Unsettling

[bga1]

They got their jump shooters open and they made their foul shots.

Why can't we guard against the three????

Tubby's defense will always give up the open three when the players aren't giving maximum effort. Tonight was not a night filled with effort- we got up early and thought we could just show up and win.

 

[underground629]

You can say that for most teams though. In reality, would you not easily take a hundred dollar bet that we'll be in the tournament? Obviously we struggled closing out on shooters, but still, they were just insanely hot. I don't care how wide open they are, starting 9 of 10 from three is just insane. Odds are Hoffarber, Ray Allen, and Korver probably don't go 9 for 10 just shooting 3's on their own. The other most frustrating part is that Virginia actually benefited from fouling us.

Another home game or two like this and we'll actually on the opposite side of the bubble looking in.

 

[cncmin]

You can say that for most teams though. In reality, would you not easily take a hundred dollar bet that we'll be in the tournament? Obviously we struggled closing out on shooters, but still, they were just insanely hot. I don't care how wide open they are, starting 9 of 10 from three is just insane. Odds are Hoffarber, Ray Allen, and Korver probably don't go 9 for 10 just shooting 3's on their own. The other most frustrating part is that Virginia actually benefited from fouling us.

lol - agree on all of this.

 

[underground629]

Hahah good. I know you're a reasonable poster on here. Obviously we were all really disappointed but I don't think it's as big of a deal as you think right now. Well, maybe you've calmed down, but if not, I think you'll realize tomorrow that one game isn't THAT big of a deal at this point in the season. We'll be fine. We made the tournament with less talented, less experienced teams the past two years.

lol - agree on all of this.

 

[EG#9]

I don't really get the blame for Tubby tonight from an X's and O's perspective. If you want to blame Tubby for not being able to put 5 guys on the court who would play hard or some of his strange substitutions (Maverick should NOT have been in the game when it appeared to be slipping away), that's fine. If Virginia just hits 2/3rd's of its first 10-12 3 point attempts, the Gophers likely build a lead that would have been nearly impossible to come back from. If Virginia was not insanely hot from the perimeter (and basically all their first half points came on jumpers of some degree), the Gophers would have been up 20 at halftime. Obviously, part of the reason Virginia was so hot was that the Gophers did not seem particularly interested in playing perimeter defense and were more interested in being the first down the court for the next fast break opportunity.

The Gophers still would have won the game with poor perimeter defense, but two other factors joined the party in the 2nd half: out post defenders decided that they were not going to play defense either and the free throw shooting woes that we worried about early in the season came back to haunt us (at least 3 straight misses on the front end of one and one's including Devoe and Blake).

The only thing, I know I would have done that Tubby didn't try is calling a timeout when the lead shrunk to 5 in the second half despite the Gophers completely dominating play. I would have ripped in to the whole team and put in 5 new players including Dawson, just to get my point across. I am certainly not saying it would have worked, but I would have liked to have seen it done. I would have also considered benching one of the post players who shall remain nameless for horrendous play, but I don't know how he's (the player) wired and maybe that would not serve as motivation for him.

 

[underground629]

I think he put Maverick in there because Devoe was stopping the flow on offense. Devoe is obviously more talented, but Mav was getting more players involved. Tubby is getting blame for not making the adjustments on defense. Obviously the players have to execute, but Tubby deserves blame too.

I don't really get the blame for Tubby tonight from an X's and O's perspective. If you want to blame Tubby for not being able to put 5 guys on the court who would play hard or some of his strange substitutions (Maverick should NOT have been in the game when it appeared to be slipping away), that's fine. If Virginia just hits 2/3rd's of its first 10-12 3 point attempts, the Gophers likely build a lead that would have been nearly impossible to come back from. If Virginia was not insanely hot from the perimeter (and basically all their first half points came on jumpers of some degree), the Gophers would have been up 20 at halftime. Obviously, part of the reason Virginia was so hot was that the Gophers did not seem particularly interested in playing perimeter defense and were more interested in being the first down the court for the next fast break opportunity.

The Gophers still would have won the game with poor perimeter defense, but two other factors joined the party in the 2nd half: out post defenders decided that they were not going to play defense either and the free throw shooting woes that we worried about early in the season came back to haunt us (at least 3 straight misses on the front end of one and one's including Devoe and Blake).

The only thing, I know I would have done that Tubby didn't try is calling a timeout when the lead shrunk to 5 in the second half despite the Gophers completely dominating play. I would have ripped in to the whole team and put in 5 new players including Dawson, just to get my point across. I am certainly not saying it would have worked, but I would have liked to have seen it done. I would have also considered benching one of the post players who shall remain nameless for horrendous play, but I don't know how he's (the player) wired and maybe that would not serve as motivation for him.

 

[Friend Of Tubby]

Can someone with better basketball eyes explain what the hell is going on here? A loss on NATIONAL TV to a bellow average team would likely kick the Gophers out of the top 25. I can honestly say I have never seen a team shoot like the Cavs have tonight. This one is tough to digest...

At HOME no less!!!!

Basketball is a silly silly game....

Poor defense, especially on the perimeter. Missed Nolen A LOT.

Lack of production from post players (Sampson, Iverson, Walker).

Failure to hit key FT in second half.

No ACC team should ever be overlooked.

Tough L for Gophers but they earned every bit of it.

Nice W for Cavs / Hoo's and ditto - they earned it.

 

[scher215]

Poor defense, especially on the perimeter. Missed Nolen A LOT.

Lack of production from post players (Sampson, Iverson, Walker).

Failure to hit key FT in second half.

No ACC team should ever be overlooked.

Tough L for Gophers but they earned every bit of it.

Nice W for Cavs / Hoo's and ditto - they earned it.

+1

Nolen may only guard one guy, but he puts so much pressure on that one guy that he can't move it around as quick, giving Hollins and Chip and Blake and Devoe more time to keep up with their guys.

I'd also add, missed Rodney a lot too. For all the talk of "what does he bring to the team", I wouldn't call him an elite defender ... yet, but his size and athleticism on defense causes problems for shooters and passers. No one else that is 6-7 on the Gophers team can be that troublesome for the shooters.

Also, which was pointed out by Marcus? People keep saying "Oh, we won without Nolen last year! It should still be easy!" Well, last year we had someone named Damien Johnson, Paul Carter, and a healthy Rodney Williams. It is easier to make up for lack of Al's D when you have essentially three 6-7 to play long perimeter defense.

This team, without Al, will figure things out though and be just fine. I am not worried.