One of my favorite games to play during the hockey and football games is guess the basketball early season opponent by the logo they put on the big screen. They never write out the school and Bethune-Coomman or Arkansas Pine Bluff do not have known logos.
Gopher hoops win 102-77. Cam Christie makes his collegiate debut with great success. 18pts, 4 assists, 3 rebounds, 2 steals, making 4/6 3 point attempts.
Ihnen had 20 and was perfect from the field including 5/5 from 3, and Garcia had 22.
Elijah Hawkins, probably the smallest guy on the team, led the team in rebounds with 10.
Step one, beat these non-conference teams like you’re the NBA and they’re a HS team.
So far so good. Says nothing about the season but doing what they need to early.
Their 3pt shooting and FT shooting last year was plain abysmal. So far both look much improved, albeit against poor competition (though FT shooting is FT shooting, regardless of opponent).
Gophers lose 70-68 to Mizzou. Had a 68-67 lead with 30 seconds left and Christie's 3pt attempt was way deep. Mizzou rebounded and got the bucket and the foul on the other end. Christie had a deep 2pt shot to tie hit the front rim and the putback was short (and probably not in time).
Gophers led 59-39 with 12ish minutes left and couldn't buy a bucket down the stretch, and Mizzou made everything they threw at the hoop.
Mizzou scored on like 13 of their last 20 possessions. Minnesota scored on about 5.
I haven't been on Gopher Hole in probably 15+ years or so, but for some reason I did last night after the game.
I am now reminded why I never go back to Gopher Hole. Yikes.
Forgive me, GPL.
I swear it's where people banned from commenting on Strib articles congregate.
“When your best friend is the son of God, you get tired of losing every argument.”
― Christopher Moore, Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ's Childhood Pal
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Gopher women (3-0) host #8 UConn, Sunday @ 4:00 PM. Homecoming for Paige Bueckers. I'll be interested to see how they can hang with an elite squad. It will be a good measuring stick for new coach Dawn Plitzuweit. On FS1.
That escalated quickly. Looks like another tough year ahead for this team. Got to within one and lost by 18. Free throw shooting 67%. Tell me if you’ve heard this story before.
Just a dominant second half for the Gophers last night. They got down big early after Garcia got hurt, but battled back and really flipped a switch in the second half. Felt kinda like the Ohio State game where OSU got up at one point 42-20 and Minnesota cut it to 6 with about 6 minutes left and then OSU hit back to back to back 3s to get separation again.
Carrington and the rest of the guards did a fantastic job against Keisei Tominaga, the Nebraska leading scorer. He didn't make a single field goal and only scored from the FT line.
Hopefully the Garcia injury isn't severe. He landed funny last night in the first half and didn't play the rest of the game, which makes the comeback win even more impressive considering he's the best player on the team. The team and staff made some great adjustments to play without Garcia in the second half.
Gopher BBall wins tonight vs. Maine (a real D1 school) and has 10 wins on the season. Surpassing last year’s 9 total wins before the calendar turns to 2024. Also, has their first B1G win in early B1G play.
who knows what happens from here but the team looks better and seems to have more complimentary play across the roster with more depth.
Good to see and hopefully a sign of better things to come. At least relatively speaking. I'd like to see Ben earn keeping his job rather than earn losing it.
Gophers come from behind to beat Maryland, snapping a 10 game losing streak to the Terps. Really solid game. Missed a couple FTs late to keep Maryland in it but overcame some pretty poor officiating late (particularly an egregious basket interference) to win 65-62
Gophers come from behind to beat Maryland, snapping a 10 game losing streak to the Terps. Really solid game. Missed a couple FTs late to keep Maryland in it but overcame some pretty poor officiating late (particularly an egregious basket interference) to win 65-62
I only saw the second half but they completely outplayed Maryland because Reese was in foul trouble. They also didn't panic when Maryland went to the full or 3/4 court press which was weird to see cause Tubby's Teams and Pitino's teams went deer in the headlights over it.
The officiating was hose[bleep]. The missed basket interference (dude grabbed the net) not only cost us points but cost Maryland a player as he fouled out like 4 seconds later. Carrington (I think) was fouled on a three that they let go...each team got screwed on out of bounds calls at least once and the T on Hawkins was a bit of a quick trigger. (they missed him get hacked...a lot) The refs looked lost and Johnson and Thorson really gave them an earful.
I am not sure how good this team actually is, obviously they are partially a product of a terrible NC schedule and a pretty down Big Ten but they do play smarter and they have some legit talent. Hawkins is a legit PG is a pass first guy and drives the lane to give guys like Payne and Garcia easy buckets. (he leads the nation in assists...or at least did) Carrington is going to be very good if he keeps working hard and Payne is a beast...minus his Shaq-like inability to shoot a free throw. Unlike last year, if this team can keep that core (along with Christie and maybe Garcia) then next year they could be really good. As it is, with how bad the Big Ten appears to be they could get to .500 in conference which, barring a win or two in the BTT won't likely get them into the NCAA tourny but will be NIT worthy and a massive imrpovement.
By just making the technical free throw and the 2 shot free throw could have iced the game. Playing high school basketball, we practiced and practiced free throws or we ran. We were always one of the best free throw shooting teams in the district/division.
MN flipped the script and was very good from the line down the stretch to seal the win.
It's a good day to be a Gopher!
“When your best friend is the son of God, you get tired of losing every argument.”
― Christopher Moore, Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ's Childhood Pal
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