Post-Game Thoughts

Donate To GopherHole
time to just ignore GIP some people don't know when to cut their losses and stop looking the fool.
 

Well my thought after the game was we played pretty darn well and just were overmatched. I thought the kids hustled and played hard. Too many turnovers (which that defense causes) killed us tonight. We're not strong enough to beat Syracuse right now and we haven't gelled as a team yet. Give us time, I think the team will come together. I'd much rather see the warts now and watch us grow out of them. That's what good teams do. Last year had us playing our best ball in December. We need it in March.
 

mcal24 said:
I have my mind made up by Dre Mathieu now, can't be expressed how much he impacts this team. Knows how to run the offense, gets some key steals, can knock down an open shot, and can get to the line. But most importantly, he did the majority of the ball handling and somehow only had 1 turnover compared to Hollins, Hollins, and Smith combined 14.
Click to expand...

Mathieu is crucial for this team- love him. I was surprised that we saw very little of him down the stretch - I assume that Pitino decided we needed bigger shooters out there late against that zone but I thought Mathieu could have helped. Still I really like what Pitino showed in terms of preparing against a very, very tough team to play.
 

I'm just thrilled it's game 6 of the season and we have already faced the toughest zone that we will see the entire season...and looked good doing it many times!!
 

bga1 said:
Mathieu is crucial for this team- love him. I was surprised that we saw very little of him down the stretch - I assume that Pitino decided we needed bigger shooters out there late against that zone but I thought Mathieu could have helped. Still I really like what Pitino showed in terms of preparing against a very, very tough team to play.
Click to expand...

I still had my doubts about him coming in to this game. He always seemed a little out of control to me, but now I know its just he's so fast he looks out of control. Just one turnover is crazy against a Syracuse team that lives off TOs
 


GameDay said:
It forced some turnovers from Syracuse, but I tend to agree that we need to get back right away once they start to break it to avoid easy fastbreak buckets.
Click to expand...

That's what Pitino's been saying, too. Obviously it has a ways to go before it becomes second nature and instinctive. I expect it to improve. It needs to improve.
 

Mo's return should help but he needs to play and get caught up. He may be rusty.

Hollins x2 & EE have to play to their capabilities, lead the team and let the others fill in. King & Oto will be OK but not great. Mo has to step up and make a difference. Little Dre can be effective and will continue to learn as he gets more PT against the big boys. This is not JUCO. Malik has to play within the system, concentrate on contributing on D, take care of the ball and keep his confidence level up as a shooter.

Guys like Mav & Wally have to keep working hard and show Coach P that they can earn some PT. Especially Wally but I'm not holding my breath.

This was a very winnable game against a top 10 team which should give the guys a boost.
 


GophersInIowa said:
- EE is going to have a big year. Too bad he got screwed on his third foul. The ref was going to call it a charge, which it should have been, but changed his mind for some reason. Probably quickly remembered who was on the other bench so he couldn't make a call when Boeheim's nuts were in his mouth.
- Did anyone else think it should have been a 10 second call late in the game? They got it across finally and we blocked a shot, then Smith threw it too far for King resulting in a turnover. It looked like it was 25 or even 24 on the shot clock when they crossed the line. I just felt like we didn't get hardly any of the 50/50 calls other than the Austin Hollins no-call early on (in which the announcers reminded of us at least 15 times). EE got hammered towards the end of the game and no call.
Click to expand...

Yeah, I thought we got the short end of the stick from the refs. I acknowledge it's hard to be objective when you're watching the game as a fan, so maybe I'm just remembering selectively, but I thought the refs took away some chances we should have had. Yes, the refs missed one call on Austin early in the game that would've given the one free throw, and we had to listen to the announcers talk about it the rest of the half. LOL

Also I was screaming "foul" on that critical play with 2 minutes left, down 2, when we tried to break the other way and somebody threw it out of bounds ahead of King. As the play was unfolding another Gopher (Hollins?) was knocked right to the ground by a Syracuse guy.
 



bga1 said:
We did everything we needed to do tonight except the turnovers. 19 turnovers...had we kept it to 12 or less me might have pulled that game out. Bottom line is that we played a team that is 8th ranked and probably as bad of a matchup in terms of size and athleticism that we could meet up with- losing a game to a team like that in the last few minutes is a pretty good performance.
Click to expand...

19 turn overs was huge considering about 8 of those came in the first 10 minutes! This is a tough team and will play with anyone.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
 

Stayed with a top 10 team on a day they didn't play great. That's encouraging. I think it's 50/50 they would have won of Mo was available. EE played great. King was gutty.

Also, the fact that Mav didn't play shows that Richard is a better coach than Tubby, or at least far less stubborn.
 

gopherinpain said:
Nope, I have actually seen 4 or 5. Oto is extremely limited athletically and it showed against a team like Cuse. Anybody can put up double figures on the cupcakes we have played.
Click to expand...

Haha you're such a depressing human being. In the spirit of Thanksgiving, I know what I'm thankful for this year: I don't have to see the world through your eyes.
 

Starting to get over the depresison from the loss. Very encouraging game. If someone told me before the game that EE would get in foul trouble and the Hollins' would have below average games, I would have expected a much worse result. The fact we almost got the upset in those circumstances and with Mo out is very encouraging to me. Looking forward to having Mo back out there. Beat Arkansas
 



If Walker would have played his passing from the high post would have made a big difference IMO. A very impressive effort vs a top 10 team.
 


Someone said it on the other site, but I hope Big Mo realizes how much he let his team down... They could have really used him tonight
 

The 1-4 high worked very well against Syracuse. Had Mo been able to play along side of Elliot in this game we would have caused a lot of havoc to that Syracuse 2-3 zone. There were times when Syracuse had four guys high and only one down low. Having both Elliot and Mo in the post would have opened up the court and forced Syracuse wings to stay down, which would have opened up the wing for an good look and open shot. Certainly Mo's failure to abide by the rules cost Minnesota a good chance to beat Syracuse.

What this game showed us, however, is that we can play with elite teams and compete to the final buzzer. Overall I felt that there were a lot of positives to take away from this loss. However, we have to reduce the turnovers.
 

Like bga and Stcroix, I was encouraged by the team's effort and output. I really have no complaints. We played toe to toe with a team that was much better than we are - even w/o Walker. We stand to be in every game we play this year, and that makes me very happy. Pitino is an active, thinking coach. I loved a play he called when, as part of the press - or was it on an inbounds? - they absolutely swarmed the guy with the ball forcing a time out. So far, Pitino is who I thought/hoped he'd be and we can expect an interesting year of compelling basketball.
 

tinyarch said:
The 1-4 high worked very well against Syracuse. Had Mo been able to play along side of Elliot in this game we would have caused a lot of havoc to that Syracuse 2-3 zone. There were times when Syracuse had four guys high and only one down low. Having both Elliot and Mo in the post would have opened up the court and forced Syracuse wings to stay down, which would have opened up the wing for an good look and open shot. Certainly Mo's failure to abide by the rules cost Minnesota a good chance to beat Syracuse.

What this game showed us, however, is that we can play with elite teams and compete to the final buzzer. Overall I felt that there were a lot of positives to take away from this loss. However, we have to reduce the turnovers.
Click to expand...

Dang right to all of that.
 

I don't know how you don't watch that game and not be encouraged! Clearly Syracuse had much better athleticism then our team but we battled hard and got a lot of rebounds we had no right getting. Also it was so encouraging seeing our offense attacking their zone and we got a lot of good looks. Obviously the turnovers need to improve but I attribute some of that for the first time seeing big time athletes like they had. All an all I left feeling much better about or ability to compete with the best teams in the country!
 

tonestang said:
I don't know how you don't watch that game and not be encouraged! Clearly Syracuse had much better athleticism then our team but we battled hard and got a lot of rebounds we had no right getting. Also it was so encouraging seeing our offense attacking their zone and we got a lot of good looks. Obviously the turnovers need to improve but I attribute some of that for the first time seeing big time athletes like they had. All an all I left feeling much better about or ability to compete with the best teams in the country!
Click to expand...

+19/same here
 

First off, some of you have to get over the idea that the style of defensive play is about turnovers. Turnovers are great, but getting a team to take hurried shots and play away from their strengths is the real purpose. That was what happened tonight. Syracuse played to our style often, and took dumb shots. The key was we had a number of unforced turnovers, as well as some forced by their length.

We rebounded right with them, shot better from the filed, and did this playing short. There is a ton positive to take from this game. The Gophs will be better for it, but frustrating mad it was very winnable.

Oto is better than a few give him credit for. He moves his feet well on defense for a 6'8 guy, rebounds well, and he is improving as a threat on offense.

The Gophs will be fine. Fun, sound style of play. No gimmicks, just hard-nosed defense with a clear approach from the coach about what he wants to do. Offensively, also very sound approach that the kids are executing well. Getting another big body back now will be huge. I like it.
 

The way this team has already improved from the first game to tonight has me excited to see what we will look like by the end of the year. I love how Pitino identified a huge weakness (rebounding) and has already found ways to correct it. I don't think we really experienced that sort of improvement under Tubby.
 

It's a lot easier to rebound against a 2-3 zone, team is out of position on every shot to block out. It's also a lot easier to play hard against Syracuse, in Maui, on ESPN2, with no school distractions.

All that said.

We out rebounded (until we started chucking) a team who had us out athleted out height and out lengthen us at every position.

We responded to getting punched in the face in the beginning of both halves in different ways both halves, this isn't a one trick pony.

We have a zone break offense.

We have a coach who at many points in this game had a 1st ballot HOFr playing our game and out smarted him and counter punched him numerous times throughout the game.

We did it all while being short handed and dealing with foul trouble.

AND

We had a legitamite shot at the end....

Despite what seemed like 200 T.O.

Despite very little on the offensive side from the Hollins bros...

I was riveted and entertained the whole time... If we lost that game 100 times in a row, I would watch game 101 expecting a win, they played very very well vs a top 10 team.
 

gopher1more said:
King is not strong with the ball passing or under the basket. He is definitely a spot up 4. Elliot is the most important player on the team right now until Mo or some other rebounding help develops.
Off night shooting for The Hollins's but Malik picked it up.
Need to control the unforced turnovers.

Good game overall despite the loss.
Click to expand...

Agreed. Without him we lose by 20. His conditioning amazes me above all else.
 

howeda7 said:
Stayed with a top 10 team on a day they didn't play great. That's encouraging. I think it's 50/50 they would have won of Mo was available. EE played great. King was gutty.
Click to expand...

By "they" I assume you mean the Gophers? Because I think Syracuse played pretty well. They had 11 turnovers, not a high number for that pace. They shot about 45% from the field and 81% from the line, the latter being FAR above their avg and what that team is likely to do most nights.

I don't know if Mo would've turned this from a loss to a win...doubt it. What we needed and didn't get was a great scoring game from Andre.

Overall I'm very encouraged by what I saw tonight from us. That said, (1) I don't think Syracuse will be a top 10 team for very long, seems more top 16-ish, and (2) we must must must must beat Arkansas tomorrow, to get a D1 win and avoid playing Chaminade Wednesday, another RPI anchor.
 

bga1 said:
We did everything we needed to do tonight except the turnovers. 19 turnovers...had we kept it to 12 or less me might have pulled that game out. Bottom line is that we played a team that is 8th ranked and probably as bad of a matchup in terms of size and athleticism that we could meet up with- losing a game to a team like that in the last few minutes is a pretty good performance.
Click to expand...

Agree 100%. We hung tough against a HOF coach, in a horrible match-up for us athletically, with only one good big man, a new system & new coach. Nothing to hang our heads about.
 

I realize that Syracuse has a very tough defense, but I thought about a dozen of the TOs were unforced and simply sloppy. Austin was downright terrible today. And Dre wasn't much better. And I love both those guys.

And anybody who bitches about what Joey King brought tonight should have his head operated on.

All that said, great effort and from what I can see, Richie was not the problem. Far from it. Which is nice.
 

Very good performance for this early. The future should be good and fun to watch.
 

tonestang said:
I don't know how you don't watch that game and not be encouraged! Clearly Syracuse had much better athleticism then our team but we battled hard and got a lot of rebounds we had no right getting. Also it was so encouraging seeing our offense attacking their zone and we got a lot of good looks. Obviously the turnovers need to improve but I attribute some of that for the first time seeing big time athletes like they had. All an all I left feeling much better about or ability to compete with the best teams in the country!
Click to expand...

I feel the same way right now that I did walking out of TCF on Saturday after losing to Wisconsin. We showed some toughness, we've got a plan, we'll get there.
 

You must log in or register to reply here.



Top Bottom