Minnesota, Fri. Nov. 18, 9pm, BTN/570AM

Sad when Ponds is our leading rebounder

Ahmed had 10boards,Ponds 8

Our had 83 of the 86pnts? wow. Ellison and Mussina went scoreless, and we lose by 6.

Gotta play defense. Oh well, first road game for a very very young team, they battled though even when down 14,15pnts.

Next MSU.
 
Just my takeaways:
Lovett and Ponds are the most dynamic 1-2 punch in the back court we have ever had. But their offense is light years ahead of their defense. Need to deny penetration and fight or slide through screens better.
Thin is not in in college basketball. The entire front court got man handled, especially in the second half. Glad Ochefu graduated.
Not sure about some coaching decisions, including having the 3 small guard offense in the game in the second half, which made life easy for Coffey. He is a talented player, and had a field day with our smaller guards. If Ellison adds value, it has to be defending the bigger guards, not driving into traffic and hurling the ball into the sky. His drives remind me of the late, great Phillip Seymour Hoffman in "Along Came Polly".
 
The game was lost in the first half when mass substitutions were made. Our rotation should be

Ponds - 40 minutes
Lovett - 40 minutes
Ahmed - 30 minutes
Yawke - 30 minutes
Sima - 20 minutes
Owens -20 minutes
Mussini - 10 minutes
Ellison - 10 minutes

If you combined Ellison and Mussini into one person you would have a perfectly adequate 7th man
 
The game was lost in the first half when mass substitutions were made. Our rotation should be

Ponds - 40 minutes
Lovett - 40 minutes
Ahmed - 30 minutes
Yawke - 30 minutes
Sima - 20 minutes
Owens -20 minutes
Mussini - 10 minutes
Ellison - 10 minutes

What did Ellison do to deserve 10 minutes? Give the minutes to Williams to see what he can do.
 
Just my takeaways:
Lovett and Ponds are the most dynamic 1-2 punch in the back court we have ever had. But their offense is light years ahead of their defense. Need to deny penetration and fight or slide through screens better.
Thin is not in in college basketball. The entire front court got man handled, especially in the second half. Glad Ochefu graduated.
Not sure about some coaching decisions, including having the 3 small guard offense in the game in the second half, which made life easy for Coffey. He is a talented player, and had a field day with our smaller guards. If Ellison adds value, it has to be defending the bigger guards, not driving into traffic and hurling the ball into the sky. His drives remind me of the late, great Phillip Seymour Hoffman in "Along Came Polly".


Spot on with Ellison. Maybe he should think about an acting career. There is a rumor about Boogie Night's 2.
 
The game was lost in the first half when mass substitutions were made. Our rotation should be

Ponds - 40 minutes
Lovett - 40 minutes
Ahmed - 30 minutes
Yawke - 30 minutes
Sima - 20 minutes
Owens -20 minutes
Mussini - 10 minutes
Ellison - 10 minutes

If you combined Ellison and Mussini into one person you would have a perfectly adequate 7th man

Both look too slow.
 
Early, but as good as Ponds & LoVett are, the 3 spot is a position that usually generates some offense. Staff has to figure out how to get someone going there. Hopefully Ahmed is the guy.
 
1. 23-4 fast break advantage for gophers. Transition defense was awwwful that's the main reason they had that first half monster run.
2. Lovett & Ponds were terrific
3. Mussini was WIDE OPEN numerous times in drives to the basket for kick out!!
4. If you told me we would be 2 possessions down with 5 to go before the game started I would be ok with that.
If we improve on defense as we go along with gaining experience we will win some games .

all good points. good and bad. I'd give an asterisk to #2. When we started falling apart they both started forcing really early shots with no passing. We look best when we are playing aggressive, full court defense and sharing the ball on offense. Bashir is gonna slash and that is good but they need to work that into the offense without these solo trips where only one or two guys touch the ball.
 
The game was lost in the first half when mass substitutions were made. Our rotation should be

Ponds - 40 minutes
Lovett - 40 minutes
Ahmed - 30 minutes
Yawke - 30 minutes
Sima - 20 minutes
Owens -20 minutes
Mussini - 10 minutes
Ellison - 10 minutes

If you combined Ellison and Mussini into one person you would have a perfectly adequate 7th man

Both look too slow.

Don't think Phillip Seymour Ellison is slow. He also has unlimited confidence for reasons that remain unclear to me.
 
Our defense was awful. Transition especially brutal. I would have liked to see us press more and use our depth and speed to our advantage.

Lovett is a dynamic scorer but he's got to move the ball and get others involved. Way too much one on one and blind drives to the basket. Too many quick shots by everyone and no ball movement. Ponds needed more touches after putting up 10 early points he didn't see the ball for long stretches.

Overall that was glorified street ball by both teams. Hope we make major adjustments because Mich St will crush us if we play like that against them.
 
Early, but as good as Ponds & LoVett are, the 3 spot is a position that usually generates some offense. Staff has to figure out how to get someone going there. Hopefully Ahmed is the guy.

Different players but so far his struggles remind me of James Scott's first year
 
This was a good game for our young team.  They played on the road against a big team with more muscle but could have pulled out a win had it not been for a few unforced turnovers and Malik Ellison 's poor play.  He took 6 shots which is 5 more than he should have taken.  His only role should have been to guard the Gopher's 6'8 guard who caused the biggest matchup problem in the game.  Add to his ineptitude Musso missing his 3 shots and this game is winnable. 
Bashir Ahmed, Ponds and Lovett were the only scoring threats and to the guy who said expecting Ponds and Lovett to score double figures was crazy, enjoy your crow this Thanksgiving because without them we lose by 25 points. Having watched Shamorie play in high school I knew he would be a talent above anyone we had last year and Marcus Lovett is a perfect complement to him.  Again we saw how raw Sima and Yakwe are offensively and where Brown and Clark will eventually be their respective replacements unless they develop more rapidly.  The new AD needs to hire a dedicated nutritionist for the basketball team because we looked malnourished compared to the Gophers.
We will lose a couple of more games but the experience will be valuable for Big East play where I think we will hold our own in most games. 
 
Our defense was awful. Transition especially brutal. I would have liked to see us press more and use our depth and speed to our advantage.

Lovett is a dynamic scorer but he's got to move the ball and get others involved. Way too much one on one and blind drives to the basket. Too many quick shots by everyone and no ball movement. Ponds needed more touches after putting up 10 early points he didn't see the ball for long stretches.

Overall that was glorified street ball by both teams. Hope we make major adjustments because Mich St will crush us if we play like that against them.

More involved? 30 pts and 5 assists. He need 12 assists to get people involved?
 
There were some definite issues tonight. First and most primary was that outside of Ahmed, Ponds and Lovett (who shot 44% on 24 for 54 from the field) the rest of the team shot just 20% making only 5 shots out of 25 attempts from the floor. This simply will not cut it over the long run.

Mostly out of necessity Lovett completely dominated the ball, but in doing so it made the rest of the team tentative and out of sync offensively as they watched him dominate the offensive flow along with the rest of us.

Minnesota had 18 assists on just 6 turnovers. We had 9 assists with 11 turnovers. There was generally no offensive cohesiveness, no team play and defensively we played poorly on a variety of different levels. Minnesota's advantage with their bulk was apparent and we did not handle either their inside game or their transition game well at all.

That being said Lovett and Ponds are really great and played well in their first game on the road against a team from a major conference.

I believe most of the rest of the players are much better than they showed tonight and should play better as they gain experience playing together as a group. I think the coaches have some work to do with the team but with expected improvement we should be able to win some games along the way.

Going forward we are likely to have continued great guard play from Lovett and Ponds and with some time for the other players to settle in to their roles and learn to assert their will within the flow of the game we will likely be competitive on most nights.
 
This was a good game for our young team.  They played on the road against a big team with more muscle but could have pulled put a win had it not been for a few unforced turnovers and Malik Ellison 's poor play.  He took 6 shots which is 5 more than he should have taken.  His only role should have been to guard the Gopher's 6'8 guard who caused the biggest matchup problem in the game.  Add to his ineptitude Musso missing his 3 shots and this game is winnable. 
Bashir Ahmed, Ponds and Lovett were the only scoring threats and to the guy who said expecting Ponds and Lovett to score double figures was crazy, enjoy your crow this Thanksgiving because without them we lose by 25 points. Having watched Shamorie play in high school I knew he would be a talent above anyone we had last year and Marcus Lovett is a perfect complement to him.  Again we saw how raw Sima and Yakwe are offensively and where Brown and Clark will eventually be their respective replacements unless they develop more rapidly.  The new AD needs to hire a dedicated nutritionist for the basketball team because we looked malnourished compared to the Gophers.
We will lose a couple of more games but the experience will be valuable for Big East play where I think we will hold our own in most games. 

It was me and I thought we'd "bring Ponds along". Not the case. Our guards are top tier. Everybody else is not. Right now it's Lovett, Ponds and a bunch of guys doing nothing. They can't be criticized as far as I'm concerned, 54 points, 5 assists and 10 Rebs among them. Rest of team has some searching to do.

Next season. Simon is moving into SF spot, and Clark and Bashir will man both SF/PF... I agree.
 
1. 23-4 fast break advantage for gophers. Transition defense was awwwful that's the main reason they had that first half monster run.
2. Lovett & Ponds were terrific
3. Mussini was WIDE OPEN numerous times in drives to the basket for kick out!!
4. If you told me we would be 2 possessions down with 5 to go before the game started I would be ok with that.
If we improve on defense as we go along with gaining experience we will win some games .

all good points. good and bad. I'd give an asterisk to #2. When we started falling apart they both started forcing really early shots with no passing. We look best when we are playing aggressive, full court defense and sharing the ball on offense. Bashir is gonna slash and that is good but they need to work that into the offense without these solo trips where only one or two guys touch the ball.
 
Agree the ball needs to shared more. And I guess you can put an * next to point 2. You watch successful teams they drive and kick. Which is why I Made point 3 (Mussini). For me it's all about defense. We can score we have proven that.
 
This was a good game for our young team.  They played on the road against a big team with more muscle but could have pulled put a win had it not been for a few unforced turnovers and Malik Ellison 's poor play.  He took 6 shots which is 5 more than he should have taken.  His only role should have been to guard the Gopher's 6'8 guard who caused the biggest matchup problem in the game.  Add to his ineptitude Musso missing his 3 shots and this game is winnable. 
Bashir Ahmed, Ponds and Lovett were the only scoring threats and to the guy who said expecting Ponds and Lovett to score double figures was crazy, enjoy your crow this Thanksgiving because without them we lose by 25 points. Having watched Shamorie play in high school I knew he would be a talent above anyone we had last year and Marcus Lovett is a perfect complement to him.  Again we saw how raw Sima and Yakwe are offensively and where Brown and Clark will eventually be their respective replacements unless they develop more rapidly.  The new AD needs to hire a dedicated nutritionist for the basketball team because we looked malnourished compared to the Gophers.
We will lose a couple of more games but the experience will be valuable for Big East play where I think we will hold our own in most games. 

It was me and I thought we'd "bring Ponds along". Not the case. Our guards are top tier. Everybody else is not. Right now it's Lovett, Ponds and a bunch of guys doing nothing. They can't be criticized as far as I'm concerned, 54 points, 5 assists and 10 Rebs among them. Rest of team has some searching to do.

Next season. Simon is moving into SF spot, and Clark and Bashir will man both SF/PF... I agree.

Didn't mean to be critical but Shamorie is a pure talent as is Marcus. You don't bring talent on that level along slowly at a school like St. John's. Bashir will be fine ar SF but many were expecting better output from Yakwe and he is not as fluid around the basket as David Russell was as a sophomore. Clark has both an inside and outside game and will be a difference maker next year. Simon will be valuable against big guards which killed us tonight but not too many teams will have 6'8 guards as talented as we saw tonight. Coffey will be an NBA player in a couple of years.
 
What are the chances that Lovett is not here next year and pulls an Omar Cook? That's my biggest fear after watching these last two games. Very proud of the way this team hung in there in a tough early season game on the road. Add Clark Simon and Brown to this team with an added year of experience and they go from a 17 win team this season to probably a 23 - 24 win top 25 team next year.

Just my opinion but no chance in the world Lovett decides to go pro after this season, relax we have a few years w/ Lovett n Ponds.
 
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