The time Minnesota played Alabama 5 on 3.

From the Parkinglot

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Funny story for me on that one...I wasn't watching or listening to the basketball game as it was going on. I was at the Gopher football game that afternoon and taking the Light Rail, back to Ft Snelling.

I got to my car and called my mom as she had left a VM on my cell, about something not sports related. Probably dinner plans the next day. I could hear my dad just screaming at the TV in the background. I asked her what is going on, and she said something about "The Gophers are playing a team missing most of their players, but still struggling...5-4!! It's crazy!" He shouted "They're going to going to LOSE this!!!"

I really thought either or both of them were smoking something. I just couldn't fathom what they were describing. It sounded so bizarre.

Flipped on the radio and heard the last minute or so of the game. Turned out my parents were completely lucid.
 
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unanswered question: did the author try to get any comments from MN coaches or players?

Pitino is rarely at a lack for words, so I guess that he would have participated if he had been asked.

watching the end of the game was like watching a train wreck. reminded me of a HS game I covered where one team went scoreless for the final 8:30 of the game and lost. your eyes were seeing what was happening but your brain wasn't believing it.
 



They didn't nearly beat the a Gophers. Never had the ball with a chance to even tie the game. Gophers could score at ease but chose not to run up the score. Colin Sexton was getting cooked by Nate Mason and the Gophers were up 20 at one point. It was cute and all with Sexton getting to play hero ball at the end and hittinhlg everything, but the game was never really in doubt.
 


They didn't nearly beat the a Gophers. Never had the ball with a chance to even tie the game. Gophers could score at ease but chose not to run up the score. Colin Sexton was getting cooked by Nate Mason and the Gophers were up 20 at one point. It was cute and all with Sexton getting to play hero ball at the end and hittinhlg everything, but the game was never really in doubt.
I remember watching this game and thinking it should be over after the mass exodus of players. I'm sure Pitino probably didn't want to run up the score. But the actual problem was we couldn't figure out how to play on a 'power play'. It was stand around, pass around the perimeter, shoot and miss a 3. I get that the situation was really weird but we played it horribly.
 

Nate Mason absolutely SCHOOLED Colin Sexton. Embarrassed him...and let him know it...with a wild NY crowd right at courtside.

Mason got ejected...and then things deteriorated.
 



I can't stand hearing about it anymore though. The media LIES & LIES & LIES.
 


The gophers almost lost this game in the same way we "almost" lost to Western Michigan last week. Close score but the final outcome was never really in doubt.
 




Nate Mason absolutely SCHOOLED Colin Sexton. Embarrassed him...and let him know it...with a wild NY crowd right at courtside.

Mason got ejected...and then things deteriorated.
I still say Mason shouldn’t have been ejected
Maybe t him up for taunting or something? But getting tossed for just staring at someone?
 

I still say Mason shouldn’t have been ejected
Maybe t him up for taunting or something? But getting tossed for just staring at someone?
I don’t think he got ejected. Certainly not for that play.
 

I still say Mason shouldn’t have been ejected
Maybe t him up for taunting or something? But getting tossed for just staring at someone?
I stand corrected. Ejection for yapping. That does explain some of the 5-3 disaster though.
 




All I remember from that game is Nate Mason breaking Collin Sexton’s ankles and staring down at him before draining a three.
that move is what started it-- Nate was dong whatever he wanted in the first half and started to let Sexton hear about it-- so this one embarrassed Sexton enough that he got mad and the trash talk got going.
I was in row 3 or 4 and a bunch of young over-served trashtalkers were in the front row getting both teams agitated and when it really got going, Richard Coffey came down to have a few words with those guys-1 on 5, I still think Richard could have taken them.

and yeah, the Gophers played too nice trying to not run up the score. It might have been interesting to let Sexton and Isaiah Washington play one on one though
 

that move is what started it-- Nate was dong whatever he wanted in the first half and started to let Sexton hear about it-- so this one embarrassed Sexton enough that he got mad and the trash talk got going.
I was in row 3 or 4 and a bunch of young over-served trashtalkers were in the front row getting both teams agitated and when it really got going, Richard Coffey came down to have a few words with those guys-1 on 5, I still think Richard could have taken them.

and yeah, the Gophers played too nice trying to not run up the score. It might have been interesting to let Sexton and Isaiah Washington play one on one though
That’s a cool anecdote about Richard, hadn’t heard that. Did they pipe down at all after that?
 

That’s a cool anecdote about Richard, hadn’t heard that. Did they pipe down at all after that?
I think Richard finally realized going through a 5'1" 65+year old lady security guard to get into a 1 on 5 fight on national television wasn't such a good idea. And the boys did quiet down a little bit --bigger and more security people came and must have told them to quiet down or get tossed out.
 




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