Tubby can thank Austin Hollins for saving his job

[bleedsmaroonandgold]

Yes, that is one thing you have right. Minnesota has won two straight. Iowa has lost 3 of its last 4.

Perfectly said.

 

[mplarson7]

I don't know about anyone else, but I've thoroughly enjoyed this season so far and am looking forward to how it finishes.

The reason being, Tubby's teams here (other than 1 particular season) have closed the seasons quite strong (an 8-10 B1G finish his first season and making it to the B1G tournament semifinals, being dead in the water and making the B1G tournament finals to pull a NCAA berth out of their rears, being 17-14 to end a season, making a push in the B1G tournament and then making the NIT finals...)

You guys might know better than me and think the Gophers are trash, but I'm going to sit and smile and enjoy the season.

 

[bemidjigopher]

lol Mosses got banned

 

[GophersInIowa]

Iowa is a decent team - certainly a top 50 team IMO, and maybe even top 40.

That said, my complaint from the game is what we've seen before, like at Northwestern. The team gets out to a nice little lead and thinks they can dial back the effort and just coast. It's the classic tortoise and the hare situation. The floor motion, passing and general effort went down a notch or two after they built that early lead, allowing Iowa to grab some momentum and confidence. And once you've lost that mental edge, it's hard to get it back. Really good teams don't have any coast in them. The Gophs coasted against Nebraska, too, but the Huskers were unable to make them pay.

Maybe a little, but I think the biggest thing was we stopped hitting open shots. We had a lot of good looks that just didn't fall. I find it hard to believe you get a ton of good shots if you're just coasting.

 

[lakesgopher]

Maybe a little, but I think the biggest thing was we stopped hitting open shots. We had a lot of good looks that just didn't fall. I find it hard to believe you get a ton of good shots if you're just coasting.

I think you have hit the nail on the head. We aren't a consistent shooting team. When we are hot we seem to hit everything but once a guy starts to miss it effects the whole team and we get really flustered

 

[Holy Man]

Iowa is making slow and steady progress from where they were in December or January....But they are not going to be an NCAA tourney team because Marble has regressed and their 3 Freshmen aren't quite ready to step up yet. They have a chance to be very solid next year. But for now, they are a very mediocre team and we should have run them off the court and won by 15 to 25. The fact that we didn't is direct reflection on Tubby's inability to coach a team that improves during the season. I don't know about his Kentucky teams, but his teams with the Gophers have ALWAYS stagnated or flat our regressed. The Iowa game was more or less a reflection of us and Iowa going in opposite directions, only Austin Hollins stepped up and put off the losing for at least one more game.

This is awesome! Responding to a banned poster! But, if he can't respond, we win the argument, right? My response, of course, is what most reasonably objective observers would say. They have not always crashed in the end with Tubby at the helm. The two seasons they did were in direct response to Belien's "sudden change" scenario with injuries and ineligiblity issues. I do remember a nice run to the tournament championship that would be a strong piece of evidence against the assertion. Critique if you like, but you better darn well have the facts straight and not just ignore the ones that don't fit your narrative. That's just garbage and borderline sophistry. Everyone invloved deserves the dignity of having facts accurate and apples to apples scenarios. If you want to critique the fall off at the end of the season because we lack depth and it's the coaches' fault for not recruitng more depth, fine but that needs to be the point made, not just that his teams crash with no back story communicated.

I'm not sure if Moses really believes his antagonistic drivel or just wants to get a rise out of us. Either way, he is a pain in the butt, but unless there is something I don't see I am not sure why he was banned. He may have been a troll, but I never found him offensive or inappropriate like some others who have been banned in the past.

 

[sal]

TJ, your story is similar to a friend of mine who called me after the Iowa game and asked, "What's wrong with the Gophers?" I told him what's wrong is the Gophers just played a so-so game vs. a pretty decent opponent, were down 4 with 2 minutes left to play, and still found a way to win the game.

If you (almost ANY team) are going to have a successful year you will have to win a (maybe more) game like this at some point on the schedule. Think back, how many last second wins has Wisconsin had over the years? My god, it seems like about a dozen. And they expect to win them as well. Why does this surprise some people?

 

[EG#9]

Interesting that my thread is still going. I haven't seen anyone make this point yet...are you OK with Fran McCaffery's squad passing Tubby's next year? Because that almost undoubtedly will happen. The Hawkeyes were underdogs to the Gophers in the last 3 games played between the teams and almost swept all 3 of them. This year, with their best player being a sophomore and their point guard being a freshman. From what I have read from many Tubby defenders, I have no doubt that many would excuse a terrible season from the Gophers if Tubby's best players were that young.

I re-watched the game late last night and the Hawkeyes had a plan for every circumstance after the initial 14-3 start. When they got a defensive rebound, they ran and normally got a good shot. When the Gophers went zone, they found guys on the baseline for easy looks. When the Gophers picked up full court, they easily beat our press. The Gophers had the better athletes, but did not look like they knew what they were supposed to do when the Hawkeyes went zone. When the Hawkeyes came out in a press, the Gophers also looked confused and turned it over. In the last 5 minutes of the game, Joe Coleman had to make two tough individual moves to cut the Hawkeye lead to two.

I can't imagine anyone who watched that game on Sunday coming away from it saying " The Gophers are the better coached team" or " I'd take the the next two years of Gopher Basketball over the next two years of Hawkeye Basketball".

 

[Dr.Don]

Interesting that my thread is still going. I haven't seen anyone make this point yet...are you OK with Fran McCaffery's squad passing Tubby's next year? Because that almost undoubtedly will happen. The Hawkeyes were underdogs to the Gophers in the last 3 games played between the teams and almost swept all 3 of them. This year, with their best player being a sophomore and their point guard being a freshman. From what I have read from many Tubby defenders, I have no doubt that many would excuse a terrible season from the Gophers if Tubby's best players were that young.

I re-watched the game late last night and the Hawkeyes had a plan for every circumstance after the initial 14-3 start. When they got a defensive rebound, they ran and normally got a good shot. When the Gophers went zone, they found guys on the baseline for easy looks. When the Gophers picked up full court, they easily beat our press. The Gophers had the better athletes, but did not look like they knew what they were supposed to do when the Hawkeyes went zone. When the Hawkeyes came out in a press, the Gophers also looked confused and turned it over. In the last 5 minutes of the game, Joe Coleman had to make two tough individual moves to cut the Hawkeye lead to two.

I can't imagine anyone who watched that game on Sunday coming away from it saying " The Gophers are the better coached team" or " I'd take the the next two years of Gopher Basketball over the next two years of Hawkeye Basketball".

But I will take any two years of life without your drivel.

 

[Rouser]

Interesting that my thread is still going. I haven't seen anyone make this point yet...are you OK with Fran McCaffery's squad passing Tubby's next year? Because that almost undoubtedly will happen. The Hawkeyes were underdogs to the Gophers in the last 3 games played between the teams and almost swept all 3 of them. This year, with their best player being a sophomore and their point guard being a freshman. From what I have read from many Tubby defenders, I have no doubt that many would excuse a terrible season from the Gophers if Tubby's best players were that young.

I re-watched the game late last night and the Hawkeyes had a plan for every circumstance after the initial 14-3 start. When they got a defensive rebound, they ran and normally got a good shot. When the Gophers went zone, they found guys on the baseline for easy looks. When the Gophers picked up full court, they easily beat our press. The Gophers had the better athletes, but did not look like they knew what they were supposed to do when the Hawkeyes went zone. When the Hawkeyes came out in a press, the Gophers also looked confused and turned it over. In the last 5 minutes of the game, Joe Coleman had to make two tough individual moves to cut the Hawkeye lead to two.

I can't imagine anyone who watched that game on Sunday coming away from it saying " The Gophers are the better coached team" or " I'd take the the next two years of Gopher Basketball over the next two years of Hawkeye Basketball".

Noboby made the point because its pure speculation based on your dislike for Tubby Smith as our coach right now. What was the Hawkeyes plan for the 14-3 start? Did that not count? I forget, did we actually win the game? Gotta admit, thats pretty impressive considering how well coached Iowa is.. kuddos to Tubby and the boys.

Anyway, it sucks that all we have is a top 25 team, RPI around 10, projected 5 seed in the NCAA tourney, 5-4 record in the toughest conference, multiple solid wins over good programs, and a favorable schedule to finish the year. All I can think about is how Iowa will be dusting our crops next year.

 

[Rouser]

Rouser, are you calling me a meathead?

Ha.. There is not a meathead I respect more than you Holy Man

 

[minimax]

Questions about Tubby's offense are certainly valid given the stagnancy and scoring droughts it often leads to, but it's certainly helped out by the fact that this year (and less so, in years past) Tubby is fielding one of the best offense rebounding teams IN THE HISTORY OF COLLEGE BASKETBALL. As it seems that Tubby's squads nearly always rank near the top of the B1G in rebounding and shot blocking, the unsteady halfcourt offense is at least partly offset by these strengths of recent Minnesota teams.

Just some food for thought, not taking a stand either way on Tubby and these observations ARE supported by facts, most of which I was too lazy to look up.
However, last time I saw the statistic, the Gophers were rebounding over 49% of their shots, good for the highest rate since these stats had started being recorded.

 

[underground629]

Good post. People forget how hideous college basketball (and the NBA) can be for even the best teams. I was actually happy that for what seems like once, a MN team "stole" a game in the end. It's not that rare to see the best BT teams losing to weaker teams before pulling away for an "ugly" victory in the end.

Sal does hit it right on the head. We all wish every season was nice & tidy with nothing but well-played games and convincing victories for our team, but that's not the way a season works, not even for the likes of the Dukes, Kansas', Kentuckys, North Carolinas, and Michigan States of the world. Ebbs and flows. Why are folks so aghast at the ebbs and flows of a long season?

Am like everyone else, frustrated as h*ll the Gophers aren't playing up to snuff right now, but that's just all part of the journey. It wouldn't be college basketball season if I didn't have something to fuss about throughout the course of a season. With the emphasis on fuss, not panic or go into meltdown mode.

TJ, your story is similar to a friend of mine who called me after the Iowa game and asked, "What's wrong with the Gophers?" I told him what's wrong is the Gophers just played a so-so game vs. a pretty decent opponent, were down 4 with 2 minutes left to play, and still found a way to win the game. Then I reminded him that the Gophers are 17-5 having played a reprsentative schedule (Tubby's had some stinker nonconference schedules, but this one's turning out solid), and are currently above .500 in what is considered the best conference in the country. I didn't even mention that the Gophers were ranked in the top 25, or that they were in top 10 of the RPI. ... like that's a regular occurrence around here.

Could or should the Gophers be better than 5-4 at this point? Absolutely, but it's not exactly "sky is falling" material. They also could have been worse than 12-1 prior to the B1G season.