We broke 50! Illini Gophers recap.

As the game entered its final minute last night, I was actually surprised to see that the game was out of reach for Minnesota.. This game is sort of an oddity, even though the Illini led anywhere from 3 to 5 points for most of the game, it felt like we were down by ten the whole way. On the defensive side either we could not pull down a rebound or, if the ball went out of bounds it was always last touched by an Illini player.

At some point in the game, the fans became very hostile to the referees. Perhaps it was the chest  bump on the an bounds that was not called, (dear IU fans, I know what you want to say, and I don't care) followed by a ticky-tack foul called on Mike Davis at the other end of the court.

I think that the turnovers also had something to do with it. This team is not yet ready to push the ball with consistency, as evidenced by the far too many long passes that bounced off of unready players, went into the hands of a gopher, or just plain sailed out of bounds.

I am going to have to stop complaining now, because we won, and it turned out to be a very big win.  Trent scored 13 including a huge 3 to pull away down the stretch, DMAC was productive with 10 points, 2 assist, a block and a steal.

Mike Davis has become an automatic double double now 14 points and 11 rebounds. Not scary numbers, but this guy is indispensable now.

How did Chester do? Well other than the hair cut nothing has changed, just your boring old 6 assists combined with 4 steals and a block.

Oh in what should not be a surprise to anyone, he held the best Minnesota guard, and leading scorer Lawrence Westbrook to only 4 points. (well below his season average) yeah I predicted it, but since he does this all the time its really not all that hard to foresee. Can we please give him the defensive player of the year award now?

In a somewhat related matter though, I would like to voice my concern about something at the Assembly Hall. There were problems with wet spots on the court all night long. Many times the referees had to stop play to make one of the cleaners to come out and get the missed spots. Part of this of course stems from the fact that the game was so physical that lots of players ended up on the floor, and I realize that the staff is doing its best, but it was unacceptable. When Bruce Weber has to wipe the floor himself to get a spot, there is a problem. On the Orange Krush end of the court, though there was in addition to the normal AH staff, a little kid probably only 5 or 6 years old was helping out with the toweling. Too many times though he was the only one cleaning up the spots, and no one was making sure that he was getting it all.

This is serious stuff. In the closing minutes, when the Gophers were still alive but in need of points, one of their guards had a near break away running down the court. He hit a wet spot (one that supposedly had been cleaned by the little kid) and slipped, hit the floor hard and lost the ball out of bounds. The Gophers lost the ball as it went out of bounds, lost the opportunity for a quick 2 points and were basically eliminated from the game on that play.

Were I Tubby Smith, I would be livid. Not only because a missed wet spot may have cost his team a chance to win, but because he could have lost a player to injury on that play. Its nice to see kids involved in basketball, but if you are trusting a 5 year old to take care of something that could effect the outcome of a game, or worse get a player hurt, and no adult is even checking to make sure the kid is doing his job correctly, it is absolutely unacceptable. Make him a ball boy or something, because  kids that small should not be in charge of something so directly related to the game.