Post-Game Thoughts

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Pitino switching us from man to zone and totally fooling the Syracuse team especially out of timeouts.
Loved the ability to get the ball into the high post. EE was fantastic up there. Liked the short bench also. As for the 4 spot, Oto and King combined for 13pts, 10reb, 1ass, 2 stls, 4 to's. 6-14 from the floor. 1-2 on three's. When Mo returns those 2 will play the pf minutes. The late to's killed us but with our short guards i thought it would have been worse early. The late to's were guys trying to make plays going to fast, Syracuse's zone when they have a lead is very difficult to score on quickly. We tied them with 32 rebounds apiece. I finally saw Smith's value to the team. I also liked the way we pushed the ball when we could and how confident the team played, i never saw anyone make a mistake and look at the bench in panic mode that they would get pulled!

34Gopher said:
Pros
The ball entered the high post against a zone more times in one games than the past 6 years combined.
The bench was shortened; Mav & Wally would've killed us.
Richard put Elliot back out there in foul trouble when the game started slipping away rather than leave him on the bench like Tubby
Our best 2 players (Hollins x 2) played poorly and we almost won
Malik

Cons
Turnovers
Need better production from the 4 spot
Hollins x 2 need to make shots

I like what I saw last night. I'm confident that under Coach P we will continue to get better.
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afurry91 said:
I'm excited to have Mo back today if for nothing else than to have 5 more fouls to split with EE and Joey.
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Looking forward to having Mo back, EE and King are subject to foul trouble we need him. He really let the team down last night with his poor choices.
 

EE, Oto, and King played like warriors. The size and strength of Coleman and Christmas could really have hurt this team.
 

EG#9 said:
A lot of positive stuff to take away from this game. I liked that the Gophers fought back from a really bad early start to the game and from the verge of a blowout early in the second half. It seems like the Pitino had the guys well prepared for the zone, but we could have some of the unforced turnovers we had today. I thought Eliason missed on some rebounds in the first couple minutes of play, but once he settled in he was excellent. Frustrating to listen to the announcers constantly harp on that missed foul that led to a nasty cut for CJ Fair. From a Gopher perspective, a lot of the big calls in this game went against us and not a peep was mentioned about it. I believe the color guy even said EE's 4th foul was a "good call" when the Syracuse post clearly used a forearm to shove him.

I see that there's another thread about Andre and Austin, and it's too bad neither played great today. If Andre or Austin played a great game, the Gophers win this game despite being undersized and out manned. The Hollins' combined for 9 turnovers and shot a combined 8-21. A couple of those turnovers were just plays you'd hope a veteran back court would not make.

Fair was so huge hitting those mid range J's once Syracuse broke the press. I don't think we will see another guy hit those jumpers with that type of accuracy the rest of the year.

Impressed with King's toughness and both his and Oto's ability to find the open spot inside against the zone (usually a feed from Eliason, 'Dre, or lil 'Dre), but you see where both guys lack of size and athletic ability really hurts us. Their were 4-5 possessions that should have been layups/dunks and potential "and 1's) that ended with one of our 4's getting blocked and Syracuse having a transition opportunity. In such a close came, converting just two of those chances could have been the difference in the game. This is the point where I state that it was completely inexcusable for Tubby to not have left a B1G level PF on this roster. I'd also like to thank the NCAA for bizarrely preventing a guy who's had 2 ACL surgeries from having an opportunity to play in the NCAA tournament.

Another positive today was that Dre Mathieu's speed and quickness was STILL a factor against an elite team like Syracuse. This might have been the most positive development of the day as I am much more confident that he can continue to be a major factor in B1G play than I was yesterday.

Interesting to see how short the rotation is. It's pretty clear that Coach Pitino only trusts 7 guys (maybe 8 with Mo available). I worry about how the team bounces back in a very important game against Arkansas tomorrow.
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He left Alex Foster, Oto and 1 scholarship. Pitino signed 4 players and didn't use one scholarship. You can do better than that.
 




howieramone said:
He left Alex Foster, Oto and 1 scholarship. Pitino signed 4 players and didn't use one scholarship. You can do better than that.
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-1

Alex Foster, Buggs, Oto and a Spring Recruit is the definition of not having a B1G level PF on this roster... You can do better than that.

Pitino Recruited Rakeem Buckles...

Worst post of your tenure on the hole... and you have a lot of useless posts (+1)
 

gopherbadgerman said:
And he left Buggs.
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I thought Buggs was going to be the guy to help us against a team as long and athletic as Syracuse. Him getting zero minutes with big men in foul trouble and Mo out, wow, he's not at the end of the bench, he's second row behind the bench.
 



Buggs looks like a guy who has only played a couple years of high school basketball.
 


march madness said:
Buggs looks like a guy who has only played a couple years of high school basketball.
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Ya Buggs has not met expectations. Can you fault him though? I blame Tubby. That Buggs and Wally recruiting class was simply terrible.
 

34Gopher said:
Pros
The ball entered the high post against a zone more times in one games than the past 6 years combined.
The bench was shortened; Mav & Wally would've killed us.
Richard put Elliot back out there in foul trouble when the game started slipping away rather than leave him on the bench like Tubby
Our best 2 players (Hollins x 2) played poorly and we almost won
Malik

Cons
Turnovers
Need better production from the 4 spot
Hollins x 2 need to make shots

I like what I saw last night. I'm confident that under Coach P we will continue to get better.
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I realize the first point is exaggeration, but even so I think it is overblown. Other than continuously being baffled by Northwestern's 1-3-1, prior to about the midpoint of last season I don't recall a whole lot of complaints about an inability to handle a zone defense.

As to the second point, in our game at Northwestern last year, Austin Hollins picked up his fourth foul with something like 12 or 13 minutes left in the second half, Tubby left him in and he fouled out a minute or two later and the board was outraged.

It seemed like I wasn't the only one who thought Elliot had more fouls than the announcers thought he had. I could have sworn he picked up 3 in the first half and an eventual total of 5, but was still playing.

And if we beat Arkansas today, which I think we will, and Gonzaga beats Chaminade, does that mean we get Gonzaga in the last round? That'd be pretty cool to see.

Looking forward to seeing Mo in action and just watching more Gopher basketball in a couple hours!
 



afurry91 said:
Ya Buggs has not met expectations. Can you fault him though? I blame Tubby. That Buggs and Wally recruiting class was simply terrible.
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Buggs is a red shirt freshman, and Wally doesn't have significantly more experience. Remember when Oto was just god awful and there was no hope that he would ever even make a decent role player? He's turning out alright so far. I wouldn't give up hope on them yet, just like I didn't give up hope on Oto.
 

Cayman said:
I realize the first point is exaggeration, but even so I think it is overblown. Other than continuously being baffled by Northwestern's 1-3-1, prior to about the midpoint of last season I don't recall a whole lot of complaints about an inability to handle a zone defense.

As to the second point, in our game at Northwestern last year, Austin Hollins picked up his fourth foul with something like 12 or 13 minutes left in the second half, Tubby left him in and he fouled out a minute or two later and the board was outraged.

It seemed like I wasn't the only one who thought Elliot had more fouls than the announcers thought he had. I could have sworn he picked up 3 in the first half and an eventual total of 5, but was still playing.

And if we beat Arkansas today, which I think we will, and Gonzaga beats Chaminade, does that mean we get Gonzaga in the last round? That'd be pretty cool to see.

Looking forward to seeing Mo in action and just watching more Gopher basketball in a couple hours!
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Yes.
 

Cayman said:
Buggs is a red shirt freshman, and Wally doesn't have significantly more experience. Remember when Oto was just god awful and there was no hope that he would ever even make a decent role player? He's turning out alright so far. I wouldn't give up hope on them yet, just like I didn't give up hope on Oto.
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You are absolutely correct. We shouldn't loose hope on either of these guys yet. It wasn't 3 years ago where Freshmen were expected to sit the bench. Neither of these guys were "Highly recruited" and they are both essentially redshirt Freshman. Lets wait until their 2nd full year in the system, and even that would be early, to judge their abilities to make it work.
 

Looking at the box score, the Gophers were better or at least equal to the Syracuse at almost everything, the biggest issue I see is the turnovers. Our Gophers had 9 more than Cuse. Yes, big Dre had an off night, but it isn't as bad as everyone thinks. CJ Fair 7 for 15, while Dre was 5 for 13, it wasn't that much of a difference. What hurt us, and will continue to hurt us, is the front court. Oto was a let down yesterday, Elliot was a beast but in foul trouble, no Mo, and King just isn't a physical guy. Cuse got tons of dunks and shots in close... and Cooney was getting open outside shots. All in all, it wasn't a discouraging loss, just hoping we can limit the silly turn overs.
 

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