PiPress: Is the South Dakota loss the worst for Minnesota in a decade?

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BleedGopher

BleedGopher

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per Marcus:

Is Saturday’s 85-81 double overtime loss to South Dakota the worst for Minnesota in the last decade? My opinion is: No.

The Gophers had their 47-game nonconference home win streak snapped Saturday against the Coyotes, who just joined Division I basketball seven years ago. It’s definitely the worst loss for Minnesota’s program under third-year coach Richard Pitino. The last nonconference home loss was to Virginia in the ACC/Big Ten Challenge back in 2010. South Dakota lost to Kansas State on the road by 21 points this year, but this is a young team that was feeling too good about itself after beating Clemson on Monday.

An even longer streak of 68 straight wins against non-major conference foes at home came to an end Saturday. That dates back to what I think was the Gophers’ worst loss in the last decade.

It was 67-66 to Arkansas-Little Rock in 2006-07. Limar Wilson missed two free throws with 0.8 seconds left that would’ve tied or won the game. But Little Rock dominated its Big Ten opponent on the boards 43-16 that night. Yes. You read that correctly. There was an 18-3 advantage in offensive rebounding. And ALR finished just 13-17 that season. Minnesota went 9-22 (program record for losses in a season).

So that to me was even more dreadful than falling to South Dakota on Saturday. At least it seems that way right now, but there was a coaching change at the end of the 2006-07 season after the Gophers lost nine straight games.

http://blogs.twincities.com/gophers...-starts-becoming-too-common-for-pitinos-team/

Go Gophers!!
 


Not sure if it is worst loss in a decade but it was a very poor performance by the team. Pitino's team should be better next season with all the new additions but his leash will be short if he doesn't show improvement soon.
 

XMan said:
Not sure if it is worst loss in a decade but it was a very poor performance by the team. Pitino's team should be better next season with all the new additions but his leash will be short if he doesn't show improvement soon.
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I fully expect a big game Tuesday. I think they lost to SD in large part to lack of focus and energy (which is on Pitino as well) and they will have woken up for Tuesday and want to avenge their loss.
 

XMan said:
Pitino's team should be better next season with all the new additions but his leash will be short if he doesn't show improvement soon.
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As he should be.

I was at the game yesterday and I don't think enough credit is being given to South Dakota. For sure, the Gophers had their own problems but South Dakota moved the ball very well, did a terrific job of putting the clamps on Joey most of the game, and played with more aggressiveness and fearlessness. A few of their players did a particularly admirable job of avoiding their fifth foul long after getting their fourth.
 


cjbfbp said:
As he should be.

I was at the game yesterday and I don't think enough credit is being given to South Dakota. For sure, the Gophers had their own problems but South Dakota moved the ball very well, did a terrific job of putting the clamps on Joey most of the game, and played with more aggressiveness and fearlessness. A few of their players did a particularly admirable job of avoiding their fifth foul long after getting their fourth.
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Good observations. What I am most dejected about is when they caught SD in the second half; for a while, I thought, "OK, they finally woke up and are going to put them away." Well, it didn't happen. They woke up and our effort picked up, but it looked like two pretty even teams battling it out to the end. They made the plays and we didn't. Mason's too quick three, Dorsey's turnover on the five second, their very open look to tie the game, and their numerous successful cuts makes me feel like our supposed talent superiority was negated by their coaching advantage.
 

Mulligan said:
Mason's too quick three, Dorsey's turnover on the five second, their very open look to tie the game, and their numerous successful cuts makes me feel like our supposed talent superiority was negated by their coaching advantage.
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Amen!
 

That whole 2006-2007 season was bad, starting with the exhibition loss to Winona state and three losses in the old spice classic.

Leading to monson's resignation 11/30/2006
 

GopherOhana said:
That whole 2006-2007 season was bad, starting with the exhibition loss to Winona state and three losses in the old spice classic.

Leading to monson's resignation 11/30/2006
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The ACC Challenge wipeout v. Clemson was the only time I left Williams Arena angry during my undergrad years.

Also, my first significant event on the Gopherhole was the Dan Monson firing/non-firing after the Cincinnati NIT game the previous spring.
 



Mulligan said:
Good observations. What I am most dejected about is when they caught SD in the second half; for a while, I thought, "OK, they finally woke up and are going to put them away." Well, it didn't happen. They woke up and our effort picked up, but it looked like two pretty even teams battling it out to the end. They made the plays and we didn't. Mason's too quick three, Dorsey's turnover on the five second, their very open look to tie the game, and their numerous successful cuts makes me feel like our supposed talent superiority was negated by their coaching advantage.
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Personally, I don't care what they did, or what we didn't do -- falling short against a team that just finished its transition from Division II is pathetic.

This has been a dreadful couple days to be a Minnesota sports fan. The Gophers football team accepted a bowl bid with a sub-.500 record, the Vikings were mauled by Seattle and may have swung and missed on Teddy and, of course, this loss to South-freaking-Dakota...at home.
 

XMan said:
Not sure if it is worst loss in a decade but it was a very poor performance by the team. Pitino's team should be better next season with all the new additions but his leash will be short if he doesn't show improvement soon.
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Yeah. I supported the hiring of Pitino but this loss is unacceptable. I don't mind flukey things happening every now and then, I get it. I also know that at MN, we will probably fluctuate between being a good team to being a not great team and I can be patient. But at this point in this program, it's unacceptable for us to be in this position.
 

I don't think it's the worst loss in the last 10 years, by any stretch of the imagination. Expectations for the team have to be taken into consideration, of which there are very little for this one. Anyone with half a brain knows this season is going to be a bumpy ride.

Sure, absolutely I agree the Gophers shouldn't be losing to South Dakota under any circumstances, but considering how long it's been since the Gophers lost to a cupcake (see the 47-game non-conference home winning streak, built mostly vs. delicious cupcakes), this was bound to happen sooner than later, especially with this particular Gopher team. The key thing is to not let there be several of these bad L's this season.
 

SelectionSunday said:
I don't think it's the worst loss in the last 10 years, by any stretch of the imagination. Expectations for the team have to be taken into consideration, of which there are very little for this one. Anyone with half a brain knows this season is going to be a bumpy ride.

Sure, absolutely I agree the Gophers shouldn't be losing to South Dakota under any circumstances, but considering how long it's been since the Gophers lost to a cupcake (see the 47-game non-conference home winning streak, built mostly vs. cupcakes), this was bound to happen sooner than later, especially with this particular Gopher team. The key thing is to not let there be several of these bad L's this season.
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It doesn't help that with all the MN kids on the Coyotes roster, they were likely very fired up to beat their hometown team.
 



It is titled the worst loss, but to me a better barometer is a stretch of games. For instance,

2007-2007 Gophers ended the season with 9 straight losses
2010-2011 Gophers lose 10 out of their last 11 to end that season
2011-2012 Gophers lose 6 out of their last 7 in conference play
Any team can be play under their ability and lose a game the fan base thinks is an in the pocket W. When they string them together....
 

It doesn't feel like the worst loss in a decade. There have been losses that have made me feel worse than this. I agree with SS - you're bound to lose one of these types of games at some point. Other Big Ten teams have, too, this year. We said going in that, with this young team, there would be bad games. Well...
 



scher215 said:
Even though we beat an ACC team one week ago?
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precisely because of that victory. i thought we were finally flying along okay until we hit ground.

i'm just hoping after tonight we're not talking about where to bury the survivors
 

stats

I will see the replay tonight. But I am not too surprised looks like 3 of 4 of their guards are sr's and the other is a jr. Against mid-majors you either hurt them on post ups, on the boards, or you turn them over. We didn't do any of those 3.



GopherOhana said:
precisely because of that victory. i thought we were finally flying along okay until we hit ground.

i'm just hoping after tonight we're not talking about where to bury the survivors
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add: wear them down due to superior athleticism

this is what really surprised me about the last game. in past years we'd often start pulling away mid second half
 

Yeah they probably should of lost the Nebraska-Omaha game as well. It is tought to be there for these games and see these teams just carve the gophers defense up with no ball pressure when I thought that was his whole philosphy was pressure d and effect passing lanes. It is going to be a lonnnnnnnnnnng season.
 

GW

Losing to Gardner Webb is just outside of a decade (November, 2005) but was worse. That team got going, and it showed that night.
 



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