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.
25. TRAVIS BUSCH (2007-2009).
- I know what you're thinking. You're thinking he should be higher based solely on his heart and his hustle and his grit. Maybe so. But grit and a can do it attitude can only get you so far - like a career total of 132 points in a gopher uniform. I know you've talked yourself into remembering him as an impact player in his second year, but the fact of the matter is he only averaged 3.7 points per game that season. I think he had a handful of good games in a row or something at one point. Also, and I forgot this and only remembered when I was perusing my Busch archives, the team flat out decided not to renew his scholarship after his junior year. So that's something.
24. DEVRON BOSTICK (2008-2010).
- Ranks up there with Antoine Broxsie as one of the most disappointing Gophers in my lifetime. I remember reading up on him after the Gophers signed him out of JuCo and thinking damn he sounds good. A polished scorer with two years of JuCo experience? I figured him to come in and be instant offense at worst. Never happened. He averaged just 3.7 points per game in his Gopher career, and played less than 10 minutes per game his senior year. Course, that'll happen when you shoot just 43%. He had games where he started to look like he was putting it together, and he could certainly be a smooth offensive player at times, but time ran out before he could put it all together.
23. CHIP ARMELIN (2010-2012).
- Another disappointing Gopher, and other than Busch this whole post could just be labeled "The Disappointments", Armelin also never quite managed to put it all together. He averaged 4.5 points per game in 12.5 minutes per game in his two years here, and although he certainly had some serious athletic ability it never really manifested itself. He didn't put up good rebounding numbers, he wasn't a great defender, and he shot just 42%. He blossomed in his senior year after transferring to Mississippi State, but like I said, that means nothing here. I initially had him below Bostick, but I forgot how ineffective Bostick actually was. Armelin outscored him by 132 points, out-rebounded him by 32, and out-assisted him by 10.
22. OTO OSENIEKS (2011-2014).
- Another guy who never quite put it all together. Oto had a weird career, culminating in a career ending injury until the Gophers needed another big guy and then suddenly he could play again. His willingness to help the team is commendable, and he was maybe is a coach or grad assistant or something so that's great, but he also averaged just 3.5 points per game in his 3-year Gopher career and was a pretty god awful rebounder despite being 6-8. I always liked Oto, and I really wanted him to succeed since it seemed to me everyone was a bit too hard on him. Somehow, my want never made it so.
21. PAUL CARTER (2008-2010).
- Carter played just two years for the Gophers before transferring to UIC to be closer to his sick sister, but he ranks this highly because he's actually good. He had the most points and second most rebounds of any player ranked so far despite just the two seasons. Carter really made some strides between his first and second seasons and could have been a potential star, and he blossomed quite a bit once he enrolled at UIC. It was a bummer when he left, and I'll always remember his huge block in the big comeback win in Madison which, by the way, I was in attendance for. After the game and then after the bar we went to some pizza place and there was some punk kid there who moved our stuff and was sitting in our seat and he wouldn't move and wouldn't even look at us or acknowledge us in any way so Dawger slapped the pizza out of his stupid mouth and then we got kicked out. Still got to take our pizza with us though.
Showing posts with label Oto Osenieks. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Oto Osenieks. Show all posts
Tuesday, July 21, 2015
Wednesday, April 2, 2014
Gophers 67, Florida State 64
Well they won. Winning is better than losing, right? Even in the NIT which forces me and you to watch another game that we barely care about. They certainly tried to lose, but FSU just wanted the loss more. Anyway, here are ten things I liked and didn't like.
1. Joey King was a total spaz. For someone who was such a big part of the offense in this NIT run to win with him scoring just 3 points is a good thing. He only played 7 minutes due to foul trouble from the get go and I have no idea what he was doing out there. With Eliason out the Gopher "bigs" were in such bad shape Oto had to come back and play, yet King's out there jumping around like a little kid up past his bedtime. Maybe he was trying to hard to be a major factor, but the majority of his fouls were just stupid and caused by hyperactivity and lack of body control. It was probably the worst game anybody has ever played in the history of basketball. Probably.
2. Speaking of Oto, was it all just a lie? It has to be, right? Just a month or so ago we were all told Oto had such a serious injury that he had to hang it up for his career, yet here the Gophers are short handed and all of a sudden he's not only playing, but playing 32 minutes. He mostly looked like a guy who hadn't been playing basketball, but he made due with a hell of an effort and was pretty key for the Gophers - that rebound off a missed FT he grabbed in overtime was 100% pure hustle as he was boxed out by two Seminoles and just forced his way through. But clearly Pitino told hm he probably wasn't going to get minutes next year and Oto chose to retire rather than transfer, and they concocted this bogus story. I get it, but it sucks when it blows up like this. I can never trust anyone ever again.
3. Florida State did the Gophers a lot of favors. With Minnesota undermanned and undersized in the paint FSU should have attacked the basket all night. They grabbed 43% of their misses and were clearly better and bigger, but for some reason the majority of the night they were content to shoot perimeter jumpers, going 1-9 in the first half from three and then still doing it, going 3-9 in the second half and overtime. When they made their big run to take the lead as the game was winding down they did it by pounding the ball inside, mainly to Okaro White, and it worked (helped by a Gophers shooting slump). I have no idea why this wasn't the game plan consistently, especially when everyone on the Gophers ended up with foul trouble. I assume it's because Florida State is a dumb team, year after year.
4. Speaking of FSU, their defense was really horrible. It's surprising because Leonard Hamilton almost always has his Seminole teams as top defensive squads and their size, but the Gopher guards had their way with FSU driving to the paint last night. Fifty-one of the teams 67 points came from their guards, which shouldn't be surprising given the team make-up I guess, but Austin Hollins was as driving machine all night and Dre Hollins and Dre Mathieu were able to waltz in for easy layups on back to back plays near the end of regulation. With Florida State's size and shot blocking (23rd in the country by percentages) two little guys like that shouldn't be able to get to the rim, but they did it consistently either scoring or finding others for open looks. FSU also turned the ball over a ton, but enough about FSU. They done.
5. The A topic on twitter last night was the horrible announcing team. And they weren't wrong. Bobby Knight was terrible. Long stretches with no talking, rambling Abe Simpson like stories about wearing an onion on his belt (it was the style at the time) and his old teams and players, harping on the same points over and over, and asking his colleagues questions about the game he was allegedly watching. I usually like Knight as an announcer and I'm not going to make the obvious joke about him being drunk and/or senile because it was pretty clear he was just completely bored with the game. Even as it got towards the end and was supposedly getting pretty exciting he was still droning on about some dude from his 1978 team or something. He clearly has no interest in the NIT, and honestly I can't even blame him. Even I just wanted that game to hurry up and end.
6. The court was left alone, unlike NCAA games. You remember how back in the day the host schools court for the NCAA Tournament basically looked the way the court always looked? Maybe they'd change a logo or two but it was basically the same? And now how they white wash all courts to look identical, so if you're watching a game in Orlando and switch to a game in Anaheim it looks exactly the same except the location name is on the baseline? I was afraid they'd do something similar to MSG, but luckily they left it alone other than replacing any Knicks stuff with NIT stuff. Maybe it was apathy because it's the NIT, I don't know but I liked it. I'm actually now realizing I didn't notice if they changed it for the Sweet 16/Elite 8 games. This would be a way better point if I remembered to notice.
7. Malik Smith is broken. It's to the point where I'm actually feeling bad for him since this is the way his career is ending. He missed three of his four free throw attempts including two with eight seconds left and the Gophers up 3 so one make wins the game, and all four of his three-point attempts which drops him to two makes in his last 34 attempts and a line of 8-58 since he exploded against Nebraska. Did that game wreck him? It shouldn't considering he had a few games like that in his FIU days, but the results since are pretty remarkable. If you watch him his fundamentals are all over the place now too - he's not even squaring up to shoot a lot of the time. It would be nice for him to have a good game to close out his career against SMU, but at this point I think you have to hope for just a non-shitty game.
8. The Gophers did a really nice job of shutting down Aaron Thomas. Thomas played 36 minutes before fouling out and managed just 3 points on 1-8 shooting. Thomas led the team in scoring this year at 14.1 per, hit double figures in 16 straight games and 27 of their last 30, and had been over 20 points in each of their NIT victories before the Gophers stopped him. This is where I'd write about how they did it but I forgot to pay attention to it and by the time I realized they had completely stymied him he was in the process of fouling out. I'm a really good blogger.
9. Dre Hollins looked a lot better. His shot is still iffy, but he seemed much more lively to me and was attacking the rim more like he did prior to his injury, and his defense was a lot better too. He's had 2 steals in three of four NIT games, and prior to that the last time he had more than 1 was the Ohio State, two games prior to getting hurt. He's also had 7 and 4 assists the last two games with the last time he had more than 3 the Purdue game in Minneapolis on January 5th. I was of the opinion that shutting him down for the NIT and making sure he's healthy for next season might have made some sense, but everything seems to be coming up Milhouse so party on.
10. So now the Gophers have a chance at a Championship. And what do you hear over and over? "Making a deep run in the NIT is a springboard to success the following season." Is this true? I don't know, let's look.
NIT CHAMPIONS (next season results):
2013: Baylor (sweet 16) over Iowa (First Four)
2012: Stanford (missed tournament) over Minnesota (second round)
2011: Wichita State (first round) over Alabama (first round)
2010: Dayton (missed tournament) over North Carolina (elite 8)
2009: Penn State (missed tournament) over Baylor (elite 8)
That's the last five years which is all the effort I'm going to put into this. Seven of the 10 teams made the NCAA Tournament the following year with four of those recording a victory. I'm going to say that making the NIT Championship is a decent indicator of a team that makes the NCAA Tournament the following season but that's about it - and I'll take it. With only two seniors departing from this team they fit the profile. Maybe next year is the year I will finally see LOCK: Minnesota in ESPN's Bubble Watch. Still waiting.
Up next is SMU, a really good team who probably should have made the NCAA Tournament. I might preview it if I feel like it later. No promises.
1. Joey King was a total spaz. For someone who was such a big part of the offense in this NIT run to win with him scoring just 3 points is a good thing. He only played 7 minutes due to foul trouble from the get go and I have no idea what he was doing out there. With Eliason out the Gopher "bigs" were in such bad shape Oto had to come back and play, yet King's out there jumping around like a little kid up past his bedtime. Maybe he was trying to hard to be a major factor, but the majority of his fouls were just stupid and caused by hyperactivity and lack of body control. It was probably the worst game anybody has ever played in the history of basketball. Probably.
2. Speaking of Oto, was it all just a lie? It has to be, right? Just a month or so ago we were all told Oto had such a serious injury that he had to hang it up for his career, yet here the Gophers are short handed and all of a sudden he's not only playing, but playing 32 minutes. He mostly looked like a guy who hadn't been playing basketball, but he made due with a hell of an effort and was pretty key for the Gophers - that rebound off a missed FT he grabbed in overtime was 100% pure hustle as he was boxed out by two Seminoles and just forced his way through. But clearly Pitino told hm he probably wasn't going to get minutes next year and Oto chose to retire rather than transfer, and they concocted this bogus story. I get it, but it sucks when it blows up like this. I can never trust anyone ever again.
3. Florida State did the Gophers a lot of favors. With Minnesota undermanned and undersized in the paint FSU should have attacked the basket all night. They grabbed 43% of their misses and were clearly better and bigger, but for some reason the majority of the night they were content to shoot perimeter jumpers, going 1-9 in the first half from three and then still doing it, going 3-9 in the second half and overtime. When they made their big run to take the lead as the game was winding down they did it by pounding the ball inside, mainly to Okaro White, and it worked (helped by a Gophers shooting slump). I have no idea why this wasn't the game plan consistently, especially when everyone on the Gophers ended up with foul trouble. I assume it's because Florida State is a dumb team, year after year.
4. Speaking of FSU, their defense was really horrible. It's surprising because Leonard Hamilton almost always has his Seminole teams as top defensive squads and their size, but the Gopher guards had their way with FSU driving to the paint last night. Fifty-one of the teams 67 points came from their guards, which shouldn't be surprising given the team make-up I guess, but Austin Hollins was as driving machine all night and Dre Hollins and Dre Mathieu were able to waltz in for easy layups on back to back plays near the end of regulation. With Florida State's size and shot blocking (23rd in the country by percentages) two little guys like that shouldn't be able to get to the rim, but they did it consistently either scoring or finding others for open looks. FSU also turned the ball over a ton, but enough about FSU. They done.
5. The A topic on twitter last night was the horrible announcing team. And they weren't wrong. Bobby Knight was terrible. Long stretches with no talking, rambling Abe Simpson like stories about wearing an onion on his belt (it was the style at the time) and his old teams and players, harping on the same points over and over, and asking his colleagues questions about the game he was allegedly watching. I usually like Knight as an announcer and I'm not going to make the obvious joke about him being drunk and/or senile because it was pretty clear he was just completely bored with the game. Even as it got towards the end and was supposedly getting pretty exciting he was still droning on about some dude from his 1978 team or something. He clearly has no interest in the NIT, and honestly I can't even blame him. Even I just wanted that game to hurry up and end.
6. The court was left alone, unlike NCAA games. You remember how back in the day the host schools court for the NCAA Tournament basically looked the way the court always looked? Maybe they'd change a logo or two but it was basically the same? And now how they white wash all courts to look identical, so if you're watching a game in Orlando and switch to a game in Anaheim it looks exactly the same except the location name is on the baseline? I was afraid they'd do something similar to MSG, but luckily they left it alone other than replacing any Knicks stuff with NIT stuff. Maybe it was apathy because it's the NIT, I don't know but I liked it. I'm actually now realizing I didn't notice if they changed it for the Sweet 16/Elite 8 games. This would be a way better point if I remembered to notice.
7. Malik Smith is broken. It's to the point where I'm actually feeling bad for him since this is the way his career is ending. He missed three of his four free throw attempts including two with eight seconds left and the Gophers up 3 so one make wins the game, and all four of his three-point attempts which drops him to two makes in his last 34 attempts and a line of 8-58 since he exploded against Nebraska. Did that game wreck him? It shouldn't considering he had a few games like that in his FIU days, but the results since are pretty remarkable. If you watch him his fundamentals are all over the place now too - he's not even squaring up to shoot a lot of the time. It would be nice for him to have a good game to close out his career against SMU, but at this point I think you have to hope for just a non-shitty game.
8. The Gophers did a really nice job of shutting down Aaron Thomas. Thomas played 36 minutes before fouling out and managed just 3 points on 1-8 shooting. Thomas led the team in scoring this year at 14.1 per, hit double figures in 16 straight games and 27 of their last 30, and had been over 20 points in each of their NIT victories before the Gophers stopped him. This is where I'd write about how they did it but I forgot to pay attention to it and by the time I realized they had completely stymied him he was in the process of fouling out. I'm a really good blogger.
9. Dre Hollins looked a lot better. His shot is still iffy, but he seemed much more lively to me and was attacking the rim more like he did prior to his injury, and his defense was a lot better too. He's had 2 steals in three of four NIT games, and prior to that the last time he had more than 1 was the Ohio State, two games prior to getting hurt. He's also had 7 and 4 assists the last two games with the last time he had more than 3 the Purdue game in Minneapolis on January 5th. I was of the opinion that shutting him down for the NIT and making sure he's healthy for next season might have made some sense, but everything seems to be coming up Milhouse so party on.
10. So now the Gophers have a chance at a Championship. And what do you hear over and over? "Making a deep run in the NIT is a springboard to success the following season." Is this true? I don't know, let's look.
NIT CHAMPIONS (next season results):
2013: Baylor (sweet 16) over Iowa (First Four)
2012: Stanford (missed tournament) over Minnesota (second round)
2011: Wichita State (first round) over Alabama (first round)
2010: Dayton (missed tournament) over North Carolina (elite 8)
2009: Penn State (missed tournament) over Baylor (elite 8)
That's the last five years which is all the effort I'm going to put into this. Seven of the 10 teams made the NCAA Tournament the following year with four of those recording a victory. I'm going to say that making the NIT Championship is a decent indicator of a team that makes the NCAA Tournament the following season but that's about it - and I'll take it. With only two seniors departing from this team they fit the profile. Maybe next year is the year I will finally see LOCK: Minnesota in ESPN's Bubble Watch. Still waiting.
Up next is SMU, a really good team who probably should have made the NCAA Tournament. I might preview it if I feel like it later. No promises.
Thursday, February 20, 2014
Illinois 62, Minnesota 49
Ok, whatever, I'm over it. I'm surprising myself here by actually writing about this game, but I guess I'm so numb to disappointment as a Gopher fan that like, no big whoop. So here are 10 things I liked and didn't like about the Illinois game.
1. First off, the defense was fine. There are plenty of ugly stretches you can blame on the Gophers' defense this year, but last night wasn't one of them. Kendrck Nunn torched them and the Illini hit 8 of 13 threes, and giving up 1.09 points per possession isn't ideal, but then again giving up 1.09 ppp to a team that hit 62% of it's threes isn't bad. Minnesota held Illinois to 34% on 2-pointers and created a turnover on a respectable 19% of the Illini's possessions. And, contrary to brain dead Shon Morris's contention, most of those threes were tough shots. One or two might have come from a defensive breakdown (I remember one by Mo in the corner) but in general Illinois was hitting tough shots from deep. Sucks.
2. The Gopher offense was horrendous. Obvious enough to anybody watching, but Illinois played the same style defense the Gophers did, sagging in the paint to take away the drive and daring the Gophers to shoot. And boy did they fall for it. They hit a very nice 58% from 2, but took 25 freaking three pointers, hitting just four, and turned the ball over 26% of the time leading to a disastrous 0.86 points per possession which will never, ever win a game. This was one of the ugliest games I can remember watching in quite a while.
3. The whole team was embarrassingly flat last night and just totally out of it. How many balls went through hands? How many passes were off the mark? How many loose balls did the Gophers come up with? Most importantly, how the hell do you get called twice for not stepping all the way out of bounds to throw the ball in after a made Illini bucket? Twice! It rarely happens at all. The refs generally give a generous amount of leeway on that play, but the two called on the Gophers last night were so egregious the refs had no choice but to call them. I'm not even sure Eliason had one foot out of bounds on the one they called on him, let alone two. Just an embarrassing game in every respect.
4. Has Andre Hollins lost his point guard skills? I know DeAndre Mathieu is definitely the #1 point guard with Hollins the shooting guard, but wasn't the plan for Hollins to be the PG when Matheiu is on the bench? His assist numbers are drastically down, and last night he became Malik Smith, putting up 13 shots with 11 of them coming from three. Maybe it's an ankle issue, but he's looked fine the last two games, at least in that respect. The Gophers have two players who can create their own shot and create shots for others, and when one of them becomes a stand still jump shooter there are going to be problems.
5. Maybe we should do away with the autosit in the first half with two fouls. It's clear at this point that Mathieu is the team's most important player and per my previous point the offense stagnates when he's not on the floor, so maybe playing an entire 12 minutes stretch without him isn't the best thing to do. The Gophers led 14-3 when he went out with his second foul. There is nothing worse to me than sticking to dumb, rigid rules. It was clear the Gophers needed Mathieu back in before Illinois crawled all the way back, but because "the book" says to sit 'em the first half if he has two fouls he never got back off the bench. Stupid.
6. Mo Walker is becoming unstoppable. Last night 5-7 shooting for 10 points, and one of the prettiest moves I can remember seeing from any Gopher post man in quite some time. Against Maverick Morgan he was able to use his size and strength to just bull his way to the rim, and against Egwu he used great footwork, footwork I didn't know he had, to get his shots. Walker needs to become a focal point, if not the focal point, of this offense going forward, and I don't mean as the screener on pick-and-rolls. The PF picking Walker's man on one block to spring him going across the lane and establishing position on the other block needs to be a staple for this team for the next two years.
7. I started the year hating Joey King, but I seem to find myself writing positive things about him every time I write lately. His offensive game continues to blossom week-by-week as he understands more and more that the team needs him to be a power forward and not just a three point specialist. He's added a little bit of a post game, which I wrote about last time, and in this game he did a really nice job passing the ball out of the high post, even totaling what I assume is a career high 4 assists. The one thing he does that is killing me is when he pump fakes at the three point line and gets his man to leave his feet - and then does nothing or just passes it off. Freaking put the ball on the ground and move, man! Even if it's just to side step and shoot a three do something! You've gained an advantage, don't squander it.
8. King's counterpart, however, was pretty much ignored and invisible. If you watched last night the Gophers ran several pick and rolls with Oto as the screener, and none of them came close to working on any level because Illinois didn't care what Oto did. Every time he'd pop out to the wing, but Illinois's defense would just double the ball handler and force him the other way. Oto would do the right thing and cut baseline to the opposite corner, but it was such an aggressive double team I think they managed to find him exactly once for a possible shot, which ended up either a turnover or a missed shot I don't remember. Might have been nice to actually roll towards the basket and see if that opened something up elsewhere, because the way they ran this with Oto it was worthless.
9. Daquein McNeil is going to be really good. If nothing else he's going to be a heady, smart guard and a plus defender. I don't think he's ever going to be a really dynamic scorer or distributor, but he should develop into the kind of off guard who can knock down the open shot, drive if it's there, and limit his mistakes. Take that along with his tremendous defense already, which should just get better, and he's got real potential. We've seen him play good defense in spurts, and he did a great job against Drew Crawford in the Northwestern game, but now he's getting more consistent with it. I noticed last night that he does a thing Aaron Craft is really good at in that he can sneak between his man and a ball screen, reducing the need for any kind of hedge while at the same time avoiding going under the screen and giving up a possible open jumper. It's a valuable skill, and McNeil already seems to have it.
10. Now we can relax. There certainly isn't a bright side to this loss, but if you stretch far enough to can at least talk yourself into thinking you'll enjoy the games more now that you can watch the rest of the games stress free. There's now zero reason to expect the Gophers to make the NCAA Tournament this year, and the really sad thing is it's not their performance against the top tier teams that's keeping them out, but a combined 2-4 against Nebraska, Northwestern, Purdue, and Illinois. With a very difficult schedule the rest of the way just sit back and enjoy the ride, and enjoy speculating on what teams we might get to see at the Barn in the NIT/CBI/CIT.
It's going to be nice for me to not worry too much about it the next couple of weeks because I'm going to be on a bit of a whirlwind. Next week I will be in New Mexico for the entire week (hopefully I'll get up to some drunk posting like old times), then I'm back for half a week and off to Florida for vacation for a week and a half. So it'll be nice to not be obsessing over the Gophers. Expect posts from New Mexico for sure, and probably one or two at least from Florida, just don't expect them to be 100% Gopher stuff. Kind of liberating.
1. First off, the defense was fine. There are plenty of ugly stretches you can blame on the Gophers' defense this year, but last night wasn't one of them. Kendrck Nunn torched them and the Illini hit 8 of 13 threes, and giving up 1.09 points per possession isn't ideal, but then again giving up 1.09 ppp to a team that hit 62% of it's threes isn't bad. Minnesota held Illinois to 34% on 2-pointers and created a turnover on a respectable 19% of the Illini's possessions. And, contrary to brain dead Shon Morris's contention, most of those threes were tough shots. One or two might have come from a defensive breakdown (I remember one by Mo in the corner) but in general Illinois was hitting tough shots from deep. Sucks.
2. The Gopher offense was horrendous. Obvious enough to anybody watching, but Illinois played the same style defense the Gophers did, sagging in the paint to take away the drive and daring the Gophers to shoot. And boy did they fall for it. They hit a very nice 58% from 2, but took 25 freaking three pointers, hitting just four, and turned the ball over 26% of the time leading to a disastrous 0.86 points per possession which will never, ever win a game. This was one of the ugliest games I can remember watching in quite a while.
3. The whole team was embarrassingly flat last night and just totally out of it. How many balls went through hands? How many passes were off the mark? How many loose balls did the Gophers come up with? Most importantly, how the hell do you get called twice for not stepping all the way out of bounds to throw the ball in after a made Illini bucket? Twice! It rarely happens at all. The refs generally give a generous amount of leeway on that play, but the two called on the Gophers last night were so egregious the refs had no choice but to call them. I'm not even sure Eliason had one foot out of bounds on the one they called on him, let alone two. Just an embarrassing game in every respect.
4. Has Andre Hollins lost his point guard skills? I know DeAndre Mathieu is definitely the #1 point guard with Hollins the shooting guard, but wasn't the plan for Hollins to be the PG when Matheiu is on the bench? His assist numbers are drastically down, and last night he became Malik Smith, putting up 13 shots with 11 of them coming from three. Maybe it's an ankle issue, but he's looked fine the last two games, at least in that respect. The Gophers have two players who can create their own shot and create shots for others, and when one of them becomes a stand still jump shooter there are going to be problems.
5. Maybe we should do away with the autosit in the first half with two fouls. It's clear at this point that Mathieu is the team's most important player and per my previous point the offense stagnates when he's not on the floor, so maybe playing an entire 12 minutes stretch without him isn't the best thing to do. The Gophers led 14-3 when he went out with his second foul. There is nothing worse to me than sticking to dumb, rigid rules. It was clear the Gophers needed Mathieu back in before Illinois crawled all the way back, but because "the book" says to sit 'em the first half if he has two fouls he never got back off the bench. Stupid.
6. Mo Walker is becoming unstoppable. Last night 5-7 shooting for 10 points, and one of the prettiest moves I can remember seeing from any Gopher post man in quite some time. Against Maverick Morgan he was able to use his size and strength to just bull his way to the rim, and against Egwu he used great footwork, footwork I didn't know he had, to get his shots. Walker needs to become a focal point, if not the focal point, of this offense going forward, and I don't mean as the screener on pick-and-rolls. The PF picking Walker's man on one block to spring him going across the lane and establishing position on the other block needs to be a staple for this team for the next two years.
7. I started the year hating Joey King, but I seem to find myself writing positive things about him every time I write lately. His offensive game continues to blossom week-by-week as he understands more and more that the team needs him to be a power forward and not just a three point specialist. He's added a little bit of a post game, which I wrote about last time, and in this game he did a really nice job passing the ball out of the high post, even totaling what I assume is a career high 4 assists. The one thing he does that is killing me is when he pump fakes at the three point line and gets his man to leave his feet - and then does nothing or just passes it off. Freaking put the ball on the ground and move, man! Even if it's just to side step and shoot a three do something! You've gained an advantage, don't squander it.
8. King's counterpart, however, was pretty much ignored and invisible. If you watched last night the Gophers ran several pick and rolls with Oto as the screener, and none of them came close to working on any level because Illinois didn't care what Oto did. Every time he'd pop out to the wing, but Illinois's defense would just double the ball handler and force him the other way. Oto would do the right thing and cut baseline to the opposite corner, but it was such an aggressive double team I think they managed to find him exactly once for a possible shot, which ended up either a turnover or a missed shot I don't remember. Might have been nice to actually roll towards the basket and see if that opened something up elsewhere, because the way they ran this with Oto it was worthless.
9. Daquein McNeil is going to be really good. If nothing else he's going to be a heady, smart guard and a plus defender. I don't think he's ever going to be a really dynamic scorer or distributor, but he should develop into the kind of off guard who can knock down the open shot, drive if it's there, and limit his mistakes. Take that along with his tremendous defense already, which should just get better, and he's got real potential. We've seen him play good defense in spurts, and he did a great job against Drew Crawford in the Northwestern game, but now he's getting more consistent with it. I noticed last night that he does a thing Aaron Craft is really good at in that he can sneak between his man and a ball screen, reducing the need for any kind of hedge while at the same time avoiding going under the screen and giving up a possible open jumper. It's a valuable skill, and McNeil already seems to have it.
10. Now we can relax. There certainly isn't a bright side to this loss, but if you stretch far enough to can at least talk yourself into thinking you'll enjoy the games more now that you can watch the rest of the games stress free. There's now zero reason to expect the Gophers to make the NCAA Tournament this year, and the really sad thing is it's not their performance against the top tier teams that's keeping them out, but a combined 2-4 against Nebraska, Northwestern, Purdue, and Illinois. With a very difficult schedule the rest of the way just sit back and enjoy the ride, and enjoy speculating on what teams we might get to see at the Barn in the NIT/CBI/CIT.
It's going to be nice for me to not worry too much about it the next couple of weeks because I'm going to be on a bit of a whirlwind. Next week I will be in New Mexico for the entire week (hopefully I'll get up to some drunk posting like old times), then I'm back for half a week and off to Florida for vacation for a week and a half. So it'll be nice to not be obsessing over the Gophers. Expect posts from New Mexico for sure, and probably one or two at least from Florida, just don't expect them to be 100% Gopher stuff. Kind of liberating.
Thursday, January 23, 2014
Gophers 81, Badgers 68
Great win. Fun win. Quickly on to the ten things I liked and didn't like:
1. What kind of 5-9 guy takes the ball right at a 7-footer and scores (twice!)? What more can we say about DeAndre Mathieu at this point? Guy is incredible. Try to imagine a guy 15 inches taller than you with enough athletic ability to be a major college major sport athlete, then try to imagine doing literally anything with him trying to stop you, yet Honey Gopher took it right at Frank Kaminsky twice at the rim and scored. Add in his ballhandling, passing ability, the best mid range jumper on the team, and his defense and I'm not so sure we should be talking about Andre Hollins as the best player on this team. There just are no words left for Mathieu. I think I've written positively about him after every single game. It's incredible that he was late JuCo signee. He's just so good.
2. Please baby santa jesus let Andre Hollins be ok. Yes that was a great win without him, and it didn't have the feel of a "uh oh our best player is hurt everybody raise your game" kind of emotional win, just a straight out outplayed a good team win. That makes me think that even worst case scenario, which I think I have already mentally prepared myself for, the Gophers will at least be ok. That being said, obviously this team will be in much better shape for any kind of March run with Dre on the court so please please please let him be ok. The timing is a bit of a break (I probably shouldn't use this word) because they just went through the toughest part of the schedule and have a relatively easier stretch coming, not to mention only one game in the next nine days so hopefully the rest will help. He's getting an MRI today, so hope for some good news [EDIT: I just read that the MRI came back negative. Whew. Hopefully he can rest up and only miss a game or two].
3. It would be impossible to talk about this game without mentioning Mo Walker. Wow, I never saw that coming. With Elliot Eliason in early foul trouble and most ineffective, Walker absolutely dominated the paint. He fought for post up position and when he got the ball he attacked the rim, especially whenever he had a smaller player on him, and off the ball he was all over the offensive glass. We got a glimpse of this against Ohio State when he had that miracle 60 seconds or whatever, but he put a full game together against Wisconsin and it was glorious. I'm not quite ready to say he's arrived - his footwork is still only so so and he has a tendency to wait to long to actually go up for the shot - but he's at least on the bus and on the way. Do you realize he had the second most shot attempts on the team in that game? No idea where that aggressiveness has suddenly come from, but I'm a big fan.
4. Speaking of big men, Nigel Hayes is going to be a nightmare. As good as Walker was, I came away more impressed with Hayes than anyone else outside Honey Gopher last night. That's about as polished a post game as I can remember seeing in a freshman in quite some time, and he's already nailing the mid range jump shot, and since he's a Badger you know that will eventually evolve into a 3-point shot a la Jon Leuer and countless others. He needs some defensive work as most freshman do, and he'll eventually become more aggressive, but he's already got the offensive game to be a force. Hopefully Bo Ryan does that thing where he makes him fall in love with the three pointer and stay off the block. That would really be ideal for everyone other than the Badgers and Badger fans and screw them.
5. I could not be more impressed with this team's offense. The Gophers scored 1.40 points per possession and once again crushed it on two point shots, shooting 59%. I've talked before about how I love a creative offense, but Pitino has gone completely away from that and with the team buying in it's working. It's basically become pick and rolls with the goal dribble penetration, and picks in the lane to help the big guys established good position on the block. They have pretty much become an attack the rim type team and a more patient team, and I'm in favor. I love how against bad teams they spread the floor and shot a bunch of threes, to where I believe they were at about 40% of all attempts were three pointers. Now in Big Ten play that number is just 33%, 7th in the conference. The Gophers only took 7 three pointers last night, and seeing as how they aren't a great shooting team using that shot when it's there rather than making it a main offensive weapon seems like a good way to go.
6. Related, the defense was....ok. Not to great, allowed 1.17 points per possession, but considering Wisconsin's season number is 1.20 I suppose we'll take it. I actually had trouble figuring out what exactly the Gophers were running, and at one point I thought it might have been a match-up zone. The more I watched, the more I realized it was a simple man-to-man but with extreme sagging into the lane away from the ball. That's good as far as taking away dribble penetration, which has killed the Gophers, but you're playing with fire against a good three point shooting team with basically at least four shooters on the floor at all times. Luckily the defensive energy was high and the Gophers were able to close out effectively when needed and the rotations were solid. It helped that the Badgers missed a few open looks, but all in all a decent defensive performance against a very, very good offensive team.
7. Malik Smith is a really valuable player. He's just steady, a rare quality for a chucker and it might even remove him from chucker status altogether. Do you know he has the best turnover rate on the team and one of the better ones for a guard in the conference? Sure he takes some shots that really can only be described as "kind of dumb" and sure when he tries to drive the lane it can sometimes look like the way fourth graders drive the lane (although that was working for him last night) but he seems to be a calming influence, and kind of a leader out there which I really wasn't expecting. He's learned how to fit into an offense where he isn't the #1 option, and has really dialed back his three point attempts. He even tries on defense. I thought I'd like him for his chuckeration, but I just like him as an overall piece of the team instead.
8. Joey King simply has to be better in the post. He's just fine as a spot up shooter and fits the stretch four role Pitino loves well in that regard, but a couple of times against Wisconsin he found himself on the block guarded by Ben Brust or Josh Gasser and when he got the ball he was unable to score and did so horribly. It's actually an improvement that he didn't travel. This needs to be his #1 offseason project. For all his faults, Oto Osenieks has become the clear best option at PF, although if he's ever the trigger man on a pick-and-roll again (which he was once last night, with predictable results) the entire team should be immediately benched for allowing that to happen.
9. Maybe the weirdest part of all this, is I never worried. Really. Usually a double digit second half lead has me wondering just how the Gophers are going to screw everything up. Usually an offense that's humming a long beautifully has me waiting for the six minute scoreless stretch that is bound to come up. And yeah I know that happened against Michigan and against Michigan State, but yesterday had a different feel. This team is fun to watch and they're confident, and they just seem to know what they're doing. Maybe that's faint praise, but watching this team is night and day from last season.
10. As of right now, the Gophers would be in the "Should be in" category of a Bubble Watch. As it stands right now, the Gophers would be pretty comfortably in the NCAA Tournament. An RPI of 21 (per ESPN) with the #4 Strength of Schedule, 3 wins over Top 20 RPI teams, and zero losses outside the Top 100 is pretty much a slam dunk case. That is why this next stretch is so important - we've seen Gopher teams rack up impressive computer numbers early, but we haven't seen one take care of business down the stretch in quite some time. The Gophers will be favored in six of the next seven games (@Nebraska, Northwestern, @Purdue, Indiana, @Northwestern, Illinois) with only a game in Madison to break up a relatively comfortable swing. 5-2 in this stretch would basically guarantee an NCAA bid, while 4-3 would still have them in good shape since they close with Penn State at home. This Gopher team has a chance to give Gopher fans a comfortable Selection Sunday, but that's something many Gopher teams have had an opportunity to provide, hopefully this is the one that actually comes through.
Up next is Nebraska in Lincoln, which is actually a pretty tough game. I will try to have a preview up at some point before tip-off.
1. What kind of 5-9 guy takes the ball right at a 7-footer and scores (twice!)? What more can we say about DeAndre Mathieu at this point? Guy is incredible. Try to imagine a guy 15 inches taller than you with enough athletic ability to be a major college major sport athlete, then try to imagine doing literally anything with him trying to stop you, yet Honey Gopher took it right at Frank Kaminsky twice at the rim and scored. Add in his ballhandling, passing ability, the best mid range jumper on the team, and his defense and I'm not so sure we should be talking about Andre Hollins as the best player on this team. There just are no words left for Mathieu. I think I've written positively about him after every single game. It's incredible that he was late JuCo signee. He's just so good.
2. Please baby santa jesus let Andre Hollins be ok. Yes that was a great win without him, and it didn't have the feel of a "uh oh our best player is hurt everybody raise your game" kind of emotional win, just a straight out outplayed a good team win. That makes me think that even worst case scenario, which I think I have already mentally prepared myself for, the Gophers will at least be ok. That being said, obviously this team will be in much better shape for any kind of March run with Dre on the court so please please please let him be ok. The timing is a bit of a break (I probably shouldn't use this word) because they just went through the toughest part of the schedule and have a relatively easier stretch coming, not to mention only one game in the next nine days so hopefully the rest will help. He's getting an MRI today, so hope for some good news [EDIT: I just read that the MRI came back negative. Whew. Hopefully he can rest up and only miss a game or two].
3. It would be impossible to talk about this game without mentioning Mo Walker. Wow, I never saw that coming. With Elliot Eliason in early foul trouble and most ineffective, Walker absolutely dominated the paint. He fought for post up position and when he got the ball he attacked the rim, especially whenever he had a smaller player on him, and off the ball he was all over the offensive glass. We got a glimpse of this against Ohio State when he had that miracle 60 seconds or whatever, but he put a full game together against Wisconsin and it was glorious. I'm not quite ready to say he's arrived - his footwork is still only so so and he has a tendency to wait to long to actually go up for the shot - but he's at least on the bus and on the way. Do you realize he had the second most shot attempts on the team in that game? No idea where that aggressiveness has suddenly come from, but I'm a big fan.
4. Speaking of big men, Nigel Hayes is going to be a nightmare. As good as Walker was, I came away more impressed with Hayes than anyone else outside Honey Gopher last night. That's about as polished a post game as I can remember seeing in a freshman in quite some time, and he's already nailing the mid range jump shot, and since he's a Badger you know that will eventually evolve into a 3-point shot a la Jon Leuer and countless others. He needs some defensive work as most freshman do, and he'll eventually become more aggressive, but he's already got the offensive game to be a force. Hopefully Bo Ryan does that thing where he makes him fall in love with the three pointer and stay off the block. That would really be ideal for everyone other than the Badgers and Badger fans and screw them.
5. I could not be more impressed with this team's offense. The Gophers scored 1.40 points per possession and once again crushed it on two point shots, shooting 59%. I've talked before about how I love a creative offense, but Pitino has gone completely away from that and with the team buying in it's working. It's basically become pick and rolls with the goal dribble penetration, and picks in the lane to help the big guys established good position on the block. They have pretty much become an attack the rim type team and a more patient team, and I'm in favor. I love how against bad teams they spread the floor and shot a bunch of threes, to where I believe they were at about 40% of all attempts were three pointers. Now in Big Ten play that number is just 33%, 7th in the conference. The Gophers only took 7 three pointers last night, and seeing as how they aren't a great shooting team using that shot when it's there rather than making it a main offensive weapon seems like a good way to go.
6. Related, the defense was....ok. Not to great, allowed 1.17 points per possession, but considering Wisconsin's season number is 1.20 I suppose we'll take it. I actually had trouble figuring out what exactly the Gophers were running, and at one point I thought it might have been a match-up zone. The more I watched, the more I realized it was a simple man-to-man but with extreme sagging into the lane away from the ball. That's good as far as taking away dribble penetration, which has killed the Gophers, but you're playing with fire against a good three point shooting team with basically at least four shooters on the floor at all times. Luckily the defensive energy was high and the Gophers were able to close out effectively when needed and the rotations were solid. It helped that the Badgers missed a few open looks, but all in all a decent defensive performance against a very, very good offensive team.
7. Malik Smith is a really valuable player. He's just steady, a rare quality for a chucker and it might even remove him from chucker status altogether. Do you know he has the best turnover rate on the team and one of the better ones for a guard in the conference? Sure he takes some shots that really can only be described as "kind of dumb" and sure when he tries to drive the lane it can sometimes look like the way fourth graders drive the lane (although that was working for him last night) but he seems to be a calming influence, and kind of a leader out there which I really wasn't expecting. He's learned how to fit into an offense where he isn't the #1 option, and has really dialed back his three point attempts. He even tries on defense. I thought I'd like him for his chuckeration, but I just like him as an overall piece of the team instead.
8. Joey King simply has to be better in the post. He's just fine as a spot up shooter and fits the stretch four role Pitino loves well in that regard, but a couple of times against Wisconsin he found himself on the block guarded by Ben Brust or Josh Gasser and when he got the ball he was unable to score and did so horribly. It's actually an improvement that he didn't travel. This needs to be his #1 offseason project. For all his faults, Oto Osenieks has become the clear best option at PF, although if he's ever the trigger man on a pick-and-roll again (which he was once last night, with predictable results) the entire team should be immediately benched for allowing that to happen.
9. Maybe the weirdest part of all this, is I never worried. Really. Usually a double digit second half lead has me wondering just how the Gophers are going to screw everything up. Usually an offense that's humming a long beautifully has me waiting for the six minute scoreless stretch that is bound to come up. And yeah I know that happened against Michigan and against Michigan State, but yesterday had a different feel. This team is fun to watch and they're confident, and they just seem to know what they're doing. Maybe that's faint praise, but watching this team is night and day from last season.
10. As of right now, the Gophers would be in the "Should be in" category of a Bubble Watch. As it stands right now, the Gophers would be pretty comfortably in the NCAA Tournament. An RPI of 21 (per ESPN) with the #4 Strength of Schedule, 3 wins over Top 20 RPI teams, and zero losses outside the Top 100 is pretty much a slam dunk case. That is why this next stretch is so important - we've seen Gopher teams rack up impressive computer numbers early, but we haven't seen one take care of business down the stretch in quite some time. The Gophers will be favored in six of the next seven games (@Nebraska, Northwestern, @Purdue, Indiana, @Northwestern, Illinois) with only a game in Madison to break up a relatively comfortable swing. 5-2 in this stretch would basically guarantee an NCAA bid, while 4-3 would still have them in good shape since they close with Penn State at home. This Gopher team has a chance to give Gopher fans a comfortable Selection Sunday, but that's something many Gopher teams have had an opportunity to provide, hopefully this is the one that actually comes through.
Up next is Nebraska in Lincoln, which is actually a pretty tough game. I will try to have a preview up at some point before tip-off.
Friday, January 17, 2014
Gophers 63, Ohio State 53
I had really hoped the Gophers would manage to snag one win out of this brutal four game stretch, and here it is - so now I hope they can get two. Sure, this win loses a little bit of luster since it was Ohio State's third straight loss, but they're going to be fine and this will still end up as a big time signature win at the end of the year.
Once again, 10 things I liked and didn't like about the game:
1. I never thought I'd type this sentence this season, but the Gophers dominated the inside. How good was Eliason yesterday? No, his footwork is never going to make you think of Olajuwon, but he's managed to harness his post up game into something good enough to at least make defenses pay attention to him, and his rebounding and defense have been absolutely top notch this year to the point where he has a legitimate case as Big Ten Defensive Player of the Year if they hadn't already decided to give it to Aaron Craft before the season started. Also have to mention Mo Walker last night, who did more good for this team in a 60 second span than he has the rest of his career combined. I knew Ohio State had some issues in the paint but Amir Williams is Rickert-soft, and the Gophers bigs made the Buckeyes pay.
2. The half-court offense was top notch. I said the Gophers would need to take advantage in transition if they were going to try to compete, but once again it shows why I'm not a coach and instead just write about basketball while drunk. I was concerned the Gophers would do that thing where they rely on the 3-ball in the half court and with OSU's perimeter defense that was never going to work. Well it didn't work as they made just 3, but they didn't rely on it either, shooting only 14. Instead they worked the ball around, were more patient than I can remember this team being - ever - and found good shots to where they shot 64% on two-point shots. 64%!!!! That's insane. Great game.
3. I don't think I'll ever feel comfortable with the power forward spot. Oto had a decent game, and I do like that he seems to have become the dude on the team who won't take any shit from anybody (something about having an Eastern Europeaner as the "enforcer" feels right), but it seems just about impossible for me to feel comfortable when he's in the game. What's worse, is that I actually audibly groan when he's taken out because King is even worse. I guess what I'm saying is, screw you NCAA for not giving us our Buckles (averaging 13 and 9 for FIU).
4. The defensive game plan was solid too. The pressure was soft with little to no trapping, which is a good plan against Craft and Shannon Scott if you're going to insist on pressing at all (and we know Pitino does) and half court was strictly zone, forcing the Buckeyes to beat you from the outside. I mentioned in my preview that this was a good plan, and it worked well with solid rotations in most cases and good overall fundamental defense. Their was a bit of an issue with LaQuinton Ross getting the ball at the free throw line and being able to score from there (he had 22) but they didn't let Craft or Scott beat them with penetration for the most part and the rebounded very well. Excellent game on both ends, both in planning and execution.
5. Craft and Scott are as good as advertised defensively. For all the hype I still came away impressed. Very quick feet, fundamentally sound, and both have about the quickest hands I can remember seeing. They also both have the basketball smarts to "jump routes" for lack of a better term, and each did it with success last night. I was also impressed with Craft's ability to go over a screen but slip between his man and the screener so he doesn't give up any ground. One other thing I noticed was that when the man they're guarding picks up the ball to pass sometimes rather than jump at him they'll jump back to try to get into the passing lane from close up, not every time, but it's not something I can recall seeing many guards do.
6. Daquein McNeil has clearly jumped Maverick in the rotation. Once again McNeil got the playing time that could have gone to Ahanmisi, and it's clear at this point that Pitino prefers the freshman. Could simply be he knows neither of them is great now, but McNeil figures into his future plans while Mav is gone after this season. McNeil certainly looks every bit the part of a freshman playing in the Big Ten for the first time, but to be fair most of the time so does Maverick. All I know is Dawger thinks it should be Mav, which pretty much tells me that going with McNeil in those spots is the absolute right move.
7. I have no idea what's going on with Austin Hollins. He did finally seem to snap out of his funk or whatever when he got his own rebound off a missed free throw and put it back in, later making a couple more FTs and getting a key steal, but he just looked lost out there for much of this game and really outside of the Purdue game hasn't been much of a factor in Big Ten play - or at least not a positive factor. At this point he seems to be having trouble with basic skills like dribbling and catching, and it's really weird. I don't know if it's a confidence issue or what, but given that Pitino seems to have raised the confidence level of pretty much every other player that seems unlikely. I'm going to chalk it up to he's pressing a bit given it's his senior year, and assume at some point the real Austin Hollins comes back. That would be helpful.
8. Did you ever think a late signing, 5-9 Juco point guard would be this good? I know I didn't, but thank god for the Honey Gopher who has clearly taken the point guard position over and allowed Dre Hollins to move to the #2, a move that helps the team immensely. There was a string there in the second half when it looked like Ohio State might be making a move, but Mathieu hit a couple of short jumpers in order to keep the Gophers ahead - as big as Mo's big stretch was, Mathieu's might have been even bigger. His assist to Dre to hit that monster three towards the end of the game was a thing of beauty, and a sign of a perfect match of player to coach as, in reality, the best move may have been to slow things down and run clock, but Mathieu has the freedom to run and create, and it worked to perfection. He's one of the most fun players to watch I can remember in a while. If you ever hear anyone say that Honey Gopher needs to slow down or play more in control I'm going to need you to hit them in the face with a shovel. Please. I don't ask you for much.
9. Turnovers remain an issue. 18 turnovers and a 29% turnover rate is absolutely horrendous, and pulling out a win despite those numbers just shows how well every other facet of the game went for the Gophers last night. In their five Big Ten games the Gophers are turning the ball over 21.8% of the time, dead last in the conference. This might be skewed a bit because the Gophers have already played the top two defenses in the conference in Michigan State and Ohio State, but no doubt this is a major concern.
10. An NCAA bid now becomes a very reasonable goal. The Gophers are now 14-4 and 3-2 in conference play, with an RPI of 26 and SoS of 13 (per ESPN), and two wins already over RPI Top 25 teams (Ohio State, Florida State) - those are some pretty awesome numbers, and based on the fact that the SoS will probably go up rather than down and the RPI is so good right now, I'll say nine Big Ten wins gets the Gophers in. Simple math says that means six more victories. These games are there for the taking: @Nebraska, Northwestern, @Northwestern, Illinois, Indiana, and Penn State. Those games will likely see the Gophers favored, and those are your six wins right there. There is also Purdue on the road which is certainly winnable. If the Gophers win all those they're in. If they lose one and win at Purdue they're in. And if they manage to win any of the other games, any at all, any other major upset, and it would take a pretty bad collapse to keep them out.
So, you know. Let's not do that.
Once again, 10 things I liked and didn't like about the game:
1. I never thought I'd type this sentence this season, but the Gophers dominated the inside. How good was Eliason yesterday? No, his footwork is never going to make you think of Olajuwon, but he's managed to harness his post up game into something good enough to at least make defenses pay attention to him, and his rebounding and defense have been absolutely top notch this year to the point where he has a legitimate case as Big Ten Defensive Player of the Year if they hadn't already decided to give it to Aaron Craft before the season started. Also have to mention Mo Walker last night, who did more good for this team in a 60 second span than he has the rest of his career combined. I knew Ohio State had some issues in the paint but Amir Williams is Rickert-soft, and the Gophers bigs made the Buckeyes pay.
2. The half-court offense was top notch. I said the Gophers would need to take advantage in transition if they were going to try to compete, but once again it shows why I'm not a coach and instead just write about basketball while drunk. I was concerned the Gophers would do that thing where they rely on the 3-ball in the half court and with OSU's perimeter defense that was never going to work. Well it didn't work as they made just 3, but they didn't rely on it either, shooting only 14. Instead they worked the ball around, were more patient than I can remember this team being - ever - and found good shots to where they shot 64% on two-point shots. 64%!!!! That's insane. Great game.
3. I don't think I'll ever feel comfortable with the power forward spot. Oto had a decent game, and I do like that he seems to have become the dude on the team who won't take any shit from anybody (something about having an Eastern Europeaner as the "enforcer" feels right), but it seems just about impossible for me to feel comfortable when he's in the game. What's worse, is that I actually audibly groan when he's taken out because King is even worse. I guess what I'm saying is, screw you NCAA for not giving us our Buckles (averaging 13 and 9 for FIU).
4. The defensive game plan was solid too. The pressure was soft with little to no trapping, which is a good plan against Craft and Shannon Scott if you're going to insist on pressing at all (and we know Pitino does) and half court was strictly zone, forcing the Buckeyes to beat you from the outside. I mentioned in my preview that this was a good plan, and it worked well with solid rotations in most cases and good overall fundamental defense. Their was a bit of an issue with LaQuinton Ross getting the ball at the free throw line and being able to score from there (he had 22) but they didn't let Craft or Scott beat them with penetration for the most part and the rebounded very well. Excellent game on both ends, both in planning and execution.
5. Craft and Scott are as good as advertised defensively. For all the hype I still came away impressed. Very quick feet, fundamentally sound, and both have about the quickest hands I can remember seeing. They also both have the basketball smarts to "jump routes" for lack of a better term, and each did it with success last night. I was also impressed with Craft's ability to go over a screen but slip between his man and the screener so he doesn't give up any ground. One other thing I noticed was that when the man they're guarding picks up the ball to pass sometimes rather than jump at him they'll jump back to try to get into the passing lane from close up, not every time, but it's not something I can recall seeing many guards do.
6. Daquein McNeil has clearly jumped Maverick in the rotation. Once again McNeil got the playing time that could have gone to Ahanmisi, and it's clear at this point that Pitino prefers the freshman. Could simply be he knows neither of them is great now, but McNeil figures into his future plans while Mav is gone after this season. McNeil certainly looks every bit the part of a freshman playing in the Big Ten for the first time, but to be fair most of the time so does Maverick. All I know is Dawger thinks it should be Mav, which pretty much tells me that going with McNeil in those spots is the absolute right move.
7. I have no idea what's going on with Austin Hollins. He did finally seem to snap out of his funk or whatever when he got his own rebound off a missed free throw and put it back in, later making a couple more FTs and getting a key steal, but he just looked lost out there for much of this game and really outside of the Purdue game hasn't been much of a factor in Big Ten play - or at least not a positive factor. At this point he seems to be having trouble with basic skills like dribbling and catching, and it's really weird. I don't know if it's a confidence issue or what, but given that Pitino seems to have raised the confidence level of pretty much every other player that seems unlikely. I'm going to chalk it up to he's pressing a bit given it's his senior year, and assume at some point the real Austin Hollins comes back. That would be helpful.
8. Did you ever think a late signing, 5-9 Juco point guard would be this good? I know I didn't, but thank god for the Honey Gopher who has clearly taken the point guard position over and allowed Dre Hollins to move to the #2, a move that helps the team immensely. There was a string there in the second half when it looked like Ohio State might be making a move, but Mathieu hit a couple of short jumpers in order to keep the Gophers ahead - as big as Mo's big stretch was, Mathieu's might have been even bigger. His assist to Dre to hit that monster three towards the end of the game was a thing of beauty, and a sign of a perfect match of player to coach as, in reality, the best move may have been to slow things down and run clock, but Mathieu has the freedom to run and create, and it worked to perfection. He's one of the most fun players to watch I can remember in a while. If you ever hear anyone say that Honey Gopher needs to slow down or play more in control I'm going to need you to hit them in the face with a shovel. Please. I don't ask you for much.
9. Turnovers remain an issue. 18 turnovers and a 29% turnover rate is absolutely horrendous, and pulling out a win despite those numbers just shows how well every other facet of the game went for the Gophers last night. In their five Big Ten games the Gophers are turning the ball over 21.8% of the time, dead last in the conference. This might be skewed a bit because the Gophers have already played the top two defenses in the conference in Michigan State and Ohio State, but no doubt this is a major concern.
10. An NCAA bid now becomes a very reasonable goal. The Gophers are now 14-4 and 3-2 in conference play, with an RPI of 26 and SoS of 13 (per ESPN), and two wins already over RPI Top 25 teams (Ohio State, Florida State) - those are some pretty awesome numbers, and based on the fact that the SoS will probably go up rather than down and the RPI is so good right now, I'll say nine Big Ten wins gets the Gophers in. Simple math says that means six more victories. These games are there for the taking: @Nebraska, Northwestern, @Northwestern, Illinois, Indiana, and Penn State. Those games will likely see the Gophers favored, and those are your six wins right there. There is also Purdue on the road which is certainly winnable. If the Gophers win all those they're in. If they lose one and win at Purdue they're in. And if they manage to win any of the other games, any at all, any other major upset, and it would take a pretty bad collapse to keep them out.
So, you know. Let's not do that.
Wednesday, January 8, 2014
Minnesota 68, Penn State 65
After the Purdue game I wrote "a win is a win." After this game, I'll say a road win in the Big Ten is a road win in the Big Ten. Despite one of the worst stretches of the season since the Arkansas game, the Gophers played a little better down the stretch, took advantage of some luck with Penn State's two best players fouling out, and got a conference road win. I'll take it. Mostly because I don't exactly have a choice. Anyway, here are 10 things I liked and didn't like about the Penn State game:
1. No matter how ugly the game was, the Gophers made the plays they needed to down the stretch. And yes, it was crazy ugly, but they did what they needed too. Malik Smith nailing four key free throws after not hitting a thing all day. DeAndre Mathieu with a huge steal and a huge tip in after struggling to score most of the first half. Austin Hollins, having maybe his worst game as a Gopher which is hard to envision after how he played against Michigan, coming up with an absolute monster steal right when the Gophers needed it. Maybe it doesn't get to that point if Frazier and Newbill don't foul out, and maybe none of those plays get made and Penn State coasts to a W. But guess what? They did, they didn't, and the Gophers did what they needed to win. It probably seems a bit Pollyanna-ish, which is generally against my character, but screw it, this is most likely a lost year between coaches anyway, so I'm gonna take what I can get.
2. Nobody, and I mean nobody, could stop Tim Frazier. Mathieu tried, both Hollinses tried, even Ahanmisi tried and it didn't matter, because Frazier could get into the lane whenever he wanted - and he wanted to a lot. And I don't know if it was by design as an overreaction to the end of the Purdue game, but it seemed like every time Frazier (or one of their crappy guards, even) got into the lane the Gopher help hung back, giving Frazier floater after floater after floater as the world's worst announcing team was happy to tell you over and over and over again. Luckily he fouled out right as we were getting down to it, and I don't think the Gophers win that game if he's still on the floor because, like I said, the Gophers had zero ability to stop his dribble penetration.
That's now three straight Big Ten games and dribble penetration has been a major, major issue in all three, and most of it is coming off ball screens. Early in the game, when the Gophers had control, the big men were hedging well and pushing the ball handler out until the screened man could recover and all was well. Then it all went to shit. The Gopher bigs started hedging too early or too late, and when Penn State started doing the double pick at the top of the key for Frazier the Gophers basically started committing four players to dealing with it, which meant there were skip passes available. I'm starting to think the Gophers just don't have the personnel to handle most Big Ten teams defensively, and that's no good for anyone.
3. Elliott can kind of control the paint. Another double double with four blocks, and it looked early like the Gopher game plan was going to force feed him the ball on the block and it was working. Even when Mo was in getting him the ball down low was working offensively. Then the Gophers decided to go completely away from that strategy and become a jump shooting team again. Do you know that Eliason only had two field goal attempts in the second half, and one of them came on a tip in? Not that he should be getting a ton of FGAs, but when he's demonstrated already that Penn State struggles to guard him I wouldn't mind seeing a touch or two, you know? And I'm not even sure Walker played in the second half. I can't believe I'm saying this, but against most teams Elliott needs to be an offensive focal point, just for variety's sake. Not against Michigan State.
3. I've always been an Oto defender, but he's just lost out there far too often. He has no idea where to go on defense, and that goes for both his positioning as well as things like hedging on screens and help defense. These things aren't new, but as his playing time becomes more and more high profile they just stand out more and more. Then he does things like, let's a pass go through his legs five hole style and then falls down trying to go after it which leads to a Penn State lay-up, or he let's himself get pushed under the basket on a Penn State free throw leading to a Nittany Lion rebound in a big, big, big spot. And it's not like it's just this game, you can point to at least 2-3 mistakes of his each game, easy. I think he's got some offensive ability as the jump shot seems to have come back as Pitino's given him more confidence to take open shots, and he brilliantly slipped a screen at one point and then nailed the 18 footer, but I really don't know if he can offset his piss poor defense with his mediocre offense. Then again, the only other choice at the 4 spot is a Joey King who completely panics any time he has the ball in a non scoring position, so really Pitino is pretty well screwed here.
4. Speaking of things that are horrible, Stephen Bardo is just the worst announcer ever. Repetitious, stating the obvious, creating a narrative and sticking with it no matter what, repetitious, infatuated with anyone banking in a shot, and he tends to repeat the same thing over and over again. Honestly, how many times did you hear that the Gophers were the best free throw shooting team in the Big Ten but were having a bad game? Or that it was a miracle Penn State was winning even though Newbill was barely playing due to foul trouble? How about him trying to sell the fact that bad free throw shooting is contagious. Seriously, once I noticed how horrible he was I kept waiting to see if he'd bring any insight at all to the broadcast, and he did - once. When Oto slipped that screen mentioned above, Bardo made sure to point it out and even explain it. But that was it. There was literally not one single other word he uttered that added to the broadcast. Someone should light his car on fire.
5. I'm all for consistency and installing a system, but if it's not working I'm not sure sticking with it makes sense. Naturally I'm talking about the press, which wasn't working and was creating easy buckets for Penn State who kept beating the Gophers down the floor and creating odd man rush situations and wasn't creating any turnovers or easy baskets for Minnesota. I suppose I shouldn't have expected it, given that he never backed off when Arkansas was shredding the Gophers. Normally I would say you need to adapt your system to your personnel and if it's not working it's not working, but in this case I think I'm ok with it. Pitino likely knows his ceiling is an NCAA bid this year and next and it's not likely either team will have much of any chance to go further, so it's all about building his brand for the class of 2015 and beyond. Let those kids see how Minnesota basketball is balls to the wall and fun fun fun for 40 minutes and hope it pays dividends. It's going to cause some ugly situations, like tonight, but it should pay off down the road. I hope. Please.
6. Penn State doubled on a lot of ball screens, and neither team took advantage. The point of doubling on a ball screen of course, is to create turnovers, and although the Gophers turned it over an uncomfortable 14 times I can't remember even one coming off of a Penn State double. If you're not turning it over on a double, that means you should be able to find an open man and unless the defensive rotations are very tight you should be able to get an open shot. That didn't happen either. And it wasn't because Penn State's rotations were so great, more that the Gophers were slow to swing the ball, or hesitant to drive the ball, or just couldn't make the right pass. Overall the Gopher offense was pretty rough tonight, and getting a win on a night when things just aren't working properly is probably a good sign. Or not. I don't know. This team is frustrating.
7. Malik Smith has proven himself to be a very valuable Gopher, but I'm not exactly sure he should be driving the paint. I love a lot of what he brings, and my buddy, "The Bear" has taken to calling him J.R. after J.R. Smith which is pretty much perfect, but when he puts the ball on the floor and drives it's an adventure. As with all true chuckers, which Malik most definitely is even though he has toned it down a bit from his FIU days, once he has the ball in the paint he's damn sure he's going to be able to score which leads to some, um, creative moves. And creative can work, just look at Mathieu and Dre Hollins when they get into the lane, but that's not exactly something that's in his skill set. When he puts his head down and heads to the hole it's kind of like Mav bringing the ball up against the press - just hope things don't go too terribly wrong and somebody gets lucky.
8. Dre Mathieu's gambling finally paid off. Dre has a habit of going after a steal, and I don't mean jumping passing lanes, I mean he tries to pick pockets all the freaking time. He loves both not moving his feet and swiping at the ball in front of him and trying to sneak around behind a ball handler and poke the ball out from behind. I can't actually remember any of this working for him this year, although with a steal rate in the top 70 of the country it must have happened, but I remember plenty of times he put himself completely out of proper defensive position. Tonight, however, he managed to poke the ball away from whoever it was that's Penn State's third ball handler is in one of the biggest spots of the game and, I guess, the season so far. I've said I like my point guard a little bit reckless, and that includes defense when you're as fast with hands as quick as Mathieu's, so I'm ok with all this, I'm just happy to see it pay off in a big, big way.
9. Speaking of the Honey Gopher, he just doesn't quit and I love it. Mathieu's best move is to drive way into the lane, probably too far truth be told, and then figure out what he's doing from there. At just 5-9 and against Big Ten big men, both in size and ability, this can lead to some really ugly shots and/or turnovers - and it has, no doubt. But in a situation where that wasn't working many less confident players would change their game and start playing differently, but Honey Gopher just kept pounding away and it paid off huge for Minnesota with him scoring the team's last four field goals including two absolute monsters. He's proven himself to be a huge late get for Pitino, and he's perfect for what Pitino wants to do on both sides of the court. I am a big, big fan.
10. Illinois is ranked?!??!?! How can this be? I'm watching the game and all of a sudden the flash up "Next, #23 Illinois takes on #4 Wisconsin" and I was like, wait, Illinois is ranked? The same team who lost to Georgia freaking Tech? The same team who almost lost to UIC, IPFW, and Dartmouth? The team whose best win was a lucky one over Missouri? Sorry folks, but Illinois is terrible. Completely terrible. Fact. And losing to Wisconsin by like, a hundred or something just proves I'm right. You watch, the Gophers will lose by less at Wisconsin than Illinois, and that's a guarantee I would have made before tonight, too.
Alright so I admit most of these things sound negative even though they won, but seriously that was a really ugly win. There is, and I'm not saying anything you don't know, a whole lot of major flaws with this team and right now it's really difficult to envision them upsetting any of the top tier Big Ten teams. Right now I can come up with 6 maybe 7 more games they really should win, but 3 of those are on the road so it's hard to think they can take all 3 down. They're going to need to win the games they should and steal at least 1, two depending on how many the drop where they shouldn't. It's going to be awfully tough to get an NCAA bid, but hey, what the hell, right? I'll just enjoy the ride. Until I end up throwing the remote at my TV. But if I didn't do it tonight, maybe I'm actually a level headed fan? Seems unlikely, but hey, on Boy Meets World Eric goes from a girl obsessed but mostly normal teenager to a completely ditzy buffoon of a college kid, so I guess anything is possible.
1. No matter how ugly the game was, the Gophers made the plays they needed to down the stretch. And yes, it was crazy ugly, but they did what they needed too. Malik Smith nailing four key free throws after not hitting a thing all day. DeAndre Mathieu with a huge steal and a huge tip in after struggling to score most of the first half. Austin Hollins, having maybe his worst game as a Gopher which is hard to envision after how he played against Michigan, coming up with an absolute monster steal right when the Gophers needed it. Maybe it doesn't get to that point if Frazier and Newbill don't foul out, and maybe none of those plays get made and Penn State coasts to a W. But guess what? They did, they didn't, and the Gophers did what they needed to win. It probably seems a bit Pollyanna-ish, which is generally against my character, but screw it, this is most likely a lost year between coaches anyway, so I'm gonna take what I can get.
2. Nobody, and I mean nobody, could stop Tim Frazier. Mathieu tried, both Hollinses tried, even Ahanmisi tried and it didn't matter, because Frazier could get into the lane whenever he wanted - and he wanted to a lot. And I don't know if it was by design as an overreaction to the end of the Purdue game, but it seemed like every time Frazier (or one of their crappy guards, even) got into the lane the Gopher help hung back, giving Frazier floater after floater after floater as the world's worst announcing team was happy to tell you over and over and over again. Luckily he fouled out right as we were getting down to it, and I don't think the Gophers win that game if he's still on the floor because, like I said, the Gophers had zero ability to stop his dribble penetration.
That's now three straight Big Ten games and dribble penetration has been a major, major issue in all three, and most of it is coming off ball screens. Early in the game, when the Gophers had control, the big men were hedging well and pushing the ball handler out until the screened man could recover and all was well. Then it all went to shit. The Gopher bigs started hedging too early or too late, and when Penn State started doing the double pick at the top of the key for Frazier the Gophers basically started committing four players to dealing with it, which meant there were skip passes available. I'm starting to think the Gophers just don't have the personnel to handle most Big Ten teams defensively, and that's no good for anyone.
3. Elliott can kind of control the paint. Another double double with four blocks, and it looked early like the Gopher game plan was going to force feed him the ball on the block and it was working. Even when Mo was in getting him the ball down low was working offensively. Then the Gophers decided to go completely away from that strategy and become a jump shooting team again. Do you know that Eliason only had two field goal attempts in the second half, and one of them came on a tip in? Not that he should be getting a ton of FGAs, but when he's demonstrated already that Penn State struggles to guard him I wouldn't mind seeing a touch or two, you know? And I'm not even sure Walker played in the second half. I can't believe I'm saying this, but against most teams Elliott needs to be an offensive focal point, just for variety's sake. Not against Michigan State.
3. I've always been an Oto defender, but he's just lost out there far too often. He has no idea where to go on defense, and that goes for both his positioning as well as things like hedging on screens and help defense. These things aren't new, but as his playing time becomes more and more high profile they just stand out more and more. Then he does things like, let's a pass go through his legs five hole style and then falls down trying to go after it which leads to a Penn State lay-up, or he let's himself get pushed under the basket on a Penn State free throw leading to a Nittany Lion rebound in a big, big, big spot. And it's not like it's just this game, you can point to at least 2-3 mistakes of his each game, easy. I think he's got some offensive ability as the jump shot seems to have come back as Pitino's given him more confidence to take open shots, and he brilliantly slipped a screen at one point and then nailed the 18 footer, but I really don't know if he can offset his piss poor defense with his mediocre offense. Then again, the only other choice at the 4 spot is a Joey King who completely panics any time he has the ball in a non scoring position, so really Pitino is pretty well screwed here.
4. Speaking of things that are horrible, Stephen Bardo is just the worst announcer ever. Repetitious, stating the obvious, creating a narrative and sticking with it no matter what, repetitious, infatuated with anyone banking in a shot, and he tends to repeat the same thing over and over again. Honestly, how many times did you hear that the Gophers were the best free throw shooting team in the Big Ten but were having a bad game? Or that it was a miracle Penn State was winning even though Newbill was barely playing due to foul trouble? How about him trying to sell the fact that bad free throw shooting is contagious. Seriously, once I noticed how horrible he was I kept waiting to see if he'd bring any insight at all to the broadcast, and he did - once. When Oto slipped that screen mentioned above, Bardo made sure to point it out and even explain it. But that was it. There was literally not one single other word he uttered that added to the broadcast. Someone should light his car on fire.
5. I'm all for consistency and installing a system, but if it's not working I'm not sure sticking with it makes sense. Naturally I'm talking about the press, which wasn't working and was creating easy buckets for Penn State who kept beating the Gophers down the floor and creating odd man rush situations and wasn't creating any turnovers or easy baskets for Minnesota. I suppose I shouldn't have expected it, given that he never backed off when Arkansas was shredding the Gophers. Normally I would say you need to adapt your system to your personnel and if it's not working it's not working, but in this case I think I'm ok with it. Pitino likely knows his ceiling is an NCAA bid this year and next and it's not likely either team will have much of any chance to go further, so it's all about building his brand for the class of 2015 and beyond. Let those kids see how Minnesota basketball is balls to the wall and fun fun fun for 40 minutes and hope it pays dividends. It's going to cause some ugly situations, like tonight, but it should pay off down the road. I hope. Please.
6. Penn State doubled on a lot of ball screens, and neither team took advantage. The point of doubling on a ball screen of course, is to create turnovers, and although the Gophers turned it over an uncomfortable 14 times I can't remember even one coming off of a Penn State double. If you're not turning it over on a double, that means you should be able to find an open man and unless the defensive rotations are very tight you should be able to get an open shot. That didn't happen either. And it wasn't because Penn State's rotations were so great, more that the Gophers were slow to swing the ball, or hesitant to drive the ball, or just couldn't make the right pass. Overall the Gopher offense was pretty rough tonight, and getting a win on a night when things just aren't working properly is probably a good sign. Or not. I don't know. This team is frustrating.
7. Malik Smith has proven himself to be a very valuable Gopher, but I'm not exactly sure he should be driving the paint. I love a lot of what he brings, and my buddy, "The Bear" has taken to calling him J.R. after J.R. Smith which is pretty much perfect, but when he puts the ball on the floor and drives it's an adventure. As with all true chuckers, which Malik most definitely is even though he has toned it down a bit from his FIU days, once he has the ball in the paint he's damn sure he's going to be able to score which leads to some, um, creative moves. And creative can work, just look at Mathieu and Dre Hollins when they get into the lane, but that's not exactly something that's in his skill set. When he puts his head down and heads to the hole it's kind of like Mav bringing the ball up against the press - just hope things don't go too terribly wrong and somebody gets lucky.
8. Dre Mathieu's gambling finally paid off. Dre has a habit of going after a steal, and I don't mean jumping passing lanes, I mean he tries to pick pockets all the freaking time. He loves both not moving his feet and swiping at the ball in front of him and trying to sneak around behind a ball handler and poke the ball out from behind. I can't actually remember any of this working for him this year, although with a steal rate in the top 70 of the country it must have happened, but I remember plenty of times he put himself completely out of proper defensive position. Tonight, however, he managed to poke the ball away from whoever it was that's Penn State's third ball handler is in one of the biggest spots of the game and, I guess, the season so far. I've said I like my point guard a little bit reckless, and that includes defense when you're as fast with hands as quick as Mathieu's, so I'm ok with all this, I'm just happy to see it pay off in a big, big way.
9. Speaking of the Honey Gopher, he just doesn't quit and I love it. Mathieu's best move is to drive way into the lane, probably too far truth be told, and then figure out what he's doing from there. At just 5-9 and against Big Ten big men, both in size and ability, this can lead to some really ugly shots and/or turnovers - and it has, no doubt. But in a situation where that wasn't working many less confident players would change their game and start playing differently, but Honey Gopher just kept pounding away and it paid off huge for Minnesota with him scoring the team's last four field goals including two absolute monsters. He's proven himself to be a huge late get for Pitino, and he's perfect for what Pitino wants to do on both sides of the court. I am a big, big fan.
10. Illinois is ranked?!??!?! How can this be? I'm watching the game and all of a sudden the flash up "Next, #23 Illinois takes on #4 Wisconsin" and I was like, wait, Illinois is ranked? The same team who lost to Georgia freaking Tech? The same team who almost lost to UIC, IPFW, and Dartmouth? The team whose best win was a lucky one over Missouri? Sorry folks, but Illinois is terrible. Completely terrible. Fact. And losing to Wisconsin by like, a hundred or something just proves I'm right. You watch, the Gophers will lose by less at Wisconsin than Illinois, and that's a guarantee I would have made before tonight, too.
Alright so I admit most of these things sound negative even though they won, but seriously that was a really ugly win. There is, and I'm not saying anything you don't know, a whole lot of major flaws with this team and right now it's really difficult to envision them upsetting any of the top tier Big Ten teams. Right now I can come up with 6 maybe 7 more games they really should win, but 3 of those are on the road so it's hard to think they can take all 3 down. They're going to need to win the games they should and steal at least 1, two depending on how many the drop where they shouldn't. It's going to be awfully tough to get an NCAA bid, but hey, what the hell, right? I'll just enjoy the ride. Until I end up throwing the remote at my TV. But if I didn't do it tonight, maybe I'm actually a level headed fan? Seems unlikely, but hey, on Boy Meets World Eric goes from a girl obsessed but mostly normal teenager to a completely ditzy buffoon of a college kid, so I guess anything is possible.
Wednesday, November 13, 2013
Gophers 84, Montana 58
Well that couldn't have gone much better. Montana is a step up from Lehigh and will be in the running for an NCAA bid (by winning the Big Sky, not at-large) and the Gophers simply crushed them. The press hassled Montana from the get go and helped the Gophers jump out to a big lead they'd never relinquish. The Gophers (still questionable, imo) front court was able to destroy the Grizzlies on the glass 45-29. Although the rebounding margin should be celebrated too excessively given that Montana is a horrendous rebounding team, for the Gophers it is definitely a step in the right direction. The Gophers also unleashed the three, which will likely end up being a big part of their offense, and hit 11 of 25. Much of the Gophers success this year will be determined by their ability to create turnovers with the press while limiting their own, being competitive on the glass, and being able to hit the outside shot. I'd say this game was an A+.
Player-by-Player:
Dre Hollins - simply a star. He looks like he's taking his game to another level, and he's a rare player who can score from three, taking it to the rim, or with a mid-range jumper and can do all efficiently. His free throw shooting will be a huge asset this year with the new rules continually putting driving guards at the line. The addition of Mathieu makes him even better because he can play off the ball and run off of screens.
Dre Mathieu - I love watching him play. He may get himself in a little too deep driving the ball from time-to-time, but that's just his mentality - he gets the ball and looks to drive. His excellent vision is going to create a lot of open shots for teammates, and he's so fast he should be able to get to the line quite a bit simply by taking it right at his defender and creating contact before they can get out of the way.
Austin Hollins - I have a feeling these three are going to be talked about a lot this year. Austin continues to have a clear sense of purpose, confidence, and leadership, and when he needed to help out in the paint he just went ahead and grabbed 10 rebounds. Very much a senior year Damian Johnson type of feel to him right now in terms of leadership and just rising to the occasion.
Elliott Eliason - He's starting to develop and almost adequate offensive game, and his defense and rebounding are absolutely crucial to this team as the only real post presence (we'll see about Mo when he's back). Even when his numbers aren't there (they were last night with 8 boards and 5 blocks), he alters enough shots and takes up enough space to make the defense much better. Whenever Eliason is in foul trouble it is going to be a very big deal.
Oto Osenieks - Hit two threes and grabbed six rebounds and finished without a single turnover. You can actually see his confidence starting to return after the combination of a horrible year and Tubby somehow reduced him to worthless. I said before the year started that if he could find his shot he would be able to thrive in the type of system Pitino is going for, and although he isn't nearly there yet he's moving in the right direction.
Joey King - Still drives me crazy, but at least he dialed back the perimeter stuff and attempted six two point shots compared to just one three point shot. Managed just two rebounds in 15 minutes, and one of them was tipped out to him on the perimeter. Also clapped for himself when he made a shot.
Malik Smith - Any time someone is described as a streaky shooter you know what you're getting, and right now Smith isn't looking impressive at just 3-11 while doing absolutely nothing else on the court. I assume at some point the buckets will start falling and he'll probably basically win a game for the Gophers single handedly. At least that's the hope.
Maverick Ahanmisi - I don't even know what to write about Mav anymore. He's questionable with the ball, passable defensively, rebounds well for his position, and can knock down an open shot. Rinse, repeat.
Wally Ellenson - I have no idea why he's on the team other than as a ploy to try to get his brother to commit here. Amazing athlete without much skill. Loves to shoot.
All in all, I'm very encouraged by that game as I expected the Gophers to struggle, at least a little bit, before ending up with a low double-digit win. I certainly didn't expect them to nearly win by 30. Everything went right that game, but things get a lot tougher this weekend with a trip to Richmond. The Spiders are a step up from Montana (I like the first three game opponent difficulty progression quite a bit) and being on the road is always dicey. After tonight, confidence is high, however when I write my later this week I suspect I will talk myself out of it.
Player-by-Player:
Dre Hollins - simply a star. He looks like he's taking his game to another level, and he's a rare player who can score from three, taking it to the rim, or with a mid-range jumper and can do all efficiently. His free throw shooting will be a huge asset this year with the new rules continually putting driving guards at the line. The addition of Mathieu makes him even better because he can play off the ball and run off of screens.
Dre Mathieu - I love watching him play. He may get himself in a little too deep driving the ball from time-to-time, but that's just his mentality - he gets the ball and looks to drive. His excellent vision is going to create a lot of open shots for teammates, and he's so fast he should be able to get to the line quite a bit simply by taking it right at his defender and creating contact before they can get out of the way.
Austin Hollins - I have a feeling these three are going to be talked about a lot this year. Austin continues to have a clear sense of purpose, confidence, and leadership, and when he needed to help out in the paint he just went ahead and grabbed 10 rebounds. Very much a senior year Damian Johnson type of feel to him right now in terms of leadership and just rising to the occasion.
Elliott Eliason - He's starting to develop and almost adequate offensive game, and his defense and rebounding are absolutely crucial to this team as the only real post presence (we'll see about Mo when he's back). Even when his numbers aren't there (they were last night with 8 boards and 5 blocks), he alters enough shots and takes up enough space to make the defense much better. Whenever Eliason is in foul trouble it is going to be a very big deal.
Oto Osenieks - Hit two threes and grabbed six rebounds and finished without a single turnover. You can actually see his confidence starting to return after the combination of a horrible year and Tubby somehow reduced him to worthless. I said before the year started that if he could find his shot he would be able to thrive in the type of system Pitino is going for, and although he isn't nearly there yet he's moving in the right direction.
Joey King - Still drives me crazy, but at least he dialed back the perimeter stuff and attempted six two point shots compared to just one three point shot. Managed just two rebounds in 15 minutes, and one of them was tipped out to him on the perimeter. Also clapped for himself when he made a shot.
Malik Smith - Any time someone is described as a streaky shooter you know what you're getting, and right now Smith isn't looking impressive at just 3-11 while doing absolutely nothing else on the court. I assume at some point the buckets will start falling and he'll probably basically win a game for the Gophers single handedly. At least that's the hope.
Maverick Ahanmisi - I don't even know what to write about Mav anymore. He's questionable with the ball, passable defensively, rebounds well for his position, and can knock down an open shot. Rinse, repeat.
Wally Ellenson - I have no idea why he's on the team other than as a ploy to try to get his brother to commit here. Amazing athlete without much skill. Loves to shoot.
All in all, I'm very encouraged by that game as I expected the Gophers to struggle, at least a little bit, before ending up with a low double-digit win. I certainly didn't expect them to nearly win by 30. Everything went right that game, but things get a lot tougher this weekend with a trip to Richmond. The Spiders are a step up from Montana (I like the first three game opponent difficulty progression quite a bit) and being on the road is always dicey. After tonight, confidence is high, however when I write my later this week I suspect I will talk myself out of it.
Saturday, October 19, 2013
Notes from #RaiseTheBarn Scrimmage
I attended the open scrimmage on Friday night, sort of, and these are some impressions I came away with. Keeping in mind it's an officiated scrimmage so it's kind of tough to get a true read on everything, I had to leave at halftime because WonderbabyTM (who is now 5 if you can believe that) hates fun, and I had to manage potty breaks, popcorn, and Mello Yello so take these for what it's worth.
- The seniors look extremely confident, as seniors tend to before a breakout year. As such I feel confident predicting a true breakout year for Austin Hollins. He's never been a shrinking violet or anything (that's a thing, right?) but he was carrying himself with a little bit of swagger out there, and I love it. Going to be a big year. As for Maverick, he is carrying himself with a lot more confidence as well. I have no idea what that might mean, but I'm guessing it's either going to be real good, a total disaster, or mean very little change at all. I'm out on a limb here.
- Mo Walker looks like a completely different person. I'm serious, he looks completely different. He looks like a normal human being instead of a fat one, like when Jack Black lost all that weight for a little while and still wasn't funny. I tried to watch him to see if there was a difference in his agility or athletic ability, and although I was pretty distracted I didn't notice anything different at all which sucks. I always thought Mo had a good amount of potential, mainly because he was a very good passing big man as a freshman which generally bodes well for overall skills, but whether it was the knee injury or just how he always was the lack of athletic ability is a major anchor, as it were. Hopefully something changes, because otherwise gross.
- On that note, power forward is going to be a serious, serious problem. I can already tell Joey King is going to drive me absolutely crazy. He rarely steps inside the three point line on offense, doesn't appear to have either the strength, instincts, or drive to be a great rebounder, and I don't think he's big or strong enough to play defense in the Big Ten. Maybe worse, against the press tonight twice he helped break it and then committed the major fundamental mistake of picking up his dribble right after he crossed half court, leading to a another trapping situation, and a turnover one of the times. That kind of shit isn't going to fly. I'm very nervous for the Joey King era.
- Believe it or not, the PF who looked the best tonight was Oto-matic. I won't say he seemed confident because he didn't, but he didn't look like a shell of a person like he did most of last season. I actually saw him make a 3-pointer which I think is more than he made all last season, and I saw him get an offensive rebound which may have been the only one a Gopher got tonight (seriously rebounding and inside play is going to be a major, major deal). I'm not saying he looked great, just that he looked the best of all the PF candidates. So scary.
- The other PF candidates, Wally Ellenson and Charles Buggs were less than inspiring. Ellenson is crazy athletic and not remotely shy about trying to score or flying around, all of which are promising, while Buggs, well, Buggs isn't what I hoped Buggs would be. I thought he could be the long, range-y, semi-athletic big guy with a good perimeter shot in the mold of KG, Hakim Warrick, and JaJuan Johnson. Yeah my bad. He still has plenty of time to turn into something like that, but he's not there yet. No, he is not.
- Dre Hollins was pretty much in coast mode, which I'm cool with considering he's the best player on the team (OR IS HE?!?!?!?!). Nothing wrong with letting everyone else get involved in a thing like this where it doesn't count. When he did decide to take over a couple of times, he scored. So we cool.
- It was sweet to see a little bit of offensive innovation, if by innovation you mean things pretty much every other team was doing besides the Gophers. If you think back to the Tubby Smith era, you'll remember that the Gophers ran 3 plays: Flex, 3-man weave 30 feet from the hoop, and pass the ball sluggishly around the perimeter until the shot clock runs out. I was a fan of none of these plays, for the record. Anyway, I noticed three things: they actually ran a pick-and-roll, while running said pick-and-roll there was another screen to free a shooter at the same time (2 plays in one!!), and the 3-man weave happened but it was far closer in and looked more like the dribble drive thing Calipari loves so much. If nothing else, seeing these plays made me weep with joy until WonderbabyTM asked me if I was crying and I was like "no it's really dusty in here" and then she was like "no it's not" and then I was like "shut up, you can't even spell."
- Those who are aware of my crippling obsession over Rico Tucker have pointed out to me that Dre Mathieu sounds an awful lot like him and fully expect me to fall in love all over again like it's just that easy to go from guy to guy. Well I did so shut up, no slut shaming allowed on this blog. He's just like Rico Tucker if Rico was slightly less athletic but had played two years of Juco with a coach who knew how to reign him in and teach him to play in control instead of playing for a coach who had no idea what to do with an all-world talent who needed to be harnessed.
Mathieu is super fast, but he uses it as a weapon rather than looking like my kid trying to play Mario Kart on 150cc. He kind of reminded me of Phil Pressey, formerly of Missouri, but where Pressey was always looking to use his penetration skills (like me with your mom) to set up somebody else (which is good) Mathieu is generally looking to score (also good). He strikes me as a nearly perfect 6th man to help jump start the offense. Of course if he keeps scoring a billion points all the time it's going to be tough to keep him out of the starting lineup. Or my dreams.
- The other newcomers probably deserve to be talked about just so I can give my spot on impressions. Malik Smith shot about a million three pointers and missed all of them, but that's ok I guess because he's a shooter or something. Obviously I'm not dumb enough to judge a shooter on one scrimmage so we'll just see what we see I guess. I noticed nothing else about him. Daquein still doesn't have a second A in his name and I saw him hit a three-pointer and that was pretty much it. In retrospect this note is pretty much worthless, but seeing as I don't believe in retrospect it's staying.
- The press was interesting to me. It kind of looked like a good ole fashioned diamond press, but the off guy of the three at the front never left his man to guard the most obvious pass recipient - the guy who passed it in from out of bounds. I watch a ton of college hoops, obvs, but have never really paid a ton of attention to the Xs and Os of the press so I don't know if this is a thing now or what, but I'm not familiar with it. And like an old man with a Tivo I'm uncomfortable with things I don't understand. Now, in a way it's kind of genius because in theory most teams make their shitty ball handling power forward throw it in, so if you just trap the PG and make that dude bring it up and trap him when he picks up his dribble right after crossing half court (Joey King -> hi) it could work out well. I'm very interested to see how this goes.
- Overall the team seemed much more uptempo, did a lot more trapping of many varieties on defense, and was more varied on offense. Again, I know it's a stupid scrimmage but they looked pretty good. I would say that they're going to get killed on the boards and by teams who are talented in the front court because they quite literally only have one guy who can play post defense or rebound, but because of the way the team is constructed they'll probably pull off at least one upset because they have so many guys who can score on the perimeter and shoot the 3. Some game they'll go like 14-24 from three and knock off Michigan or something. It should be fun. And horribly maddening.
- The seniors look extremely confident, as seniors tend to before a breakout year. As such I feel confident predicting a true breakout year for Austin Hollins. He's never been a shrinking violet or anything (that's a thing, right?) but he was carrying himself with a little bit of swagger out there, and I love it. Going to be a big year. As for Maverick, he is carrying himself with a lot more confidence as well. I have no idea what that might mean, but I'm guessing it's either going to be real good, a total disaster, or mean very little change at all. I'm out on a limb here.
- Mo Walker looks like a completely different person. I'm serious, he looks completely different. He looks like a normal human being instead of a fat one, like when Jack Black lost all that weight for a little while and still wasn't funny. I tried to watch him to see if there was a difference in his agility or athletic ability, and although I was pretty distracted I didn't notice anything different at all which sucks. I always thought Mo had a good amount of potential, mainly because he was a very good passing big man as a freshman which generally bodes well for overall skills, but whether it was the knee injury or just how he always was the lack of athletic ability is a major anchor, as it were. Hopefully something changes, because otherwise gross.
- On that note, power forward is going to be a serious, serious problem. I can already tell Joey King is going to drive me absolutely crazy. He rarely steps inside the three point line on offense, doesn't appear to have either the strength, instincts, or drive to be a great rebounder, and I don't think he's big or strong enough to play defense in the Big Ten. Maybe worse, against the press tonight twice he helped break it and then committed the major fundamental mistake of picking up his dribble right after he crossed half court, leading to a another trapping situation, and a turnover one of the times. That kind of shit isn't going to fly. I'm very nervous for the Joey King era.
- Believe it or not, the PF who looked the best tonight was Oto-matic. I won't say he seemed confident because he didn't, but he didn't look like a shell of a person like he did most of last season. I actually saw him make a 3-pointer which I think is more than he made all last season, and I saw him get an offensive rebound which may have been the only one a Gopher got tonight (seriously rebounding and inside play is going to be a major, major deal). I'm not saying he looked great, just that he looked the best of all the PF candidates. So scary.
- The other PF candidates, Wally Ellenson and Charles Buggs were less than inspiring. Ellenson is crazy athletic and not remotely shy about trying to score or flying around, all of which are promising, while Buggs, well, Buggs isn't what I hoped Buggs would be. I thought he could be the long, range-y, semi-athletic big guy with a good perimeter shot in the mold of KG, Hakim Warrick, and JaJuan Johnson. Yeah my bad. He still has plenty of time to turn into something like that, but he's not there yet. No, he is not.
- Dre Hollins was pretty much in coast mode, which I'm cool with considering he's the best player on the team (OR IS HE?!?!?!?!). Nothing wrong with letting everyone else get involved in a thing like this where it doesn't count. When he did decide to take over a couple of times, he scored. So we cool.
- It was sweet to see a little bit of offensive innovation, if by innovation you mean things pretty much every other team was doing besides the Gophers. If you think back to the Tubby Smith era, you'll remember that the Gophers ran 3 plays: Flex, 3-man weave 30 feet from the hoop, and pass the ball sluggishly around the perimeter until the shot clock runs out. I was a fan of none of these plays, for the record. Anyway, I noticed three things: they actually ran a pick-and-roll, while running said pick-and-roll there was another screen to free a shooter at the same time (2 plays in one!!), and the 3-man weave happened but it was far closer in and looked more like the dribble drive thing Calipari loves so much. If nothing else, seeing these plays made me weep with joy until WonderbabyTM asked me if I was crying and I was like "no it's really dusty in here" and then she was like "no it's not" and then I was like "shut up, you can't even spell."
- Those who are aware of my crippling obsession over Rico Tucker have pointed out to me that Dre Mathieu sounds an awful lot like him and fully expect me to fall in love all over again like it's just that easy to go from guy to guy. Well I did so shut up, no slut shaming allowed on this blog. He's just like Rico Tucker if Rico was slightly less athletic but had played two years of Juco with a coach who knew how to reign him in and teach him to play in control instead of playing for a coach who had no idea what to do with an all-world talent who needed to be harnessed.
Mathieu is super fast, but he uses it as a weapon rather than looking like my kid trying to play Mario Kart on 150cc. He kind of reminded me of Phil Pressey, formerly of Missouri, but where Pressey was always looking to use his penetration skills (like me with your mom) to set up somebody else (which is good) Mathieu is generally looking to score (also good). He strikes me as a nearly perfect 6th man to help jump start the offense. Of course if he keeps scoring a billion points all the time it's going to be tough to keep him out of the starting lineup. Or my dreams.
- The other newcomers probably deserve to be talked about just so I can give my spot on impressions. Malik Smith shot about a million three pointers and missed all of them, but that's ok I guess because he's a shooter or something. Obviously I'm not dumb enough to judge a shooter on one scrimmage so we'll just see what we see I guess. I noticed nothing else about him. Daquein still doesn't have a second A in his name and I saw him hit a three-pointer and that was pretty much it. In retrospect this note is pretty much worthless, but seeing as I don't believe in retrospect it's staying.
- The press was interesting to me. It kind of looked like a good ole fashioned diamond press, but the off guy of the three at the front never left his man to guard the most obvious pass recipient - the guy who passed it in from out of bounds. I watch a ton of college hoops, obvs, but have never really paid a ton of attention to the Xs and Os of the press so I don't know if this is a thing now or what, but I'm not familiar with it. And like an old man with a Tivo I'm uncomfortable with things I don't understand. Now, in a way it's kind of genius because in theory most teams make their shitty ball handling power forward throw it in, so if you just trap the PG and make that dude bring it up and trap him when he picks up his dribble right after crossing half court (Joey King -> hi) it could work out well. I'm very interested to see how this goes.
- Overall the team seemed much more uptempo, did a lot more trapping of many varieties on defense, and was more varied on offense. Again, I know it's a stupid scrimmage but they looked pretty good. I would say that they're going to get killed on the boards and by teams who are talented in the front court because they quite literally only have one guy who can play post defense or rebound, but because of the way the team is constructed they'll probably pull off at least one upset because they have so many guys who can score on the perimeter and shoot the 3. Some game they'll go like 14-24 from three and knock off Michigan or something. It should be fun. And horribly maddening.
Tuesday, May 7, 2013
Welcome Aboard, Dre Mathieu
Now I have to worry about spelling his last name. And the Gophers have two Dres to go along with their two Hollinses. Sid is really going to have some issues keeping up this year now that the Gophers and Richard Pitino have signed JuCo PG Dre Mathieu.
Mathieu, the 5-9 (5-9!) point guard from Central Arizona College chose Minnesota over Ole Miss and Pepperdine who were also in his final three. Although that might not sound like the greatest competition for his services, remember those were his final three that he had narrowed it down to. He also held offers from UCLA, Memphis, and Washington State among others. Mathieu isn't Tyus Jones or Rashad Vaughn, but he isn't Maverick Ahanmisi either - he's a pretty good pick-up this late in the recruiting season and a true point guard, FINALLY.
Getting a true point guard should do wonders for this team assuming Drizzy (his chosen nickname) is ready to go from day 1, and being a JuCo that should be the expectation (Andre Ingram excepted). Dre Hollins should be able to spend more time at shooting guard where he's a more natural fit and this should make it so Maverick never ever ever has to dribble the ball. Hopefully Mav becomes the guy who comes in at about the 12 minute mark in the first half, gets a chance to shoot, and if he makes it he can keep playing and if he misses he's done for the game. This would make the back court quite small if Dre2 are out there together and since Joe Coleman is a teeny tiny 3 when he's on the wing, but Austin Hollins is a bigger and a very good backcourt defender and newly signed Daquein McNeil is 6-3 and scouting reports say he has the potential to be a "lethal defender." They'll be fine.
As far as Mathieu goes, from reading a few scouting reports and watching a few highlights he seems to be an incredibly explosive athlete (reported 45 inch vertical) who is lighting quick and can get in the lane. His averaging 6.1 rebounds per game this season is a testament to his athletic ability given his height, and his 6.5 assists per game help confirm that he's truly a pass first kind of guy, which he even alluded to on Twitter. He can certainly score as well, averaging 17 points per game on 52% shooting, however he's definitely more of a driver than a shooter, hitting just 29% from 3 and I read somewhere he acknowledges outside shooting as a weakness. In highlights he's certainly not afraid to drive all the way to the rim and is a talented finisher, although it will be interesting to see how that works against Mitch McGary and Adreian Payne rather than whoever he played in the California Penal League or whatever. Worst case and the jumper doesn't develop he should still be able to find success as a Lewis Jackson type. I'm just excited to have a real point guard around.
As far as the team goes, they're certainly going to be perimeter oriented with both Hollinses, the two new guys, and Coleman all set. With Eliason the only real proven big man (well, semi-proven) somebody out of the group of Mo Walker, Charles Buggs, and Oto is going to have to step up, and probably two of them.The Gophers are still working on Rakeem Buckles and Tarik Black, although it's now sounding like Black is leaning towards Oregon. With the news today that Pitino target Joseph Uchebo has signed with Pitt the big man cupboard is suddenly looking awfully bare (guard Allerik Freeman, another target of Pitino, signed with Baylor today as well). That's not a complaint, because I'm very pleased with what Pitino's been doing so far, and after watching this team for the last few years I'm looking forward to a perimeter based squad getting up and down the court in a big ole hurry. Plus, believe it or not, I still believe in both Buggs and Oto - I really think one of them is going to thrive in this new system as a stretch 4. Maybe both. Dare to dream and all that.
Here's Drizzy dunking in an incredibly high resolution video so you can see those hops in action:
Mathieu, the 5-9 (5-9!) point guard from Central Arizona College chose Minnesota over Ole Miss and Pepperdine who were also in his final three. Although that might not sound like the greatest competition for his services, remember those were his final three that he had narrowed it down to. He also held offers from UCLA, Memphis, and Washington State among others. Mathieu isn't Tyus Jones or Rashad Vaughn, but he isn't Maverick Ahanmisi either - he's a pretty good pick-up this late in the recruiting season and a true point guard, FINALLY.
Getting a true point guard should do wonders for this team assuming Drizzy (his chosen nickname) is ready to go from day 1, and being a JuCo that should be the expectation (Andre Ingram excepted). Dre Hollins should be able to spend more time at shooting guard where he's a more natural fit and this should make it so Maverick never ever ever has to dribble the ball. Hopefully Mav becomes the guy who comes in at about the 12 minute mark in the first half, gets a chance to shoot, and if he makes it he can keep playing and if he misses he's done for the game. This would make the back court quite small if Dre2 are out there together and since Joe Coleman is a teeny tiny 3 when he's on the wing, but Austin Hollins is a bigger and a very good backcourt defender and newly signed Daquein McNeil is 6-3 and scouting reports say he has the potential to be a "lethal defender." They'll be fine.
As far as Mathieu goes, from reading a few scouting reports and watching a few highlights he seems to be an incredibly explosive athlete (reported 45 inch vertical) who is lighting quick and can get in the lane. His averaging 6.1 rebounds per game this season is a testament to his athletic ability given his height, and his 6.5 assists per game help confirm that he's truly a pass first kind of guy, which he even alluded to on Twitter. He can certainly score as well, averaging 17 points per game on 52% shooting, however he's definitely more of a driver than a shooter, hitting just 29% from 3 and I read somewhere he acknowledges outside shooting as a weakness. In highlights he's certainly not afraid to drive all the way to the rim and is a talented finisher, although it will be interesting to see how that works against Mitch McGary and Adreian Payne rather than whoever he played in the California Penal League or whatever. Worst case and the jumper doesn't develop he should still be able to find success as a Lewis Jackson type. I'm just excited to have a real point guard around.
As far as the team goes, they're certainly going to be perimeter oriented with both Hollinses, the two new guys, and Coleman all set. With Eliason the only real proven big man (well, semi-proven) somebody out of the group of Mo Walker, Charles Buggs, and Oto is going to have to step up, and probably two of them.
Here's Drizzy dunking in an incredibly high resolution video so you can see those hops in action:
Tuesday, December 11, 2012
Gophers vs. NDSU Live Blog
I couldn't make it to the game tonight, but will be watching live, so why not live blog for the first time this year? I used to do this to some critical acclaim, so might as well fire it up.
20:00 - Announcer guys point out Tubby has 113 career wins with Minnesota. Pretty sure nearly 4 of those are against good Big 10 teams. Need to double that up this year.
20:00 - How bad is that Kevin Correia signing by the way? And 2 years!??!?? He's a right-handed, National Leagued Nick Blackburn and they already tried that last year with Jason Marquis. I guess somebody has to mop up the fifth spot, but why not let's the kids throw rather than burning it on a younger Marquis? Or, they think he can be the #3 guy, which is the worst thing I've ever heard.
20:00 - ZOMBIE NATION!! Oh oh oh oh oh, oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh, oh oh, oh oh
19:47 - Elliott Elliason draws a quick foul. Unguardable.
19:43 - Rodney with a long 2. Terrible shot, but it went down. Gonna be an easy game if that's happening.
18:38 - NDSU plan seems to be get the ball to Bjorklund on the block against Elliason, and Gophers are content to not help, which is a good call since NDSU shoots the three so well. They've gone to him on all three possessions so far and gotten a block shot by Elliason, a hoop, and a 3-second call. And, not for nothing, but Elliason needs to be able to handle Summit League big men before he can get a lot of conference minutes.
17:21 - Joe Coleman gets lost on defense again (although to be fair he's been MUCH better this year) which leads to a wide open monster dunk by NDSU white guy, which is actually the kind of play you can't let the Bison get off because pretty soon they're going to "start to believe they can win" which is a total cliche but cliches are true for a reason and I really don't want these farmer dorks hanging around.
16:55 - Coleman gets burned by the guy with the ball after not switching quickly enough off a pick. He is a truly horrendous defender.
16:04 - Both Hollins's have missed open threes. Don't like how this game is going. Not just the score (9-4 NDSU) but everything about it. This game is french fried taters and I'm the opposite of the sling blade guy.
15:30 - Rodney dunk. He has all six for the Gophers. At least he looks good.
15:03 - Going to TV timeout at 9-6 NDSU with Dre going to the line. Gophers really upped the intensity all of a sudden. Hopefully that translates into you know, winning, and stuff.
15:03 - Weird D-Backs and Indians trade just went down. Looks like a 6-player swap of prospects and middle relievers. The bad news? Trevor Bauer to the Indians. Would really prefer to NOT have him in the AL Central. Felt the same way about Chris Sale, and see? I'm always right.
14:57 - Andre missed both. Sweet heavens of jesus wept.
13:41 - All they do is run Felt (big-time 3-point guy) around screens the whole time he's in there. Good test for Austin since you know he's going to be getting all the toughest defensive assignments. Well him or Joe Coleman.
12:51 - Maverick throws the ball directly to a NDSU player. He was trying to hit Oto on the wing though, so it's probably a wash.
12:25 - I'm going to pretend Welch tried to bank that one.
11:59 - Felt drives into the lane and manages to get called for a charge and airball a floater at the same time. I'm guessing that's why they tell you to hang out on the perimeter, wiener.
11:34 - Has Oto gone retarded?
11:28 - I think there may have been more to that trade. I'm only getting partial info from Twitter and it's too hard to search for it while trying to count how many passes Osenieks can drop on one possession. Also, Mbakwe grabbing every board in sight right now. 13-12 Gophers.
10:48 - Ahanmisi hits the 3-ball off a Mbakwe kick out (3 fantasy points for me!). I hate to say it - like really really hate it - but he's not been completely horrendous this year.
9:39 - Welch/Ahanmisi/Osenieks/Ingram/Mbakwe is not a good look. There's nobody in that group who can create offense. Mbakwe is the closest thing but I don't know if it's the knee or what but he doesn't seem to have much of a post game this year.
8:16 - This appears to be one of those games where Coleman plays with his head in his rectum.
7:58 - Did you ever stop and think that the classic Christmas song "Baby It's Cold Outside" is about date rape? Think about it.
7:11 - I don't take back what I said about Coleman, but my goodness is he clever when he has the ball in the lane. Probably from playing in the driveway with the taller Dan growing up. Then again, he probably could just bump Dan once and he'd quit and go inside to play Bubble Bobble.
5:36 - Rodney Williams with a 360 that somehow managed to also be an absolute hammer dunk. Got to be #1 on SportsCenter. They like dunks and stuff. Gophers 26, NDSU 20.
4:41 - I cannot decide if Mo Walker looks good or horrible. It's the same every game. He's a two-face.
4:14 - Wait, a two face either looks good or bad. Mo is a decision I just can't make. Rather than a two face he's more like Michelle Williams or Robin Tunney.
2:40 - Back to back 5 second calls. You don't see that every day. Or ever.
0:53 - Tip-jam for Mbakwe. Does my heart good to see it. Like a bunny holding a kitten.
0:00 - Hollins' three as the half ends and the Gophers close on an 8-0 to go into the half up 11. They should (SHOULD) just need to just keep putting the hammer down to win this one easily. We shall see.
0:00 - Rodney dunk already on youtube thanks to zipsofakron who writes either for the Gopher Hole, From the Barn, or both:
0:00 - So this has nothing to do with the Gophers, but I can't stop laughing at this Jay Cutler story since I read about it about a week ago. I mean, it could be a completely random time of the day with nothing going on and I'll think about it and just laugh.
20:00 - Choo to Cincy is the main piece of the trade, with the Indians getting Bauer and Drew Stubbs. I can't wait to watch Stubbs face Correia. The stoppable force vs. the movable object when it comes to strikeouts. Gonna be sweet.
17:23 - 37-29 Gophers. I missed the start of the half because I was melting american cheese on saltines which is delicious and Mbakwe is already in. Maybe he started the second half which maybe we are done with this nonsense.
16:44 - Mbakwe with 10 boards already. Looking pretty good. Twitter nerds attacking that dude who wrote how he "had no explosiveness" anymore. Relax, nerds. So Trevor dunked. He didn't even do a 360 or anything. I'm going to go make this same joke on twitter now, as I watch Mbakwe make another lay-up against some hapless fool.
15:43 - Dre Hollins takes it to the rack 1-on-4 in transition, has it knocked away out of bounds. I don't care what fundamental dorks say, I like a little reckless in my PG.
15:26 - Gophers realizing NDSU can't deal with either Rodney Williams or Mbakwe down low and just feeding the post. Nice to see them appear as if they are coached. For the last several years, whether Tubby was coaching or not, it sure didn't look like it.
14:29 - Mbakwe air-balls a free throw. That's his second one this year (at least). Between that and Andre Hollins actually missing free throws something weird is going on. Even more weird? Coleman, Elliason, and Williams all hitting 70%. It's kind of like when you're playing Contra and you lose all your lives but player 2 has some left so you just steal one.
13:30 - 49-32 Gophers and looking like they've taken control. Best news of this game is that Mbakwe is looking a lot like his old self tonight, absolutely crashing the boards with reckless abandon with 13 boards and 6 on the offensive end. Remember last year when he'd all of a sudden just decide, "yeah, I'm going to get every missed shot now"? It's like that. In sad news, do you realize when Williams and Mbakwe graduate next year's big man duo will be Elliason and Walker. Oof.
12:55 - Andre Ingram would be a very promising sophomore.
12:08 - Osenieks really shoots like a shooter. He doesn't make them like a shooter, but he shoots like one.
9:45 - The way Walker has played tonight, and he just missed a lay-up, I'm starting to think he's not a two face he's just ugly. I'll give him the benefit of the doubt since he's still dealing with coming back from an injury, but that feels like an excuse. That's an excuse, isn't it? It is. I knew it.
7:28 - Gophers trying to let NDSU back in the game here up just 57-45 now. Good thing NDSU is terrible.
6:43 - Wow. Rodney Williams just blows right by his guy coming from the perimeter, then when dude overcommits to stop the drive he stops on a dime, pivots in the other direction, and hits the turnaround jumper. NBA level move right there.
4:42 - Another rebound for Mbakwe. That's like, 15 or something. Austin hits a J on the break and Gophers up 66-50. I'm getting tired.
3:37 - Wally Ellenson on the floor for the Gophers. I guess we solved the question of the redshirt. And he immediately turns it over. Great.
2:55 - Ellenson nearly turns it over again but is bailed out with a foul call. EVERYTHING IS GOING GREAT!
1:40 - Ellenson continues to play like a walk-on. I'll give him the benefit of the doubt, obviously since it's his first game, but not exactly impressed. Gophers up 70-57. Line is 14.
0:00 - Gophers win 70-57. Do not cover.
20:00 - Announcer guys point out Tubby has 113 career wins with Minnesota. Pretty sure nearly 4 of those are against good Big 10 teams. Need to double that up this year.
20:00 - How bad is that Kevin Correia signing by the way? And 2 years!??!?? He's a right-handed, National Leagued Nick Blackburn and they already tried that last year with Jason Marquis. I guess somebody has to mop up the fifth spot, but why not let's the kids throw rather than burning it on a younger Marquis? Or, they think he can be the #3 guy, which is the worst thing I've ever heard.
20:00 - ZOMBIE NATION!! Oh oh oh oh oh, oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh, oh oh, oh oh
19:47 - Elliott Elliason draws a quick foul. Unguardable.
19:43 - Rodney with a long 2. Terrible shot, but it went down. Gonna be an easy game if that's happening.
18:38 - NDSU plan seems to be get the ball to Bjorklund on the block against Elliason, and Gophers are content to not help, which is a good call since NDSU shoots the three so well. They've gone to him on all three possessions so far and gotten a block shot by Elliason, a hoop, and a 3-second call. And, not for nothing, but Elliason needs to be able to handle Summit League big men before he can get a lot of conference minutes.
17:21 - Joe Coleman gets lost on defense again (although to be fair he's been MUCH better this year) which leads to a wide open monster dunk by NDSU white guy, which is actually the kind of play you can't let the Bison get off because pretty soon they're going to "start to believe they can win" which is a total cliche but cliches are true for a reason and I really don't want these farmer dorks hanging around.
16:55 - Coleman gets burned by the guy with the ball after not switching quickly enough off a pick. He is a truly horrendous defender.
16:04 - Both Hollins's have missed open threes. Don't like how this game is going. Not just the score (9-4 NDSU) but everything about it. This game is french fried taters and I'm the opposite of the sling blade guy.
15:30 - Rodney dunk. He has all six for the Gophers. At least he looks good.
15:03 - Going to TV timeout at 9-6 NDSU with Dre going to the line. Gophers really upped the intensity all of a sudden. Hopefully that translates into you know, winning, and stuff.
15:03 - Weird D-Backs and Indians trade just went down. Looks like a 6-player swap of prospects and middle relievers. The bad news? Trevor Bauer to the Indians. Would really prefer to NOT have him in the AL Central. Felt the same way about Chris Sale, and see? I'm always right.
14:57 - Andre missed both. Sweet heavens of jesus wept.
13:41 - All they do is run Felt (big-time 3-point guy) around screens the whole time he's in there. Good test for Austin since you know he's going to be getting all the toughest defensive assignments. Well him or Joe Coleman.
12:51 - Maverick throws the ball directly to a NDSU player. He was trying to hit Oto on the wing though, so it's probably a wash.
12:25 - I'm going to pretend Welch tried to bank that one.
11:59 - Felt drives into the lane and manages to get called for a charge and airball a floater at the same time. I'm guessing that's why they tell you to hang out on the perimeter, wiener.
11:34 - Has Oto gone retarded?
11:28 - I think there may have been more to that trade. I'm only getting partial info from Twitter and it's too hard to search for it while trying to count how many passes Osenieks can drop on one possession. Also, Mbakwe grabbing every board in sight right now. 13-12 Gophers.
10:48 - Ahanmisi hits the 3-ball off a Mbakwe kick out (3 fantasy points for me!). I hate to say it - like really really hate it - but he's not been completely horrendous this year.
9:39 - Welch/Ahanmisi/Osenieks/Ingram/Mbakwe is not a good look. There's nobody in that group who can create offense. Mbakwe is the closest thing but I don't know if it's the knee or what but he doesn't seem to have much of a post game this year.
8:16 - This appears to be one of those games where Coleman plays with his head in his rectum.
7:58 - Did you ever stop and think that the classic Christmas song "Baby It's Cold Outside" is about date rape? Think about it.
7:11 - I don't take back what I said about Coleman, but my goodness is he clever when he has the ball in the lane. Probably from playing in the driveway with the taller Dan growing up. Then again, he probably could just bump Dan once and he'd quit and go inside to play Bubble Bobble.
5:36 - Rodney Williams with a 360 that somehow managed to also be an absolute hammer dunk. Got to be #1 on SportsCenter. They like dunks and stuff. Gophers 26, NDSU 20.
4:41 - I cannot decide if Mo Walker looks good or horrible. It's the same every game. He's a two-face.
4:14 - Wait, a two face either looks good or bad. Mo is a decision I just can't make. Rather than a two face he's more like Michelle Williams or Robin Tunney.
2:40 - Back to back 5 second calls. You don't see that every day. Or ever.
0:53 - Tip-jam for Mbakwe. Does my heart good to see it. Like a bunny holding a kitten.
0:00 - Hollins' three as the half ends and the Gophers close on an 8-0 to go into the half up 11. They should (SHOULD) just need to just keep putting the hammer down to win this one easily. We shall see.
0:00 - Rodney dunk already on youtube thanks to zipsofakron who writes either for the Gopher Hole, From the Barn, or both:
0:00 - So this has nothing to do with the Gophers, but I can't stop laughing at this Jay Cutler story since I read about it about a week ago. I mean, it could be a completely random time of the day with nothing going on and I'll think about it and just laugh.
Cannot stop giggling. Like a little girl.Friend is in a bar in Chicago during the off-season. He goes to the bathroom and sees Jay Cutler, hat on backwards, taking a piss at the urinal. So the guy starts going to the bathroom and says, “Hey, I’m a huge fan, also went to Vanderbilt… ”
Jay throws his head back, still pissing, eyes half-closed because he’s drunk, interrupts him with, “DOOOONNNNTTTTTT CAAAAAARRRREEEEEE.”
20:00 - Choo to Cincy is the main piece of the trade, with the Indians getting Bauer and Drew Stubbs. I can't wait to watch Stubbs face Correia. The stoppable force vs. the movable object when it comes to strikeouts. Gonna be sweet.
17:23 - 37-29 Gophers. I missed the start of the half because I was melting american cheese on saltines which is delicious and Mbakwe is already in. Maybe he started the second half which maybe we are done with this nonsense.
16:44 - Mbakwe with 10 boards already. Looking pretty good. Twitter nerds attacking that dude who wrote how he "had no explosiveness" anymore. Relax, nerds. So Trevor dunked. He didn't even do a 360 or anything. I'm going to go make this same joke on twitter now, as I watch Mbakwe make another lay-up against some hapless fool.
15:43 - Dre Hollins takes it to the rack 1-on-4 in transition, has it knocked away out of bounds. I don't care what fundamental dorks say, I like a little reckless in my PG.
15:26 - Gophers realizing NDSU can't deal with either Rodney Williams or Mbakwe down low and just feeding the post. Nice to see them appear as if they are coached. For the last several years, whether Tubby was coaching or not, it sure didn't look like it.
14:29 - Mbakwe air-balls a free throw. That's his second one this year (at least). Between that and Andre Hollins actually missing free throws something weird is going on. Even more weird? Coleman, Elliason, and Williams all hitting 70%. It's kind of like when you're playing Contra and you lose all your lives but player 2 has some left so you just steal one.
13:30 - 49-32 Gophers and looking like they've taken control. Best news of this game is that Mbakwe is looking a lot like his old self tonight, absolutely crashing the boards with reckless abandon with 13 boards and 6 on the offensive end. Remember last year when he'd all of a sudden just decide, "yeah, I'm going to get every missed shot now"? It's like that. In sad news, do you realize when Williams and Mbakwe graduate next year's big man duo will be Elliason and Walker. Oof.
12:55 - Andre Ingram would be a very promising sophomore.
12:08 - Osenieks really shoots like a shooter. He doesn't make them like a shooter, but he shoots like one.
9:45 - The way Walker has played tonight, and he just missed a lay-up, I'm starting to think he's not a two face he's just ugly. I'll give him the benefit of the doubt since he's still dealing with coming back from an injury, but that feels like an excuse. That's an excuse, isn't it? It is. I knew it.
7:28 - Gophers trying to let NDSU back in the game here up just 57-45 now. Good thing NDSU is terrible.
6:43 - Wow. Rodney Williams just blows right by his guy coming from the perimeter, then when dude overcommits to stop the drive he stops on a dime, pivots in the other direction, and hits the turnaround jumper. NBA level move right there.
4:42 - Another rebound for Mbakwe. That's like, 15 or something. Austin hits a J on the break and Gophers up 66-50. I'm getting tired.
3:37 - Wally Ellenson on the floor for the Gophers. I guess we solved the question of the redshirt. And he immediately turns it over. Great.
2:55 - Ellenson nearly turns it over again but is bailed out with a foul call. EVERYTHING IS GOING GREAT!
1:40 - Ellenson continues to play like a walk-on. I'll give him the benefit of the doubt, obviously since it's his first game, but not exactly impressed. Gophers up 70-57. Line is 14.
0:00 - Gophers win 70-57. Do not cover.
Friday, November 2, 2012
Quick Gopher Thoughts
A couple of quick thoughts on the Gopher exhibition game, just really quick because you can't really learn much when they play somebody like Mankato, and also because I know TRE is working on a T-Wolves preview:
- - Rodney
scored the first two baskets of the game by posting up and hitting a running
lefty hook shot and an up and under double pump. Was very pleasantly surprised. He’s clearly worked on some post moves.
- -
Mbakwe didn’t start but came in about halfway
through each half (standing O from me, grandslam, TRE, the student section, and
maybe a few other people first time he came in). Looked ok, but on one play when he challenged
a three-pointer he didn’t look like he had the same lift he used to when he
jumps. Didn’t play all that much.
- - Oto hit a three, made a steal on a pass, and did
the pull up 3 pointer heat check on the break.
Nothing but backboard.
- - Charles Buggs is not who I hoped he was, at
least not yet. Very wooden, looked a
little bit lost, and got beat three different times to inside position on a
free throw when he was in the first spot.
Not very impressive. That said, he's got four years to prove me right.
That’s really it.
They handled Mankato from the opening tip which I suppose is a good
sign, or rather they didn’t let them hang around which would have been a bad
sign, so it’s neutral. Which is better
than bad.
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
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.
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