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Disappointed

Not at all disappointed...when teams start banking in 3s from the wing and makes 3s when they typically don't, no overreacting at all. If anything, we got beat but there's a rematch at the RAC next month. If anything RU finally showed some heart vs not.

Mathis stepped up by continuing to compete and others on the roster need to follow his swagger. Getting tossed means nothing, the game was over and Washington is a punk who has disappointed as a player.

Only downside was McConnell getting hurt, if he's OK by Friday's home game with Northwestern, then I'm 100% good.
 
I didn’t expect a win, but the wheels came off at the end. Lost composure.
The wheels came off because you could see that players like Geo were gassed and didn't use their legs into getting their shots off, thus leaving all shots short. The fact that McConnell didn't play because of the injury and Mathis not in there really hurt us, because we didn't hit their shots, and Minny was hitting inside and outside.
 
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Not at all disappointed...when teams start banking in 3s from the wing and makes 3s when they typically don't, no overreacting at all. If anything, we got beat but there's a rematch at the RAC next month. If anything RU finally showed some heart vs not.

Mathis stepped up by continuing to compete and others on the roster need to follow his swagger. Getting tossed means nothing, the game was over and Washington is a punk who has disappointed as a player.

Only downside was McConnell getting hurt, if he's OK by Friday's home game with Northwestern, then I'm 100% good.


I wouldnt necessarily say they showed heart, I think they played tough for 32 minutes despite missing Eugene but fell apart when it mattered.....RU sort of lost their composure the last 8 minutes...sure you are keying in on Mathis not backing down but thats hardly the sorty of the game. Minny basically punked RU with jelly layups, blocks and transition buckets.
 
Not at all disappointed...when teams start banking in 3s from the wing and makes 3s when they typically don't, no overreacting at all. If anything, we got beat but there's a rematch at the RAC next month. If anything RU finally showed some heart vs not.

Mathis stepped up by continuing to compete and others on the roster need to follow his swagger. Getting tossed means nothing, the game was over and Washington is a punk who has disappointed as a player.

Only downside was McConnell getting hurt, if he's OK by Friday's home game with Northwestern, then I'm 100% good.

On point as usual. Once that kid banked in a contested 3 I knew it was over. Better days ahead.
 
Sorry NJH. We usually see similar things, but I can't believe you would say we showed heart. Chalk it up to fatigue, I'd be OK with. You can't say we played with heart. We got beat down the court. We didn't move our feet. We easily lost our share of 50/50s. I was VERY disappointed with our effort. Outside of some bad Geo shots I was very pleased with execution offensively.
 
Sorry NJH. We usually see similar things, but I can't believe you would say we showed heart. Chalk it up to fatigue, I'd be OK with. You can't say we played with heart. We got beat down the court. We didn't move our feet. We easily lost our share of 50/50s. I was VERY disappointed with our effort. Outside of some bad Geo shots I was very pleased with execution offensively.

Minnesota has better athletes from 1 to 5....and that's part of what we saw. It's a solid program that has players. At home, they're more than capable of showing that, if you don't take the air out of the ball and slow the pace and tempo.

The item that is constantly mentioned is who didn't make shots, which rarely describes the game. Part of what Minnesota was involves each RU player getting used to having the freedom of choice when the ball usually got funneled to Eugene....and there's extra touches, extra passes, more shots being distributed and choices on dumping the ball to the post.....which all is new for this roster.

I think when you are having success going to the post for really the 1st time all year, it probably surprised Baker and perhaps the entire roster for a bit. The pull up 3 in transition by McConnell was a shot that many probably cringed when he shot it....but was taken with confidence and at a time in the game that showed he is now part of the solution of staying in the game.

Baker has a lot on his plate, because if he passes up shots and gets others involved that aren't proven just yet, our offense will look scattered and disjointed. I see 5 Geo Baker like talents as freshman, that just need the same green lights, the same vicious learning curve that has to go through them this year, the way Baker earned in trial by fire last year.

There's still a few tweaks of minutes that could have made Minnesota much closer and it was McConnell getting nicked and not yet knowing how good Carter is or isn't, down in the post. That game was going to be ugly without Carter, Myles inside and McConnell generating 9 points in the 1st half.

It's much much easier to now have accountability for how the roster performs now, because it HAS other players to share the workload....i am not looking for Issa Thiam or Peter Kiss to be the 3rd option like perhaps we may have thought in the preseason. The freshman continue to work and there's a transition or evolution happening in real time.

The Mathis item was a necessary item for the entire roster to understand that he can't lose his composure BUT we aren't going to allow dunks in transition either...., Harper continues to work and get better, the Carter emergence in spots.....the Myles flashes....and specifically the McConnell trust factor of earning minutes has to happen. Baker is the leader of the roster in experience and connectivity because he took the beatings and played through it last year.

BUT between now and March, the roster has to see everyone else own the transition of ownership from just Baker and Eugene in November, to Baker, Mathis, Carter, McConnell. Harper, Myles and Kiss/Thiam until Eugene returns.

Once that starts happening more, we stop looking as fans to have Geo be the man asked to lift the entire program in key spots....he has help.....McConnell in a short amount of time has not surprised me, I was sold around this time last year when his name wasn't yet revealed......he plays with a swagger this backcourt needs to help Baker with the workload. ....and once everyone else has a taste of some success scoring and seeing that when they don't produce, that the team cannot be successful, it refines everyone's ability.

Right now or in my opinion, the roster cannot grow with Baker and Eugene as the 2 primary scoring options. It is not a knock on either player's ability or leadership, but it's growth starts with spreading the minutes out. Give McConnell more rope, more confidence and eventually next year, add Young and Mulcahy to lighten the workload, so Geo can thrive in spots.

You learn a lot in some losses, that you would never figure out in some wins. Losing by 18 to Minnesota because of the contributions by McConnell, Carter and Myles, was a great sign IMO. I was concerned about how quickly this transition was going to happen and it's now ahead of schedule even more, because the frosh are performing in spots vs waiting or deferring. There's probably another 3 more signs I'm looking for, but the last 3 games were all positive in a strange kinda way.
 
There is nothing you say I don’t disagree with. In fact most of your points I strongly agree with.

However the defensive intensity in the 2nd half was bad. I am also worried that we are starting to take steps back defensively. I get why zone is played at times, but I am worried that it goes against our identity. The Miami game was a great win and was led by fantastic man to man defense.
 
There is nothing you say I don’t disagree with. In fact most of your points I strongly agree with.

However the defensive intensity in the 2nd half was bad. I am also worried that we are starting to take steps back defensively. I get why zone is played at times, but I am worried that it goes against our identity. The Miami game was a great win and was led by fantastic man to man defense.
It doesn’t “go against our identity.” It is something created, not something that pre-exists and is immutable. “Identity” is coach speak.
 
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NJHawk--

Do tell what we are missing...I saw NOTHING positive that warranted a mention in the last 3 games, but happy to watch again with or without your "special" sunglasses....#ALLGOOD.

NJHawk:

"You learn a lot in some losses, that you would never figure out in some wins. Losing by 18 to Minnesota because of the contributions by McConnell, Carter and Myles, was a great sign IMO. I was concerned about how quickly this transition was going to happen and it's now ahead of schedule even more, because the frosh are performing in spots vs waiting or deferring. There's probably another 3 more signs I'm looking for, but the last 3 games were all positive in a strange kinda way."
 
NJHawk--

Do tell what we are missing...I saw NOTHING positive that warranted a mention in the last 3 games, but happy to watch again with or without your "special" sunglasses....#ALLGOOD.

NJHawk:

"You learn a lot in some losses, that you would never figure out in some wins. Losing by 18 to Minnesota because of the contributions by McConnell, Carter and Myles, was a great sign IMO. I was concerned about how quickly this transition was going to happen and it's now ahead of schedule even more, because the frosh are performing in spots vs waiting or deferring. There's probably another 3 more signs I'm looking for, but the last 3 games were all positive in a strange kinda way."

I’m confused...you saw nothing positive in a win over the 16th ranked team in the country? Then you’re only looking for negatives.
 
I really think we should be looking at things in 5-7 game increments. Plenty to be very worried about, but also plenty to like.

The season is starting to look like I expected where offensively we are better than last year, but a step backwards defensively.
 
Not disappointed. Minnesota is good and some nights they really bring it and some they don’t. With us short handed it was a tough ask.

The only games we should be truly disappointed in is if we lay eggs against the 10th 11th 12th 13th teams in the conference Ohio St Northwestern Penn St Illinois. Those are games we need to be in til the final possessions.
 
I'm disappointed in all those open shot misses.
Meanwhile, Minny hit open 3s early in the clock, but also very late after failing to get the shot they wanted. Not desperation, but not planned either.
Plus, we might have length in the zone, but we aren't quick enough to defend the corner three. Out of position many times.
 
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