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.