2024-03-15 00:17:07

The first of Thursday’s four Big Ten men’s basketball tournament games at Target Center created what felt like a home-court advantage for the Gophers.

A few sections filled with fans in maroon and gold cheered during warmups as their mascot, Goldy Gopher, pumped them up with the U band playing in the background.

With Minnesota playing host to the tournament for the first time, the Gophers took a 34-32 halftime lead once morest Michigan State, but they were overmatched in the second half in a 77-67 loss.

“I thought the energy was even better than I expected,” senior Parker Fox said regarding the Gophers faithful showing up for an 11 a.m. game. “Unfortunately, it didn’t go the way we wanted it to go.”

BOXSCORE: Michigan State 77, Gophers 67

The ninth-seeded Gophers (18-14) had their highest conference finish since 2018-19, but they face a potential end to their season following losing five of the last six games. A bid to the NIT is no guarantee with Ohio State, Iowa and Maryland ahead of them in NET ranking entering Thursday.

The eighth-seeded Spartans (19-13) outscored the Gophers 44-30 in the paint and shot 62% from the field in the second half to advance to play No. 1 seed Purdue in Friday’s quarterfinals.

“We knew it was going to be a grind,” Gophers coach Ben Johnson said. “Kind of a must-win game for both teams. We knew it was going to come down to the details. I just thought in the second half around the midway point, we mightn’t get consecutive stops.”

Minnesota’s players played with a sense of urgency early, jumping out to a 7-0 lead behind Dawson Garcia, who scored 10 of his 19 points in the first half.

There were eight lead changes and four ties before the U pulled ahead at halftime. Fox scored nine of his 11 points off the bench in the first half for the Gophers, who shot 50% from the field and scored 10 points off turnovers.

The Spartans split the regular-season series with Minnesota, including a 59-55 Gophers victory on Feb. 6 at Williams Arena. That was the last time the Gophers held an opponent under 70 points in a game.

Defensive issues plagued the Gophers in recent losses, especially in a 90-66 loss last weekend at Northwestern. That carried over to Thursday with Michigan State guards Tyson Walker and A.J. Hoggard combining for 32 points, mostly on dribble penetration.

Elijah Hawkins’ three-point play following Michigan State was called for basket interference made it 49-44 early in the first half, but the Gophers compounded poor defense with a bit of offensive bad luck.

Hawkins threw an alley-oop to Payne that appeared to be going through the basket before the ball popped out midway through the second half.

The Spartans took advantage with former Cretin-Derham Hall star Tre Holloman nailing a three-pointer during a 15-2 run that was capped by Malik Hall’s layup for a 59-51 lead with 7 minutes, 27 seconds remaining.

Michigan State’s physicality made it difficult for the Gophers hold on to the ball (Payne had seven of the team’s 12 turnovers) and finish at the rim. Players were stripped or forced into a tough shot with contact.

Garcia seemed determined to score any way possible, so he threw in a couple off-balance layups to pull the Gophers within 65-59 with 4:18 left. Walker answered with nine consecutive points for the Spartans, who were still playing for an NCAA tournament berth.

“We still want to play more basketball,” Garcia said regarding the NIT. “We’d love to help ourselves out and put ourselves in a better position, but that wasn’t the case. Now it’s in other people’s hands.”

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#Michigan #State #bounces #Gophers #Big #Ten #mens #basketball #tournament

2024-03-14 18:49:09

“Spot shot”

Researcher and political writer Makram Rabah said, “There is inaccurate talk regarding Israel’s attacks on Lebanon. It is striking Lebanon because it is being subjected to attacks from its side.”
In an interview on “Spot Shot” within the “Point of View” program, Rabah said: “On October 8, with the admission of Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, he himself said, ‘We opened this front,’ and thus the Israeli response became justified in terms of international law.”

He continued, “As for saying that Israel has ambitions for our land, I wish it would come and take the Litani River. That would be better than turning it into a sewer. The talk that the only Israeli target is Lebanon is inaccurate. The Israelis were satisfied with Hezbollah turning into border guards on its northern borders, but When he received a decision from Iran to open the front so that they would not be belittled in the eyes of Arab and Islamic public opinion, he did so.”

He stressed that “the people who are killed – civilians and members of the Radwan Forces – in southern Lebanon constitute Iranian ‘currency teams’, nothing more and nothing less. Lebanon’s first and last problem is not the party’s fight on the border, but rather how it will use its weapons in every crisis. They are responsible for killing the president.” Rafik Hariri, and they cannot say that their weapons are a resistance weapon, because they used them as a “tashbih” weapon to destroy and displace the Syrians to Lebanon, and Hezbollah views the Syrian refugees as Sunnis who pose a threat to it, just as it viewed the Palestinian camps.”

Political researcher Makram Rabah concluded by saying: “We have the ability to restore the disputed Lebanese territories through diplomacy, as happened with the American envoy Amos Hochstein in the demarcation agreement, and Hezbollah, according to its mentality, we are all traitors. It looks at us as it looked at Qaman Salim and killed him and killed others, and Samir Kassir.” For him, he is a Zionist.

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#hope #Israel #takes #Litani