Gophers of the Tubby Era Countdown: #16-#20

Throughout the summer I'll be writing up each of the 34 players who played for the University of Minnesota under Tubby Smith.  Why Tubby?  Because it's the most recent era that's over.  If this goes well perhaps I'll go back and do Monson as well.  I'll be looking at any player who played at Minnesota under Tubby at some point, even if it was just a year.  And I will be considering their entire Gopher career, so guys who started under Monson or finished under Pitino will have their whole career considered, but anyone who transferred in or out is only evaluated on their Gopher stats.  With me?  Here we go:

#34 to #31 can be found here.
#26-#30 can be found here.
#21-#25 are here

#20.  MAVERICK AHANMISI (2010-2014).
-  Stuck around all four years, which is a positive, but never really developed into a third string point guard.  Probably took more heat than anyone on this list, but you can't blame him too much because he basically got forced into more playing time than he had the talent to play.  He did see his playing time dwindle from 13.3 minutes per game in his sophomore year to 10.5 as a junior and 9.6 as a senior.  He ended his career shooting under 40% from the floor and with a 1.1 to 0.9 assist-to-turnover ratio.  He was a late spring desperation signing and he generally played like it.  But at least he tried and wasn't a whiner.

#19.  JOE COLEMAN (2011-2013).
-  He was a pretty important piece on Tubby's last two teams before transferring to St. Mary's when Richard Pitino came in despite having a game that would thrive in his system.  He never developed an outside shot, but he excelled at getting to the rim and finding ways to score despite standing just 6-4.  His amazing 29 point outburst at Illinois showed his potential, but he wasn't able to harness that consistently and now he's off to the Gaels.  He played in one game last season before an injury knocked him out for the year.

#18.  JAMAL ABU SHAMALA (2005-2009).
-  One of the harder players to rank.  He wasn't very good, but he played four years and had his moments, generally behind the 3-point line because he basically didn't do anything else.  It was a special moment whenever he found himself with an open three and you just didn't care if it went in because if he was in the game when it mattered it was when the Gophers were terrible and if he was in when they were decent the game was probably out of hand already.  Completely unfair to him, but for whatever reason he represents the failure of the Monson/Molinari years to me.  Probably because he was actually starting at one point when things were pretty much completely off the rails.  Now I can appreciate who he was, at pretty much right in the middle of this countdown seems about right.

#17.  COLTON IVERSON (2008-2011).
-  If you had to make a poster for guys who never developed under Tubby Smith, it would have to be a pretty big poster.  But if you wanted to narrow down to two guys, Iverson is one of them.  He was a so so post player for the Gophers, but once he transferred to Colorado State he turned into a monster who got himself drafted in the second round of the NBA Draft.  Don't remember he became a monster because he played in a smaller conference way out west?  Well he averaged 14 points and 10 rebounds a game his senior year.  Those are amazing numbers.  Could he have put that up in the Big Ten?  Most likely not, but it's clear he was underutilized his three years as a Gopher.

#16.  DEVOE JOSEPH (2008-2011).
-  One of the most disappointing players of the era for me, I really thought Joseph was going to be a lights out scorer.  There were times where he looked so good, but he and Tubby clearly didn't get along, both on the court (Joseph could get lost out there at times) and off (weed).  Then, 8 games into his junior year he bolted after being suspended twice for an undisclosed reason (weed), apparently complaining about not getting enough playing time and shot attempts which was ridiculous.  Al Nolen would get hurt later that season, which would have given Joseph all the playing time he could handle.  By then he was already at Oregon, and, rather than sit out a full year to maximize his playing time, he joined the ducks for the second semester of the 2011-2012 year, which meant that in his final two years he played a grand total of just 36 games.  Yeah, he ended up developing into that scorer I thought he would (averaged 16.7 points per game), but a series of poor decisions cost him a lot.

I Almost Quit this Blog

I almost quit this blog tonight, or at least switched to all Twins Royals all the time after tonight's embarrassing loss to Iowa, but luckily some sanity kicked in.  As I was dropping off the Old Man, Bear, and Snacks after the game Bear flipped me off and Snacks threw some sort of crumpled up paper at my head and said, "Don't take it so hard, you're not on the team" and you know what, he's right.  I grew up with this team.  I've been going to games since I was born, the Clem years happened as I was becoming a basketball player, and the Final Four run happened my second year of college when the games became "EVENTS" and everyone gathered together to watch the games in tiny dorm rooms and professors of night school classes let everyone out early if there was a game that night.  So yeah, I sometimes get a little too wrapped up in this program, and that was exacerbated by the hiring of Tubby Smith (and starting blogging about this team at that time probably didn't help).

I had been through the disappointment of Rick Rickert, I had been through the Kris Humphries debacle, and I had been through the 9 win season or whatever it was that felt like I was stuck in Punxatawney.  I had made my peace with the program as what it was, and it was fun.  I still remember Shamala going off against Michigan at the end of yet another lost season, and it was fun.  Then, out of nowhere (particularly considering it was in the internet age) Tubby was hired.  And then he found Ralph.  And Devoe.  And kept Rodney and Royce, and expectations were raised, and I thought the program was on it's way to NCAA invites every year with some upside.  And that is why I got sucked so far in I could barely see my way out, like the Millennium Falcon and that giant purple space worm.

Honestly I'm not sure why it took so long, but tonight really hammered home to me that getting so let down by this team/program was my own fault.  I was becoming everything I hated about sports fans because I was giving too much credit where it wasn't due.  I should have known better and it's all my fault.

I had been mentally preparing a truly epic diatribe full of venom and vigor basically attacking everyone and especially Tubby and Ralph, but thanks to Snacks' comment (and Bear's rude genture) I'm backing off and going to approach the rest of the season the same way the team is - lackadaisical and without a plan.  I mean, tonight's game made it clear the team suffers from a lack of talent, a lack of coaching, and a lack of effort - what is there to write?

All three of those things can be directly tied to Tubby Smith, and if that wasn't enough for you just take a look at the game tape and watch how baffled the players were once Iowa went into their zone.  One or two possessions could be chalked up to the players being surprised or confused, but when an entire half goes by and the team still has no idea what to do or where to go that squarely falls on the coach's shoulders.  How many possessions did the Gophers have against it and how many times did anybody attack the gaps?  I can remember exactly one time and Joe Coleman scored when he did it.

But you know what?  I'm going to stop here.  I need some perspective and so I'm going to let this go for now, but may write more later in the week.  It's clear to me now that I was expecting the Tubby Smith from the Tulsa and Georgia and maybe sorta Kentucky days, and I think we got a different one or something.  Or maybe Minnesota is a wasteland for college basketball.  Either way, we're going in a different direction here at DWG.  Kindler, gentler, and more relaxederer.  At least until the next game.

Seriously though, poor effort, poor execution, dumb play, and no game plan make baby jesus cry.  The team has nearly zero Big 10 caliber talent, piss poor coaching, and the center is the gooiest, softest center outside of a Caramelo.  I plan to finish out this year in a more positive light, but it ain't gonna be easy.

RALPH.  CARAMELO IS HOW YOU FEEL INSIDE, RALPH

Oh Snap, here come the Wildcats!

After the world's worst Minnesota sporting weekend I almost forgot that we now get to welcome Northwestern and their boring ass offense and amorphous blob of an unsolvable zone to the Barn.  Since no matter how hard I try to ignore this fact it won't go away, we might as well hit up a preview of sorts, eh?

1.  If Kevin Coble's hurt, why is Northwestern better this year than last year?  Mainly because Coble v. 2.0 is on the scene in the form of John Shurna.  He's gangly and awkward, yet fundamentally sound and effective all at the same time.  He was a three-star dork coming out of high school and wasn't heavily recruited and had a pretty non-descript freshman year but has exploded this season, more than doubling his scoring average (from 7 to 17), rebounding average (3 to 7), and assists (1 to 2.5).  Probably roid related.  Solid player (and also a member of my fantasy team, the Rick Rickert All-Stars).

Shurna isn't the only Wildcat to make a major leap this year.  Point guard Michael Thompson, who has inexplicably started going by the moniker "Juice", has increased his scoring by about 50% while increasing his assists and decreasing his turnovers and has already dropped 20+ against three good teams (Purdue, Notre Dame, NC State).  Jeremy Nash, the reptillian-like head to the aforementioned amorphous blob, is suddenly scoring almost ten points a game as a senior after averaging less than 3.5 througout his career and is stealing nearly two balls a game.  He's a major pest.  Add in major contributions from freshman Drew Crawford and it's easy to see why not only are they an NCAA contender this year, but could be real threat next year as well.

2.  Can you tell me more about this Crawford fella?  Sure.  Crawford, like most Nor'westerners, was a three-star recruit, but unlike most of them he was heavily recruited with offers from Wake Forest and Oklahoma State but chose to sign with the Wildcats due to his experience with one of the team's assistant coaches who coached his 7th grade AAU team and academic reasons (he had a 4.2 GPA in high school and scored 31 on his ACTs).  He's already made an impact at third on the team in scoring, rebounding, and three-pointers made and is a very versatile player at 6-5.  He can go off huge, with games of 35, 25, and 22 already this year, but can also be shut down (6 games of under 5 points).  Containing Crawford is going to be huge tomorrow.  Although Shurna and Thompson are the big guns, Crawford might be the most dangerous.  Like a sub-machine gun. 

3.  So who are the keys for the Gophers?  It seems pretty obvious if you ask me, and that's Devoe Joseph and Blake Hoffarber.  Joseph is the new point guard, and will be the main man responsible for dealing with that zone.  I like this, because a good way to beat a zone is to penetrate the gaps, and although Nolen could penetrate, he sure couldn't finish - just like you.  Devoe will have to balance dribble-penetration and smart passes with getting his own shot - not easy against the Wildcat zone, but I have faith.

As far as the Hoff goes, I am sure you remember how Dawger's boyfriend Jamal Abu-Shamala lit up Northwestern every time they played.  There are two reasons for that:  it's a zone and it's not an athletic team.  Well, they still play zone, they still aren't overly athletic (even with Crawford now), and Hoffarber is ten times the player Shamala was (and that might be low).  He should be able to get his shots early and often, and if he is still red hot could knock this game out in a hurry.

4.  If Minnesota manages to pull this out, is this going to end up being a win over an NCAA Tournament team?  Well, probably not, but there's a shot.  If Northwestern loses to the Gophers, that drops them to 3-5 in conference play and 14-6 overall.  Currently sitting at 56th in RPI (9 spots ahead of the Gophers) and 74th in Strenght of Schedule, they'd certainly have their work cut out for them.  They do have a signature win over Purdue and a whole host of medium-good wins (NC State, Iowa State, Stanford, Notre Dame), so I'd bet 9-9 in the conference would have a shot to get them in.  They still play Indiana, Iowa, and Penn State all twice so winning all of those gets them to 9-9.  It's not likely, but it's possible.  FYI that would mean the Gophers have a whole three wins over tournament teams.  Joy.

5.  In honor of the nerds, can you break this down numbers-wise?  Northwestern ranks 62nd in the country in offensive efficiency, 94th in defensive efficiency, and 288th in tempo.  The Gophers rank 63rd offensively, 12th defensively, and 68th in tempo.  The Wildcats biggest strengths are taking care of the basketball (24th in not turning it over), defending the three (opponents shoot just 28% against - 19th in the country), and shooting the basketball (84th in effective field goal %).  Minnesota's weaknesses are getting offensive rebounds (173rd), allowing offensive rebounds (176th), and defending the three pointer (117th).  The Gophers' strengths are causing turnovers (8th), defending the two-point shot (15th - just 41.8%), and causing steals (7th) and blocks (7th).  Northwestern's weakness are getting offensive rebounds (256th), getting their shots blocked (245th), and defending the two-point shot (205th - allowing 48.6%).

What's all that mean?  The teams matchup fairly well, and this could be a tight one.  Will Blake's hot shooting overcome a Wildcat defense that defends the three-pointer well?  Can Devoe (and Westbrook) get inside the zone and create opportunities?  Will the Gophers interior defense stifle the Cats inside players?  I don't know, but I know that things like "desperation" and "seriously need to win this one" actually go a long way in college basketball.  Plus, they're a bunch of nerds.

Gophers 70, Northwestern 64.

Gophers/Northwestern Game Blog

Absolute must win here for the Gophers. They probably need to win three of the last four to feel good about their NCAA bid chances, and this is the easiest of the bunch. Easiest on paper of course, ignoring Northwestern's earlier ass-whooping of the Gophers. And don't forget they went into East Lansing and beat the Spartans, so they aren't just a home threat.

A couple of keys before we get started:

1. Gophers offense. Stagnant, lazy, perimeter oriented, and it needs to get healthy while going against it's absolute nemesis - the Northwestern 1-3-1. The one, and only, shred of good news on this front is that the Gophers showed they have the ability to go against a 1-3-1 in the opening minutes against Michigan, where they attacked and penetrated and got good shots. Of course, the bad news is that they quickly abandoned that strategy to swing the ball around the perimeter and take bad shots.

2. Gophers defense. Lazy and not smart lately. Giving up a lot of open shots, and Northwestern has the shooters to knock them down. They can't give up as many wide-open looks as they did against the Wolverines, or this one will be over quickly.

Anyway, on to the game:

- God damn overtime in the stupid Iowa/Michigan game, as if anybody cares about that. Meaning, of course, that we won't get to the Gopher game until, like, the 12 minute time out. Which, I suppose, makes it just like pretty much every other Gopher home game.

- Ooh, live look split screen style at the Gopher tip off with Iowa up by 10 and up less than a minute left. Hello NIT Wolverines, enjoy yourselves.

- We're here, 17:45 left and Northwestern up 3-0. I'm going to assume the Gophers let the Wildcats have a wide open three. It's just what they do.

- Wide open NU layup as Sampson and DJ get confused on a screen, followed by an Al Nolen airball from three. I kind of want to turn this off already.

- Northwestern is in a man-to-man. I repeat, Northwestern is in a man-to-man. This makes zero sense. You don't need to play mind games and try to mix things up when the other team can't handle your base defense. This would be like having the spread gun in Contra but deciding, you know what, I'm going to go with the Laser instead.

- Defense looking very tough and very aggressive, creating turnovers and transition opportunities. Plus Devron Bostick just scored. Things starting to look a little more positive.

- Joseph fouled on a three point attempt about a foot behind the three point line. Of course, whoever the dumb announcer is says, "that's well outside Devoe Joseph's range." the way he's been shooting lately, I'm pretty sure if he's inside the half court line, he's in range. Watch a game once in a while, ass. 2-3 for Joseph, 11-5 Gophers.

- Defense looking even better. Northwestern is, at this point, chucking up threes but they aren't open. Generally they are a foot or two behind the line, and there's a Gopher flying out in the shooter's face each time. I am encouraged.

- Hugh Jackman is hosting the Academy Awards? What the F?

- I've thought about it, and I'm now convinced that Travis Busch is the worst player in the country averaging more than 12 minutes a game. And I'm including those guys on NJIT and other joke schools.

- My wife has really bad strep throat, and tylenol isn't helping, so we dug out some old Percoset she had from after she gave birth to Wonderbaby^TM. She's now wandering around the house saying, "this feels really good" and "I really like this." I'm concerned. And yet, the Gophers interest me more. Seems like they are dominating the game, but their only up seven (with 7 minutes left). Bostick looking great though with seven points already and a lot of PT. Maybe he won't transfer after all. I'm still hoping he doesn't, at least.

- And HERE'S the 1-3-1. This will tell the tale of the game right here. And they never cross the three point line, settling for a Westbrook heave with 3 left on the shot clock. I am now worried. Also worried about Mrs. W, who is now yelling at her Mac & Cheese for having clumps in the sauce.

- Announcer guy: "I think Minnesota sometimes struggles when their guards overhandle the ball, and they don't feed the big guys." Ok, so maybe he does watch the games sometimes.

- Halftime, Gophers lead 36-18 and are looking very good doing it. A very aggressive, high-pressure defense is forcing Northwestern into bad shots, and despite a lack of turnovers, they are able to get out and run thanks to a lot of missed Wildcat shots. In the halfcourt offense, they have for the most part utilized both dribble penetration as well as finding the big man on the block in order to get inside, not to mention attacking the 1-3-1 from the high post well enough to get NU to abandon playing that defense (although Paul Carter is far superior to DJ in that high post position). The Gophers have been helped by some cold Northwestern shooting, as they had some wide open shots they've missed, but overall it's their defense, reminiscent of the Illinois game, that's forcing the Wildcats to look bad. Excellent half.

- Player of the Half = Devron Bostick, with 9 points and, aside from one blown defensive assignment, has looked great and basically kept Hoffarber on the bench. Interestingly, it's also his birthday today. Happy birthday Devron, please keep this shit up in the second half.

- Mrs. W is now accusing me of deleting all the playlists off her Ipod, despite the fact that I've never used it and have my own synced to a completely different computer.

- Hm, the halftime summary thing is trying to tell me that Lawrence Westbrook has 11 points to lead the team, but I'm having trouble buying that.

- Northwestern going with that hell of a 1-3-1 to start the half. Gophers need to keep attacking and not try to sit on their 18 point lead. Also I just ordered Baseball Prospectus Guide for 2009. And Ralph made 2 free throws to stretch the lead to 20. Life is good.

- A Northwestern 3, followed by a shot clock violation after Nolen passed up an open three with about 4-5 on the clock. I feel less good. Kind of like before was eating fire sauce on a Taco Bell taco and it feels so good, but now it's kind of like about a half hour after that, when it feels like that alien from that movie about an alien is trying to burst out.

- Another shot clock violation, but the Gophers still lead by 20 because Northwestern is so awful. I think Northwestern vs. Kerwin Fleming, Kevin Payton, Travis Busch, Zach Puchtel, and Steve Esselink would be a pretty damn good game.

- "Colton Iverson playing like Allen Iverson." Ugh. How do these guys get jobs? Still up 19.

- Busch with a breakaway due to playing suckhole aka Spehar style, goes up for a layup and is "flagrantly" fouled by Nash, who was almost my new hero when it looked for a moment like Busch was injured. I know it's not very classy to hope for an injury, but.....well.....I got nothin' here.

- Al Nolen's new nickname is, "I suck at basketball"

- I dislike most of the fans who dress up like idiots because it's stupid, but the dude in the Paul Carter jersey with the Flava Flav clock that says "Tubby Time" is money.

- Mrs. W now talking about our Vegas trip in May with Snacks and his wife, Optimator and his wife, and two randoms including some chick who made out with Grand Slam at Snacks' wedding. Nothing particularly funny about it this time, but it did get me fired up for Vegas.

- 62-37 with 5 minutes left after an excellent pass from Hoffarber to set up Paul Carter for a three point play. I'm going to go ahead and say that's pretty much an allegory for the season. Hoffarber has two sides to him: the one dimensional shooter who doesn't do much else, and the all-around good player who can put it on the floor and do some things. I don't remember where I was going with this but your mother's a whore.

- 67-40 with four minutes left. I'm calling this one. Excellent win for the Gophers, and if they can figure out a way to play like this all the time there's no doubt the NCAA tournament is in their future. Let's hope they keep this up for the next three. And I'll close with yet another picture of Wonderbaby^TM. This is her climbing her walker thing while I watch the Northwestern/Michigan game. It would be pretty easy for her to tip that over and hurt herself, but on the other hand it looks cute and in order to stop her I'd have to stand up, so, you know.


Hey! Shamala hit a three, good job. Announcer guy just called him a pretty good player, so I can only assume that dude will be fired by the end of tonight.

Craptacular

Well, my emotions yesterday ranged from disappointed to wildly disappointed to anger to apathy to kind of sleepy and back to disappointed. Not because of the football game, because in all honesty I have no idea who won that game, but the god damn jerk hole basketball team. I think I've finally settled on optimistically disappointed, because although Michigan State is a better team, they still couldn've won that game but just weren't all the way there today.

Some things, of course, are out of the team's control. Kalin Lucas was completely ridiculous today, despite what, in general was pretty solid defense. Chris Allen was hotter than Tiffani-Amber Thiessen in that episode of 90210 where she wore that black lacy thing in the first half. The Spartans, seemingly like most Gopher opponents, were unconscious from the free throw line making 12 of 13. There was little doubt in my mind that MSU was both better and more athletic than Minnesota, and clearly the better team.

However, there are certain things that left me absolutely stunned and bewildered yesterday. The first among these was the complete and utter unwillingness and inability of the Gophers to get the F back on defense, whether after a miss or, even more unforgivably, after a made basket. The highlight dunk reel dunk you've seen on sportscenter that I've been too pissed off to notice who did it was a prime example. The game was still in the balance, and the Gophers had just scored. Whoever that was for the Spartans just ran up the court while three Gophers' backs were turned and put it down for the thunder dunk. And that's just the most emphatic example, because it happened over and over again, a fundamental mistake and an embarrassment on a Tubby Smith team.

Overall defense didn't seem to be much better. When the team was matched up, making the correct switches and fighting through screens when needed they played well, and overall held the Spartans to just 41% shooting, but the amount of breakdowns leading to easy baskets was an absolute killer. One guy switching and the other guy not, getting lost in screens, not helping at the right time or helping at the wrong time (such as Colton Iverson jumping out to double the horrible shooting Travis Walton's 18 foot jumper, leaving Suton open for the jump-pass to layup) all led to easy buckets for Michigan State. Another fundamental issue that just shocked me on a Tubby team.

Lastly, and no big surprise here, but the rebounding and specifically offensive rebounding was really a killer. A 41-22 edge to the Spartans, who also grabbed 16 offensive boards, is just too much to overcome. Some of it was to be expected, as The Daily Gopher says, this was a MSU strength against a Gopher weakness, but my god, how frustrating to watch. Particularly plays like when Hoffarber got Chris Allen to settle for a long jumper, then turned and watch it miss as Allen went right around him to grab his own miss for an easy put-back. Again, some of it is to be expected, the Gophers just don't have the personnel to keep guys like Morgan and Suton (5 o-boards apiece) off the glass all game, but effort plays like the one I described by Hoffarber seemed to abound all game, and that is what led to the disappointment in this team.

Last thing I want to say, because this is making me a bit sick, is that Tubby needs to find a shorter rotation. Far be it from me to criticize the black jesus, but playing 12 games like yesterday just seems excessive, and nobody can really get a rhythm. Busch has got to go. He can score when he's open, no doubt, but he gives anything he scores right back with horrible decisions, poor defense, and the inability to rebound with big ten caliber big guys. Shamala also doesn't bring much to the table, except against the right matchup. There is no reason to ever have Hoffarber and Shamala in the game at the same time, except against slow teams who are playing a zone - like Northwestern. Shamala is basically a poor man's Hoffarber, so when you need to get Hoff a rest, go with someone who gives you a different look like Paul Carter everytime, not just a watered down version of the same player. And some of the combinations Tubby came up with yesterday really give me pause. Where does he expect to find offense with Devoe, Hoff, Shamala, Busch, Bostick, and Williams? How are you going to rebound with Nolen, Westbrook, Shamala, Busch, and Carter? Just bizarre.

Three final points (I promise):

1. You might as well light my big ten predictions on fire. Already.

2. We got the Fargo-Moorhead Acro Team yesterday. Awesome as always, but I really hate it when dudes are on the team. If sexism is to be allowed anywhere, and it should probably be allowed everywhere, the FM Acro Team should be one of the first places on the list.

3. I am, quite seriously, going to kill the guy who sits next to us at Williams. Dude, no matter how loud or often you yell at the refs, it isn't going to change a thing. Also, please stop yelling at Al Nolen to "GO!" when there are still fourteen seconds left in the half. I think he knows what he's doing. The opposing teams also don't travel every time they get the ball, or commit a foul every time they get near a Gopher player. I could go on and on, but I get feel my rage starting to boil over and I don't want Mrs. W to accidentally run into that damn doorknob again, so I just need to stop.


Please, please, please beat Ohio State on Saturday. Otherwise I can't be held responsible for my actions