***OFFICIAL PENN STATE AT MINNESOTA IN-GAME THREAD!!!***

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Has anyone checked on the backboard to see if it is still intact from the Carrington brick that missed the rim? It may need some tlc

In all seriousness, even though we lost, it was one of the more entertaining games of the year.
 


bleedsmaroonandgold said:
Teams are going to face bad calls. If the Gophers are going to let one call snowball into a 10 point swing, that's a problem in and of itself.
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If the refs were calling moving screens last night PSU would have gotten called for 10 or more-instead of just the one. The refs were bad. Garcia got one going his way as well that wasn't a charge by Penn State. We just have to play better.
 

Bad Gopher said:
I thought this might happen the moment it was called, and sure enough. It was the millstone around the Gophers' neck that they couldn't recover from. No amount of makeup calls made up for this.

That's two games--this and Indiana--where a well-called second half makes the difference for the Gophs.
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I don't know much about you but my impressions are that you would not allow this perspective (doomed by one bad break) to control your own life. Athletic teams, just like ordinary people, have to develop some level of resiliency. Maybe in time Ben Johnson's teams will develop this characteristic. Of course, teams with a low margin for error are most susceptible to an inability to weather a storm. Perhaps some day we will be playing regularly with the lead instead of perennially playing from behind.
 



Gophers7633 said:
We have 5 games left. I'll take the unknown of Christie over Carrington and Henley. This was a winnable game and playing Henley 33 minutes is coach malpractice.
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Who should have played instead? Would you have played Carrington 30 minutes his first night back after missing six weeks with a bone fracture in his leg? Or Samuels?
 


cjbfbp said:
I don't know much about you but my impressions are that you would not allow this perspective (doomed by one bad break) to control your own life. Athletic teams, just like ordinary people, have to develop some level of resiliency. Maybe in time Ben Johnson's teams will develop this characteristic. Of course, teams with a low margin for error are most susceptible to an inability to weather a storm. Perhaps some day we will be playing regularly with the lead instead of perennially playing from behind.
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The truth is that bad calls do turn games, and foul trouble can make a huge difference in a team's chance of winning. This was the third foul on the person who was leading your team and was giving you a chance to win that game.
 



Dakota2 said:
Who should have played instead? Would you have played Carrington 30 minutes his first night back after missing six weeks with a bone fracture in his leg? Or Samuels?
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Roll with Battle at the 2. Cooper, Battle, JOJ, Garcia, Payne. Can't be any worse.
 

Dakota2 said:
Who should have played instead? Would you have played Carrington 30 minutes his first night back after missing six weeks with a bone fracture in his leg? Or Samuels?
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You continue to say Ben is 'recruiting very well' but then go on to say who else are we going to play between 3 terrible options at the 2 guard...
 

Gophers7633 said:
Roll with Battle at the 2. Cooper, Battle, JOJ, Garcia, Payne. Can't be any worse.
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I thought the offense looked better, with more inside action and movement, but they wore down in the second half when only 6 guys played. I would have liked to have seen Carrington play a few minutes in second half to give Henley some fresher legs down the stretch.

A few more subs midway thru the 2nd half would have maybe kept the energy level up for the stretch drive. I like his rotations in the first half, he just needs to continue it into the second half to improve the offensive flow and defensive energy. The subs don’t have to play extended minutes or all at once, just 3-4 strategic minutes would help.
 




Dakota2 said:
What is stupid is that you are too dumb to realize Iowa shot under 30% that night and was beatable with Garcia in the game. Penn St. shot just under 50% and made 10 threes. And, yes, despite shooting well they were also beatable had Battle not continued his 0 forever streak on threes.

Note, Battle is not himself this year with both physical and mental issues. Not holding him up for blame because he is forced to play in not good health. It's just a fact.
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Agree on Battle on both physical and mental issues going on but yet some know it all on the women’s blogpost disputed the claim and said it was bs. Looking at the kid you can tell just watching him move he is not 100% physically or mentally.
 

I would think that any transfer considering Minnesota would be excited knowing, looking at our roster, that there is a great chance to walk into the lineup and get significant playing time at a Big Ten school.
 


Wet_Blanket_Guy said:
We thought that last off-season and we got Samuels and Cooper
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And Garcia.

But we're still a year away from me wanting upperclassmen transfers. I want Evans, Christie, Betts, & our current freshmen to get as much playing-time as possible.

I can't understand why supposed Gopher fans wouldn't want to develop a bunch of freshmen & sophomores. We will have 7 of them. Potentially a great base.
 

GopherWeatherGuy said:
You continue to say Ben is 'recruiting very well' but then go on to say who else are we going to play between 3 terrible options at the 2 guard...
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He has had two classes and signed seven good players, three of whom have not arrived yet. He has recruited very well but was not able to land enough talent in the portal for this season.
 

VanillaThunder said:
I thought the offense looked better, with more inside action and movement, but they wore down in the second half when only 6 guys played. I would have liked to have seen Carrington play a few minutes in second half to give Henley some fresher legs down the stretch.

A few more subs midway thru the 2nd half would have maybe kept the energy level up for the stretch drive. I like his rotations in the first half, he just needs to continue it into the second half to improve the offensive flow and defensive energy. The subs don’t have to play extended minutes or all at once, just 3-4 strategic minutes would help.
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Do you have any report on how Carrington's leg was holding up after missing six weeks with a stress fracture?
 

Ghos345 said:
Agree on Battle on both physical and mental issues going on but yet some know it all on the women’s blogpost disputed the claim and said it was bs. Looking at the kid you can tell just watching him move he is not 100% physically or mentally.
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He actually looks like someone suffering with mono.
 


EasyThere Pilgrim said:
And Garcia.

But we're still a year away from me wanting upperclassmen transfers. I want Evans, Christie, Betts, & our current freshmen to get as much playing-time as possible.

I can't understand why supposed Gopher fans wouldn't want to develop a bunch of freshmen & sophomores. We will have 7 of them. Potentially a great base.
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Because being historically bad for a potentially short window to be middle of the pack b10 is not a great trade-off.

You say wait two years. I say, Battle is gone, Garcia is most likely gone (Ihnen annd Fox are finally gone) and our freshmen…while they play, are ok… are still middle of the pack B10 freshmen (ratings-wise). Payne and JOJ have their moments. JOJ seems to be improving pretty steadily on offense, but his defense is abysmal. Payne, while he had a great game last night, still will have to learn to operate away from buckets as we will want him and Evans to be able to play at the same time (occasionally). Carrington and Henley probably have more lowlights than highlights.
 

Dakota2 said:
And Cooper has been a good player for us, just not the PG we needed.
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His defense is awful and his ball handling against pressure is non-existent. I am confused why teams don’t press the gophers and run them off the court every game. We have 8 players. Every team should go full court (like Maryland did) and run us out of the gym.
 

Dakota2 said:
He has had two classes and signed seven good players, three of whom have not arrived yet. He has recruited very well but was not able to land enough talent in the portal for this season.
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We have 3 good players who haven't even arrived yet? That's pretty amazing considering we have only signed 2 players for next year, and neither of them have proven anything at the college level.

After subtracting these '3 known good players' who haven't played yet, that leaves only 4 of the 17 players Ben has recruited here as good players. And you consider that 'recruiting very well'.

4 actually seems about right to me, but I would consider hitting on 4 of 17 as pretty poor recruiting. And after looking at Ben's B1G record of 5-29, and 1-18 over the last 19, that math checks out.
 

Dakota2 said:
He has had two classes and signed seven good players, three of whom have not arrived yet. He has recruited very well but was not able to land enough talent in the portal for this season.
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Who are the 7 “good” players. I assume you mean Evans,Christie, Payne, and Ola-Joseph…who else is good?
 

Dakota2 said:
Who should have played instead? Would you have played Carrington 30 minutes his first night back after missing six weeks with a bone fracture in his leg? Or Samuels?
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To be fair there is precedent to play someone 30+ minutes in their first game back from an injury that caused them to miss several weeks. I wouldn’t have done it either time—FWIW. I think Battle has been a little limited all season and that likely wasn’t a helpful game for him. Not saying that’s the reason—but the precedent exists.
 

GopherWeatherGuy said:
We have 3 good players who haven't even arrived yet? That's pretty amazing considering we have only signed 2 players for next year, and neither of them have proven anything at the college level.

After subtracting these '3 known good players' who haven't played yet, that leaves only 4 of the 17 players Ben has recruited here as good players. And you consider that 'recruiting very well'.

4 actually seems about right to me, but I would consider hitting on 4 of 17 as pretty poor recruiting. And after looking at Ben's B1G record of 5-29, and 1-18 over the last 19, that math checks out.
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Betts is the third freshman next year. Johnson has not recruited 17 players. He has recruited seven in two classes. Portal transfers are not recruits. They choose where they want to play from the offers they receive.

Minnesota has not been an attractive destination the past two years and will not be for the best players going to the portal this Spring.
 

GopherWeatherGuy said:
We have 3 good players who haven't even arrived yet? That's pretty amazing considering we have only signed 2 players for next year, and neither of them have proven anything at the college level.

After subtracting these '3 known good players' who haven't played yet, that leaves only 4 of the 17 players Ben has recruited here as good players. And you consider that 'recruiting very well'.

4 actually seems about right to me, but I would consider hitting on 4 of 17 as pretty poor recruiting. And after looking at Ben's B1G record of 5-29, and 1-18 over the last 19, that math checks out.
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And could you point us to the teams that have recruited high school players for next year that have "proven anything at the college level"? That's an interesting concept.
 

Wet_Blanket_Guy said:
Because being historically bad for a potentially short window to be middle of the pack b10 is not a great trade-off.

You say wait two years. I say, Battle is gone, Garcia is most likely gone (Ihnen annd Fox are finally gone) and our freshmen…while they play, are ok… are still middle of the pack B10 freshmen (ratings-wise). Payne and JOJ have their moments. JOJ seems to be improving pretty steadily on offense, but his defense is abysmal. Payne, while he had a great game last night, still will have to learn to operate away from buckets as we will want him and Evans to be able to play at the same time (occasionally). Carrington and Henley probably have more lowlights than highlights.
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Being historically bad like Clem was in his first 2 seasons is a GREAT trade-off for a Sweet-16 and Final-8 (should have been Final Four). That's exactly what I want.

But if Ben can maintain his recruiting, he can have consistently good teams.
 


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