***OFFICIAL MINNESOTA VS CLEMSON ACC/BIG TEN CHALLENGE IN-GAME THREAD***

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My prediction of Murphy leading the team in scoring looks better today!

I'm glad Pitino played the frosh with Joey and Buggs! A very Warriors like lineup which may serve the Gophers well in the slogfest ways of the B1G.
 

Wow, two different games in watching the second half vs the first. It looks like they will have plenty of scorers, they will be tough to play once they turn on the lock down defense.

Very nice composure with Dorsey making all those FT at the end of the game. Buggs is a freak, that running slam dunk by him was in warp speed. Very nice win, they were able to close out the game against a team that was hitting the three.


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alchemy2u said:
Wow, two different games in watching the second half vs the first. It looks like they will have plenty of scorers, they will be tough to play once they turn on the lock down defense.

Very nice composure with Dorsey making all those FT at the end of the game. Buggs is a freak, that running slam dunk by him was in warp speed. Very nice win, they were able to close out the game against a team that was hitting the three.


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The dunk was crazy, I rewound the game a bunch of times, its like he accelerated when he jumped and crash landed into the hoop. We are quite lucky he didn't turn an ankle as he did land on the camera man.
 

underground629 said:
Every time Joey shoots a three there's no doubt in my mind it's going in. Haven't had that feeling since Hoffarber. His shot looks so much better now too. Not that it's that pretty, but it used to be a laser that barely went above the rim.

Random thought, but Buggs is looking nice with that jab step before the three. Some of his quick drives tonight were absurd, even if he didn't score. He gets to the hoop so quickly with those huge strides and leaping ability. Buggs aggressively driving and also hitting threes is huge for us. Both open things up for the team. I also think players like him driving will open up a lot of opportunities for Murphy to get putbacks or at least offensive boards.
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It seems like both Murphy and Buggs have emerged as guys the defense needs to be aware of since the start of the season. Throw in King's shooting, Mason's solid point play, and Morris's sometimes creativeness, and we are putting together a group that can split a defense's focus. It seems like it's been a while since we've had more that a couple legit scoring threats on the court at once (apologies to Dre M, but he just didn't have it last year).

The lone caveat is that none of these guys can really do it alone, and who knows if they can do it against the big ten. However, I like the balanced attack, and that we aren't leaning on one or two scoring options.


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cncmin said:
So what was the main reason for the poor attendance? Over the TV half the country away, looked like a really bad showing in the stands tonight for a good, entertaining game on national TV; perhaps the worst I can recall seeing at Williams Arena. Did a big snowstorm actually happen?
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There were almost NO students at the Omaha game Friday, and I remarked at the time that I hope the students show up against Clemson. Well...they did not. Just a smattering. I'm disappointed.

The crowd was small but did fire up and make a respectable amount of noise in the second half. My ears were ringing when I got home. Still, people, don't let a little snow scare you away. If you have a ticket, use it!
 


bc2211 said:
It seems like both Murphy and Buggs have emerged as guys the defense needs to be aware of since the start of the season. Throw in King's shooting, Mason's solid point play, and Morris's sometimes creativeness, and we are putting together a group that can split a defense's focus. It seems like it's been a while since we've had more that a couple legit scoring threats on the court at once (apologies to Dre M, but he just didn't have it last year).

The lone caveat is that none of these guys can really do it alone, and who knows if they can do it against the big ten. However, I like the balanced attack, and that we aren't leaning on one or two scoring options.


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I also thought that the way Dorsey played last night on the offensive end had the potential to free up the four scorers you mentioned to focus more on scoring. Dorsey took only 2 shots but it was his best game of the season. In addition to playing very well defensively, he handled the ball a lot and had no errors that I remember.
 

47 points off the bench! Murphy with Brandon Dawson like game, plays huge for his height. Murphy had more offensive rebounds then Clemson's team 8 to 7!

Only worries were that we will have a tough time doing anything against the top half of the big ten with Konate and Diedhiou doing nothing. We wont get away with king in the middle of a 2-3 zone. I wonder if Murphy would be a better option. Sucks we don't have Nwanko.

When Towns went to Kentucky he was a perimeter shooting big man. Cal didn't let him float on the perimeter and made him learn to play in the post, now he can do both. Buggs is much smaller but I wish he could catch it from 15 feet and take one dribble towards the rim. He would be hard to defend. He does have a nice outside shot when on and he hits it while jumping very high (hard to block).

We suck against the three. It used to be the horrid ball line defense. Many times its such an undersized lineup we have to have multiple people guard the paint during full court presses and it leaves 3pt shooters open.

So happy to see a wide open game where we are shooting well and 3 freshmen play so well!
 

Bad Gopher said:
There were almost NO students at the Omaha game Friday, and I remarked at the time that I hope the students show up against Clemson. Well...they did not. Just a smattering. I'm disappointed.

The crowd was small but did fire up and make a respectable amount of noise in the second half. My ears were ringing when I got home. Still, people, don't let a little snow scare you away. If you have a ticket, use it!
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Easy for you to say. 120 miles in that slop and an 8:00 start? Um ... no.
 

underground629 said:
That's another misleading stat that puts us right behind Duke--love it. Those announcers loved talking about the non-conference home win game streak.

When will be ever see an average ACC opponent? That's not that much to ask for after this many years in a row
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I think we have to have some preseason hype to get a top 5-7 ACC opponent. The last time we had any sort of hype was probably Tubby's last year, and we got a Florida State team that won the ACC tournament the year before (winning the ACC tournament is considered winning the ACC, as I don't believe they award a regular season conference title). I remember some Florida State fans even being bummed that they got stuck with lowly Minnesota for the challenge that year, although they ended up in the middle of the ACC and lost in the first round of the NIT.

I could see us getting a decent team two years down the road. Buggs will be the only departing senior next year, so if one or two guys other than him emerge as stars, say Coffey, Fitzgerald, Dorsey, or Murphy, and we end up making the tournament, maybe even win a game or two, we can get the "Minnesota returns ~90% of their minutes/points scored from an NCAA tournament team for the 2017-18 season" narrative and be pegged as a top 6 or so Big Ten team.

We could maybe get a decent opponent next year if we get to the NIT final four or by the grace of Goldy end up making the tournament somehow this year, and if Coffey earns McDonald's All-American honors, which Ryan James seems to think is a possibility. But I still get the feeling that, while most of us are expecting good things next season, there won't be much hype from outsiders.
 



Who wants to play a top ACC team when we have the opportunity of continuing our non-conference home winning streak!?! From now on that is going to be my automated response anytime someone complains about our non-conference schedule! Haha
 

MadtownGopher said:
Who wants to play a top ACC team when we have the opportunity of continuing our non-conference home winning streak!?! From now on that is going to be my automated response anytime someone complains about our non-conference schedule! Haha
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Well, next year we'd be on the road and in 2 years we'd be back home (likely) so we should worry about it then.
 

march madness said:
Only worries were that we will have a tough time doing anything against the top half of the big ten with Konate and Diedhiou doing nothing. We wont get away with king in the middle of a 2-3 zone. I wonder if Murphy would be a better option. Sucks we don't have Nwanko.
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If we had Nwanko, we probably wouldn't have Murphy. How do you know that Nwanko would have been any better than Bakary anyway? Bakary was pretty bad last night but he's had a few good games this year and I still believe he can be a solid contributor. He's developed a very nice hook shot and I don't know why he doesn't go to it more consistently. Instead he seems to be trying to duplicate Mo's signature move too often and he looks awful when he tries to do it.
 

Tim1406 said:
Well, next year we'd be on the road and in 2 years we'd be back home (likely) so we should worry about it then.
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True, but I bet next year we are in the Gavett tip off. Assuming were on the road in the ACC challenge I would think there's a good chance were at home against a Big East school.
 




bemidjigopher said:
True, but I bet next year we are in the Gavett tip off. Assuming were on the road in the ACC challenge I would think there's a good chance were at home against a Big East school.
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Agree.

I expect the Gophers to host a Big East team in 2016-17. I also expect that to be the only home game vs. a team from the Power 6. I get the feeling Pitino prefers to play his best opponents at neutral sites (2014 Louisville, 2015 Oklahoma State), as long as it doesn't involve a bracketed tournament. Things are pointing toward the Gophers not being in a bracketed exempt tournament next season.
 

I forgot to mention perhaps the most important part. Apologies if I missed this mentioned elsewhere in the thread, but Jamal Abu-Shamala and his squeeze were featured on the kiss cam.
 

I think this could be a fun year. Not because I think we will win a lot of games but because it will be fun to watch the young guys develop.
 


dtrain19 said:
Offense should be fine. It's the team defense that really needs to improve. If that happens we could surprise some people. If not, likely the bottom 4 finish everyone expects.
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About midway through the second half I thought they really stepped it up on the defensive end of the court, the five that were in when it started were Buggs, King, Murphy, Morris, and Mason. They had three or four possession's where they really clamped down and played impressive defense as a team. That started it and they ended playing really well down the stretch, if they play like that they can play with anybody.
 

SelectionSunday said:
Agree.

I expect the Gophers to host a Big East team in 2016-17. I also expect that to be the only home game vs. a team from the Power 6. I get the feeling Pitino prefers to play his best opponents at neutral sites (2014 Louisville, 2015 Oklahoma State), as long as it doesn't involve a bracketed tournament. Things are pointing toward the Gophers not being in a bracketed exempt tournament next season.
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You think we might be in one of those deals in Brooklyn or KC etc where there's four team and two games?
 

GopherOhana said:
looks like we'll be over 30% of game minutes to true freshmen. by contrast, i think Clemson had true freshmen play two minutes
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Have to believe that was a big (and successful) selling point of the U by Pitino to his 2015 class...come here and you'll have a chance to play significant minutes. It would've been fun to see how Jarvis would have fit with this team too.
 


bc2211 said:
It seems like both Murphy and Buggs have emerged as guys the defense needs to be aware of since the start of the season. Throw in King's shooting, Mason's solid point play, and Morris's sometimes creativeness, and we are putting together a group that can split a defense's focus. It seems like it's been a while since we've had more that a couple legit scoring threats on the court at once (apologies to Dre M, but he just didn't have it last year).

The lone caveat is that none of these guys can really do it alone, and who knows if they can do it against the big ten. However, I like the balanced attack, and that we aren't leaning on one or two scoring options.


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Agree with all of this. If those players were all consistent scorers we'd be in for some exciting shootouts with how terrible our defense is. Our defense combined with terrible rebounding will really prevent us from consistently competing with the best teams in the BT. On the right night though, we could definitely surprise some teams.
 

march madness said:
Buggs is much smaller but I wish he could catch it from 15 feet and take one dribble towards the rim. He would be hard to defend. !
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He has done that. Maybe not as much as you or I would like, but he certainly has significantly improved in that respect this year.
 

Cayman said:
I think we have to have some preseason hype to get a top 5-7 ACC opponent. The last time we had any sort of hype was probably Tubby's last year, and we got a Florida State team that won the ACC tournament the year before (winning the ACC tournament is considered winning the ACC, as I don't believe they award a regular season conference title). I remember some Florida State fans even being bummed that they got stuck with lowly Minnesota for the challenge that year, although they ended up in the middle of the ACC and lost in the first round of the NIT.

I could see us getting a decent team two years down the road. Buggs will be the only departing senior next year, so if one or two guys other than him emerge as stars, say Coffey, Fitzgerald, Dorsey, or Murphy, and we end up making the tournament, maybe even win a game or two, we can get the "Minnesota returns ~90% of their minutes/points scored from an NCAA tournament team for the 2017-18 season" narrative and be pegged as a top 6 or so Big Ten team.

We could maybe get a decent opponent next year if we get to the NIT final four or by the grace of Goldy end up making the tournament somehow this year, and if Coffey earns McDonald's All-American honors, which Ryan James seems to think is a possibility. But I still get the feeling that, while most of us are expecting good things next season, there won't be much hype from outsiders.
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I suppose, but there were a number of times where we did have preseason hype and still didn't get a remotely decent opponent. We had hype going into almost every year with Tubby after he made the tournament. We also had hype going into last year. If I remember correctly, that Florida State team graduated a lot of their talent and weren't expected to do a whole lot when we played them. Agree with you that we will likely deserve a good team then, though based on history I'm skeptical the challenge will agree.
 

Bad Gopher said:
I forgot to mention perhaps the most important part. Apologies if I missed this mentioned elsewhere in the thread, but Jamal Abu-Shamala and his squeeze were featured on the kiss cam.
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Could see them on TV behind the bench as well. I didn't really get a good look at his girl... she hot? Jamal seems like he'd be able to date some babes.

I still remember going to my first Gopher home game and his name confusing me beyond belief. I looked at the roster without his picture and then found him on the court. I remember wondering if the program had the number wrong.
 

underground629 said:
Could see them on TV behind the bench as well. I didn't really get a good look at his girl... she hot? Jamal seems like he'd be able to date some babes.

I still remember going to my first Gopher home game and his name confusing me beyond belief. I looked at the roster without his picture and then found him on the court. I remember wondering if the program had the number wrong.
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This is bad for a libidinous heterosexual man to admit, but I didn't even check her out when she was on screen. I was looking at him, partly because HE looks pretty good these days.
 

Bad Gopher said:
This is bad for a libidinous heterosexual man to admit, but I didn't even check her out when she was on screen. I was looking at him, partly because HE looks pretty good these days.
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Bad, I think you need to change your GH handle!
 

Bad Gopher said:
This is bad for a libidinous heterosexual man to admit, but I didn't even check her out when she was on screen. I was looking at him, partly because HE looks pretty good these days.
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FYI

I'm an extremely Heterosexual man, his girl is at least a 7 if not better. I didn't look at him the way you did, but I did recognize him as he's almost always got those tickets. I've requested those tickets in the past, he's always got them.
 


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