Well here we go. A month's worth of crappy games have gone by with the Gophers managing to avoid a crippling loss, which is something you can't say for most of the rest of the Big Ten, which is good. Despite the horrific schedule the RPI sits at 69, a reasonable enough number that could easily rise into at-large territory with a good Big Ten season. To kick off the conference slate the Gophers get nearly a perfect test in a road trip to a flailing Purdue squad. The Boilers are 8-5 with losses to North Florida (home), Kansas State (neutral), Vandy (road), Notre Dame (neutral), and Gardner Webb (home) with those last three coming in their last three games. They aren't a very good team, which is great because this is exactly the kind of road game an NCAA quality team wins. So if the Gophers win, we will know they're at least decent. If they lose, we already know the NCAA Tournament is out so we can stop stressing. Win-win.
If Purdue is good at one thing it's controlling the paint with their two monsters, 7-0 junior A.J. Hammons and 7-2 freshman Isaac Hayes. They rank first and fourth in scoring for Purdue (Hayes 11.5, Hammons 9.9), second and third in rebounding (Hammons 5.3, Hayes 5.2), and block 3.7 shots per game between the two of them (Hammons 2.9, Hayes 0.8). Purdue ranks 14th in block shot percentage in the country and 27th in offensive rebounding percentage (6-7 freshman Vince Edwards helps out here, he's a beast). The paint can be a scary place against these guys, but they're weak there too. They give up a ton more assists than the average team, don't defend the three well at all, and are 245th in field goal percentage against at the rim despite the two monsters, which suggests to me they're very vulnerable to the drive and kick. Given that the Gophers excel at that part of the game, I like to hear this.
Outside of the two bigs, Purdue has an interesting mix of characters with a lot of depth and balance (only Edwards plays more than 25 minutes per game, and 10 guys play twelve minutes or more). The scariest is guard Kendall Stephens (aka K3ndall St3ph3ns) who is second the team at 10.6ppg but is pretty much either good or bad. He's been brutal lately, hitting 2-14 from 3 in the team's last 3 games, but he's also capable of lighting it up (21 against Kansas State and 3 games this year with 5+ threes made). If the Gophers lose this game I'm pretty sure it'll be his fault. Two other interesting Purdueites are Edwards and 6-5 junior Raphael Davis, simply because they ad an athletic dimension to this team and either could take over the game for a portion long enough to be a difference maker. Edwards (10.4ppg) is extremely inconsistent but when he's good, he's very good with two 25+ points scored games this year, and Davis (9.2ppg) is similar, though he relies almost completely on getting to the rim.
Point guard is an issue for Purdue, which probably isn't a great thing going up against a team who creates so many turnovers though their numbers aren't bad this year, merely average. Their choices are Jon Octeus (7.5ppg, 2.5apg) a 6-4 senior transfer from Colorado State who isn't really a point guard or Bryson Scott (6.2ppg, 1.8apg) a 6-1 sophomore who can't shoot and has played poorly enough to see his playing time reduced so far versus last season despite Purdue losing their two starting guards from last year. If everything goes according to plan, this will end up the key for the Gophers and they'll force in the neighborhood of 18 turnovers.
Also an important part of the plan will be to limit those two big guys I mentioned above. Hayes is a monster of muscle who will put out maximum effort and never stop fighting. Luckily he only plays about 18 minutes per game, but he manages to draw a ton of fouls when he's out there so he could end up doing some damage to the Gophers super deep front court of two players. Hammons remains an enigma, capable of putting up either a 30 point, 20 rebound masterpiece or a 4 point, 2 rebound outing depending on if he's interested in playing or not that day. Hopefully Mo Walker comes out and makes his life miserable, because when that happens he'll go into his happy place and be a total non-factor and that would be nice.
Purdue is a bad team, and the Gophers need to win this game. Like all Big Ten teams, however, they're dangerous and particularly so at home. There are so man wild cards for the Boilers (Hammons effort, Stephens shooting, Edwards, Davis) that if too many of them are on it could be a long day for the Gophers. This is a great test to see if this is a tournament type team or not. I choose to believe that it is.
Minnesota 75, Purdue 65.
Showing posts with label A.J. Hammons. Show all posts
Showing posts with label A.J. Hammons. Show all posts
Tuesday, December 30, 2014
Tuesday, September 30, 2014
Big 10 Basketball Preview: #13 Purdue Boilermakers
Here is what I wrote about Purdue (more like Pur-don't, amirite?) last season:
I mention twin towers because the one real bright spot for Purdue is another seven-footer, junior A.J. Hammons who has the ability to completely dominate a game (see: 18 pts, 16 rebs, and 5 blocks vs. Ohio State or, and you probably remember this one better, 20/14/6 against your beloved Gophers). Unfortunately he's also been a bit of a headcase at times who can disappear by either simply not engaging (7 pts, 1 reb, 0 blocks in the other game against Minnesota despite only committing one foul) or getting himself in foul trouble (bunch of times). Really, when he's engaged he's nearly unstoppable and he could take Purdue up a level by bringing it consistently every night (and by that I mean an invite to the CBI).
Outside of Hammons I'm not really sure Purdue even knows what Purdue has. Leading non-Hammons returning scorer is Kendall Stephens at 8.0 per game, a sophomore wing who takes good care of the ball and can shoot. Out of all the non-Hammons returnees he has the best chance to develop into something special. Hammons and Stephens will likely be joined in the lineup by Basil Smotherman (sweet name), Raphael Davis, and Bryson Scott which means Purdue will be undersized (Smotherman will have to play the 4, and he's just 6-5). It'll be important for either Haas or fellow freshman Jacquil Taylor to figure out it out quickly or Hammons will pretty much be alone in the paint, but Scott is probably the biggest key to the season because with the Johnsons gone Purdue is desperate for a playmaker.
There are reasons Purdue could be better than this, sure. Hammons could put it altogether night after night. Haas has the opportunity to give them a rare true twin towers advantage over every other team. Kendall Stephens could very well end up the most improved player in the conference this year, and Bryson Scott or Raphael Davis (or both) could end up the playmaking scorer the team needs. But even if everything single one of those things ends up happening I'm not sure how much better that vaults Purdue from here. At least things seem to be improving. Even though it helps the Gophers, the world just doesn't seem right when Purdue basketball is in a multi-year slide at the bottom of the conference.
Other Previews:
#14 Rutgers Scarlet Knights
I'm not really sure what's going on here with Purdue lately. If this season goes the way I'm expecting that'll make a second straight sub-par season and a second straight year missing the NCAA Tournament after making it six straight years (2 Sweet Sixteens). Looking at this year's freshman class and who is on the hook for 2014 there isn't really much of an impact here. In fact, Painter hasn't brought in anything resembling an impact class since that crazy Moore/Johnson/Hummel/Martin quartet, and that was back in 2007. Does this mean we're witnessing the slow death of Purdue basketball? Yes.Basically that all still stands, except add another year on. Last year was another dud as the Boilers went 5-13 in conference play and 15-17 overall. They're losing their top two scorers who also happened to be top 2 in assists on the squad, They do have some recruiting momentum at least with Painter signing two ESPN Top 100 guys (7-0 center Isaac Haas (way too many A's in that name) who they rank #87 and 6-7 forward Vincent Edwards who is #89) but unless the twin towers thing works (more on that in a second) or a bunch of role players suddenly start to thrive it's going to be another tough year.
I mention twin towers because the one real bright spot for Purdue is another seven-footer, junior A.J. Hammons who has the ability to completely dominate a game (see: 18 pts, 16 rebs, and 5 blocks vs. Ohio State or, and you probably remember this one better, 20/14/6 against your beloved Gophers). Unfortunately he's also been a bit of a headcase at times who can disappear by either simply not engaging (7 pts, 1 reb, 0 blocks in the other game against Minnesota despite only committing one foul) or getting himself in foul trouble (bunch of times). Really, when he's engaged he's nearly unstoppable and he could take Purdue up a level by bringing it consistently every night (and by that I mean an invite to the CBI).
Outside of Hammons I'm not really sure Purdue even knows what Purdue has. Leading non-Hammons returning scorer is Kendall Stephens at 8.0 per game, a sophomore wing who takes good care of the ball and can shoot. Out of all the non-Hammons returnees he has the best chance to develop into something special. Hammons and Stephens will likely be joined in the lineup by Basil Smotherman (sweet name), Raphael Davis, and Bryson Scott which means Purdue will be undersized (Smotherman will have to play the 4, and he's just 6-5). It'll be important for either Haas or fellow freshman Jacquil Taylor to figure out it out quickly or Hammons will pretty much be alone in the paint, but Scott is probably the biggest key to the season because with the Johnsons gone Purdue is desperate for a playmaker.
There are reasons Purdue could be better than this, sure. Hammons could put it altogether night after night. Haas has the opportunity to give them a rare true twin towers advantage over every other team. Kendall Stephens could very well end up the most improved player in the conference this year, and Bryson Scott or Raphael Davis (or both) could end up the playmaking scorer the team needs. But even if everything single one of those things ends up happening I'm not sure how much better that vaults Purdue from here. At least things seem to be improving. Even though it helps the Gophers, the world just doesn't seem right when Purdue basketball is in a multi-year slide at the bottom of the conference.
Other Previews:
#14 Rutgers Scarlet Knights
Tuesday, February 4, 2014
Game Preview: Gophers vs. Purdue
Last time the Gophers played Purdue they dominated for about 30 minutes or so. Then Purdue realized - wait, we really suck at this jump shooting thing, we should totally attack the rim using dribble penetration and then the Boilers almost won. So this one is pretty scary, given that as uneven a game coach as Matt Painter is he most likely understands what happened last time out.
Since we last saw Purdue, they went on a little 3-game win streak (home vs. Nebraska and Penn State, road vs. Illinois) but have now lost their last four including road losses to PSU and Northwestern, and they're currently sitting as the only Big 10 team with an RPI outside the top 100 (107, BAD LOSS ALERT). They're a horrendous shooting team, better only than Northwestern, and outside of A.J. Hammons the whole team kind of blends together in a homogenous mixture of mediocrity. Their top two guards are practically identical players in Ronnie Johnson and Terone Johnson, with Terone a little more perimeter based and Ronnie more inside the 3-point line, but they do a lot of the same things, with Ronnie the point and Terone the 2 guard. These were the two who shredded the Gophers for 12 and 18, mostly by driving in the second half - Ronnie was nearly unstoppable. As such, I'm hoping the Gophers pack that zone in deep and force Purdue to beat them from the outside.
Because, you see, they probably can't. If you recall the first game, the first 3 quarters of the game consisted of Purdue hanging on the perimeter and hoisting - and mainly missing - three pointers. As a team they shoot just 28.9% from three in conference play, ranking 10th in the conference. You wan them shooting from out there. Ronnie Johnson doesn't shoot much, but Terone can fall into chucker mode and he hits a mediocre 37%. The two three point specialists, wings Sterling Carter and Kendall Stephens, shoot 25% and 36%. The rest of the guards are more drivers than they are jump shooters, and packing in the zone helps eliminate those opportunities.
Packing in the zone is a good idea for another good reason, and that's the monster that is A.J. Hammons. Bad news for the Gophers is he's big (7-foot), strong (251 lbs), and can take over a game on either end (averaging 17 pts and 10 rebs in his last two games and leading the conference at 3 blocks per game). The good news for the Gophers is that Hammons can disappear from games. In nine Big Ten games he has three where he's attempted four shots or fewer and three where's he's grabbed 3 rebounds or fewer (both of these happened against the Gophers last time). He's also had five games with double digit shot attempts and five with 8+ rebounds. I can't seem to find any rhyme or reason to his disappearances either. The three games where he didn't shoot much were Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Penn State and his three poor rebounding games were against Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Nebraska. He's been a monster the last two games, but whether through his own apathy, a good defensive scheme, or the Purdue guards not looking his way he can be taken out of the game.
Playing the zone sagging back into the lane works here too. Hammons is deadly around the rim, hitting over 80% of his field goal attempts, but the majority of his shots are jumpers (60%). He is a pretty good jump shooter, hitting 37% from out there, but if the Gophers can push him out to the high post they'll have a much better chance of winning. I'd rather have him taking jumpers than camping by the basket, especially because, if all goes according to plan, the Boilermakers will be missing a lot of long jumpers and I would strongly prefer to have him nowhere near the rim. A packed-in zone can work against Purdue, but if they start hitting threes early and the Gophers have to extend out, that opens them up to dribble penetration which they've proven they can't stop and it could end up being a very long day. The first 8 minutes are going to be very telling on Wednesday.
Defensively, Purdue is pretty much a man-to-man team which is good because the Gophers are much better facing man defenses than zones, in my opinion. This way they can go to their stock plays using the pick-and-roll to create the action. Using Eliason or Walker as the screener and pulling Hammons away from the rim is probably the way to go here, considering he blocks 14.1% of his opponents shot attempts when he's on the floor (5th in the nation). Two big keys are going to be Mathieu's floater/jumper and PF post-ups (cringe).
Matheiu has been great this year scoring at the rim against taller players, but that's not going to fly against a shot blocker like Hammons so he'll have to pull up and hit that free throw line jumper he has. He's been pretty accurate on that shot this year so I feel good about this one. I'm not thrilled with posting up either King or Osenieks, but when Jay Simpson isn't in the game for Purdue (and he only averages 12 minutes per game) they don't have any real size outside of Hammons unless they put in Travis Carroll (7.7 mpg) who isn't a defensive wizard. Since Eliason or Walker posting up on Hammons is dicey (but will need to be tried several times) using the Gophers' other big on the block is an option. King/Osenieks will need to be able to score on a smaller player or find an open teammate if Hammons comes over to help. This has the potential to be very frustrating.
Although this isn't a must win game, it's definitely a please god win this one please game. If Purdue is nailing threes the Gophers are going to lose. If Hammons is fully engaged on both ends of the floor the Gophers are going to lose. If Minnesota doesn't execute really well on offense the Gophers are going to lose. Too many ways to lose. Let the free fall continue.
Purdue 66, Minnesota 60.
Since we last saw Purdue, they went on a little 3-game win streak (home vs. Nebraska and Penn State, road vs. Illinois) but have now lost their last four including road losses to PSU and Northwestern, and they're currently sitting as the only Big 10 team with an RPI outside the top 100 (107, BAD LOSS ALERT). They're a horrendous shooting team, better only than Northwestern, and outside of A.J. Hammons the whole team kind of blends together in a homogenous mixture of mediocrity. Their top two guards are practically identical players in Ronnie Johnson and Terone Johnson, with Terone a little more perimeter based and Ronnie more inside the 3-point line, but they do a lot of the same things, with Ronnie the point and Terone the 2 guard. These were the two who shredded the Gophers for 12 and 18, mostly by driving in the second half - Ronnie was nearly unstoppable. As such, I'm hoping the Gophers pack that zone in deep and force Purdue to beat them from the outside.
Because, you see, they probably can't. If you recall the first game, the first 3 quarters of the game consisted of Purdue hanging on the perimeter and hoisting - and mainly missing - three pointers. As a team they shoot just 28.9% from three in conference play, ranking 10th in the conference. You wan them shooting from out there. Ronnie Johnson doesn't shoot much, but Terone can fall into chucker mode and he hits a mediocre 37%. The two three point specialists, wings Sterling Carter and Kendall Stephens, shoot 25% and 36%. The rest of the guards are more drivers than they are jump shooters, and packing in the zone helps eliminate those opportunities.
Packing in the zone is a good idea for another good reason, and that's the monster that is A.J. Hammons. Bad news for the Gophers is he's big (7-foot), strong (251 lbs), and can take over a game on either end (averaging 17 pts and 10 rebs in his last two games and leading the conference at 3 blocks per game). The good news for the Gophers is that Hammons can disappear from games. In nine Big Ten games he has three where he's attempted four shots or fewer and three where's he's grabbed 3 rebounds or fewer (both of these happened against the Gophers last time). He's also had five games with double digit shot attempts and five with 8+ rebounds. I can't seem to find any rhyme or reason to his disappearances either. The three games where he didn't shoot much were Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Penn State and his three poor rebounding games were against Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Nebraska. He's been a monster the last two games, but whether through his own apathy, a good defensive scheme, or the Purdue guards not looking his way he can be taken out of the game.
Playing the zone sagging back into the lane works here too. Hammons is deadly around the rim, hitting over 80% of his field goal attempts, but the majority of his shots are jumpers (60%). He is a pretty good jump shooter, hitting 37% from out there, but if the Gophers can push him out to the high post they'll have a much better chance of winning. I'd rather have him taking jumpers than camping by the basket, especially because, if all goes according to plan, the Boilermakers will be missing a lot of long jumpers and I would strongly prefer to have him nowhere near the rim. A packed-in zone can work against Purdue, but if they start hitting threes early and the Gophers have to extend out, that opens them up to dribble penetration which they've proven they can't stop and it could end up being a very long day. The first 8 minutes are going to be very telling on Wednesday.
Defensively, Purdue is pretty much a man-to-man team which is good because the Gophers are much better facing man defenses than zones, in my opinion. This way they can go to their stock plays using the pick-and-roll to create the action. Using Eliason or Walker as the screener and pulling Hammons away from the rim is probably the way to go here, considering he blocks 14.1% of his opponents shot attempts when he's on the floor (5th in the nation). Two big keys are going to be Mathieu's floater/jumper and PF post-ups (cringe).
Matheiu has been great this year scoring at the rim against taller players, but that's not going to fly against a shot blocker like Hammons so he'll have to pull up and hit that free throw line jumper he has. He's been pretty accurate on that shot this year so I feel good about this one. I'm not thrilled with posting up either King or Osenieks, but when Jay Simpson isn't in the game for Purdue (and he only averages 12 minutes per game) they don't have any real size outside of Hammons unless they put in Travis Carroll (7.7 mpg) who isn't a defensive wizard. Since Eliason or Walker posting up on Hammons is dicey (but will need to be tried several times) using the Gophers' other big on the block is an option. King/Osenieks will need to be able to score on a smaller player or find an open teammate if Hammons comes over to help. This has the potential to be very frustrating.
Although this isn't a must win game, it's definitely a please god win this one please game. If Purdue is nailing threes the Gophers are going to lose. If Hammons is fully engaged on both ends of the floor the Gophers are going to lose. If Minnesota doesn't execute really well on offense the Gophers are going to lose. Too many ways to lose. Let the free fall continue.
Purdue 66, Minnesota 60.
Sunday, January 5, 2014
Gophers 82, Purdue 79
A win is a win, right? The Gophers looked absolutely dominant for a while, but naturally that couldn't last. As Snacks said, when the Gophers were up 6 with 25 seconds left I kept wondering how they were going to blow it, whereas if Purdue was up 6 with 25 seconds left I would have already left the building conceding a loss. The life of a Gopher (and Minnesota sports in general) fan is not a pretty one. Anyway I don't really give a crap that they nearly blew the game and won by just 3, they won. Good enough for me.
Once again, here are 10 things I liked and didn't like:
1. Defense in the first 30 minutes. Now, to be fair, for the first 30 minutes Painter's team looked suspiciously like an old Tubby team (may be a bit of a cheap shot but honestly that's what it looked like), but the Gophers did an excellent job of limiting Purdue, a big reason they opened up nearly a 20 point lead. They kept Purdue out of the paint and turned them into a jump shooting team, which is not a strength of the Boilers. Their offense mainly consisted of swinging the ball around the perimeter and, even when the managed to get it to the man at the free throw line the ball generally came right back out again quickly. A.J. Hammons got a couple of touches down low and was reasonably effective, but the Gophers limited those as well. The zone did what it was supposed to do for 30 minutes, and that was great.
2. Defense in the last ten minutes. At the 9:50 mark, in mid-possession, Painter took a time out. I don't know what he said or how he said it, but from that point on the Boilers did nothing but attack attack attack. They picked up the pace after both misses and makes, and when they did have to settle into the half court there was no more perimeter work, it was all dribble drives - and it worked. Purdue outscored the Gophers 34-20 from that point, and dam near ended up stealing the game. From 9:50 - 2:50, before things got a bit more desperate on their end, they only took 2 three-pointers, preferring to get into the lane, as they should. The Gophers' interior defense is always going to be a concern, and it was again big time at the end of this game.
3. Draustin Hollins got their swerve back. This one is obvious to anybody who either watched the game or glanced at the box score, but one game after both Hollins brothers played the worst game of their career they were back in a big way. Dre scored 17 and had 5 assists, and Austin scored 18 to go with 9 rebounds. Maybe more importantly, both showed the same confidence they had in the past so they aren't suffering any ill effects from being utterly horrible against Michigan. Not that I necessarily expected them to, but then again remember Nick Anderson. It's not exactly a secret that the Gophers need these two in order to win games, so hopefully they got all the horribleness out of their system in that one game.
4. Daquean McNeil looked goodish? Due to Honey Gopher and Malik Smith picking up two fouls each in the first half, causing Pitino to put out some goofy lineups (hopefully we never see McNeil, Ahanmisi, King, Walker, and Smith ever again). It also meant freshman McNeil was pressed into service and ended up playing 13 minutes in a Big Ten game which is pretty scary. He had his bad moments, such as the three pointer he air mailed by at least 3 feet, but in general he looked pretty in control with a decent looking jumper and an ability to score in the paint that looked better than I expected. I've been a bit nervous about McNeil, given that he was an FIU recruit who is suddenly on a Big Ten team, but I definitely liked what I saw. I don't expect him to surpass Ahanmisi on the depth chart simply because Mav is a senior, but it wouldn't shock me either.
5. The Fargo-Moorhead Acro Team was awesome as usual. Seriously, just the best half time show anywhere ever. You dopes who prefer Quick Change or those dumb dogs or any of that other crap are seriously, epically stupid. And I hate you.
6. A.J. Hammons is an absolute monster. But you know how many shot attempts he had? Three. I'm feeling generous so I'll give some of the credit for that to Elliott Eliason's defense and the Gopher defensive scheme, but man was he criminally underutilized. There were a couple of times Hammons was in and Eliason was on the bench, meaning Joey King or Oto or Mo were guarding Hammons, and Purdue didn't make any kind of effort to make sure he got a touch. If I'm Purdue he needs to be getting on touch on nearly every possession, but he's actually seventh on the team in percentage of shots taken when he's on the court. If Purdue wants to have any success this season, that needs to change. They probably still won't be able have any success, but that would at least be a start.
7. Offensive creativity seemed to be lacking. Just one game after I wrote about how impressed I was with some of the plays Pitino was drawing up for this team, they seemed to regress a bit. Granted the Gophers scored 82 points so it was working just fine so this isn't really a major complaint, but I really get a kick out of cool looking offensive plays and I didn't see any against Purdue. The only wrinkle I noticed is when the Gophers run a pick and roll, which seems to be nearly every time down (again, not a complaint necessarily) the picker comes off a down screen before heading up to set his pick. Maybe this is common, but I've never noticed it before. I've never watched as closely as I am now, but seemed note worthy.
8. That was some of the worst refereeing I've ever seen down the stretch. I am not one to complain about refs. I recognize the human element, that no ref is out to screw one particular team, and even most bad calls have an element where you could see why the call was missed, but those guys were just brutal today. The stretch where Eliason (what is this, and Eliason blog all of a sudden) got mugged going to the rim by two guys and had no call and the ball given to Purdue followed by an absolute clean block by Eliason (see) that was called a foul because, according to the refs signal, he moved his arms down even though he clearly didn't was horrendous. Unfortunately with Ed Hightower's retirement I don't know the name of any refs anymore, but if I did the guy I'd hate the most would be that little bald guy from today's game. That guy was horrible.
9. Random trapping is good. I'm a big fan of pressure defense. I like a full court press and I love high pressure in the half court, simply because guards are so important and if you keep the pressure up it makes it harder for a team to run their offense (this may be part of the reason why Hammons only had 3 shots). I like trapping even more, and throughout most of the non-conference schedule the Gophers were a pressure team who didn't trap often. Against Purdue they busted out a random half court trap a handful of times, and although I don't remember specifically if it caused any turnovers I'm a big fan of mixing it up. It'll work in a big spot at some point.
10. I still don't really know what to think of this Gophers team. Let me get this straight, they barely lose in a game where Draustin Hollins plays horribly, but then they barely win a game where Draustin Hollins plays about as well as you could ever expect. I suspect the team is more of who we saw against Michigan and the last ten minuets against Purdue, but I like to think they're closer to who we saw against Syracuse and first 30 against Purdue. I really just don't know. It's hard to trust a jump shooting team. I fully believe they're going to win a game they have no business winning when 2-3 guys are running hot, and I know they're going to lose a game they shouldn't when nobody can shoot. Was that the Michigan game? I don't know. Was today the day when everybody was running hot and they still only beat Purdue at home by 3? I don't know. I can't remember the last time I was this unsure about a team's outlook. Oh I've been wrong plenty of times, but I usually at least have an opinion. Not this year, but I know I'm enjoying the hell out of this.
I'm gonna watch Road House now.
Once again, here are 10 things I liked and didn't like:
1. Defense in the first 30 minutes. Now, to be fair, for the first 30 minutes Painter's team looked suspiciously like an old Tubby team (may be a bit of a cheap shot but honestly that's what it looked like), but the Gophers did an excellent job of limiting Purdue, a big reason they opened up nearly a 20 point lead. They kept Purdue out of the paint and turned them into a jump shooting team, which is not a strength of the Boilers. Their offense mainly consisted of swinging the ball around the perimeter and, even when the managed to get it to the man at the free throw line the ball generally came right back out again quickly. A.J. Hammons got a couple of touches down low and was reasonably effective, but the Gophers limited those as well. The zone did what it was supposed to do for 30 minutes, and that was great.
2. Defense in the last ten minutes. At the 9:50 mark, in mid-possession, Painter took a time out. I don't know what he said or how he said it, but from that point on the Boilers did nothing but attack attack attack. They picked up the pace after both misses and makes, and when they did have to settle into the half court there was no more perimeter work, it was all dribble drives - and it worked. Purdue outscored the Gophers 34-20 from that point, and dam near ended up stealing the game. From 9:50 - 2:50, before things got a bit more desperate on their end, they only took 2 three-pointers, preferring to get into the lane, as they should. The Gophers' interior defense is always going to be a concern, and it was again big time at the end of this game.
3. Draustin Hollins got their swerve back. This one is obvious to anybody who either watched the game or glanced at the box score, but one game after both Hollins brothers played the worst game of their career they were back in a big way. Dre scored 17 and had 5 assists, and Austin scored 18 to go with 9 rebounds. Maybe more importantly, both showed the same confidence they had in the past so they aren't suffering any ill effects from being utterly horrible against Michigan. Not that I necessarily expected them to, but then again remember Nick Anderson. It's not exactly a secret that the Gophers need these two in order to win games, so hopefully they got all the horribleness out of their system in that one game.
4. Daquean McNeil looked goodish? Due to Honey Gopher and Malik Smith picking up two fouls each in the first half, causing Pitino to put out some goofy lineups (hopefully we never see McNeil, Ahanmisi, King, Walker, and Smith ever again). It also meant freshman McNeil was pressed into service and ended up playing 13 minutes in a Big Ten game which is pretty scary. He had his bad moments, such as the three pointer he air mailed by at least 3 feet, but in general he looked pretty in control with a decent looking jumper and an ability to score in the paint that looked better than I expected. I've been a bit nervous about McNeil, given that he was an FIU recruit who is suddenly on a Big Ten team, but I definitely liked what I saw. I don't expect him to surpass Ahanmisi on the depth chart simply because Mav is a senior, but it wouldn't shock me either.
5. The Fargo-Moorhead Acro Team was awesome as usual. Seriously, just the best half time show anywhere ever. You dopes who prefer Quick Change or those dumb dogs or any of that other crap are seriously, epically stupid. And I hate you.
6. A.J. Hammons is an absolute monster. But you know how many shot attempts he had? Three. I'm feeling generous so I'll give some of the credit for that to Elliott Eliason's defense and the Gopher defensive scheme, but man was he criminally underutilized. There were a couple of times Hammons was in and Eliason was on the bench, meaning Joey King or Oto or Mo were guarding Hammons, and Purdue didn't make any kind of effort to make sure he got a touch. If I'm Purdue he needs to be getting on touch on nearly every possession, but he's actually seventh on the team in percentage of shots taken when he's on the court. If Purdue wants to have any success this season, that needs to change. They probably still won't be able have any success, but that would at least be a start.
7. Offensive creativity seemed to be lacking. Just one game after I wrote about how impressed I was with some of the plays Pitino was drawing up for this team, they seemed to regress a bit. Granted the Gophers scored 82 points so it was working just fine so this isn't really a major complaint, but I really get a kick out of cool looking offensive plays and I didn't see any against Purdue. The only wrinkle I noticed is when the Gophers run a pick and roll, which seems to be nearly every time down (again, not a complaint necessarily) the picker comes off a down screen before heading up to set his pick. Maybe this is common, but I've never noticed it before. I've never watched as closely as I am now, but seemed note worthy.
8. That was some of the worst refereeing I've ever seen down the stretch. I am not one to complain about refs. I recognize the human element, that no ref is out to screw one particular team, and even most bad calls have an element where you could see why the call was missed, but those guys were just brutal today. The stretch where Eliason (what is this, and Eliason blog all of a sudden) got mugged going to the rim by two guys and had no call and the ball given to Purdue followed by an absolute clean block by Eliason (see) that was called a foul because, according to the refs signal, he moved his arms down even though he clearly didn't was horrendous. Unfortunately with Ed Hightower's retirement I don't know the name of any refs anymore, but if I did the guy I'd hate the most would be that little bald guy from today's game. That guy was horrible.
9. Random trapping is good. I'm a big fan of pressure defense. I like a full court press and I love high pressure in the half court, simply because guards are so important and if you keep the pressure up it makes it harder for a team to run their offense (this may be part of the reason why Hammons only had 3 shots). I like trapping even more, and throughout most of the non-conference schedule the Gophers were a pressure team who didn't trap often. Against Purdue they busted out a random half court trap a handful of times, and although I don't remember specifically if it caused any turnovers I'm a big fan of mixing it up. It'll work in a big spot at some point.
10. I still don't really know what to think of this Gophers team. Let me get this straight, they barely lose in a game where Draustin Hollins plays horribly, but then they barely win a game where Draustin Hollins plays about as well as you could ever expect. I suspect the team is more of who we saw against Michigan and the last ten minuets against Purdue, but I like to think they're closer to who we saw against Syracuse and first 30 against Purdue. I really just don't know. It's hard to trust a jump shooting team. I fully believe they're going to win a game they have no business winning when 2-3 guys are running hot, and I know they're going to lose a game they shouldn't when nobody can shoot. Was that the Michigan game? I don't know. Was today the day when everybody was running hot and they still only beat Purdue at home by 3? I don't know. I can't remember the last time I was this unsure about a team's outlook. Oh I've been wrong plenty of times, but I usually at least have an opinion. Not this year, but I know I'm enjoying the hell out of this.
I'm gonna watch Road House now.
Friday, January 3, 2014
Michigan 63, Gophers 60
Dammit.
Fun game to watch, but not a fun outcome. That was an incredibly winnable game, and they just couldn't get it. A home loss to Michigan isn't a season killer by any stretch, but no being able to win a home game against a team on a similar tier (I thought) whose best player is out with an injury and also loses their second best player in the second half is not a good sign for the rest of the year. An NCAA bid just got that much more unlikely.
In a blatantly stolen format from the great Zach Lowe at Grantland, here are 10 things I liked and didn't like from last night. And yes I'm planning on using this format to recap every game unless I get bored or forget.
1. Fundamental Defense. The Gophers elected to mainly eschew the zone in favor of man-to-man against Michigan, which is something I said would probably be necessary for a win right here on this very blog, so I liked that. They also elected to get way out in passing lanes in order to try to force more turnovers, and it worked for a stretch, but it also over extended the defense and since Michigan and Beilein traditionally use a lot of Princeton offense principles when they have the ball, there were a lot of back cuts. More to the point, there were a lot of back cuts that led to open shots. If you're going to deny all passes you have to be near perfect in not losing your man or have help defense always in position. Neither happened against Michigan.
2. Offensive Creativity. One of the reasons the game was so fun to watch, beyond the Gophers pushing the ball at every opportunity, was Pitino doing a lot of cool things in the half court. One play I really liked was where they set two consecutive picks off the ball for Austin Hollins to do a curl cut out at the wing heading towards the free throw line. If he has shot or a driving lane, go with it obviously, but after Hollins comes through the second picker screens down on the first picker who pops out for an open three. The other really slick play was the one to get Malik Smith the open three near the end of the game (for some reason the btn2go replay feed ends at the 4 minute mark so I'm describing this one by memory). Mathieu sprints down court with the ball and heads to the right wing in what looks like your typical dribble hand off play, but instead of handing it off he keeps the ball and drives baseline, throwing the defense off. At the same time, Malik Smith heads towards the opposite corner (I don't know if there was a pick for him or not, but I suspect there was a back pick involved) for an open three. Cool play. So much interesting stuff going on at that end, I'm going to have to start recording the games and watching them a second time just to catch it all. Maybe.
3. Ball Screen Defense. I did not understand the defensive scheme last night. I've already said that I believed last night man-to-man was the way to go, but they way the Gophers defended ball screens really had me baffled. They chased the ball handler over the top of every screen, which is what you would do if you feared a three point shot coming right off the pick, but the big men never hedged out which created driving lanes for the dribbler (this is what Michigan did all night, bracket the ball handler with both the man guarding him and the man guarding the screener are night and it worked well to contain the Hollinseses). This penetration caused the need for help defense in the lane which led to a lot of easy dishes for easy buckets. I know Michigan is a good 3-point shooting team, but according to the awesome hoop-math.com 85% of three pointers in college are assisted, and Michigan is right at that same number so they don't exactly have a lot of guys who are going to come around the pick and shoot right away. This just confused me the entire game.
4. Elliott Eliason may be an actual center now. It's been going on all season, really, as Eliason has stepped in after the loss of Trevor Mbakwe and has more than doubled his scoring, rebounding, and blocked shots, but it was welcome to see him notch a double double against a Big Ten team. A Big Team relatively devoid of effective big men, but a Big Ten team nonetheless. It was less pleasant to realize Eliason may be the most important player on the team, because Mo Walker is basically useless outside of a wide open lay-up, and Oto and Joey King are both too small. This realization is pretty terrifying, considering as of now there's only one new big coming in for next season as well.
5. No Draustin Hollins means no wins. When the two best players on the team shoot 4-19 and 1-11 from three it's going to be awfully, awfully tough to win. Some might say that coming that close to beating a decent Michigan team with the performance those two put up is actually a good sign for this team. Those people are idiots. The Gophers probably need both of them to play well in order to win most games, and I don't even know if they'd beat Northwestern if both played poorly (just kidding, they would). This was rough. I'm just glad we're already passed the holidays. I can't imagine having to sit there at the dinner table listening to Lionel berate both his sons for this poor play against Michigan. Ouch.
6. Honey Gopher is a site to behold. Dre Mathieu is really fun to watch. So incredibly fast, and incredibly creative once he gets in the paint, which he needs to be since he's only 5-9. Incredible hops as well, as he challenged Glen Robinson at the rim twice going for a highlight reel play - unfortunately Robinson ended up 2-0 in those match ups. That being said, when you're 5-9 and your best move is driving to the rim there are going to be some problems, and he kind of fell apart at the end including a couple of crushing turnovers with under 90 seconds left to play. I still love him. I like my point guards to be a little bit reckless, and he's just a little bit reckless.
7. The Defense on Nik Stauskas was stellar. Stauskas is a very good player and his changes from last year are legit, so holding him to 3-7 shooting and 1-4 on threes is quite good. Even more impressive is Stauskas only took 7 shots, only the fourth time he's had less than double digit shot attempts and two were in the first two games of the year before he realized he was good now and the other time was against Duke and I think he was hurt or something. Anyway, the Hollins brothers alternated on him and a solid combination of ball denial and tough man-to-man worked well for most of the game. He did manage to score 14 points, but seven of those came on free throws, and he also notched a season high seven assists because once he realized the Gophers were chasing on screens he just kept going into the lane and passing to somebody since help defense had to collapse to stop penetration kill me.
8. Somehow Jon Horford was a force. I said in my preview that you didn't really have to worry about Jordan Morgan or Jon Horford being an offensive presence, though Horford did at least have a bit of a jump shot. Pitino and the Gophers must be DWG readers, because they constantly left Horford alone in their defensive rotations and unfortunately he made them pay as he hit a number of nice 10-12 jumpers. Those jumpers along with being a frequent recipient of those easy dishes in the lane led to a 6-8 shooting night and 14 total points, a career high. Whatever. Your brother is still way better than you.
9. Replay kind of screwed the Gophers, but not in the way you might think. Or maybe in the way you think, I don't know your brain. When the Gophers appeared to create a Michigan turnover (and there were only 10 by Michigan for the game, by the way, compared to 15 for the Gophers which is not how they're going to win) down 3 with like 20 seconds left Pitino immediately called his final timeout to set up a play. After review, the refs correctly gave the ball back to Michigan. If that call is made correctly the first time Pitino never uses that timeout because you don't need a timeout to say "press and then foul." So the Gophers were left without a timeout at the end of the game. Didn't really matter I guess, but that could affect a game at some point in a meaningful way.
10. Has Corporate America taken over the student section? You know those big giant heads the students hold up to distract a free throw shooter? Kind of stupid but also pretty fun and always interesting to see who brings what, right? Well last night there were only about 5 or 6 of them (usually there's like 10-20) and they were all the stupid Target dog. The only explanation I can come up with is Target now sponsors that section and all other big head things are banned. Horrible. Simply horrible. Worse than Oto Osenieks who I like but stayed in the game way to long down the stretch with Malik Smith on the bench.
Whatever. We move on. Next up is Purdue on Saturday, and this is an absolute must win if this season is going to have any chance at resembling a successful one. Because Purdue is terrible. They're 10-4, and although they only have one bad loss (Washington State) they've struggled against some pretty terrible teams. They won by 1 versus Northern Kentucky, 4 vs. Rider, 5 vs. Siena, and 5 versus Eastern Michigan. They do have one good win over West Virginia, but nothing else impressive.
The Gophers should feel comfortable going back to their zone on Sunday, since Purdue doesn't shoot many threes and aren't particularly good at it when they do. What they do like to do is run, and while Painter's teams have never been slow paced this is his fastest team by a considerable margin. That they've upped their pace while still limiting turnovers quite a bit is impressive. Purdue plays three guards in Terone Johnson, Ronnie Johnson, and Bryson Scott who can all score (their three leading scorers) and who all value the basketball.
The X-factor will be 7-foot monster A.J. Hammons, who averages just 9 points and 8 rebounds on the season but just exploded for 18 & 16 versus Ohio State. The Gophers literally only have one guy who can effectively guard him and Hammons is very good at drawing fouls, which means Eliason is going to have to balance aggressiveness and smartness more than ever - Hammons would score 40 on Mo Walker or anybody else they can put in there. He's also a defensive monster, averaging nearly 4 blocks per game (5 against OSU) with a block rate that's third in the country. If the Gopher guards are going to penetrate - and they should be able to - they'll have to be smart with Hammons.
Despite Hammons, the Gophers are the far superior team as Purdue is still struggling with some really sub-par recruiting classes lately by their standards. There's always a danger the Gophers get wrecked inside, but that's going to be a danger no matter who they play, Purdue is just a little more dangerous in that regard that most bad teams.
Minnesota 83, Purdue 73
Fun game to watch, but not a fun outcome. That was an incredibly winnable game, and they just couldn't get it. A home loss to Michigan isn't a season killer by any stretch, but no being able to win a home game against a team on a similar tier (I thought) whose best player is out with an injury and also loses their second best player in the second half is not a good sign for the rest of the year. An NCAA bid just got that much more unlikely.
In a blatantly stolen format from the great Zach Lowe at Grantland, here are 10 things I liked and didn't like from last night. And yes I'm planning on using this format to recap every game unless I get bored or forget.
1. Fundamental Defense. The Gophers elected to mainly eschew the zone in favor of man-to-man against Michigan, which is something I said would probably be necessary for a win right here on this very blog, so I liked that. They also elected to get way out in passing lanes in order to try to force more turnovers, and it worked for a stretch, but it also over extended the defense and since Michigan and Beilein traditionally use a lot of Princeton offense principles when they have the ball, there were a lot of back cuts. More to the point, there were a lot of back cuts that led to open shots. If you're going to deny all passes you have to be near perfect in not losing your man or have help defense always in position. Neither happened against Michigan.
2. Offensive Creativity. One of the reasons the game was so fun to watch, beyond the Gophers pushing the ball at every opportunity, was Pitino doing a lot of cool things in the half court. One play I really liked was where they set two consecutive picks off the ball for Austin Hollins to do a curl cut out at the wing heading towards the free throw line. If he has shot or a driving lane, go with it obviously, but after Hollins comes through the second picker screens down on the first picker who pops out for an open three. The other really slick play was the one to get Malik Smith the open three near the end of the game (for some reason the btn2go replay feed ends at the 4 minute mark so I'm describing this one by memory). Mathieu sprints down court with the ball and heads to the right wing in what looks like your typical dribble hand off play, but instead of handing it off he keeps the ball and drives baseline, throwing the defense off. At the same time, Malik Smith heads towards the opposite corner (I don't know if there was a pick for him or not, but I suspect there was a back pick involved) for an open three. Cool play. So much interesting stuff going on at that end, I'm going to have to start recording the games and watching them a second time just to catch it all. Maybe.
3. Ball Screen Defense. I did not understand the defensive scheme last night. I've already said that I believed last night man-to-man was the way to go, but they way the Gophers defended ball screens really had me baffled. They chased the ball handler over the top of every screen, which is what you would do if you feared a three point shot coming right off the pick, but the big men never hedged out which created driving lanes for the dribbler (this is what Michigan did all night, bracket the ball handler with both the man guarding him and the man guarding the screener are night and it worked well to contain the Hollinseses). This penetration caused the need for help defense in the lane which led to a lot of easy dishes for easy buckets. I know Michigan is a good 3-point shooting team, but according to the awesome hoop-math.com 85% of three pointers in college are assisted, and Michigan is right at that same number so they don't exactly have a lot of guys who are going to come around the pick and shoot right away. This just confused me the entire game.
4. Elliott Eliason may be an actual center now. It's been going on all season, really, as Eliason has stepped in after the loss of Trevor Mbakwe and has more than doubled his scoring, rebounding, and blocked shots, but it was welcome to see him notch a double double against a Big Ten team. A Big Team relatively devoid of effective big men, but a Big Ten team nonetheless. It was less pleasant to realize Eliason may be the most important player on the team, because Mo Walker is basically useless outside of a wide open lay-up, and Oto and Joey King are both too small. This realization is pretty terrifying, considering as of now there's only one new big coming in for next season as well.
5. No Draustin Hollins means no wins. When the two best players on the team shoot 4-19 and 1-11 from three it's going to be awfully, awfully tough to win. Some might say that coming that close to beating a decent Michigan team with the performance those two put up is actually a good sign for this team. Those people are idiots. The Gophers probably need both of them to play well in order to win most games, and I don't even know if they'd beat Northwestern if both played poorly (just kidding, they would). This was rough. I'm just glad we're already passed the holidays. I can't imagine having to sit there at the dinner table listening to Lionel berate both his sons for this poor play against Michigan. Ouch.
6. Honey Gopher is a site to behold. Dre Mathieu is really fun to watch. So incredibly fast, and incredibly creative once he gets in the paint, which he needs to be since he's only 5-9. Incredible hops as well, as he challenged Glen Robinson at the rim twice going for a highlight reel play - unfortunately Robinson ended up 2-0 in those match ups. That being said, when you're 5-9 and your best move is driving to the rim there are going to be some problems, and he kind of fell apart at the end including a couple of crushing turnovers with under 90 seconds left to play. I still love him. I like my point guards to be a little bit reckless, and he's just a little bit reckless.
7. The Defense on Nik Stauskas was stellar. Stauskas is a very good player and his changes from last year are legit, so holding him to 3-7 shooting and 1-4 on threes is quite good. Even more impressive is Stauskas only took 7 shots, only the fourth time he's had less than double digit shot attempts and two were in the first two games of the year before he realized he was good now and the other time was against Duke and I think he was hurt or something. Anyway, the Hollins brothers alternated on him and a solid combination of ball denial and tough man-to-man worked well for most of the game. He did manage to score 14 points, but seven of those came on free throws, and he also notched a season high seven assists because once he realized the Gophers were chasing on screens he just kept going into the lane and passing to somebody since help defense had to collapse to stop penetration kill me.
8. Somehow Jon Horford was a force. I said in my preview that you didn't really have to worry about Jordan Morgan or Jon Horford being an offensive presence, though Horford did at least have a bit of a jump shot. Pitino and the Gophers must be DWG readers, because they constantly left Horford alone in their defensive rotations and unfortunately he made them pay as he hit a number of nice 10-12 jumpers. Those jumpers along with being a frequent recipient of those easy dishes in the lane led to a 6-8 shooting night and 14 total points, a career high. Whatever. Your brother is still way better than you.
9. Replay kind of screwed the Gophers, but not in the way you might think. Or maybe in the way you think, I don't know your brain. When the Gophers appeared to create a Michigan turnover (and there were only 10 by Michigan for the game, by the way, compared to 15 for the Gophers which is not how they're going to win) down 3 with like 20 seconds left Pitino immediately called his final timeout to set up a play. After review, the refs correctly gave the ball back to Michigan. If that call is made correctly the first time Pitino never uses that timeout because you don't need a timeout to say "press and then foul." So the Gophers were left without a timeout at the end of the game. Didn't really matter I guess, but that could affect a game at some point in a meaningful way.
10. Has Corporate America taken over the student section? You know those big giant heads the students hold up to distract a free throw shooter? Kind of stupid but also pretty fun and always interesting to see who brings what, right? Well last night there were only about 5 or 6 of them (usually there's like 10-20) and they were all the stupid Target dog. The only explanation I can come up with is Target now sponsors that section and all other big head things are banned. Horrible. Simply horrible. Worse than Oto Osenieks who I like but stayed in the game way to long down the stretch with Malik Smith on the bench.
Whatever. We move on. Next up is Purdue on Saturday, and this is an absolute must win if this season is going to have any chance at resembling a successful one. Because Purdue is terrible. They're 10-4, and although they only have one bad loss (Washington State) they've struggled against some pretty terrible teams. They won by 1 versus Northern Kentucky, 4 vs. Rider, 5 vs. Siena, and 5 versus Eastern Michigan. They do have one good win over West Virginia, but nothing else impressive.
The Gophers should feel comfortable going back to their zone on Sunday, since Purdue doesn't shoot many threes and aren't particularly good at it when they do. What they do like to do is run, and while Painter's teams have never been slow paced this is his fastest team by a considerable margin. That they've upped their pace while still limiting turnovers quite a bit is impressive. Purdue plays three guards in Terone Johnson, Ronnie Johnson, and Bryson Scott who can all score (their three leading scorers) and who all value the basketball.
The X-factor will be 7-foot monster A.J. Hammons, who averages just 9 points and 8 rebounds on the season but just exploded for 18 & 16 versus Ohio State. The Gophers literally only have one guy who can effectively guard him and Hammons is very good at drawing fouls, which means Eliason is going to have to balance aggressiveness and smartness more than ever - Hammons would score 40 on Mo Walker or anybody else they can put in there. He's also a defensive monster, averaging nearly 4 blocks per game (5 against OSU) with a block rate that's third in the country. If the Gopher guards are going to penetrate - and they should be able to - they'll have to be smart with Hammons.
Despite Hammons, the Gophers are the far superior team as Purdue is still struggling with some really sub-par recruiting classes lately by their standards. There's always a danger the Gophers get wrecked inside, but that's going to be a danger no matter who they play, Purdue is just a little more dangerous in that regard that most bad teams.
Minnesota 83, Purdue 73
Tuesday, September 13, 2011
Gopher Hoop Recruiting Update
Oh, fall. The time of year where the leaves are changing, Halloween is right around the corner, and people are obsessing over football. With women putting back on the baggy sweaters and nary a short skirt or cleavage to be seen, where else can a man's mind turn other than the wonders of college basketball. With college basketball preview magazines starting to hit your local newsstand, I figured it's time to get to moving. Right around the corner we'll start up some of the award winning conference previews I do here every year, but before we look ahead let's look further ahead. The Gophers are still in the hunt for some interesting players for 2012-2013, including a few who have visited or will visit in this key early signing period. Let's talk about a few. All player rankings from Rivals.com because that's where I have a membership.
- C Adam Woodbury (Sioux City, IA); 7-0, 230 lbs; #7 center, #42 overall. The highest ranked recruit left the Gophers have offered (and third highest overall), Woodbury would be an incredible coup if Tubby could snag him. Not just because of his talent, which is considerable, but because of the competition for it. Not only would he be battling some top clubs (Ohio State, North Carolina, possibly Kansas and Duke as well), but he'd also be going against Woodbury's home town team (Iowa) who has only one scholarship remaining and can really focus on him, as well as recruiting nemesis Bo Ryan and Wisconsin.
The good news, however, is that there a few reasons for optimism. The first is that Woodbury is from Iowa, and everybody knows that people from Iowa are afraid of the city and anywhere that isn't the midwest, so Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Iowa definitely have the advantage here. I also found an interview with him where he specifically calls out the Gophers (along with Ohio State, Stanford, and Iowa) as having been recruiting him the longest - not his favorites, although he doesn't claim any favorites right now - but those who have been after him for awhile. That's a nice positive. The Buckeyes also seem like they've put him on the back burner a bit - another positive.
If I had to bet money, and I probably would if I could find a site with this bet, I'd guess he's either heading to North Carolina (small townish and his AAU teammate Marcus Paige is already heading there) or Iowa (home town team). But, if he wants to break away from home, but not too far away from home, and thinks about his midwest roots and which teams have shown him loyalty and love from the beginning, he'll probably go to Wisconsin. But if they pull their offer or run out of schollys then the Gophers have a chance.
- C A.J. Hammons (Mouth of Wilson, VA); 7-0, 260 lbs.; #18 center, #123 overall. This is the guy I'd call the most important name of this group, mainly because I think he's the guy they have the best shot at snagging. He's a midwestern kid from Indiana who is playing out in Virginia after transferring to Oak Hill Basketball Factory Academy, but who had said at one point that he wanted to play in the Big 10. The Gophers have stiff competition here because Indiana and Illinois have both offered and Purdue is in the mix, but I'm giving the Gophers a very slight edge because Hammons has mentioned the Gophers specifically in an interview as a team that's been in the mix for a while and also because he counts his mom as helping him to make his decision, and you know Tubby kills it with moms.
Personally, I'd love to get this kid because he's 6-11 or seven feet tall but has measured at a 7-3 wingspan and is generally regarded as one of the best defensive centers in this class with good strength and excellent rebounding and defensive instincts who can score in the post from either block. That's just an awesome description. Of course, since he's not ranked #1 there are some negatives which include conditioning (can be mixed) and motivation (a bit nervous here thanks to 3 years of Ralph). I figure his downside is pretty much Ralph Sampson, so let's get this get on board. According to Chris Monter at gopherhole.com he's visiting this weekend, so let's hope we hear some really good news soon.
- SF Andrew White (Chester, VA); 6-6, 210 lbs; #12 SF, #56 overall. Probably the least likely get on this list, but I'm including him because there's nothing out there to say the Gophers are out of the picture. There's no real good news here either. White has 25 offers, including Texas, Kansas, Maryland, Louisville and like everybody. He's also already visited (unofficially) 5-6 schools and has officials setup to 3 more, none of which are the Gophers. I can't come up with a single reason this guy would end up at a Gopher, but he mentions his dad as an integral part of making his decision, and, as I mentioned earlier Tubby is great with parents. Moreso with Moms, but if you get the crazy involved dad who really wants his kid to grow up to be a man and get an education Tubby could sway him. If you get the crazy dad whose looking to maximize his son as an asset to get his payday Tubby doesn't have a chance, but we already did that dance with the Kardashian kid, and I'm not interested in an encore anyway. Unless of course we get Kim here somehow. I could get down with that.
- SG Sherron Dorsey-Walker (Detroit, MI); 6-4, 175 lbs.; #24 SG, #122 overall. Another guy who fits the combo-guard mold that Tubby seems to be after these days, another guy like White who has been collecting offers because he's up to 16. Even though I prefer a pure point guard and thena couple wings, Memphis under Calipari and Huggins' WVU teams intrigued me with their collection of interchangeable parts, and I think if they get this guy they are pretty much going to be doing that, at least with the perimeter players.
From the sounds of things his upside is pretty huge. I can't find any references to weakness and at some pint in the various articles I've seen shooting, ball-handling, passing, and driving and scoring at the rim listed as strengths which I guess probably means he isn't the best defender since I can't find any reference to that but whatever since that's the only thing Tubby really truly knows how to teach and with his athleticism I'm sure he could be a capable defender in no time. Well lookit here, I've apparently talked myself right into this kid.
He says he's planning to commit sometime in October and the Gophers are very much in the mix. He has visits planned already for B.C., Temple, and Iowa State (damn you Hoiberg! :shakesfist:), but lists the Gophers amongst the teams he's considering for his final two visits (along with VA Tech, Florida State, and Baylor). Maybe I'm crazy at this point, but I still believe whenever Tubby gets this close he's got a chance. He mentions Tubby and his respect and good feeling about him in one of his interviews. Of course he also said he was planning on making his decision in August and yet here we are so maybe he's just a pathological liar.
- PF Chad Rykhoek (Fort Worth, TX); 6-9, 215 lbs.; #39 PF, #135 overall. He could be the first one to sign somewhere, whether with the Gophers or elsewhere, since he's already said he's planning to commit during the early period which ends in November. That's bad news for the Gophers because he's already set up four official campus visits for the coming months (Missouri, Rice, Colorado, and Nebraska) and is trying to decide which school he wants to make his fifth official - SMU, North Texas, TCU, Drake, or the Gophers. SMU is his home town school and he mentions Drake as having been after him the longest, so they have the inside track, but Minnesota is the highest profile program of those five so who knows. I'd probably write the kid off as the Gophers not having a shot, but that seems like a fairly underwhelming list of offers, no? And in the few interviews I read he doesn't seem like he's exactly chomping at the bit to sign with any of them, so I'll give Tubby and the Gophers an outside shot here.
I didn't bother discussing Jevontae Hawkins because he seems like he's practically a done deal for West Virginia and even if he isn't I don't think the Gophers can steal him away. I also didn't include Jodan Price who dropped the Gophers from consideration after they signed Wally Ellenson or Demarquise Johnson who looks like he's going to stay somewhere out west.
As far as a list of target's for the spring session I think it's solid. The team will probably have two scholarships or so, so you don't want to overextend yourself if these are the guys you want. Keep in mind the three guys I didn't include plus Ellenson mean they've offered nine guys and that doesn't include guys who they offered who signed elsewhere (including recent losses Brandon Taylor to Penn State (ouch) and Nick Banyard to New Mexico (double outch)).
I like the quality here as well. Outside of home town kids I think if Tubby focuses on the players in the #50-#150 range that's how he can build up the program. Getting kids of that caliber (AND KEEPING THEM, DAMMIT) can help create a winning program that will allow him to sweet talk some top 50 types once in a while. Plus, since he's allegedly a good coach who can coach players up, that level of player should be perfect - talented enough to develop into a great player, but not so talented they already think they can't really be coached - not that that stops Calipari. I'm just afraid that if they whiff on all these kids or get strung out too long they're going to end up in a scramble situation again and end up with lower tier talent again. Self-perpetuating and self-defeated cycle, and I think they're already scrambling on the edge to stay off that ride.
One guy I wish they'd offer is PG Ray Lee from Michigan, who has already said he wants to play out of state so that takes Izzo (and Beilein) out of the running. He's a big kid at 6-3 and ranked #142 overall in the country. His number 1 priority is playing time, and with the Gophers absolutely refusing to address their PG problem he'd be perfect. The problem? Priority #2 is "an offense that is fast paced and allows the freedom to drive and create while being allowed to play through mistakes."
Cue: sad trombone sound.
WAAAH WAAAH WAAAH WAAAHAAAAHAAAAH.
- C Adam Woodbury (Sioux City, IA); 7-0, 230 lbs; #7 center, #42 overall. The highest ranked recruit left the Gophers have offered (and third highest overall), Woodbury would be an incredible coup if Tubby could snag him. Not just because of his talent, which is considerable, but because of the competition for it. Not only would he be battling some top clubs (Ohio State, North Carolina, possibly Kansas and Duke as well), but he'd also be going against Woodbury's home town team (Iowa) who has only one scholarship remaining and can really focus on him, as well as recruiting nemesis Bo Ryan and Wisconsin.
The good news, however, is that there a few reasons for optimism. The first is that Woodbury is from Iowa, and everybody knows that people from Iowa are afraid of the city and anywhere that isn't the midwest, so Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Iowa definitely have the advantage here. I also found an interview with him where he specifically calls out the Gophers (along with Ohio State, Stanford, and Iowa) as having been recruiting him the longest - not his favorites, although he doesn't claim any favorites right now - but those who have been after him for awhile. That's a nice positive. The Buckeyes also seem like they've put him on the back burner a bit - another positive.
If I had to bet money, and I probably would if I could find a site with this bet, I'd guess he's either heading to North Carolina (small townish and his AAU teammate Marcus Paige is already heading there) or Iowa (home town team). But, if he wants to break away from home, but not too far away from home, and thinks about his midwest roots and which teams have shown him loyalty and love from the beginning, he'll probably go to Wisconsin. But if they pull their offer or run out of schollys then the Gophers have a chance.
- C A.J. Hammons (Mouth of Wilson, VA); 7-0, 260 lbs.; #18 center, #123 overall. This is the guy I'd call the most important name of this group, mainly because I think he's the guy they have the best shot at snagging. He's a midwestern kid from Indiana who is playing out in Virginia after transferring to Oak Hill Basketball Factory Academy, but who had said at one point that he wanted to play in the Big 10. The Gophers have stiff competition here because Indiana and Illinois have both offered and Purdue is in the mix, but I'm giving the Gophers a very slight edge because Hammons has mentioned the Gophers specifically in an interview as a team that's been in the mix for a while and also because he counts his mom as helping him to make his decision, and you know Tubby kills it with moms.
Personally, I'd love to get this kid because he's 6-11 or seven feet tall but has measured at a 7-3 wingspan and is generally regarded as one of the best defensive centers in this class with good strength and excellent rebounding and defensive instincts who can score in the post from either block. That's just an awesome description. Of course, since he's not ranked #1 there are some negatives which include conditioning (can be mixed) and motivation (a bit nervous here thanks to 3 years of Ralph). I figure his downside is pretty much Ralph Sampson, so let's get this get on board. According to Chris Monter at gopherhole.com he's visiting this weekend, so let's hope we hear some really good news soon.
- SF Andrew White (Chester, VA); 6-6, 210 lbs; #12 SF, #56 overall. Probably the least likely get on this list, but I'm including him because there's nothing out there to say the Gophers are out of the picture. There's no real good news here either. White has 25 offers, including Texas, Kansas, Maryland, Louisville and like everybody. He's also already visited (unofficially) 5-6 schools and has officials setup to 3 more, none of which are the Gophers. I can't come up with a single reason this guy would end up at a Gopher, but he mentions his dad as an integral part of making his decision, and, as I mentioned earlier Tubby is great with parents. Moreso with Moms, but if you get the crazy involved dad who really wants his kid to grow up to be a man and get an education Tubby could sway him. If you get the crazy dad whose looking to maximize his son as an asset to get his payday Tubby doesn't have a chance, but we already did that dance with the Kardashian kid, and I'm not interested in an encore anyway. Unless of course we get Kim here somehow. I could get down with that.
- SG Sherron Dorsey-Walker (Detroit, MI); 6-4, 175 lbs.; #24 SG, #122 overall. Another guy who fits the combo-guard mold that Tubby seems to be after these days, another guy like White who has been collecting offers because he's up to 16. Even though I prefer a pure point guard and thena couple wings, Memphis under Calipari and Huggins' WVU teams intrigued me with their collection of interchangeable parts, and I think if they get this guy they are pretty much going to be doing that, at least with the perimeter players.
From the sounds of things his upside is pretty huge. I can't find any references to weakness and at some pint in the various articles I've seen shooting, ball-handling, passing, and driving and scoring at the rim listed as strengths which I guess probably means he isn't the best defender since I can't find any reference to that but whatever since that's the only thing Tubby really truly knows how to teach and with his athleticism I'm sure he could be a capable defender in no time. Well lookit here, I've apparently talked myself right into this kid.
He says he's planning to commit sometime in October and the Gophers are very much in the mix. He has visits planned already for B.C., Temple, and Iowa State (damn you Hoiberg! :shakesfist:), but lists the Gophers amongst the teams he's considering for his final two visits (along with VA Tech, Florida State, and Baylor). Maybe I'm crazy at this point, but I still believe whenever Tubby gets this close he's got a chance. He mentions Tubby and his respect and good feeling about him in one of his interviews. Of course he also said he was planning on making his decision in August and yet here we are so maybe he's just a pathological liar.
- PF Chad Rykhoek (Fort Worth, TX); 6-9, 215 lbs.; #39 PF, #135 overall. He could be the first one to sign somewhere, whether with the Gophers or elsewhere, since he's already said he's planning to commit during the early period which ends in November. That's bad news for the Gophers because he's already set up four official campus visits for the coming months (Missouri, Rice, Colorado, and Nebraska) and is trying to decide which school he wants to make his fifth official - SMU, North Texas, TCU, Drake, or the Gophers. SMU is his home town school and he mentions Drake as having been after him the longest, so they have the inside track, but Minnesota is the highest profile program of those five so who knows. I'd probably write the kid off as the Gophers not having a shot, but that seems like a fairly underwhelming list of offers, no? And in the few interviews I read he doesn't seem like he's exactly chomping at the bit to sign with any of them, so I'll give Tubby and the Gophers an outside shot here.
I didn't bother discussing Jevontae Hawkins because he seems like he's practically a done deal for West Virginia and even if he isn't I don't think the Gophers can steal him away. I also didn't include Jodan Price who dropped the Gophers from consideration after they signed Wally Ellenson or Demarquise Johnson who looks like he's going to stay somewhere out west.
As far as a list of target's for the spring session I think it's solid. The team will probably have two scholarships or so, so you don't want to overextend yourself if these are the guys you want. Keep in mind the three guys I didn't include plus Ellenson mean they've offered nine guys and that doesn't include guys who they offered who signed elsewhere (including recent losses Brandon Taylor to Penn State (ouch) and Nick Banyard to New Mexico (double outch)).
I like the quality here as well. Outside of home town kids I think if Tubby focuses on the players in the #50-#150 range that's how he can build up the program. Getting kids of that caliber (AND KEEPING THEM, DAMMIT) can help create a winning program that will allow him to sweet talk some top 50 types once in a while. Plus, since he's allegedly a good coach who can coach players up, that level of player should be perfect - talented enough to develop into a great player, but not so talented they already think they can't really be coached - not that that stops Calipari. I'm just afraid that if they whiff on all these kids or get strung out too long they're going to end up in a scramble situation again and end up with lower tier talent again. Self-perpetuating and self-defeated cycle, and I think they're already scrambling on the edge to stay off that ride.
One guy I wish they'd offer is PG Ray Lee from Michigan, who has already said he wants to play out of state so that takes Izzo (and Beilein) out of the running. He's a big kid at 6-3 and ranked #142 overall in the country. His number 1 priority is playing time, and with the Gophers absolutely refusing to address their PG problem he'd be perfect. The problem? Priority #2 is "an offense that is fast paced and allows the freedom to drive and create while being allowed to play through mistakes."
Cue: sad trombone sound.
WAAAH WAAAH WAAAH WAAAHAAAAHAAAAH.
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