Fortunately he becomes a lot less special when Simpson is on him 
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Gottis roster would have been loaded with talent. They’d get very favorable whistles and would cover when you least expect it.
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Those first two FT’s by Eastern when Cassius intentionally fouled him almost immediately when he was coming up the floor with three minutes and change to go were BIG. I know it wasn’t an intentional but he intentionally fouled him. That was the plan. He had just missed two really badly, and neither of those two Ft’s looked very good but they both, somehow, went in. From there he seemed to have confidence. It was still a one and one at that point, too. Had he missed, I REALLY think State would have won the game. At least I certainly did at the moment. I sure wasn’t very confident in Purdue at that point.
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It seems like Painter has figured some things out with his roster - particularly with Williams who I really like.
I think the criticism about Edwards is a bit off, he’s the only guy on the roster that can get his own shot, everyone else is a dependent talent. As a result, he’s going to get stuck in lots of ugly possessions - he’s the main offensive engine on what is a very good offensive team, it’s weird his shooting gets criticized more than his defense.
On the other side - I am struck every time I see MSU play by the impossibility of such a big program having such poor conditioning. Both Ward and Winston, while improved, are still, in year three, fatter than they should be. What would Winston be like if he was in shape??
Iowa at Minnesota is a shootout!
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I was going to mention that we really need to give Painter some credit because, like Dylan, I thought Purdue was in a world of hurt in December and now I think they are pretty clearly the 3rd best team in the B1G. In a league where question marks are surrounding many other coaches, he certainly has his program on solid footing. I was wondering where they would end up once Edwards is gone, but he has developed a really nice core and should have a good team next year. Good coach and seems like he does it the right way too.
I get what you are saying about Edwards but he had a lot of shots today that were not end of shot clock shots and were just plain bad shots. During the MSU run, it seems like he just kept trying to “end” it by hitting some crazy shot. MSU did seem hyper-focused on stopping him in the first half and it did open things up for the rest of the team.
Crazy that Minnesota only scored 57 in their last game and are nearly to that number in one half today. Obviously a big difference in who they’re playing (Mich vs. Iowa) and where (away vs. home), but still, that just seems nuts.
I don’t necessarily disagree about Edwards today, but he’s pulling of 56% true shooting (somewhat above average) at 36% usage - which is really really hard. He’s having a good year, he carries that large a load because Painter clearly relies on him to do so. I just think his season, broadly, has gotten much more criticism than it deserves.
Gap of 20 points per 100 possessions between Michigan and Iowa’s defense in Big Ten games.
Is that a new floor at the barn? I don’t remember it looking that white.
Believe it is new this year, yes.
Regarding MSU, Purdue did some nice things to throw them off offensively but I’m not sure how reproducible they are by M and/or it goes against what they do philosophically. For example they were doubling Ward hard and immediately and that caused some issues. I did also like putting the length and full court token pressure they did on Winston. Neither are things we do and of course we have X for Winston but both those tweaks were effective at slowing MSU down.
The piece I saw that will translate for M is I thought Purdue played really hard and matched MSU’s effort for the most part and they were connected on D much like we are when at our best. They really seemed content to let the Goins/Brown/Henry-types beat them and run McQuaid off the line. If you can keep them off the offensive boards and X can limit Winston then I still like our chances. Especially once we get to February and our offense is straightened out a bit.
Minnesota’s court has a very unusual finish. I like it but it’s weird.
55-46 after one half at The Barn. Holy shit.
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Minnesota scores 55 points in 36 possessions. That’s 1.52 PPP in the first half.
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They only got 57 against Michigan for the whole game.
Got any figures on the best halves in conference play in the tempo-free era?
Not by half, no.
Wow uncontested layup or lightly contested, layup after layup to start second half for Minnesota. Garza crosses his arms across his chest as Murphy slowly drives around him. Incredible
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