Breaking Down the Box - UC Riverside

Blow out game against a weak and feeble opponent so let's do this quickly...

2 out of 3 - dominated all 3 categories. Nice job of doing what it takes to win the game handily.

MN - 47.2% - win
UCR - 30.4

Reb - 46/34 - win

TOs - 21/13 - win

Tempo-Free Zone - This really shows how we dominated every facet of the game...

• eFG% - 59.4% - highest of the season
• we rebounded 80.5% of their misses, season high
• allowed only .605 points per possession
• held to 34.8% eFG on defense, season high

All in all we did a nice job of valuing every possession on both ends of the floor. We ended their possessions at a great rate and we were efficient with ours.

X-Factor - none needed this game. If I had to pick one I'll take Damian Johnson and I might name him X-Factor for the season. His long arms have been great on defense all year and he has been a true spark off the bench.

Likes and Dislikes

• LIKED - our dominance is a close resemblance of how Gonzaga (84-48) and Texas (73-42) fared against Riverside.
• DIS - it took us 10 min to get going. Through 10 min the game was still within a basket
• LIKED - defense. I don't care who you are playing, if you hold a team to 38 points that is impressive.
• DIS - Dan Coleman continues to frustrate gopher fans. 6 pts and 5 rebounds is disappointing from your senior.
• LIKED - didn't just win, they dominated. This could have been a let down game or a time to feel sorry for themselves, but they didn't let that happen.

What Does This Mean?

It has some meaning and it is meaningless at the same time. Winning in the manner that they won was nice to see, but in the long run this was a bad team that we should have beaten. Hats off to the golden gophers for taking care of business but time to move on.