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Well, the Gophers’ season came to a rather depressing end on Tuesday night, with a 68-58 loss to Maryland, in the first round of the NIT. The game was basically even save for the second half’s dreadful four opening minutes. In that stretch, the Terrapins took advantage of a discombobulated Gophers’ squad, fast-breaking and dunking their way to a 12-2 run. The Gophers had already been struggling on offense, failing to break 60 points or shoot better than 40% in their previous five games. This situation was not helped, to put it mildly, by the loss of their best scorer and only true one-on-one threat, Lawrence McKenzie, who injured his foot in practice. The team made some open shots early in the game in jumping to a 16-10 lead but, for the most part, they had an impossible time getting good looks.
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Maryland got off to one of the worst starts in school history. They lost to a string of anemic teams prior to the ACC season: American, Ohio (University, not State), Virginia Commonwealth. Then they suddenly got their shit together and won six of seven in the ACC, highlighted by an away victory over top-ranked North Carolina. Just five weeks ago the terps looked to be a tournament lock and potentially a highly dangerous team in the post-season.
In case you haven’t heard, the Big Ten is a little down this year (um, decade). I’ve heard lots of TV commentators attempt to counter this statement (usually by appealing to the quality of the conference’s coaches) but the tournament selection committee seems agree with the prevailing sentiment, as evidenced by the fact that only four teams were chosen for the 64-team field. Among the major conferences, only the ACC did as poorly and we saw what happened when the two leagues went head-to-head (in case you missed it, the ACC won almost every game). Even worse, the style of play that has taken hold in the Big Ten, a sludgy, defense and half-court approach, is pretty unpalatable. I really don’t know if this conservatism is a philosophic choice (some uncharitable reflection of dour midwesternism, maybe) or a response to the league’s general lack of talent, but, frankly, it’s a little depressing.
More >>Last time we spoke, I mentioned Gophers’ fifth-year senior forward Dan Coleman’s verifiable on-court struggles and hypothetical off-court struggles. I don’t want you to get the wrong idea here: I was trying to be a little funny—inasmuch as the existential anguish of all college seniors is a little bit funny in its outsized, melodramatic way—but I really wasn’t trying to make light of whatever the guy is going through. Actually, I was kind of trying to allude to the sad fact that we, as fans, are pretty good at marginalizing the outside (i.e. “real”) lives and inner worlds of the athletes we follow. In general, we pay attention only to the extent that those lives/worlds can be turned into consumable tidbits—“his father taught him the meaning of hard work”; “his brother helped him keep things in perspective”—and lose interest after that. Recall, please, that life is pretty hard and that pain is real—even if you can do things like shoot a basketball or blow out birthday candles perched ten feet above the ground. Think of yourself at age 22 and then maybe have a little sympathy.
I am happy to report that Coleman showed much more spark in the Gophers’ home win against Penn State and road loss to Purdue. He didn’t shoot well in either game—4-12 and 4-11 respectively—and he made some amazing mistakes against Penn State (like fouling a three point shooter late) that, Coach Tubby fumed “almost cost us the game,” but I’m honestly happy to see him work up the gumption to put shots up at all. What’s more, he pulled down seven rebounds against Penn State and thirteen (along with three blocked shots) against the Boilermakers. So, Coleman's mercurial temperament will remain something of a mystery. I'm just glad he doesn't look quite so sad and lonely.
Here are some things Tubby Smith said in the press conference following Tuesday's game against Illinois: "pathetic defensively"; "didn't show toughness"; "lacked aggressiveness". In case you were wondering, the Gophers did not win. I find that Tubby is usually a bit hard in his team's defensive effort. It's true that they often give up open jumpers but they often make up for it with their aggressive ball pressure, creating turnovers in the backcourt and generally disrupting their opponent's execution. But boy, they sure didn't do any of that stuff against Illinois who, with a 2-9 conference record, was sitting in a tie for ninth in the Big Ten.
Trouble started early when it became very clear that Illinois center Shaun Pruitt was much, much to quick for the Gophers' Spencer Tollackson, easily beating him with a succession of baseline pivot moves. Tubby adjusted by switching to a 2-3 zone but this was even less successful; the Illini busted the zone with good three-point shooting while also managing to find open looks inside, the supposed strong point of that defense. Now, the hallmark of the Gophers' defense thus far has been aggression (rather than, say, poise or presence of mind) but, in this game, they were even less disciplined than normal. The Gophers (particularly Dan Coleman and Spencer Tollackson) repeatedly over-committed to ballhandlers and then compounded the problem by rotating poorly to open players. To their credit, Illinois executed their offense extremely well, baffling the Gophers with crisp motion and screens. They also finished with authority, shooting a remarkable 59% from the floor (including 7-13 from three). But the U's help defense was a step slow all night, resulting in many open shots, fouls and three point plays. It is often said that bad defense stymies a team's own offense and this was true for the Gophers in one concrete way, in particular. Lawrence McKenzie, the team's best pure scorer, fouled out after playing only 17 minutes; three of those fouls were committed at the basket as he was covering for out-of-position teammates.
More >>Well, the last two weeks have been pretty instructive for the Gophers. First, they gave both Indiana and Michigan State scares at home. Then they looked fairly awful in a 76-60 road loss to a pretty good (but by no means great) Ohio State team. Then, just when they desperately needed a win, they came through with a good all-around performance on the road at Michigan. The unevenness of their play might make the Gophers seem a touch enigmatic but really, there is no mystery here. The fact is the Gophers are a very average basketball team. They do what average teams do: they lose to good teams and beat bad teams. When they play very well, it can almost look like they are almost as good as somebody who is actually good. When they don’t, they look pretty bad. This is totally ok.
More >>• For the second straight game, an opposing coach described a matchup with the Gophers as “strange.” This week it was Tom Izzo who, like Indiana’s Kelvin Sampson, was probably quietly wondering how a team without any consistent scorers was able to hang with his top ranked group. I find it a little strange myself, to tell you the truth. In the first half, though, the Gophers pretty thoroughly disrupted Michigan State’s offense, even without the injured Al Nolen, their best perimeter defender. But, by the second half, the Gophers’ tendency to aggressively overplay the ball, thereby leaving perimeter shooters open, again came back to haunt them. Without Nolen’s hounding defense, State’s star guard, Drew Neitzel, was repeatedly left open for threes. Neitzel buried five of the eight he took and eventually put the game out of reach.
More >>Thursday’s 65-60 loss to Indiana at Williams Arena was incredibly entertaining in the most college basketball-ish way. It was hard to even get one’s mind around the insane intensity emanating from the home crowd, especially when it looked like the Gophers really could pull off an upset. It was that intoxicating, individuality-dissolving group mania can make sports so inspiring (also works great for nationalist politics) and must feel pretty oppressive and menacing for the visiting team. The crowd’s energy clearly spurred the two teams to play with incredible intensity of their own, although it also likely inspired the very ragged play that held forth for large stretches of the game.
Unlike their road loss against Michigan State, in which the U had to fight from behind the entire game just to make it close in the end, the Indiana game was theirs to lose. The Gophers led 56-52 with 6:50 remaining, capping off a 9-0 run with a gutsy left-handed layup and (right handed) free throw by Dan Coleman. And they went up 60-58 with 1:49 remaining after Al Nolen set up the cutting Spencer Tollackson with a gorgeous drive and dish. But then they failed to execute on each of the next four possessions. First, they botched a rotation after Indiana’s Jamarcus Ellis drove the lane, leaving Lance Stemmler open to hit a three. Then the Hoosiers pressured the Gophers into a wild shot as the shot-clock expired. Nolen compounded the problem by fouling Indiana’s freshman star Eric Gordon along the sideline, where Gordon was in no position to score. Gordon hit both free throws to go up 63-60 and, on the ensuing possession, Lawrence McKenzie missed a wide open three of his own. Indiana corralled the rebound with six seconds left and that, friends, was the game.
Gopher’s men’s basketball coach Tubby Smith chose a pretty big stage from which to send his latest unsubtle message to the University. In the last paragraph of a fluffy article in Wednesday’s New York Times preciously entitled “Few Expectations but More Enjoyment,” Smith was quoted this way:
How much longer can you play in the Barn? I know it’s sacrilegious to mention that, but it’s going to be 80 years old next year. How many 80-year-old buildings are still being played in? I’m sure it’s a long-term project, but what do you do in the meantime? We can’t play here forever. For now, we can make this a great environment, which it has been in the past.
(Incidentally, the piece contains a hilarious and depressing peak at the pre-feminist world of coaching marriages. The Times precedes a quote by Smith’s wife, Donna, by saying, “Donna Smith said the change had been good for both of them. [Italics mine] ‘He looks better,’ she said. ‘He’s having more fun. He’s more relaxed, and he loves what he’s doing.’" Sure sounds like they’re “both” really enjoying themselves.)
