coolhandgopher
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I don't know that I need to create a separate thread for myself on this, so moderators if you deem fit to move this to an ongoing thread, please do so. I was able to watch the Gophers for the first time this season in their rousing win over the Buckeyes Thursday night and I have a few thoughts to share:
1. For very selfish reasons, I wish every Gopher game was a Thursday night game. Living in a Muslim country, our work week provides us with Friday & Saturday as our weekend and we are 12 hours ahead via time zones, so I was rolling out of bed to start the weekend and tuning into the game. Nothing better than that, although last year when this occurred, it got my weekend off to a pretty awful start (the home loss vs. Michigan). A much different start to the weekend this time around.
2. I understand the love I'm seeing for "little Dre" on this board; it has been so long since I've seen a Gopher point guard so confident and consistent in their play. When Mathieu got the ball in a transition situation, you could just sense a proper decision would be made whether he would take it himself or dish it off. It's going to be a fun year and a half more with him running the show.
3. Eliason, Oto, and "Not So Big" Mo-dang, I was not expecting to see these guys playing like this. I've always liked Eliason's game (except for the bellyaching), and it was so nice to see him do everything the other night-score, rebound, play solid defense. I came away most surprised by the improvement in Oto, not because he was necessarily doing anything spectacular, but rather just doing everything solidly and under control-you can see how being relaxed is effecting his game positively. And I was very surprised when I looked at the box score and saw that Mo only played six minutes-his impact in the short time on the floor, especially the back to back basket sequence, was wonderful to see.
4. Favorite play of the night? Mo gets stripped on the offensive end and Ohio State heads back in transition and Mo hustles down, picks the guard's pocket, corrals the ball and I forget what happened next because I was off the couch, screaming "eff, yeah!" and deliriously clapping while in my PJ's. If this is the only live action I see of the Gophers this year, that's the play that's going to be etched in my mind.
5. It was curious to see the Hollins' play; I certainly understand why people are grumbling about Austin (had a really rough game, although in the second half he did pick it up) and Andre was pretty quiet, which I know was in part due to foul trouble, but after anticipating the success of this season being directly tied to these two, it was a bit surprising to see them in secondary roles to Mathieu, Eliason, Malik S. It's quite obvious that for the Gophers to endure the Big 10 season, they'll need more from these guys.
6. Was surprised that Joey King played 11 minutes-didn't do anything on the court that stood out.
7. McNeil's not there yet, but he had a couple really solid drives and it's simply impressive that this lowly regarded recruit is getting minutes as the fourth guard as a freshman.
8. Coming back to the guards a bit-again, Mathieu and Malik Smith exuded confidence, McNeil's getting minutes while the Hollins are not firing on all cylinders and Maverick's not getting any minutes at all-interesting how the new guys are playing fast, loose, and confident, and the holdovers seem to be adjusting.
9. Sorry Ohio State, but you've got some pretty big issues. I wasn't really buying the high preseason rankings for every reason that every pundit pointed out as they were ranking them so high-where were they going to get consistent points from? Ross was very solid, but Craft doesn't look so hot without the likes of Deshaun Thomas or Sullinger to carry the load. I'm not predicting a free falll, but I do see them as middle of the pack in the Big 10.
10. Being out of country the last few years, I've read with bemusement the attempts of the constant pimping of Tim Tebow, particularly by the ESPN folks. I got my taste watching the game-perhaps we can blame our coach for comparing Craft to Tebow and setting up the talking heads to genuflect at both their altars, which they certainly did. My goodness, the two minute riff that the commentator went on about in discussing both Craft and Tebow made me a) wonder if Craft was going to sprout a halo and hover around Williams Arena and b) be concerned that my eyes were going to roll so far upward that my pupils would get stuck and not return to their proper position.
11. I'm loving our new coach-great energy, great coat toss, and loved the humor in the press conference (thanks Nadine for the notes).
12. Last comment-I'm currently reading Pistol by Mark Kriegel, and there's a passage that really stood out, as Pete's father Press took over the head coaching reins at NC State from legendary Everett Case:
"Coach Case was the oldest coach you ever played for" says Robinson. He could be remote and downright mean. "Press yelled a lot, but he didn't yell mean," recalls Biedenbach. "I don't think he ever called me by my name. He always called me 'you little bastard'. But I loved that man."
Obviously, it's not so subtle what I'm getting at-but I imagine the above scenario's pretty similar to what our Golden Gophers are feeling this year.
1. For very selfish reasons, I wish every Gopher game was a Thursday night game. Living in a Muslim country, our work week provides us with Friday & Saturday as our weekend and we are 12 hours ahead via time zones, so I was rolling out of bed to start the weekend and tuning into the game. Nothing better than that, although last year when this occurred, it got my weekend off to a pretty awful start (the home loss vs. Michigan). A much different start to the weekend this time around.
2. I understand the love I'm seeing for "little Dre" on this board; it has been so long since I've seen a Gopher point guard so confident and consistent in their play. When Mathieu got the ball in a transition situation, you could just sense a proper decision would be made whether he would take it himself or dish it off. It's going to be a fun year and a half more with him running the show.
3. Eliason, Oto, and "Not So Big" Mo-dang, I was not expecting to see these guys playing like this. I've always liked Eliason's game (except for the bellyaching), and it was so nice to see him do everything the other night-score, rebound, play solid defense. I came away most surprised by the improvement in Oto, not because he was necessarily doing anything spectacular, but rather just doing everything solidly and under control-you can see how being relaxed is effecting his game positively. And I was very surprised when I looked at the box score and saw that Mo only played six minutes-his impact in the short time on the floor, especially the back to back basket sequence, was wonderful to see.
4. Favorite play of the night? Mo gets stripped on the offensive end and Ohio State heads back in transition and Mo hustles down, picks the guard's pocket, corrals the ball and I forget what happened next because I was off the couch, screaming "eff, yeah!" and deliriously clapping while in my PJ's. If this is the only live action I see of the Gophers this year, that's the play that's going to be etched in my mind.
5. It was curious to see the Hollins' play; I certainly understand why people are grumbling about Austin (had a really rough game, although in the second half he did pick it up) and Andre was pretty quiet, which I know was in part due to foul trouble, but after anticipating the success of this season being directly tied to these two, it was a bit surprising to see them in secondary roles to Mathieu, Eliason, Malik S. It's quite obvious that for the Gophers to endure the Big 10 season, they'll need more from these guys.
6. Was surprised that Joey King played 11 minutes-didn't do anything on the court that stood out.
7. McNeil's not there yet, but he had a couple really solid drives and it's simply impressive that this lowly regarded recruit is getting minutes as the fourth guard as a freshman.
8. Coming back to the guards a bit-again, Mathieu and Malik Smith exuded confidence, McNeil's getting minutes while the Hollins are not firing on all cylinders and Maverick's not getting any minutes at all-interesting how the new guys are playing fast, loose, and confident, and the holdovers seem to be adjusting.
9. Sorry Ohio State, but you've got some pretty big issues. I wasn't really buying the high preseason rankings for every reason that every pundit pointed out as they were ranking them so high-where were they going to get consistent points from? Ross was very solid, but Craft doesn't look so hot without the likes of Deshaun Thomas or Sullinger to carry the load. I'm not predicting a free falll, but I do see them as middle of the pack in the Big 10.
10. Being out of country the last few years, I've read with bemusement the attempts of the constant pimping of Tim Tebow, particularly by the ESPN folks. I got my taste watching the game-perhaps we can blame our coach for comparing Craft to Tebow and setting up the talking heads to genuflect at both their altars, which they certainly did. My goodness, the two minute riff that the commentator went on about in discussing both Craft and Tebow made me a) wonder if Craft was going to sprout a halo and hover around Williams Arena and b) be concerned that my eyes were going to roll so far upward that my pupils would get stuck and not return to their proper position.
11. I'm loving our new coach-great energy, great coat toss, and loved the humor in the press conference (thanks Nadine for the notes).
12. Last comment-I'm currently reading Pistol by Mark Kriegel, and there's a passage that really stood out, as Pete's father Press took over the head coaching reins at NC State from legendary Everett Case:
"Coach Case was the oldest coach you ever played for" says Robinson. He could be remote and downright mean. "Press yelled a lot, but he didn't yell mean," recalls Biedenbach. "I don't think he ever called me by my name. He always called me 'you little bastard'. But I loved that man."
Obviously, it's not so subtle what I'm getting at-but I imagine the above scenario's pretty similar to what our Golden Gophers are feeling this year.
