Look, we played a team that will be in the top-25 next week, a team that beat Purdue on the road by about 10 points. Minnesota this year is not last year's team. They stuck with us in the first half when open shots were plentiful for both schools and played terrific defense in the second half, allowing (funneling) Skelly to take the three as opposed to Tap and Lindsey. They played like they had scouted the poop out of NU tonight...don't let Lindsey, Law or Mac to get an open three. They also were familiar with our passing patterns on offense as evidenced by turnovers in the first half.
Getting to the tournament will require us to beat a giant clog of teams rated from 25th to 60th in RPI or whatever ranking one chooses. We're gonna have to earn it with good coaching and team play. A disappointing loss (to a much better Minnesota team this year who is tearing it up right now) but no reason to get down on the team. It's gonna be a wild ride this season. Hopefully, we are tough enough and shrewd enough (CCC) to pick up the 10-12 wins we need to grab the prize.
Some encouraging things in this game: 1) Mac broke out of his slump. 2) I was also blown away by Pardon's shots and moves on offense. Have we seen him hit a shot beyond the FT line until tonight? He finished with 9 points (4-6, 1-2) and 8 rebounds, even though he had some difficulty rebounding with tape on his hand. 3) our FT shooting was excellent tonight, continuing our good shooting for the year.
