Gophers Drop Double OT Downer to Da Illini
by GopherNation on Dec 27, 2011 11:36 PM CST
in Gopher Basketball
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PrintFor everyone who coming into tonight's game was wishing the Gophers had played one or two true road games in the non-conference schedule, you may have been right. The Gophers battled back from a 10 point halftime deficit to have a lead and the opportunity to ice it from the free throw line. But whether it was the pressure of trying to win in a hostile environment or fatigue or just a case of "you can't make them all" it wasn't enough and the Gophers dropped to 0-1 in the Big Ten. This one stings because it was our game to finish, twice, and we just couldn't notch what would have been a huge win.
Thinking back this game was a tale of three halves, kind of.
The first half the Gophers were slow, sloppy and shot 25% from the floor. Julian Welch and Ralph Sampson combined to shoot 2-12 and the Gopher bench shot 2-10. Meanwhile Meyers Leonard, Joseph Bertrand and Brandon Paul combined for 29 and it looked like a route was one. Amazingly the Gophers were still in the game for much of the half due to the 10 Illini turnovers. Then it was our turn with turnovers in the final minute as the Illini pushed the lead to 13 before Rodney Williams banked a three to keep it at 10.
The second half Gophers played great team defense and slowly overcame a 13 point hole with 13:20 to go. Just when I said the words out loud, "This one is over." the Gophers started forcing turnovers that led to points. The group the sparked the comeback included Andre Hollins, Joe Coleman and Elliott Eliason. It started with a 10-0 run sparked by those guys and from there Julian Welch and Ralph Sampson took over for the Gophers. The Gophers slowly worked their way to a late lead. In fact it was a two-point lead with 15 second left and a one-on-one opportunity for Julian Welch to ice the game. If you watched the game you know that he missed the front end, Illinois tied it and we move on to the third half.
The OT periods were not pretty. We struggled to score and eventually Illinois flexed. We did manage to have the ball, tied in the final seconds of OT-1 and Welch decided to take a shot with 15 seconds left giving Illinois the ball and a chance to win it. They missed and we went to double-OT where we got blitzed.
This was so frustrating because we had a chance to win. Not the kind of "chance" where if we nail a late three we win or the kind of "chance" where if a call or two goes our way we win. This was one where we had ball in the hands of an 87.5% free throw shooter. I'm not pissed, just sad. Of course there were missed shots throughout the game, especially in the 1st half. There were some bad turnovers and defensive breakdowns. All of which were crucial to winning a close game. Would have been nice to have this win.
With all of that said there were a few things I liked, after the break.
Team Defense - this was easily the best defense I have seen the Gophers play since maybe last November. If we can hold a Big Ten team like Illinois to 64 on their home floor, we'll win some Big Ten games.
Elliott Eliason - the kid is tough. He isn't terribly skilled but he played great defense on Meyers Leonard down the stretch and in OT.
Julian Welch - I know he missed the free throws but when a basket was needed he was the guy to get it. He is slowly turning into our offensive go-to guy.
Austin Hollins - was his usual solid self. I thought he was great on defense and effective on offense.
Free throw shooting - in spite of the KEY miss, we did shoot 16-18 from the line. You won't lose many games when you shoot 88.9% from the line.
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I'm happy
Would have been happier with a win, obviously, but come tournament time, it’s hard to believe the committee will look at a double-overtime conference road loss as truly a loss. And we played great at some parts of the game, never giving up even when it seemed like Illinois was running away with it.
"Our attitude is we look at ourselves and we grade ourselves. And even if we don’t like what’s happening on the other side, we don’t make a — it’s not our business" - Tony Larussa
I'm actually really annoyed.
Not “sky is falling” or “these guys suck” annoyed. Just “this is the sort of game we need to win 9 in the B1G” annoyed. That and the team’s inability to defend screens. I should probably get used to that since they don’t seem to improve on it ever and obviously they can play good team D anyway. But it’s a little point that annoys the crap out of me. =)
loss doens't really "hurt" us
but a win would have actually helped us and we had it in our grasp.
what you say here can, and will, be used against you The Daily Gopher
by GopherNation on Dec 28, 2011 9:20 AM CST up reply actions
Lots of Positives....
Can’t beleive I said “positives” with the way the first half went…..I almost turned off the DVR and went to bed…..but the fact that this team didn’t roll over and die was amazing…….last year it would have been a 20 point loss……I think Ralph stepped up pretty well and got to the foul line a number of times in the second half, just like Tubby was asking of him……Joe Colman and the rest of the bench are giving a nice spark everytime they come in……bummer that Welch missed the front end of the 1n1 at the end of regulation, but he made all but one up to that point I think…….should be an interesting season…..from what I saw last night, I think we should be able to hang with the middle of the pack in the Big 10……hope we can get those 9 wins without this one, but I agree that we need these to get there…..
Damn...
No way I thought this was a win before the game, so i shouldn’t be disappointed, but damn!!! They had it. Welch on the line, no way did i think he was going to miss the front end. This would have looked nice on a tourney resume.
I think the hard foul knocked Welch for a loop
He missed the layup and the free throw after that hard foul.
Illinois was pretty chippy with “non-foul” contact. Lots of hooking arms and bumping. Big 10 basketball.
BIG Ten basketball
before the game I wasn’t really buying into the “we should have played a game or two on the road” but getting a game or two in a hostile environment may have been helpful last night.
what you say here can, and will, be used against you The Daily Gopher
by GopherNation on Dec 28, 2011 9:42 AM CST up reply actions
I thought it was a little much, even for Big Ten basketball
Especially from Leonard
"Our attitude is we look at ourselves and we grade ourselves. And even if we don’t like what’s happening on the other side, we don’t make a — it’s not our business" - Tony Larussa
We will look back at this as a turning point
The laws of statistics would state things regress to the mean the more things happen… In sports, I believe this to be true, as the longer a game goes on, the more chances a better team (certainly one at home) has to win the game. This became evident as we did not take advantage of our chances to win at the end of regulation and the 1st overtime, which allowed a more talented home team one too many chances to beat the weaker opponent.
With a road win at Illinois, the team may have continued to believe, and the fans would start believing as well, making the NCAA tourney a (remote) possability. With this loss, I believe the team will regress to “who we thought they were” – which is an NIT team that will struggle to win (maybe not struggle to compete, but actually win) games in conference play. This game will remind them of “what could have been” when they look back at the season.
The T-Wolves lost 37 games by 10 points or less last season, and you know what that got them. There are no moral victories here. And the NCAA committee isn’t going to care if you lost a road game in December in regulation or overtime. They focus much more on the last 10 games, RPI and road wins.
I hope I am wrong about the Gophers, and they can be fun to watch even while losing, but last night’s loss will be indicative of our season.
They got hosed in the lottery Again
but #2 pick was not as bad as the past.
by DallasGopher on Dec 29, 2011 12:00 AM CST up reply actions
this was a resume boosting win
a win last night and I would have started to believe that the NCAA Tournament was possible. It is still technically possible as that loss doesn’t hurt us, but I don’t really believe we are good enough to get the necessary wins to get it done. Last night would have set us in that direction.
what you say here can, and will, be used against you The Daily Gopher
Ok Calm Down
First game of the Big Ten Season. Close loss on the road to a comparable opponent. Would have been a nice win, but not expected.
Win games at home + steal a few on the road = Big Ten Success
No need to start prognosticating about making the NCAA or NIT tournaments. They are playing better than we thought they would after Trevor went down.
ENJOY THE SEASON
Given the fact that the Gophers won't sweep at home...
…this was a big one to miss out on. Sure, no one expected them to win. But that doesn’t mean they still missed out on a prime opportunity to take one of several road wins that will be required to gain an NCAA berth.
As for “no need to prognasticate”…why not? Seriously. I’m pretty level headed about this stuff and I’ll certainly enjoy the season in any case, but why is prognosticating bad?
and
each game that is played can have significant impact on what will happen with the postseason. It isn’t some mystery how you get into the NCAA Tournament and winning a road game against a good team helps a ton.
I’m not disappointed that we lost, I was expecting that. But I am disappointed that we had an opportunity to seal a win that we let slip away.
what you say here can, and will, be used against you The Daily Gopher
by GopherNation on Dec 28, 2011 3:06 PM CST up reply actions
I agree with this mostly
We played better than expected. What’s the problem?
"Our attitude is we look at ourselves and we grade ourselves. And even if we don’t like what’s happening on the other side, we don’t make a — it’s not our business" - Tony Larussa
I think for me...
…frustration sets in when you see the little things the team doesn’t do that definitely could make an impact in a tight game like this. But that’s my years of playing basketball coming in. Watching bball is harder for me then watching FB because I notice the mistakes more easily.
I say Illinois played worse than expected...
…but you all know my take.
More turnovers than made field goals for the Illini, at least late into the game? Their nerves showed…they gave us every possible opportunity to win and we refused to take it.
When the announcer said we were in the driver’s seat, I looked at my wife and said “are you fucking kidding me? I’ve seen this game a thousand times, 15 seconds is an eternity in Minnesota sports”. She laughed, agreed with me, and the rest is history.
Shame on me for caring enough to get pissed at our loss…but a missed uncontested layup and free throw…yep, that’s what I call the Minnesota folly….and I have thrown it onto the pile of similar stories from the past 37 years of my life.
Where was Tubby?
I don’t expect Julie to miss many opportunities to win a game at the line in the last few seconds. I expect the hard foul he took a minute earlier probably contributed to missing the front of the one and one to win and also to blow the layup that might have won the first overtime. I also don’t expect Eliasson to continue to miss (3) layups in critical situations as he gains experience. But the oddest part of the ballgame was Tubby’s imitation of a mute and blind, uninterested guy who mistakenly got a seat on the Gopher’s bench. For all the world he looked like the equipment manager’s uncle who was invited along on the bus because he had nothing better to do.
Okay, I'll bite...
what the hell are you talking about?
you are totally right
based on the 3 second snippets of Tubby it is a safe and logical assumption that he wasn’t doing anything in the final minutes of the game and OT. He’s getting a fat paycheck, he isn’t working for food anymore.
what you say here can, and will, be used against you The Daily Gopher
by GopherNation on Dec 28, 2011 7:02 PM CST up reply actions
Actually quite impressed with Tubby
When Mbakwe went down it was really the first time in about 3 season in Non conference that I saw Tubby up with his jacket off and coaching from something other than the stool. He then kept it up for the rest of our games. I was driving back from MN and did not get to watch this game. 3 questions.
1) Sampson game looked good on paper, was he playing post, it seemed his scoring was mostly jump shots from the Iphone APP. Did he show some intensity out there? He has done this in the past(had a good all around game that we lost) and then disappeared for about 7 or 8 games as far a complete and all around games.
2) Was Welch running the team from the point most of the game?
3) Was Tubby actively coaching or was his kid running around with his Ipod over his head?
by DallasGopher on Dec 29, 2011 12:09 AM CST up reply actions
1 – he was scoring inside on put backs and jump hooks. He also hit a few jump shots. It was a good game by him. But do not ever expect to see him show any intensity out there, just not in his nature. Doesn’t always mean he is loafing or doesn’t care but we just won’t see it.
2 – Not most of the game. Several minutes in the 2nd half when Mav and Andre were on the bench, but down the stretch and in OT it was Mav running the point.
3 – I don’t know. What we see on camera or what “appears” to be coaching is so subjective. When I was coaching as a D3 assistant there would be coaches in our league that would work up a sweat yelling and screaming. But probably the two coaches who won the most were the two who generally were calm and collected, usually sitting on the bench unless they had something to say. One of them rarely even called a timeout, if you got them to call a timeout because of a run you were on it was a huge compliment.
Style or what it appears to us who see a few seconds on TV does not mean anything significant. You don’t have to be yelling and screaming and moving all around to be a good coach.
what you say here can, and will, be used against you The Daily Gopher
by GopherNation on Dec 29, 2011 8:54 AM CST up reply actions
Case in point for #3
John Wooden. Must read being the bio “The Wizard of Westwood.” I must say I liked Tubby’s post-game comments in this loss much better than what we heard over and over again last year. However, in my mind, Tubby is coaching for his job this year.
by Texas Gopher on Dec 29, 2011 9:18 AM CST up reply actions
#3
Well fortunately we get to see coaches in Basketball with the wide camera angles. And I have been to some games at Williams even since I moved to TX. But its a fair point, you dont need to be flopping like a crappie on the sideline to be coaching.
by DallasGopher on Dec 29, 2011 8:44 PM CST up reply actions
WTF can Tubby do
when his guys miss 4 extremely easy layups late in a game, and the front end of a 1-1 that could have sealed the game?
I can’t ride Tubby for this particular game. I still consider him a slightly above average college coach…better than a lot, but not in my mind at least a “National Title Coach”. Though he’s got that title…
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