I was at the game tonight with one of my kids and I have a few observations, for what they are worth:
1. Welsh Ryan is a complete dump. Yes we have a facilities problem. At the very least Williams needs an upgrade and the new coach (Tubby is out of here, but more on that later...) will get a practice facility. However, Williams is a palace, the Taj, Trump Tower (you get the point) compared to W/R. If it was only about facilities, um, NU doesn't have a better conference record than the gophers while also managing to beat us pretty consistently.
2. W/R is not an intimidating place to play. Small student section and the place isn't that loud and crazy.
3. The gopher fans, especially the students, were very well represented. Our traveling student section was nearly as loud (and creative) as their student section. Job well done.
4. If body language, facial expressions, interactions between players and coach and players and players are accurate indications, this team has quit on its coach. I'll bet there were fifteen instances tonight where I saw a gopher player throw his hands up in the air in disgust or exasperation when a mistake was made. It was more blatant than anything that I saw during Monson's final year and a half. I'm genuinely sorry to say this, but it's buyout time.
5. A couple of NU fans next to me commented that all the gophers seemed to want to do was go one on one and I thought that was a fair summation. Someone would bring the ball over the half court line, get confused by the zone trap even though they'd seen it a million times before, hold the ball, pass it eventually to someone who would try to go one on one. Ugly.
6. I've said it before on this board and I will continue to repeat it: Bill Carmoudy is the best coach in the Big Ten. He's got nothing. They run a precise, patterned offense. They make very few mistakes. They work hard. They made the gophers look stupid and immature. If Carmoudy had the gopher's talent, not amazing but pretty decent, he'd finish top three every year.
The amazing thing about sports is that the gophers could win the next four games and make a run in the B1G tourney and tonight will be nothing but a bad memory. Based on what I saw, though, I would be very, very surprised. It's a rudderless ship right now. Monsonesque.
1. Welsh Ryan is a complete dump. Yes we have a facilities problem. At the very least Williams needs an upgrade and the new coach (Tubby is out of here, but more on that later...) will get a practice facility. However, Williams is a palace, the Taj, Trump Tower (you get the point) compared to W/R. If it was only about facilities, um, NU doesn't have a better conference record than the gophers while also managing to beat us pretty consistently.
2. W/R is not an intimidating place to play. Small student section and the place isn't that loud and crazy.
3. The gopher fans, especially the students, were very well represented. Our traveling student section was nearly as loud (and creative) as their student section. Job well done.
4. If body language, facial expressions, interactions between players and coach and players and players are accurate indications, this team has quit on its coach. I'll bet there were fifteen instances tonight where I saw a gopher player throw his hands up in the air in disgust or exasperation when a mistake was made. It was more blatant than anything that I saw during Monson's final year and a half. I'm genuinely sorry to say this, but it's buyout time.
5. A couple of NU fans next to me commented that all the gophers seemed to want to do was go one on one and I thought that was a fair summation. Someone would bring the ball over the half court line, get confused by the zone trap even though they'd seen it a million times before, hold the ball, pass it eventually to someone who would try to go one on one. Ugly.
6. I've said it before on this board and I will continue to repeat it: Bill Carmoudy is the best coach in the Big Ten. He's got nothing. They run a precise, patterned offense. They make very few mistakes. They work hard. They made the gophers look stupid and immature. If Carmoudy had the gopher's talent, not amazing but pretty decent, he'd finish top three every year.
The amazing thing about sports is that the gophers could win the next four games and make a run in the B1G tourney and tonight will be nothing but a bad memory. Based on what I saw, though, I would be very, very surprised. It's a rudderless ship right now. Monsonesque.
