Great game, Isaiah Washington

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LongLiveMilesTarver

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Without him, we lose by 15 tonight.

I think this was about as perfect a game as he can play. I'm sure Pitino will give him lots of public and private praise. It certainly appears he bought into Pitino's message for one game at least.
 

He was magnificent. Period.

I move that from this point hence, we refer to him as Joe Montana. Joe, for short. All in favor?
 

Great game, he made great passes, and good decisions. He played like Rajon Rondo for a night. Hopefully we can get this IW consistently. If we do and the other players knock down more shots this team can be dangerous in the B1G and in March.
 


Aside from the assists and 0 turnovers, I’m really happy he actually commited to playing defense.
 



ALL HAIL GENERAL WASHINGTON!

That game is absolutely, positively a loss without his exceptional (record setting?) play. Way to go Isaiah!!
 


Nice game Isaiah. Woot woot
 



He was amazing! Despite the incredibly bad shooting tonight- I actually loved the way we played. Hit 4 more of those open threes for just a decent percentage and we win by 20 like we should. Washington set the table tonight and that is big going forward!
 

Block M said:
ALL HAIL GENERAL WASHINGTON!

That game is absolutely, positively a loss without his exceptional (record setting?) play. Way to go Isaiah!!
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Couldnt agree more.

I'm also amazed at how Murph gets 20 and 18 and it's just another day at the office.

If they make a tourney run, may be up there with my favorite Gopher Players of all time
 

bga1 said:
He was amazing! Despite the incredibly bad shooting tonight- I actually loved the way we played. Hit 4 more of those open threes for just a decent percentage and we win by 20 like we should. Washington set the table tonight and that is big going forward!
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Its a different team when IW is out there playing like that. Mind bogglingly poor shooting and foul line woes notwithstanding, I also enjoyed our energy and movement on offense.
 




Block M said:
Its a different team when IW is out there playing like that. Mind bogglingly poor shooting and foul line woes notwithstanding, I also enjoyed our energy and movement on offense.
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This. The team shot poorly and yet the offense was flowing really well (a lot of that IW’s passing, but it went beyond him too).
 

When IW is in and the Gophers get stops and start to push the pace, they get a ton of easy buckets. Tonight he was exceptional but he always pushes pace. Just needs to do it with passes not forced layups and 3s. If its late in the shot clock he is so good at breaking down the defense and getting himself or a teammate a good look
 

Great game by IW. He did it all. He protected the ball (zero turnovers), he set up his teammates (13 assists), he played very good defense (overlooked), he showed good court awareness (beat/worked the shot clock very well) and didn't try to force everything.

I don't expect this same performance every game, but if he can just continue with this mind set, he'll be on his way to becoming the PG we desperately need.
 

I'd like to see IW, Dupree, Coffey, Murphy, Oturu/Curry going forward. Use Gabe for instant offense.
 

howeda7 said:
I'd like to see IW, Dupree, Coffey, Murphy, Oturu/Curry going forward. Use Gabe for instant offense.
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Seems premature. Gabe has been really good. Want to see him more as prior to tonight he’s been one of our better players.
 

UpAndUnder43 said:
Seems premature. Gabe has been really good. Want to see him more as prior to tonight he’s been one of our better players.
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Agreed. He's also a very good all around player, who contributes even when his shot isn't falling.
 


howeda7 said:
I'd like to see IW, Dupree, Coffey, Murphy, Oturu/Curry going forward. Use Gabe for instant offense.
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Generally speaking, I would find this take reactionary. But I agree the timing might be right. They don’t play for a while. Reward IW by telling him now and he might really take off. Gabe will handle it - guessing by the fact he still kept working very hard on defense and didn’t resort to out of control offense. His shot hasn’t been falling as easily, still important, new role.
 

GopherJake said:
Generally speaking, I would find this take reactionary. But I agree the timing might be right. They don’t play for a while. Reward IW by telling him now and he might really take off. Gabe will handle it - guessing by the fact he still kept working very hard on defense and didn’t resort to out of control offense. His shot hasn’t been falling as easily, still important, new role.
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Not saying you're wrong, just spit balling here...I'm not sure I prefer Dupree, over Gabe at the 2. Thoughts?
 

My observation: Washington plays much better with the better players. He is better at making good players better than he is at making so-so players better. When we lack scorers on the court, he over reaches. He doesnt need to start - just don't expect him to do well with a line up of Omersa, Hurt, Stockman and Stull.
 

Costa Rican Gopher said:
Not saying you're wrong, just spit balling here...I'm not sure I prefer Dupree, over Gabe at the 2. Thoughts?
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You may be right but I don't see Pitino taking Dupree out of the starting lineup for a while after what just happened to him. A few weeks out, maybe. At any rate it would be best for the team if at some point, Dupree or Gabe become sixth man and Washington starts at the point. Moonlight also makes a good point about Washington being better with a cast of scorers...
 

UpAndUnder43 said:
Seems premature. Gabe has been really good. Want to see him more as prior to tonight he’s been one of our better players.
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You could start him or Dupree. I don't see Pitino sitting Dupree though. They're all going to play a lot.
 

GopherJake said:
Generally speaking, I would find this take reactionary. But I agree the timing might be right. They don’t play for a while. Reward IW by telling him now and he might really take off. Gabe will handle it - guessing by the fact he still kept working very hard on defense and didn’t resort to out of control offense. His shot hasn’t been falling as easily, still important, new role.
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It's not reactionary. I've been wanting IW to start from day 1. I don't think we can beat good B1G teams with Coffey playing PG. I don't have a strong feeling over who starts at the 2. I think it's fine either way, but I assume Pitino is not sitting a senior for a freshman. Also, I like Gabe, but teams have noticeably locked him down since the first few games. It might be easier for him to get some looks coming off the bench.
 

What made Washington good tonight was he let the game dictate his actions rather than try to force the action. Only on a couple possessions did I see the kid who wants to force an action. Mostly, Washington let his court vision determine where the ball should go.
Also, because he moved the ball to the proper spot, we had very good spacing and others started making the extra pass to the open player.
It's just too bad we shot so poorly because an average shooting game and we would have won by 25.
Despite the closer score, this was a nice "team" win.
 

Moonlight said:
My observation: Washington plays much better with the better players. He is better at making good players better than he is at making so-so players better. When we lack scorers on the court, he over reaches. He doesnt need to start - just don't expect him to do well with a line up of Omersa, Hurt, Stockman and Stull.
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I’ve been preaching this all year. When he is with the backups he forces shots, often times because no one else can create or score. With the starters he gets good players good looks. Not saying he has to start but you can’t surround him with lesser players and expect him to make them really good.
 

"Perfect" is the word I'll use. I don't how you could have asked for -- or gotten -- more than IW provided tonight. On a night we really needed it.

The zero turnovers is especially impressive considering the speed with which he moved the ball.

It certainly seemed the entire team -- sparked by Washington -- exhibited its best ball movement of the season. Really impressive at times.

JTG
 

This performance made it clear that Washington needs to focus on being a creator and assist man first. Passing is clearly his greatest strength, and it's wise to use your greatest strength as your springboard.

He can score when openings arise so he is enough of a dual threat to keep teams honest. He may end up developing into an even better scorer, but right now he should focus on being a Ricky Rubio type PG.

Sent from my LM-X212(G) using Tapatalk
 

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