|
Post by Kapitan on Nov 13, 2020 13:22:58 GMT
Big game tonight in Minnesota, with Iowa football visiting. This is a border rivalry game that, while mostly one-sided in recent years, is always a big one regardless. They play for "Floyd of Rosedale," a statue of a pig who was the original Floyd something like a century ago. It's one of several trophy games we play with B10 rivals.
Both teams enter the game 1-2. Minnesota looked pretty good last week, so I'm hoping for more of the same. It'll be a nice way to spend a wintry Friday night, anyway.
EDIT - I just read it's the 114th contest for Floyd.
|
|
|
Post by Kapitan on Nov 14, 2020 11:29:52 GMT
Well that was an awfully ugly game. The Minnesota defense has been atrocious all year, and it didn't help that we lacked our top corner (Benjamin St Juste) as well as our top linebacker (Braelen Oliver, who has been out all year), and then our top remaining linebacker, Mariano Sori-Marin, was ejected for a questionable targeting call.
The group is basically giving up a first down every play this season. Hard to win games that way whether you've got talents like Rashod Bateman (WR) and Mo Ibrahim (RB) or not.
|
|
|
Post by Kapitan on Nov 20, 2020 21:49:54 GMT
The Gophers host Purdue this evening, and this afternoon the news broke that we will be down TWENTY players due to COVID, as well as three coaches.
|
|
|
Post by Kapitan on Nov 30, 2020 17:37:13 GMT
The Gophers football team has canceled its second consecutive game (Northwestern) after a whopping 47 people associated with the program have tested positive for COVID: 21 players, 26 staff.
|
|
|
Post by Kapitan on Nov 30, 2020 18:21:44 GMT
Am I the only person somewhat unmoved by Vanderbilt's Sarah Fuller kicking a squib kick Saturday?
My issue with it isn't the celebration of female athletes or any kind of "women shouldn't be allowed to..." perspective. It's rather that she didn't really overcome any kind of obstacles and didn't really win a legitimate spot on the team. With all their kickers unavailable, she won a kind of emergency-kicker role. She was a "Kendall Hinton" figure of sorts, an emergency fill-in who wasn't asked to do much, and didn't do much (promotional value notwithstanding).
If she, or anyone else, were to compete for and win a spot on a team, I'd feel differently toward her. But to use her as a prop (which they clearly did) and then have the media go crazy fawning over this as if it were some great civil rights moment, seems condescending to female athletes, not empowering.
It is more meaningful by far that she was apparently a very good goalie for Vanderbilt (league-best .97 goals against average) than it is that she was a P.R. stunt prop on a men's team.
|
|
|
Post by B.E. on Nov 30, 2020 18:51:16 GMT
I had read about that prior to the game. I'm actually a little disappointed she kicked a squib kick. It's more than reasonable that a goalie (male or female) could fill-in as a kicker in emergency situations. Beside guarding the net, they kick goal kicks. They've got massive legs. Vanderbilt apparently doesn't have a men's soccer team, so it makes sense that Fuller would get a shot. I more or less agree with you, though.
|
|
|
Post by Kapitan on Nov 30, 2020 18:54:48 GMT
For women's sports, I'd rather watch the genius-level playmaker Paige Bueckers, who will be a freshman guard for UConn this season (and in the WNBA whenever she wants to go).
|
|
|
Post by kds on Nov 30, 2020 20:41:20 GMT
Am I the only person somewhat unmoved by Vanderbilt's Sarah Fuller kicking a squib kick Saturday?
My issue with it isn't the celebration of female athletes or any kind of "women shouldn't be allowed to..." perspective. It's rather that she didn't really overcome any kind of obstacles and didn't really win a legitimate spot on the team. With all their kickers unavailable, she won a kind of emergency-kicker role. She was a "Kendall Hinton" figure of sorts, an emergency fill-in who wasn't asked to do much, and didn't do much (promotional value notwithstanding).
If she, or anyone else, were to compete for and win a spot on a team, I'd feel differently toward her. But to use her as a prop (which they clearly did) and then have the media go crazy fawning over this as if it were some great civil rights moment, seems condescending to female athletes, not empowering.
It is more meaningful by far that she was apparently a very good goalie for Vanderbilt (league-best .97 goals against average) than it is that she was a P.R. stunt prop on a men's team.
Now, now. You can't have any rational thoughts like that, or you'll be labelled sexist (see also Ghostbusters (2016)). Besides, the Texas State Armadillos already did this way back in 1992.
|
|
|
Post by Kapitan on Dec 19, 2020 19:47:37 GMT
The longest streak of head-to-head matchups in D1 college football looked to be coming to an end when the pandemic forced Minnesota and Wisconsin to cancel their game this year. However, they rescheduled for today. Tough game to finish out the season in Madison on a chilly December day, but I'm glad they are going to play the game and keep the rivalry for Paul Bunyan's Axe alive and unbroken.
|
|
|
Post by Kapitan on Jan 17, 2021 13:15:45 GMT
The #23 ranked Gophers beat previously undefeated #7 Michigan yesterday, completing an unbelievably tough stretch of eight consecutive conference games against ranked opponents! They finished 4-4 in that stretch, losing every away game and winning every home game.
Hopes are high with only one currently ranked opponent among the next 12 games. But the Big Ten is tough: some of these unranked teams were previously ranked and could be ranked again; and six of those games are on the road, where the Gophers have yet to win a game. I wouldn't be surprised to see them go roughly .500 the entire conference season, regardless of apparent difficulty of different games.
Still, it was a beautiful win yesterday. Really great defense and stretches of good offense, moving the ball, driving the ball, and feeding the post.
|
|
|
Post by Sheriff John Stone on Jan 29, 2021 21:20:00 GMT
|
|
|
Post by Kapitan on Jan 29, 2021 21:30:57 GMT
Great coach and an interesting guy. When I was in high school and college, I'd always pick Temple to win their first game in the NCAAs, which they did more often than not in that era despite having more losses than your typical tourney-game winning team. Chaney always scheduled tough games, so they'd be 18-12 or something and still make the second round of the tourney or Sweet Sixteen.
He was also a fierce opponent of Prop 48 and other NCAA academic sanctions that held kids off teams, out of competition, or out of school. He always argued that if you didn't allow them into school, or onto the team, the alternatives were worse. (A similar position that Jerry Tarkanian and John Thompson held.)
|
|
|
Post by Kapitan on Feb 21, 2021 13:48:21 GMT
The Gophers, whose season includes key wins over teams like Iowa (then #4), Michigan St (#17), Ohio St (#25), Michigan (#7), and Purdue (#24), lost by 30+ at home to Illinois in an embarrassing performance yesterday.
The team is shorthanded: starting shooting guard Gabe Kalscheur has a broken bone in his hand and will miss a few weeks. But that's not the extent of it. Two players have left the team DURING this season, with local big forward Jarvis Omersa opting out around Christmas and Turkish freshman wing David Mutaf apparently unhappy with lack of playing time and signing with a pro team in Europe. Center Liam Robbins is also hobbled with a foot injury that he's trying to play through.
But in the end, whoever has been available, the team lacks any consistency on either end of the court. They can't seem to understand the concept of team offense, especially as relates to off-ball movement, passing, and shot selection. (They're big fans of chucking terrible 3s and of choosing it's time to go 1-on-whoever.) They don't defend consistently or well, either.
Bigger picture, what worries me is that we are almost certain to lose star point guard Marcus Carr to the pro ranks--he left last year and didn't choose to return until the last possible minute--and the only replacement on the roster is freshman Jamal Mashburn Jr, who has played almost exclusively SG this season. There are no other PGs on the roster or in the incoming class. Meanwhile, barring transfers, we'll have two new C/PF recruits joining two pure centers and three big forwards. What kind of roster management is this?
I'm finally in favor of Pitino being fired. He's just not good at managing a program, to say nothing of coaching up players.
|
|
|
Post by Kapitan on Feb 26, 2021 13:07:39 GMT
That last post of mine? Yes, again, doubly so.
Last night the Gophers seemed to have as good a situation considering they lacked two injured starters, Gabe Kalscheur and Liam Robbins, when they hosted 6-14 Northwestern, which hadn't won a game since Dec. 26. Minnesota got off to a 17-4 start, never trailed in the first half, and ... lost by 8. They shot 14.8 3pt% and 37.1 FG%. Star PG Marcus Carr, as seems increasingly typical, shot 5-17. Both Gach, an athletic wing who transferred back close to home from Utah (where he was a star and had even declared for the draft at one point) continued his regression, playing only 10 scoreless minutes and committing four fouls.
Richard Pitino has given me no reason to believe he's the man for this job. And at this point, he has had plenty of time: this is his eighth season. Time to move on (not that I am confident the replacement would be good).
|
|
|
Post by Kapitan on Feb 28, 2021 12:59:42 GMT
And again...
The Gophers lost to a Nebraska team that had only won a single Big Ten game before yesterday. A Nebraska team that was 1-14 in its previous 15 games. Star point guard Marcus Carr had 41 points on 27 shots and only 3 assists (and 2 TOs).
Therein lies a big part of the problem, though. He's the most gifted scorer on the team, and we are lacking two starters. But the way to compete in that situation is for your star point guard to find ways to get other guys easy baskets. Get their confidence up. Get the defense on its heels.
Carr, though, did what he usually does regardless of the injury situation. He equated competing hard with being a predictable, selfish, score-first, score-second, pass-third point guard. It's so frustrating watching such a talented, skilled, hard-working player play in a way that hurts both him and his team.
It's worse to see a coach who hasn't seemed to address that situation. A coach under whom players don't seem to improve over time, and a coach who doesn't make good adjustments in games, either. This situation is untenable.
|
|