Badgers hold off Gophers to snap their Minnesota losing streak
by GopherNation on Dec 29, 2010 10:18 AM CST
in Gopher Basketball
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PrintFor another perspective go to Bucky's 5 Qtr recap
The Golden Gophers battled back from a 10 point deficit in the second half to take a brief lead in Madison but Jordan Taylor and Jon Leuer were too much as they led the Badgers to an early 1-0 record in the Big Ten. This was an enjoyable game to watch between two good teams. Both teams really played to their strengths while their opponent tried to take advantage of their weaknesses. In the end it was a one possession game where the home team finished off the visitor and Wisconsin won 60-68.
Marcus Fuller accurately points out that the Gophers were clearly lacking a leader down the stretch. We'll get back to this because it may be the second most glaring deficiency this team currently has. The first is clearly our perimeter defense. With Al Nolen back in the lineup, we do a pretty good job of slowing down penetration from the perimeter but we give up wide open looks from three too often and it is really just too easy for the opposing offense. Despite our best efforts in the second half to go toe-to-toe with Wisconsin, when you allow your opponent to shoot 46% from three in the second half you are not going to win those games. If I were to make excuses, we struggle more than most when our opponent has athletic big men who can shoot. I can live with Jordan Taylor shooting 2/9 from three, that is pretty good defense. But Jon Leuer and Keaton Nankivil shooting 4/8 isn't good and Tim Jarmusz 3/3 is just poor defense.
And in the end we really did lack a true go-to guy down the stretch. Al Nolen tried but in the last 2:23 he was 0/3 (0/6 for the game). Down 4, Devoe Joseph took the ball the length of the court but settled for a 10 foot jump shot instead of getting to the rim. All that time our two leading scorers, Trevor Mbakwe and Blake Hoffarber, didn't take a shot. In these situations the go-to guy really has to be Al Nolen. He is the one guy on this team who can get himself all the way to the rim, the trouble is he struggles to finish with a made basket more than most. Devoe is more of a shooter than a scorer. He can nail that game winning shot for you because he can get himself an open shot, though it is usually a fade-away. But down 2, 3 or 4 needing to get a quick layup is not his strength.
With just under 6 minutes the game was tied and from that point it was Jordan Taylor being greater than the sum of Minnesota's parts.
The Gophers (11-2, 0-1) went 1 for 10 from the field during that span, including six straight misses by Devoe Joseph, Colton Iverson, Al Nolen and Ralph Sampson III. That's four Minnesota players trying to do the job that one player did for the Badgers (11-2, 1-0).
The final minute was still anybody's game but Wisconsin made a couple plays to finish off the Gophers. Trailing by 2, Al Nolen defended Jordan Taylor very well forcing a missed three with 16 seconds left. But Jon Leuer was not boxed out and he secured the rebound essentially sealing the win. After that the Badgers went 4/4 from the free throw line and it was over.
With all of that said there were some things we did well. We dominated the paint and we dominated the boards. Trevor Mbakwe had yet another double-double and Ralph Sampson scored 14 points to go with 7 seven rebounds. As a team we outscored Wisconsin in the paint 34-12. And we really beat them up rebounding to the tune of 42-24! That is really an astounding rebounding differential, against a good rebounding team. 17 offensive rebounds led to 16 second chance points. We also did a great job taking care of the ball with only 8 turnovers! But Wisconsin was better with only 2 for the game, a truly astounding number. So it was the Badger's ball control and shooting that bested our rebounding interior dominance.
The game had a very distinct Minnesota flavor to it. The Gophers started four players who are native to Minnesota and Wisconsin started 3. For the Badgers their Minnesota natives accounted for 67.6% of their points and 58.3% of their rebounds.
It was a good game, we did some things very well and like I said earlier some of our deficienies were exposed enough that it was a loss. No moral victories in the Big Ten but this was a one possession game on the road against another very good team. If we play like that we'll be just fine this season. Not good enough to win the league but good enough to get a favored seed and a product worth watching this season.
Video of Tubby Smith's post game press conference below the break.
There is no time to dwell on this game as Michigan State is up next on New Year's Eve.
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With MSU and OSU coming...
…losing this game hurt more than I think you give it credit for hurting. Most likely, we are 0-3 in the Big 10 after 3 games and 11-4 overall having been 11-1 a week earlier.
It’s not the end of the world obviously, but mentally, confidence heads south as articles come out with scenarios for missing a “sure thing” dance invite start to buzz the blogs and other Minnesota media channels…and we’ll fall out of the Top 25 by next week at this time which will also cause needless worry and drama.
I’m comfortable the team will finish the year with a pre- Big 10 tourney lock on the NCAA tourney….but it will be a rough week and a half to start the Big 10 season here.
Fingers crossed for players to remain healthy.
We play IU at home before we play OSU
We should be at least 1-3, and I really think we have a shot at MSU
"If the world were perfect, it wouldn't be." - Yogi Berra
I also
think we have a good shot at MSU. They are not playing great right now, they get better as the season goes along but they are more vulnerable right now.
what you say here can, and will, be used against you The Daily Gopher
by GopherNation on Dec 29, 2010 12:39 PM CST up reply actions
2 things
1 – I think you are vastly overestimating the power of blog buzz.
2 – a win is always greater than a loss but it isn’t too terrible. We could VERY easily finish the conference schedule 7-2 in our last 9 games so starting 0-1 or even 1-3 isn’t that bad. Every time we lose a game like this it just means we can’t stub our toe in a game against someone we should beat.
I thought we played much better last night than we have in a few weeks so that was encouraging. But we have a couple warts and they are not getting any better.
what you say here can, and will, be used against you The Daily Gopher
by GopherNation on Dec 29, 2010 12:38 PM CST up reply actions
That's fair.
warts….well said. The biggest wart I notice is our generous perimeter defense. Kills me. I can’t get past it. It allows absolute nobodies who may have a good shooting night to stay with us. Tubby has GOT to adjust. We can’t rely on teams missing 3 point shots in order to win games. I don’t understand with our size and athleticism/inside presence why we give up so many easy, spoon fed 3 point shots. Often times to a team’s off-guard or other best shooter! Come on Tubby….adjust!
As I said, i’m definitely not even close to panic mode, I’m more just pissed off that we lost to Wisconsin and I had to watch all of it happen. So I’m bitter. We are up a point, they hit a 3, we throw the ball away, game is over.
it is all technique imo
penetration happens and all five Gopher defenders stand up, turn their backs to their man out at the three point line and retreat to the lane to stop the penetration.
Now you have to have get to the lane to stop penetration but this team isn’t staying in their stances and you don’t turn around. Then when the kickout happens we just have absolutely no chance at recovering with a good closeout.
what you say here can, and will, be used against you The Daily Gopher
by GopherNation on Dec 29, 2010 1:13 PM CST up reply actions
MSU may destroy us if they are hitting their shots
what you say here can, and will, be used against you The Daily Gopher
by GopherNation on Dec 29, 2010 1:13 PM CST up reply actions
Perimeter Defense Vs. Rebounding
I don’t think you can complain about the perimeter defense when you have a superior front line. That front line allows you to outrebound a ‘decent’ rebounding team 42-24. I just don’t see how you can expect both.
Mark 8:36
why not?
I expect the big men to do their job and the perimeter guys to do theirs.
It is not unreasonable to expect our backcourt guys to put some pressure on their shooters.
what you say here can, and will, be used against you The Daily Gopher
by GopherNation on Dec 29, 2010 7:08 PM CST up reply actions
MSU
I think we will give MSU all they can handle and we can definitely beat them. I thought we had Indiana in there before OSU as well. It hurts because in a one possession game you can look back to so many little things, like Nolen and Sampson running down the floor and jacking up a 3 before any time has come off the shot clock. I’m ok with Hoffarber or Joseph doing that since they have proven they can hit the shot, but c’mon.
Rodney started great and then dissappeared and we had a hard time getting shots for Blake. It’s also frustrating to now have a go-to scorer down the stretch and I don’t think this will be the last time we will say that this season.
Anyone else feeling my Gophers plus 7 1/2 points pain today??
Tubby has to realize that Joseph cannot defend any PG in this league this year. He stayed with Joseph on Taylor way too long when Nolan was sitting. As much as I hate zone, you need to switch to it. Also, I really like the looks of Chip Armelin (sp?). If you want to stay man, than put that pit bull on their PG. I see a big U of M letdown on the MSU horizon. One positive, I liked the effort last night except for the most important rebound of the night.
I don’t disagree that we “have a shot” against any team in the country…I’m just laying out a worst scenario in my mind being we lose to MSU/OSU. Forgot Indy…ok, 12-4 and 1-3 in Big 10.
None of it is a big deal in the scheme of the season, but a rough start and I really feel we should have nailed Wisconsin’s balls to the floor (pun intended). Wisky isn’t a great team this year by any means….
And Tejas…yes….I’m feeling pain of a meaningless end with 2 seconds left blows the spread!!!!! I’m with you. Painful.
Can we *please*
Make our free throws? Good lord, I don’t know that a team can shoot itself in the foot from the stripe like the Gophers do and still be any kind of legitimate factor in the conference.
73.3% free throws for the game
It didn’t seem like it because Sampson missed a couple of critical free throws at the end, but this is not a bad percentage for the team. Of course, when WI hits 17 out of their 18 it looks worse than it was as well.
Agree
73.3% is actually very good.
The biggest reason we lost is because our most athletic players (Nolen and Williams) went scoreless the last 35 minutes of the game. Oh, and because Wisconsin turned the ball over only once per half.
I hate that there aren’t protected rivalries in basketball. We should get the chance to play our biggest rival twice each season. Actually, I hate that the conference doesn’t just expand the schedule (it would probably help as many conference teams’ RPI as it would hurt with additional losses).
Yeah I agree
Let’s skip the games against the likes of SDSU and play 2 more conference games, 3 more next year. That’s all it would take.
"If the world were perfect, it wouldn't be." - Yogi Berra
I agree...I was not too disappointed
Winning at Kohl Center is almost impossible. A win here would have been huge.
The Badgers won’t win at “The Barn.”
If the Gophers can do a better job of defending the outside shooting we will win our fair share of Big 10 games.
Virginia won at the Barn...
…so what makes you think Wisconsin wouldn’t (if they actually played there this year?).
I think losing to a lower ranked and presumed “lesser” team, having the lead with 6+ minutes left in the game, should disappoint you.
And you say “if they can do a better job of defending the outside shot”…but we’ve all known that since the first game of the year and throughout the season thus far. Poor technique and players are too quick to double team on penetration (“that’s what she said”). We obviously CAN’T make that adjustment that you attribute future divisional success to…which is the most troubling flaw in my humble opinion.
Ther first time a team “shot better against us than they have all last season”, it could have been a fluke, but as more and more teams and players had “career shooting nights” against us, to me that’s a systemic failure/issue. Tubby has never addressed it to my knowledge, so he’s sticking to the kind of defense he wants to play. Send everybody to the lane to rebound the “hopefully” missed 3 pointers….play the odds of a team shooting 30-35% from 3’s and never getting a second shot or an easy layup in a game.
sure we know it
and that was kind of my point. We do somethings well and we do other things poorly. Tuesday’s game was exactly what we expected but Wisconsin did just enough to get the win.
what you say here can, and will, be used against you The Daily Gopher
by GopherNation on Dec 30, 2010 9:28 AM CST up reply actions
What?
Who was the lower ranked and “lesser” team?
Wisconsin was actually favored in the game by about the margin they beat us. Wisconsin is also higher ranked in a lot of computer rankings which are much more reliable than human polls.
My mistake...
…I never saw Wisconsin ranked higher than us in either predicted finishes in the Big 10 or any national rankings/polls (prior to Tuesday). If so, I apologize.
I think I’m just really pissed that we had it in our grasp and lost.
This pleases me...
Now this is the kind of passion Gopher Nation needs…
MADISON, Wis. – Madison police say a University of Minnesota fan is in custody for punching two Badgers fans in the face following this week’s basketball game between the two schools.Police say the 22-year-old Madison man is being held on tentative charges of substantial battery and disorderly conduct. Authorities say the man and his friends exchanged words with the victims in a bar after Wisconsin upset No. 14 Minnesota 68-60 on Tuesday. Officers say the argument escalated outside. They say the suspect hit a 24-year-old man 15 to 20 times, cutting his face and injuring his ear. They say the suspect also assaulted a 25-year-old, who needed stitches on the bridge of his nose. WISC-TV quotes police as saying alcohol contributed to “a host of bad decisions being made.”
DANG
my initial reaction was to joke that the Badger fan had it coming but hitting a guy 15-20 times in the face is pretty serious. If a basketball game gets you to react like that then you need a new hobby. Or start cheering for Duke.
what you say here can, and will, be used against you The Daily Gopher
by GopherNation on Dec 30, 2010 9:30 AM CST up reply actions
Let's applaud the man...
…he was a visitor who punched two grown men home fans in the face 20 times…balls like that are to be applauded. It’s the stuff of legend…did nobody do anything to him? You’d think he’d get killed doing that on their home turf!
Yes, I’m saying this tongue in cheek…though part of it is true, it is somewhat shocking he lived to tell the story.
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