Eastern Washington Eagles @ Minnesota Golden Gophers GameThread, Nov 26, 2008 7:30 PM CST

Eastern Washington at Minnesota Offical Game Thread

by GopherNation on Nov 26, 2008 5:45 PM CST in Gopher Basketball

Eastern Washington Eagles @ Minnesota Golden Gophers

I'd be lying if I said I knew much of anything about Eastern Washington and I assume that you are in the same boat.

Here is a little snapshot of the EMU Eagles....

Record: 3-1
Wins over: Idaho, UC-Irvine, Texas-Arlington
Lost to: Illinois by 16

Players to watch...

		Pnts / Gm	Reb / Gm
Bobby Valentine	Junior, PG	18	1.8
Brandon Moore	Junior, C (6-9)	13	7.5
Milan Stanojevic	Senior, G	9.3	2.5

Efficiency stats for both teams (brief explanation below)...

	EWU	Minn
Off Efficiency	101.1	101.3
Def Efficiency	99.7	92.8
Eff Differential	1.40	8.50

eFG%	49.8	50.0
Off Reb %	30.5	38.3
Def Reb %	27.4	35.5

Steal %	7.6	11.6
Turnover %	18.9	23.3

You will see a heavy dose of efficiency stats from me throughout the season as it is so much more accurate than your typical accumulation of box score numbers. A full explantion of the KenPom Efficiency stats can be found HERE, but I'll give you the dummy version.

Basically everything gets broken down to the possession level. Ken Pomery explains the formulas to get to that point, but it is important that everything get reduced to that level. A team like North Carolina will have a ton of possessions which leads to a lot of points scored per GAME. This will also lead to their opponent having a lot of possessions which leads to a lot of points give up per game. A team like Wisconsin will obviously have opposite results. But this means points per game or points allowed per game are misleading stats so everything is reduced to possessions. Like I said you can find more info on the site, this isn't a lesson in statistics, but a brief explanation of the stats I picked for team comparison...

Off / Def Efficiency - average points scored / allowed in a game with 100 possessions
Eff Differential - obviously score more than you allow, teams that are +2 or greater do well come NCAA time.
eFG% - combo of regular FG% and thee point %, basically you get a little bump for made threes because they are worth a little bit more (looking for 51.5% or greater)
Off Reb% - the % of time you rebound your own misses (strive for 35%)
Def Reb% - the % of time you rebound your opponents misses
Steal % - % of opponents possessions you steal
Turnover % - obviously the amount of possessions you turn the ball over (should be sub 19%)

Numbers that should jump out for this game are the Gopher's turnover % which is really high (234th in the nation). This overall really doesn't concern me through just a handful of games, but it is worth keeping an eye on tonight. Rebounding looks good for the home team tonight and there really is no reason to think we have anything to worry about.

With our young and inexperienced team I cannot ever expect a blowout (although it is possible), but I'm pretty confident in a W tonight over the Eagles.

PreGame Meal:

Hoffarber to have a "bigger role"
Tubby wants them to play defense
From the Barn has some keys to the game

0 recs | Comment 235 comments

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Comments

I feel like this is a team...

…we should blow out. But I thought we would win comfortably at CSU last weekend, too.

by rencito on Nov 26, 2008 6:00 PM CST 0 recs

It's early...

…. Other than teams that have been together for awhile, many, many teams are playing closer with teams they should beat easily. Take Purdue from last year. Very young team. They lost back to back to Wofford and Iowa State during the pre-conference slate. Young teams will be streaky, IMO, and play up and down to the competition.

Gentlemen, you can't fight in here! This is the War Room.

by PJS on Nov 26, 2008 7:10 PM CST 0 recs

agreed

I would just like to see them blow someone out for a change. There were definitely stretches during the CSU game where they were clicking and looked really good. I would like to see that more often. But I agree, they should get better as the year progresses.

by rencito on Nov 26, 2008 7:27 PM CST up 0 recs

score updates every few min would be appreciated

what you say here can, and will, be used against you

by GopherNation on Nov 26, 2008 7:18 PM CST 0 recs

Well the BTN has Old Dominion v. MSU women's hoops on now.

There is 4:30 ish to play. Think they leave this game to go to the Gophers?

Gentlemen, you can't fight in here! This is the War Room.

by PJS on Nov 26, 2008 7:27 PM CST up 0 recs

they better!

by rencito on Nov 26, 2008 7:28 PM CST up 0 recs

832 my time. Still on MSU blowout of ODU. BTN sucks

Gentlemen, you can't fight in here! This is the War Room.

by PJS on Nov 26, 2008 7:32 PM CST up 0 recs

Please help me...!!!

What do I do?

The DVR is currently recording two things, so I can’t watch the Gophers until 8:00. Both shows are the girl’s. Do I:

A). Stop one of them and pretend I don’t know anything about it?
B.) Wait it out and listen on the radio
C.) Wake her up while she is sleeping to ask her
D.) Wake her up while she is sleeping to watch the game in the bedroom

by rencito on Nov 26, 2008 7:32 PM CST 0 recs

A. Obviously.

Gentlemen, you can't fight in here! This is the War Room.

by PJS on Nov 26, 2008 7:35 PM CST up 0 recs

oooh been there

are they young enough to believe that it was the DVRs fault if their show doesn’t record?

what you say here can, and will, be used against you

by GopherNation on Nov 26, 2008 7:36 PM CST 0 recs

A

she’s got to understand where Gophers fall in comparison to Oprah or Trading Spaces or whatever

what you say here can, and will, be used against you

by GopherNation on Nov 26, 2008 7:36 PM CST 0 recs

game on.

Gentlemen, you can't fight in here! This is the War Room.

by PJS on Nov 26, 2008 7:37 PM CST 0 recs

JAS starting and got the first two.

Why does he start?

Gentlemen, you can't fight in here! This is the War Room.

by PJS on Nov 26, 2008 7:37 PM CST 0 recs

Colton with the best inside move I've seen from him!

Gentlemen, you can't fight in here! This is the War Room.

by PJS on Nov 26, 2008 7:39 PM CST 0 recs

i think it is out of respect

that jas starts…i don’t think we’ll see this in the non-conf games…that being said, he hasn’t been bad in the early going

by rencito on Nov 26, 2008 7:40 PM CST 0 recs

precident has been set

advantage girlfriend

what you say here can, and will, be used against you

by GopherNation on Nov 26, 2008 7:41 PM CST up 0 recs

Inside out ball with Iverson as the focal point.

My guess is Tubby is demanding getting the ball inside!

Gentlemen, you can't fight in here! This is the War Room.

by PJS on Nov 26, 2008 7:40 PM CST 0 recs

Westbrook out with a shin injury?

Gentlemen, you can't fight in here! This is the War Room.

by PJS on Nov 26, 2008 7:42 PM CST 0 recs

I'm at Wolves game

Phoenix shot 68.4% in the first quarter

what you say here can, and will, be used against you

by GopherNation on Nov 26, 2008 7:42 PM CST 0 recs

I’m watching the Wolves on TV, no BTN out here at my lake cabin

Regular score/ any type of in-depth updates would be incredibly greatly superbly appreciated.

by gopherz on Nov 26, 2008 7:43 PM CST up 0 recs

check out the Wolves SBN site

canis hoopus

what you say here can, and will, be used against you

by GopherNation on Nov 26, 2008 7:44 PM CST up 0 recs

No I meant for the Gopher game. I can watch the Wolves, but not the Gophers.

Timberwolves have been embarrassing so far tonight.

by gopherz on Nov 26, 2008 7:45 PM CST up 0 recs

what???

i don’t think they shoot that high in the pre-game shootaround

by rencito on Nov 26, 2008 7:44 PM CST up 0 recs

nice move iverson...again

by rencito on Nov 26, 2008 7:46 PM CST 0 recs

we are in the iverson era!!!

ha!

by rencito on Nov 26, 2008 7:47 PM CST 0 recs

“The Big Cactus, sticks the Wolves”

Hahahaha

What’s Iverson doing so great? And what’s the score/time?

by gopherz on Nov 26, 2008 7:47 PM CST 0 recs

Lost my connection.

It’s 9-9 at the moment. We’re hammering the ball inside to Iverson it seems like on every posession.

Gentlemen, you can't fight in here! This is the War Room.

by PJS on Nov 26, 2008 7:48 PM CST 0 recs

Iverson again. I think he has 6 of our 11.

Gentlemen, you can't fight in here! This is the War Room.

by PJS on Nov 26, 2008 7:48 PM CST 0 recs

They went into Colt twice on that posession.

Gentlemen, you can't fight in here! This is the War Room.

by PJS on Nov 26, 2008 7:48 PM CST up 0 recs

Awesome

It’s great to hear Colt 45 succeed.

by gopherz on Nov 26, 2008 7:49 PM CST 0 recs

wow

iverson is a monster

by rencito on Nov 26, 2008 7:49 PM CST 0 recs

Wow! Carter misses a drive. Colton catches the rebound and slams!

EWU answers and its 13-11 MN.

Gentlemen, you can't fight in here! This is the War Room.

by PJS on Nov 26, 2008 7:50 PM CST 0 recs

twin towers in there

by rencito on Nov 26, 2008 7:50 PM CST 0 recs

and there is sampson!!

by rencito on Nov 26, 2008 7:51 PM CST 0 recs

High low now!

Iverson up high to RSIII down low. A 2 and a foul!

Gentlemen, you can't fight in here! This is the War Room.

by PJS on Nov 26, 2008 7:51 PM CST 0 recs

FWIW, EWU has no one above 6'9

Gentlemen, you can't fight in here! This is the War Room.

by PJS on Nov 26, 2008 7:51 PM CST 0 recs

EWU sounds kind of like NDSU then when it comes to size. Moorman is a joke. I’m actually from Fargo and back home in Fargo right now for Thanksgiving break so I’m looking forward to our winning on Saturday. GO GOPHERS!!

by gopherz on Nov 26, 2008 7:52 PM CST 0 recs