What I learned tonight (but I already knew)

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What I learned that I already knew:
1) well-prepared teams can make it hard to run an offense that depends only on ball screens. We have to have a plan B and C for when that gets taken away
2) it takes a while for freshmen to learn team defense. IW looks just like Hurt did last year: lost.
3) we have a number of scorers on this team, but not many shooters. Would be nice to have reason to be more confident in taking 3s
 

Nothing went the Gophers way last night. I think the team is going to be just fine but this isn't a Final Four team. The bench is way too weak. That doesn't mean give up on the season, this team is very capable of a top 3 finish in the B1G and worthy of a Sweet 16 run in March.

Anything can happen in 1 basketball game, that's why March is such a blast. We saw it last night, teams get upset. Don't overreact.
 

MRJ said:
The situation with football is completely different and you know it. We already know you can't stand Fleck, so there's also that.

Bottom line was Nebraska was far more focused and their overall effort was far superior.

If this team is as serious about winning at a high level as they say they are, then games like last night are completely unacceptable. You can't simply put on your uniform, walk on the court and think that's going to be enough.

Gotta bring it in games you're supposed to win. Last night showed a complete lack of focus and intensity that is required from truly elite teams.

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I don't like Fleck, yet have never accused him of not trying. They are not different in the accusations made. There is a big difference between not wanting to win, and not being focused and getting taken out of your game. I agree, they seemed totally off, and didn't play well. You have to give Nebraska credit though as well, they really attacked on defense, and the Gophers played right into their hands by not rotating the ball out of the post early in the game (Murphy and Lynch).

They are not moving the ball nearly as well this year as they did last year. Not sure what that is about, but they are not playing well. That doesn't mean they don't want to win as you first said.
 

The last two posts touched on something - we have scorers that drive to the hoop and take on multiple defenders, yet we wonder why our bench scores no points. I think every one of our starters tries to do a little too much when a bench player (IW, Hurt, Fitzgerald) subs into the game. Hurt and IW rarely find themselves in a position to catch and shoot. That’s probably partially on their positioning, but last night I put a lot of that on Coffey and others driving to the hoop every possession when Mason was off the court.

Did anyone see a drive and kick or a ball reversal last night?


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JZsportswhiz said:
Nothing went the Gophers way last night. I think the team is going to be just fine but this isn't a Final Four team. The bench is way too weak. That doesn't mean give up on the season, this team is very capable of a top 3 finish in the B1G and worthy of a Sweet 16 run in March.

Anything can happen in 1 basketball game, that's why March is such a blast. We saw it last night, teams get upset. Don't overreact.
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Agree with your sentiments. The one exception is that this bench still has an opportunity to improve. Washington has a ton of talent, but hasn't figured out the system yet, and Fitzgerald will get more and more comfortable as the year goes on - he hasn't played for two years. And, I think Harris has an opportunity to do well before the year is out. All that said, Curry is a huge loss, and these guys may not get it and the bench will be too short come tourney time. Will be fun to see what happens.
 


Ozzy&Ray said:
I don't like Fleck, yet have never accused him of not trying. They are not different in the accusations made. There is a big difference between not wanting to win, and not being focused and getting taken out of your game. I agree, they seemed totally off, and didn't play well. You have to give Nebraska credit though as well, they really attacked on defense, and the Gophers played right into their hands by not rotating the ball out of the post early in the game (Murphy and Lynch).

They are not moving the ball nearly as well this year as they did last year. Not sure what that is about, but they are not playing well. That doesn't mean they don't want to win as you first said.
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There's also a difference between wanting to win and doing what you need to in order for that to happen.

They were clearly unwilling (or unable) to do so last night. Lip service is paid all the time by athletes who say they want to win. But actions speak louder than words. And last night, the Gophers were completely dominated on loose balls and other "effort" plays. Nebraska, a lower level conference team, absolutely whipped them on hustle plays.

That's the point and it's unacceptable for a team that has lofty goals for this season. It doesn't mean the season is over or that they're packing it in. But when you are demonstratably out-worked while claiming you want to be amongst the conference's best, it's appropriate to be called out.

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goldenboy said:
What I learned that I already knew:
1) well-prepared teams can make it hard to run an offense that depends only on ball screens. We have to have a plan B and C for when that gets taken away
2) it takes a while for freshmen to learn team defense. IW looks just like Hurt did last year: lost.
3) we have a number of scorers on this team, but not many shooters. Would be nice to have reason to be more confident in taking 3s
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Number 1 was huge last night. They were hedging hard on those high ball screens and doubling every post entry, completely throwing off our offensive rhythm. I'm not sure why every team wouldn't do that to us, we just couldn't find a way to split that hedge or get clean entries into the post.

Last year, our defense kept us in a lot of these slugfest games. If our offense can't find a way to beat the double teams, we will lose some more stinkers like last night. Honestly, that's a coaching thing. Pitino has to be able to exploit those weaknesses.
 

An alarming trend is how the Gophers don't know how to make in game adjustments. It's like Pitino just doesn't know what to do when things go bad. I honestly think this is his youth as a coach showing. Bama game, weird situation, he just didn't know how to fix it... almost lost. Miami game, out talented and out game planned... lost. Good team, fine with the loss. Nebraska, out game planned. Doubled down low, rotated defenders... lost. Nebraska???? I think there is a blueprint on how to beat the Gophers and because we have a weak bench and no solution to it, we will lose a lot of games because of it.
 

MaxyJR1 said:
If you don't show up on the road, your chances are very slim to win.
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Nebraska winning 43% of its home games since 2015 (yet somehow winning 100% of its home games against us) doesn't really bolster your stance. If you remove the 4 games against us, Nebraska is 8-16 (33%) at home since 2015. It seems like they're pretty easy to beat on their home court for everyone except us.
 



dpodoll68 said:
Nebraska winning 43% of its home games since 2015 (yet somehow winning 100% of its home games against us) doesn't really bolster your stance. If you remove the 4 games against us, Nebraska is 8-16 (33%) at home since 2015. It seems like they're pretty easy to beat on their home court for everyone except us.
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Thanks for taking my general comment and breaking it down in your typical fashion. Can you break it down for the other 13 teams and point out the anomalies for us.
 

MaxyJR1 said:
Thanks for taking my general comment and breaking it down in your typical fashion. Can you break it down for the other 13 teams and point out the anomalies for us.
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I'm saying, factually, that "it's hard to win on the road" doesn't apply to Nebraska's home games for anyone but us.
 

MRJ said:
There's also a difference between wanting to win and doing what you need to in order for that to happen.

They were clearly unwilling (or unable) to do so last night. Lip service is paid all the time by athletes who say they want to win. But actions speak louder than words. And last night, the Gophers were completely dominated on loose balls and other "effort" plays. Nebraska, a lower level conference team, absolutely whipped them on hustle plays.

That's the point and it's unacceptable for a team that has lofty goals for this season. It doesn't mean the season is over or that they're packing it in. But when you are demonstratably out-worked while claiming you want to be amongst the conference's best, it's appropriate to be called out.

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I agree they didn't do what they needed to do last night. I also agree it would be unacceptable for that to become any kind of trend.
 

Last night I learned how quickly some fans are to give up on and badmouth their team.

It's not fair to characterize this team and their entire season based on one terrible game. That smacks of an agenda.
 



dpodoll68 said:
I'm saying, factually, that "it's hard to win on the road" doesn't apply to Nebraska's home games for anyone but us.
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Define hard. PSU and Northwestern are 1-2 at Nebraska in this same time.
 

goldenboy said:
What I learned that I already knew:
1) well-prepared teams can make it hard to run an offense that depends only on ball screens. We have to have a plan B and C for when that gets taken away
2) it takes a while for freshmen to learn team defense. IW looks just like Hurt did last year: lost.
3) we have a number of scorers on this team, but not many shooters. Would be nice to have reason to be more confident in taking 3s
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As much as I love Pitino, he hasn't been very adept at adjusting from his main offense and defensive methods. He gets out-coached some times due to this. Nebraska was very aggressive last night. Should have implemented more back door cuts and others to compensate.
 

Speaking of adjusting, I feel like if we would have switched out of man defense to that 2-3 zone earlier in the game, things would have gone a little differently. I have no idea why it took Pitino so long to make that adjustment because Nebraska was having their way against us every single time they got into their set offense. In man to man defense we were just a step slower than their whole team it seemed. You could tell that they started to get confused when we switched to the 2-3 and with our length (mainly Dupree, Amir, and Reggie) we have the ability to deflect a pass and get out in the fast break a whole lot easier in zone than in man.

Last year it seemed that Pitino would run zone for a possession or two at some point in the first half in order to slow a run, but I feel like I haven't seen that happen once yet this year until there were about 5 minutes left in the game last night, which by that point, was too late.
 

johndoe said:
Speaking of adjusting, I feel like if we would have switched out of man defense to that 2-3 zone earlier in the game, things would have gone a little differently. I have no idea why it took Pitino so long to make that adjustment because Nebraska was having their way against us every single time they got into their set offense. In man to man defense we were just a step slower than their whole team it seemed. You could tell that they started to get confused when we switched to the 2-3 and with our length (mainly Dupree, Amir, and Reggie) we have the ability to deflect a pass and get out in the fast break a whole lot easier in zone than in man.

Last year it seemed that Pitino would run zone for a possession or two at some point in the first half in order to slow a run, but I feel like I haven't seen that happen once yet this year until there were about 5 minutes left in the game last night, which by that point, was too late.
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I agree in principal and would to see the change up in defense more often. The only caveat is that fans have no idea what goes on in practice. Our zone D could have huge exploitable holes that Pitino is aware of, and thus may prefer to avoid using it.


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Flat out, this team just doesn't play defense as well as they did last year. Their perimeter defense tends to break down pretty frequently. Alot of times Reggie will clean that up, but last night he was timid for sure. It also hurts not having much of a bench. They have Washington and lets be honest, the rest are stiffs. Some of the younger guys might have a chance but Hurt is D2. All of that said, this is still a good team. They should still finish towards the top of the Big Ten. They will have to step it up a notch though. No road game is easy in the Big Ten.
 

Biggest thing we shot poorly. That always makes you look horrible. The refs seemed to call things differently on our end than their end, especially in the first half....but they were the aggressor...most aggressive team wins.
I think we will become pretty predictable offensively. Mason is our only sometime shooter...sure Coffey if gets his wide open wing 3. Like some guy said if murphy is on it makes us much tougher. Murphy starting 1 for 10 is going to make things tough. We are somewhat easy to guard for teams who matchup athletically.
Defensively we have to get better.
Pitino's adjustments have not been there. I'm positive he has to know the adjustments to make. I do know it's not easy to do when you are as limited as we are on the bench. So, factor in individual foul situations and it limits a lot of what you might want to do...either the guy who is a major part of your strategy change is on the bench or you are hoping to buy minutes and if you switch tactics the likelihood of someone in foul jeopardy increases or flat out won't work with the personnel available. It's hard to coach when you have no flexibility. We have none. No bench. Offensive players who are only able to do certain things. Defensively, you are terrified Lynch and Murphy are going to get in foul trouble. Mason lately is adding his name to the list. Makes it hard to make adjustments...you can completely sabotage yourself. It looks easy. Trust me, the coaching staff has developed some of our players beyond their norm but they have limitations and lack flexibility, in addition to zero depth.
Managing the roster is Pitino's biggest weakness. Add Curry getting hurt as an additional huge factor, plus,McBrayer a shell of himself is not helpful as well.
 

bfast said:
Also, all ya'll seemed quick laughing at Wisconsin. I picked MN to finish ahead in conference, but I wouldn't be shocked in the slightest if Wisconsin A) finished ahead in conference or B) went farther in march than this MN roster.

IQ IQ IQ, avoiding turnovers, defense and shooting. Watch.
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Our turnover margin is pretty much the same and WI is 11th in the conference in 3 point shooting while the Gophers are 4th.
 

bc2211 said:
I agree in principal and would to see the change up in defense more often. The only caveat is that fans have no idea what goes on in practice. Our zone D could have huge exploitable holes that Pitino is aware of, and thus may prefer to avoid using it.


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The fans can see what happens in games and the man to man defense has plenty of holes in it right now too.
 

Let's give credit where it is due.
Jim Molinari is a defensive guru and he schooled our Gophers last night in help defense.
Second, our coaching staff had no adjustment for what Molinari was doing.
Last night is a great lesson and teachable moment to the entire team and staff. Nebraska's defense was remindful of the old Bobby Knight defenses at IU. We just got schooled.
 

it is very easy to be a Armchair coach. RP and TM are both very good coaches. TM just out planned RP in this game.
it's not the end of the world as we know it. Can't win them all and a road loss in BIGTEN play is one I can deal with. (lose at home against Drake at home..that's another story)
 

it is very easy to be a Armchair coach. RP and TM are both very good coaches. TM just out planned RP in this game.
it's not the end of the world as we know it. Can't win them all and a road loss in BIGTEN play is one I can deal with. (lose at home against Drake at home..that's another story)
 

Original post was supposed to say focused on refs not rest
 

I seem to recall basing called, essentially, an idiot for being very concerned after the Miami game.

Let me hear again how that take was terrible.
 

Heracles said:
I seem to recall basing called, essentially, an idiot for being very concerned after the Miami game.

Let me hear again how that take was terrible.
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I thought Miami exposed some issues.

I only thought those worried about the 5-3 Bama were alarmists.
 

MennoSota said:
Let's give credit where it is due.
Jim Molinari is a defensive guru and he schooled our Gophers last night in help defense.
Second, our coaching staff had no adjustment for what Molinari was doing.
Last night is a great lesson and teachable moment to the entire team and staff. Nebraska's defense was remindful of the old Bobby Knight defenses at IU. We just got schooled.
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How long until losses aren't "teachable moments," anymore, and are things that should carry some weight/consequence? Honest question.

The team/coaching staff can't keep playing the inexperienced card forever. At some point they're just not as good as we thought.
 

Heracles said:
How long until losses aren't "teachable moments," anymore, and are things that should carry some weight/consequence? Honest question.

The team/coaching staff can't keep playing the inexperienced card forever. At some point they're just not as good as we thought.
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Have fun with that, buddy. Since we know you love the moments when the Gophers lose or struggle, it's going to be a LONG, LONG year for you. Bon appetit.
 

Bad Gopher said:
Last night I learned how quickly some fans are to give up on and badmouth their team.

It's not fair to characterize this team and their entire season based on one terrible game. That smacks of an agenda.
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But, to be fair, you already knew that.
Tim Miles is an excellent coach, someone I know many people here would have loved to have had here as ours.
With Curry out, Fitzgerald still shaking off the rust, Dupree recovering, and IW and Harris still learning the ropes, this wasnt a good year for us to start the B1G in early December.
 

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