Rodney/Royce Game Review (+ quick MSU Game preview)

Because Rodney Williams and Royce White are so important to the future of the program, and because they just played each other last night, I'm going to take a couple of comments I received on the game from commenters and promote them into an actual post.

First, from Dawger:

The game was like walking into a scene from Dangerours Minds. I think Coolio may have also been playing over the loud speakers. The place was packed to the rafters with many shady characters. Those character's included a 9.5:1 lefty to righty ratio. Not kidding. The list also featured Trent Tucker, Sid Hartman, Flip Saunders and the coach from Colorado State University who was wearing his gay green CSU sweat shirt. The guy looked like a complete slob and had zero chance of landing any recruit.

Baby Dawger (BD)and Lil Lil Snake (LLS)were on their best behavior. This was probably because they were very much out of their element and paralyzed with fear.

The gym was buzzing with anticipation to see all of the showcased talent. Warm ups were particularly interesting as Rodney and Royce were putting on dunking clinics on their perspective ends.

While watching the warm ups you could see that Cooper would be in trouble as Hopkins was taller at every position.

Rodney won Snake over on the opening tip, when he jumped about 14ft into the air and slapped the ball to the baseline. That would be Rodney's lone highlight of the first half. I would disagree with anonymous that Rodney's jumper needs work. He has great form and unbelieveable lift. He tends to use fade away's when its not necessary but that is easily changed.

Royce was unbelieveable in the first half. His defense was smothering and he was great at jumping into passing lanes for steals. He was simply unstoppable on offense. He is 6'8", solid and quick. Great ball handling and court vision. He was able to get to the rim whenever he wanted. The crowd gave him an "Overrated" chant after he missed a free throw and on the next play he went right around Rodney (who was giving up quite a bit of size) and slammed one home to silence the crowd.

Hopkins is stacked and has a few players to keep an eye on in the future. Particularly #23 who was a sophmore. This kid was a beast on the glass and very athletic.

Anyhow we left at half-time and missed Rodney's dunking highlight reel in the 2nd half. Maybe next time. I believe both will be very exciting to watch next year. I don't see either one rotting away on the bench as long as they come ready to play defense. Both are far too talented to keep on the shelf.

and secondly from an anonymous commenter,

4000 or so people at the cooper vs hopkins game tonight. Hopkins rolls, RW dominates the game offensively (tenacious rebounder, tremendous low post game, great handle) big ten ready right now!

RWJR has NBA athleticism right now, but has alot to work on prior to becoming an asset at the next level! suspect jumper, more than suspect handle, and lack of interest on D. But can't wait to see what tubby molds him into!

going to be fun next year!

Sounds awesome. I think everyone, except for the donkeys who think Royce will singlehandedly bring the program to its knees swift bird style, can agree that it's going to be very entertaining to watch these do wear the gold & maroon (and white).

As far as tonight's game, who would have thought the Gophers would be playing for a share of first place? Without the Gopher performance in the Illinois game, I wouldn't give them a chance, but that was one of the best defensive performances I've ever seen, and that kind of defense will always give you a chance.

With the Spartans reeling a bit and with back-to-back losses and home, not to mention no Raymar Morgan and a banged up (and maybe out) Goran Suton tonight, things may be lining up for Minnesota to grab a huge victory.

IF Nolen can control Kalin Lucas, IF the Gophers can keep keep Chris Allen from getting off from three, IF Ralph Sampson continues his journey to become the greatest Gopher ever, and IF Al Nolen can play smart and under control, yet aggressive, the Gophers can win this game. All that being said, I can't bring myself to pick a Gopher team to actually win in East Lansing, I just can't. Michigan State 64, Minnesota 60.

I apologize for the lack of a more substantial preview and no picture, but I'm getting bombarded at work like the fat nerd playing bombardment in gym class (save your fat nerd jokes). If you're looking for more, check From the Barn and The Daily Gopher. Those d-bags are much smarter than me anyway.