Your opinion of the Gophers after Maui is?...

Your opinion of the Gophers after Maui is?...

  • Better than I expected, encouraged by 'Cuse game, first of vs Ark and last 5 min vs Chaminade

    Votes: 8 7.6%

  • Worse than I expected, concerned about 2nd half of Arkansas and Chaminade game

    Votes: 37 35.2%

  • About what I expected, up and down season is in store for us

    Votes: 60 57.1%
  • Total voters
    105
Donate To GopherHole
E

El Amin Fan

Well-known member
Joined
Jul 23, 2012
Messages
3,012
Reaction score
1,033
Points
113
Your opinion of the Gophers after Maui is?...
 


honestly, this might not be a popular opinion, but the Syracuse game told me a lot. I really like Pitino's system. We were completely undersized/underskilled and had no depth compared to the Cuse, and our system worked. With basically zero depth, playing 3 games in 3 days in a paradise land (with 2 games at 9:30am local time) our guys simply tired out under Pitino's system. People may bash me for my opinion, but I like what I see. I also can see how restricted we are with the talent/size we have vs top teams in the country. I really like where the program is going. Let Pitino get his guys in here, and I think we can be a force for years to come.
 

played pretty well against a good Syracuse team but almost lost to a DII team...hard to make a call on what type of season we have.
 

tmvander said:
played pretty well against a good Syracuse team but almost lost to a DII team...hard to make a call on what type of season we have.
Click to expand...

as a team whose system is to basically press all game, I am going to give the team a pass on today's game vs Chaminade. 3 games in 3 days is extremely tough for a team with our system
 


Miles Tarver said:
as a team whose system is to basically press all game, I am going to give the team a pass on today's game vs Chaminade. 3 games in 3 days is extremely tough for a team with our system
Click to expand...

We don't have the quicks or depth to press all game effectively.
 


My opinion is that it is too early to tell. I am really optimistic about Pitino but he will really need to have two successful recruiting classes to get where he needs to be. It looks bumpy until then. I have mostly questions.

As for this season the questions I have are:

-Does the defense get better and better or does it remain a sieve?
-Do we degenerate into one on one ball - like today and yesterday or do we run fast paced sets like against Syracuse?
-Do we learn to block out better on the boards (despite our limitations) or do we get schooled near the bucket on second chances all year as we did this whole tournament?
-Does a player like Buggs who has some of the size and athleticism they need, get coached up to the level that he starts playing some meaningful minutes- as a rebounder (which he is currently not) later in the year?
-Do they find ways to get Andre Hollins the ball for open shots?
-Do they get the ball inside on most possessions? (unlike this week when it almost never went inside after Syracuse)
-Overall- depending on the above-do we get better as the season goes on?
 





My opinion of gopher fans is still really low. That hasn't changed. A bunch of old blow hards that should give up their season tickets!

Guaranteed the Barn will sound like a bank for the FSU game. Arms will be crossed and they will all have sour pusses on their face from start to finish.
 

coming into the season thought NIT team at best with ups and downs during the season. nothing before Maui or after has changed my mind.
 

Angry said:
My opinion of gopher fans is still really low. That hasn't changed. A bunch of old blow hards that should give up their season tickets! Guaranteed the Barn will sound like a bank for the FSU game. Arms will be crossed and they will all have sour pusses on their face from start to finish.
Click to expand...

When you are going absolutely bats**t crazy because the gophers are up 30 over Nebraska-Omaha or New Orleans look over at the gopher bench to see if the players care as much as you do. When there is a legitimate reason to be excited, the players know it and the knowledgeable fans know it. That's when the building starts to pound.
 



The Syracuse game encouraged me. I think the fact that we played Arkansas about 17 hours later hurt us because of how few guys we played, while I thought I heard Arkansas has something like 10 guys averaging more than 10 minutes a game, so they likely had more gas in the tank for that game. I didn't watch the Chaminade game partially because I had a test to take at that time, and because I was so disappointed after the second half of the Arkansas game, and I figured we'd win, which we did. It seems we're able to rise to the occasion for big games, we just have to avoid letdowns if we lose (or win I suppose).

I still think we can beat Florida State on Tuesday, and I still think we could make the tournament, not that I expect it, but it's still a possibility IMO.
 



stocker08 said:
That's the issue. I'm fine with the system if it works.....but we don't have the personnel to run the system. Should we tank this season and press all game, or should we make adjustments depending on the opponent?
Click to expand...

Pitino isn't going to go away from the identity he wants this team to have. He's going to add and tweak things as the season goes along, but it's silly to think he's now going to try a completely different approach. Trust me, I do recognize they're different sports but the reaction to this tournament is sort of like the football forum was after the Iowa game. (Get rid of Limegrover. Kill won't be able to recruit the players he needs for his power running game. Oh, my God, we're going to go 0-8) Hell, in perusing the game thread for my personal enjoyment watching the meltdown, I saw something to the effect that young Pitino can't coach. Like Kill, I trust this coach to figure it out. Not sure if there's the equivalent of a basketball jet sweep to magically change things around, but it'll be a fun season and I fully expect to see definite improvement. The Florida State game is going to be really interesting. Will things start to look better defensively? Will we play more under control and cut down the turnovers? How will the rebounding be? Will Andre step up to lead this team? Can Malik Smith continue to be more of a factor?
 

jamiche said:
When you are going absolutely bats**t crazy because the gophers are up 30 over Nebraska-Omaha or New Orleans look over at the gopher bench to see if the players care as much as you do. When there is a legitimate reason to be excited, the players know it and the knowledgeable fans know it. That's when the building starts to pound.
Click to expand...

If you want to really enjoy CBB look at Murry state and the way their community supports their team. ALWAYS. Granted I know its just a small town in KY, but what MN has to offer as far as fan support is a joke. How we don't provide a tougher atmosphere than Murry St or god forbid Wisconsin is beyond me I don't care what there teams have done. Maybe we're not drunk enough. The Barn since the 90's is a bunch of terrible people who half of them try and sell their season tickets for a profit and the other half really shouldn't be there. It's easy to go to the Indiana or MI games last year but it's another thing to actually support a team.

I partially blame the terrible sports writers in this town

Look at Cameron Indoor. I never met a lawyer who gave a **** about CBB but how and the hell did they get to where the are?
 

Mulligan, you have forgotten that the Free Agency of College Basketball will salvage our season after so many GopherHole experts have already bailed out of the current season.
 



I hope we were fatigued and that the effort against Syracuse will be more of the norm now that we won't be playing back to back games. That's all I can really say at this point. FSU should tell us a lot.
 

MadtownGopher said:
I hope we were fatigued and that the effort against Syracuse will be more of the norm now that we won't be playing back to back games. That's all I can really say at this point. FSU should tell us a lot.
Click to expand...

Yup that's pretty much what I've been thinking. I think our brand of ball coupled with the three games in three days format is what killed us. If we aren't exhausted going into the Florida State game, which we shouldn't be, and we bring the same effort we did against Syracuse, I think we can win.
 

My opinion is that we'll likely go 5-11 or 6-10 in the big ten with one or two absolutely terrible losses to the bottom dwellers of the Big Ten and maybe a big win against Wisconsin, Michigan, or IU somewhere in there.
 

Have a hard time with the majority of people thinking they are where people expected. There was not a single person that picked them to lose to Arkansas. I would think that most expected a loss in the opening round, then a couple of wins after that. I voted for worse than I expected.

Big concern up front.
 

Pitino tempered expectations before the season began. After Syracuse I was really optimistic now not quite so much. I will say and I liked Tubby and still do I think we would have been awful this year had he stayed. It's going to be an up and down year, no pun intended.
 


gopherbadgerman said:
Have a hard time with the majority of people thinking they are where people expected. There was not a single person that picked them to lose to Arkansas. I would think that most expected a loss in the opening round, then a couple of wins after that. I voted for worse than I expected.

Big concern up front.
Click to expand...

I don't think people expected us to hang with Syracuse like we did, especially with EE in foul trouble.
 

Angry said:
If you want to really enjoy CBB look at Murry state and the way their community supports their team. ALWAYS. Granted I know its just a small town in KY, but what MN has to offer as far as fan support is a joke. How we don't provide a tougher atmosphere than Murry St or god forbid Wisconsin is beyond me I don't care what there teams have done. Maybe we're not drunk enough. The Barn since the 90's is a bunch of terrible people who half of them try and sell their season tickets for a profit and the other half really shouldn't be there. It's easy to go to the Indiana or MI games last year but it's another thing to actually support a team.

I partially blame the terrible sports writers in this town

Look at Cameron Indoor. I never met a lawyer who gave a **** about CBB but how and the hell did they get to where the are?
Click to expand...

It's apples and oranges. My guess is that's because nearly every team that Murray State plays is at or above its competitive level, so the games are meaningful and the building is loud. Over half of our games are scrimmages and there is not much to get excited about because the games aren't competitive and you don't know if the good play that you just saw translates into B1G competition. When the gophers play competitive games the building is loud. When the gophers are in a close game against one of the top teams in the B1G, the building is really loud. The problem is that those games are a small percentage of the home schedule.

How loud or full is Cameron when Duke is playing Root Beer State in mid November? This could be an example:

http://www.dukechronicle.com/articl...ll-routs-unc-asheville-front-small-home-crowd
 

Impressions? A lotta' work to do, especially on the boards and defensively, but plenty of time to get better before the fun stuff (Big Ten) starts. Looking forward to seeing how this team evolves.
 

You must log in or register to reply here.



Top Bottom