Its summer, its Minnesota, regardless or the hail, the rain, the tornadoes, and inevitable mosquito induced mayhem, it is better to be outside than in front of a computer. Though I am barely able to muster enough anguish and regret, I do apologize for the lack of updates, though nothing newsworthy has really taken place.

To make up for it, and in the spirit of the political season, and in the spirit of that, I present to you all the news you may or may not care about, but you may have missed. But unlike a certain document dump, I’ll give you more than an hour to sort through it all.

It may not be the Friday before a holiday weekend, but it is a slow day at work. 

Now with categories!

 Recruiting

Yes, I know there isn’t such a thing as a good loss, there are no moral victories, and to say that a team had either a moral victory or a good loss does little more than indicate how bad that team actually is. Well, the Gophers aren’t very good, but they played much better than I expected yesterday against the heavily favored Badgers.

Minnesota had little reason even to be competitive. Coming off a humiliating home loss to Illinois and just two weeks removed from another perplexing home loss to the Badgers, Minnesota should have been ready to fold from the opening tip.

But they didn’t.

Credit Tubby Smith’s coaching, the seniors realizing that they are running out of time to accomplish anything, or Wisconsin’s inability to score, but Minnesota was ready to go from the opening whistle.

Like most games that take place in the Kohl Center, this was a low scoring affair as both teams struggled to make field goals. Minnesota regularly employed the pick and roll, which Wisconsin was unable to guard for much of the first half. The Gophers, who had a disturbingly difficult time making lay ups and dunks all game, often had to settle for free throws, but they were able to make eight of their first eleven free throw attempts.

While the pick and roll led to free throws, the rest of the half court offense subsisted off of long three pointers, occasionally banked in from angles that would make most geometry teachers proud, and would only confuse Spencer Tollackson. With the half court offense struggling, Al Nolen had a quick pull up three for the Gophers first field goal more than 5 minutes into the game. Nolen added another along with Blake Hoffarber and Jamal Abu-Shamala who both found themselves open after 2 of the Gophers 11 offensive rebounds. It wasn’t until the 4:09 mark of the second half that the Gophers finally made a two point shot. Despite their ineptitude inside of 20 feet Minnesota only trailed by one a t the half.

And then the real Gophers showed up.

For at least the 3rd time this season, the Gophers were able to hang around in the first half, only to lose it in the second half. Whether its their inability to make lay ups (Wisconsin on Saturday), guard the hot shooter (Ohio State et al.), or make free throws (Indiana), the Gophers have been unable to mask their many deficiencies for a whole game.

Minnesota has had difficulty finishing all season, but yesterday Jonathan Williams put on missed opportunity clinic. He was 0-5 shooting, with 3 missed lay-ups and two missed dunks. Spencer Tollackson could have done better, but he only played 12 minutes.

With the Gopher unable to finish on the inside, they shied away from attacking the rim with the pick and roll, and even when their guards, particularly Al Nolen, were able to penetrate, Minnesota front court was ill-prepared or equipped to catch the ball and score.

While Minnesota struggled, the Badgers stuck to their game and minimized their mistakes. They were able to improve their shooting percentage from 36.4% in the first half to 52.9% in the second half. Wisconsin also benefited from their now notorious home free throw advantage (though the officials were anything but glaringly pro-Badger) and made 25-33 for the game compared to the Gophers 12-20.

For Wisconsin to win, all they needed to do was play an average game, and that is exactly what they did. They had solid if not spectacular play from everyone on the court (5 of whom scored in double figures) which was more than enough to put away the Gophers, even though they played much better than expected.

Who did what?

• Dan Coleman struggled again with foul trouble for most of the game. He scored 10 points, though 5 came in the last minute of an already decided game. More disappointingly, he managed only 1 rebound. Add it to the long list of disappointing performances by Minnesota’s seniors in big games.
• Spencer Tollackson only played 12 minutes. He had a bit of foul trouble, but only had three fouls in the game, not nearly enough to justify so little playing time. Either Tubby Smith decided that Jonathan Williams needed playing time or he is punishing Tollackson for his poor performances of late. Regardless, he had 4 points on 2-4 shooting. If he played more, the Gophers might have won. At least Spencer can make lay-ups and dunks when isn’t guarded.
• Al Nolen made the most out of the second start of his career. His shooting was nothing special (6 points on 2-7 shooting) but his 6 rebounds, 5 assists, and 3 steals were. Nolen will probably benefit the most from next year’s recruiting class, when the Gopher big men can catch and finish, and not fumble anything other than a lob.
• Lawrence McKenzie struggled with his shooting (notice a trend?) but played a very nice floor game. The shots he did make (3-10, 2-6 from three) came at opportune times that halted Wisconsin’s momentum.
• Lawrence Westbrook had the best shooting day of any Gopher as he scored 10 points on 3-5 shooting. Go tell Myron Medcalf that Westbrook will be a valuable part of this team for the rest of his career. Do it now.
• Jonathan Williams may have cost the Gophers the game, or he may have kept them in it. He couldn’t drop a penny in the ocean, but he shut down the Badger front court and led the team in rebounding. With Spencer Tollackson’s minutes, he assumed the role of the best and worst player on the team. I long for the day when Minnesota’s leading scorer can play a little defense and maybe, just maybe, make lay-ups consistently.
• Blake Hoffarber still can’t create his own shot, and when his outside shot isn’t falling (1-5 from the floor) it isn’t pretty.
• Jamal Abu-Shamala still can’t create his own shot, and when his outside shot isn’t falling (1-3 from the floor) it isn’t pretty.
• Damian Johnson was pretty mediocre. He scored 5 points and added 6 rebounds (3 offensive).
• Ryan Saunders, sharp, classy, and not over the top. Nice work.

Al Nolen missed Sunday afternoon’s game against Michigan State, and the Gophers missed his steady ball handling, defense, and ability to distribute the ball particularly in the half court offense, as Minnesota lost 78-73.

At first glance, the final score could indicate that Sunday was another, albeit frustrating, sign that the Gophers barely missed another opportunity to knock off one of the Big Ten’s elite teams. However, despite the close margin on the scoreboard, the game was never in doubt. If I hadn’t seen the scoreboard, I would have guessed that we lost by 20 as I left the game. It was that bad.

Al Nolen’s bruised thigh bruised the NCAA tournament chances of the Gophers, and showed that among the many reasons for Minnesota’s improvement this year, he may be the most important. The pressure defense and organizaed offense were long gone, and sloppy and Lawrence “look at me” McKenzie were on full display.

Much of the ball handling duties were given to Lawrence Westbrook, who gave Gopher fans Rico Tucker flashbacks as he made errant passes and was out of control on fast breaks. He committed 5 first half turnovers. Though he didn’t commit any in the second half, the damage was already done. More importantly, with Westbrook running the half court offense, the Gophers were rarely able to get a shot off with more than 5 seconds on the shot clock. Lawrence McKenzie was invisible in the first half, but exploded in garbage time to finish the game with 20 points. His injured hand must not hurt when his scoring doesn’t matter. A five point loss looks a lot better on paper than a true blow out, which could prove to be important if the Gophers are able to string a few impressive wins together, but it doesn’t change the fact that the Gophers looked bad on Sunday.

If the two other Gopher seniors had shown up, we would all be heralding McKenzie’s amazing second half performance. Dan Coleman has once again abandoned attacking the basket. As has been widely reported, he will still take a few steps toward the basket, but the moment a defender approaches, he will fade far, far away. A new and even more troubling occurrence on Sunday was Coleman’s reliance on Jordan-esque turn around jumpers. Needless to say, Michael Jordan was bit more successful. But I would rather have Coleman shooting without looking at the basket than Spencer Tollackson shooting three pointers. He attempted two more on Sunday, neither of which were close.

Those shots marked a disappointing and immature day by Tollackson. In addition to poor shot selection, Spencer pumped his fist enthusiastically in the air after making a free throw. Yes, he did make a free throw, and yes, the crowd did explode, but Tollackson is sorely mistaken if he thought the crowd was genuinely excited he made a free throw. There is a reason they are called “free”. When he was standing behind either the free throw or three point line, Spencer still struggled, finishing with 7 points and 6 rebounds on 3-9 shooting. He fouled out with two and half minutes left on the final of series of dumb fouls that were the product of frustration and immaturity.

At least the Gophers watched game film and made adjustments. Two weeks ago when the Gophers lost to the Spartans for the first time, Raymar Morgan dominated with 31 points while Drew Neitzel stayed in a shooting slump. Michigan State’s big men Drew Naymick and Goran Suton played excellent but foul plagued defense. The defense was still there, MSU’s superior talent was able to overcome just about everything the Gophers threw at them. Raymar Morgan played what may have been his worst game of the season, scoring only 9 points, but Drew Neitzel shot his way out his slump in a big way. It wasn’t just that he scored 19 points and at one point made 5-6 three pointers in the second half, it was the timing. Seemingly every time Minnesota was within one point or one possession, Neitzel would find himself open on the left wing for a wide open three pointer, killing any momentum the Gophers had developed and taking the crowd out of the game. After the first two, the crowd still had hope, but after each of the next three, it became obvious to everyone in attendance that they would be going home disappointed. Even when he missed, Goran Suton battled for a rebound and inevitably made a lay up.

After all this, the Gophers only lost by 5, and Al Nolen could have made up that difference. Obviously with Nolen in the game, things would have progressed differently, and Michigan State would have adjusted to his presence. But I have a hard time believing that he wouldn’t have gotten a hand in Neitzel’s face or found an open man under the basket. His scoring, assists, and steals easily could have produced a five point swing.

Unfortunately no one knew Nolen was injured. Certain beat reporters once again failed to do their job. The real problem with reporters not doing their job is that it leads to speculation. It was anyone’s guess if Nolen was hurt, had missed practice, had failed a class, or was in some sort of legal trouble. It isn’t fair to players to not reveal, or find out, why they aren’t playing. There aren’t many good reason why a team’s most important player would miss his team’s most important game. It is the beat reporters job to make sure that no undue criticism is leveled at 18 year old kid, especially when his only mistake is getting kneed in the thigh.

Who did what?

• Damian Johnson played his typical game, scoring 10 and pulling down 6 rebounds.
• Dan Coleman was dreadful. If his 3-14 shooting wasn’t bad enough, his 3 rebounds were. Mr. Coleman, you are 6′9″ with a huge vertical. Please remember this.
• Spencer Tollackson…
• Lawrence Westbrook actually played really well despite the turnovers. He shot 60% from the floor, made 6-7 free throws, and had a career high 12 points.
• Lawrence McKenzie kept the score close.
• Kevin Payton didn’t actually play that bad, not enough to warrant more than 9 minutes, but nothing disastrous happened when he was on the floor.
• Jonathan Williams scored 7, but didn’t get to the free throw line. One would think that that someone his size would get run into accidentally a few times each game. He takes up a lot of space.
• Blake Hoffarber needs to find a way to get open.
• Jamal Abu-Shamala may have officially lost his starting spot.
• Travis Busch played oh so briefly.

As if regurgitating his preview for tonight’s game against MSU from this and other Gopher blogs, after a two week hiatus he drops this little gem on all of us:

“Use Kevin Payton as a reserve point guard over Al Nolen because of his experience level”

I really don’t think there is a need to comment further. I will say, hiring a beat writer with absolutely no experience or knowledge of college basketball might have passed for acceptable last year. The Gophers were bad and most people were trying to forget that we even had a Division I basketball program. I also understand that in the era of media consolidation and falling newspaper profits, there is less money to spend on adequate reporters, but goodness, I’m sure there is a retired English teacher somewhere that likes basketball a little bit who could use the extra cash.

This program is on the rise, and the Strib really needs to step up. And Myron, I hear there is a D-II school in Mankato that needs a beat writer.