Thoughts about last nights game

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My Takeaways

- It was the first time we got punched in the mouth, and we didn't know how to handle it. It was a road game against a tourney-caliber team, and IMO not surprising when you've played four straight (including exhibitions) against 300+ kenpom squads.

- I said it in my first post ever when assessing this team, BJ Omot is the X-factor. Bobby Durkin cannot consistently guard at this level, and if he's not hitting shots, he's a liability. Omot needs to get healthy and be a 20+ minute contributor.

-Willis needs to play better. To me, he has either looked incredibly passive (non-existent) at times, or like he's really struggling to get into the flow of the game, forcing passes, fouling 3pt shooters, and laboring handling the ball. He reminds me a bit of Hawkins early. I think it's going to take him some time to feel comfortable in Niko's system.

-We weren't ready for the zone. Niko's offense was so damn effective that they made the switch, and it worked. I expect this to get cleaned up in short order. We're going to see that a lot. This is where Willis can really shine, penetrating and kicking, but for whatever reason, that did not happen on Weds.

-Small ball really didn't seem to be much of an issue until late, when Mitchell absolutely dominated us. I thought the double teams in the first half were flawless, with a guard collapsing, and the rotations were sound.

-Obviously, we rebounded the basketball incredibly well, which bodes well for future bigger teams. What was crazy to me was the inability to capitalize on all those second- and third-chance opportunities. It felt almost fluky.

I think a lot of this is correctable. Yes, we may lack in the size and athleticism department, but good coaching can cover a lot of that up, which I'm confident we have.
 


Bob_Loblaw said:
I just watched the game, my takeways are actually pretty simple and other people hit the nail on the head.

We were less skilled and less athletic than Missouri. I actually think they're pretty good.
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I'd also say that if this same team was coached by Ben, this would have been a 40 point loss from the jump.

I, for one was upset at the loss the other night, but we're going to have to be patient. Niko's coaching alone is going to result in wins where we are going to be picked as serious underdogs.
 

Ydarbnedor said:
I think this team is comparable to last years, maybe not as top heavy talent-wise, but more deep. I don't really think Medved took us down in talent level, I think a big part of the hire was the potential he has to put us on the map. I'm pretty confident in saying that the team in his 4th year will be better than Johnson's team was last year.
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Wow! Dare to dream!

Let's hope he does better sooner than that.

As far as a comparison of the quality of last year's team with this year's team, I'd say the only clear thing is that we don't have a Garcia level talent this season. With the remaining players, it's a little too soon to tell. Patterson and Odukale played significantly better in the conference part of the season last year than they did in the non-conference portion. It's certainly possible that some players on this team will do the same.

I think what troubles me the most about the current roster is that we don't appear (not yet anyway) to have much of anything off the bench (other than Reynolds who practically plays starter minutes) to give us a lift especially with Omot's status being uncertain. Last year (at least in the latter part of the season), Frank Mitchell and Rigsby were able to do that some of the time. Shinholster has played reasonably well so far in limited minutes and might be a good candidate for playing more.

So far this season, we know that we have a pretty good scorer (Tyson) and have a great rebounding differential due to Vaihola and especially Crocker-Johnson.
 

USAF said:
Do you think this Gopher team is more talented than last year's? Why did we hire someone who took us DOWN in talent level?

Hope to be proven wrong, but the Medved hire did nothing to put Minnesota basketball back on the map. He's a nice guy. He's not going to fire up a fan base, attract NIL, or get high level recruits to come to the U.

That's not an opinion based on one game, for the record.
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I suppose if you had scored higher on the ass hat exam in high school your moniker would be USMC
 


Gilthorp57 said:
Niko's coaching alone is going to result in wins where we are going to be picked as serious underdogs.
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This is the bottom line. I hadn't considered whether this team is more or less talented than last year - I think you can make a reasonable argument either way. There is no one as good as Garcia on this squad, but they didn't win all that much with him as the alpha anyway. The rest of the talent on the team doesn't seem appreciably different than before, and maybe the roster is assembled and coached more coherently - yet to be seen.

I was just thinking about the P4 experience on this team, and there really isn't much. Asuma has the most. Tyson barely played at UNC, and Omot at Cal. Grove was at least in practices. A lot of guys transfer up from midmajors and do well, these days, though, but probably just as many don't.
 

formerlybis said:
This is the bottom line. I hadn't considered whether this team is more or less talented than last year - I think you can make a reasonable argument either way. There is no one as good as Garcia on this squad, but they didn't win all that much with him as the alpha anyway. The rest of the talent on the team doesn't seem appreciably different than before, and maybe the roster is assembled and coached more coherently - yet to be seen.

I was just thinking about the P4 experience on this team, and there really isn't much. Asuma has the most. Tyson barely played at UNC, and Omot at Cal. Grove was at least in practices. A lot of guys transfer up from midmajors and do well, these days, though, but probably just as many don't.
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Last year team oddly won five big ten road games but only two home games. When you have a winning or a.500 road record in high major basketball the floor for your team should really be a six seed. The only other two gopher teams I can think of that had winning road records in the big ten in my lifetime for the final four team and the 2016-17 team. Not like those five were all garbage wins either. The Nebraska win probably kept them out of the dance, swept the West Coast trip. One of the most ass backwards seasons ever
 

formerlybis said:
This is the bottom line. I hadn't considered whether this team is more or less talented than last year - I think you can make a reasonable argument either way. There is no one as good as Garcia on this squad, but they didn't win all that much with him as the alpha anyway. The rest of the talent on the team doesn't seem appreciably different than before, and maybe the roster is assembled and coached more coherently - yet to be seen.

I was just thinking about the P4 experience on this team, and there really isn't much. Asuma has the most. Tyson barely played at UNC, and Omot at Cal. Grove was at least in practices. A lot of guys transfer up from midmajors and do well, these days, though, but probably just as many don't.
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This is no diss on Garcia who was great for us, but in retrospect I wish they would have paid Payne as opposed to Garcia. Payne would look really, really good on this squad right now.
 





The Deliberate Stranger said:
Im sure the toilets you scrubbed were the cleanest on the whole air base. Thank you for your service because of you they could cancel their Marsden account
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Don't be jealous just because you weren't bright enough to be allowed to enlist in the USAF.
 


Gilthorp57 said:
I'd also say that if this same team was coached by Ben, this would have been a 40 point loss from the jump.

I, for one was upset at the loss the other night, but we're going to have to be patient. Niko's coaching alone is going to result in wins where we are going to be picked as serious underdogs.
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I’ll accept the role of killjoy here. I remember sipping a sugary beverage in Ben’s first year as I saw a coherent offense for the first time in years, but way overmatched in size and talent. I’ve not seen any games yet but before I join the bandwagon I want to be sure we get past that, “Wow, this is really basketball out there” stage it’s easy to fall into after years of misery. Happy Friday! 😀
 



bga1 said:
This is no diss on Garcia who was great for us, but in retrospect I wish they would have paid Payne as opposed to Garcia. Payne would look really, really good on this squad right now.
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Perhaps the coach scrambling to keep his job had something to do with that.
 

Holy Man said:
I’ll accept the role of killjoy here. I remember sipping a sugary beverage in Ben’s first year as I saw a coherent offense for the first time in years, but way overmatched in size and talent. I’ve not seen any games yet but before I join the bandwagon I want to be sure we get past that, “Wow, this is really basketball out there” stage it’s easy to fall into after years of misery. Happy Friday! 😀
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Easy to do, but the last two coaches were doing OJT, I have a little faith this time.....
 



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