Other B1G Games

Donate To GopherHole
Penn State (2-3) defeated Illinois (1-4) in Happy Valley 62-48. The Lady Lions turned the game with a 16-0 run (10 at the end of the 1st half and 6 to begin the 3rd quarter) taking a 32-25 lead. Alex Wittinger put up 19 points and 3 rebounds while PSU's Alisia Smith posted 14 points and 11 rebounds.
 

Maryland beats Michigan at home. I taped this game and zipped through it on the VCR. Maryland much more beatable than I thought they would be this year, although they've only lost one game so far. They could lose 3 or 4 conference games this year. Nebraska at 2-2 hosts 4-0 Rutgers Sunday in what will be a big game for the rest of the conference. If Rutgers gets off to a 5-0 start, it will be tough for some of the other teams in the conference to catch them.
 

Rutgers leads Nebraska 50-42 after 3. Rutgers looks like a real contender for the BIG title, already won at Maryland. Seem to have an offense to go along with that defense.
 

Indiana (4-1) romped to a 53-34 half time lead. Then the Hoosiers played some of their lethargic ball and the Badgers (1-4) closed within 8 at 56-48 with a couple of minutes remaining in the third. However, Indiana stemmed the red tide and emerged with a 75-68 win in Madison and now await the Gophers.
 

Rutgers, now 5-0 with 3 BIG road wins, should be ranked in this week's poll. They're legitimately a top half BIG team. As is Indiana. And as is Purdue. Conference is topsy-turvy compared to what most people expected.
 


https://www.thelantern.com/2019/01/...h-65-55-victory-against-no-17-michigan-state/

I haven't watched it yet; but Ohio State (2-3) took down Michigan State (2-3) in Columbus.

Ohio State was led to victory on Monday behind the efforts of Carly Santoro.

The redshirt senior guard helped the Buckeyes (6-8, 2-3 Big Ten) lead for most of the game, giving Ohio State its second consecutive victory against a ranked team when it defeated No. 17 Michigan State (12-4, 2-3 Big Ten) 65-55.

Santoro was on fire as she scored a season-high 25 points, hitting 4-for-7 from behind the 3-point line and 7-for-9 from the free throw line. In addition, Santoro hit a personal milestone as she reached 1,000 career points at the end of the first half with a 3 that gave Ohio State a 29-27 lead heading into halftime.

Santoro, who also had four steals in the game, praised her teammates for giving her opportunities to score throughout the game as the reason for her success.

“My teammates just fed me when I was hot,” Santoro said. “Credit to them, they were passing well, and it was because of them that I had the open looks.”

Unlike its victory against Indiana Thursday, Ohio State came out riding the momentum of its previous win and used that to establish control for a majority of the game. Michigan State never had a lead larger than two, and only held the lead for 3:34 as opposed to the Buckeyes, who were ahead for 34:14.

This factored into exactly how Ohio State wanted to play tonight, according to Santoro.

“I just think we’ve really been emphasizing that we had to come out and start the game strong,” Santoro said. “That’s what we did tonight, and we said once we have the pedal down, we had to keep it going. We did that the entire game, and we just executed our game plan.”
 


Northwestern, now 3-3, wins at Indiana, now 4-2 with 27 points from Pulliam. 75-69. Purdue, now 4-2, takes Rutgers to overtime before losing 61-58 . Surprising Rutgers now 6-0 in the BIG.
 

tripledouble said:
Northwestern, now 3-3, wins at Indiana, now 4-2 with 27 points from Pulliam. 75-69. Purdue, now 4-2, takes Rutgers to overtime before losing 61-58 . Surprising Rutgers now 6-0 in the BIG.
Click to expand...

Purdue seemed to be playing a 3-2 zone effectively dampening Rutgers three point shooters. Plus it helped that Cryor fouled out.

Northwestern sprinted out to an 18-7 lead and pretty much maintained their distance the rest of the way. Veronica Burton also had a strong game with 19.
 



Maryland thumped by MSU in East Lansing. Two conferences losses by mid-January for the Terps.
 

tripledouble said:
Maryland thumped by MSU in East Lansing. Two conferences losses by mid-January for the Terps.
Click to expand...

It was fun to hear Aerial Powers guest on the telecast and mention the Rachel Banham game as her most memorable game at Breslin.
 
Last edited:

Yes, that was a great game. Also, I wasn't aware that former MSU star Tori Jankoska is now a Maryland assistant coach. Ouch for MSU. I wonder if Freese gave her "run 'em out of the gym" speech before the game. She's given that speech so often, I almost have it memorized.
 

Karissa McLaughlin's driving layup with 25 seconds remaining and two free throws with 1.8 remaining gave Purdue (5-2) a 56-53 victory over the Hoosiers (4-3) in West Lafayette. Purdue trailed 32-27 at the half but came out energized in the third quarter scoring 8 straight. The last third of the game turned into a rugged paint battle with hacking, wrestling and fouls. McLaughlin prevailed with 14 points. For Indiana, Patberg struggled again. She was 1-12 from the field. Next up for the Boilers-Minnesota.
 



#20 Rutgers defeats #17 MSU handily, 76-62. Surprising Rutgers now 7-0 in the BIG. I didn't think I'd ever see another day in which C. Viv would be the BIG Coach of the Year, but if the vote was held today, she'd probably be a unanimous selection. Before this year, I was of the feeling that her prime years of coaching had come and gone. Her teams were usually solid on defense, but horrendous on offense. This year's Scarlet Knights are solid on both ends of the court.
 

In the game of the night-well, the only game of the night; but, anyway, maybe the game of the week, Rutgers and Iowa are tied at 21 at the end of one. Gustafson score Iowa's first 13 point. It's been fun to watch thus far.
 

Ignatius L Hoops said:
In the game of the night-well, the only game of the night; but, anyway, maybe the game of the week, Rutgers and Iowa are tied at 21 at the end of one. Gustafson score Iowa's first 13 point. It's been fun to watch thus far.
Click to expand...

Through the first half, Gustafson is shooting 88%. So maybe the Gopher defense is fantastic?
 

Iowa (6-2) is now 6-0 against Rutgers (7-1) in the B1G defeating the Scarlet Knights 72-66 in Iowa City. Gustafson was 13-16 from the field for 32 points. Rutger's Stasha Carey scored 17 before fouling out.
 

Not a B1G game; but last night I was checking WBB scores between periods of the Gopher/Badger game and saw that Colorado led Stanford 36-27 at the half. Then I saw that former Gopher commit Lesila Finau started at guard. It was her third straight start. She had five points in 29 minutes versus the Cardinal. Those are the only points she's scored in her three starts.

The totals for Finau's starts: 5 points, 13 rebounds, 4 assists and 10 turnovers in 73 minutes played. It appears she moved into the starting lineup after coming off the bench against Washington and posting 9 points, 5 rebounds, 2 assists in 30 minutes. She played because of an injury to Kennedy Leonard. Colorado is 0-7 in the Pac 12.
 

Two comments: In regards to Finau, I got the feeling that the new Gopher staff wanted to keep her, at least enough to visit her in CA. That being said, she has not made much of an impact this year with a CO team that isn't very good. Although, maybe the fact that she is now getting more minutes means that she is making some progress.

It looks like Indiana's bubble has burst after a hot start to the BIG season. They're getting trounced at home today by Maryland, a loss that will knock them to 5-4 in conference play.
 

tripledouble said:
Two comments: In regards to Finau, I got the feeling that the new Gopher staff wanted to keep her, at least enough to visit her in CA. That being said, she has not made much of an impact this year with a CO team that isn't very good. Although, maybe the fact that she is now getting more minutes means that she is making some progress.

It looks like Indiana's bubble has burst after a hot start to the BIG season. They're getting trounced at home today by Maryland, a loss that will knock them to 5-4 in conference play.
Click to expand...

I probably should have been clearer that Finau's playing time is directly related to a raft of injuries which left Colorado with a very short bench. I think they, like Ohio State, dressed eight players for their last game-one of whom played 1 minute. Before the injuries, Finau was playing sparingly if at all.

Indiana and Maryland were tied at 20 ending the first quarter. Maryland out scored the Hoosiers 20-5 in the second quarter and then just out muscled and out ran them the rest of the way.
 

In Ann Arbor, Michigan State (5-3) defeated Michigan (3-6) 77-73. About three minutes in, Nicole Munger left the game after suffering an right ankle injury following a collision on a drive to the bucket. MSU was 11-26 from three and Michigan 4-11.
 

At the Gophers end of the conference:
Wisconsin (2-6) pulled out an improbable victory in Madison finishing a 13-2 run with a Kelly Karliss buzzer beating three from the corner over a stunned Nebraska (4-5). Nebraska took the lead on a driving layup with 00.7 seconds remaining. A Wisconsin time out advanced the ball and set up the game winner.

In Champaign, the Gophers next (after Ohio State) opponent, Norhwestern (6-3) came back from a late third quarter 11 point deficit to defeat Illinois (Gophers-8) 64-56. It was terrible basketball (at least the sections I watched). But, the Wildcats outscored the Illini 21-5 in the fourth quarter. Norhwestern was 12-24 from the foul line. They made some late which improved the percentage.
 
Last edited:

The Badger game winner:

<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
 

It's too early in his tenure to tell, but I think there's a chance that Tsipis might be able to get the Badger program turned around. They still don't have a lot of talent, but they play hard and they appear to be well coached. As for Nebraska, they are one of the BIG's disappointments this year. IMO, Kate Cain is never going to be in the top half of the league's post players. I'm also not convinced Whitting is a top-half PG, although she lit it up late against the Gophers. Illinois led Northwestern early but eventually fell to the Wildcats.
 

Ignatius L Hoops said:
... Then I saw that former Gopher commit Lesila Finau started at guard. It was her third straight start. She had five points in 29 minutes versus the Cardinal. Those are the only points she's scored in her three starts.

The totals for Finau's starts: 5 points, 13 rebounds, 4 assists and 10 turnovers in 73 minutes played. It appears she moved into the starting lineup after coming off the bench against Washington and posting 9 points, 5 rebounds, 2 assists in 30 minutes. She played because of an injury to Kennedy Leonard. Colorado is 0-7 in the Pac 12.
Click to expand...
Assist to Turnover Ratios:

Lesila Finau 4:10 = 0.400 (her rebounding seems relatively impressive though, for a guard)
Mercedes Staples 18:19 = 0.947
Jasmine Brunson 53:39 = 1.359
Kenisha Bell 83:60 = 1.383
Lindsay Whalen (WNBA career) 2345/1006 = 2.331
Lindsay Whalen (WNBA last year, 2018) 99/41 = 2.415
Lindsay Whalen (WNBA best year, 2014) 188/62 = 3.032
Paige Bueckers (2018 FIBA World Cup games, all games) 33:8 = 4.125
(latter per http://www.fiba.basketball/world/u17women/2018/player/Paige-Bueckers)
(Lindsay stats per basketball-reference)

Conclusion: Although the videos we saw of Lesila Finau were quite nice, she's not a Kenisha Bell, nor a Lindsay Whalen, nor a Paige Bueckers.
 

It would be more fair to compare freshmen seasons in all cases.
 

Shades said:
It would be more fair to compare freshmen seasons in all cases.
Click to expand...


OK, fair enough. I initially could not find Hopkins turnover statistics for Paige, which is why I used FIBA U17 stats instead (plus tougher competition so maybe more like a realistic college game). But now I found better Hopkins stats at https://www.mngirlsbasketballhub.co...0&tab=team_instance_player_stats&tool=3247074

Also, what would Paige's freshman year be? Would that be 8th grade or 9th grade? I'll settle on her sophomore year, since at the moment that's the only year I can find that has any TO stats.

So for the 2017-2018 Hopkins regular season, Paige had 161 assists and 5 turnovers. That makes an assist to turnover ratio of 32.2 - not too shabby. Did anyone notice that every team in the country is recruiting her (as did Stollings too, apparently, along with Finau)? Oh wait, there's a separate thread on that.

Maybe when I have time I'll lookup Lindsay's freshman year college stats.
 
Last edited:

Not seeing the point of comparing to Bueckers. She’s the #1 2020 prospect in the country, and high school competition is relatively easy. If there’s a need to compare, doing it with Staples (or maybe somebody with a comparable recruit ranking) probably makes the most sense.

Should we compare how Stollings is doing to Whalen, because that also makes about as much sense.


I’m curious if Utah ever offered Staples. I watched Utah beat Stanford today. They have a decent looking club. Oops.
 

Shades said:
I’m curious if Utah ever offered Staples. I watched Utah beat Stanford today. They have a decent looking club. Oops.
Click to expand...

https://www.standard.net/sports/hig...cle_2020db84-dd75-5092-9f38-7e8a5eb56d1e.html

An article about Staples committing to Clemson:

Staples picked Clemson over a group that included 14 other schools which had offered her a scholarship, including LSU, Georgia Tech, Texas Tech and Pepperdine.

...



Staples said she did not receive a scholarship offer from either BYU or Utah.

Other schools that offered her a scholarship were Montana State, Nevada, Wyoming, Santa Clara, Portland, Denver, Weber State, Utah Valley, Southern Utah and Dixie State.
 

That's an interesting list of schools that offered Staples. Not exactly some of the top schools in the country. Am I correct in remembering that she was a 4-Star?
 

You must log in or register to reply here.



Top Bottom