Will this Gopher team ever take responsibility?

[MisterGopher]

Coming into this game both the Gophers and the Buckeyes lost 3 of 4 games and had just come off embarrassing performances. The Buckeye players put the responsibility squarely on their own shoulders. The Gopher players still don’t seem to get it that they aren’t the same team that was on a roll to start the B1G season.

I’m including some player quotes that highlight the huge difference in player attitudes.

Buckeye player quotes after their drubbing by Wisconsin – my favorite is from Aaron Craft (bolded below):

“We not only embarrassed ourselves, we embarrassed our coaching staff, our university, our school president, our university and our fans – we embarrassed everybody. We didn’t answer the call, we didn’t do anything that we’re known to do, we kind of abandoned our principles, offensively, defensively. “ Lenzelle Smith

"After the Wisconsin game, we felt bad about everything we did," said Scott

"This is on us," Craft said. "Coaches can't get us ready to play. The responsibility is on us as individual players. We've got to go and bring teammates with us. We can't play like this in February. This is beginning-of-the-year mistakes and mental errors."

"It's all on you to get a great effort," Thomas said.

I couldn’t find Gopher player quotes after the Iowa game, but these are typical quotes from the Gophers after a loss:

Otto Osenieks: "Yeah, but we're going to get over this," he said. "We're going to learn from our mistakes in the past. We'll make changes. We'll get over it."

"It's just the change in attitude. Changing the way we play," point guard Andre Hollins said

Austin Hollins: “Definitely. We had a few missed shots, some turnovers, and they capitalized on that.”
"I think it was on and off. There were times where we were aggressive and sometimes we were a little passive, lost a little focus.”

"We still believe," Gophers forward Trevor Mbakwe said. "We've got five losses, but we still are going to win - and win out."

Amelia Rayno blogged something along these lines earlier that pretty much predicted the outcome we all just witnessed.

 

[bleedsmaroonandgold]

Obviously anecdotal evidence is always tough to compare, and this is unscientific, but I like the OSU player comments. They took responsibility and didn't seem to make excuses.

Losers wait for things to turn themselves around, winners turn things around themselves.