***OFFICIAL MINNESOTA VS CALIFORNIA BAPTIST SO CAL CHALLENGE IN-GAME THREAD!!!***

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GopherWeatherGuy said:
Again this just isn’t true. JOJ has played plenty at the 3 so far this season and subs for Henley at times.
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JOJ screwed up and Ben gave him the "Tubby" stare, then sat him down on the pines to watch the game. I loved Ben's decisiveness and control over JOJ's mistakes.
 

MennoSota said:
JOJ screwed up and Ben gave him the "Tubby" stare, then sat him down on the pines to watch the game. I loved Ben's decisiveness and control over JOJ's mistakes.
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Two quick fouls did him in, harsh punishment perhaps but it sends a message to play the right way. I bet he sees plenty of time in the next game.
 

MennoSota said:
JOJ screwed up and Ben gave him the "Tubby" stare, then sat him down on the pines to watch the game. I loved Ben's decisiveness and control over JOJ's mistakes.
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I don't really have a problem with Ben teaching JOJ a lesson there. But Battle should have still played less last night.
 

Wet_Blanket_Guy said:
Other takeaways:

- cooper played 40 min: too much for him as we have no other ball handlers and need him for the B10 season *maybe these huge early season minutes helped contribute to his team high 4 turnovers
- JOJ needs more than 4 minutes
- 9 assists last night and 7 were by Cooper (2 by the rest of the team * in an OT extended game is pathetic)
- FTs
-28% on treys 5/18 - maybe there is a reason teams let us shoot…
- 0 blocks all game when you play a rather tall lineup
- 5 pts off turnovers (Baptist turned it over 12 times and we only convert for 5 points…)
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The three point % was dragged down by Battle. He was missing pretty bad in the second half when his legs were tired and kept chucking it.

Payne affected numerous shots, but maybe not technically "blocks". Payne was doing a good job down low, so the box score doesn't necessarily convey how we played in that way.

Free throws are 100% still a problem. Yikes. Cooper continuing to miss quite a few is concerning.

Cooper is just not fast laterally. He can do other things well, but defending quick guards is going to be an ongoing problem.
 




fan of Ray Williams said:
Probably not, but Ben figured that his best chance to win it was pushing things with Battle.
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Well, if that's what he thought, then he was wrong and I hope he realizes that. As it turned out, that strategy was his best chance to lose. The well known cliche is "feed the hot hand" not the cold one.
 

cjbfbp said:
Well, if that's what he thought, then he was wrong and I hope he realizes that. As it turned out, that strategy was his best chance to lose. The well known cliche is "feed the hot hand" not the cold one.
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Has to be the reason. No way he was ready for that many minutes.
 




fan of Ray Williams said:
Probably not, but Ben figured that his best chance to win it was pushing things with Battle.
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Also as the head coach, he needs to weigh the value of a low level victory like this versus playing Battle heavy minutes while on a minutes restriction...seems like even a potential lose while not reinjuring your star player (on a minutes restriction) would've been the smart move... (if he got reinjured we couldn't say a win-is-a-win.)
 

My two cents, I will be shocked if he doesn’t play Battle, Cooper and Garcia around 35 per game this year. Not saying it’s right or wrong, just saying what I think he will do. Providing they aren’t in foul trouble or injured. (Might even take the latter out if they can walk.)
 

forever a gopher said:
The three point % was dragged down by Battle. He was missing pretty bad in the second half when his legs were tired and kept chucking it.

Payne affected numerous shots, but maybe not technically "blocks". Payne was doing a good job down low, so the box score doesn't necessarily convey how we played in that way.

Free throws are 100% still a problem. Yikes. Cooper continuing to miss quite a few is concerning.

Cooper is just not fast laterally. He can do other things well, but defending quick guards is going to be an ongoing problem.
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Battle I think was 1-9 from three, and the rest of the team was 4-10, with that said Battle will be better. Yeah Payne may only be 6'9", but his wingspan is about 7'3", he's definitely a problem for opposing offenses in that regard. As a team, we just need to be better at the charity stripe, Starting Guard should not be under 50%. Armstrong was fantastic from the second half on, but he's just a cute side story if we convert 70% at the line. It feels like we have a line up of Ethan Happ's when it comes to shooting Free Throws
 

GopherWeatherGuy said:
I don't really have a problem with Ben teaching JOJ a lesson there. But Battle should have still played less last night.
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I will trust Ben, the trainers, and Jamison. I'm pretty confident Ben and his assistants were talking with him. Mostly we saw that Jamison needs more playing time to stretch out that leg that was in a boot for a few weeks. Fully stretched out and a number of those shots drop in instead of hitting front iron.

I trust the staff with their decision making.
 





MennoSota said:
I will trust Ben, the trainers, and Jamison. I'm pretty confident Ben and his assistants were talking with him. Mostly we saw that Jamison needs more playing time to stretch out that leg that was in a boot for a few weeks. Fully stretched out and a number of those shots drop in instead of hitting front iron.

I trust the staff with their decision making.
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How dare you say that you trust the coaching staff! Be prepared to be roasted by all of the ghosts of Wooden that post on the board!

Seriously though, I also question why Battle got so much run coming back from injury. I would have played him about 20-25 minutes in smaller blocks of 3-5 minutes.

I see that they were trying to get Battle some time to get loose and find his shot but it almost cost them the game. And it certainly would not be good if he would have been reinjured.
 

ecoperson said:
How dare you say that you trust the coaching staff! Be prepared to be roasted by all of the ghosts of Wooden that post on the board!

Seriously though, I also question why Battle got so much run coming back from injury. I would have played him about 20-25 minutes in smaller blocks of 3-5 minutes.

I see that they were trying to get Battle some time to get loose and find his shot but it almost cost them the game. And it certainly would not be good if he would have been reinjured.
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Kind of an ironic post….
 


MennoSota said:
I will trust Ben, the trainers, and Jamison. I'm pretty confident Ben and his assistants were talking with him. Mostly we saw that Jamison needs more playing time to stretch out that leg that was in a boot for a few weeks. Fully stretched out and a number of those shots drop in instead of hitting front iron.

I trust the staff with their decision making.
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I'm not really concenred about the coaching staff's ability to handle Battle's injury.

I am concerned with the coaching staff's ability to coach a tight game against a subpar team. Our two minute offense was almost entirely allowing an obviously gassed Battle in his first game back, to just dribble around and miss deep, contested 3's.

I would be less concerned if this was the first time we saw that offense, but that was how the offense functioned for majority of the B1G season last season.
 


A couple of observations from seeing the squad at 'full strength' (w/o Fox and Ihnen, of course):

Garcia and Battle are not very athletic. They are just not laterally quick. I did appreciate watching them defensively. Garcia, in particular, is savvy and does a good job finding the offensive threat and then sliding off to put a body on another player. This was apparent at the end of OT as CBU was trying to win. I believe Payne was a step slow in picking up his man in the lane so Garcia picked him up and then slid to another once Payne recovered. Elemental basketball but not always easy. Garcia has a calmness about him on both ends of the floor.

While Battle had an off game shooting, he will be far more effective as a player if he mixes it up a bit. He is still in shoot first mode from outside- that is so last year. He needs to move the ball or back his man down or incorporate some mid-range shots into his game. Having both Battle and Garcia on the floor definitely provides some offensive options but they need to work at complementing one another versus just being outside shooters.
 


ecoperson said:
While Battle had an off game shooting, he will be far more effective as a player if he mixes it up a bit. He is still in shoot first mode from outside- that is so last year. He needs to move the ball or back his man down or incorporate some mid-range shots into his game. Having both Battle and Garcia on the floor definitely provides some offensive options but they need to work at complementing one another versus just being outside shooters.
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the unlv game should be interesting for battle. might be defended by a 6'4" guard most the game. back em down
 

Wet_Blanket_Guy said:
Other takeaways:

- cooper played 40 min: too much for him as we have no other ball handlers and need him for the B10 season *maybe these huge early season minutes helped contribute to his team high 4 turnovers
- JOJ needs more than 4 minutes
- 9 assists last night and 7 were by Cooper (2 by the rest of the team * in an OT extended game is pathetic)
- FTs
-28% on treys 5/18 - maybe there is a reason teams let us shoot…
- 0 blocks all game when you play a rather tall lineup
- 5 pts off turnovers (Baptist turned it over 12 times and we only convert for 5 points…)
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It's very obvious you didn't watch the game based on these takeaways
 


cjbfbp said:
Well, if that's what he thought, then he was wrong and I hope he realizes that. As it turned out, that strategy was his best chance to lose. The well known cliche is "feed the hot hand" not the cold one.
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Was he wrong when Battle cut the lead to one, ultimately setting up Garcia to be the hero. Battle was gassed and not in his best form, but I would take a shitty version of Battle over a Freshman in that situation. Basketball you roll with your best guys and let them fall where they fall
 

GopherWeatherGuy said:
I'm not really concenred about the coaching staff's ability to handle Battle's injury.

I am concerned with the coaching staff's ability to coach a tight game against a subpar team. Our two minute offense was almost entirely allowing an obviously gassed Battle in his first game back, to just dribble around and miss deep, contested 3's.

I would be less concerned if this was the first time we saw that offense, but that was how the offense functioned for majority of the B1G season last season.
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Cooper needs to take control there, though he's the last person I want at the FT line right now.
 




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