what a year of wasted opportunities

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JohnnyGopher

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Despite the crap with White, Mbwake, and Nolen, this team still had many chances to advance to the postseason and like every other Minnesota sports team, choked it away.

@Indiana - up 78-73 with 2 min to play, don't score again and lose 81-78.

#7 Michigan State - up 60-52 with 6 min to play, get outscored 13-4 and lose 65-64.

@Northwestern - up 48-35 with 7:30 to play, and end up allowing 42 pts in last 7 min and OT to a team that has trouble scoring, lose in OT 77-74.

and of course tonight, #3 Purdue - up 47-39 with 8:19 to play and no Hummel and let yet another game and NCAA tournament slip away and lose 59-58.

Is spring training over yet, ready for some Twins baseball, as Bleed said, at least we will have 5 months to enjoy them before they blow a couple late inning leads to the Yankees and get swept again, but by then we will be caught up in Purple Pride until they.... well we all know how this story ends for Minnesota sports teams and the cycle will just continue.
 

JohnnyGopher said:
Despite the crap with White, Mbwake, and Nolen, this team still had many chances to advance to the postseason and like every other Minnesota sports team, choked it away.

@Indiana - up 78-73 with 2 min to play, don't score again and lose 81-78.

#7 Michigan State - up 60-52 with 6 min to play, get outscored 13-4 and lose 65-64.

@Northwestern - up 48-35 with 7:30 to play, and end up allowing 42 pts in last 7 min and OT to a team that has trouble scoring, lose in OT 77-74.

and of course tonight, #3 Purdue - up 47-39 with 8:19 to play and no Hummel and let yet another game and NCAA tournament slip away and lose 59-58.

Is spring training over yet, ready for some Twins baseball, as Bleed said, at least we will have 5 months to enjoy them before they blow a couple late inning leads to the Yankees and get swept again, but by then we will be caught up in Purple Pride until they.... well we all know how this story ends for Minnesota sports teams and the cycle will just continue.
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Agree - those 4 L are killer to Gophers' NCAA at-large bid possiblities.
 



Don't forget a one point loss to Texas A&M, the @12 or so RPI team in the country.

What a sad waste.
 



JohnnyGopher said:
Despite the crap with White, Mbwake, and Nolen, this team still had many chances to advance to the postseason and like every other Minnesota sports team, choked it away.

@Indiana - up 78-73 with 2 min to play, don't score again and lose 81-78.

#7 Michigan State - up 60-52 with 6 min to play, get outscored 13-4 and lose 65-64.

@Northwestern - up 48-35 with 7:30 to play, and end up allowing 42 pts in last 7 min and OT to a team that has trouble scoring, lose in OT 77-74.

and of course tonight, #3 Purdue - up 47-39 with 8:19 to play and no Hummel and let yet another game and NCAA tournament slip away and lose 59-58.

Is spring training over yet, ready for some Twins baseball, as Bleed said, at least we will have 5 months to enjoy them before they blow a couple late inning leads to the Yankees and get swept again, but by then we will be caught up in Purple Pride until they.... well we all know how this story ends for Minnesota sports teams and the cycle will just continue.
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Add in the losses to A&M and Miami that went down to the final possession or two.

And of all of these 6 or 7 games, on the last possession, how many times have the Gophers gotten the ball into their best clutch shooter's hands? (Hoffarber) How many times have the worked to feed it into the post?

The common theme has been, "let the point guard dribble around a while and either shoot or hand it off to someone else for a desperate shot."
 


"The common theme has been, 'let the point guard dribble around a while and either shoot or and it off to someone else for a desperate shot'".

I understand what you're saying, but no one can complain about the shot we got last night. Certainly we can question whether Tubby should have called the timeout, but we couldn't have asked for a better shot out of the timeout. Devoe made a nice fake (can't remember if it was a pump or head fake) on an excellent defender (Kramer), he just didn't knock it down. In this instance, we got a great, wide open look.
 



Devoe made a nice fake (can't remember if it was a pump or head fake) on an excellent defender (Kramer), he just didn't knock it down. In this instance, we got a great, wide open look.
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I'm going to say it, I would rather have seen Westbrook take that shot instead of Devoe. Yes, it was a perfect, wide open, look that didn't go down. But, I would have liked to have seen that ball in the hands of an experienced senior. Who knows what Westbrook would have done with the ball but in that situation taking that shot give me a senior.
 

I tend to agree, Reserve. despite his troubles this season, I think Seniority (literally) makes a difference. Devoe is still an underclassman; let Lawrence shoot it.
 

Speaking of JohnnyGopher ..

Any news of the kids we were scouting on the east coast the other week or other 2010 kids were looking at?

Thanks.
 

Badgers fans tried to argue the same thing regarding all the close losses for the Badgers last year. I disagree with the premise. For every game a team could have won, there is usually one they could have lost. In general, you are what your record says you are. It is annoying and frustrating as heck to watch, but there is a reason some teams can't close out the majority of the games they play against quality opposition. Usually the reason is the teams they are playing in those games are better.
 



WanderingGopher said:
Add in the losses to A&M and Miami that went down to the final possession or two.

And of all of these 6 or 7 games, on the last possession, how many times have the Gophers gotten the ball into their best clutch shooter's hands? (Hoffarber) How many times have the worked to feed it into the post?

The common theme has been, "let the point guard dribble around a while and either shoot or hand it off to someone else for a desperate shot."
Click to expand...

Sorry. There are at least 8 guys on the team who I would give the ball to with time running down. Hoff is a great shooter, and may be the most clutch shooter, but he can't create his own shot. Unfortunately, Westbrook is the man who should take every last second shot. He's mostly clutch, and he can create his own shot. Devoe can sometimes create his own shot but isn't clutch. Hindsight I know, but I really would have liked to have seen Larry get that shot.
 

GVBadger said:
Badgers fans tried to argue the same thing regarding all the close losses for the Badgers last year. I disagree with the premise. For every game a team could have won, there is usually one they could have lost. In general, you are what your record says you are. It is annoying and frustrating as heck to watch, but there is a reason some teams can't close out the majority of the games they play against quality opposition. Usually the reason is the teams they are playing in those games are better.
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Of course you always are what your record says you are. And certainly we have a couple of wins that we could have lost (NW, @PSU). However, on whole we have played 9 truly 'close' games. Portland, Texas A&M, Miami, @Indiana, MSU, NW, @PSU, @NW and Purdue. I'm not even counting @MSU and Michigan which were games were certainly in. We are 2-7 in those games. That is a particularly low % and while some of it is just not coming through at gut-check time, at some point it's hard not to feel snake-bitten. If we could even have managed to go 4-5 in those 9, we'd be on the right side of the bubble. At some point you expect your luck to turn and some of those games to break your way. But it just won't happen.
 

SelectionSunday said:
I understand what you're saying, but no one can complain about the shot we got last night. Certainly we can question whether Tubby should have called the timeout, but we couldn't have asked for a better shot out of the timeout. Devoe made a nice fake (can't remember if it was a pump or head fake) on an excellent defender (Kramer), he just didn't knock it down. In this instance, we got a great, wide open look.
Click to expand...

If I had been told that a Devoe Joseph wide-open 15 foot jump shot was going to be our final play for the win, I would take that. In fact, I would take that any game when we get the ball back with 7 seconds, down by 1.
 



It proves a point of what one player --- example Hummel can make a difference....The Gophers are ONE Royce White player away from being a very solid basketball team. The Gophers have solid role players. I choose to blame Joel Matury for the way he handled player misconduct--the ambiguos rules and the guilty until proven Innocent mindset with
athletes in the basketball program cost the Gophers the NCAA and a lot of money for the Big ten......
 

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