***OFFICIAL MINNESOTA VS ILLILNOIS IN-GAME THREAD***

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You simply cannot go minutes without scoring a bucket... multiple times.
 

Well they played well enough to win tonight....that's too bad.
 



Winasota Gopher said:
dude had like 8 assists, was the only one to generate a layup against the zone. Not saying he played a flawless game but to say he played aweful is quite the stretch imo.
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He had three awful stretches that absolutely turned the game around. Piss poor decisions, untimely turnovers, and just brick after brick. Watch that series again where we blew a 10 point lead in 1:30.
 


Make free throws. Stop shooting so many 3 pointers, only Mason and King should shoot that much from out there. Why don't we have Buggs sit around the free throw line when facing the zone? Instead we have five guys around the perimeter all the time.
 

Gold Vision said:
He had three awful stretches that absolutely turned the game around. Piss poor decisions, untimely turnovers, and just brick after brick. Watch that series again where we blew a 10 point lead in 1:30.
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Psst...............................He's a freshman and was just about in tears on the bench, it's your call,but you might want to cut the kid some slack
 

GopherPop said:
Psst...............................He's a freshman and was just about in tears on the bench, it's your call,but you might want to cut the kid some slack
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Pssst.....................I said he had an awful game on a Gopher sports message board, not to his face.
 

GophersInIowa said:
Make free throws. Stop shooting so many 3 pointers, only Mason and King should shoot that much from out there. Why don't we have Buggs sit around the free throw line when facing the zone? Instead we have five guys around the perimeter all the time.
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Not a bad idea except Buggs is not a back to the basket player....and I've never seen him play that way.....
 




Gold Vision said:
Pssst.....................I said he had an awful game on a Gopher sports message board, not to his face.
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\\

Again, he's just a freshman and was just about in tears on the bench. It's your call, but you might want to cut the kid some slack..... I understand it was your observation......
 


WilliamsArenaGuy said:
Really Pitino? You're finally going to out Morris in for McBrayer? He played well for a long time, but has single-handedly blown this game down the stretch.
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Not sure what lineup you use but McBrayer should not be in in that situation, a brick and a missed front end on a one and one really hurt in the last 90 seconds, not sure you want Morris in either though.
 



GoodasGold said:
The GHolers begin to eat their own...
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Lol. Les Bolstad is not a Gholer. He's an Aholer. The guy is not a Gopher fan, he's a fan of bitching about the Gophers. I'll never understand what makes guys like that tick.

His favorite nickname for people is "tool", I can't think of a better way to describe himself.
 

GopherPop said:
\\ Again, he's just a freshman and was just about in tears on the bench. It's your call, but you might want to cut the kid some slack..... I understand it was your observation......
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He had an awful game. I didn't say anything personal about the kid.
 


A game we should have won but gave it away with some bad decisions late and struggling at the free throw line. I didn't think we played as well as the last couple games but the effort was there again and the defense was pretty good. When Illinois went to the 2-3 I thought we got too passive for a while and settled for too many bad 3s. Needed to stay aggressive and keep attacking and then if you kick it out for a 3 that's a much better shot than just coming down passing back and forth twice and putting up a 3. Thought Mason, McBrayer, and Dorsey played well most of the game and Murphy was solid even though he did miss a couple lay ins and that he usually puts down and the early foul trouble definitely hurt. I hope as the season goes on Murphy will learn sometimes it is more valuable to just give up the layup instead of him taking a foul especially with our depth situation this year. McBrayer looked like he was almost in tears when he came out in OT and I feel for him as he did so many good things but its hard not for him to dwell on the crucial mistakes late. I think he will learn and grow from them and its a situation kind of like Mason had last year in I think the Ohio State game where he missed a free throw or 2 late and Ohio State ended up getting a late bucket for the win. The upperclassmen all struggled tonight Morris was awful, Buggs put up some terrible shots made some careless mistakes and was inconsistent on defense, King made some 3s but passed up some good looks that turned into bad shots later in the possession and really struggled on the defensive end. Not expecting a win against Purdue as they are a very good team but hopefully this team bounces back from a tough finish and can play well.
 

Gold Vision said:
He had three awful stretches that absolutely turned the game around. Piss poor decisions, untimely turnovers, and just brick after brick. Watch that series again where we blew a 10 point lead in 1:30.
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Yeah, no doubt, some terrible stretches.

He still didn't have an aweful game, he had a couple terrible stretches. We aren't in those situations without him though.
 

Winasota Gopher said:
dude had like 8 assists, was the only one to generate a layup against the zone. Not saying he played a flawless game but to say he played aweful is quite the stretch imo.
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McBrayer is going to make us all forget some of these struggles in a year or two and so will some of the others. McBrayer is going to be terrific. These guys are going to have more incentive than any team to go out and work on improving. This is awful to see but I think it will end well for the young guys.
 

bga1 said:
McBrayer is going to make us all forget some of these struggles in a year or two and so will some of the others. McBrayer is going to be terrific. These guys are going to have more incentive than any team to go out and work on improving. This is awful to see but I think it will end well for the young guys.
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I'm high on him too. I'd like to see him knock down a few shots to help me be real high on him. But he'll be a force both going to the hole and in transition. He's also going to be very nice at the top of the press.
 

I can't stand chokers and the Gophers have been nothing but that in the last 6-7 years. I could dig up my post and update it again, but they have a f&(*&^ unfathomable record in games decided by 5 pts or less (or OT) since early in Tubby's tenure. It's ridiculous that this team goes to the line AT HOME and makes 1 of a possible 6 free throws with a chance to ice the game while Illinois gets ONE chance on the road for 2 free throws to tie and knocks them down like its nothing. Obviously, it's not just the players but the coaches too. In this case Pitino starts the f(*&^*&^ stall with like 3 minutes left in the game. We even got a break with a phantom call that sent King to the line or we would have went two straight possessions with just trying a miracle to beat a shot clock violation. Some of it is on the coaches for making the players tight, but if recent history is any gauge...the guys who choked down the stretch today will continue to choke.

It says a lot about this team that after it melted down in epic fashion, it had a chance to right the wrong on its HOME COURT in OT and got blitzed.
 

Why are people getting this riled up about such a bad team? Exert your effort somewhere else. Better luck next year.
 

This game was lost when we were up 5, rolling, with just under 3 minutes to play, and we started playing not to lose instead of playing to win. Can't fathom that when you're an 0-7 (now 0-8) team. Absolutely nothing to lose. Then we get tight, miss free throws, and presto it's overtime.

Play to win instead of going into the end of shot clock garbage shots. Frustrating. Feel bad for the players. They're down. They need to taste a win real soon. Somehow have to beat somebody before Rutgers comes to town. Bottom line is Gophers don't know how to win right now.
 

You can hold a scoop of manure in one hand and talk about the future to the other empty hand. We are in a no win situation both literally and figuratively.

The litany of problems this team has could be ameliorated by experienced coaching. It's too bad we don't have that.

It's an effing disaster in the barn.



Sent from my SM-N910V using Tapatalk
 

SelectionSunday said:
This game was lost when we were up 5, rolling, with just under 3 minutes to play, and we started playing not to lose instead of playing to win. Can't fathom that when you're an 0-7 (now 0-8) team. Absolutely nothing to lose. Then we get tight, miss free throws, and presto it's overtime.

Play to win instead of going into the end of shot clock garbage shots. Frustrating. Feel bad for the players. They're down. They need to taste a win real soon. Somehow have to beat somebody before Rutgers comes to town. Bottom line is Gophers don't know how to win right now.
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Spot on. Things could be ugly this Wed.
 

Goldy Gopher said:
A game we should have won but gave it away with some bad decisions late and struggling at the free throw line. I didn't think we played as well as the last couple games but the effort was there again and the defense was pretty good. When Illinois went to the 2-3 I thought we got too passive for a while and settled for too many bad 3s. Needed to stay aggressive and keep attacking and then if you kick it out for a 3 that's a much better shot than just coming down passing back and forth twice and putting up a 3. Thought Mason, McBrayer, and Dorsey played well most of the game and Murphy was solid even though he did miss a couple lay ins and that he usually puts down and the early foul trouble definitely hurt. I hope as the season goes on Murphy will learn sometimes it is more valuable to just give up the layup instead of him taking a foul especially with our depth situation this year. McBrayer looked like he was almost in tears when he came out in OT and I feel for him as he did so many good things but its hard not for him to dwell on the crucial mistakes late. I think he will learn and grow from them and its a situation kind of like Mason had last year in I think the Ohio State game where he missed a free throw or 2 late and Ohio State ended up getting a late bucket for the win. The upperclassmen all struggled tonight Morris was awful, Buggs put up some terrible shots made some careless mistakes and was inconsistent on defense, King made some 3s but passed up some good looks that turned into bad shots later in the possession and really struggled on the defensive end. Not expecting a win against Purdue as they are a very good team but hopefully this team bounces back from a tough finish and can play well.
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Yeah, missing though free throws hurt, but only getting to the line 12 times isn't good either. That's where that 36 three point attempts comes in. This team, for the most part, can't shoot, obviously. They have to drive to the basket, pick up fouls, get to the line and play good defense. Just don't see any other recipe for this squad. Oh well, bring on Purdue.
 

bga1 said:
McBrayer is going to make us all forget some of these struggles in a year or two and so will some of the others. McBrayer is going to be terrific. These guys are going to have more incentive than any team to go out and work on improving. This is awful to see but I think it will end well for the young guys.
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Ten more pounds, an adequate jumper, and experience will make him honorable mention Big Ten. Fifteen more pounds, a good jumper, a free throw percentage in the 70's, and experience will make him a 16+ points a game scorer and 1st or 2nd team Big Ten.
 

Defense and rebounding have improved drastically the last 2 weeks. That's why we're in games. Both the players and head coach now have to find a way to finish. The 0-8 record sucks but we all wanted to see progress. IMO there's progress.
 

fan of Ray Williams said:
Yeah, missing though free throws hurt, but only getting to the line 12 times isn't good either. That's where that 36 three point attempts comes in. This team, for the most part, can't shoot, obviously. They have to drive to the basket, pick up fouls, get to the line and play good defense. Just don't see any other recipe for this squad. Oh well, bring on Purdue.
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Yes, the failure of the coach to make offensive adjustments after the initial surge was frustrating, but there were questionable roster management decisions as well in the game.

1) I didn't understand why Pitino didn't have Dorsey (a much better free throw shooter than McBrayer and quicker in driving to the hoop) on the floor in the final minutes of regulation.

2) I can't believe I'm saying this but I think he should have played Bakary more earlier in the game. King was just too small to guard Maverick Morgan (or Michael Finke).

3) Given the difficulty of scoring in the final minutes of regulation, I think he should have taken the chance and put Carlos back in during the overtime.
 

TruthSeeker said:
Ten more pounds, an adequate jumper, and experience will make him honorable mention Big Ten. Fifteen more pounds, a good jumper, a free throw percentage in the 70's, and experience will make him a 16+ points a game scorer and 1st or 2nd team Big Ten.
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McBrayer has got a LOT of work to do on his shooting mechanics - and that can be tricky. some guys are able to re-work their mechanics, and some guys can't. When you're in a game, and instincts kick in, it's easy to revert to what you have always done, no matter how many shots you put up in practice or during the summer.

I think he can be a good complimentary player with his other skills, but if he (and the coaches) can't fix the jump shot, then every team they play will just sag off and dare him to shoot.

The real key for the Gophers is to find a couple of other guys who can consistently hit outside shots so they don't have to rely on McBrayer, and let him do the other things to help the team.
 

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