Pilots vs. Golden Gophers, 6:30pm, ESPNU, Today 11/27

So we don't have a pre-game release from the school but is there anyone in PilotNation land who can shed some light on what to expect from Minnesota tonight? (I'm looking at YOU, Mesa!)

Butler plays a similar game as us and lost to Minnesota, so I'm a little disheartened by that. I think that these Pilots can contend with anyone, though. I think we'll need to play bigger than we are though, to beat these guys.

I know for a fact that the Gophers play more inside out ball, and with no less than 8 players 6'7" or taller you can do that. I hope Jasonn is ready to go tonight, we could really use his fou... er I mean defense.

They average over 50% from the floor and hold teams to 33% and only 29% from 3pt (so we have a little strength against strength going) They also force a LOT of turnovers with 13 steals per game and forcing 23 TOs a game, pretty impressive.

It is gonna take a total team effort for this one, keeping mistakes to a minimum and really playing smart basketball to overcome the size discrepancy... But hey, UCLA was taller at every position at last night too!

Look out for Lawerence Westbrook, a guard out of Chandler, AZ and their leading scorer and has good range/accuracy (plus he looks like he went to the same prep school as ex-pilot John Hegarty), also Ralph Sampson's kid is a beast down low for the Gophers

Well, how about the preview from Minnesota?:

http://www.gophersports.com/ViewArticle.dbml?DB_OEM_ID=8400&ATCLID=204840890

The Gophers are 4-0 with blowouts over three cupcakes (Tennessee Tech, Stephen F. Austin, Utah Valley) and of course the big win over Butler.

They are led by their guards Lawrence Westbrook (a 6'0" senior) and Devoe Joseph (a 6'3" sophomore). Joseph was widely considered the best player out of Canada coming out of HS and was a Top 10, 5 star type recruit. Their center is Ralph Sampson III... yes, the son of that Ralph Sampson. Two 6'7" forwards (Damian Johnson, a SR, and Rodney Williams, a FR) also average in double-digits.

As a team, they shoot over 40% from the three point line and over 50% from the field overall... so they are good shooters. They also operate at a fast pace, averaging over 80 points a game.

Here are their team stats:

https://www.nmnathletics.com//pdf4/658893.pdf?ATCLID=204835122&SPSID=38665&SPID=3302&DB_OEM_ID=8400

I haven't seen them play, so I can't offer much more beyond that. But it's a start, I guess.

Seeing that Butler is really their only quality opponent, it's kind of tough to really gauge just how good they are...

I suppose it should also be noted that they have this guy named Tubby Smith coaching, so I don't know, I've heard he's had some success in the past...

I think we should expect a very good team, and judging on how they played last year a great shot-blocking team. Hopefully, Rev is coaching the bigs to hold the ball high before releasing their shots. Last night, there were a few balls that were swatted away. But, when you win by such a large margin, it's easy to ignore that stuff. Here's more of the description from the website I posted yesterday about the team descriptions of the tourney based on last years' team:

The Golden Gophers recorded their highest win total since 1992-93 (22) and returned to the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 1995. Their 21 regular season wins were the second highest total in school history (24 in 1976-77). It was the 16^th consecutive 20-win season for coach Tubby Smith, who took over the Minnesota program in 2007-08. A 12-0 start to the season included a win over then No. 9 Louisville. The Gophers set a school record with 201 blocked shots, including 50 by freshman Ralph Sampson III.

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Any team good enough to beat last years' Louisville team, is scary IMO. But, we've really got nothing to lose here; we're definitely the underdog in this one...

UCLA had 6 blocks (seemed like more) last night. Some of them were on Nik driving the lane; he may not be able to do that tonight against the taller Gophers. A key will be to see that they don't force us into a one-dimensional outside shooting game.

I'm recovering from 5:30 am to 3 pm "Black FRIDAY" SHIFT but, I will try to gather some thoughts and add some not already mentioned or researched aspects of the Minnesota Golden Gopher Basketball program before tip off time. All I know is there are about 50 folks in Minnesota that will be cheering for the Pilot's tonight who were cheering for the Gophers against Butler. (Every fan helps,lol)

Nap time be back in a couple hours,


Mesa

It's throwback night: Sampson vs. Sikma.

http://www.channelsurfing.net/

didn't see it for view on espn360.com so second choice.

Stupid ESPNU and its non-HDness. Oh well, standard-def Pilots is better than no-def Pilots. With our win yesterday, we guaranteed a game on ESPN or ESPN2, and not ESPNU on Sunday. Look forward to staying up late (yes, 10:30 on a Friday night is late) and Chatboxxing it up.

Winner of our game vs. MN plays West Virgina on Sunday, loser plays Texas A&M. WVU beat TAMU 73-66 today.

Here's a pretty thorough preview from the Star-Tribune website. Obviously a bit slanted toward Minnesota, but a good read:

http://www.startribune.com/blogs/76647942.html?elr=KArksLckD8EQDUoaEyqyP4O:DW3ckUiD3aPc:_Yyc:aUgOy9cP3DieyckcUsI

My prediction tonight is a Pilot win!!! It will take a better preformance tonight from the Pilots than last night. From my viewing of the Gopher games over the last two years I would say stopping Westbrook the Gophers guard will be the key. Their big from South Dakota is improved, and Sampson's game is on the rise. But, I predict Colt Iverson will not dublicate his "game of his life" that he had against Butler.
The South Dakota native is a tough,solid player but in my estimation would have a hard time being a POW in the WCC conference. He played out of his mind and was in the right place on every first half pocession and he and Sampson "bullied" a foul plagued undersized butler squad. In fact Butlers POY from their conference played approximetely half the game.

This year the Gophers have added two higher skilled players to the lineup with Sampson, Iverson,and Westbrook. The Pilot's will be in big trouble if the "new" defensive specialist shuts Nik Ravio down and Nik never is able to get on track. Unless, of course the pilots are able to hit their three's with acustomed regularity that the Pilot fans are used to and Robin and or Luke Sikma can come up big with points in the paint.

Al Nolen is another major factor in the Gopher's scheme of offence. He was in foul trouble in the Butler game and that really limited the former MR Basketball from the state of AZ.

I like the Pilots chances, Fran F. of ESPN is already giving the game to Minnesota, so lets hope that the Pilot's can impress him because like Katz and other ESPN color anaylst/writers even losing to Minnesota could benefit the Pilot's on the national scene with a good showing.

Mesa

Wow! I could have never imagined this!

PILOTS win!!!!!! 61-56!!!!!! Pilots advance to final vs. WVU!

Unreal. This is better than I could have hoped for coming into the season.

Holy frak. We are officially in uncharted territory.

Total team effort. Just awesome.

The scary thing is, we did play well, but there's still room for improvement.

It's a great day to be a Pilot!

AHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1

I can't even begin to describe how excited I am. I was a complete nervous wreck in the last few minutes. Now.... bliss!!!!

Bring on West Virginia!

Oh, and TJ Campbell..... I love you. Seriously.

That turned out OK....

PurplePrideTrumpet wrote:Holy frak. We are officially in uncharted territory.

Total team effort. Just awesome.

The scary thing is, we did play well, but there's still room for improvement.

It's a great day to be a Pilot!

I agree! This team has not had their best effort yet! Amazing!

Cue Bob Huggins drinking jokes.

TJ Campbell!

Stonehouse called it last year on TJ: Program changer. Amen!

On to the final! What a great win. The ESPN announcers were saying that we might have our first AP ranking since 1957, and apparently we've never been ranked in the ESPN poll. So, this was definitely a historic win for the program. Rev was a genius with going from zone defense to man-to-man and back to zone. He was constantly changing things up, and Minnesota was a bit confused. We played poised in the end and TJ was definitely the man. You had to love his behind the back pass and some clutch free throws to seal it. Really, this was a team victory though. One of the keys was our transition D. Our guys went back to the defensive end in all out sprints and prevented fast break points several times.

The best part again is, we know we can do better.

coldsmokeCO wrote:Cue Bob Huggins drinking jokes.

Too soon.

(Yeah, I totally was going to go there.)