Golden Nuggets for 3.10.09

by PJS on Mar 10, 2009 8:27 AM CDT in Golden Nuggets

Guard play. That's the reason why the men's basketball team has slid from a top-25 ranking to questionable bubble status. Over the last two games we've seen Tubby Smith bench his junior scoring leader and defensive oriented point guard.

Devoe Joseph and Blake Hoffarber were OK in their starting roles. Against Wisconsin they got the team off to a nice start, hit a couple early shots and played solid defense. But now Tubby Smith is switching things up again and putting Al Nolen and Lawrence Westbrook back into the starting lineup.

Given the magnitude of the game against Northwestern--in my opinion it's a win and you're in/lose and start packing for the NIT--Smith's decision doesn't surprise me. Despite Nolen's lackadasical play during the second half of the year, and Westbrook's roller-coaster like performances, the duo represent Minnesota's best chance to win.

This article which breaks down the entire Big Ten's tourney chances quotes collegerip.com analyst Jerry Palm as suggesting the Gophers, Penn State and MIchigan are competing against Miami, Oklahoma State, Miami, Maryland and Virginia Tech, among others.
This blogger puts out a few good ideas to improve college basketball--get rid of the posession arrow and reduce the # of TV timeouts--before taking a cheap shot at the Big Ten.
It's one thing for pundits who first cheer for other conferences to put down Big Ten basketball, but for some reason seeing this Illini fan use the talking points of the naysayers bothered me. Saying the Big Ten isn't up to snuff with the ACC or Big East is silly. The Big Ten/ACC Challenge was won by one contest this year (the closest ever) and while the Big East might be top heavy with Louisville, Pittsburgh and Connecticut, the Big Ten just might be deeper.
I found this ranking of SEC basketball coaches interesting. It shows by comparison just how great the coaches are in the Big Ten.
Ben Woodside and the North Dakota State Bison will play Oakland tonight on ESPN2 for a ticket to the NCAA Tournament.
If you're preparing for the men's hockey team's showdown this weekend against St. Cloud State, Roman Augstoviz has a bunch of need to know information here.

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What Might Have Been

Watch Ben Woodside and NDSU tonight and remember how badly he wanted to be a Gopher. A lights out shooter who knows how to create a shot. No Gopher guard comes close. Well done Monson. . .

by mojo5610 on Mar 10, 2009 9:10 AM CDT reply actions

Yes, Woodside would be nice, wouldn't he.

Maroon and Gold Headquarters: The Daily Gopher

by PJS on Mar 10, 2009 9:57 AM CDT up reply actions

I had mentioned Nolen starting...

…under the NW article (about 4 down). Personally I’d rather have Joseph starting at guard rather than Nolen. But that’s just my personal feeling. I think he adds a “spark” to the Gophers lineup which Nolen doesn’t seem to have.
But you are 100% correct in saying that we have no point guard play and that is so important, especially during playoff time.
In fact, looking at the play of guards is one of the major factors I use in determining winners in the NCAA tournament.
Maybe that’s why I don’t do better than I do. LOL

by COJOMAY on Mar 10, 2009 9:23 AM CDT reply actions

Thanks for the link to my blog...

… even though it was to voice some displeasure with my opinion ;-) I’ve actually been a vehement defender for years about Big Ten basketball, particularly with the fact that I do believe that our conference has greater depth most seasons while places like the Big East and ACC are usually more top-heavy with a handful of excellent teams and a slew of bottom-feeders to inflate records. I just don’t think that’s the case this year, though. The Big Ten has benefited from a combination of (1) a general downgrade in the number of upper level college basketball teams nationally compared to last year and (2) parity within the conference, which gave a large number of the conference’s teams a lot of opportunities to play teams ranked 26-50 in the RPI (thereby inflating their own RPI numbers) while generally not having to play many teams ranked 1-25 in the RPI compared to the Big East and ACC. Maybe it’s just me, but there are a number of Big East and ACC teams that have pretty much no chance at all to make the NCAA Tournament barring winning their respective conference tourneys outright (Notre Dame, Georgetown, Maryland, Miami) that would all likely be favored in head-to-head match-ups against the bubble teams in our conference (Penn State, Northwestern).

The bigger long-term issue, whether it’s fair or not, is that there’s a national perception that the Big Ten is a grind-it-out conference, which generally isn’t a good thing in terms of attracting the very best high school players. I think that could change over the next few years as more athletic recruiting classes come in for Michigan State, Ohio State, and Illinois. As of now, though, the conference’s overall pace seems to be dictated by the always-good-but-never-great program of Wisconsin, while other conferences’ paces are dictated by very elite programs such as Duke, UNC, and UConn. If Big Ten basketball wants to be an elite conference, then its style of play should be dictated by its elite programs (not just the consistently good program that is never a legit national title contender).

Frank the Tank's Slant

by Frank the Tank on Mar 10, 2009 1:14 PM CDT reply actions

Could be wrong .... but

The conference’s pace of play and overall style give many of the run and gun teams fits. Some matchups won’t be good, but some teams aren’t used to playing defense for 35 second stretches. I think we could see a good NCAA Tournament for the B10. We aren’t going to get 8 teams in for no reason. The conference really did kick-butt during the non-conference slate. That wasn’t an accident, IMO.

Maroon and Gold Headquarters: The Daily Gopher

by PJS on Mar 10, 2009 2:57 PM CDT up reply actions