Difficult Night in Minneapolis

As snow falls here in the area, we look back at last night's game against Minnesota. It was, as anticipated, a difficult game, but, in the end, we showed some things that I think were good--especially given that two of our players were not on the trip.

Early on the Gophers were on us like, well, you know, and they were pressuring the heck out of our guard and we couldn't shoot and they were shredding our 2-3 zone. And, they were ahead 34-14, and it was looking like a good old fashioned spanking at Williams Arena.

They were cranking, it was a road game, and we had played undermanned and overtime the night before, and it just had to look bad.

But, we did bounce back. We outscored Minnesota by 12 points the remainder of the way, and twice had the ball with the game within one possession (my test for a game that has gotten really close), and that's pretty good.

At that point, we made a turnover, and the Gophers converted, and went on a little run, and then it was catch up from there on in. It was a steady comeback, not a 12-0 run or anything, and I'm encouraged that we got back in the game. Sure, it would have been more encouraging to win, but for now, there was something to take away from it.

Coach says that you can't let your field goal % determine your winning %. And, this game was a great example. BG shot 35% and 3 of 16 from beyond the arc, and only 12 of 18 from the line. (Sound familiar?)

Minnesota shot 48% for the first half, but were reduced to 36% in the second half when we went to the man to man. They were 17 of 24 from the free throw line, and made 7 3s. But, their lead was enough for them to win.

So, in order to NOT let our field goal % determine your winning %, we would have needed to have played 40 minutes of defense like we did in the second half. And, we didn't, so we lost a relatively close game.

This would have been tough under any circumstances. But, because we came back, and because we competed, there is reason to think that when we get our scorers back, we can be competitive. We didn't have a complete enough effort to win, but there's a lot of time left.

Tonight's game is against DII Concordia...we would hope to leave Minneapolis with a win and head home for Wayne State Thursday.

Meanwhile, I am still encouraged.