{"id":74077,"date":"2024-10-30T17:30:00","date_gmt":"2024-10-30T22:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/minnesota-state-coach-says-team-despite-the-blowout-was-treated-like-royalty-at-kentucky\/"},"modified":"2024-10-30T17:30:00","modified_gmt":"2024-10-30T22:30:00","slug":"minnesota-state-coach-says-team-despite-the-blowout-was-treated-like-royalty-at-kentucky","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/minnesota-state-coach-says-team-despite-the-blowout-was-treated-like-royalty-at-kentucky\/","title":{"rendered":"Minnesota State coach says team \u2014 despite the blowout \u2014 was \u2018treated like royalty\u2019 at Kentucky"},"content":{"rendered":"

Imagine going from a home venue that holds 4,800 people and combines the men\u2019s and women\u2019s basketball programs along with volleyball and wrestling to the mecca of college basketball, a 20,500-seat palace better known as Rupp Arena. That was the reality for Minnesota State, traveling to Lexington to take on the Kentucky Wildcats<\/a> to close out the exhibition schedule.<\/p>\n

If that trek from Mankato, MN \u2014 population 46K, for those curious \u2014 sounds overwhelming, it\u2019s because it was.<\/p>\n

\u201cMan, it was super nerve wracking at first, I mean, we got on the floor and there are thousands of people (in Rupp Arena), which we are not used to at all,\u201d Minnesota State forward Caden Kirkman said after the 98-67 loss. \u201cSo, to get into that environment and to get those jitters out, it is good we got that out early.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Mavericks fought early, showing off their DII championship experience under head coach Matt Margenthaler, mucking things up in the first quarter of the 40-minute matchup. It was an 18-17 game with 9:31 to go in the first half, the Wildcats racking up more turnovers in that segment (five) than the entire exhibition vs. Kentucky Wesleyan.<\/p>\n

Then UK rattled off five 3-pointers to go up 20 before extending it to 40 in the second half, closing it out with a 31-point blowout win.<\/p>\n

That part wasn\u2019t necessarily fun, but the experience overall exceeded expectations for Minnesota State. No matter the result, the Mavericks were welcomed with open arms and told to make themselves at home, an appreciated gesture following the 800-mile journey from Mankato.<\/p>\n

\u201cI would like to thank Coach (Mark) Pope and staff and everybody here at Rupp Arena\u2013 we\u2019ve been treated like royalty,\u201d Margenthaler said. <\/a>\u201cI mean, this has been an unbelievable place and it\u2019s one thing coming to Kentucky and having the opportunity to play here with our Division II program and these young men get the opportunity, it\u2019s another thing the way we were treated and I can\u2019t say enough about the people here.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis university has just made it so special for us\u2013 we really appreciate that.\u201d<\/p>\n

As for the play, that was what it was. Margenthaler thought his team competed to the best of its ability, but Kentucky is Kentucky. Even a really good<\/em> Division II team doesn\u2019t compare to a really good <\/em>Division I team \u2014 and he believes Kentucky is a really good <\/em>DI team.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re going against a really, really good, old Kentucky basketball team,\u201d he said. \u201cI love the way Mark makes his guys play and that\u2019s the way we want to play. I just told the guys in the locker room, they\u2019re really shooting the ball, they have shooters\u2013 that\u2019s how we recruit. We were watching Kentucky; we have a lot of the same things that Kentucky does \u2013 we don\u2019t have the same players though. But, they did a really good job.\u201d <\/p>\n

What\u2019s it like preparing for an offense that takes and makes threes from all five positions on the floor with the kind of talent and depth this Kentucky team does? Well, it ain\u2019t easy. That\u2019s why that first segment of the game was so important, because they competed about as well as possible given the circumstances.<\/p>\n

All hell broke loose from there, but they needed that early stretch to prove to themselves the championship mindset last year\u2019s squad played with is there with this one, as well.<\/p>\n

\u201cVery difficult,\u201d he added. \u201cAnd honestly, we didn\u2019t talk a lot about Kentucky, we talked about ourselves. Going into the year, I said we were so bad last scrimmage that we needed to better ourselves and to walk out of the locker room feeling like we did something positive \u2014 and I thought we did. Obviously, we\u2019re not gonna see a team like Kentucky the rest of the year. I thought our guys settled in. <\/p>\n

\u201cKind of like our championship game last year, we\u2019ll settle in a little bit, and I thought we did, and the last four minutes of the first half killed us and the first four minutes of the second half killed us, and you know, they\u2019re going to go on runs and they scored in bunches, and we knew that, but then again, I love the way they played.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

They failed the test overall, but passed the one they had for themselves taking on a team they have a ton of respect for and believe in as the real deal. Kentucky got what it wanted while forcing Minnesota State to get away from it wanted. <\/p>\n

That\u2019s a recipe for success.<\/p>\n

\u201cI talked to my guys, we took too many tough twos and we don\u2019t want to take tough twos. Kentucky and Mark\u2019s got his guys believing in that three-point-shot,\u201d he said. \u201cThey took like 36 or something like that, I don\u2019t even know. But, they just continued to bomb \u2019em and bomb \u2019em and bomb \u2019em. You continue to do that and you\u2019re going to make them. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve got to get away from \u2014 we took too many bad twos but I\u2019d rather take all those threes. Percentages were there for it. I\u2019m not a real smart guy, I went to Western Illinois, and I mean, it sure is not Harvard of the Midwest, I\u2019ll tell you that. But, that\u2019s smart basketball.\u201d<\/p>\n

It was actually 37 3-point attempts, Coach. <\/p>\n

The post Minnesota State coach says team \u2014 despite the blowout \u2014 was \u2018treated like royalty\u2019 at Kentucky<\/a> appeared first on On3<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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