BleedGopher
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per Marcus:
The biggest thing keeping Minnesota from pressing is how poorly the offense is executing. You have to score to press. Pitino is using youth as an excuse, even though he said he wouldn’t entering the season.
“We really want to guard,” he said Tuesday. “We really want to get more aggressive than we’ve been showing. We were pressing (in Saturday’s loss to Oklahoma State in Sioux Falls). We were doing a couple more things defensively. I just thought we guarded.”
The Gophers clearly haven’t pressured teams enough to create as many steals or force as many turnovers as last season. They rank eighth in the Big Ten in steals (5.9) and ninth in turnovers forced (12.5). Last season, Minnesota was second in the nation in steals (12.4) and forced a Big-Ten best (20.4) turnovers a game in 13 nonconference games. What’s the difference? Pitino said the schedule is a bit tougher.
“After 10 games, we’ve really been tested early,” he said. “It feels like we’re in the middle of the Big Ten.”
Not sure that is a good sign. But Pitino didn’t hesitate to partly blame himself for his defense being a work in progress.
“It’s something I took it a little bit too slow in pressing, because I was really trying to get the halfcourt sured up,” he said. “But it’s part of our identity as a team and a program, so we’ve got to continue to build of of it. Certain teams you play it’s not good to be pressing and playing matchup zone.”
http://blogs.twincities.com/gophers/2015/12/16/gophers-basketball-pregame-the/
Go Gophers!!
The biggest thing keeping Minnesota from pressing is how poorly the offense is executing. You have to score to press. Pitino is using youth as an excuse, even though he said he wouldn’t entering the season.
“We really want to guard,” he said Tuesday. “We really want to get more aggressive than we’ve been showing. We were pressing (in Saturday’s loss to Oklahoma State in Sioux Falls). We were doing a couple more things defensively. I just thought we guarded.”
The Gophers clearly haven’t pressured teams enough to create as many steals or force as many turnovers as last season. They rank eighth in the Big Ten in steals (5.9) and ninth in turnovers forced (12.5). Last season, Minnesota was second in the nation in steals (12.4) and forced a Big-Ten best (20.4) turnovers a game in 13 nonconference games. What’s the difference? Pitino said the schedule is a bit tougher.
“After 10 games, we’ve really been tested early,” he said. “It feels like we’re in the middle of the Big Ten.”
Not sure that is a good sign. But Pitino didn’t hesitate to partly blame himself for his defense being a work in progress.
“It’s something I took it a little bit too slow in pressing, because I was really trying to get the halfcourt sured up,” he said. “But it’s part of our identity as a team and a program, so we’ve got to continue to build of of it. Certain teams you play it’s not good to be pressing and playing matchup zone.”
http://blogs.twincities.com/gophers/2015/12/16/gophers-basketball-pregame-the/
Go Gophers!!