Sometimes the other team is just better.

[bac2therac]

I think that was the case today. Didnt read any posts yet but I assume people are saying if we hit free throws we win, well sure but its not as simple as that, I do not think we necessarily win but I think the game would be closer at the end so yes a better shot to win. However the flow of the game changes with missed free throws, if RU made free throws, perhaps Minnesota would be more aggressive and less passive with their offense at the end. I think today's loss came down to Minnesota simply being better. Both teams shot basically the same and Minny was pretty awful from 3 as well but the difference is they had more options, more movement, a better flowing offense. RU shot very very well today even though it did not look like..but for RU to score its more of an all out struggle. Difference in this game IMO was the rebounding and it was the first half rebounding that made the difference 31-19 at one point that enable the Gophers to get more shots and get the lead.

I thought Minnesota won the game in the first half and did it with controlled the pace....43-34 was way too high of a halftime score. I credit Pike for some halftime adjustments on defense that got RU to slow the game down a bit...Minny didnt score alot in the 2nd half, RU defense kept shutting them down and have to give credit to Gettys and Doorson who rebounded from the pourous first half. I thought the RU effort was strong today, pretty full effort and not like the Iowa game, although did not like Corey's body language in the last minute of the game and he forced things the last 3 minutes.

In the end as I have been saying, this team is what it is, it does not win these games because it is not good enough to win. Whether it be missed foul shots or getting outrebounded or not being able to hit a shot late, its in their makeup...and thats why you do not see RU able to consisenty get any traction to notch victories in league play. Pike is maxing out this team free throws aside. Minnesota is now 18-7, they are a very very good team. They are going to the NCAA tournament. They have better talent. RU lost to them only by 9 in a competitive game. Still some winnable games ahead vs Michigan and Illinois and hopefully we can get at one more and maybe pull an upset in the Big 10 tourney but expecting this team to win games against better competition will set you up for disappointment

 

[RU MAN]

I think that was the case today. Didnt read any posts yet but I assume people are saying if we hit free throws we win, well sure but its not as simple as that, I do not think we necessarily win but I think the game would be closer at the end so yes a better shot to win. However the flow of the game changes with missed free throws, if RU made free throws, perhaps Minnesota would be more aggressive and less passive with their offense at the end. I think today's loss came down to Minnesota simply being better. Both teams shot basically the same and Minny was pretty awful from 3 as well but the difference is they had more options, more movement, a better flowing offense. RU shot very very well today even though it did not look like..but for RU to score its more of an all out struggle. Difference in this game IMO was the rebounding and it was the first half rebounding that made the difference 31-19 at one point that enable the Gophers to get more shots and get the lead.

I thought Minnesota won the game in the first half and did it with controlled the pace....43-34 was way too high of a halftime score. I credit Pike for some halftime adjustments on defense that got RU to slow the game down a bit...Minny didnt score alot in the 2nd half, RU defense kept shutting them down and have to give credit to Gettys and Doorson who rebounded from the pourous first half. I thought the RU effort was strong today, pretty full effort and not like the Iowa game, although did not like Corey's body language in the last minute of the game and he forced things the last 3 minutes.

In the end as I have been saying, this team is what it is, it does not win these games because it is not good enough to win. Whether it be missed foul shots or getting outrebounded or not being able to hit a shot late, its in their makeup...and thats why you do not see RU able to consisenty get any traction to notch victories in league play. Pike is maxing out this team free throws aside. Minnesota is now 18-7, they are a very very good team. They are going to the NCAA tournament. They have better talent. RU lost to them only by 9 in a competitive game. Still some winnable games ahead vs Michigan and Illinois and hopefully we can get at one more and maybe pull an upset in the Big 10 tourney but expecting this team to win games against better competition will set you up for disappointment

No doubt Minnesota has better talent. They're better shooters, better FT shooters and more athletic. We have the better coach IMO and once he gets his kind of players here we won't be losing these kinds of games especially at home.

Still this was at least the fourth winnable game we had a shot at (pun intended) if we just made our FT's.

 

[bac2therac]

I believe RU had two chances at 68-63...Nigel Johnson missed a WIDE OPEN 3 to could have cut it to 68-66 and brought down the roof...then after Minny missed the front end of a 1 and 1, Sanders put up a terrible forced layup into trees. Corey's play in the last minute was incredible poor IMO and shows how much work he still has to do. Besides that shot, he turned it over inexplicably off his foot? which basically ended the game. Then bricked a ill advised 3 and then seemed to have bad body language of giving up in the very last possession. Frustration maybe but underscores that he is in the position of having to do it all at the end because overall we have no talent.

 

[RU MAN]

I believe RU had two chances at 68-63...Nigel Johnson missed a WIDE OPEN 3 to could have cut it to 68-66 and brought down the roof...then after Minny missed the front end of a 1 and 1, Sanders put up a terrible forced layup into trees. Corey's play in the last minute was incredible poor IMO and shows how much work he still has to do. Besides that shot, he turned it over inexplicably off his foot? which basically ended the game. Then bricked a ill advised 3 and then seemed to have bad body language of giving up in the very last possession. Frustration maybe but underscores that he is in the position of having to do it all at the end because overall we have no talent.

As much as I like Corey, he drives me nuts with his unforced TO's. He was lousy down the stretch. Two TO's and a terrible outside shot, really hurt us. And yes, Nigel not knocking down that open three really hurt. The crowd would have gone nuts and possibly will us to victory even with all of the missed FT's.

 

[78CollegeAve]

So, swap out Gettys for Mensah and Baker. Does Rutgers wins this game next year?

 

[bac2therac]

So, swap out Gettys for Mensah and Baker. Does Rutgers wins this game next year?

depends who else we have or do not. Those two players are not going to send RU into the NCAA tourney next year, its two freshmen who are good but we are not talking about guys who will elevate the team right away. RU could win this game next year, they could have won it today, but Minnesota will be just as good or better next year. Its not just RU improving next year, its how much they improve compared to the rest of the league

 

[Plum Street]

Sometimes? Thread title should be changed to "pretty much all the time the other team is just better".

 

[goru7]

I think that was the case today. Didnt read any posts yet but I assume people are saying if we hit free throws we win, well sure but its not as simple as that, I do not think we necessarily win but I think the game would be closer at the end so yes a better shot to win. However the flow of the game changes with missed free throws, if RU made free throws, perhaps Minnesota would be more aggressive and less passive with their offense at the end. I think today's loss came down to Minnesota simply being better. Both teams shot basically the same and Minny was pretty awful from 3 as well but the difference is they had more options, more movement, a better flowing offense. RU shot very very well today even though it did not look like..but for RU to score its more of an all out struggle. Difference in this game IMO was the rebounding and it was the first half rebounding that made the difference 31-19 at one point that enable the Gophers to get more shots and get the lead.

I thought Minnesota won the game in the first half and did it with controlled the pace....43-34 was way too high of a halftime score. I credit Pike for some halftime adjustments on defense that got RU to slow the game down a bit...Minny didnt score alot in the 2nd half, RU defense kept shutting them down and have to give credit to Gettys and Doorson who rebounded from the pourous first half. I thought the RU effort was strong today, pretty full effort and not like the Iowa game, although did not like Corey's body language in the last minute of the game and he forced things the last 3 minutes.

In the end as I have been saying, this team is what it is, it does not win these games because it is not good enough to win. Whether it be missed foul shots or getting outrebounded or not being able to hit a shot late, its in their makeup...and thats why you do not see RU able to consisenty get any traction to notch victories in league play. Pike is maxing out this team free throws aside. Minnesota is now 18-7, they are a very very good team. They are going to the NCAA tournament. They have better talent. RU lost to them only by 9 in a competitive game. Still some winnable games ahead vs Michigan and Illinois and hopefully we can get at one more and maybe pull an upset in the Big 10 tourney but expecting this team to win games against better competition will set you up for disappointment

I agree with Bac's general sentiment that Minnesota is a better team , very quick, athletic guards, athletic bigs that can finish . But the rebounding discrepancy especially in the first half, was in excusable. We watched and did not go after loose balls like any other game this year. Our defense in general but on the interior was horrendous .
As bad as it was this is a game that the home team comes back to win because the lack of three point shooting by both teams . Having just gotten home from the game and without looking at the play by play , the last 4 minutes cost us the game.
1) Down either 6or 7, CJ hits Eugene with a great pass and instead of one dribble and a dunk, he tries to get guy in the air and doesn't convert. He then proceeds to miss both foul shots.
2) We get a stop and Corey gets fouled and missed the one and one but he gets the rebound and we convert to cut it to 5.
3) We get another stop on a runout by Corey and he sees Nigel all the way across the court and he misses the wide open 3 that would have cut it to 68-66. Plus the RAC would have been at full throttle as it was already having an effect since the 5 minute mark.
4) We get another stop and Corey drives hard to the hole , it looks like contact on the arm as he extended and ball goes out off Corey because foul is not called.
5) Another offensive possession ends horribly with Mike deep , not trying to drive, gets stuck and launches a ridiculously forced 3 that had no chance
.6) Corey dribbled the ball off his foot essentially ending the game.

The lack of execution or hitting a layup or missing a wide open three or hitting key foul shots down the stretch prevented us from pulling out this game. Clearly, Minnesota had control of the game throughout , and made a lot of shots, most of them easy , but the game was right there for us to steal . Damn frustrating !

Overall, one of our worst defensive and rebounding efforts of the year, especially rebounding on the defensive glass, and still a chance to win. The horrible foul shooting is what type of team we are, and yes it has cost us 3-4 games this year, but that is our normal. Being out rebounded and out defensed is not our normal. Missing layups by our bigs, CJ, Shaquille, Eugene is also frustrating as hell but our normal. . We got our turnovers down to 10 for the second straight game which is encouraging. Once again , we are only hit three 3's again and as I have been harping on all year if we hit 6 we win. The difference between 3 and 6 today, was Issa's wide open 3 in the first half, Mike's, wide open 3 behind a screen in the first half and Nigel's crucial missed 3 that would have brought it to two. and still not converted.

One last thing, I thought Coach should have gone to zone in the first half and the second half because Minnesota kept on running their offense very easily and getting too many dunks or easy 5-8 footers . We had a hard time tying in front of their athletic players and the change up might have made a difference considering how bad they shot from deep.

 

[goru7]

So, swap out Gettys for Mensah and Baker. Does Rutgers wins this game next year?

No

 

[RUJMM78]

There were many occasions during the game where the Minnesota lead was down to 6 points and then Rutgers failed to score and Minnesota then scored on a layup or dunk.Bottom line Minnesota had control of the game from the start and maintained the lead because Rutgers simply has such great difficulty scoring .I was very impressed watching Minnesota run their offense and Pitino must get credit for the marked improvement in the team from last year.

 

[78CollegeAve]

depends who else we have or do not. Those two players are not going to send RU into the NCAA tourney next year, its two freshmen who are good but we are not talking about guys who will elevate the team right away. RU could win this game next year, they could have won it today, but Minnesota will be just as good or better next year. Its not just RU improving next year, its how much they improve compared to the rest of the league

No, Rutgers doesn't win next year. With the 2 kids for '17, the talent deficit with the rest of the B1G is still growing. A back-up point and a 2 who needs a couple years to bulk up to play in the B1G won't change much next year but might play a support role when some real talent arrives. We can only hope that Knight and Hobbs can kill it with the '18 kids and by the 19-20 season, RU will have enough talent to crack the Top 10 in the Big 10.

 

[shields]

Thiam has to get bigger and stronger. He will be very important next year and maybe scores 10 a game.

 

[RUonBrain]

If Nigel hits that 3, we cut it to 2.

Then if we would have only shot 60% from FT line, that is at least 3 more points.

It was amazing how we kept fighting back every time it looked like MN was pulling away.

 

[winfield102]

Minny was better than us. A positive is that I thought we wasted fewer possessions today. Bottom line is that we can't shoot 3's, 2's or FT's and I don't see that changing this year or next. We basically cannot give away any possessions with lazy or low percentage passes (Freeman had 2 TO's when he tried to throw it down low from the foul line), terrible shots (pull jumpers with 20+ seconds on the shot clock) and illegal screens (just 1 today).

We'll never get enough talent to win without rebounding, playing hard defense and being smart on offense. It's nice to see all of those areas improving this year so that if Pike can bring in some talent, we'll start seeing some wins against legit opponents.

 

[RU-ROCS]

Overall, one of our worst defensive and rebounding efforts of the year, especially rebounding on the defensive glass, and still a chance to win. The horrible foul shooting is what type of team we are, and yes it has cost us 3-4 games this year, but that is our normal. Being out rebounded and out defensed is not our normal. Missing layups by our bigs, CJ, Shaquille, Eugene is also frustrating as hell but our normal. . We got our turnovers down to 10 for the second straight game which is encouraging. Once again , we are only hit three 3's again and as I have been harping on all year if we hit 6 we win. The difference between 3 and 6 today, was Issa's wide open 3 in the first half, Mike's, wide open 3 behind a screen in the first half and Nigel's crucial missed 3 that would have brought it to two. and still not converted.

One last thing, I thought Coach should have gone to zone in the first half and the second half because Minnesota kept on running their offense very easily and getting too many dunks or easy 5-8 footers . We had a hard time tying in front of their athletic players and the change up might have made a difference considering how bad they shot from deep.

I agree 100% on both of these point. It was amazing poorly RU we rebounded today, especially in the first half. I was also surprised that Pike did not go to at least a few positions of zone to stop their dribble penetration. They were consistently driving into the paint, forcing help defense in the low post and getting easy layups when the helping defender rotated to stop the penetrating guard.

 

[Knightmoves]

No doubt Minnesota has better talent. They're better shooters, better FT shooters and more athletic. We have the better coach IMO and once he gets his kind of players here we won't be losing these kinds of games especially at home.

Still this was at least the fourth winnable game we had a shot at (pun intended) if we just made our FT's.

Agree with this. We need to close the talent gap in the next 2-3 seasons before we can beat these kinds of B1G teams, even at home.

I believe that Pike can make that happen.

 

[RUJMM78]

No

I agree because Getty's scored 14 points and Rutgers still lost by 9 points.

 

[Greene Rice FIG]

2 reasons why I think we lost

1. FT shooting. If we make 16-22 we score 69 points. Totally acceptable in 65 possessions against one of the best defensive teams in the country (statistically)

2. Freeman played defense and rebounded. Jordan Murphy owned him. Inside and via penetration. Minnesota was on pace to hit 80 until the turning point of the game...Eugene came in and guarded him. Murphy stopped scoring.

 

[rubaseball78]

So, swap out Gettys for Mensah and Baker. Does Rutgers wins this game next year?

Silly question We had a chance to win partly due to Gettys' play keeping us in the game.

 

[higgins3]

Thiam has to get bigger and stronger. He will be very important next year and maybe scores 10 a game.

He will.Positive about that.

 

[Pritz99]

Much as I usually agree with your thoughtful analysis, bac, I don't here. If we can't beat a more talented team, what's the point. I'm sure Pike doesn't tell the kids "They're more talented. so just go through the motions."

Of course Minny is more talented as probably the whole rest of the league is. But we've won a couple. Consistancy of what we do well is necessary. Playing over our heads for periods at things we don't do well must also happen. So, when we fall down in one of those areas in a close game we lose when we very well could have won.

Look at today: Better defense (which we're used to), enthusiastic rebounding (lacking) and not enough improvement in shooting (usually poor) in the first half put us in a hole. We went back to defense and hard-nose rebounding in the 2nd half, but out FTs were even worse than out normal putrid (just think: if we had gone from 45% to 55% percent for the game, we'd have scored 4 more -- think about those on the scoreboard with 2 min left.)

Winning games, particularly down the stretch is a matter of confidence. Most teams relish going to the line in a tight game. The confidence engendered by making key FTs, by making a defensive stop, by hitting a late shot in a close game is something that just builds. The more you do it, the more likely you'll do it again. That's what making those FTs mean.

Regardless of how much more talented Minny is then us, the situation is what it is, and we've proven on that day, for that game, we're on roughly equal footing. Doesn't mean the next day we don't get pounded by 20. And a few more FTs made could easily (and I say probably) make RU a winner. The same logic holds true for 3-4 other games this season.