front court players were injured in the summer. They didn't all go to high level programs. Instead we got an undersized guy from a D2 school who looks like he's only good for breather minutes and taking some fouls away from our other two big men.
 


cjbfbp said:
Based on his showing so far, I believe Pohto could have helped significantly as well.
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This seems to be turning into a "You shouldn't have had the baby!" conversation. I know we all love to talk about wouldda, couldda shudda, but the fact is that we can't change the past. What happened with recruiting last summer is done, can't be changed. What previous coaches did is done, can't be changed. For me, the focus should be on looking ahead and how to make the current situation work out.

I think we all realize that our current big man situation is not a strong point. Instead of bemoaning what could have been, how about we discuss ideas and our plan for this current season with this current line-up that work to our team's benefit. Maybe Ben is already doing everything he can. Maybe one of us has a reasonable suggestion that would help this current team improve.

I've never been in a situation where complaining about what happened in the past did any good when trying to make a current situation work out well.
 

cjbfbp said:
Why was he "counting on those players?" Bad things happen all the time. Lets go through the list of some Gopher front court men during the Pitino era:

Gaston - simply could not play
Bakary - you didn't want him playing more than 10 minutes a game if you could help it
Josh Martin - quit the team and transferred after a few games
Reggie Lynch - big impact player but suspended and never played again
Eric Curry - injured; lost substantial time and never regained what he lost
Michael Hurt - couldn't play at this level
Davonte Fitzgerald - injured and lost a full year after a sit-out transfer year; not so good when he played; for all practical purposes, a bust
Jarvis Omersa - nuff' said
Liam Robbins - quality big man; unfortunately he played only 23 games before being injured and transferred afterward. He still hasn't played at his new school and probably wouldn't have played yet if he remained here.

I REPEAT: BAD THINGS HAPPEN ALL THE TIME! YOU ALWAYS NEED INSURANCE PLAYERS. ANY COACH WHO DOESN'T INCORPORATE THAT SENSE OF PESSIMISM IN HIS THINKING IS A FOOL.

We had two freshman commits when Ben Johnson was hired. One of them stayed and another did not. So far it looks like the wrong one stayed. Pohto is averaging 17.3 minutes a game, 7.2 points per game, 3.5 rebounds a game, a player efficiency rating of 19.7, and a win shares per 40 minutes number of .175. These numbers are pretty darn good for a freshman big man. It's still early but Pohto clearly looks like he can play at this level. If Johnson didn't try to convince him to stay, he looks like a fool right now. Treyton Thompson has played a grand total of 5 minutes so far. Of course, he is from Minnesota and that matters more than player quality to some people who post on this board.

There were still some serviceable transfer big men available when our two front court players were injured in the summer. They didn't all go to high level programs. Instead we got an undersized guy from a D2 school who looks like he's only good for breather minutes and taking some fouls away from our other two big men.
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Do we need to rehash the roster construction for this year again? Ben put effort into getting a few bigs in the portal who opted to go elsewhere. At some point, he decided to hit the '22s as there is only so much time in the day. Coulda, shoulda, woulda.
 

Chico Gopher said:
I think we all realize that our current big man situation is not a strong point. Instead of bemoaning what could have been, how about we discuss ideas and our plan for this current season with this current line-up that work to our team's benefit. Maybe Ben is already doing everything he can. Maybe one of us has a reasonable suggestion that would help this current team improve.

I've never been in a situation where complaining about what happened in the past did any good when trying to make a current situation work out well.
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The first paragraph is preposterous. Coaching staffs don't turn to message boards for suggestions. I'm sure they do their best to avoid them most of the time. Unless Treyton Thompson suddenly appears in the lineup and is a revelation or Fox is able to return healthy in January, I don't think anything can be done about it anyway.

None of us are in a position to improve or harm this team. I'm simply looking at a recruiting omission that was quite noticeable at the time, appears glaringly obvious now, and hoping this doesn't happen again.
 

cjbfbp said:
Why was he "counting on those players?" Bad things happen all the time. Lets go through the list of some Gopher front court men during the Pitino era:

Gaston - simply could not play
Bakary - you didn't want him playing more than 10 minutes a game if you could help it
Josh Martin - quit the team and transferred after a few games
Reggie Lynch - big impact player but suspended and never played again
Eric Curry - injured; lost substantial time and never regained what he lost
Michael Hurt - couldn't play at this level
Davonte Fitzgerald - injured and lost a full year after a sit-out transfer year; not so good when he played; for all practical purposes, a bust
Jarvis Omersa - nuff' said
Liam Robbins - quality big man; unfortunately he played only 23 games before being injured and transferred afterward. He still hasn't played at his new school and probably wouldn't have played yet if he remained here.

I REPEAT: BAD THINGS HAPPEN ALL THE TIME! YOU ALWAYS NEED INSURANCE PLAYERS. ANY COACH WHO DOESN'T INCORPORATE THAT SENSE OF PESSIMISM IN HIS THINKING IS A FOOL.

We had two freshman commits when Ben Johnson was hired. One of them stayed and another did not. So far it looks like the wrong one stayed. Pohto is averaging 17.3 minutes a game, 7.2 points per game, 3.5 rebounds a game, a player efficiency rating of 19.7, and a win shares per 40 minutes number of .175. These numbers are pretty darn good for a freshman big man. It's still early but Pohto clearly looks like he can play at this level. If Johnson didn't try to convince him to stay, he looks like a fool right now. Treyton Thompson has played a grand total of 5 minutes so far. Of course, he is from Minnesota and that matters more than player quality to some people who post on this board.

There were still some serviceable transfer big men available when our two front court players were injured in the summer. They didn't all go to high level programs. Instead we got an undersized guy from a D2 school who looks like he's only good for breather minutes and taking some fouls away from our other two big men.
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Of course it happens every year, but this is an extreme case where Ben had to fill up an entire roster. He is also using this year to lay his mark on the expectations of playing style for his program. You fail to understand that just because a body may fit in your eyes, it may not in Ben's eyes.

Be honest, bringing in some other "serviceable big men" would have made a minor impact on how many games we will win. We are not in contention for the B1G title! And, if those "serviceable big men" do not work hard or play defense like Ben is trying build into the culture it could sink his whole message. A coach can preach all he wants, but he has no credibility if he lets some bench player from a mid-level P5 program come in and ignore him.
 

cjbfbp said:
Based on his showing so far, I believe Pohto could have helped significantly as well.
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I agree! I wonder if Ben thought Pohto was too similar to Thompson? But, yes it appears not keeping him was a miss. Of course we will never know why Pohto left and maybe it could not have been prevented....
 

ecoperson said:
Do we need to rehash the roster construction for this year again? Ben put effort into getting a few bigs in the portal who opted to go elsewhere. At some point, he decided to hit the '22s as there is only so much time in the day. Coulda, shoulda, woulda.
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Gee, am I supposed to apologize for not putting on an eternal happy face? Sorry, but conformity has never been a primary goal of mine.

I understand being irritated by people who a relentlessly negative but I'm not one of those. I give this staff credit for what they have done well.
 

cjbfbp said:
The first paragraph is preposterous. Coaching staffs don't turn to message boards for suggestions. I'm sure they do their best to avoid them most of the time. Unless Treyton Thompson suddenly appears in the lineup and is a revelation or Fox is able to return healthy in January, I don't think anything can be done about it anyway.

None of us are in a position to improve or harm this team. I'm simply looking at a recruiting omission that was quite noticeable at the time, appears glaringly obvious now, and hoping this doesn't happen again.
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Guess I wasn't particularly clear. Completely understand that coaches/players don't follow message boards. The idea is that, instead of rehashing all of the things that everybody here is completely aware of and cannot be changed, maybe we, as posters, concentrate on discussing ideas on what this team might try in an effort to mask our weaknesses.

I'm just trying to figure out how constantly rehashing about what happened or did not happen in the past (not personally directed at you or any other specific individual on this board) is going to change or improve the current situation.
 

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