Minnesota 78, Wisconsin 74: This was one of the best, most entertaining games I have seen this year (right up there with Arkansas-Texas and Gonzaga-UConn), which was a bit of a surprise as it is a match-up of two defensive minded teams from the Big Ten. Here are some highlights from the game (although they really do not do the excitement of this game any justice):
Minnesota jumped out to an early 10-2 lead, and was up 14-9 only five minutes into the game. They got the lead by forcing turnovers in their press, which got them easy baskets, and by being patient on offense. But Wisconsin would put a huge run on the Gophers, outscoring them 20-2 and eventually going into the half up 33-22. The run was a caused by a combination of two things. First, the Badger defense started to kick in, forcing turnovers of their own and making Minnesota take poor shots. At the same time, the Gophers started to rush a little bit, which only caused more turnovers and resulted in more bad shots.
Wisconsin held the lead at right around 10 for most of the second half. Everytime Minnesota looked like they were starting to chip away, the Badgers would respond with a couple baskets.
Minnesota pressed Wisconsin for much of the game, but with 3:23 left in the second half (when PG Al Nolen fouled out), Tubby Smith went to his most athletic line-up. He had Damian Johnson and Lawrence Westbrook on the floor along with bench guys Blake Hoffarber (who the announcer called Hoffburger at least twice that I noticed), Paul Carter, and Devron Bostick. Putting in that line-up was an immediate difference as they started to force some turnovers.
That group went on a quick 8-2 run, capped by a Carter dunk off of a Hughes turnover to make it 55-52 with 2:11 left. But Wisconsin would pull away a bit again as Landry would make a lay-up, and after getting a stop, he would hit 1-2 from the line for a six point lead with under a minute left.
Minnesota would hit four free throws sandwiched around two from Wisconsin before Carter would make the play of the game. The Badgers broke the press and Jason Bohannon looked like he had a wide open lay-up, but Carter came out of no where for the block. At the other end, Johnson would hit a step-back three to bring the Gophers within one, and that set the stage for Westbrook's shot to send it to OT, where Minnesota would run Wisconsin off their home court.
A couple things I noticed about this game. I didn't realize how much Minnesota like to push the ball. The Gophers really try to get out in transition and try to attack the other team when they have an advantage. But they don't really have a secondary break (a secondary break is an offense that is used once you don't have a numbers advantage anymore on your original break. It essentially is an offense that looks to attack any mismatches that have resulted from the transition), which means that if their initial break doesn't yield a bucket, they need to pull the ball out, be patient, and run their set offense. They weren't necessarily doing that last night.
The Gophers have a really good and young front line in Colton Iverson and Ralph Sampson III. Iverson is a bit more polished offensively, but Sampson is long and athletic and looked really impressive during stretches last night. One of those stretches was at the beginning of the second half. In the first three minutes of the second half, Sampson blocked two shots, grabbed a couple boards, played the point of the Gopher's trapping pressure (and was so into it you could hear him yelling "ball, ball, ball" through the announcer's mic), and scored a couple baskets 
in the paint. He and Iverson work really well together, and when you throw in small forward Damian Johnson, you have one of the most underrated starting front lines in the country.
I've always been a fan of Joe Krabbenhoft. He plays hard, he plays smart, and he is one of those guys that does everything when he is on the floor - he'll take a charge or dive on the floor, but he can also knock down a three and take the ball to the rim off the dribble. But what seals the fact that this kid could play for any team of mine, ever, at any level, is this: (from the Statesmen)He has been stitched up about 40 times in four seasons, a team spokesman said.
One loose ball is worth 12 stitches. How often do you hear a kid say that these days?
"When you see a loose ball, some guys might not want to go after it because they don't want a black eye or a bloody nose," Krabbenhoft said. "I've had all of that. One loose ball is worth 12 stitches."
Lawrence Westbrook really asserted himself as one of the best players in the Big Ten last night. He finished with 29 points on 10-16 shooting, which included nine in OT. It was two moves that convinced me. The first was midway through the second half. He caught the ball on the right wing, took one dribble with his left hand to the middle, put the a dribble behind his back, then split two defenders while finishing and up-and-under lay-up and drawing a foul. The second you can see in the highlights when he went 1-on-4 and against got an and-one.
Jim Jackson was the color guy for this game on the Big Ten Network, and while he was ok at best, he did make one really good point: this win is going to be huge for the Gopher's confidence. The Kohl Center is always a tough place to win, and Minnesota just went in there and came back from 14 down with 14:00 left to win in OT.
Thursday's Pac-10 scores:
The rest of the night's games:
Friday, January 16, 2009
Friday Morning Shootaround |
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