U of Minnesota Game Thread

[Grizzled_Jack]

Re: U of Minnesota Game Thread

Why not? What's the use of wasting a scholarship on someone who can't do what he's receiving the scholarship to do? He was recruited to PLAY basketball. This is his fourth season, he's the biggest post player on the active roster, and yet he gets 7 minutes against a team with two pretty good 6-10+ players in the lineup. Seems like something's a little wrong there.

How do you get in trouble for calling out player A but not player B? As a student who started out as a journalism major at SDSU and who got a degree in library science almost 40 years ago, I'm a bit troubled first amendment-wise.

[JackJD]

Re: U of Minnesota Game Thread

Hey! I just passed 5000 posts. Huh.

filbert just went postal

[rabidrabbit]

Re: U of Minnesota Game Thread

Hey! I just passed 5000 posts. Huh.

Congrats Oh Leader!

[filbert]

Re: U of Minnesota Game Thread

Hey! I just passed 5000 posts. Huh.

[CatchEmAll]

Re: U of Minnesota Game Thread

He played tonight.... hes not great but you don't pull scholarships unless the player does something off the court or can't cut it in the classroom....

Why not? What's the use of wasting a scholarship on someone who can't do what he's receiving the scholarship to do? He was recruited to PLAY basketball. This is his fourth season, he's the biggest post player on the active roster, and yet he gets 7 minutes against a team with two pretty good 6-10+ players in the lineup. Seems like something's a little wrong there.

[filbert]

Re: U of Minnesota Game Thread

Doesn't the mental block start at the top and filter down to the players? If he's lacking confidence in them they'll lack confidence in themselves creating that cicular ripple effect of everyone having their head up their a$$ not knowing what to do or how to play.

I believe you are correct there . . . Nagy's teams have always had a tendency to play a bit tight especially in big games--I think it's a reflection of his personality.

It's OK if you're winning 25 games a year in D-II. Not so much if you're winning 8 games a year in D-I. If he wants the team to loosen up, he's got to start the ball rolling.

[Cadsev]

Re: U of Minnesota Game Thread

Twenty turnovers = too many.

I should have been counting how many times especially in the first half a Jack threw it right into the hands of a Gopher. Unforced turnovers.

Seemed like more than 20...counted five in a row in the first half and 3 in a row when they cut the lead to 5 points. Too many unforced turnovers....not enough size and yet still battled to make it respectable.

[CatchEmAll]

Re: U of Minnesota Game Thread

Engen played . . . had a nice play vs. Sampson that I remember. Otherwise . . . I don't know how many minutes he had.

Must have been during the part of the game I was fast fowarding to as to not make myself sick of watching the ugly play. Box score shows 7 minutes, 3 rebounds.

My bad for not noticing and calling him out (although technically filbert named him, so I'm off the hook).

[joeboo22]

Re: U of Minnesota Game Thread

One question without naming names. Our roster shows two 6-10 players, I know one is out for the season, what's the deal with the other one? Is he injured, or just that bad that he doesn't see the court? And if he's just that bad why are they wasting scholarship money on him at this point?

He played tonight.... hes not great but you don't pull scholarships unless the player does something off the court or can't cut it in the classroom....

[CatchEmAll]

Re: U of Minnesota Game Thread

Nagy:

You play like you believe--I'm struggling with our kids, I love them to death but they don't believe in themselves like they should. We were nervous and jittery and there's no reason for it. It's confusing and frustrating to me, I know the players are frustrated too. The guys got to get by this mental hurdle.

Doesn't the mental block start at the top and filter down to the players? If he's lacking confidence in them they'll lack confidence in themselves creating that cicular ripple effect of everyone having their head up their a$$ not knowing what to do or how to play.

[filbert]

Re: U of Minnesota Game Thread

One question without naming names. Our roster shows two 6-10 players, I know one is out for the season, what's the deal with the other one? Is he injured, or just that bad that he doesn't see the court? And if he's just that bad why are they wasting scholarship money on him at this point?

Engen played . . . had a nice play vs. Sampson that I remember. Otherwise . . . I don't know how many minutes he had.

[CatchEmAll]

Re: U of Minnesota Game Thread

One question without naming names. Our roster shows two 6-10 players, I know one is out for the season, what's the deal with the other one? Is he injured, or just that bad that he doesn't see the court? And if he's just that bad why are they wasting scholarship money on him at this point?

[filbert]

Re: U of Minnesota Game Thread

Nagy:

You play like you believe--I'm struggling with our kids, I love them to death but they don't believe in themselves like they should. We were nervous and jittery and there's no reason for it. It's confusing and frustrating to me, I know the players are frustrated too. The guys got to get by this mental hurdle.

I don't know (if I'll start the same guys that started this game). Nobody deserved to start after the Oral Roberts game. We've got to get Kai going somehow--he's putting so much pressure on himself he's not thinking clearly--he's really struggling. Clint: show up and do that every night, you're that good.

They killed us on the boards in the first half, we wound up out-rebounding them. The guy who really hurt us was Johnson. Nolan was a very good guard, hard to guard, he did a good job attacking us.

At halftime--every 50/50 ball, they got them all. They had 35 points off of turnovers and offensive rebounds, you're not going to beat somebody giving that up. We're just not showing up in some of these bigger games in the first half for whatever reason.

Second half was definitely better, but that's my point--give us that in the first half. I know the kids are tired of it, frustrated, confused, angry, we're trying everything we can to get the kids to believe in themselves as much as we believe in them.

Denver-I haven't seen them at all, we'll start to look at that tonight.

[joeboo22]

Re: U of Minnesota Game Thread

I think Nagy has hit it on the head.... Until the players believe in themselves they aren't going to win many games.... Also said that Kai and others need to just loosen up...

[CatchEmAll]

Re: U of Minnesota Game Thread

How in the world did we end up outrebounding the Gophs tonight? Per the Gopher Stats 38-36 in favor of SDSU. The game I was watching every missed Gopher shot in the first half ended up as a Gopher offensive rebound.

Second half was definately a better 20 minutes than the first. I honestly thought it would be a 30 point blow out after watching the first half. Refs were fair to both sides. Some really, really bad turnovers on SDSU's part. Post play was non-existent from both sides. I don't know that SDSU controlled the post so much as their guard play was just that good and Iverson & Sampson were relegated to non-factors.

Sargent could be a stud if he can consistently play to tonight's level. Definite struggles from some key players that need to be figured out. All in all good effort. Not sure how good Minnesota really is though.