Manny driving with a controlled aggressiveness, both hitting little runners and getting to the rim. Kelvin running the offense with patience. Ekpe providing boundless energy. Everyone hitting the offensive glass relentlessly. Locking down on McKenzie defensively, thereby castrating Minnesota’s offense for a stretch.

It’s hard to see this team move away from this type of smart hoop within a game. When they maintain this level of play for 40 minutes, they’ve won like they did vs. OSU. When they play this way for 30 minutes, they’ll lose close games like UCLA, @ Wisconsin, @ Minnesota, @ Purdue, etc.

After that first half against Iowa, the team felt totally lost. As Dylan put it, you really started to wonder if we’d ever be decent again. But whatever clicked at halftime in Iowa City is still showing through.

I expect back to back wins at home this week, and more of the good from the Minnesota game than the bad. Let’s get the Illini on Saturday.

That being said, while I like Zach Gibson there is no reason he should shoot 5 threes in a game. And he DEFINITELY shouldn’t take one early in the shot clock. I realize his shooting could spread the D, but he got out of hand last night. In 11 minutes our center took 5 threes?

I also realized last night just how worthless Ron Coleman is. I’m not sure if he doesn’t understand his role, but he’s just bad. He misses an open three, loses a rebound, gets schooled on D, doesn’t ever go into the paint.

Bad shot selection all around. I love Ekpe, but he should not be shooting the ball from more than 5 feet away from the basket. Sims missed a wide open three and Wright was just plain bad all game.

You have to believe that in the coming years, all the drives Manny misses will start going down. At which point he will be a man among boys.