+/- for the misery in Minneapolis

[PurpleWhiteBoy]

Rough outing for the Wildcats up in Minnesota... The numbers...

Player	Minutes	NU Pts	MIN Pts	Raw +/-	Player Adjust	Game +/-
Buie	44	64	75	-11	+7.85	+5.65
Preston	6	13	7	+6	-1.00	+0.20
Langborg	40	61	67	-6	+1.33	+0.13
Hunger	10	8	18	-10	+1.70	-0.30
Nicholson	28	42	46	-4	-0.02	-0.83
Barnhizer	39	50	69	-19	+1.80	-2.00
Martinelli	19	31	30	+1	-3.34	-3.14
Berry	39	61	63	-2	-8.31	-8.71

Barnhizer's -19 jumps out. We only scored 50 points in 39 minutes when Brooks was in the game.
Ty Berry's 3 of 11 shooting, combined with 3 turnovers and no steals, puts him at the bottom of the performances, although he was only -2 for the game.
Blake Preston put up a decent showing. When paired in the frontcourt with Nick Martinelli for 3 segments, the Cats won one 5-2, another 5-0 and the other 3-2.
Nicholson and Martinelli also smacked Minnesota around, winning 15-8 over 8:20.
On the opposite side of the coin, when Luke Hunger and Martinelli were paired in the frontcourt, NU got destroyed 14-0 in 5 minutes, including the 10-0 Gopher run to end the first half.

What is notable is that Minnesota really struggled on offense when Martinelli was on the court with Preston or Nicholson.
To me that makes sense. We were pretty small when Martinelli was on the bench. Minnesota had two effective bigs. Hunger doesn't defend like Preston and Nicholson.

With 8:18 left in regulation, Collins sat Barnhizer and played Nicholson with Martinelli, Berry, Langborg and Buie.
The Cats went on an 8-2 run to open a 54-46 lead with 5:25 to go.
Martinelli grabbed a defensive board but turned the ball over and Collins put Barnhizer back in for Martinelli.
Minnesota then wore the Cats down with a 15-4 run.
It continued in OT, with an additional 10-2 for the Gophers before Martinelli came back into the game with 50 seconds left.
Basically a 25-6 beatdown for the starters over a 10 minute span.
Martinelli was +9 in the 2nd half prior to being benched. He didn't play a great game, but we were better with him on the court.
Hunger didn't play in the 2nd half. When he was out there with the 4 starters in the first half, NU won 8-4 over 5 minutes.

Lastly, the Golden Lineup (Nicholson, Martinelli, Barnhizer, Berry, Buie) played 2:13 early in the game and put up a 5-0 win.
That continues to be our best lineup. We continue to use it sparingly. Subbing Martinelli in for Langborg more than once a game would help...

With fatigue looming as an issue, we really need another viable look to get some size on the court... It has to be Hunger at the 4, doesn't it?

 

[ballerog711]

NU lost a 10 point lead at the end of the first half and an 8 point lead the end of the second half. Can't do the if NU want to go to the next level

Turnovers hurt today and missed free throws continue to be an issue except for Ty (13 for 20)

IMO Martenelli has earned the right to close out games,. He can hit the 3, somehow gets to the basket and scores and is more active in defense. Also, I think it would benefit everyone if once in a while he was allowed to play through a mistake. They all make them..

I get the Hunger experiment, but not getting the points from him and a few minus games. Preston has been trying to drive more and they even got him the ball in the post a couple of times yesterday. Collins has to make a decision on a rotation,

I don't buy into the team being tired. They played two games a week. They get one day of with NCAA rules. They most likely get the day off after a game for recovery. Its hard on the road, but have to find a way to dig in and finish these games.

 

[AdamOnFirst]

They really took Berry out of his game in the second half. He ended up trying to drive and penetrate and make contested layups a LOT, and that’s just not his game. He did completely shake a defender from the corner and hit an open 15 footer once that was pretty sick, but otherwise his role as an off ball slasher and outside shooter was off kilter.

Looking at it, I’m surprised Martinelli only got 19 minutes in the game, I think that’s a pretty bad mistake given how tired our guard rotation was. Boo had the juice late as he always does, though he was tired enough to miss a free throw and layup to win it, but the others were totally fried. In general, I don’t need to see twice as much Langborg as Martinelli, especially a gassed Langborg. Five more Langborg minutes for Nick would have maybe helped. Even Nick though missed several of his preferred left hand looks inside though.

Hunger at the 4 I do not like the idea of at all. Hunger is better offensively than the other two, but at a stretch 4 he’d have been a disaster on Garcia and you’d have two deficient offensive players at the same time. He didn’t play much yesterday because he was horrible defensively, like really bad, and wasn’t a help offensively.

 

[Hungry Jack]

I don't buy into the team being tired. They played two games a week. They get one day of with NCAA rules. They most likely get the day off after a game for recovery. Its hard on the road, but have to find a way to dig in and finish these games.

Overtime game on Wednesday night. Probably got home at 2am. Then leave Friday for a matinee on Saturday. That is tough on anyone's body--especially after all the fouls we dished out vs. Purdue.

I think if that game is on Sunday, we win it. But c'est la vie.

 

[AdamOnFirst]

Overtime game on Wednesday night. Probably got home at 2am. Then leave Friday for a matinee on Saturday. That is tough on anyone's body--especially after all the fouls we dished out vs. Purdue.

I think if that game is on Sunday, we win it. But c'est la vie.

I'd also guess they didn't have much of a practice, which probably didn't help with being flustered by MN's fairly basic defensive schemes and turning it over a ton. Like you said, home in the early morning hours Thursday, so that turned into a rest and scouting report film day with minimal or no practice. Friday was a travel day so they either had to get in their full practice Friday AM and then do their shootaround early Saturday AM, skip the shootaround, or skip the full practice. Maybe a light practice Friday AM, hit the plane, and a shootaround Friday night.

It's no excuse for 17 (!) sloppy turnovers, but it can't have helped. It was physical tiredness that hurt them until the last few minutes of the game, and it wasn't physical mistakes that killed them at the end of the first half, when the game was really mostly lost (MN was playing awful and in the process of giving up when NU choked away a 10 point lead with 5 turnovers against only 3 FG attempt misses in 4 minutes, that's just pathetic). But it didn't help.

 

[IGNORE2]

Guy next to me they had only one reliable ball handler, who fouled out. Said we should be pressing. It was a goose point. In fact, should have worked to foul out zero and Garcia earlier. Then press.

 

[AdamOnFirst]

Guy next to me they had only one reliable ball handler, who fouled out. Said we should be pressing. It was a goose point. In fact, should have worked to foul out zero and Garcia earlier. Then press.

Hawkins fouled out after it was over, and to be fair NU didn’t even have the legs to make free throws by then, much less press. Although we did successfully press on the key play late where Boo nearly won it and did tie it.

Agree 100% on Garcia. He had already done his damage as the guy they were feeding for basically the entire comeback, but I was definitely hoping they’d attack him. They weren’t letting him get anywhere near Boo as he drove, though. Might have been an opportunity to get Martinelli on the game and try to feed him if he could get the matchup on Garcia. Garcia would either have to back off for a great left hand look or risk leaving.

 

[GatoLouco]

Overtime game on Wednesday night. Probably got home at 2am. Then leave Friday for a matinee on Saturday. That is tough on anyone's body--especially after all the fouls we dished out vs. Purdue.

I think if that game is on Sunday, we win it. But c'est la vie.

I’m usually not a big blame it on being tired but I thought this one was the exception. The two games were away, so not softening it with less travel and resting at home. Wednesday went to overtime and was very taxing.

I did not think it would make such a difference. But there were so many plays it just seemed we were just a bit late. Leading to a turnover here and there, leading to not beating your opponent to a ball, first step a tad too low… just kept seeing it all night. I don’t think it was the traditional we are less athletic, they are faster. I saw heavy legs.

 

[stpaulcat]

NU lost a 10 point lead at the end of the first half and an 8 point lead the end of the second half. Can't do the if NU want to go to the next level

Turnovers hurt today and missed free throws continue to be an issue except for Ty (13 for 20)

IMO Martenelli has earned the right to close out games,. He can hit the 3, somehow gets to the basket and scores and is more active in defense. Also, I think it would benefit everyone if once in a while he was allowed to play through a mistake. They all make them..

I get the Hunger experiment, but not getting the points from him and a few minus games. Preston has been trying to drive more and they even got him the ball in the post a couple of times yesterday. Collins has to make a decision on a rotation,

I don't buy into the team being tired. They played two games a week. They get one day of with NCAA rules. They most likely get the day off after a game for recovery. Its hard on the road, but have to find a way to dig in and finish these games.

NU was tight the latter part of the second half and in OT--struggling it looked like, appeared to be tired.

 

[PurpleWhiteBoy]

It looked to me that Minnesota, with 6 days to prepare, figured out a few things about our offense.
The main thing they got right was that when Buie is dribbling at the top of the arc and Nicholson comes up to set a ball screen, Buie wants to go to his right, say 90% of the time.
They kept the guard in front of the ball, trying to interfere with Nicholson rolling while Garcia jumped out behind Nicholson and shut down Buie dribbling to his right.
This happened repeatedly and stymied us entirely on that action.

They also figured out that if Nicholson gets the ball in the paint but outside of dunking distance, he is looking to pass to a shooter outside the arc. Matt had 3 turnovers as the Gophers jumped passing lanes.

 

[Deeringfish]

It looked to me that Minnesota, with 6 days to prepare, figured out a few things about our offense.
The main thing they got right was that when Buie is dribbling at the top of the arc and Nicholson comes up to set a ball screen, Buie wants to go to his right, say 90% of the time.
They kept the guard in front of the ball, trying to interfere with Nicholson rolling while Garcia jumped out behind Nicholson and shut down Buie dribbling to his right.
This happened repeatedly and stymied us entirely on that action.

They also figured out that if Nicholson gets the ball in the paint but outside of dunking distance, he is looking to pass to a shooter outside the arc. Matt had 3 turnovers as the Gophers jumped passing lanes.

Three things stand out to me:
6 days to rest and prepare is huge at this level.
Nu had heavy legs in general
Barney was way off his game (maybe extra tired for some reason) and that threw every thing off.

 

[PurpleWhiteBoy]

Three things stand out to me:
6 days to rest and prepare is huge at this level.
Nu had heavy legs in general
Barney was way off his game (maybe extra tired for some reason) and that threw every thing off.

Honestly I think we lost because

1. Minnesota had a week to prepare and used a defensive approach that forced a lot of turnovers from NU.
2. Martinelli sat on the bench too much.
3. Barnhizer was not big enough to guard Garcia/Payne.
4. There was a difference in energy between the two teams.

 

[ricko654321]

I’m usually not a big blame it on being tired but I thought this one was the exception. The two games were away, so not softening it with less travel and resting at home. Wednesday went to overtime and was very taxing.

I did not think it would make such a difference. But there were so many plays it just seemed we were just a bit late. Leading to a turnover here and there, leading to not beating your opponent to a ball, first step a tad too low… just kept seeing it all night. I don’t think it was the traditional we are less athletic, they are faster. I saw heavy legs.

I also don't know what it is about the Minnesota floor, but we were slipping all over the place the entire game - and I feel like that's not the first time that's happened to us @Minn? Not sure if it is the floor itself or something about the humidity inside the arena, but that plus the fatigue factor contributed to a number of the turnovers.