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
Here's #16-#20
15. Julian Welch (2011-2013).
- This feels high for Welch considering he was a two year player whose playing time dramatically shrunk in his second year, but Welch somehow managed to rank top 10 in assists, three pointers, and steals among all Gophers in this countdown. I don't remember him as a particularly great shooter or passer, but I remember the steals simply because of the difference between his hand speed and foot speed. He had, without question, the fastest hands of any Gopher I can recall. He also was essentially a lawn gnome when he tried to guard anyone trying to get to the lane. I legitimately loved watching him simply because of those two things.
14. Elliott Eliason (2011-2015).
- This is a tough career to try to sum up, but you could probably do it best just by looking at his minutes per game each year: 15.0, 13.7 (regression), 21.9 (big leap forward!), 11.2 (ugh). That's about right. He had that one stretch of brilliance his junior season where he put up double doubles in four of eight games with two other near misses, and that stretch included five Big Ten games, where it looked like he might be becoming something, but alas, it wasn't meant to be and his career kind of spiraled to an underwhelming conclusion. However it's almost impossible to look back on this guy with any kind of bad feelings. He was a guy who came and gave it everything he had whenever he was on the court, and never let playing time get to him in any way you could see or hear about it. Good dude.
13. Lawrence McKenzie (2006-2008).
- McKenzie ranks high because even though he was only a Gopher for two years he was pretty much the man both of those years, averaging 13.3 points per game, and led the Gophers to the NIT in Tubby's first year which seemed like an impossibility following the disaster that was the final Monson/Molinari year and suddenly everything seemed possible and we were on our way and we could build this dream together standing strong forever nothing's gonna stop us now. Or whatever.
12. Maurice Walker (2010-2015).
- Walker played for 17 years as a Gopher, and that kind of time is tough to forget. I also think he might have lost some weight once Pitino came in, but I'm not sure I thought I heard that somewhere though. Seriously though, the first time I saw Walker play as a freshman I could tell right away he had a great feel for the game. You know how a lot of big men get the ball on the block and go right into score mode? Walker didn't, he saw the court amazingly well, although it's not backed up by his assist numbers I stand by what I saw. Injuries and weight issues (perhaps related) robbed him of some athleticism and explosiveness, and who knows what might have been? He was clearly a hard worker, just looking at his weight loss and free throws, and I believe he could have developed an outside shot at some point. This would be a good guy to take a do over on, if you could do such as that.
11. Spencer Tollackson (2004-2008).
- No bonus points for being the radio guy for the Gophers, though not because I dislike him or anything - I actually like when he weights in from the player's perspective on things, even if he's behind only Paul Allen on the homer list. That actually kind of sums up his playing career - a little bit annoying and a little bit likable. Similar to Walker, he was clearly a hard worker who wanted to win. I remember him completely revamping his free throw form to try to fix that issue (didn't work) and going from a garbage man to someone with a variety of moves. Unfortunately, all that hard work to develop those moves didn't really work because he didn't have the natural talent to finish. Clearly worked at it though, which is cool.
Showing posts with label Julian Welch. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Julian Welch. Show all posts
Tuesday, September 15, 2015
Tuesday, January 1, 2013
The Gophers Look Legit
Wow, what a great win. I'm going to do this list style because there's just too much.
1. I think the best part of the game was that the Gophers were pretty clearly (to me) the better team on the court. Other than the brief period of time when Michigan State had the lead, which coincided with a bizarre inability to get the ball inbounded under their own basket, the Gophers were clearly superior. Even if they would have lost, and that would have royally sucked, you would at least be able to take solace in oh F it, no you wouldn't. That would have made it worse. But it doesn't matter, because they won, and they looked very good for most of the game.
2. Related to that, the Gophers continued to be an amazingly efficient offensive team due to their athleticism, passing ability, and just straight up smart play. They shot an amazingly high percentage in the game because it seemed like they were getting a lot of dunks and lay-ups, whereas Michigan State shot a high percentage because they were hitting a lot of leaners, Travis Trice (who sucks, by the way) hit way too many shots, and even Adreian Payne hit a weird 10 foot leaner which is about five times farther than his usual range. If the Gophers can continue to play offense the way they did against the Spartans, they might even be better than I thought, and right now I think they're a Sweet 16 team with upside.
3. That fadeaway jumper Andre Hollins hit was such a huge, huge shot and basically was the game. And don't forget Hollins hit the big three-pointer in the first half to put the Gophers up 12 - a shot that felt like a dagger even if it actually wasn't. He's got a real ice cold streak running through him and seems to rise up in big moments. He may be the next in a very, very short list of Gopher players who you would actually expect to make a shot in a clutch situation. I can't remember enough about Willie Burton big I think he was probably one, but then since him it's Bobby Jackson and Vincent Grier and that's it. Voshon Lenard might have been the best shooter I've seen, but he was kind of a pussy and one of the last Gophers I'd want taking a big shot.
4. All that being said about Dre, I wouldn't be at all surprised to see Austin Hollins lead this team in scoring next season. The way he's improved his game year after year, the way he's such a smart player, that he's going to be a senior, and the fact that Rodney Williams and Mbakwe are going to be gone next season combine to tell me that he's going to an absolute super stud next year. How good next year's squad is will depend on if Elliason and Walker can somehow not suck, but that back court is going to be insane with Hollins/Hollins/Coleman. Wow.
5. Oto definitely had a couple impressive buckets, but for my money the bench star of the game was Julian Welch. In the middle of the first half Tubby went with an absolutely horrendous offensive lineup (I think it was Maverick, Welch, Ingram, Elliason, and Oto), probably to rest all the good players since he knew they'd end up playing almost the entire second half. The offense struggled, as you'd think, and had the shot clock wind down pretty far a couple of times, but Welch managed to get to the rim and hit a couple of really big buckets and that unit ended up coming out of the game with the margin exactly what it was when they came in. Huge stretch that let the good guys get some rest, and if Welch (and Oto) don't score Tubby'd have to go back to the starters a lot quicker. Big, key point in the game that probably gets over looked.
6. Right now I'm convinced this is a Sweet 16 team, but a Sweet 16 team with upside. I need to see how they play on the road before I can go higher. If they can win at Illinois next Wednesday then things will get very interesting. Over at kenpom.com they now project the Gophers to finish 25-6 and 13-5 in conference play (losses @Indiana, @Wisconsin, @Michigan State, @Ohio State, and vs. Indiana). Would you take that? I sure as hell would. They're picking the Gophers to finish tied with Ohio State for 2nd in the conference. That's so crazy. I can't believe when ESPN starts with their Bubble Watch the Gophers are going to most likely find themselves in the "lock" column pretty early in the year. I have no idea what that feels like.
7. It doesn't get any easier from here. Well actually yes it does because next up is Northwestern at home where the Gophers will be favored by about 15 (don't forget Drew Crawford is out for the year). The road trips to Illinois and Indiana and home to Michigan. Yikes. Goal, for me, is a 2-2 record in those four. Here's how I see it playing out:
W vs. Northwestern
W @ Illinois
L @ Indiana
L vs. Michigan
W @ Northwestern
W @ Wisconsin
W vs. Nebraska
W vs. Iowa
L @ Michigan State
W vs. Illinois
W vs. Wisconsin
L @ Iowa
L @ Ohio State
L vs. Indiana
W vs. Penn State
W @ Nebraska
W @ Purdue
So 12-6. Not bad. Let's hope.
1. I think the best part of the game was that the Gophers were pretty clearly (to me) the better team on the court. Other than the brief period of time when Michigan State had the lead, which coincided with a bizarre inability to get the ball inbounded under their own basket, the Gophers were clearly superior. Even if they would have lost, and that would have royally sucked, you would at least be able to take solace in oh F it, no you wouldn't. That would have made it worse. But it doesn't matter, because they won, and they looked very good for most of the game.
2. Related to that, the Gophers continued to be an amazingly efficient offensive team due to their athleticism, passing ability, and just straight up smart play. They shot an amazingly high percentage in the game because it seemed like they were getting a lot of dunks and lay-ups, whereas Michigan State shot a high percentage because they were hitting a lot of leaners, Travis Trice (who sucks, by the way) hit way too many shots, and even Adreian Payne hit a weird 10 foot leaner which is about five times farther than his usual range. If the Gophers can continue to play offense the way they did against the Spartans, they might even be better than I thought, and right now I think they're a Sweet 16 team with upside.
3. That fadeaway jumper Andre Hollins hit was such a huge, huge shot and basically was the game. And don't forget Hollins hit the big three-pointer in the first half to put the Gophers up 12 - a shot that felt like a dagger even if it actually wasn't. He's got a real ice cold streak running through him and seems to rise up in big moments. He may be the next in a very, very short list of Gopher players who you would actually expect to make a shot in a clutch situation. I can't remember enough about Willie Burton big I think he was probably one, but then since him it's Bobby Jackson and Vincent Grier and that's it. Voshon Lenard might have been the best shooter I've seen, but he was kind of a pussy and one of the last Gophers I'd want taking a big shot.
4. All that being said about Dre, I wouldn't be at all surprised to see Austin Hollins lead this team in scoring next season. The way he's improved his game year after year, the way he's such a smart player, that he's going to be a senior, and the fact that Rodney Williams and Mbakwe are going to be gone next season combine to tell me that he's going to an absolute super stud next year. How good next year's squad is will depend on if Elliason and Walker can somehow not suck, but that back court is going to be insane with Hollins/Hollins/Coleman. Wow.
5. Oto definitely had a couple impressive buckets, but for my money the bench star of the game was Julian Welch. In the middle of the first half Tubby went with an absolutely horrendous offensive lineup (I think it was Maverick, Welch, Ingram, Elliason, and Oto), probably to rest all the good players since he knew they'd end up playing almost the entire second half. The offense struggled, as you'd think, and had the shot clock wind down pretty far a couple of times, but Welch managed to get to the rim and hit a couple of really big buckets and that unit ended up coming out of the game with the margin exactly what it was when they came in. Huge stretch that let the good guys get some rest, and if Welch (and Oto) don't score Tubby'd have to go back to the starters a lot quicker. Big, key point in the game that probably gets over looked.
6. Right now I'm convinced this is a Sweet 16 team, but a Sweet 16 team with upside. I need to see how they play on the road before I can go higher. If they can win at Illinois next Wednesday then things will get very interesting. Over at kenpom.com they now project the Gophers to finish 25-6 and 13-5 in conference play (losses @Indiana, @Wisconsin, @Michigan State, @Ohio State, and vs. Indiana). Would you take that? I sure as hell would. They're picking the Gophers to finish tied with Ohio State for 2nd in the conference. That's so crazy. I can't believe when ESPN starts with their Bubble Watch the Gophers are going to most likely find themselves in the "lock" column pretty early in the year. I have no idea what that feels like.
7. It doesn't get any easier from here. Well actually yes it does because next up is Northwestern at home where the Gophers will be favored by about 15 (don't forget Drew Crawford is out for the year). The road trips to Illinois and Indiana and home to Michigan. Yikes. Goal, for me, is a 2-2 record in those four. Here's how I see it playing out:
W vs. Northwestern
W @ Illinois
L @ Indiana
L vs. Michigan
W @ Northwestern
W @ Wisconsin
W vs. Nebraska
W vs. Iowa
L @ Michigan State
W vs. Illinois
W vs. Wisconsin
L @ Iowa
L @ Ohio State
L vs. Indiana
W vs. Penn State
W @ Nebraska
W @ Purdue
So 12-6. Not bad. Let's hope.
Wednesday, October 31, 2012
DWG NCAA Preview: Team #19 Minnesota Gophers
Because above all else - including the Twins, gambling, shitty predictions, and shark movies - this is a Gopher basketball blog I'm giving them their own post rather than just lumping them in with a bunch of other teams like I've been doing. And since I know things will go better this way, I'm going to do this in random points style.
- Is #19 a little bit too high? Yeah, maybe. Based on votes the Coaches poll has them 34th, while the AP poll puts them at #30. CBS Sports has them at #22 and most of the other polls/previews I've found put them anywhere between twenty and fifty, so yes, nineteenth is a bit optimistic, but only a bit. I'm also making some assumptions about the Gophers this year, which brings me to a few more points.
- I'm assuming Trevor Mbakwe is healthy. Let's put aside any legal questions regarding Mbakwe because it's reportedly all behind both him and the team at this point and also who really gives a crap? I don't care what the players do off the court (as long as they stay eligible) and couldn't care less if they graduate (as long as the program doesn't get hit like UCONN and others just did) I just want my teams to win. Given that as my starting point, I only care about if Mbakwe can play the way he could when healthy, and I'm thinking it's a yes.
See, because this isn't the dark ages of medicine anywhere. When my dad blew out his knee when he was playing minor league baseball ages ago they practically had to slice the knee off to work on it. In more recent times, it was said you needed anywhere from a year and a half to two years to fully recover, but luckily modern medicine continues to get better and that's not necessarily the case anymore. Adrian Peterson blew out his knee Christmas Eve of 2011 and is now one of the leading rushers in the NFL in a season that started just 9 months later. A more relevant example is Michigan State's forward Branden Dawson, who blew out his knee in early March of 2012 and has already resumed full basketball activities just 7 months later. Mbakwe has a full 3 months on that dude recovery wise, so I expect him to be the same guy who was attacking the glass and practically winning games for the Gophers single handedly early last season.
- I'm assuming Rodney Williams has learned how to play and won't shrink back into Mbakwe's shadow. Probably the biggest key to last year's little bit of success was Williams blossoming after Mbakwe's injury into a legitimate forward. He learned to play a little bit of PF, taking smaller defenders down into the paint even if Tubby called an agonizing small amount of plays that called for this, and he learned how to play SF, figuring out that a mid-range jumper wasn't his game and that when he had slower defenders on him to take that shit to the rack. He was a smashing success, nearly doubling his scoring and increasing basically all stats across the board. My hope is that he can continue to play this way, and maybe work in an little high post/low post (come on, you know Tubby loves it) with Mbakwe depending on match-ups and see what happens.
The fear, of course, is that with Mbakwe back as the main big man - and make no mistake that's his paint - Rodney will decide he's a perimeter-oriented small forward once again. He'll start the year settling for threes and taking long-range 2s rather than posting up or getting to the rim, and when he starts missing (and unless something has drastically changed he will be missing) he will lose confidence, get pulled from games, and revert back to his sophomore year level of play. I am choosing to believe that this will not happen. Williams looked happy last season for once of the first times I can recall, and I think he really enjoyed being "the guy in the paint", the guy who exploited mis-matches, and the guy who could crash the boards. He can still be all this, and if he does, he's going to be one of the best small forwards in the conference. It is on Tubby to make sure he finds a way to make Mbakwe and Williams' co-exist. Their skill sets do overlap in some ways, but they complement each other in may ways as well. Make it happen, Tubby. This is easily the most important piece to this year's puzzle.
- I'm assuming Andre Hollins is as good as he was at the end of last season. If you're a Gopher fan you know how Hollins closed out the season (at least until the Stanford game): 8 straight games scoring double figures with half of those over 20, incredible free throw shooting (40-42 in those 8 games; 90% for the year), 16-40 from 3, and 26 assists - incredible numbers if he could keep it up for the season. He showed flashes of that kind of scoring ability earlier in the year, and an 8-game stretch is too long to be a total fluke. He brings an incredible ability to get into the paint to the table (shades of Russell Westbrook) and obviously can finish at the line. He may not be the best pure distributor a point guard could be, but he got better as the year went on and finished out looking awfully good for a freshman. His shooting is only so-so from the outside, but a 38% 3-point percentage in his first year is a good indicator of success. All signs point to an absolute breakout year.
My one fear is that Tubby may end up neutering him. Yeah he's a little reckless at times and can be out of control, but that's what I want in my point guard. I want a point guard who, every single time he gets an outlet pass, streaks up the floor immediately to see if anything looks good, and then pulls it back. I don't mind forcing the ball where it maybe shouldn't go sometimes because if the point guard is good enough (and I think he is) that's going to work as often as it doesn't. You show me a point guard at this level and at that age who is always under control and I'll show you a point guard who can't make anything happen. With Mbakwe and Williams already there to take care of the paint someone has to be the guy on the perimeter, and there is no reason for it not to be Dre Hollins.
- Put those three assumptions together, and you can see why I'm so optimistic this season. Think about it. If all those assumptions break correctly, how many better big men are there in the league than Mbakwe? I'll tell you: 1 - Tyler Zeller. Whichever you prefer, those two are clearly #1A and #1B in the Big 10. Then, what is a better combo of forwards than Mbakwe and Williams? Again, Indiana with Zeller and Watford. Unless the two freshmen at Michigan (McGary and Robinson) are through the roof (very possible), Basabe stops sucking and Aaron White improves immensely at Iowa and/or Adam Woodbury is ready to be a stud now (unlikely), or some combination of the Spartan freshmen and Branden Dawson's knee are studs (possible), the Gophers will have a top-2 forward combo, and at worst will be top-5 if all those things I just wrote happen. Then, how many PGs are going to be better than Andre Hollins? Trey Burke, obviously. Tim Frazier, probably but kind of irrelevant. Aaron Craft? Maybe, but what about on offense? Keith Appling? No. Jordan Hulls? No. There are two freshmen who could be huge in Yogi Ferrell (Indiana) and Gary Harris (Michigan State), but in any case you're looking at one of the top players at three different positions for the Gophers this year. Fill in the rest with capable role players (and I'm not quite ready to relegate Austin Hollins or Joe Coleman to "role player" being their upside this year) and you're looking at a very, very good team.
HOWEVER.
I can absolutely see this going to shit as well, even if Mbakwe is 100%, and that's due to Mr. Tubby Smith. The way this team is built, with Mbakwe and Williams, they should be grabbing damn near every defensive rebound and then they should be outletting to Hollins and go. This team should be fast enough and athletic enough to have an excellent transition game. Unfortunately the Gophers have never ranked higher than #192 in tempo under Tubby. The highest Kentucky ever ranked under Tubby was #147, so I'm guessing we aren't going to see a more uptempo squad. This worries me that he's going to beat on Hollins' that he needs to slow it down, walk it up, make 3-passes before a shot and all that other Norman Dale bullshit. I also worry about the Mbakwe/Williams dynamic, because Tubby has never gotten a 2-big man system to really work. Now, Williams isn't a true big man but he also doesn't shoot well, so that's going to be on Tubby to figure that out, but if he can make it work Austin Hollins and Julian Welch (and Oto Osenieks) should have many, many chances to knock down open jumpers.
I've never been one to irrationally call for Tubby's head, and I'm not doing it now, but this is absolutely a make-or-break year for him. For one, as outlined above, he has the most talented team he's had here yet and has a chance to develop into something special. Perhaps even more important is the wealth of basketball talent in Minnesota in 2014, and while a successful year might convince some of that talent to stay home, another missed NCAA Tournament will almost certainly drive them away.
ESPN ranks Tyus Jones (Apple Valley) #1 for the class, Rashad Vaughn (Cooper) #10, and Reid Travis (De La Salle) #29. Jones is almost certainly not going to stay home, but Vaughn and Travis are the kind of kids who can make a school like Minnesota. Tubby's overall record with highly ranked Minnesota kids is very good, but these guys are ranked way ahead of where Royce White, Rodney Williams, and Joe Coleman were. This season needs to go well to have a chance to get these guys. I don't know if Tubby's job depends on it, but it should.
Oh, right. Picture:
Previous:
Teams #68-60
Teams #59-53
Teams #52-47
Teams #46-39
Teams #38-34
Teams #33-26
Teams #25-20
- Is #19 a little bit too high? Yeah, maybe. Based on votes the Coaches poll has them 34th, while the AP poll puts them at #30. CBS Sports has them at #22 and most of the other polls/previews I've found put them anywhere between twenty and fifty, so yes, nineteenth is a bit optimistic, but only a bit. I'm also making some assumptions about the Gophers this year, which brings me to a few more points.
- I'm assuming Trevor Mbakwe is healthy. Let's put aside any legal questions regarding Mbakwe because it's reportedly all behind both him and the team at this point and also who really gives a crap? I don't care what the players do off the court (as long as they stay eligible) and couldn't care less if they graduate (as long as the program doesn't get hit like UCONN and others just did) I just want my teams to win. Given that as my starting point, I only care about if Mbakwe can play the way he could when healthy, and I'm thinking it's a yes.
See, because this isn't the dark ages of medicine anywhere. When my dad blew out his knee when he was playing minor league baseball ages ago they practically had to slice the knee off to work on it. In more recent times, it was said you needed anywhere from a year and a half to two years to fully recover, but luckily modern medicine continues to get better and that's not necessarily the case anymore. Adrian Peterson blew out his knee Christmas Eve of 2011 and is now one of the leading rushers in the NFL in a season that started just 9 months later. A more relevant example is Michigan State's forward Branden Dawson, who blew out his knee in early March of 2012 and has already resumed full basketball activities just 7 months later. Mbakwe has a full 3 months on that dude recovery wise, so I expect him to be the same guy who was attacking the glass and practically winning games for the Gophers single handedly early last season.
- I'm assuming Rodney Williams has learned how to play and won't shrink back into Mbakwe's shadow. Probably the biggest key to last year's little bit of success was Williams blossoming after Mbakwe's injury into a legitimate forward. He learned to play a little bit of PF, taking smaller defenders down into the paint even if Tubby called an agonizing small amount of plays that called for this, and he learned how to play SF, figuring out that a mid-range jumper wasn't his game and that when he had slower defenders on him to take that shit to the rack. He was a smashing success, nearly doubling his scoring and increasing basically all stats across the board. My hope is that he can continue to play this way, and maybe work in an little high post/low post (come on, you know Tubby loves it) with Mbakwe depending on match-ups and see what happens.
The fear, of course, is that with Mbakwe back as the main big man - and make no mistake that's his paint - Rodney will decide he's a perimeter-oriented small forward once again. He'll start the year settling for threes and taking long-range 2s rather than posting up or getting to the rim, and when he starts missing (and unless something has drastically changed he will be missing) he will lose confidence, get pulled from games, and revert back to his sophomore year level of play. I am choosing to believe that this will not happen. Williams looked happy last season for once of the first times I can recall, and I think he really enjoyed being "the guy in the paint", the guy who exploited mis-matches, and the guy who could crash the boards. He can still be all this, and if he does, he's going to be one of the best small forwards in the conference. It is on Tubby to make sure he finds a way to make Mbakwe and Williams' co-exist. Their skill sets do overlap in some ways, but they complement each other in may ways as well. Make it happen, Tubby. This is easily the most important piece to this year's puzzle.
- I'm assuming Andre Hollins is as good as he was at the end of last season. If you're a Gopher fan you know how Hollins closed out the season (at least until the Stanford game): 8 straight games scoring double figures with half of those over 20, incredible free throw shooting (40-42 in those 8 games; 90% for the year), 16-40 from 3, and 26 assists - incredible numbers if he could keep it up for the season. He showed flashes of that kind of scoring ability earlier in the year, and an 8-game stretch is too long to be a total fluke. He brings an incredible ability to get into the paint to the table (shades of Russell Westbrook) and obviously can finish at the line. He may not be the best pure distributor a point guard could be, but he got better as the year went on and finished out looking awfully good for a freshman. His shooting is only so-so from the outside, but a 38% 3-point percentage in his first year is a good indicator of success. All signs point to an absolute breakout year.
My one fear is that Tubby may end up neutering him. Yeah he's a little reckless at times and can be out of control, but that's what I want in my point guard. I want a point guard who, every single time he gets an outlet pass, streaks up the floor immediately to see if anything looks good, and then pulls it back. I don't mind forcing the ball where it maybe shouldn't go sometimes because if the point guard is good enough (and I think he is) that's going to work as often as it doesn't. You show me a point guard at this level and at that age who is always under control and I'll show you a point guard who can't make anything happen. With Mbakwe and Williams already there to take care of the paint someone has to be the guy on the perimeter, and there is no reason for it not to be Dre Hollins.
- Put those three assumptions together, and you can see why I'm so optimistic this season. Think about it. If all those assumptions break correctly, how many better big men are there in the league than Mbakwe? I'll tell you: 1 - Tyler Zeller. Whichever you prefer, those two are clearly #1A and #1B in the Big 10. Then, what is a better combo of forwards than Mbakwe and Williams? Again, Indiana with Zeller and Watford. Unless the two freshmen at Michigan (McGary and Robinson) are through the roof (very possible), Basabe stops sucking and Aaron White improves immensely at Iowa and/or Adam Woodbury is ready to be a stud now (unlikely), or some combination of the Spartan freshmen and Branden Dawson's knee are studs (possible), the Gophers will have a top-2 forward combo, and at worst will be top-5 if all those things I just wrote happen. Then, how many PGs are going to be better than Andre Hollins? Trey Burke, obviously. Tim Frazier, probably but kind of irrelevant. Aaron Craft? Maybe, but what about on offense? Keith Appling? No. Jordan Hulls? No. There are two freshmen who could be huge in Yogi Ferrell (Indiana) and Gary Harris (Michigan State), but in any case you're looking at one of the top players at three different positions for the Gophers this year. Fill in the rest with capable role players (and I'm not quite ready to relegate Austin Hollins or Joe Coleman to "role player" being their upside this year) and you're looking at a very, very good team.
HOWEVER.
I can absolutely see this going to shit as well, even if Mbakwe is 100%, and that's due to Mr. Tubby Smith. The way this team is built, with Mbakwe and Williams, they should be grabbing damn near every defensive rebound and then they should be outletting to Hollins and go. This team should be fast enough and athletic enough to have an excellent transition game. Unfortunately the Gophers have never ranked higher than #192 in tempo under Tubby. The highest Kentucky ever ranked under Tubby was #147, so I'm guessing we aren't going to see a more uptempo squad. This worries me that he's going to beat on Hollins' that he needs to slow it down, walk it up, make 3-passes before a shot and all that other Norman Dale bullshit. I also worry about the Mbakwe/Williams dynamic, because Tubby has never gotten a 2-big man system to really work. Now, Williams isn't a true big man but he also doesn't shoot well, so that's going to be on Tubby to figure that out, but if he can make it work Austin Hollins and Julian Welch (and Oto Osenieks) should have many, many chances to knock down open jumpers.
I've never been one to irrationally call for Tubby's head, and I'm not doing it now, but this is absolutely a make-or-break year for him. For one, as outlined above, he has the most talented team he's had here yet and has a chance to develop into something special. Perhaps even more important is the wealth of basketball talent in Minnesota in 2014, and while a successful year might convince some of that talent to stay home, another missed NCAA Tournament will almost certainly drive them away.
ESPN ranks Tyus Jones (Apple Valley) #1 for the class, Rashad Vaughn (Cooper) #10, and Reid Travis (De La Salle) #29. Jones is almost certainly not going to stay home, but Vaughn and Travis are the kind of kids who can make a school like Minnesota. Tubby's overall record with highly ranked Minnesota kids is very good, but these guys are ranked way ahead of where Royce White, Rodney Williams, and Joe Coleman were. This season needs to go well to have a chance to get these guys. I don't know if Tubby's job depends on it, but it should.
Oh, right. Picture:
Previous:
Teams #68-60
Teams #59-53
Teams #52-47
Teams #46-39
Teams #38-34
Teams #33-26
Teams #25-20
Wednesday, February 1, 2012
Gophers vs. Iowa: Live Blog
Am I blogging the Gopher/Hawkeye game? Yes. Why, you ask? Not very sure. I think the best reason is that, on the very good chance that things go south, this and future generations can study what I type and come to conclusions about what happens to a rational man's brain when his favorite sports' team, a team made of 18-22 year old kids in this case, fails in a spectacular fashion after building said man's hopes up. A case study on a meltdown. Some people leave their bodies to science and/or donate their organs, I do this. Because, let's face it, I don't science would much want my body (just like my wife, hey-oh!).
20:00 - I wrote a short preview tonight because the way to win this game is simple - score points. Attack the zone, be aggressive in transition and in the half-court, and score points. Iowa is terrible defensively so all you have to do is go after them and score points. Their offense can be scary but it's not good enough to outscore you if you play well. Remember, it was just 64-62 when Iowa won in the Barn - Gophers need more points than that.
19:59 - Iowa starts in man, which is a good call by McCaffrey (the opposite of coming to Iowa in the first place) because you know the Gophers practiced against it over and over all week, so don't give them that zone right away, save it for when/if you need it. Man-to-man leads to an easy steal and a lay-up anyway, so it's 2-0 Iowa and Julian Welch now bricks a long jumper. Great.
18:24 - For the record, Dawger thinks Welch is/will be one of the best Gopher PGs ever, so his mistakes aren't really his fault.
18:05 - Two transition opportunities for Iowa and twice the Gophers haven't gotten back quickly. They're lucky it's only 2-0. I'm not a fan of Tubby's line change substitution patterns, but if you're ever going to do it that would have been the right time.
17:36 - Ralph 16-footer to tie it up. He could still end up the best center in gopher history, you just gotta believe.
16:50 - I bet Roy Marble is way prouder of his kid than Ralph Sampson is of his. Don't you picture the older Ralph just mentally abusing Ralph III? Like in high school Ralph III would be like, hey dad (who was probably never at the games) I had a triple-double last night and Ralph II would be all like, "triple-double? I used to get quadruple doubles in high school? Why were you slacking off? Now go mow the lawn."
16:01 - Another Welch turnover and he's out for Maverick instead of Andre Westbrook for some reason. I don't get this substitution. Also I want to clarify that I call Dre Hollins Andre Westbrook because he reminds me of Russell, not Lawrence. Let's not make that mistake.
15:09 - Well say this for Ralph, he's being aggressive. He's being terrible, but he's being aggressive. 7-2 Iowa at the first break as the Gophers look sloppier than Lindsay Lohan (that's not dated yet, right?)
14:24 - Out of the break Iowa goes to a half-court trap which scares Oto half to death so he just gives them the ball so they can score. 9-2 Iowa. It's over.
13:59 - Ahanmisi fouled on a 3-pointer. 1-3 on the FTs. What a dickwagon.
13:36 - Another Gopher turnover. Every time I watch this team play it makes me wish turnovers were the goal of the game. :championship:
12:33 - At what point does the Gophers' failure to get back to stop the Hawkeyes in transition stop being about lazy players and start becoming about the coach? I know he can't exactly run out there yet - he's not Pete Rose - but at some point it has to be the prep work, no?
11:34 - Eight and a half minutes, 1-8 shooting, 3 points, 8 turnovers. 13-3 Iowa. This is like Marcellus Wallace and Zed so far.
11:16 - Turnover against the press. I wish I was kidding. The good news is Iowa doesn't look like they have their world-beater pants on (they would probably be black Zubaz with like, corn on 'em) so I still think the Gophers can get back into this, as long as they play the rest of the game the exact opposite of how they have been playing.
9:56 - Two consecutive possessions with a shot by the Gophers, new record. They made one, now 15-5. Now 17-5.
9:30 - Ralphie with the hammer dunk and the foul. Seriously might be the most aggressive Sampson has been all year. I think he's got seven of the team's 8 points right now and has missed around 3 shots too. I like seeing him go after it, reminds me of what I saw way back when before I was stabbed in the nuts.
8:45 - Iowa is just awful. Seriously terrible. There is zero reason for the Gophers to lose this game. None. They've played one of the worst games in basketball history - the hoops equivalent of 41-donut, if you will - so far and yet are only down 18-11 after Welch's 3-point play.
7:49 - Iowa misses, Austy Hollins 3-ball. 18-14, and some dumb white guy just had his lay-up swatted by Sampson. On the ensuing possession Hollins misses a WIDE OPEN three, Rodney tips the board out and it leads to an Iowa lay-up on the break. That's a pretty rough swing, momentumally.
6:16 - 20-17 Iowa and here comes the zone. This is going to decide the game right here I type as Welch throws the ball right out of the back of the end zone.
5:40 - I'm not even sure Iowa has a rebound yet. Jesus these guys really fucking suck. How the hell do they have those semi-impressive wins they have? I'm pretty sure Penn State would beat these guys nine out of every 10 games.
4:25 - Despite all that, after a missed open three and a missed lay-up on the follow, the Gophers are still down to these assholes 20-19. The points are just like, right there for the taking. I've threatened this before, but if they don't win this game I'm done with this team. This is like watching a bad high school team and Matt Gatens just hit nothing but backboard on a wide open three-pointer. How can the Gophers possibly be losing? Oh. Right. They're the Gophers.
2:32 - So I've been watching a lot of the old Scooby-Doo's with WonderbabyTM these days, and holy crap was that show racist. Well racist isn't really the proper term because it's just the way the world was back then, I guess stereotypical is the right word. Tonight's episode took place in China Town and 80% of the chinese characters were basically Hong Kong Phooey and at one point Shaggy impersonated a Chinese dude and it included slits for eyes, buck teeth, and Ls and Rs pronounced as Ws. I'm not saying it wasn't hilarious, I'm just saying it was weird to see not only on TV but on a kids' show. And the Gophers are up 27-24 after a couple made threes.
0:00 - 27-24 is your halftime score. And this is why the preview I wrote for this game was so short and half-assed - Iowa completely sucks balls. Like, they're the suckiest bunch of sucks who ever sucked. There's no fucking secret formula to winning this one, just don't play like assholes and the Gophers should walk. Well they played like assholes for most of the first half and Iowa was so bad that was completely wiped out by a good, solid four minutes of ball. So just do that the second half. Don't come out with this stupid shit where you look lost and confused and suck. Just attack Iowa and they'll crumble like the French - after all, Napoleon was defeated in Iowa.
19:31 - Iowa with an offensive board off a missed free throw. Wonderful. Great way to start the half.
19:02 - Nice hooker by Ralph. Suck it, Ralph's dad. Mow your own damn lawn.
18:50 - Iowa with a terrible full-court press leads to a Sampson dunk. 31-28 Gophers.
18:34 - Iowa has to be the worst team in the country. Bryce Cartwright spins, completely out of control but puts up a terrible jump shot any way and then some big dumb white just crashes over the back of Joe Coleman as if he doesn't really even understand the rules and just thinks if you can get the ball, get it. Like letting some kind of animal loose.
18:10 - Iowa just missed a lay-up on a 2-on-1, but because the Gophers still aren't hustling back they got the o-board and another crack at a lay-up. Which they missed, leading to a transition 3-pointer for Austin Hollins.
17:02 - Six fouls on the Gophers already. Iowa seems to employing the "fat kid in sixth grade who put his head down and dribbled at the rim" offense, and the Gophers are obliging by fouling them. Of course, Iowa is fucking terrible so Basabe just missed both free throws.
16:30 - It's officialy, Austin Hollins can't shoot. He's like 2-5 on threes which sounds good but if you'd seen any of them he's been completely and totally wide open on all of them. I mean like, Magic Johnson just got AIDS but is playing in the all-star game and nobody wants to guard him open.
15:45 - You're never going to believe this, but the Gophers just had another unforced turnover which led to a Matt Gatens dunk and it's now 36-33 Gophers. In a related story, Matt Gatens can dunk.
15:09 - Iowa crowd all fired up but an Armelin three shuts 'em up. Suck on that, corn boys. Go home and fix one of the four cars sitting on your lawn and watch Dukes of Hazzard while drinking Schlitz. That actually describes all of my uncles on my mom's side, who grew up on a farm, when I was growing up, so I know what I'm talking about here.
14:30 - So who's excited for three more years of Aaron White after this? I can't decide what hurts my eyes more, his hair or his blindingly white skin. I know white guys always stand out on the court (even on Iowa) but this is like somebody suited up Powder. Although I guess that would be pretty helpful having Powder on your team because he could like, move the ball with is mind and shit. Way better than having that ball-hogging Teen Wolf.
12:49 - Also now that I wrote Teen Wolf I'm reminded I once compared Evan Turner to a werewolf on this blog, but I'll be damned if I can remember why.
12:29 - Rodney misses the jumper, the rebound goes through to Iowa dudes to the Gophers again, ball goes to Westbrook who takes it at Oglesby and crosses him over to where he has about 6 feet of room to knock down the 14-footer (and does). 45-35. Yes, 35. Jesus these guys suck.
11:35 - Iowa brings out the 3/4 court trap again and the Gophers make two horrible and wild passes. Somehow Iowa tracks down neither of them.
10:54 - Another foul on the perimeter, Iowa goes to the line again. That's four straight Iowa points and they're all at the line. I can't believe the Gophers are still in danger of losing.
10:24 - The cure for a struggling offense? Elliott Elliason 8-foot jumpers. I'm just kidding. He completely bricked it and then scores to cut it to 4 because their slow white guy is still quicker than Elliason.
9:20 - Let's play guess the Gophers offense out of a timeout: Did they A. Run a well-designed play that led to a good shot, or B. Didn't even have a play because Tubby neglected to call one and passed the ball around the perimeter until there was little left on the shot clock forcing Coleman to try a desperation shot that didn't hit the rim leading to a shot clock violation? If you chose A you are a liar.
8:56 - Remember the Joe Coleman from earlier in the year who was a terrible off the ball defender? He's back, Gatens 3 makes it 45-44 Gophers as Joe completely loses him on a fake cut.
8:30 - Welch answers!!! Probably one of the best point guards in Gophers history.
7:40 - Sampson's shot is slow, hesitant, and blocked and that reminds me that he's done nothing this half at all. Just like a woman, you start praising her and talking about how much you like her and she turns her back on you and starts banging the bartender at the bowling alley.
6:23 - If a tip counts as an o-board that's two offensive rebounds on one possession for Sampson leading to two made free throws for Ralph. I take it back. I take it all back. I still love this guy and I don't care who knows it except probably he shouldn't know because of the whole bartender thing.
5:27 - It's a 50-49 game and Rodney Williams misses two free throws. God this team is just retarded.
5:12 - Basabe makes two (SEE HOW FUCKING EASY THAT IS YOU DICKHEADS) and Iowa now leads 51-50.
4:45 - Welch with another huge three. Nobody hits more clutch shots on this team than Welch other than if it's to win or ice the game, but from about 8 minutes left to 2 minutes left he's just nails.
3:58 - Hollins hits a three somehow and Gophers lead 56-53. Keep up the inside-outside offense and things should be good, until Iowa starts fouling and the Gophers miss every free throw and let Iowa win. You know damn well it's coming.
3:43 - Powder pushes Oto down to the ground (probably with his mind) on a Gatens missed free throw. Big spot for Oto since it's 1-and-1. He missed. Board to Elliason. Leads to a three-pointer by Oto and a 59-54 Gopher lead. What a weird possession in a really weird game. Gophers are 10-16 from three, despite being a terrible shooting team and the only thing Iowa does fairly well defensively is defend the three. Just goes to show you that stats don't matter, nerd. Little computer men and numbers you feed into your calculator don't play basketball, people play basketball and heart and grit and hustle matter.
2:26 - By the way I got to do a fancy work dinner earlier this week. We went to Seven and went with the Spicy Salmon Roll and Calamri for appetizers and then grilled asparagus, truffle mac-and-cheese, and roasted corn for our sides. I went with the Picanha steak for my entree, which is a Brazillian cut of sirloin using the sirloin cap and served with a garlic oil infusion that is to die for. I've only had Picanha before at Fogo de Chao and it was easily my favorite cut, so to get it for an entree was an awesome treat. Seriously, if you can get to Seven and don't order this you are an asshole.
1:55 - Hollins (the bad one) misses another three, leading to a monster dunk right in Ralph's effeminate, tentative face to tie the game at 59. This blows ass.
1:09 - Gophers go to Sampson who is doubled and then turns it over leading to a fast break for Iowa where Welch fouls Cartwright. He makes both. Iowa up 2. I really wish I grew up something gay like dancing or hunting so I wouldn't even care about sports. Maybe snowmobiling. That seems pretty dumb.
0:42 - Do they ever even fucking run a god damn play? Ever? Nobody had a god damn clue what to do on that possession! Can anyone explain to me what exactly it is that Tubby does out there because he sure as fuck doesn't coach or recruit. He doesn't do shit. Honest to jesus baby santa christ he's fucking worthless.
0:00 - ballgame. Fuck you Tubby.
0:00 - Let's watch that possession again. Remember, Gophers are down two here, this is a huge possession and basically the game.
Shotclock time:
35 - ball into Welch, dribbles across half-court.
27 - to Hollins in the middle of the court, 35 feet from the rim.
25 - swing to Coleman on the wing, still 35 feet from the rim.
22 - Coleman dribbles to mid-court swings it back to Hollins on the left now 30 feet from the rim.
19 - Over to the right side to Coleman, still 30 feet from the rim. Coleman clearly looks confused.
17 - To Welch in the center, 26 feet from the rim
14 - Welch drives and puts up a contested, double-teamed, ill-advised 18 footer that misses and that's the game.
Guess how many timeouts they had? Two. Look I am all for letting your players play, but you've seen this group before and I don't think they qualify for Mensa even if you combined all their basketball IQs. Fine, give 'em a chance to look competent if you really want to, but when they spend 21 seconds outside of 26 feet from the rim it's time to call a timeout. This is just an embarrassment. I can no longer think of a single reason to believe in Tubby Smith as the coach. He's terrible and he only tries about once every three games. He was invisible tonight. Congrats on your National Championship with Kentucky, I'm glad Rick Pitino was such a good recruiter. What a fucking joke. Officially an Iowa State fan now.
20:00 - I wrote a short preview tonight because the way to win this game is simple - score points. Attack the zone, be aggressive in transition and in the half-court, and score points. Iowa is terrible defensively so all you have to do is go after them and score points. Their offense can be scary but it's not good enough to outscore you if you play well. Remember, it was just 64-62 when Iowa won in the Barn - Gophers need more points than that.
19:59 - Iowa starts in man, which is a good call by McCaffrey (the opposite of coming to Iowa in the first place) because you know the Gophers practiced against it over and over all week, so don't give them that zone right away, save it for when/if you need it. Man-to-man leads to an easy steal and a lay-up anyway, so it's 2-0 Iowa and Julian Welch now bricks a long jumper. Great.
18:24 - For the record, Dawger thinks Welch is/will be one of the best Gopher PGs ever, so his mistakes aren't really his fault.
18:05 - Two transition opportunities for Iowa and twice the Gophers haven't gotten back quickly. They're lucky it's only 2-0. I'm not a fan of Tubby's line change substitution patterns, but if you're ever going to do it that would have been the right time.
17:36 - Ralph 16-footer to tie it up. He could still end up the best center in gopher history, you just gotta believe.
16:50 - I bet Roy Marble is way prouder of his kid than Ralph Sampson is of his. Don't you picture the older Ralph just mentally abusing Ralph III? Like in high school Ralph III would be like, hey dad (who was probably never at the games) I had a triple-double last night and Ralph II would be all like, "triple-double? I used to get quadruple doubles in high school? Why were you slacking off? Now go mow the lawn."
16:01 - Another Welch turnover and he's out for Maverick instead of Andre Westbrook for some reason. I don't get this substitution. Also I want to clarify that I call Dre Hollins Andre Westbrook because he reminds me of Russell, not Lawrence. Let's not make that mistake.
15:09 - Well say this for Ralph, he's being aggressive. He's being terrible, but he's being aggressive. 7-2 Iowa at the first break as the Gophers look sloppier than Lindsay Lohan (that's not dated yet, right?)
14:24 - Out of the break Iowa goes to a half-court trap which scares Oto half to death so he just gives them the ball so they can score. 9-2 Iowa. It's over.
13:59 - Ahanmisi fouled on a 3-pointer. 1-3 on the FTs. What a dickwagon.
13:36 - Another Gopher turnover. Every time I watch this team play it makes me wish turnovers were the goal of the game. :championship:
12:33 - At what point does the Gophers' failure to get back to stop the Hawkeyes in transition stop being about lazy players and start becoming about the coach? I know he can't exactly run out there yet - he's not Pete Rose - but at some point it has to be the prep work, no?
11:34 - Eight and a half minutes, 1-8 shooting, 3 points, 8 turnovers. 13-3 Iowa. This is like Marcellus Wallace and Zed so far.
11:16 - Turnover against the press. I wish I was kidding. The good news is Iowa doesn't look like they have their world-beater pants on (they would probably be black Zubaz with like, corn on 'em) so I still think the Gophers can get back into this, as long as they play the rest of the game the exact opposite of how they have been playing.
9:56 - Two consecutive possessions with a shot by the Gophers, new record. They made one, now 15-5. Now 17-5.
9:30 - Ralphie with the hammer dunk and the foul. Seriously might be the most aggressive Sampson has been all year. I think he's got seven of the team's 8 points right now and has missed around 3 shots too. I like seeing him go after it, reminds me of what I saw way back when before I was stabbed in the nuts.
8:45 - Iowa is just awful. Seriously terrible. There is zero reason for the Gophers to lose this game. None. They've played one of the worst games in basketball history - the hoops equivalent of 41-donut, if you will - so far and yet are only down 18-11 after Welch's 3-point play.
7:49 - Iowa misses, Austy Hollins 3-ball. 18-14, and some dumb white guy just had his lay-up swatted by Sampson. On the ensuing possession Hollins misses a WIDE OPEN three, Rodney tips the board out and it leads to an Iowa lay-up on the break. That's a pretty rough swing, momentumally.
6:16 - 20-17 Iowa and here comes the zone. This is going to decide the game right here I type as Welch throws the ball right out of the back of the end zone.
5:40 - I'm not even sure Iowa has a rebound yet. Jesus these guys really fucking suck. How the hell do they have those semi-impressive wins they have? I'm pretty sure Penn State would beat these guys nine out of every 10 games.
4:25 - Despite all that, after a missed open three and a missed lay-up on the follow, the Gophers are still down to these assholes 20-19. The points are just like, right there for the taking. I've threatened this before, but if they don't win this game I'm done with this team. This is like watching a bad high school team and Matt Gatens just hit nothing but backboard on a wide open three-pointer. How can the Gophers possibly be losing? Oh. Right. They're the Gophers.
2:32 - So I've been watching a lot of the old Scooby-Doo's with WonderbabyTM these days, and holy crap was that show racist. Well racist isn't really the proper term because it's just the way the world was back then, I guess stereotypical is the right word. Tonight's episode took place in China Town and 80% of the chinese characters were basically Hong Kong Phooey and at one point Shaggy impersonated a Chinese dude and it included slits for eyes, buck teeth, and Ls and Rs pronounced as Ws. I'm not saying it wasn't hilarious, I'm just saying it was weird to see not only on TV but on a kids' show. And the Gophers are up 27-24 after a couple made threes.
0:00 - 27-24 is your halftime score. And this is why the preview I wrote for this game was so short and half-assed - Iowa completely sucks balls. Like, they're the suckiest bunch of sucks who ever sucked. There's no fucking secret formula to winning this one, just don't play like assholes and the Gophers should walk. Well they played like assholes for most of the first half and Iowa was so bad that was completely wiped out by a good, solid four minutes of ball. So just do that the second half. Don't come out with this stupid shit where you look lost and confused and suck. Just attack Iowa and they'll crumble like the French - after all, Napoleon was defeated in Iowa.
 | |||||
| Napoleon was finally defeated at Waterloo. Look it up, noob. |
19:31 - Iowa with an offensive board off a missed free throw. Wonderful. Great way to start the half.
19:02 - Nice hooker by Ralph. Suck it, Ralph's dad. Mow your own damn lawn.
18:50 - Iowa with a terrible full-court press leads to a Sampson dunk. 31-28 Gophers.
18:34 - Iowa has to be the worst team in the country. Bryce Cartwright spins, completely out of control but puts up a terrible jump shot any way and then some big dumb white just crashes over the back of Joe Coleman as if he doesn't really even understand the rules and just thinks if you can get the ball, get it. Like letting some kind of animal loose.
18:10 - Iowa just missed a lay-up on a 2-on-1, but because the Gophers still aren't hustling back they got the o-board and another crack at a lay-up. Which they missed, leading to a transition 3-pointer for Austin Hollins.
17:02 - Six fouls on the Gophers already. Iowa seems to employing the "fat kid in sixth grade who put his head down and dribbled at the rim" offense, and the Gophers are obliging by fouling them. Of course, Iowa is fucking terrible so Basabe just missed both free throws.
16:30 - It's officialy, Austin Hollins can't shoot. He's like 2-5 on threes which sounds good but if you'd seen any of them he's been completely and totally wide open on all of them. I mean like, Magic Johnson just got AIDS but is playing in the all-star game and nobody wants to guard him open.
15:45 - You're never going to believe this, but the Gophers just had another unforced turnover which led to a Matt Gatens dunk and it's now 36-33 Gophers. In a related story, Matt Gatens can dunk.
15:09 - Iowa crowd all fired up but an Armelin three shuts 'em up. Suck on that, corn boys. Go home and fix one of the four cars sitting on your lawn and watch Dukes of Hazzard while drinking Schlitz. That actually describes all of my uncles on my mom's side, who grew up on a farm, when I was growing up, so I know what I'm talking about here.
14:30 - So who's excited for three more years of Aaron White after this? I can't decide what hurts my eyes more, his hair or his blindingly white skin. I know white guys always stand out on the court (even on Iowa) but this is like somebody suited up Powder. Although I guess that would be pretty helpful having Powder on your team because he could like, move the ball with is mind and shit. Way better than having that ball-hogging Teen Wolf.
12:49 - Also now that I wrote Teen Wolf I'm reminded I once compared Evan Turner to a werewolf on this blog, but I'll be damned if I can remember why.
12:29 - Rodney misses the jumper, the rebound goes through to Iowa dudes to the Gophers again, ball goes to Westbrook who takes it at Oglesby and crosses him over to where he has about 6 feet of room to knock down the 14-footer (and does). 45-35. Yes, 35. Jesus these guys suck.
11:35 - Iowa brings out the 3/4 court trap again and the Gophers make two horrible and wild passes. Somehow Iowa tracks down neither of them.
10:54 - Another foul on the perimeter, Iowa goes to the line again. That's four straight Iowa points and they're all at the line. I can't believe the Gophers are still in danger of losing.
10:24 - The cure for a struggling offense? Elliott Elliason 8-foot jumpers. I'm just kidding. He completely bricked it and then scores to cut it to 4 because their slow white guy is still quicker than Elliason.
9:20 - Let's play guess the Gophers offense out of a timeout: Did they A. Run a well-designed play that led to a good shot, or B. Didn't even have a play because Tubby neglected to call one and passed the ball around the perimeter until there was little left on the shot clock forcing Coleman to try a desperation shot that didn't hit the rim leading to a shot clock violation? If you chose A you are a liar.
8:56 - Remember the Joe Coleman from earlier in the year who was a terrible off the ball defender? He's back, Gatens 3 makes it 45-44 Gophers as Joe completely loses him on a fake cut.
8:30 - Welch answers!!! Probably one of the best point guards in Gophers history.
7:40 - Sampson's shot is slow, hesitant, and blocked and that reminds me that he's done nothing this half at all. Just like a woman, you start praising her and talking about how much you like her and she turns her back on you and starts banging the bartender at the bowling alley.
6:23 - If a tip counts as an o-board that's two offensive rebounds on one possession for Sampson leading to two made free throws for Ralph. I take it back. I take it all back. I still love this guy and I don't care who knows it except probably he shouldn't know because of the whole bartender thing.
5:27 - It's a 50-49 game and Rodney Williams misses two free throws. God this team is just retarded.
5:12 - Basabe makes two (SEE HOW FUCKING EASY THAT IS YOU DICKHEADS) and Iowa now leads 51-50.
4:45 - Welch with another huge three. Nobody hits more clutch shots on this team than Welch other than if it's to win or ice the game, but from about 8 minutes left to 2 minutes left he's just nails.
3:58 - Hollins hits a three somehow and Gophers lead 56-53. Keep up the inside-outside offense and things should be good, until Iowa starts fouling and the Gophers miss every free throw and let Iowa win. You know damn well it's coming.
3:43 - Powder pushes Oto down to the ground (probably with his mind) on a Gatens missed free throw. Big spot for Oto since it's 1-and-1. He missed. Board to Elliason. Leads to a three-pointer by Oto and a 59-54 Gopher lead. What a weird possession in a really weird game. Gophers are 10-16 from three, despite being a terrible shooting team and the only thing Iowa does fairly well defensively is defend the three. Just goes to show you that stats don't matter, nerd. Little computer men and numbers you feed into your calculator don't play basketball, people play basketball and heart and grit and hustle matter.
2:26 - By the way I got to do a fancy work dinner earlier this week. We went to Seven and went with the Spicy Salmon Roll and Calamri for appetizers and then grilled asparagus, truffle mac-and-cheese, and roasted corn for our sides. I went with the Picanha steak for my entree, which is a Brazillian cut of sirloin using the sirloin cap and served with a garlic oil infusion that is to die for. I've only had Picanha before at Fogo de Chao and it was easily my favorite cut, so to get it for an entree was an awesome treat. Seriously, if you can get to Seven and don't order this you are an asshole.
1:55 - Hollins (the bad one) misses another three, leading to a monster dunk right in Ralph's effeminate, tentative face to tie the game at 59. This blows ass.
1:09 - Gophers go to Sampson who is doubled and then turns it over leading to a fast break for Iowa where Welch fouls Cartwright. He makes both. Iowa up 2. I really wish I grew up something gay like dancing or hunting so I wouldn't even care about sports. Maybe snowmobiling. That seems pretty dumb.
0:42 - Do they ever even fucking run a god damn play? Ever? Nobody had a god damn clue what to do on that possession! Can anyone explain to me what exactly it is that Tubby does out there because he sure as fuck doesn't coach or recruit. He doesn't do shit. Honest to jesus baby santa christ he's fucking worthless.
0:00 - ballgame. Fuck you Tubby.
0:00 - Let's watch that possession again. Remember, Gophers are down two here, this is a huge possession and basically the game.
Shotclock time:
35 - ball into Welch, dribbles across half-court.
27 - to Hollins in the middle of the court, 35 feet from the rim.
25 - swing to Coleman on the wing, still 35 feet from the rim.
22 - Coleman dribbles to mid-court swings it back to Hollins on the left now 30 feet from the rim.
19 - Over to the right side to Coleman, still 30 feet from the rim. Coleman clearly looks confused.
17 - To Welch in the center, 26 feet from the rim
14 - Welch drives and puts up a contested, double-teamed, ill-advised 18 footer that misses and that's the game.
Guess how many timeouts they had? Two. Look I am all for letting your players play, but you've seen this group before and I don't think they qualify for Mensa even if you combined all their basketball IQs. Fine, give 'em a chance to look competent if you really want to, but when they spend 21 seconds outside of 26 feet from the rim it's time to call a timeout. This is just an embarrassment. I can no longer think of a single reason to believe in Tubby Smith as the coach. He's terrible and he only tries about once every three games. He was invisible tonight. Congrats on your National Championship with Kentucky, I'm glad Rick Pitino was such a good recruiter. What a fucking joke. Officially an Iowa State fan now.
Monday, January 9, 2012
Gophers something something
This is where I said I'd write something, huh? Well I don't know, I'm not particularly feeling up to it but I'll give it a go as long as I'm watching this college football championship thingy anyway. I will preface this by saying I brought WonderbabyTM to the game, and although she was very well behaved (and even made it up on the scoreboard with uncle Snacks) I still had to keep her entertained from time to time so I did miss some plays here and there - and thank god for that. She also disappointed me by continuously telling me "I want to high five Goldy the Gopher" but that's not relevant right now.
So were do we start? How about with the defense, which was the absolute biggest problem with that shellacking Purdue put on the Gophers at home (AT HOME!). Yes, the same Purdue team that just lost 65-45 at Penn State just beat the Gophers 79-66 at Williams Arena in a game that wasn't remotely that close. I don't even know how to explain just how sad that is, but it was basically a complete defensive breakdown. The problems defending the three-pointer have been a running narrative of Gopher basketball since Tubby arrived so I'm not going to rehash that here except to say yeah, some of those threes were awfully tough shots (deep, quick trigger, etc.) but they were still made on the Gophers defense so you can't excuse it. Even worse, however, was the complete inability to stop penetration by Lewis Jackson.
Now, I do get that somebody that little doesn't make it in the Big 10 without being lightning quick and being able to handle himself in the paint so it's not surprising the Gopher guards struggled to stay in front of him, but I didn't figure he'd get to the paint every single time he felt like it. And what really bothered me was where the hell was the interior help? Lew Jack is 5-9 and even though he's one of my favorites in the Big 10 amongst opposing players even I can recognize there is no way in hell he 20 points on 8-11 shooting because he's a FUCKING TERRIBLE SHOOTER. Every time he got by the guard somebody needed to get in his way and either force him to shoot a pull-up or dish it somewhere else, you can't let him keep getting lay-ups because even girls can make lay-ups. At the very least if he's going to keep going at the rim somebody needs to put him on his ass at least once. Not maliciously, not flagrantly, and not by making a dirty play or anything but a good ole-fashioned hard foul. He's like 140 lbs. he's going to go flying if you just put a body into him hard. If only the Gophers had a 7-foot senior who could make such a play.
Yeah, that's right. Ralph Sampson may have just played his most worthless game ever. Not only was he invisible on defense to the point where a god damn child sized player was making lay-up after lay-up in his paint on his home court, but he was disinterested on the offensive end as well. He took three shots. Three god damn shots. He grabbed all of three rebounds. He was so worthless Tubby only played him 13 minutes which now qualifies as the only good call Tubby's made all year. It just baffles me. Your senior year, a game where you absolutely need a win or your last season in college will almost certainly go down as a failure, and a home game in front of a crowd that knows how badly this win is needed and would readily jump up behind you and you basically don't even leave the locker room. He gave the team absolutely nothing on either end.
Which brings us to this team's offensive issues, and despite a decent offensive effort against the Boilers this team is still in a lot of trouble. Basically it boils down to that they just aren't skilled enough. Rodney Williams is really the only one on this team with any kind of discernible skill, and it's "jumping." The rest of the team is basically interchangeable, and not in the "everybody is good and can do it all" kind of way Calipari's old Memphis teams or Huggins' WVU teams when they were good were built. Everybody is just mediocre at basically everything..
Really, even somebody as nondescript and Brian Cardinal-ish as D.J. Byrd has a skill that nobody on the Gophers can match in his shooting prowess. He's hitting 44% from three this year, and that five-for-five first half was enough to basically bury the Gophers. Can you see anybody on this team matching that first half at any point? I sure as hell can't. Nobody on this team is a good enough shooter to pull that off. And that goes for basically everything. Nobody is a great shooter. Nobody is a great ballhandler. Nobody is a great penetrator (although I can see Andre Hollins possibly getting there someday). Nobody is a great scorer (maybe Coleman in the future?). Nobody is a great passer or distributor or facilitator or whatever word you want to use, and outside of Williams nobody is a great athlete. Perhaps the worst part of this is how the three-pointer is such a huge and important weapon in the college game, as Purdue shoved down all our throats, and the Gophers not only don't have an elite shooter, I'm not even sure they have an average one. Oto Osenieks is the only chance they have but Tubby seems pretty freaking committed to keeping him on the bench. Much be reverse racism or something, I don't know.
So what to do? With this season basically lost at this point it's time to take the guys who have shown the aggressiveness and effort to deserve more time along with any flashes of ability because there isn't much here. Coleman did a nice job last night of being aggressive and trying to score and although he was only 4-13 shooting he did put up 13 shots. On a team where nearly everyone's first, second, and third instinct is to defer, that's valuable. Coleman needs to start the rest of the way.
I think Andre Hollins should be starting as well. No, it's not an ideal situation because he still has a tendency to get a little bit out of control and his decision making is sub-optimal most of the time he's still the best option for this team's future. He does lead the team in turnover percentage, but he's not much worse than Ahanmisi or Welch, and with every passing day Ahanmisi proves he's not a Big 10 caliber point guard (nice line last night: 0 pts, 3 asts, 2 tos). At this point in the season I still haven't figured out Welch. At times he looks like a brilliant floor leader, and other times he seems overwhelmed by the game (not surprising based on his history at UC-Davis and then JuCo). In any case, it's clear this team is more than one year away from contending for anything meaningful, so at best Welch is a stop gap. Giving him a lot of run in the back court will help take some of the pressure off Andre Hollins so I like keeping him in the lineup.
So that gives you Andre Hollins, Welch, and Coleman in the lineup, and obviously Rodney should be there too. Williams has really taken a step forward since Mbakwe went down and he was forced to play more in the paint, and he was a rare bright spot last night (19 points, 14 rebounds, and maybe most impressively 15 shot attempts). He's attacking the rim, going after every rebound with gusto, and even attempting to have some semblance of a mid-range game (it's not working that great so far, but I commend him for the effort). He's easily the team's best player, both in terms of overall potential and current ability, so there's really no reason why he should ever be off the floor. If he doesn't lead the team in minutes in every game the rest of the year Tubby should be fired immediately.
As far as a big guy in the lineup your guess is as good as mine. I never in a million years thought I'd say this but this team, and I, really miss Colton Iverson. You know damn well that he would've done something to at least make Lewis Jackson think twice about coming at the rim again, and even though I would never exactly call him skilled Elliott Elliason makes him look like Hakeem Olajuwon out there. It turns out he was a capable Big 10 big man, which is exactly what this team doesn't have any of. So I guess you continue to start Ralph and if it's a game where he decided to show up you give him plenty of run and if not you just go small (and Elliason gets his 10 minutes per game either way). I don't know. I give up.
The last guy worth mentioning is Chip Armelin, who I don't want in the starting lineup despite my thinking he's the team's second best player. I love his energy coming off the bench, plus if you take my starting lineup suggestion there is nobody in that second unit capable of scoring and so you need a guy like Chip with them to get the offense going. So I like him coming off the bench, but playing a ton of minutes.
So that's what you go with: Andre Hollins, Welch, Coleman, Williams, and Sampson (by default) with a healthy dose of Armelin. That group at least gives you a bunch of guys who are going to be aggressive, who are going to try to score rather than just pass the ball around the perimeter until the shot clock runs out. Hollins, Welch, Coleman, and Armelin can all penetrate, and although there isn't a great shooter in this group it's not like you're exactly leaving a great shooter out of the rotation or anything. Plus Austin Hollins is probably the best shooter outside of Osenieks on the team and he should be the second guy off the bench, and if you're going against a defense where you need his shooting you can just play him more. Simple.
I don't know. It's a lost season at this point anyway, but concentrating your playing time amongst those guys gives you some chances to be in games as well as giving a couple of guys who are probably your future plenty of chances to improve and develop. Or whatever. This all just sucks anyway.
So were do we start? How about with the defense, which was the absolute biggest problem with that shellacking Purdue put on the Gophers at home (AT HOME!). Yes, the same Purdue team that just lost 65-45 at Penn State just beat the Gophers 79-66 at Williams Arena in a game that wasn't remotely that close. I don't even know how to explain just how sad that is, but it was basically a complete defensive breakdown. The problems defending the three-pointer have been a running narrative of Gopher basketball since Tubby arrived so I'm not going to rehash that here except to say yeah, some of those threes were awfully tough shots (deep, quick trigger, etc.) but they were still made on the Gophers defense so you can't excuse it. Even worse, however, was the complete inability to stop penetration by Lewis Jackson.
Now, I do get that somebody that little doesn't make it in the Big 10 without being lightning quick and being able to handle himself in the paint so it's not surprising the Gopher guards struggled to stay in front of him, but I didn't figure he'd get to the paint every single time he felt like it. And what really bothered me was where the hell was the interior help? Lew Jack is 5-9 and even though he's one of my favorites in the Big 10 amongst opposing players even I can recognize there is no way in hell he 20 points on 8-11 shooting because he's a FUCKING TERRIBLE SHOOTER. Every time he got by the guard somebody needed to get in his way and either force him to shoot a pull-up or dish it somewhere else, you can't let him keep getting lay-ups because even girls can make lay-ups. At the very least if he's going to keep going at the rim somebody needs to put him on his ass at least once. Not maliciously, not flagrantly, and not by making a dirty play or anything but a good ole-fashioned hard foul. He's like 140 lbs. he's going to go flying if you just put a body into him hard. If only the Gophers had a 7-foot senior who could make such a play.
Yeah, that's right. Ralph Sampson may have just played his most worthless game ever. Not only was he invisible on defense to the point where a god damn child sized player was making lay-up after lay-up in his paint on his home court, but he was disinterested on the offensive end as well. He took three shots. Three god damn shots. He grabbed all of three rebounds. He was so worthless Tubby only played him 13 minutes which now qualifies as the only good call Tubby's made all year. It just baffles me. Your senior year, a game where you absolutely need a win or your last season in college will almost certainly go down as a failure, and a home game in front of a crowd that knows how badly this win is needed and would readily jump up behind you and you basically don't even leave the locker room. He gave the team absolutely nothing on either end.
Which brings us to this team's offensive issues, and despite a decent offensive effort against the Boilers this team is still in a lot of trouble. Basically it boils down to that they just aren't skilled enough. Rodney Williams is really the only one on this team with any kind of discernible skill, and it's "jumping." The rest of the team is basically interchangeable, and not in the "everybody is good and can do it all" kind of way Calipari's old Memphis teams or Huggins' WVU teams when they were good were built. Everybody is just mediocre at basically everything..
Really, even somebody as nondescript and Brian Cardinal-ish as D.J. Byrd has a skill that nobody on the Gophers can match in his shooting prowess. He's hitting 44% from three this year, and that five-for-five first half was enough to basically bury the Gophers. Can you see anybody on this team matching that first half at any point? I sure as hell can't. Nobody on this team is a good enough shooter to pull that off. And that goes for basically everything. Nobody is a great shooter. Nobody is a great ballhandler. Nobody is a great penetrator (although I can see Andre Hollins possibly getting there someday). Nobody is a great scorer (maybe Coleman in the future?). Nobody is a great passer or distributor or facilitator or whatever word you want to use, and outside of Williams nobody is a great athlete. Perhaps the worst part of this is how the three-pointer is such a huge and important weapon in the college game, as Purdue shoved down all our throats, and the Gophers not only don't have an elite shooter, I'm not even sure they have an average one. Oto Osenieks is the only chance they have but Tubby seems pretty freaking committed to keeping him on the bench. Much be reverse racism or something, I don't know.
So what to do? With this season basically lost at this point it's time to take the guys who have shown the aggressiveness and effort to deserve more time along with any flashes of ability because there isn't much here. Coleman did a nice job last night of being aggressive and trying to score and although he was only 4-13 shooting he did put up 13 shots. On a team where nearly everyone's first, second, and third instinct is to defer, that's valuable. Coleman needs to start the rest of the way.
I think Andre Hollins should be starting as well. No, it's not an ideal situation because he still has a tendency to get a little bit out of control and his decision making is sub-optimal most of the time he's still the best option for this team's future. He does lead the team in turnover percentage, but he's not much worse than Ahanmisi or Welch, and with every passing day Ahanmisi proves he's not a Big 10 caliber point guard (nice line last night: 0 pts, 3 asts, 2 tos). At this point in the season I still haven't figured out Welch. At times he looks like a brilliant floor leader, and other times he seems overwhelmed by the game (not surprising based on his history at UC-Davis and then JuCo). In any case, it's clear this team is more than one year away from contending for anything meaningful, so at best Welch is a stop gap. Giving him a lot of run in the back court will help take some of the pressure off Andre Hollins so I like keeping him in the lineup.
So that gives you Andre Hollins, Welch, and Coleman in the lineup, and obviously Rodney should be there too. Williams has really taken a step forward since Mbakwe went down and he was forced to play more in the paint, and he was a rare bright spot last night (19 points, 14 rebounds, and maybe most impressively 15 shot attempts). He's attacking the rim, going after every rebound with gusto, and even attempting to have some semblance of a mid-range game (it's not working that great so far, but I commend him for the effort). He's easily the team's best player, both in terms of overall potential and current ability, so there's really no reason why he should ever be off the floor. If he doesn't lead the team in minutes in every game the rest of the year Tubby should be fired immediately.
As far as a big guy in the lineup your guess is as good as mine. I never in a million years thought I'd say this but this team, and I, really miss Colton Iverson. You know damn well that he would've done something to at least make Lewis Jackson think twice about coming at the rim again, and even though I would never exactly call him skilled Elliott Elliason makes him look like Hakeem Olajuwon out there. It turns out he was a capable Big 10 big man, which is exactly what this team doesn't have any of. So I guess you continue to start Ralph and if it's a game where he decided to show up you give him plenty of run and if not you just go small (and Elliason gets his 10 minutes per game either way). I don't know. I give up.
The last guy worth mentioning is Chip Armelin, who I don't want in the starting lineup despite my thinking he's the team's second best player. I love his energy coming off the bench, plus if you take my starting lineup suggestion there is nobody in that second unit capable of scoring and so you need a guy like Chip with them to get the offense going. So I like him coming off the bench, but playing a ton of minutes.
So that's what you go with: Andre Hollins, Welch, Coleman, Williams, and Sampson (by default) with a healthy dose of Armelin. That group at least gives you a bunch of guys who are going to be aggressive, who are going to try to score rather than just pass the ball around the perimeter until the shot clock runs out. Hollins, Welch, Coleman, and Armelin can all penetrate, and although there isn't a great shooter in this group it's not like you're exactly leaving a great shooter out of the rotation or anything. Plus Austin Hollins is probably the best shooter outside of Osenieks on the team and he should be the second guy off the bench, and if you're going against a defense where you need his shooting you can just play him more. Simple.
I don't know. It's a lost season at this point anyway, but concentrating your playing time amongst those guys gives you some chances to be in games as well as giving a couple of guys who are probably your future plenty of chances to improve and develop. Or whatever. This all just sucks anyway.
Thursday, December 1, 2011
Well that's a Shocker, Gophers beat Hokies
As should have been obvious from my preview, I thought the Gophers were dead against Virginia Tech. I thought Tech's athletic guards who drive and kick the Gophers to death, while their defense would shut down a Gopher team without an offensive identity thanks to their two big men being down with injuries. Clearly, and joyfully, I was mistaken.
This version of this year's version of the Gopher hoops team was unrecognizable in a lot of ways. First of all, swarming defense with an intensity I can't recall seeing at any point this year (not that it was without flaws, which I'll get to). The defense forced Va Tech into 12-36 shooting on 2-pointers (the Hokies hit 46% on the season), came up with 9 steals (the most anyone has had against Tech this season), and managed to block five shots despite missing their two biggest shot blockers. I don't think this necessarily means the team defense has turned a corner since the Hokies hit 50% of their three-point tries outside Green's semi-heave at the end, but it's a start. It didn't hurt that Tech, one of the better team's in the country on assists per basket made, seemed a little selfish and passed up numerous opportunities to kick once they started penetrating in favor of shooting questionable jump shots, but I'm not going to let that worry me. The intensity and effort was there in a way that was missing in Orlando, and that's the first step towards fixing things. Whether this was a "Win One for Trevor" one moment in time remains to be seen, but I'm encouraged.
Individual player thoughts:
- Rodney Williams looks sooooooo much more comfortable in the paint than he ever did on the perimeter. I suppose that shouldn't come as much of a surprise, but it was all the more striking last night because he finally had the opportunity to do some posting up and took to it like that stupid little girl in Interview with a Vampire took to killing. Each time he got the ball on the perimeter last night he looked a mite petrified, as many power forwards do, even going so far as to pass up an 18-foot jumper. When they got him the ball in the paint, however, he immediately went for the score like your sister's prom date. It's clear now, and really has been for some time, that he's got a power forward's game (right down to the sub-50% free throw percentage) in a small forward's body. That can work, and has before, in college but I think the NBA dreams might be fading a bit. Still, he's impressed me in this game and the team was able to go to him down low for a couple of big plays down the stretch. If he (and the team and the coach) can all embrace this new role things might be pretty fun.
- I'm still not 100% on the Julian Welch train, but I think I'm getting closer. His lateral quickness on defense is miserably slow, but he can make up for some of that by having that E. Honda hand quickness. And, more importantly, I'm starting to realize that while he looks slow on offense he sort of has that Evan Turner type thing going on where he doesn't look like he's quick or fast but ends up getting to wherever he's trying to get without issue. His demeanor is also comforting as he always just seems to be in complete control at all times and a cool customer who won't panic or make major mistakes, as seen by his four clutch FTs last night. Interesting, you could say he and Ralph have the same demeanor and I find one comforting and one enraging. I guess I want my ball-handlers cool, calm, and collected and my big men to be raging balls of anger and rage and death who are just as likely to rip your face off with an axe handle as dunk on your stupid face. Interesting.
- What can you say about Chip Armelin? I mean really, he's a unique player in Tubby's tenure here because he's the only player I can remember who was supremely confident he could make any shot at any time, outside of Hoffarber but Blake really could make any shot at any time. Don't get me wrong, I love Chip, but I think he's a guy you either love or hate. He's going to single handedly win a game for this team this year, and probably shoot them out of one or two as well, but you take the good with the bad. Every team should have a guy like Chipper, and I'm damn glad he's here.
- Tubby opted to go with a smaller lineup most of the game, so Andre Ingram will have to wait at least one more game for his big breakthrough. He only got 8 minutes against Va Tech and made his only shot (which for the life of me I can't remember). It's slightly disheartening that he didn't grab a single rebound in those 8 minutes, but not nearly as disheartening in having it confirmed that he is indeed a junior and not a freshman as ESPN lists him. I was pretty sure he was a Juco guy, but then I saw the freshman thing on ESPN and figured I was just dumb, and got excited at his potential. Now it turns out I really am dumb, but in a sort of different way than I thought.
-He definitely has potential as an athletic scorer type (where have we heard that before), but Joe Coleman's defense at this stage of his career is going to give me a heart attack at some point. In general he's like a less-disciplined Chip Armelin (yeah, that's right) where he just kind of runs around like a toddler who a red bull. In just seven minutes last night he put up two shots (both misses), grabbed two rebounds and got a steal. I'm having all kinds of trouble wrapping my head around this kid right now. I just don't know. He's like Snape, you just aren't sure if he's a good guy or a bad guy.
- Oto Osenieks took two good three-pointers last night in his two minutes of play, missed them both, then was yanked by the quick Tubby hook and never saw the floor again. Yep, nothing like taken the guy who is purported to be your best shooter and damn near only shooter and sabotaging his confidence. I'm pretty sure Nurse Ratched was more forgiving with her charges.
- The Hollins cousins played a total of 60 minutes between the two of them and I can't tell you a single thing about either of them last night. The boxscore says they scored a total of 10 points on 4-16 shooting, but had 5 assists vs. just 1 turnover. So really they didn't stand out in any way, good or bad. Not a big deal last night because Chip and Welch were the story in the back court, but those two are basically the future of this team so let's get it together, boys.
- I saved the best for last, because Elliott Eliason impressed the hell out of me last night. He was a completely different player. I think knowing he was the only big guy the team had last night, and knowing that even if he made mistakes he would have to worry about Nurse Ratched sitting him on the bench, he was able to stop worrying about mistakes and just play. He was aggressive, he was confident, he played in the flow of the game, the guy basically transformed from Kevin Loge to Eric Montross (college version). I don't want to go overboard and be accused of wanting to bare his children or anything, but I never thought he'd be capable of playing like this. I thought his best case scenario was going to be Jeff Hagen, but he showed more potential last night than Hagen did in his four years. Yes I'm probably way overreacting to one game. Let me have this. I need it.
So yeah, that was a pretty impressive win, especially considering I didn't think they were even going to keep this one within single digits. I'm still worried that this basically came about because of channeling the emotion of losing Trevor, but we won't find out for about a month now. The next five games should all be cake walks, so barring a major letdown the Gophers will be sitting at 12-1 when they start conference play by traveling to Champaign to take on the Illini. Hold on to your butts.
This version of this year's version of the Gopher hoops team was unrecognizable in a lot of ways. First of all, swarming defense with an intensity I can't recall seeing at any point this year (not that it was without flaws, which I'll get to). The defense forced Va Tech into 12-36 shooting on 2-pointers (the Hokies hit 46% on the season), came up with 9 steals (the most anyone has had against Tech this season), and managed to block five shots despite missing their two biggest shot blockers. I don't think this necessarily means the team defense has turned a corner since the Hokies hit 50% of their three-point tries outside Green's semi-heave at the end, but it's a start. It didn't hurt that Tech, one of the better team's in the country on assists per basket made, seemed a little selfish and passed up numerous opportunities to kick once they started penetrating in favor of shooting questionable jump shots, but I'm not going to let that worry me. The intensity and effort was there in a way that was missing in Orlando, and that's the first step towards fixing things. Whether this was a "Win One for Trevor" one moment in time remains to be seen, but I'm encouraged.
Individual player thoughts:
- Rodney Williams looks sooooooo much more comfortable in the paint than he ever did on the perimeter. I suppose that shouldn't come as much of a surprise, but it was all the more striking last night because he finally had the opportunity to do some posting up and took to it like that stupid little girl in Interview with a Vampire took to killing. Each time he got the ball on the perimeter last night he looked a mite petrified, as many power forwards do, even going so far as to pass up an 18-foot jumper. When they got him the ball in the paint, however, he immediately went for the score like your sister's prom date. It's clear now, and really has been for some time, that he's got a power forward's game (right down to the sub-50% free throw percentage) in a small forward's body. That can work, and has before, in college but I think the NBA dreams might be fading a bit. Still, he's impressed me in this game and the team was able to go to him down low for a couple of big plays down the stretch. If he (and the team and the coach) can all embrace this new role things might be pretty fun.
- I'm still not 100% on the Julian Welch train, but I think I'm getting closer. His lateral quickness on defense is miserably slow, but he can make up for some of that by having that E. Honda hand quickness. And, more importantly, I'm starting to realize that while he looks slow on offense he sort of has that Evan Turner type thing going on where he doesn't look like he's quick or fast but ends up getting to wherever he's trying to get without issue. His demeanor is also comforting as he always just seems to be in complete control at all times and a cool customer who won't panic or make major mistakes, as seen by his four clutch FTs last night. Interesting, you could say he and Ralph have the same demeanor and I find one comforting and one enraging. I guess I want my ball-handlers cool, calm, and collected and my big men to be raging balls of anger and rage and death who are just as likely to rip your face off with an axe handle as dunk on your stupid face. Interesting.
- What can you say about Chip Armelin? I mean really, he's a unique player in Tubby's tenure here because he's the only player I can remember who was supremely confident he could make any shot at any time, outside of Hoffarber but Blake really could make any shot at any time. Don't get me wrong, I love Chip, but I think he's a guy you either love or hate. He's going to single handedly win a game for this team this year, and probably shoot them out of one or two as well, but you take the good with the bad. Every team should have a guy like Chipper, and I'm damn glad he's here.
- Tubby opted to go with a smaller lineup most of the game, so Andre Ingram will have to wait at least one more game for his big breakthrough. He only got 8 minutes against Va Tech and made his only shot (which for the life of me I can't remember). It's slightly disheartening that he didn't grab a single rebound in those 8 minutes, but not nearly as disheartening in having it confirmed that he is indeed a junior and not a freshman as ESPN lists him. I was pretty sure he was a Juco guy, but then I saw the freshman thing on ESPN and figured I was just dumb, and got excited at his potential. Now it turns out I really am dumb, but in a sort of different way than I thought.
-He definitely has potential as an athletic scorer type (where have we heard that before), but Joe Coleman's defense at this stage of his career is going to give me a heart attack at some point. In general he's like a less-disciplined Chip Armelin (yeah, that's right) where he just kind of runs around like a toddler who a red bull. In just seven minutes last night he put up two shots (both misses), grabbed two rebounds and got a steal. I'm having all kinds of trouble wrapping my head around this kid right now. I just don't know. He's like Snape, you just aren't sure if he's a good guy or a bad guy.
- Oto Osenieks took two good three-pointers last night in his two minutes of play, missed them both, then was yanked by the quick Tubby hook and never saw the floor again. Yep, nothing like taken the guy who is purported to be your best shooter and damn near only shooter and sabotaging his confidence. I'm pretty sure Nurse Ratched was more forgiving with her charges.
- The Hollins cousins played a total of 60 minutes between the two of them and I can't tell you a single thing about either of them last night. The boxscore says they scored a total of 10 points on 4-16 shooting, but had 5 assists vs. just 1 turnover. So really they didn't stand out in any way, good or bad. Not a big deal last night because Chip and Welch were the story in the back court, but those two are basically the future of this team so let's get it together, boys.
- I saved the best for last, because Elliott Eliason impressed the hell out of me last night. He was a completely different player. I think knowing he was the only big guy the team had last night, and knowing that even if he made mistakes he would have to worry about Nurse Ratched sitting him on the bench, he was able to stop worrying about mistakes and just play. He was aggressive, he was confident, he played in the flow of the game, the guy basically transformed from Kevin Loge to Eric Montross (college version). I don't want to go overboard and be accused of wanting to bare his children or anything, but I never thought he'd be capable of playing like this. I thought his best case scenario was going to be Jeff Hagen, but he showed more potential last night than Hagen did in his four years. Yes I'm probably way overreacting to one game. Let me have this. I need it.
So yeah, that was a pretty impressive win, especially considering I didn't think they were even going to keep this one within single digits. I'm still worried that this basically came about because of channeling the emotion of losing Trevor, but we won't find out for about a month now. The next five games should all be cake walks, so barring a major letdown the Gophers will be sitting at 12-1 when they start conference play by traveling to Champaign to take on the Illini. Hold on to your butts.
Friday, November 18, 2011
An Ugly Win is still a Win I Guess
Well that was pretty ugly. 23 turnovers against Fairfield certainily isn't going to warm the cockles of my black heart, but at least the Gophers won. And, in a very weird way, they also impressed me which is probably like me being a serial killer's mom and being impressed because that one time he didn't kill someone, but nevertheless, they did impress me with this win. Fairfield is a good, well an ok, team, and on a day when the Gophers offense was completely terrible they were able to use some good defense, a trap that they FINALLY broke out, and some absolutely insane free throw shooting, to grind out a win that looked far easier than it really was.
The most impressive stat, I think in the history of ever, was the Gophers shooting 27-31 from the free throw line and outscoring the Stags in that regard by 12 points. If the Gophers shoot their usual 60%, this is a 1-point game which, obviously, could end up going either way, so you really can't down play the significance of that performance which I'm going to assume is a school record. Now, Trevor Mbakwe and Andre Hollins were 25-27 of that so it's not like the whole team magically got better, but hey, it's a win.
Other observations:
- Tubby finally pressed, even if it was mostly the man press where you get the dribbler to turn his back and then double when he can't see it coming. Even though it worked a couple of times I'd still really like to see some kind of diamond trap or half-court trap or something like that. The team is allegedly athletic enough where they should be able to pull it off. At least there's some progress here.
- Ralph Sampson was simply dreadful on the offensive end. I think the last person who had that many balls go through their hands in one night was Jenna Jameson. That being said, it was very positive to see him continue to work hard and hustle on defense when he wasn't getting burnt. So yeah, overall I thought this was a pretty rough game by Ralph, but I'm encouraged because he never seemed to go into a funk and disappear - you knew there was a 7-footer out there the whole time. Baby steps, to be sure, but he's doin' the work.
- Rodney had one absolutely gorgeous offensive highlight reel dunk, and one spectacular blocked shot. Which, it could be said, is his season average. One amazing play on each end of the court surrounded by a whole lot of filler. The fact that he doesn't even bother to look for his shot anymore tells me all I need to know.
- Andre Hollins showed some flashes of potential again, and getting to the line 9 times is a definite positive, but he's still a little too out of control at times which is a bit surprising since he's a coach's kid. Still though, he has an awful lot of Russell Westbrook in him, which is fantastic if harnessed properly and Rico Tuckeresque if it's not. I'm betting on the former. In any case, this point guard mess doesn't look like it's sorting itself out, because.....
- Maverick Ahanmisi is the best pure point guard on this team. That doesn't mean he ranks high in the pure point guard ratings of the world or anything and I'm still not sure he could even score on a date with your mom with a box of wine and a Blu-ray copy of The Notebook, but he has some court vision - something that I haven't really seen too much of from either of the other two guards just yet other than a couple of isolated incidents. Mav had two excellent passes, one one a break that bounced off Ralph Sampson's hands like it was toxic, and another pass on a pick-and-roll where he did that thing you see nba guards do all the time where they throw the bounce pass to the roller - between the two defenders - before the guy is even 100% open and hasn't even turned around yet. Consider my interest level in young Maverick tweaked.
- Julian Welch had a play that absolutely, completely summed up his defensive abilities of quick hands/slow feet. At one point he knocked the ball away from his man, nearly picking him clean but simply knocking it away and making the dude run back to the halfcourt line to recover the ball. After picking the ball up, his man proceeded to blow right past Welch and into the lane. Super quick hands, really slow feet. It'll be interesting to see how that all plays out.
- Oto Osenieks was probably my favorite player last night, simply because he finally showed why he's known as a shooter. I said after one or more of the other games that if you're a "shooter" you need to "shoot" whenever you have an opening, and Oto was deferring too much. Finally, last night, he didn't do that and he asserted himself and hit a couple of big threes. Of course, he didn't bother with a heat check, which is really lame and dumb because anytime somebody makes two straight threes they owe it to themselves, their teammates, and the fans to chuck it up the next time they have even the smallest opening. Silly freshman. Next time Oto, chuck away.
- Obviously Trevor was the star, and Austin Hollins played with his usual quiet efficiency (although the four turnovers are a bit troubling). Chip was too quiet, Elliason was meaningless and slow, Ingram still has potential, and Joe Coleman is an absolutely terrible defender. None of these things are different than any other game (except that one decent game Chipper had), so they aren't really worth elaborating on. And neither is the next game against Mt. St. Mary's, because the final score is going to be like 95-8.
The most impressive stat, I think in the history of ever, was the Gophers shooting 27-31 from the free throw line and outscoring the Stags in that regard by 12 points. If the Gophers shoot their usual 60%, this is a 1-point game which, obviously, could end up going either way, so you really can't down play the significance of that performance which I'm going to assume is a school record. Now, Trevor Mbakwe and Andre Hollins were 25-27 of that so it's not like the whole team magically got better, but hey, it's a win.
Other observations:
- Tubby finally pressed, even if it was mostly the man press where you get the dribbler to turn his back and then double when he can't see it coming. Even though it worked a couple of times I'd still really like to see some kind of diamond trap or half-court trap or something like that. The team is allegedly athletic enough where they should be able to pull it off. At least there's some progress here.
- Ralph Sampson was simply dreadful on the offensive end. I think the last person who had that many balls go through their hands in one night was Jenna Jameson. That being said, it was very positive to see him continue to work hard and hustle on defense when he wasn't getting burnt. So yeah, overall I thought this was a pretty rough game by Ralph, but I'm encouraged because he never seemed to go into a funk and disappear - you knew there was a 7-footer out there the whole time. Baby steps, to be sure, but he's doin' the work.
- Rodney had one absolutely gorgeous offensive highlight reel dunk, and one spectacular blocked shot. Which, it could be said, is his season average. One amazing play on each end of the court surrounded by a whole lot of filler. The fact that he doesn't even bother to look for his shot anymore tells me all I need to know.
- Andre Hollins showed some flashes of potential again, and getting to the line 9 times is a definite positive, but he's still a little too out of control at times which is a bit surprising since he's a coach's kid. Still though, he has an awful lot of Russell Westbrook in him, which is fantastic if harnessed properly and Rico Tuckeresque if it's not. I'm betting on the former. In any case, this point guard mess doesn't look like it's sorting itself out, because.....
- Maverick Ahanmisi is the best pure point guard on this team. That doesn't mean he ranks high in the pure point guard ratings of the world or anything and I'm still not sure he could even score on a date with your mom with a box of wine and a Blu-ray copy of The Notebook, but he has some court vision - something that I haven't really seen too much of from either of the other two guards just yet other than a couple of isolated incidents. Mav had two excellent passes, one one a break that bounced off Ralph Sampson's hands like it was toxic, and another pass on a pick-and-roll where he did that thing you see nba guards do all the time where they throw the bounce pass to the roller - between the two defenders - before the guy is even 100% open and hasn't even turned around yet. Consider my interest level in young Maverick tweaked.
- Julian Welch had a play that absolutely, completely summed up his defensive abilities of quick hands/slow feet. At one point he knocked the ball away from his man, nearly picking him clean but simply knocking it away and making the dude run back to the halfcourt line to recover the ball. After picking the ball up, his man proceeded to blow right past Welch and into the lane. Super quick hands, really slow feet. It'll be interesting to see how that all plays out.
- Oto Osenieks was probably my favorite player last night, simply because he finally showed why he's known as a shooter. I said after one or more of the other games that if you're a "shooter" you need to "shoot" whenever you have an opening, and Oto was deferring too much. Finally, last night, he didn't do that and he asserted himself and hit a couple of big threes. Of course, he didn't bother with a heat check, which is really lame and dumb because anytime somebody makes two straight threes they owe it to themselves, their teammates, and the fans to chuck it up the next time they have even the smallest opening. Silly freshman. Next time Oto, chuck away.
- Obviously Trevor was the star, and Austin Hollins played with his usual quiet efficiency (although the four turnovers are a bit troubling). Chip was too quiet, Elliason was meaningless and slow, Ingram still has potential, and Joe Coleman is an absolutely terrible defender. None of these things are different than any other game (except that one decent game Chipper had), so they aren't really worth elaborating on. And neither is the next game against Mt. St. Mary's, because the final score is going to be like 95-8.
Saturday, November 12, 2011
Gophers beat Bucknell with a Late Surge
Read that post title again. Doesn't seem likely. For the past few seasons anytime "late surge" has been involved the Gophers have usually been the one who got surged on, and it almost happened again Friday night, but - and this is major - it didn't.
It looked like the Gophers were mostly in control in the first half, but due to four three-pointers by Bucknell's Bryson Johnson (including a ridiculous one while floating sideways), poor shooting by the Gophers and a complete inability to hit free throws Minnesota was only up 2 at the half. I thought they had it in control and even texted Snacks, who was at some concert, that it was only a matter of time and the Gophers would win by double-digits. I was right, in the end, but man it did not happen how I was expecting.
With 7.5 minutes left in the second half, Bucknell hit a 3-pointer to take a 2-point lead. After Rodney hit one of two free-throws I turned to Bear and said, "Watch, Bucknell will hit a three here, Gophers won't score, and Bucknell will hit a third one." Boom. Well almost, Rodney did make another free throw in there but Bucknell did hit two more threes and were suddenly up seven with just shy of 6 minutes to play. It was playing out like Virginia last year, and both teams even wear the same colors. I felt ill. And then a strange thing happened.
The Gophers started making free throws, hitting 15 of their last 17 (after going just 8-18 prior). They started attack the basket after a second half that had mostly consisted of perimeter passing amongst the guards with little penetration or post presence. They started hitting the boards, playing better defense, and essentially just played the way the Gophers should play. Trevor Mbakwe, Austin Hollins, Julian Welch, and Ralph Sampson took over this game in those final six minutes, particularly Mbakwe, and took this game back, a game that was following a familiar script before the big twist ending, M. Night style.
A lot of people will be unsatisfied with this win, seeing just the name Bucknell and realizing the Bison are a very solid team who likely will end up in the NCAA Tournament. Even more impressive to me was the way they fought back against that good team. That's something I'm not accustomed to in recent years. I'm giving this game a solid B+, despite the slow first half.
Other game thoughts:
1. I'm pretty sure Bucknell gave us the blueprint for the defense nearly every opponent the Gophers face this year will roll out - double Ralph and Trevor on the block and force the other guys, and specifically the other guys outside shooting, to beat them. With poor 3-point shooting from the entire team so far this year, including the two exhibitions, it's a pretty good strategy and what teams should do. Keep in mind that the Gophers don't necessarily have to hit three-pointers to beat it, they just need use those double-teams to find cutters and move the ball for open shots. Although hitting some threes would help - Austin Hollins three-pointer to cut Bucknell's lead to two was one of the biggest of the game.
2. Speaking of hitting cutters, Ralph Sampson was absolutely brilliant in the high post. He's always going to be a good passing big man, and was against Bucknell, but when he's knocking down that jump shot he's an incredible weapon. He hit several deep jumpers last night, and because he loves the deep jumper so much when he gets that going it energizes him and it showed on the boards and blocking shots last night. He was still way too tentative on the block for a 7-footer, but you can handle that when he puts the game together like he did on Friday. I'm still afraid that if Sampson's jumper isn't falling he's going to go into a funk and cost this team some games.
3. Julian Welch is absolutely confusing, because he has incredibly fast hands and very slow feet. Bucknell's guards were routinely able to get past him, with or without the ball, but he was also able to get two steals were he just straight out picked Cameron Ayers and nearly had a third. It was so bad that Ayers stopped bringing the ball up the court when Welch was in the game, and once Julian checked out he'd go back to being the point man. Pretty hilarious. Those good defensive plays looked pretty and will color a lot of opinions, but Welch is definitely a sub-par man-on-man defender overall. Still, to be able to just pick a D-I point guard's pocket, and I did like what I saw from him offensively since he was one of the few guys who was willing to attack the basket. I'll say I'm impressed but have some reservations.
4. Trevor Mbakwe is going to be in foul trouble in some games. I know this isn't going out on a limb, but it's crazy how he just throws his body at people whether it's with the ball, on defense, or positioning for a rebound. You get the wrong ref on the wrong day and Mbakwe's going to spend a lot of time on the bench. That's not going to be a very fun day.
5. Joe Coleman has a long way to go. Not that it's going out on a limb since he's a freshman, and it's not even surprising or anything, but Coleman is meh so far. His defense is pretty terrible, although I think that's mainly due to lack of focus more than anything else, and his big highlight play against Bucknell was a near three-point play (he missed the free throw, natch) where he basically charged right at three Bucknell defenders, somehow made the shot, and was gifted with a foul call. He's still playing like he's the only show in town and he's up against Spring Lake Park. I'm not giving up on him at all, I just don't expect he'll play much once we hit conference play.
6. Bryson Johnson of Bucknell is one hell of a shooter even if he looks like this assface I used to play against in high school. He's aslo absolutely terrified when he gets the ball in the paint and has no idea what to do, even if he's the one who brought the ball in there with him. He only had one turnover, but there were at least two other times he got into the lane and just had no idea what to do with it and the team didn't get a good shot. Way to be well-rounded, nerd.
I think that'll pretty much do it for now. No matter what dumb people think this was a good win. Also I didn't mention Rodney Williams because, once again, there's nothing worth mentioning. I wish there was a way to trade him to someone who still believes.
Anyway, Gophers win and it's a good win. I'll take it.
It looked like the Gophers were mostly in control in the first half, but due to four three-pointers by Bucknell's Bryson Johnson (including a ridiculous one while floating sideways), poor shooting by the Gophers and a complete inability to hit free throws Minnesota was only up 2 at the half. I thought they had it in control and even texted Snacks, who was at some concert, that it was only a matter of time and the Gophers would win by double-digits. I was right, in the end, but man it did not happen how I was expecting.
With 7.5 minutes left in the second half, Bucknell hit a 3-pointer to take a 2-point lead. After Rodney hit one of two free-throws I turned to Bear and said, "Watch, Bucknell will hit a three here, Gophers won't score, and Bucknell will hit a third one." Boom. Well almost, Rodney did make another free throw in there but Bucknell did hit two more threes and were suddenly up seven with just shy of 6 minutes to play. It was playing out like Virginia last year, and both teams even wear the same colors. I felt ill. And then a strange thing happened.
The Gophers started making free throws, hitting 15 of their last 17 (after going just 8-18 prior). They started attack the basket after a second half that had mostly consisted of perimeter passing amongst the guards with little penetration or post presence. They started hitting the boards, playing better defense, and essentially just played the way the Gophers should play. Trevor Mbakwe, Austin Hollins, Julian Welch, and Ralph Sampson took over this game in those final six minutes, particularly Mbakwe, and took this game back, a game that was following a familiar script before the big twist ending, M. Night style.
A lot of people will be unsatisfied with this win, seeing just the name Bucknell and realizing the Bison are a very solid team who likely will end up in the NCAA Tournament. Even more impressive to me was the way they fought back against that good team. That's something I'm not accustomed to in recent years. I'm giving this game a solid B+, despite the slow first half.
Other game thoughts:
1. I'm pretty sure Bucknell gave us the blueprint for the defense nearly every opponent the Gophers face this year will roll out - double Ralph and Trevor on the block and force the other guys, and specifically the other guys outside shooting, to beat them. With poor 3-point shooting from the entire team so far this year, including the two exhibitions, it's a pretty good strategy and what teams should do. Keep in mind that the Gophers don't necessarily have to hit three-pointers to beat it, they just need use those double-teams to find cutters and move the ball for open shots. Although hitting some threes would help - Austin Hollins three-pointer to cut Bucknell's lead to two was one of the biggest of the game.
2. Speaking of hitting cutters, Ralph Sampson was absolutely brilliant in the high post. He's always going to be a good passing big man, and was against Bucknell, but when he's knocking down that jump shot he's an incredible weapon. He hit several deep jumpers last night, and because he loves the deep jumper so much when he gets that going it energizes him and it showed on the boards and blocking shots last night. He was still way too tentative on the block for a 7-footer, but you can handle that when he puts the game together like he did on Friday. I'm still afraid that if Sampson's jumper isn't falling he's going to go into a funk and cost this team some games.
3. Julian Welch is absolutely confusing, because he has incredibly fast hands and very slow feet. Bucknell's guards were routinely able to get past him, with or without the ball, but he was also able to get two steals were he just straight out picked Cameron Ayers and nearly had a third. It was so bad that Ayers stopped bringing the ball up the court when Welch was in the game, and once Julian checked out he'd go back to being the point man. Pretty hilarious. Those good defensive plays looked pretty and will color a lot of opinions, but Welch is definitely a sub-par man-on-man defender overall. Still, to be able to just pick a D-I point guard's pocket, and I did like what I saw from him offensively since he was one of the few guys who was willing to attack the basket. I'll say I'm impressed but have some reservations.
4. Trevor Mbakwe is going to be in foul trouble in some games. I know this isn't going out on a limb, but it's crazy how he just throws his body at people whether it's with the ball, on defense, or positioning for a rebound. You get the wrong ref on the wrong day and Mbakwe's going to spend a lot of time on the bench. That's not going to be a very fun day.
5. Joe Coleman has a long way to go. Not that it's going out on a limb since he's a freshman, and it's not even surprising or anything, but Coleman is meh so far. His defense is pretty terrible, although I think that's mainly due to lack of focus more than anything else, and his big highlight play against Bucknell was a near three-point play (he missed the free throw, natch) where he basically charged right at three Bucknell defenders, somehow made the shot, and was gifted with a foul call. He's still playing like he's the only show in town and he's up against Spring Lake Park. I'm not giving up on him at all, I just don't expect he'll play much once we hit conference play.
6. Bryson Johnson of Bucknell is one hell of a shooter even if he looks like this assface I used to play against in high school. He's aslo absolutely terrified when he gets the ball in the paint and has no idea what to do, even if he's the one who brought the ball in there with him. He only had one turnover, but there were at least two other times he got into the lane and just had no idea what to do with it and the team didn't get a good shot. Way to be well-rounded, nerd.
I think that'll pretty much do it for now. No matter what dumb people think this was a good win. Also I didn't mention Rodney Williams because, once again, there's nothing worth mentioning. I wish there was a way to trade him to someone who still believes.
Anyway, Gophers win and it's a good win. I'll take it.
Monday, November 7, 2011
Shane Schilling's brother is the biggest baby ever
Honest to god, I've never seen a player whine and cry to the refs as much as Cody Schilling with the possible exceptions of Tim Duncan, Kobe Bryant, and Bogart in intramurals (also "Who are three people who have never been in my kitchen). I mean it was just sad. Even on shots where he was clearly not touched he would toss his arms in the air like, "Dude wtf?" I bet when he plays pick-up he's that guy who calls every ticky-tack foul and then gets jumped in the parking lot after the game because everybody is sick of him. My favorite moment, however, was when the defense got all switched up and he ended up with Ralph Sampson guarding him and he waved everyone away like, "I got this" for an isolation play and then jacked up a three. What a douche.
As I said after the last exhibition game I'm not going to pay too much attention to team stuff here because it's just impossible to get a read. It was clear Tubby wanted to work on some things that didn't exactly help the team in the micro, game sense such as avoiding getting the ball to Mbakwe in the first half (it was clear they weren't making any effort to get him the ball, which I assume was coach dictated or at least I freaking hope so) and switching into a zone defense when it was clear that the only thing Augustana could do at all was shoot from the outside and they had no inside presence. And, once again, the competition was just not there. The only reason this wasn't a complete blowout was because Drae Murray put on an exhibition in red-hot shooting in the first half which was just fun as hell to watch. But 5-6 point guards aren't built to score against Big 10 teams, and so that's what happened.
Instead, once again, I'll just focus on a couple of thoughts on some of the players that I noticed (that is a terrible sentence) but I'm going to have to keep this short because it's late, I'm tired, and it's extra late because I got lost driving home tonight. Less than 2 miles from my house. Don't ask.
TREVOR MBAKWE: As I mentioned they pretty much avoided him in the first half, but in the second half it became clear that he was basically unstoppable which makes since I'm pretty sure he could have bench pressed any one of their players a dozen times. None of that really matters, obviously, but if you're looking for a positive look at his free throw shooting. He said he'd improve it and he did, going 12-13 tonight and showing a really nice high arching shot with excellent touch. He's going to get fouled a ton and if he can shoot 75% or so? He's going to put up some monster numbers.
RALPH SAMPSON: Ok so when the gameplan in the first half is clearly to pound the ball to Ralphy and then he sucks donkey balls that's not good. It's double not good when he's taller, more athletic, and far blacker than anybody who is trying to guard him, but Ralph ended up with more turnovers (7) than points (4) and shot 1-5 against a bunch of nobodies. One of the most pathetic things I've ever seen, and I'd be far more upset about it if I wasn't so accustomed to it. Ralph is the keystone guy this year that will decide how good this team is. I'm not liking their chances.
RODNEY WILLIAMS: Ended up with 10 points but they all happened because he ended up just accidentally scoring because he was 300x more athletic than anybody Augustana had. The were effortless baskets which makes sense since Rodney seems to be all like meh with regards to effort on the offensive end. You're probably going to hear about what a great defensive job he did on Schilling too, who was 6-21 shooting (lol), but keep in mind he was guarding a slow white kid whose only d-1 offer coming out of high school was from Green Bay. I do think Williams has the potential to be a defensive stopper, but I think we should maybe not crown him just yet. Twice tonight had the baseline for a drive and didn't even make the effort. Pretty sure I'm done here.
AUSTIN HOLLINS: More likely to end up this team's defensive ace simply because he's already the team's best perimeter defender, Hollins also knocked down a couple of threes that really got the team going in the second half. Then he missed one and got sad and embarrassed and didn't shoot again the rest of the game.
ANDRE HOLLINS: A bit of a rough game for Lionel's kid, which is to be expected for a freshman point guard even against a team like Augustana. There was, however, once possession where he took the ball into the lane and just took it right at three defenders, completely fearlessly. I wouldn't recommend that approach on every possession, but it was a good look at the kind of player he is, and really reminded me quite a bit of Russell Westbrook which is definitely a good thing. It did not remind me of Lawrence Westbrook, but that's because I like Andre a lot and now that I think about it that's exactly what L-Dub would do. Moving along quickly.
JOE COLEMAN: I didn't notice Coleman being a terrible off-the-ball defender tonight and that's a considerable improvement from the last game. I didn't notice him much at all actually, but I have a renewed faith in him that he'll be good some day. Well, goodish.
CHIP ARMELIN: This is the Chip Armelin (new nickname: Heat Check) I'm in love with. Came in the game, put up 4 shots in about 3 minutes, made 3 of them, and gave the offense the boost it needed. The last couple of shots were probably ill advised, but that's what makes Heat Check, Heat Check. Of course Tubby seemingly was less charmed by this than I was because after his last shot (and his only miss) Heat Check sat out the rest of the first half and then played about 40 seconds in the second half. I'm pretty sure Tubby hates fun.
JULIAN WELCH: Slow slow slow slow. Snacks had the point tonight that maybe he's the kind of guy who just looks slow but it's because he's always in control (like Evan Turner) but then I saw him get blown by twice by Augustana's guards. I know expectations/hope runs high for him, but let's not forget he came from UC-Davis, and I don't think this is a case of all the big schools just missing on him. Temper expectations.
MAVERICK AHANMISI: For the second consecutive game I can't tell you one thing he did or didn't do, good or bad, tonight. And for the second consecutive game I consider this a bad thing.
ANDRE INGRAM: I don't know why but I like this guy. Sure, he had a play tonight where he nearly broke the backboard on a missed lay-up, but I like to think he's just showing initiative. Since Shaq/Jerome Lane made them re-engineer the backboards you can break them by dunking anymore (unless you're Tiny Gallon) and so he's just trying to see if he can break one by throwing the ball hard at it. He's like a freaking scientist. Recognize.
OTO OSENIEKS: Hit a 3-pointer, and hit it like a mofo, but also passed up a couple of opportunities to shoot that he, and any true "shooter" should have taken. Then again, I'm probably expecting too much of him because I'm used to Blake and I always fall for shooters. On the other hand, that hair.
ELLIOTT ELIASON: I just...I don't care. Wake me up in 2 years when he might be more than 5 fouls and an accidental rebound or two. I will say his entertainment factor is through the roof considering I heard him yelling "dead dead dead dead" as loud as he could in the first game after his man picked up his dribble. Epic.
Done. These first two games were like watching a puppy who just learned about fish. Friday we find out if that dog can track sasquatch in the rain. Bucknell is no joke. I'm planning on writing a preview of the game so there's at least a 60% chance that actually happens. You should keep checking all week. How exciting.
As I said after the last exhibition game I'm not going to pay too much attention to team stuff here because it's just impossible to get a read. It was clear Tubby wanted to work on some things that didn't exactly help the team in the micro, game sense such as avoiding getting the ball to Mbakwe in the first half (it was clear they weren't making any effort to get him the ball, which I assume was coach dictated or at least I freaking hope so) and switching into a zone defense when it was clear that the only thing Augustana could do at all was shoot from the outside and they had no inside presence. And, once again, the competition was just not there. The only reason this wasn't a complete blowout was because Drae Murray put on an exhibition in red-hot shooting in the first half which was just fun as hell to watch. But 5-6 point guards aren't built to score against Big 10 teams, and so that's what happened.
Instead, once again, I'll just focus on a couple of thoughts on some of the players that I noticed (that is a terrible sentence) but I'm going to have to keep this short because it's late, I'm tired, and it's extra late because I got lost driving home tonight. Less than 2 miles from my house. Don't ask.
TREVOR MBAKWE: As I mentioned they pretty much avoided him in the first half, but in the second half it became clear that he was basically unstoppable which makes since I'm pretty sure he could have bench pressed any one of their players a dozen times. None of that really matters, obviously, but if you're looking for a positive look at his free throw shooting. He said he'd improve it and he did, going 12-13 tonight and showing a really nice high arching shot with excellent touch. He's going to get fouled a ton and if he can shoot 75% or so? He's going to put up some monster numbers.
RALPH SAMPSON: Ok so when the gameplan in the first half is clearly to pound the ball to Ralphy and then he sucks donkey balls that's not good. It's double not good when he's taller, more athletic, and far blacker than anybody who is trying to guard him, but Ralph ended up with more turnovers (7) than points (4) and shot 1-5 against a bunch of nobodies. One of the most pathetic things I've ever seen, and I'd be far more upset about it if I wasn't so accustomed to it. Ralph is the keystone guy this year that will decide how good this team is. I'm not liking their chances.
RODNEY WILLIAMS: Ended up with 10 points but they all happened because he ended up just accidentally scoring because he was 300x more athletic than anybody Augustana had. The were effortless baskets which makes sense since Rodney seems to be all like meh with regards to effort on the offensive end. You're probably going to hear about what a great defensive job he did on Schilling too, who was 6-21 shooting (lol), but keep in mind he was guarding a slow white kid whose only d-1 offer coming out of high school was from Green Bay. I do think Williams has the potential to be a defensive stopper, but I think we should maybe not crown him just yet. Twice tonight had the baseline for a drive and didn't even make the effort. Pretty sure I'm done here.
AUSTIN HOLLINS: More likely to end up this team's defensive ace simply because he's already the team's best perimeter defender, Hollins also knocked down a couple of threes that really got the team going in the second half. Then he missed one and got sad and embarrassed and didn't shoot again the rest of the game.
ANDRE HOLLINS: A bit of a rough game for Lionel's kid, which is to be expected for a freshman point guard even against a team like Augustana. There was, however, once possession where he took the ball into the lane and just took it right at three defenders, completely fearlessly. I wouldn't recommend that approach on every possession, but it was a good look at the kind of player he is, and really reminded me quite a bit of Russell Westbrook which is definitely a good thing. It did not remind me of Lawrence Westbrook, but that's because I like Andre a lot and now that I think about it that's exactly what L-Dub would do. Moving along quickly.
JOE COLEMAN: I didn't notice Coleman being a terrible off-the-ball defender tonight and that's a considerable improvement from the last game. I didn't notice him much at all actually, but I have a renewed faith in him that he'll be good some day. Well, goodish.
CHIP ARMELIN: This is the Chip Armelin (new nickname: Heat Check) I'm in love with. Came in the game, put up 4 shots in about 3 minutes, made 3 of them, and gave the offense the boost it needed. The last couple of shots were probably ill advised, but that's what makes Heat Check, Heat Check. Of course Tubby seemingly was less charmed by this than I was because after his last shot (and his only miss) Heat Check sat out the rest of the first half and then played about 40 seconds in the second half. I'm pretty sure Tubby hates fun.
JULIAN WELCH: Slow slow slow slow. Snacks had the point tonight that maybe he's the kind of guy who just looks slow but it's because he's always in control (like Evan Turner) but then I saw him get blown by twice by Augustana's guards. I know expectations/hope runs high for him, but let's not forget he came from UC-Davis, and I don't think this is a case of all the big schools just missing on him. Temper expectations.
MAVERICK AHANMISI: For the second consecutive game I can't tell you one thing he did or didn't do, good or bad, tonight. And for the second consecutive game I consider this a bad thing.
ANDRE INGRAM: I don't know why but I like this guy. Sure, he had a play tonight where he nearly broke the backboard on a missed lay-up, but I like to think he's just showing initiative. Since Shaq/Jerome Lane made them re-engineer the backboards you can break them by dunking anymore (unless you're Tiny Gallon) and so he's just trying to see if he can break one by throwing the ball hard at it. He's like a freaking scientist. Recognize.
OTO OSENIEKS: Hit a 3-pointer, and hit it like a mofo, but also passed up a couple of opportunities to shoot that he, and any true "shooter" should have taken. Then again, I'm probably expecting too much of him because I'm used to Blake and I always fall for shooters. On the other hand, that hair.
ELLIOTT ELIASON: I just...I don't care. Wake me up in 2 years when he might be more than 5 fouls and an accidental rebound or two. I will say his entertainment factor is through the roof considering I heard him yelling "dead dead dead dead" as loud as he could in the first game after his man picked up his dribble. Epic.
Done. These first two games were like watching a puppy who just learned about fish. Friday we find out if that dog can track sasquatch in the rain. Bucknell is no joke. I'm planning on writing a preview of the game so there's at least a 60% chance that actually happens. You should keep checking all week. How exciting.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Posts
