2013-2014 Gopher Hoops!

[CodyDawg]

I cant stand it no more! I gotta start the thread! Josh Martin signs yesterday giving us our first recruit under Pit. Now, if we can ....please please please.....get Reid!

[Scott M]

Not a lot of other chips falling into place. There's a lot of time left and the big prizes remain, but I think I'm one of many MN fans that believes the home state talent will all be heading elsewhere.

[CodyDawg]

Yeah, it aint looking good, is it? Although I think the later it gets, the more that favors us. It may take a few years to turn this thing around.

[Northlander]

I wish it wasn't true but Mn. will always struggle to get top notch talent. They cant compete with the better/bigger Big Ten schools because of location, weather and our poor facility. If you were a blue chipper would you take MN. over lets say Ohio State, Michigan or Indiana?

[CodyDawg]

It depends where I was from and just how much of a blue chipper I was. If I was from here or the program was consistently in the upper half of the big ten (top 25 nationally) and I was a top 100 recruit, yes, I would definitely consider MN very strongly. But we have some work to do before we are consistently are in the upper half of the B1G. I will say this, with Pitino we have a lot better shot than with the Tubster.

[CaptainMusky]

I would think the new training facilities that are planned will help in a few years. Doesn't help right now but down the road.

Too bad some of these MN kids don't want to be a part of turning something around instead of going somewhere else that may be a contender now.

[schmitty3]

Watched some highlights from the exhibition games, and one thing that really stuck out to me was Moe Walker looked tiny compared to last year. Did a little research and found he lost over 50 pounds over the summer. Good for him, hopefully it'll translate into a better game.

[schmitty3]

Well after hearing all the rumors that Reid Travis was coming to the U, he decided on Stanford today. That sucks it woulda been nice to get one of those big 3.

[Canon Guy]

I was stunned to hear predictions that he was going to pick the Gophers. I doubt he ever seriously considered the Gophers. You can't blame the kid for grabbing a fantastic opportunity.

Hopefully one day the program will be strong enough to attract some higher quality recruits.

[Scott M]

Tough loss in Maui but not unexpected. They hung tough all game but couldn't get over the hump and wrestle control away from Syracuse. I went to the home games against Wofford and Montana. They do have a pretty good backcourt, and so far the frontcourt has shown much improvement from last year. My attitude with the conference season is "show me," so I'm not too high on them yet, but they have some things to be excited about. It's another tough conference top to bottom so they will be lucky to finish any higher than 9, but there is a chance the league could send 8 to the NCAA tournament. Lots of games left, too early to say much. Looking forward to Mo returning tomorrow after 6 games off following a tantalizing preseason.

[schmitty3]

They really needed Mo for today's game against Cuse. Eliason played great, but when you have to plug Osieniks and King into his spot when he's on the bench they're gonna struggle. I was just glad to see them stick with Syracuse and have a chance at the end.

[Huskie]

After seeing what Arkansas's Bigs did to us yesterday, it's going to be tough to compete with the big ten boys on the inside. Our press, transition game and perimeter shooting will need to carry us and that will be a tall order for a team that plays small ball. We need to clean up our turnovers as well. master of the obvious.

[schmitty3]

I didn't really understand why we stayed in that zone the whole game. We gave up dunk after dunk after dunk after dunk. As soon as they got it to the free throw area the middle man stepped up on him and the two outside guys were way too far on the perimeter to protect the basket. Flawed system or poor execution, idk, but something needed to change.

Side note, Oto Osieneks and Joey King both play very hard, but they look like DIII talents.

[alleyes]

Really nice win for the program last night, wish I was there, the barn was rocking! Pitino has this team playing hard, love this brand of ball...

[blue_healer_guy]

a win is a win i guess, but that was almost unwatchable. No flow, foul after foul, college basketball shouldnt take almost 3 hrs. Hope they do well, but not sold one bit.

[Snag]

Amazing to see the players in shape this year. I think Pitino is going to get it done here and hopefully we can keep him. Players heads are up this year. Seems to be a totally different atmosphere.

I watched last night and also the Syracuse game. I don't see why they wouldn't be able to hang in the Big Ten as long as the bigs don't get into foul trouble.

[DrJ]

Good win tonight.Fun game to watch and no more of Tubby's half court offense. Can't wait to see some Big Ten action.. DrJ

[Huskie]

You bet Dr. J, and that was against a decent non conference opponent. I liked the way they came out in the 2nd half. Coach has them playing hard, playing together and they have a much better perimeter game. I originally thought they would win 7 maybe 8 in the conference, not enough to make the Big dance, but the way they are shooting the 3 who knows, go gophs!!

[Scott M]

Nonconference season is done, 11-2, on to the brutal Big Ten. Michigan announced yesterday that Mitch McGary's season is done, he's going to have back surgery. The Gophers get the Wolverines on Thursday night to open the conference schedule, might be good timing but Michigan still has plenty of firepower.

I'm hoping for 8-10 but 6-12 might be more likely. Best case scenario I'd go 9-9 and be on the bubble.

[Scott M]

Missed a golden opportunity. Short handed Michigan wins with a more efficient half court game including some spectacular 3 point shooting. Senior Austin Hollin's stinker of a game didn't help, 1-9 from the field. Would have been nice to get a win to start things off, they are going to have a couple brutal stretches in conference play.

[schmitty3]

Ya, they needed that one. Austin Hollins really hurt us, we need more out of our senior leader.

Said it multiple times, but Osieniks should be playing D3 basketball.

[Coach1310]

New season.... New coach.....same old gophers.... Disappointing effort and if just guarding the guy bringing the ball up the court is the magical pressure we were so excited about I would have to say there isn't much to get excited about

[DrJ]

Was at the game today and they played pretty well. Refs really tried to steal the game for Purdue but we made clutch free throws down the stretch(Smith and King) and the Hollins boys shot and played so much better than the Michigan game which we gave away. Still so much more exciting Bball than we had with Tubby. If Pitino can recruit we are going to see some great ball in the future. DrJ.....

[CodyDawg]

After the Mich game I was pretty disappointed, but really, we are going to have some bad stretches for a year or two. I doubt they will be anything like the late season total collapse-blame-the-players debacle that was a Tubby staple, but there will be a few games we lose we think we should have won.

they are on the right track...i think...so give them some time. I see him 2 years behind the football team, but on a similar path.

[Dotch]

They were lucky to win tonight at Penn St. in an ugly stop and start game. Pitino's management of the game the last 5 minutes or so probably made up for some of their poor performance on the court, something Tubby had not been doing. At least there were no line changes.

These "new" rules are causing many of these Big 10 games to be difficult to watch. Too many foul calls making it tough to get any kind of flow going. The way the game was going tonight there were times they could've just played the game from the charity stripe and forgotten about bringing the ball up the court. You just knew they were going to blow the whistle and stop play anyway. In some of the games I've watched it's almost like the officials have determined at some point they're calling too many fouls so they back off, letting some blatant fouls slide only to revert back to calling tickle fouls to make up for some of the passes they've issued. Watching IA and WI the other night, it's no wonder Fran McCaffery blew a gasket. Not that I'm a McCaffery guy and I'm certainly no Hawkeye fan but if this keeps up he may become the heir apparent to Bobby Knight!

[schmitty3]

Yea that was one ugly game. Good to get a win on the road, but Penn State kind of helped them out at the end.

I agree the new officiating is terrible. You can't go 5 minutes into a game without at least 1 player per side in serious foul trouble. Then you get in the second half and there is absolute no flow to the game. Pretty boring to watch really.

[paceman]

What new officiating rules are you referring to?

[Huskie]

No new rules, they are just calling all of the hand checking out front and the use of the arm bar against any penetration to the basket. I'm glad the Gophers can make some frees down the stretch, teams need to adjust to this. Any win on the road in the Big Ten is a good one, but I'm sticking to my call of 7 maybe 8 wins in conference play, looks like a 7th or 8th place finish. At least the start of the conference schedule was more favorable than in the past, should help the confidence level being 2-1 instead of 1-2 or 0-3. Coach has them playing hard on both ends of the court, Go Gophers.

[Scott M]

Had to have a win in Penn State. There are teams they can beat and teams they can't. Every time they lose to a team they can beat means they have to win a game against a team they can't....and that's just to stay on the bubble.

[Scott M]

Another notch in the moral victory column. They are a plucky squad but can't seem to finish games. Tubby-like in that regard, but I can't compare a blown game in East Lansing as 11 point 'dawgs to blowing a home game against conference dregs in February like Tubbs did.

One game of a brutal 4 down...I'll be in Williams Thursday night for Ohio State.