Wildcats Dominate Gophers 57-49

Wow. That was brutal. Outside of a late charge that was basically too late, Minnesota was completely dominated by Northwestern Saturday afternoon at The Barn. The Wildcats were sharper on offense and immensely better on defense, and the Gophers were never able to get anything going.

There are plenty of numbers to tell the story with, but Minnesota having 12 points and 10 turnovers midway through the first half is a good one to go with. The Gophers took horrendous care of the ball in the first half. Northwestern’s defense was very good ““ smothering, swarming, and seemingly without holes ““ but the Gophers also simply made a lot of bad decisions and careless passes. It was like they had never seen a zone or a trap before.

Minnesota’s defense was similarly frustrating. They trapped when they didn’t need to, turned their backs on their men, and simply left guys unguarded ““ each of which is something Northwestern’s offense is geared to exploit. You don’t leave the Big Ten’s leading scoring (Vedran Vukusic) open for jumpshots, and you don’t lose track of a guy (Craig Moore) who’s on his way to a career night with 5 of 7 three-pointers made. Those are basic things you just don’t do.

How Vincent Grier and Moe Hargrow can score a combined 2 points in the first half (and how Grier can go the first 19:59 without a shot attempt) I don’t know. How five different Gophers can commit at least 2 turnovers I don’t know. Why more than half of the Gophers’ shot attempts were three-pointers (26 out of 51, although a few of those came in desperation time) when three-point shooting is not their strength, I don’t know. I just don’t know.

Dan Coleman was the only starter to shoot 50% and finished with 11 points. Grier turned a scoreless first half into a decent total of 15 points and 7 rebounds, but he was far from his usual self on offense. Adam Boone finished with 9 points (all in the first half), and Hargrow finished with 8 points, 7 points, 5 assists, and 5 steals (but also wasn’t his usual self offensively).

A lot has been said about Minnesota’s problems with the flu this past week, and I hope that’s the cause of what we witnessed. Although if it was, we might have a pandemic on our hands, because the Gophers played with no energy whatsoever. That needs to change big-time Tuesday night against Wisconsin, or things could really get ugly.

Here’s the box score.

Talk about the game on our Gopher Basketball message board.