Gophers

Estimated Prophet

Filed under: Gophers

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.

It wasn’t that they were passive or failed to execute their offense—they only turned it over 14 times—or that Maryland was all that overwhelming defensively, though the athletic Terrapins did a fine job fighting over screens, rotating and contesting shots. It was just that with McKenzie out, Spencer Tollackson hobbling, and Dan Coleman customarily meek (that poor dude; in the final game of a star-crossed career that, at one point, included NBA aspirations, he went 0-4, dislocated his pinkie and fouled out with no points—that makes me feel awful), they simply didn’t have anybody who could make tough shots or get to the line (they shot only 31.3% from the floor and took only nine free throws; they couldn’t do anything, basically). Lawrence Westbrook did his best to fill the void, aggressively using his quickness and handle to break down the defense. But although the 6 foot Westbrook is a good scorer in the open court, he has a hard time finishing or making good decisions in traffic. To make matters worse, he has a poor midrange game, which allows team to clog the lane when he drives. Maryland did a good job of this and the end result was usually a flailing layup, a desperate pass or a missed 12-footer. It was incredibly frustrating, as have been all of their recent games, because the Gophers gave tremendous effort and got some good stops on defense but just couldn’t ever close the gap.

Sunrise

Aside from their painful scoring droughts, the team’s biggest problem was inside. With the aforementioned injuries (I think Jonathan Williams, their other big man, got banged up in there somewhere, too), they had a pretty rough time matching up with Maryland’s tough, athletic forwards, James Gist and Bambale Osby, and protecting the basket when the Terps’ guards got into the lane. This is largely the cause of the huge foul disparity between the teams (a 23-12 disparity that incited one of the great Bronx cheers, led vehemently by Tubby himself, I’ve ever witnessed). Given that he was often the lone Gopher over 6’5”, Damian Johnson’s performance was even more amazing. Johnson isn’t really a natural scorer (to put it mildly) but has been the Gophers’ best player over the past week, even finding a way, largely due to pure effort, to contribute some points. The Maryland loss might have been the best game of his career. Check this heavy stat line: 6-11 for 14 points, 12 rebounds (half of them offensive), four blocks, four steals. I hope you watched this game just for the sight of Johnson fighting two or three taller Terps for offensive rebounds; blocking three pointers (I haven’t kept track, but he’s gotten one in almost every game I’ve seen—when was the last time you saw any other non-high schooler do this, even once? I realize he’s got “longish” arms but, seriously!) basically single-handedly keeping the U in the game. Dude was straight busting his ass. It brings tears to my eyes just thinking about it.

Passengers

It seems like I should probably do some summing up. Despite the disappointment of the past few days, despite the heartbreaking near misses and the bad losses, I think it’s obvious that the Gophers made huge progress. A year ago, after all, a 20-win season would have seemed unthinkable, as would have even being competitive with the best teams in the conference. It’s a good start; and next year brings more reason to hope: improvement in Al Nolen's point guard skills to accompany his nasty defense, a more well-rounded Blake Hoffarber, junior-college transfers and high school recruits coming in to shore up the team’s backcourt scoring and frontcourt size. But even more—and I got a sense of this in the baffled way he talked about his teams inconsistency and their strange lapses in competitive fire—I think Tubby is impatient to replace the players who were part of the U’s long, slow slide. All year, you could see him scrambling for every matchup advantage, every shred of momentum—he definitely succumbed to the tendency to overcoach and micro-manage, to take the game out of the players’ hands.

Although that is one of the least appealing aspects of college basketball, in a way I can’t blame him. It’s not so much that he had to overcompensate for poor talent, although the Gophers were definitely less deep then your average Big Ten squad. It’s more that he seemed to know that many of them had been too well trained over the past few years in a culture of low expectations, in which effort and hope only ever served to forestall disaster. You could see it in Dan Coleman’s faraway eyes, Spencer Tollackson’s demonstrative self-admonishments, even in McKenzie’s frustrated attempts at vocal leadership; these guys had been disappointed one too many times. Aside from the few moments when McKenzie found his shot, flashed that gleeful grin and bounced down the court like the natural scorer he is, I never got the sense that they were ever really playing. As in, like, youthful abandon, performing freedom, having fun.

Posted by Benjamin Polk at March 20, 2008 12:09 AM | Comments (0)

 

Fear the turtle

Filed under: Gophers

As a lifelong Maryland Terrapin fan, proud owner of a "Fear the Turtle" t-shirt, and ardent believer that the day Len Bias died was the most tragic in sports history, a brief consideration of what the Gophers will face on Tuesday night.

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.

But then came a total meltdown. The terps lost five of their final six games, lowlighted by somehow blowing a 20 point lead in the second half against Clemson. It was the most brutal Maryland loss since 2001 when they squandered a 10-point-lead against Duke in the final minute. The upshot: this is one mentally screwed up, but pretty talented team.

The lynchpin of the squad is Venezeulan sophomore point guard Greivis Vasquez, who led the team in points (17.3 pg), assists (6.9 pg), and steals (46). Vasquez is a dynamic passer, a menace driving to the hoop, and presents matchup problems for most teams with his size (6' 6"). But he's also a suspect jumpshooter, hitting barely thirty percent of his threes, and can be more than a bit erratic, averaging more than five turnovers per game.

The other players to watch are the senior big men Bambale Osby (11.2 ppg) and James Gist (15.8 ppg). The former is a menacing post player who can dominate the boards. But he has a tendency to disappear for long stretches and to draw stupid fouls. He also sports a massive, bad-ass afro. Gist is the more refined player, with a mid-range jumpshot that can be automatic when he's on his game.

The X factor for Maryland this year has been Eric Hayes. The sophomore guard is the best outside shooter on the team (40 percent from beyond the arc), but tends to have trouble finding open looks. When he starts knocking down threes, the Terps can resemble a potent offensive team.

My guess is that we'll see a deflated Maryland team put in a suspect effort against a Gopher squad that's just happy to be playing in any post-season tournament.

Posted by Paul Demko at March 17, 2008 2:38 PM | Comments (0)

 

Slow Century

Filed under: Gophers

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.

Rusty Cage

Now, this year’s conference tournament offered lots of what there is to love about college basketball: passion and intensity, huge upsets, incredible finishes. But it also featured a whole lot of what is not so great about the game: the absolute refusal to shoot until at least 30 seconds had elapsed off the shot clock; painfully bad shooting; ragged, inelegant play. If we forget about the last minute of the Minnesota-Indiana game and the fact that the 10th-seeded team scored a series of upsets to make the final, we have to face facts: the games themselves were not too great. (Anyway, neither of those are even the most remarkable college basketball thing that happened this weekend. After the Atlanta tornado damaged the Georgia Dome, Georgia, who finished the regular season 13-16, was forced to play twice on Saturday and then again on Sunday to win the SEC tournament. Dudes: they won four games in three days.) Of course, the end result was no surprise to anyone: Wisconsin smothered Illinois pretty easily with their “patient” (by that I mean slow, so slow) half-court offense, flawless rebounding and grinding defense. Every time I see them play I’m more impressed with how good they are and also how much I dislike them. Billy Packer put it well when describing Badger coach Bo Ryan’s recruiting philosophy. Ryan doesn’t necessarily look for the “best” players, said Packer. Instead he “looks for a player that fits his system and then trains them perfectly.” Really stirs the pulse, eh?

I Can't Quit You

As for our Gophers, this tournament was, in many ways, a microcosm of their strange season. Like many fans, I would imagine, I came into this year with pretty moderate expectations—it’s the first year of a rebuilding process, after all, and these things take time etc, etc. But, with their evident camaraderie, with their bursts of inspired play, these Gophers somehow managed to kind of worm their way into my heart. They always did just enough to engender some hope—and would next, of course, proceed to capitalize on that hope by playing appallingly badly.

Things did not begin auspiciously. Northwestern, as they sometimes do, gave the Gophers fits in the first half of their game on Thursday, leading by 16 at one point. The U managed to put together a 21-8 run to get back into the game and they eventually hung on to win, barely. Combine that inauspicious effort with the fact that the bar I where I was watching the game had almost all of their TVs tuned to CNN’s “Situation Room,” in which our good friend Wolf Blitzer and his pal Lou Dobbs glibly reduce incredibly important things to noxious little quotables, and the evening turned out to be pretty nerve-wracking.

I probably don’t need to remind you of what happened next. It’s important to remember, though, that the game itself was pretty ugly. As they did earlier this year, the Gophers stayed in the game by keeping things sloppy, pressuring Indiana’s young guards into mistakes. And, just as they did earlier this year, they found themselves in a position to win at the end and were unable to put the game away. Then came that ridiculous final minute. Two disclaimers here: 1) DJ White was a completely deserving winner of the Big Ten Player of the Year award this year; I’m pretty sure he’s my favorite player in the conference and I think he’ll be pretty decent in the NBA. 2) Remember that I have yet to complain about officiating even once this year. But: the Gophers got hosed. I know that three of their four big players were out of the game, due to injury and foul problems. And I know that DJ is pretty dang good. But there’s no way he should have been able to go over-the-top of a player with good position, tip the ball in, and also get fouled. It’s totally ridiculous. Anyway, that was, of course followed by one of the most incredible things I’ve ever seen in a basketball game. By that point I had lost all pretense of objectivity and was shrieking and cursing at the television and slapping my hands on the bar. Just couldn’t stop. I’ll beg you to watch it again a few more times. I’ve done it quite a bit and it makes me feel really good. The one thing I’ll call your attention to is Hoffarber’s catch. The guy is only 6’4” and he can’t really jump. It makes no sense that he could catch that ball while surrounded by three bigger, more athletic Hoosiers. It makes no sense.

And then the Gophers followed it all up by laying an absolute dud on Saturday, against a pretty mediocre Illinois team (who had, nevertheless beaten them twice before). That’s a little frustrating. Throughout the season, the Gophers have been hampered by three big problems: defending outside shooters, rebounding, and offensive inconsistency. After the first half of the Northwestern game, they seemed to have fixed the first two. They held Indiana to 1-14 from three and 32% overall (though they did foul up a storm), and none of their opponents managed to score 60 points. And, despite their foul trouble and Spencer Tollackson’s ankle injury, they managed to rebound competitively in all three games, thanks to good contributions from their guards.

That third thing is what killed them. Although a few Gophers have shown flashes of offensive creativity, Lawrence McKenzie is really the only one who can consistently create his own look and, because of his height, even he often has trouble finishing inside. This means that when they are not executing their offense well, or when the other team is applying good defensive pressure, the Gophers have an extremely hard time scoring in their half-court. It causes them to miss opportunities created by their defense and it causes the awful scoring droughts that they endured through significant portions of each of the three games. Illinois is not nearly as bad as their record would suggest but, still, the Gophers only scored 50 on 39% shooting. Did I mention how frustrating that was?

One Last Thing

As expected (predicted!), the Gophers are NIT bound. Thanks largely to that Indiana win, they get a 4 seed and home court advantage for at least the first game of the tournament, on Tuesday. They play the Maryland Terrapins (I give my word that I will make a "Terrapin Station" joke in my next post) who, like the Gophers, finished sixth in their conference and was beaten in their tournament by a much lower seeded opponent. Also like the Gophers, they’ve been fairly inconsistent, beating #1 North Carolina but losing to American University. I really have no idea how it will turn out. See you there.

Posted by Benjamin Polk at March 17, 2008 12:26 AM | Comments (0)

 

College Counseling

Filed under: Gophers

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.

The Best Defense is a Good Defense

Actually, Coleman’s performances in those two games could stand in for those of the entire team. Energetic, but inconsistent; prone to spells of inspiring basketball and also jaw-dropping mistakes. Good enough to beat a Penn State team that was mediocre even before losing their best player for the season; not nearly good enough on the road against 16h-ranked Purdue.

In both games, the Gophers found themselves down early after indulging in their habitual problem of leaving three-point shooters wide open. And in both games, they were able to mount comebacks by bearing down on defense—playing more aggressively on screens, and rotating with better anticipation—and moving the ball on offense. The biggest difference was that, after Minnesota’s initial comeback, Penn State continued to allow the Gophers’ to execute their offense, while Purdue swallowed them up.

The Boilermakers revealed, by stark comparison, many of the shortcomings and inconsistencies of the Gophers’ own defense. They consistently and aggressively hedged screens (something the Gophers do only intermittently), preventing ballhandlers from making headway into the lane and forcing them to regroup. When the Gophers’ guards were able to penetrate the lane, the Boilermakers’ help defense swarmed to the ball. And if the Gophers managed to find a shooter left open by the collapsing D, Purdue recovered and rotated, preventing the open look. Purdue forced the Gophers to play at a frantic tempo, completely disrupting their offense; the U managed only three points in the first nine minutes of the second half. While Purdue had their own troubles scoring during this stretch, their defensive effort was enough to stake them to a double-digit lead, which they never relinquished.

Math Rock

Backup center Jonathan Williams has shown pretty impressive improvement over the past few weeks—so much so that I think it’s worth wondering if he should be taking some more of Spencer Tollackson’s minutes. Tollackson is the starter because he is a senior and because he is a decent scorer, averaging just over ten points per game in 23.9 minutes. Furthermore, for much of the season Williams was a liability on offense, showing no touch whatsoever around the rim in shooting 46.1% (which, for a big man, is not so good). But, as I’ve pointed out, Tollackson is a below average defender and a terrible rebounder—he averages only 3.87 boards per game in conference play, and has at least that many ripped out of his hands each game. The far more athletic Williams, on the other hand, can be a pretty fierce defender and rebounder; this month, he has averaged 4.8 rebounds in only 13 minutes per game. That’s one more board than Tollackson, in just over half the minutes. And, recently, Williams has shown much more confidence around the basket. Earlier in the season would receive a pass, dribble the ball as if waiting for a defender to challenge his shot and then offer up a timid layup attempt. In recent games, though, he has been much more decisive, converting many of those same situations into dunks and free throws.

Now, Tollackson’s shoots 53.3% from the floor, which would put him in the top ten in the conference. Here’s the thing, though: he doesn’t take nearly enough shots to even qualify for the ranking—the cutoff is five made shots per game, and Tollackson gets only 4.4 in Big Ten play. This means that, despite the disparity in shooting percentage between Williams and Tollackson, we’re talking about a difference of—maybe—one made basket per game. Put that up against Williams’s huge edge in rebounding and defense (the latter being not so statistically clear but plainly obvious to the naked eye) and…well, we’re talking about a lot of wasted possessions.

I realize that was totally nerdy and probably boring and I promise to never again use a calculator in any writing of any kind, especially in engaging in a thorough discussion of which mediocre center should get more minutes for a non-NCAA tournament-bound college basketball team. But: the Gophers have been solidly out-rebounded by good teams all year. They have some huge games coming up (plus the Big Ten tournament) if they hold out any hope for postseason play of any kind. Every little bit helps, is alls I’m saying.

Posted by Benjamin Polk at February 28, 2008 6:09 PM | Comments (0)

 

Home Invasion

Filed under: Gophers

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.

Soul and Fire

Occasionally--very occasionally--a team can overcome such lack of defensive effort and wherewithal by shooting well themselves. Well, the Gophers were just as bad on offense as they were on defense. They struggled all night to get good shots and then missed the ones they did get. Their best offensive players--McKenzie and Coleman--took only five shots between them and in the second half, when the game was really decided, the team made a staggeringly awful 20.5% of their shots. Pretty hot stuff, fellas. Probably the most troubling thing about it was that when they got near the basket they looked tentative. The shied from contact; they faded away; they weekly pushed the ball at the hoop. I have occasionally wondered, with some sympathy, what it must be like for those unlucky folks at the Y who catch glimpses of me playing one-on-one. I wonder no longer.

For his part, Tubby seems a bit perplexed by this bunch he's inherited. He's remarked before on the team's unpredictable temperament. They are an unselfish, "mature" group (his words). They want to win terribly and get extremely fired up for games--and yet their effort is pretty uneven and they don't always fight hard for victories. Its hard to know why this happens. I do know, from extended experience playing on many averagely talented but very bad teams, that there is a certain cold-hearted meanness (which the teams I was on never had) required to win consistently. It's that kind of scary pride that, rather than asking after the sources of bad fortune, takes a vengeful offense at it. I think its probably part of what makes so many great athletes such terrible assholes. In any case, many signs--Dan Coleman taking only two shots in the game; Spencer Tollackson grabbing a whopping zero rebounds in the first half; getting crushed at home by one of the worst teams in the conference--suggest that these Gophers don't have it.

King Me, Baby

Just one more thing. I know I've harped on coaches before (and Tubby in particular) but I have a request for anybody who plans on going to a U of M men's basketball game this year (or any time I guess). Please, please resist the urge to give Tubby a worshipful, full-throated standing ovation when you've only tepidly applauded the Gophers' starting lineup. Tubby is a nice guy and a good coach but he's not Winston Churchill. He's not even Walter Mondale. He is the coach. Of a sports team. He doesn't even play in the game. The players, remember them? They're the ones who donate their bodies and most of their lives that we can feel some fleeting pride in our state, so that we can enjoy ourselves for an evening.

It's not just my own home state's coach-worship that's burning me. You may know that Bobby Knight resigned last week and I haven't been this grossed out by revisionist fawning since Reagan died. In what world is this vile dude honestly considered a teacher, or anything other than an abusive boor? Where do we get this romance with authority? Do we take some kind of vicarious satisfaction in seeing middle-aged men enforce their notions of structure and discipline on their seemingly wild, outrageously physically gifted charges? Though we idolize the players' young, potent bodies, do we resent the ease and freedom they bestow? And do we secretly enjoy seeing those athletic young guys submit to an enforced system, as if it might somehow justify our own circumscribed lives? Our own dying bodies?

Posted by Benjamin Polk at February 13, 2008 5:49 PM | Comments (0)

 

Ann Arbor Rock City

Filed under: Gophers

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.

Begger's Banquet

The Gophers’ effort on Thursday night was refreshing. They played with an intensity and sense of purpose befitting a team with veteran leaders and one that was desperate for a victory. The team has played with tremendous defensive energy all season but that energy was at a new high against Michigan, especially in the first half. Their ball pressure completely suffocated the Wolverines, creating turnovers, blocking shots and denying them any quality looks (Michigan shot only 37% and turned the ball over 17 times). Now, Michigan is a pretty bad basketball team. If it weren’t for their freshman star Manny Harris (who led all scorers with 19 points on Thursday, on 6-14 shooting) they would be pretty hopeless. Still, the Gophers did what you are supposed to do with bad teams—smother them early and give them no reason to hope. Michigan’s furious late rally notwithstanding, the Gophers were dominant.

That said, the Gophers’ essential mediocrity shone through in a number of ways, most noticeably on offense. They did shoot an amazing 59% from the field but negated much of their own defensive success with 17 turnovers. And although they did play extremely aggressive defense—or perhaps as a by-product of that aggressiveness—they committed some bad fouls in the process, sending the Wolverines to the line 24 times.

I’ve also noticed that the Gophers’ defensive pressure doesn’t always translate into easy baskets. It was strange to watch them completely dominate Michigan and yet hold only eight to10 point leads for much of the game. They never put together that really commanding run that would cement the game. This has been true in their losses to Indiana and Michigan as well; even in stretches in which they were turning the other team over with regularity, they weren’t always scoring well off of that pressure. Against Michigan, the Gophers did get some baskets in transition but just as often they seemed out of control on the break, turning the ball over and forcing shots. I know this all probably seems like quibbling and that one shouldn’t really complain about a double-digit Big Ten road win. But…I mean, Michigan is terrible and the Gophers owned them the whole night. But their execution on offense was pretty shaky for large stretches and they never could manage to turn a big lead into a blowout.

Reform, Not Revolution

As promised, we are starting to see the Gophers’ rotation thin out a bit. Rather than the two-tiered platoon system we’ve gotten used to, against Michigan it looked much more like the traditional arrangement of a starting five with a few key subs. Probably in response to the team’s poor offensive showing against Ohio State, Tubby chose to leave his most consistent scorers on the floor for more minutes—at the expense of Jamal Abu-Shamala and Blake Hoffarber, in particular. This strategy seems to have paid off pretty well as the Gophers saw better production from Coleman and McKenzie and a huge boost in the team’s shooting percentage (although, I have to say, I’m not sure way Hoffarber, the team’s best three-point shooter, only saw two minutes of playing time. Maybe Tubby has finally decided that his one-dimensional game has become a hindrance). And Damian Johnson’s increased minutes mean that the team doesn’t lose much on the defensive end. But while this seemed to give the Gophers more continuity on offense, it didn’t really seem the cure them of their weird sloppiness with the ball.

The fact is, the Gophers have something of a void at point guard. It’s not that they have bad players at that position—in fact, Al Nolen and McKenzie could be great contributors on any team in the conference. But none of their backcourt players are true ball-handling/distributing point guards. Lawrence Westbrook and Nolen are both terrific defensive players (and Westbrook had a nice 15 points on 6-10 against Michigan), but neither one is really ready to run an offense. And McKenzie is really more of a scorer and tends to make mistakes when asked to shoulder the ballhandling duties (five of those turnovers on Thursday were his).

McKenzie is a pretty interesting player actually. He is the Gophers’ only truly dangerous one-on-one player. He has shown the ability—against Michigan and Michigan State—to carry the offense with his array of threes, nasty step-back jumpers and drives. If he were four inches taller and could play the two, he would probably be one of the better scorers in the country. But his small size means that he is a point-guard, a position that exposes many of his weaknesses (his average passing skills, his mistake-prone ball-handling). And—possibly because he is out of position, possibly because he consciously defers to his teammates, possibly because his focus wavers throughout a game—he tends to disappear for long stretches of games. At home against Michigan State, for instance, he single-handedly kept Minnesota in the game with his second half scoring, finishing with 20 points. The thing is, all of those points came in the second half; in fact, he only took one shot in the first twenty minutes and didn’t actually score his first points until the 14:37 mark of the second half. Weird, right?

Posted by Benjamin Polk at February 2, 2008 12:15 PM | Comments (0)

 

Tonight We Dine in Hell

Filed under: Gophers

• 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.

• Nolen’s absence also hurt the Gophers on offense. I realize that just three days ago I criticized Nolen’s point guard skills, but things were even worse without him. Lawrence Westbrook ran the point with poise in limited action against Indiana, but he was a mess on Sunday, turning the ball over five times in the first half alone. The Gophers looked sloppy and out of synch no matter who ran the show and they went through long stretches of very poor execution, most crucially late in the second half when Michigan State began hitting their shots.

• I think after this I’ll stop picking on Spencer Tollackson because he seems like a decent guy and he takes losing really personally and he's just a kid and everything...but anyway one of of the Gophers biggest problems all year has been their inconsistency inside. Both Tollackson and Jonathan Williams were absolutely swallowed up by Michigan State’s interior defense, shooting a combined 6-16. Both players were able to make strong initial post moves but once they reached the traffic around the basket were habitually unable to finish or find open teammates. I’m pretty sure that this contributes to the Gophers’ spotty point guard play; when your big men are unable to score effectively or draw double teams, it puts inordinate pressure on your perimeter players to create offense.

• All of this is giving me a greater appreciation for the challenge Tubby faces in assembling lineups that can both score and defend. The Gophers are a weird mix of abilities and aptitudes. Aside from Coleman, who is a talented scorer, rebounder and defender, (although even he had a pretty poor game against the Spartans; he shot 4-14 and pulled in only three rebounds) they don’t really have a complete player. None of their standout defenders (Nolen, Westbrook, Damian Johnson) are particularly adept at putting the ball in the basket; their best pure shooters (Lawrence McKenzie and Blake Hoffarber) are undersized and a little soft defensively; I’ve already said enough about their big men. Thus, Tubby’s propensity to mix-and-match his lineups as he tries to find the exact right combination for every moment.

My sense is that, Coleman’s poor performance on Sunday notwithstanding, he should be the one player who transcends the coach’s platoon system. When Coleman is not on the floor, the Gophers clearly have even more difficulty scoring than normal; I particularly like him paired with Damian Johnson in the frontcourt. Johnson is a terrific shot blocker and, although he can’t score from beyond five feet, he is a hard-nosed finisher and creates opportunities for others with his passing. The Gophers seem more aggressive and fluid on both ends of the floor when the two play together, even without a true post presence.

• The biggest surprise of the afternoon was that Sid Hartman deigned to speak to me in the media room after the game. The olde don of Minneapolis sports journalism has certainly given me his share of cross looks but on Sunday he finally deemed it necessary to speak—and gently voice some much needed advice on my appearance. “We won’t let you in here again until you cut that hair,” he chimed. Sid is quite right: I have long hair. I’m just glad he didn't call me a pinko or tell me to get off his lawn.

Posted by Benjamin Polk at January 22, 2008 12:27 AM | Comments (2)

 

"Hoosiers": The Blog

Filed under: Gophers

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.

Pressure Feels Funny

I don’t usually go into game recap mode like that, but I did it to point out just how close to beating the ninth ranked team in the country the Gophers actually were. The big reason the Gophers were able to stay in the game against a more talented and athletic team was their passion and intensity on defense. Taking advantage of Indiana’s backcourt inexperience they forced Indiana into an astounding 26 turnovers with their full court press and frenetic half-court ball pressure. And they hounded Gordon, who came into the game averaging 23 points per game and was, by a large measure, the most talented player on the floor, into his worst game of the season. They allowed him only 12 points on eight shots and forced him to turn the ball over seven times.

Just as obviously, they also did lots of things not so well. They effectively negated their turnover advantage by being out-rebounded 42-26 (this is a problem that has plagued them, and will continue to plague them, I imagine, against good teams all year—besides Coleman, the Gophers three other regular forwards collected only seven rebounds between them.) Although their aggressiveness caused all of those turnovers and bad possessions, it also caused the Gophers to make some big mental errors on defense. When you put pressure on the ball and attempt to force turnovers on the strong side, your weakside defenders must be able to quickly rotate to open shooters if the other team beats this pressure. The Gophers did a poor job of this all night and it hurt them, not only on Stemmler’s late shot but also at the end of the first half when the Hoosiers’ Jordan Crawford went on a personal three-point shooting binge, helping Indiana to an 11 point halftime lead.

The Gophers also went through long stretches of poor offensive execution. For instance, they scored only four points in the nearly seven minutes of play after Coleman’s three point play put them up by four. I’ve praised Al Nolen’s poise and energy here before, and his defense was instrumental to the Gophers’ success, but this dry spell—including that crucial blown possession following Stemmler’s three—illustrated some of the freshman’s weaknesses as a point guard. Although Nolen is a fine ballhandler and is often able to work his way into the paint off the dribble, he is not yet much of a finisher. He doesn’t have a reliable pull-up jumper, which allows teams to pack the middle when he drives. This makes it difficult for him to score at the rim and also clogs up interior passing lanes. And Nolen doesn’t seem to yet have the vision and poise to find open shooters when in traffic—the result is often a forced pass or a reset at the top of the key. At the end of the game, when the Gophers needed their point guard to run the show and create good shots against a fierce defense, Nolen wasn’t up to the task.

Free Throws Are Neither "Free" Nor "Throws." Discuss

Despite all of this, they would have won the game if they had even been average from the free throw line. Instead, they were 11-21 and, well, you do the math. That’s like a whole team of Shaqs except without the constant dunking. I hate to pick on poor Spencer Tollackson—the dude was completely despondent after the game and referred to his own performance from the line as variously, “disgusting,” and “sickening” (I would add "grody"). But Spencer missed all seven of his free throws, including some big late ones. D'oh. And, unfortunately, his problems extended beyond the free throw line. Despite his size and strength, Tollackson is not much of a low post player. He was 6-10 on the night from the floor, but most of his makes were open dunks or layups off of cuts or pick and roll situations. Almost every time he tried to take Indiana’s long-armed D.J. White one-on-one it ended in a block or a bad miss. Just as he did against Northwestern, Tollackson struggled in man-to-man defense—late in the game, it looked as if Tubby was hiding him on the wing in the 2-3 zone—and he was repeatedly outmuscled for rebounds by White and the very large DeAndre Thomas.

But these shortcomings are only frustrating for Gophers’ fans, given how surprisingly likeable and good this Gopher team has been; they would be much less glaring if there weren’t such a fine margin between two heartbreaking losses and a 4-0 Big Ten record. I’m pretty sure that not many people, myself included, would have predicted before this season started that they would take two top twenty opponents down to the wire in a two week span. But that’s exactly what has happened—first against Michigan State and then against Indiana—and when you throw in last Saturday’s huge comeback victory at Penn State, the Gophers are emerging as, if not exactly a contender for the Big Ten title, then at least an extremely competitive, entertaining Big Ten team. And that’s a huge improvement.

Posted by Benjamin Polk at January 19, 2008 3:14 PM | Comments (0)

 

Tubby Smith Was Not Born in A Barn

Filed under: Gophers

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.)

Arenaball

Now, this is a pretty cavalier thing for the new coach to say. It’s not for nothing that the Barn sports the most significant home court advantage in college basketball. Even when it’s half-full, the place becomes unbelievably loud at the slightest sign of life from the home team and opponents have described the experience of playing there as akin to drowning or suffocation. It’s one of those really beautifully strange, asymmetric athletic facilities that don't really get built anymore, buildings that call to mind grainy images of thousands of men's hats rising in unison. Most of all, it is really an electric place to watch a basketball game.

It is true that Williams Arena is nearly 80 years old, but it has been renovated four times in the last 17 years (including a $2.3 million remodeling as recently as 2003). The place is old, but it is hardly crumbling; its seating capacity is competitive with other Big Ten schools; the sight lines are amazing almost anywhere you sit—why again are we going to tear down? Tubby has hinted before that the he’s expecting a new practice facility, and, from a purely basketball perspective, this is understandable and probably necessary. But for a guy who spends much of his media time boasting of his selfless desire to integrate into his new community—and who has won exactly zero Big Ten games while taking home $2 million a year of the U’s money (which I think is pretty much on par with most professors’ salaries, right?)—the offhand suggestion that the University tear down a state landmark is, I’d say, a touch vulgar.

By Any Means Necessary

But, see, here we’re getting into the big tradeoffs of hiring a top-tier basketball coach like Tubby Smith. As you probably know, in 1998 the Gophers, under coach Clem Haskins were caught out in one of the worst academic scandals ever in college sports. Basically, many of the players, apparently with the coaching staff's blessing and encouragement, begged out of writing their own papers, leaving the drudgery to a matronly tutor. One such paper, turned in by Gophers’ forward Courtney James, who was already in a bit of trouble for hitting his girlfriend with a phone, was memorably titled, “Malcolm X and Martin Luther King: The Same or Different?” Remember, this is ostensibly better than whatever Courtney would’ve written on his own. (The answer is ‘the same,’ right?)

Now, this is all purely speculation on my part, but my thought is that the University knew that in order to save face, it was going to have to go small time for a while: to hire a coach, they knew would run a completely clean program; to recruit players who they knew would at least cover the bases academically; to suck for like ten years. Well, Dan Monson was that coach, and suck they did. But now penance has been paid (although the “funny” thing about all of this is that even when the Gophers have been pretty bad, their team graduation rate has hovered at about 40%) and the Smith hiring seems to show that winning basketball games has again become one of the U’s priorities. Now, Tubby Smith has been a fairly upstanding guy wherever he’s been and I have no doubt that he genuinely has the best interest of his players at heart. But the fact that he, a basketball coach, is now in a position to make multi-million dollar demands on a publicly funded university only shows that the business of winning basketball games grossly compromises the mission of an academic institution. I’m pretty sure I’ll have more to say about this next week.

Posted by Benjamin Polk at December 28, 2007 12:27 AM | Comments (1)

 

Dakota...South Dakota

Filed under: Gophers

First things first. South Dakota State has totally righteous uniforms. They’re wrestling-mat blue and made of that amazing, fireproof double-knit rayon I remember so vividly from Middle School basketball games. Best of all, their only ornamentation is the word ‘State’ written in block letters across the chest. They look like what you might find in a commercial for car insurance or adult diapers when the happy couple is really enjoying each other at a “college basketball game” (now that he has his life back).

Also: the U of M dance team took the floor at halftime to Bjork’s percussion-less, sonically dense, totally un-danceable jam, “Joga”. If you’re not familiar with the song, check it out online and then picture the dance team perkily prancing out to half-court in their spangled, rhythmic gymnastics-y costumes and then very, very slowly…sort of solemnly moving in some kind of abstract relationship to the music. Then picture lots of maroon and gold-clad Gopher fans—like the middle-aged guy behind me who yelled along with all of the student section chants, even the ones where they made fun of the kids who fouled out—looking confused.

This whole digression here will be important later, when I explain how the Gophers nearly lost to a team called the Jackrabbits who are 3-6 and recently lost by 30 to Oral Roberts. No it won’t.

Oh, Sweet Belief

Neither Tubby Smith nor SDSU coach Scott Nagy expressed the slightest bit of surprise at the Gophers’ 78-72 close call against the Jackrabbits, trotting out those priceless old “any given team on any given night” and “South Dakota State is a good basketball team” nuggets. Nagy, in particular, acted as if he expected his team to beat the heavily favored Gophers, who had, just the week before, completely dismantled North Dakota State, SDSU’s superior northern rival. Despite the closeness of the game—the Gophers were struggling to cling to a two point lead with just three minutes left—this was manifestly ridiculous. SDSU was un-athletic and small (no Jackrabbit over 6’8” saw playing time); both of their regular point guards were freshmen; they had difficulty executing their offense most of the night, even when they were scoring. The Gophers were much, much bigger, quicker and more talented. They shot 56.2% for the game, which will, I’m fairly sure, be a season high. And yet. Really, only two ugly throwaways by SDSU in the last 1:30 and two very large, late blocks by Damian Johnson (who, Dan Coleman’s 24 points notwithstanding, was probably the U’s best player, recording ten points, four blocks and six rebounds in only 19 minutes) prevented something pretty awful/amazing.

Couple all of these things with the fact that SDSU managed to score 72 points and you start get the impression that something went seriously wrong for the Gophers, defensively. Especially in the first half, Minnesota applied serious pressure both with their full-court press and half-court trap. SDSU looked totally overmatched against this pressure and had difficulty just running their offense and even getting the ball across half-court. Still, even at their most frantic, the Jacks rarely actually turned the ball over and, more amazingly, just kept finding open shooters late in the shot clock. Smith mentioned players “going for shot fakes, out of position, [making] mental mistakes on D,” and all of that stuff was true (popping into the air on pump-fakes by much smaller players was certainly a common theme.) The Gophers played aggressive defense, but repeatedly failed to rotate to open shooters after the ball was passed out of the pressure. They tried their trademark trapping man-to-man, as well as 2-3 and 1-3-1 zones, and no matter how frazzled SDSU seemed, nothing quite worked. The Jackrabbits just kept getting open looks.

Rebounding was an even more glaring problem. The Jackrabbits out-boarded the Gophers by a ridiculous 41-26 margin. Recall, again, that the Gophers had a height advantage at every position. Even more ridiculous, SDSU collected 19 offensive rebounds, while shooting 27-61 for the game. I have never been good at math but I think that means they rebounded more than half of their own misses. Not so good, Gophs. Its true that, especially in the second half when an upset seemed very possible, SDSU was playing incredibly hard and got a huge boost from the bench play of long armed 6’8” senior Mohammed Berte who played with serious intensity in collecting 11 boards. But if the Gophers can’t take the trouble to box out or at least try to match the rebounding effort of their opponent (in a home game, no less) they’re going to be in trouble all season.

Senior Skip Day

Dan Coleman has nicely broken out of an early season shooting slump and has begun to consistently lead the team in scoring, but the play of the Gophers’ other senior leaders, guard Lawrence McKenzie and center Spencer Tollackson, has been another story. Tollackson seems to be a serious liability when it comes to rebounding. He managed only three boards against CSU and just two against SDSU, really low numbers for a senior and the biggest player on the floor, even if he is, shall we say, not much of a leaper (hey, me neither but, y’know, I played hockey). The Gophers think they can live with his athletic shortcomings since he is a skilled offensive player. But he’s been pretty unassertive on that end as well. Tollackson has been shooting the ball efficiently, but he took only five shots (making four) in 25 minutes on Wednesday and eight shots in 30 minutes in the victory over Colorado State. Against SDSU he was effective when he actually got the ball but struggled to get position in the low post, even against a smaller opponent (which also likely contributes to his rebounding problem).

McKenzie, too, has been absent lately. He made only one of his five shots against Colorado St., and was only 2-6 on Wednesday (although he did collect six assists.) He was especially lacking in comparison with his counterpart, Jackrabbits guard Garrett Callahan, who looks like a skinny tenth grader but absolutely murdered the Gophers with 28 points on 11-18 shooting. While Callahan played with some real passion, digging in on defense and manically attacking the Gophers nearly every time he touched the ball, McKenzie just looked tentative. The Gophers have been lucky to get good minutes from their young players, but if they want to do anything this year, they’ll need Tollackson and McKenzie to be much more aggressive.

Posted by Benjamin Polk at December 13, 2007 9:04 PM | Comments (0)

 

The Great White North

Filed under: Gophers

The biggest surprise of the Gophers’ 88-56 victory over North Dakota State on Monday was the improved play of senior forward Dan Coleman. Coleman had been caught in the muck of a season-long 17-49 shooting slump (that’s, lets see here, 34.7%) that had visibly affected his confidence in the other phases of the game. Against NDSU, Coleman was galvanized, perhaps by matching up against much smaller and less athletic opponents, and played his best game by far. He made seven of his 13 shots, showed some nice one-on-one moves, grabbed eight rebounds and was active on defense. This is the kind of play that had made Coleman one of the Gophers’ best players last year and compelled him to briefly (and terribly unwisely) enter last year’s NBA draft. If the Gophers are to have any success in the Big Ten this year, Coleman needs to play like this every night.

(Did I say “the biggest surprise of the game”? The biggest surprise of the game was actually when I walked into the arena a few minutes before the tip off and discovered that every last NDSU player was certifiably white. I mean I know its North Dakota we’re talking about, but seriously. Every last player. Again: North Dakota State, an NCAA Division I men’s basketball team, is made up entirely of white dudes. And not even a single one of them was Detlef Schrempf. Should somebody let Wesley Snipes know about this?)

The Gophers began the game a bit tentatively and the Bison hung in with them for the first 15 minutes or so, even taking an 18-17 lead with 10:52 remaining in the first half. Eventually, though, the Gophers’ superior size, athleticism and depth took their toll and as the game wore on, they were able to sustain a level of energy that NDSU couldn’t match. The U went on a 21-4 run in the last eight minutes of the first half and were never really threatened again. After the game, many commented that the Gophers “wore down” the Bison, and it was true; Tubby made good use of his deep, ten-player rotation, making sure that the five players on the floor were always well rested.

No doubt, it was the U’s best defensive effort of the year. They played disciplined, enthusiastic D for most of the game and, especially in the second half, used their trapping man-to-man to create easy baskets in transition. The problem here is that when the two teams played with roughly even energy levels (the first five minutes of each half, for instance) they looked relatively well-matched; only when the Bison fatigued did the Gophers seem like the more skilled team. Its fine to rely on depth and athleticism to pull you through against North Dakota State, a team that has played at the Division I level for only three years. But this is not a strategy that will serve them well during the Big Ten season. No matter how much they hustle, to beat teams like Indiana and Michigan State the Gophers are going to have to be able to play a little too.

The Nolen Express

Since last week’s star (at least here at Balls!) Blake Hoffarber bricked his first four threes of the game, my new favorite Gopher is fellow freshman Al Nolen. Nolen played with incredible energy, aggressiveness and poise. He picked up five steals in only 23 minutes with good anticipation and quick hands, and played hard-nosed ball defense on Bison star Ben Woodside. Lawrence McKenzie has been the Gophers leading scorer this year but against NDSU Nolen was the more patient player, never forcing his offense and scoring 15 points on 5-of-7 shooting. That’s pretty good, Al Nolen.

The Pom-Pom Monologues

One of the great recommenders of the college game over the NBA is the difference in non-basketball entertainment. Not surprisingly, college arenas favor a more organic, pep-rally atmosphere over the NBA’s late-capitalist, dystopian Disneyland feel. And while you’ll learn much less about the status of postmodern Western media culture at a college game (I guess that’s what going to class is for) you’ll also probably enjoy the actual basketball game part more, what with the authentic emotion and non-scoreboard generated crowd noise. But, wow, the cheerleaders. Cheerleading may be one of those cultural artifacts whose utter ridiculousness we overlook because we are too habituated to it to notice. I realize this is not earth-shattering news. I’m aware that cheerleaders have already been picked on in enough movies and novels and rock songs, but I’m telling you, in person its way, way weirder than you think. The male cheerleaders are sort of like fratty surrogates for the actual athletes. They are jocky, well-muscled frat boys who pump their fists a lot and strut around like they just dunked on your sister or dissed Nas on their last single. All the while, though, their female counterparts mince like motorized, ballet-dancing standard poodles, wearing intensely short skirts and photoshopped smiles. And how do these guys and girls interact? Well, the fellas are literally lifting the girls over their heads where they remain in perfect, statuesque pose, manically smiling away and looking very, very much like human trophies. I’d say it’s a little too unsettlingly kabuki for a basketball game but as a performance of gender in contemporary culture its more terrifyingly on the money than anything Eve Ensler ever wrote.

Posted by Benjamin Polk at December 5, 2007 12:30 AM | Comments (0)

 

Iowa State upsets top-ranked Gopher grapplers

Filed under: Gophers

Iowa State scored a pair of upsets early, then dominated the upper weight classes, knocking off the defending national champion Minnesota wrestlers by an 18-13 margin. The Williams Arena showdown between the top two squads in the country wasn't decided until the heavyweight bought.

It was an afternoon of low-scoring, gritty encounters. There were no pins and only one major decision. In fact not a single back point was scored by either team.

The key matches for the Cyclones came early. After Gopher 125-pounder Jayson Ness pounded out a 10-0 victory to open the proceedings, the squad ran into trouble. Third-ranked Minnesota 133-pounder Mack Reiter gave up a third-period reversal and lost 3-1 to eighth-ranked Nick Fanthorpe.

Manuel Rivera and Dustin Schlatter temporarily righted things for the Gophers with methodical victories. But then C.P. Schlatter ran into Cyler Sanderson. Wearing a Jason-esque face mask, the younger brother of the most dominant collegiate wrestler ever (and now coach of the Cyclones) scored a takedown with one minute left in the match for a 3-2 victory.

Halfway through the contest, the Gophers held a 10-6 lead. But with two of the team's big guns going down, its prospects were not looking good.

In the most highly anticipated matchup of the afternoon top-ranked Iowa State 184-pounder Jake Varner faced off against second ranked Gopher Roger Kish. The rivals had split four previous encounters. Kish nearly secured a takedown in the dying seconds of the first period. But then Varner succeeded in taking his opponent to the mat in the second round, sufficient for a 3-0 victory.

Minnesota was down just two points heading into the heavyweight bout. Redshirt freshman Ben Berhow, trying to fill the large shoes of King Cole Konrad, had the chance to be a hero. The unranked Hayward product certainly gave it a game effort, repeatedly shooting in on David Zabriskie much to the delight of the 4,000-plus crowd at The Barn. But the fifth-ranked Cyclone punished Berhow for his aggression, scoring three defensive takedowns and a 7-2 victory.

The Gophers might get a shot at revenge quite quickly. The squads could face off again at the National Duals in mid-January.

Posted by Paul Demko at December 2, 2007 5:20 PM | Comments (0)

 

We'll Always Have Central Michigan

Filed under: Gophers

Florida State Is My Favorite State

Seeing Tubby Smith patrol the Gophers’ sidelines gives me an uncomfortable feeling in my stomach. Maybe similar to if Otis Redding caught me singing in the shower; I just sort of wish he didn’t have to sit through that. This year, as it is whenever a famous coach inherits a struggling squad, is going to be weird. Sort of a throwaway season, waiting for Tubby to recruit the next Tayshaun Prince. But whether or not Smith is just waiting things out until his own guys come aboard and this latest crop of mediocre Minnesota high school stars has moved on, he already seems to have the Gophers playing more confidently and passionately than they did at any point last year. In Tuesday night’s loss to Florida State the Gophers stayed within ten points for most of the game by playing intense defense (they forced FSU into 16 turnovers and 42.3% shooting) and hanging with the bigger, more athletic Seminoles on the glass. The troubling thing is that they still lost by 14.

Its too bad hustle and energy can’t really run your offense for you. I mentioned that the score was close for a long while but, truthfully, it never really seemed like the Gophers could win the game. The first ten minutes were something of a free-for-all, with both teams running with abandon and raining threes, and the Gophers even managed to claw their way to a 22-18 lead during that stretch. But once reality set in, and Florida State’s talented guard trio of Isaiah Swann, Ralph Mims and Toney Douglas began to apply some serious backcourt pressure, the Gophers unraveled. U guards Lawrence McKenzie and Al Nolen began forcing passes into the teeth of the zone (3 turnovers each in 26 and 22 minutes, respectively) and all of the Gophers’ ball handlers started to look a little frantic and lost. Even when the guards did manage to beat Florida State’s pressure and execute the offense, forwards Spencer Tollackson and Dan Coleman had a miserable time converting, shooting a combined 5-21 from the field. In all, the Gophers shot a pretty horrendous 33.8%, including a tasty mix of rushed, contested threes and missed jumpers.

Once the pressure elapsed, the Gophers showed themselves to be a well-coached team, executing their offense crisply. But the sad truth is that even their best players (ostensibly McKenzie, Coleman and Tollackson) did not look skilled or athletic enough to play well against a good defensive team. To kill the party even further, the Gophers success on defense was somewhat illusory. It's true that their aggressive play forced Florida State to turn the ball over and shoot a low percentage. But they also sent the Seminoles to the line 32 times (compared to only 10 Minnesota free-throws), which probably tells us two things: the Gophers were out of position and they were out of control. Oh well, at least ESPN saw fit to show a bunch frat guys in luxury boxes do the Tomahawk Chop. So we were lucky enough to see that.

Hoffarber Rising

The only Gopher to play more than 20 minutes and shoot at least 50% was none other than last year’s Mr. Basketball in Minnesota, Blake Hoffarber. Recall, now, that Hoffarber won a state championship for Hopkins High School in 2005 by hitting a 20-footer at the buzzer. Oh, right, and he was sitting down at the time. Thanks to that ridiculous shot, Hoffarber is (sort of) famous in a very 2000’s-y way. He has hung out with Matt Lauer on the Today Show. He has won an ESPY Award. Dudes, he has a Wikipedia entry. And, as it turns out, it appears that he can play a bit, too. He did contribute to the Gophers little fouling problem (4 fouls in 22 minutes) but he also showed off a gorgeous shot with a quick release and was one of the only Gophers to at least appear poised in the second half. If the Gophers do end up becoming good at some point, Hoffarber could be a nice piece of the puzzle, one of those moderately athletic, quintessentially college players who play really hard, keep from freaking out when things get crazy, and bomb 30-footers with zeal.

Posted by Benjamin Polk at November 30, 2007 4:19 PM | Comments (0)

 

No. 1 Gopher wrestlers face No. 2 Iowa State

Filed under: Gophers

The top-ranked Gopher wrestling team opened its dual-meet season last weekend by eviscerating Northern Illinois, Northern Colorado, and North Dakota State. Minnesota overwhelmed their opponents by a combined score of 109-21, and lost just four times in 30 matches.

On Sunday they will face substantially stiffer competition when they take on second-ranked Iowa State at Williams Arena. The Gophers outpointed the Cyclones last year to win their third national title in seven years. It will be the fourth time in just two years that Minnesota has been involved in a one-two showdown, with the Gophers prevailing in all three previous encounters.

Sunday's marquee matchup will pit the U of M's Roger Kish against Jake Varner. The 184 pounders are ranked one-two in the country. In four prior meetings, the rivals have each prevailed twice. Most notably, Varner pulled off a 4-2 win in last year's NCAA seminfinals.

Posted by Paul Demko at November 30, 2007 1:18 PM | Comments (0)

 

Gopher grapplers top pre-season polls

Filed under: Gophers

Given the weekly gridiron follies produced by the University of Minnesota football team, Gopher sports fans could use some positive news. Barring the unlikely announcement that Tim Brewster has resigned to star in Forrest Gump II: The Road to Passadena is Like a Box of Chocolates, non-football information will have to suffice.

The Gopher wrestling team, trying to repeat as national champions, is ranked number one in three different pre-season polls. Coach J Robinson's squad received all twelve first-place votes in the USA Today survey. What's more, eight of the team's ten starters are ranked in the top ten nationally.

The team will likely be led by top-ranked 149-pounder Dustin Schlatter. The Massillon, Ohio native capped a dominant 2005-06 campaign by winning a national title as a freshman. Last year, however, his string of 65 consecutive victories came to a halt when he was upset in the national semifinals. Schlatter ended up settling for third place.

Other Gophers ranked in the USA Today poll: Jayson Ness, 125 pounds, 4th; Mack Reiter, 133 pounds, 3rd; Manny Rivera, 144 pounds, 6th; C.P. Schlatter, 157 pounds, 5th; Tyler Safratowich, 165 pounds, 7th; Gabe Dretsch, 174 pounds, 7th; Roger Kish, 184 pounds, 2nd.

The biggest question facing Robinson will be who fills the heavyweight void left by the departure of Cole Konrad. "King Cole" finished his NCAA career with 76 consecutive victories and two national titles. A pair of homegrown redshirt freshmen, Ben Berhow and Joe Nord, will compete for the spot.

Robinson says the emphasis will be on retaining the team crown, but also improving on last year's individual performances, noting that only Konrad won a national title. "They got what they wanted as a team last year," he says, "but they didn't get what they wanted as individuals."

Posted by Paul Demko at October 29, 2007 1:50 PM | Comments (0)

 

Glen Mason fired a year too late

Filed under: Gophers

On January 1, 2006, University of Minnesota football coach Glen Mason signed a five-year contract worth approximately $1.65 per year. On December 31, 2006, Mason was fired.

Never a charismatic nor particularly amiable coach during his decade-long tenure in Minnesota, Mason did take the Gophers to five straight bowl games. On the other hand, his teams never finished higher than fourth in the rugged Big 10 Conference and the bowls he went to were decidedly minor affairs, including the Insight Bowl this year, where the Gophers blew a 31-point lead to finish with a record of 6-7 and seal Mason's demise. The coach's overall mark of 64-57 was padded with nearly two-dozen games against non-conference patsies. This season, the Gophs were pressed to eke out a one-point win over North Dakota State, a Division I-AA school.

The Mason era saw some of the finest players ever to perform in maroon and gold. In the last three years alone, he coached the running back tandem of Laurence Maroney and Marion Barber III, both now gainfully employed in the NFL. Center Greg Eslinger won the 2005 Outland Trophy, awarded to college football's top interior lineman. And Matt Spaeth captured the John Mackey Award this year as the best tight end in the NCAA. And going back to 1999, Tyrone Carter captured the Jim Thorpe Award as the best defensive back in college football. The Gophers' lack of success despite this surfeit of top-flight talent leaves Mason with a checkered legacy.

Posted by Britt Robson at December 31, 2006 5:12 PM | Comments (2)

 

Does Borton Deserve To Stay?

Filed under: Gophers

Nine days ago on this Balls! blog, my colleague Jim Walsh wrote a brief but spirited defense of Gophers' women's basketball coach Pam Borton, who was rocked by a slew of players leaving the squad after the season concluded last month. I kept meaning to join the commentary that followed, but was busy with other deadlines and the moment passed. Now, belatedly, I'll offer a couple of things that for some reason haven't been reported in other media--at least not in any outlets I've seen.

First, although it was briefly reported by Jay Weiner in the Strib that Borton faced a similar mini-mutiny among players when she coached at Vermont, the circumstances weren't really fleshed out. For years, Borton was an assistant coach at Vermont under a woman named Cathy Inglese, who put together a powerhouse, going undefeated for two consecutive years--53 regular season victories in a row--before parlaying her success into a gig as head coach at Boston College.

As Inglese's loyal assistant, Borton was flipped the keys to a small college dynamo in May 1993. And how did she fare? Well, Vermont won its conference for a couple years, but finished second in both the 95-96 and 96-97 seasons. In her four years at the helm, Borton's record was 69-46. That's a far cry from 53-0, eh?

At the end of that fourth year, Borton was confronted by the transfer of two players, and another who was threatening to transfer. It was at this point that Borton decided to rejoin Inglese as an assistant coach at Boston College. When the issue was raised at the time Borton was hired to coach the Gophs, it was spun that Borton made the move to position herself for a big college job--and who could argue with that rationale, since she was in fact being hired for a big college job? But let's get serious for a moment. Borton had taken a powerhouse and, after winning using Inglese's recruits, turned it into a mere conference contender. The players she had recruited were in open rebellion. How had she proven herself enough in Vermont to call the transfer to BC a step up? For that matter, how does becoming an assistant to someone you've already had success assisting better position you for career advancement? Looking over this record, it is a wonder why the Gophers hired her in the first place.

So Borton comes to Minnesota and history looks to be repeating itself. Using the top recruits of her predecessors, including future WNBA pros such as Lindsey Whalen and Janell McCarville, Borton enjoyed success early in her tenure. With her own recruits, the record has started to falter and the players have started to become disgruntled. As was noted in the commentary following Walsh's post, five of the seven players recruited by Borton have transferred out to high-quality programs.

What's done is done: the unhappy players are gone and the U of M administration has expressed its support for Pam Borton. Time will tell whether or not that was a wise decision. But given her history, it is now up to Borton to prove why she should have been hired for this job in the first place. At stake is the enormous gain in profile and revenue that the Lady Gophers experienced in the past three years.

Posted by Britt Robson at April 18, 2006 5:15 PM | Comments (7)

 

In Defense of Pam Borton

Filed under: Gophers , Gophers , Gophers , Gophers

I don't know Pam Borton and I never played ball for her. All I know is what I saw and what I wrote in City Pages two years ago; a scenario of a tough coach and a tough player who found each other and who wanted the same thing:

"Last March 22, at Maples Pavilion in Stanford, California, the Gophers were down 28-27 at the half to Tulane in the opening game of the NCAA tournament. Uncharacteristically, [Lindsay] Whalen was held scoreless throughout the first half. As the teams came out for warm-ups before the second half, Whalen sidled up next to Borton, with whom she shares a certain steely purposefulness. The two women stood watching the other players, not talking to each other, for a minute. Two. Maybe three.

"All that silence left an observer wondering about what might have transpired between the pair at halftime, about how they get along, and about how Whalen has dealt with having had three coaches in three years--Borton, Littlejohn, and Brenda Oldfield, who left the Gophers for Maryland after the breakout season of 2001-2002. The answer, in part, came as the horn sounded for the second half. Without a word, a blank-faced Whalen wind-milled her arm and spanked Borton hard on the butt. Borton barely reacted. Neither said a word. Borton picked up her clipboard, Whalen roared at her teammates in the huddle, then went out and hit two three-pointers to open the half. She finished with 18 points, and the Gophers blew out Tulane, 68-48."

Jamie Broback was a freshman the next year. I saw her at practice and at games, and the distinct impression was of a talented, moon-faced farm girl who was in over her head. I had hoped she'd adjust to the rigors of Big 10 basketball, and she did for a while, but the obvious answer now is that she wasn't cut out for it. She wanted to be a kid. It looked to me like she was tired of basketball, and all the pressure.

Borton is class act. Rumor has it she has information about at least one of her former players that would cast this recent brouhaha in a different light, but she was recently quoted as saying, "this is not going to get ugly."

I coached my ten-year-old son in basketball this year. Near the end, I yelled at them, saying, "You guys are pathetic. You don't even play defense. You're PATHETIC." Some of them laughed at me, some got pissed and played defense. None of the parents complained.

Some of the Gophers' former players' parents have been quoted as saying their little girls didn't get enough playing time or that Borton called them "selfish."

I wonder what Whalen would have to say about that?

Actually, when it comes to jock-quotes, Whalen is as garden-variety as they come; she's a show-don't-tell artist who prefaces everything with, "Obviously...," so she likely wouldn't have much to say about the situation, other than that Borton's tough, demanding, and likes basketball played the right way: With rhythm and five-as-one.

Like I said, I don't know Pam Borton, or why the team tanked this year. All I know is that I'd love to have my son or daughter play basketball for her, and if they ever came crying to me (hello, Kris Humphries' father) about playing time or how "abrasive" the coach is, I'd tell them to shut up and pass the ball and play defense and get their degree.

Posted by Jim Walsh at April 9, 2006 8:19 AM | Comments (12)