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Gopher season ends - POST SEASON OPEN THREAD
by GopherNation on Mar 19, 2010 2:25 PM CDT
in Gopher Basketball
22 comments
Another NCAA Tournament and another first round exit. Time to talk about the season that was, the game that ended it and what to look for next year...
22 comments | 0 recs
Gophers vs. Muskateers of Xavier - OPEN THREAD
by GopherNation on Mar 19, 2010 10:15 AM CDT
in Gopher Basketball
353 comments
There were several upsets yesterday, can the Gophers add to the list of double-digit seeds winning? It is pretty interesting when you look all over the internet there is a distinct split between who picks the Gophers to win and who is suggesting Xavier will win.
Virtually every prediction by a human (columnist, blogger, President, etc) is picking Xavier to win. While basically every computer model or statistical prediction has the Gophers winning or at least ranked higher than the Muskateers. Kind of an interesting difference. I guess Xavier passes the "eye test", whatever that means.
I'm not going to spent too much time getting into his game in depth. We know that Minnesota is playing better over the last couple weeks. But we are still not exactly consistent, nobody knows which Gopher team will show up. I'm peacefully confident as I sit here thinking about the game. I know that Xavier is very good and they are used to the NCAA Tournament. I know they are balanced and talented. I know they shoot the three well and they rebound well. And I know we typically struggle struggle defending the three and rebounding. But I still feel OK about this game.
Keys to the Game
- And I used #1 for a reason. This is the big one. Get Blake Hoffarber going. When he scores 11 points or more we are undefeated this year, 14-0 by my count (20-1 if you go back to last year). That stat is hard to ignore and it's not a coincidence. When he is shooting the ball well defenses have to focus on him. And when they do then things are a little bit easier for Lawrence Westbrook, Devoe Joseph and Ralph Sampson. Hoffarber hasn't had a good game in several games so hopefully Xavier is spending more time gameplanning for the rest of our backcourt and The Hoff will get several good looks. I also know the Muskateers play good team defense and nothing will come easy. But the one thing that is very clear to me is that Hoffarber needs some open looks and he needs to hit them.
- Defend Jordan Crawford! Duh, right? Slow down the guy who scores 19 points per game, BRILLIANT! But so very true. Crawford may get quite a few points but he needs to really earn them. Make him work for everything.
- Establish the Paint. Sampson and Colten Iverson need to be physical and dominate the paint. Xavier's Jason Love is a big guy. At 6-9, 265 lbs expect Love to really by physical with our big men. I'm not as concerned about our centers scoring, but we need to rebound and we need to defend. Don't let Love control the boards or have his way offensively in the lane. He is a load and we need to be prepared for him.
- Defend the Three. Xavier shoots the three well, we often go in stretches where we choose to not defend shooters. If we don't get out and get a hand in the face of every shooter, we will get run out of the gym. This is non-negotiable.
So if I list enough keys to the game I'm sure at least a couple of them will be right. I'm excited for the game. According to FanMatch, which used 23 psychological and emotional factors to determine the best games to watch, we are the game to watch tomorrow.
I'm not sure if this will work in the Mpls market but her is the link to watch the game through CBS MMOD.
353 comments | 0 recs |
Golden Nugz 03.19.10
by GopherNation on Mar 19, 2010 4:00 AM CDT
in Golden Nuggets
12 comments
We haven't forgotten about Nugz this week, just focused on the NCAA Tournament.
Walter Bond was on the 1990 Gopher team that made a run to the Elite Eight (I think that one still counts). He lost his E8 ring (it was stolen), but it was miraculously found in a recent police raid.
"I don't think I knew how much the ring meant to me until I picked it up," Bond said Tuesday, hours after he was reunited with the ring at the Ramsey County Sheriff's Office. "It was incredible."
Kind of a cool story and gets me to thinking about just how cool it would be to see a run to the Elite Eight. It all starts later this morning. Bond is a motivational speaker, he needs to be in that locker room this morning with his ring and do some of that speaking and motivating.
- Big Ten Geeks have a lengthy preview of the Gopher's pod. No real predictions but a nice breakdown of all four teams. Most interestingly, they found a stat that ranks Minnesota 346th out of 347 in consistency. I'm not real familiar with this stat but I generally trust KenPom stats and maybe we aren't really the 346th least consistent team in the country but clearly we are inconsistent.
- This is a great article on Tubby Smith. It starts from his post game interview after Kentucky lost to Kansas in the second round of the NCAA Tournament a few years ago.
Fast forward to the 2010 Milwaukee sub-regional, where Smith looked happy, relaxed and completely at ease with his calling, no matter that the Gophers had taken a 335-mile bus ride to reach the Bradley Center.
I am so glad he is our coach. He isn't perfect and he's not a miracle worker but he is elite and we are luck to have him. - Brent Yarina of BTN had Iverson and Joseph on his B10 Tourney All-Tournament team.
- Tubby took the time yesterday to promote Vince Taylor as an assistant who is ready to move on and be a head coach. Personally I don't want to see him leave, but for his sake I'd love to see him get a good job somewhere outside of the midwest.
- Black Shoe Diaries previews the NCAA Wrestling Championships with predictions of All-American's by weight class.
- Pioneer Press gives us 5 Keys for the Gophers.
12 comments | 0 recs
NCAA 1st round - OPEN THREAD (with MMOD video)
by GopherNation on Mar 18, 2010 9:00 AM CDT
in Gopher Basketball
25 comments
Below you should see the CBS March Madness on Demand Widget. Choose your game and let's enjoy watching the field. 24 hours till the Gophers play but there will be plenty to watch before then.
Click LAUNCH PLAYER for pop up player.
enjoy...
25 comments | 0 recs |
RESPECT lost, time to earn it again
Sports Illustrated's experts have their full brackets posted for all. Despite Vegas saying this game is essentially a coin-flip, 7 of the 8 "experts" picked Xavier to beat your Golden Gophers
2 days ago
GopherNation
3 comments
0 recs
Will Minnesota Fans Take Advantage of a 'Home Game'
by PJS on Mar 17, 2010 8:09 AM CDT
56 comments
One of the first reactions that many Minnesota fans had when hearing that the Gophers would play Xavier in Milwaukee was that it was essentially a home game for the local team.
That apparent advantage is even being discussed nationally, and was on the mind of the NCAA Selection Committee, as you can see in this Andy Katz column. This is great, right? Well, maybe.
From everything I've heard, getting tickets is next to impossible, even for some season ticket holders. So, for many who might want to attend, they'll have to go the extra mile to get themselves tickets. They'll have to wake up early Friday morning or leave Thursday night for Milwaukee, without ticket in hand, and head to the Bradley Center to scalp tickets. Not the biggest deal in the world, but a disincentive for sure to many.
I'm very curious to see how many Minnesota fans do indeed make the trip. Will the crowd be a partisan one in Minnesota's favor? I sure hope so, but Golden Gophers fans don't exactly have a history of traveling well. And what will it look like nationally, and to potential recruits, if this so-called 'home game' looks to be neutral. I think that will look poorly. Just look at what Kentucky fans did in Nashville for the SEC Tournament. If you didn't watch that SEC final, almost the entire arena was filled with blue and white. That was a true home game for UK on a neutral floor.
I know the Gophers don't have that sort of rabid following that has grown over decades. But if fans want to help Tubby Smith turn this program into a perennial Big Ten power, they sure better show up in large numbers. I'm hoping they will, but would bet they don't.
56 comments | 0 recs
TDG's Bracket Challenge
Click on the link above to join TDG's NCAA Tournament Bracket Challenge.
PASSWORD is - "tubby"
4 days ago
GopherNation
0 comments
0 recs
Golden Nugz - 3.16.10
by GopherNation on Mar 16, 2010 9:31 AM CDT
in Golden Nuggets
3 comments
Let's take a break from Gopher basketball for a few minutes.
Gopher Baseball is continuing to struggle in this early season. This past weekend the Gophers hosted the Metrodome Tournament. Game One was a game owned by Seth Rosin. The Gophers cruised to a 7-1 win over Harvard behind Rosin's 12 Ks. But game two and game three were losses to Creighton and South Dakota State. The 1-2 weekend puts the Gophers at 5-7 overall. Up next is a trip to Alabama for two games with the Crimson Tide, beginning today, and then they stay in the state to face Samford for four games.
Gopher Hockey's season is finished after losing their first round WCHA playoff matchup with North Dakota. The Gophers battled back to even the three-game series with a win on Saturday. But fell in game three 4-1 on Sunday to end their season. If I were you, I'd check out Gopher Puck Live for detailed reactions to the loss and the season.
- Gopher Hoops is taking the bus to Milwaukee. Now if they were serious about saving money, they'd take MegaBus. But this isn't a bad move in the current economic environment we live.
- The Evansville Courier and Press isn't all that impressed with the Big Ten's (not so) Fab Five in the tournament. But the highlight of the article is the nugget that Illinois is not hosting an NIT game because Cirque du Soleil is booked on their home court. What does Bruce Weber think about all of this? "It would be an understatement to say it's been a tough day," Weber said on Sunday night. "I don't think we have anyone to blame except ourselves."
- Basketball Prospectus is always very insightful and this article on the firing of Lickliter is no exception. The decline of Iowa basketball can directly be traced to the Northwestern State upset in the 2006 NCAA Tournament. A year later Alford left, Lickliter was hired, several kids transferred and the program has been in steady decline since.
- More thoughts on the Xavier v Minnesota matchup from the Cincinnati Enquirer.
- Oh, and Seantrel Henderson is going to sign with USC this week according to his father. OR they just haven't been in the headlines lately and need to get more stories published about SH.
- Once again, come back here to watch all out of market games on Thursday through Sunday. NCNCAA March Madness on Demand will be embedded and easy for you to watch as you comment in the daily open threads we'll be having. I know I'm linking to it every day, but I want everyone to see it.
3 comments | 0 recs |
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Big Ten Conference Standings
(updated 3.17.2010 at 10:46 PM CDT)
| Conf | Overall | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| W | L | W | L | |
Purdue Boilermakers
|
14 | 4 | 27 | 5 |
|
Ohio St. Buckeyes
|
14 | 4 | 27 | 7 |
|
Michigan St. Spartans
|
14 | 4 | 24 | 8 |
|
Wisconsin Badgers
|
13 | 5 | 23 | 8 |
|
Illinois Fighting Illini
|
10 | 8 | 19 | 14 |
|
Minnesota Golden Gophers
|
9 | 9 | 21 | 13 |
|
Northwestern Wildcats
|
7 | 11 | 20 | 14 |
|
Michigan Wolverines
|
7 | 11 | 15 | 17 |
|
Indiana Hoosiers
|
4 | 14 | 10 | 21 |
|
Iowa Hawkeyes
|
4 | 14 | 10 | 22 |
|
Penn St. Nittany Lions
|
3 | 15 | 11 | 20 |
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