Gopher Hunting - Utah @ Minnesota Game Thread

[UtahsMrSports]

Great chance for an early statement win out on the road....

[Old Standing ute]

MN is my alma mater—going to the Barn for the first time in 40 years tonight. Currently 17 degrees with a high of 22; Larry K will be homesick for Montana.

Vegas: Gophers by 8-10.

[concerned]

Televised anywhere?

[DrumNFeather]

Televised anywhere?

Big 10 Network at 9 PM, Mountain.

So far the league has whiffed at a couple of early opportunities for big non-conference wins (@Auburn - Wash, vs. Vandy - USC). It would be nice to see our guys get this one, but either way, I love that we are challenging ourselves in the non-conference.

[Mormon Red Death]

Big 10 Network at 9 PM, Mountain.

So far the league has whiffed at a couple of early opportunities for big non-conference wins (@Auburn - Wash, vs. Vandy - USC). It would be nice to see our guys get this one, but either way, I love that we are challenging ourselves in the non-conference.

9pm EASTERN 7 PM Mountain

[Mormon Red Death]

https://bustingbrackets.com/2018/09/21/ncaa-basketball-georgetown-george-mason-generating-excitement-dmv/

They are picked 8th in the big 10

[Mormon Red Death]

Despite last season's despair, Minny's returning roster has Big Ten sleeper written all over it. Many will pencil in the Gophers as a lock to finish somewhere in the bottom-half of the league standings - we have them ranked right on that cut line at #8, but with how jumbled the upper and middle part of the conference is this year, the Gophers are a sneaky good VALUE bet to crack the top-5. The big unknown is health sustainability, but if everyone can stay on the floor - a BIG if, no doubt - the Barn will be rocking in Minneapolis all year long.
Eric Curry is back in the mix after missing the entirety of the 2017-18 season with a knee injury. Curry was an integral part of Minnesota's success the year prior as the first guy off the bench on a 5-seeded NCAA tournament team. While he could be a full-time starter from Day 1 next to a bonafide force in Jordan Murphy up-front, Pitino also welcomes another rangy athlete in 6'10 freshman Daniel Oturu to the front court. A fringe top-50 ranked prospect, Oturu is cut from the same cloth as Curry, both in his physical make up and the production he'll bring on the floor. Oturu will deliver a lot of the same rebounding and rim-protecting value that Curry provided two years ago, but many scouts think Oturu is just scratching the surface of his offensive potential. He's already shown flashes of an established midrange game, where he can knock down a face-up jumper out to 15-feet, but also exploit slower bigs with face-up, intermediate drives.

[Diehard Ute]

Big10 Network isn’t part of my 260+ channel Xfinity package.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[chrisrenrut]

Big10 Network isn’t part of my 260+ channel Xfinity package.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Not on Sling either.

[concerned]

Topolovic is surprisingly not bad. Playing well.

[Old Standing ute]

Up close view: the refs were PAC-12 level; moving screens that weren’t, that got Sed in foul trouble early & that was the game. he had to sit most of first half & hen took most of second to get in a rhythm. Utes are not great rebounders as their 4’s Tillman & Allen are undersized, but they are both good scorers. So they have to play a zone & they are not very good at it yet.
Vante was best player for th Utes—maybe he will now start over PVD. Chuck Jones got minutes & is a good defender, but not a scorer.
Jayce is still really rusty- he will get better as he gets in game shape.

Interesting note: in last seconds Larry K told Utes not to foul as it was a 9 point game. He said something to the effect of that it matters to the NCAA’s to lose by less than 10 on the road to this quadrant level team.

[concerned]

Up close view: the refs were PAC-12 level; moving screens that weren’t, that got Sed in foul trouble early & that was the game. he had to sit most of first half & hen took most of second to get in a rhythm. Utes are not great rebounders as their 4’s Tillman & Allen are undersized, but they are both good scorers. So they have to play a zone & they are not very good at it yet.
Vante was best player for th Utes—maybe he will now start over PVD. Chuck Jones got minutes & is a good defender, but not a scorer.
Jayce is still really rusty- he will get better as he gets in game shape.

Interesting note: in last seconds Larry K told Utes not to foul as it was a 9 point game. He said something to the effect of that it matters to the NCAA’s to lose by less than 10 on the road to this quadrant level team.

Jayce seems to play smaller every year. Is he rusty or is he just terrible? I could see Topolovic starting if this keeps up. Allen had a rough night, but the skils are there. He could be very very good once he makes the D-1 adjustment.

[LA Ute]

Jayce seems to play smaller every year. Is he rusty or is he just terrible? I could see Topolovic starting if this keeps up. Allen had a rough night, but the skils are there. He could be very very good once he makes the D-1 adjustment.

Jayce is a smart kid but unfortunately an example of how highly-rated kids (wasn´t he a 4-star?) sometimes don´t pan out at the D1 level.

[DrumNFeather]

Jayce seems to play smaller every year. Is he rusty or is he just terrible? I could see Topolovic starting if this keeps up. Allen had a rough night, but the skils are there. He could be very very good once he makes the D-1 adjustment.

Here's hoping he's just rusty. Either way, I like what I see from Topolovic, though when he catches it down low, he needs to just go straight up with it and not bring it down where it can get stripped...a Utah big man problem since the beginning of time.

Agree with you on Allen...the skill set is pretty clearly there, but he just had a bad night. Tillman seemed to do something early to annoy the officials, because they didn't give him the benefit of the doubt on pretty much anything he did.

All in all, I think this is a performance we can build on. This is a team that I think we could beat on a neutral court, which gives me some hope for next week if we get NW, Seton Hall, or Miami.

[UtahsMrSports]

Jayce has always been (at least statistically speaking) a very good bordering on great rebounder. The offense isn't what we all wanted, but he is also playing his way into shape.

[SoCalPat]

Here's hoping he's just rusty. Either way, I like what I see from Topolovic, though when he catches it down low, he needs to just go straight up with it and not bring it down where it can get stripped...a Utah big man problem since the beginning of time.

Agree with you on Allen...the skill set is pretty clearly there, but he just had a bad night. Tillman seemed to do something early to annoy the officials, because they didn't give him the benefit of the doubt on pretty much anything he did.

All in all, I think this is a performance we can build on. This is a team that I think we could beat on a neutral court, which gives me some hope for next week if we get NW, Seton Hall, or Miami.

It was probably the toughest environment Allen has played in, against the toughest competition he's played against. His performance was predictable, almost set in stone. It will make him better sooner rather than later.

Absolutely agree on being able to build on this. These were the kinds of games we've been begging for, and we've known as a result that we could get outcomes like we got last night. The individual parts were greater than the sum of the whole, and I'm perfectly OK with that in November.

[Old Standing ute]

Minutes & +/- ratings:

Vante 29 minutes -2
Both 15 minutes. +4

PVD 17 minutes. -12
Tillman 29 minutes -12.

Tillman will turn it around, he had too many TOs, I thing 2 were “moving screens” that were questionable.

The other 3 need no further comment other than need more minutes for Both.