They never really got into a flow and I think all the points they scored were off offensive rebounds. Dre is still developing and learning how to the play the point and he was sloppy and didn't get our offense into an aggressive, attack the basket mode. We moved the ball around the prerimeter and in many cases we wound up shooting a forced shot with the shot clock winding down.
You realize that Lafayette played a 2-3 zone nearly the entire night, right? It was just about the first time the Gophers have seen zone all season. It took a while to get accustomed to it. So, that is part of why the offense looked a little sluggish, not to mention that going against a zone will do that to almost every offense, even good team's, as it requires a lot of perimeter passing to combat the zone look. In fact, I'm surprised more teams don't play zone against Minnesota. That said, I thought eventually, the Gophs looked pretty good in moving the ball from side to side against the zone and got A LOT of open shots, which is all you can ask. And, don't forget the main reason a team doesn't play zone against us more is probably the fear of exactly what happened...you get absolutely smoked on defensive rebounding if you play a zone against a good rebounding team like the Gophers. So, if a team wants to roll the dice and play zone, bring it on. We will crush them on the offensive glass, as we predictively did against the Leopards.
So, you can whine all you want about a lack of flow in the offense. But, the bottom line is the Gophers played against a team that 2-3 zoned them all night and they had to work hard to get shots. The Gophers capitalized on the rebounding advantage that playing a zone against Minnesota presents.
I'd say, all in all, this was a fine win and certainly nothing to fret over, in and of itself. That doesn't mean this Gopher team is without warts, certainly there are a few. But, there was next to nothing in that Lafayette win that had me shaking in my boots on the drive home from the Barn thinking we have no chance to beat MSU in that building. Of course, there's a decent chance MSU wins the game, but it will have very little, if anything, to do with what happened in Saturday's 25-point win over Lafayette.
