1st scrimmage thoughts...

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Trevor played awesome! Made 3 fts to boot! Impressed with
Maverick and Coleman. Rodney did some nice work as well as Oto.
Ralph still can't make a short shot and was schooled by Trevor all
the time.

New guards Juliand and Hollins were OK not spectatular. Austin missed
a few bunnies. Overall a very good beginning. Hoping Mo can get well as long with Elias.
Any other thoughts????
 

Heard Trevor made every free throw he took. If he can make his free throws he could be a near 20 pt scorer, he'll be going to the line a ton.
 

book said:
Trevor played awesome! Made 3 fts to boot! Impressed with
Maverick and Coleman. Rodney did some nice work as well as Oto.
Ralph still can't make a short shot and was schooled by Trevor all
the time.

New guards Juliand and Hollins were OK not spectatular. Austin missed
a few bunnies. Overall a very good beginning. Hoping Mo can get well as long with Elias.
Any other thoughts????
Click to expand...

Maybe I was watching a different game. I thought Andre Hollins was impressive. Didn't see much from Welch. Austin Hollins missed about 7 bunnies. Trevor played as expected. Sad that our center won the 3 point contest.

I had a fun time. Had front row seats in the corner opposite the student section with Flip sitting right next to me and Clyde Turner behind me.
 

I was impressed with Hollins and Coleman. Ahanmisi played very well. Mbakwe looks great and Williams of course is great in the open court. Walker appears to be much slimmer. Looks to me like the lineup is Andre Hollins, Coleman, Williams, Mbakwe, Sampson. Outside shooting is the question for this team because they have plenty of everything else.
 

Maverick was the biggest surprise to me, he played very well. Treveor looks great and I think he will be more aggressive offensively this season. His first three baskets were "and one's". Andre Hollins and Joe Coleman look very good as freshman. I was hoping to see how Elliott had progressed, but he was out with an ankle injury. Ingram looked very athletic in warm-ups, but did not scrimage. Ingram's offensive skills look limited, but that is what I expected. I would say my two disappointments were Ralph and Welch.
 


Unofficial scoring

Maroon 33

Maverick 14 (made 4 open 3's)
Mbakwe 15 (mid-season form)
Oseniecks 4 (not afraid to shoot)
Austin H 0
Welch 0
Shell 0
Mo dnp
Eliason dnp (heavy limp)
Ingram dnp

Gold 27

Andre H 5 (looks like a starting PG to me)
Coleman 12 (3 dunks - surprised that he looked that good)
Williams 7 (2 dunks)
Armelin 3
Sampson 0
Halvorsen 0
 


Here's my amateur evaluation:
Trevor looked like a man amongst boys. He was a beast, and shot his free throws smoothly. His inside play was unstoppable (by our players, at least). His attempted outside jumpers were not close, though.
Ralph made some nice moves inside, but missed all the shots. Contrast that with his winning the 3-point shooting contest. Kind of weird, huh?
Oto really looks like a player to me. He was under control, aggressive, and seems to have a nice shot. I think he'll see a lot of time this year.
Coleman suprised me, too. He seems to have a lot of confidence and is very aggressive. He made his only outside shot I remember him taking with a nice looking stroke. He is not very tall, though. If he had another 3 inches, he would make a mean small forward. I hope his outside shot is ready to play the two spot, because it looks like he needs to be on the court somehow.
Maverick was really good tonight. He played under control, handled the ball well, and drilled his shots. He was the best guard out there tonight (emphasize tonight).
Andre Hollins looks like a player, too. He looked very willing to take control, but it seemed at times that he wasn't sure what to do with the ball. He showed a very nice stroke during the 3-point contest, but didn't drain his shots during the scrimmage. I don't think scoring will be a problem for him, though. It seemed to me that he took care of the ball pretty well.
Welch was a non-factor, other than turning the ball a few times after driving inside for no reason and getting hemmed in by several defenders. Other than that, he looked O.K., but didn't do anything that made him stand out. It looks like he has pretty good handles, but I could be wrong on that.
I thought Rodney played well. He swatted away a few shots on defense (one or two of Trevors), and made his usual highlight-reel plays. I can't remember if he made any outside shots, but I think he may have made one.
Austin Hollins just missed shots tonight, and didn't look that good. His shot looks so awkward to me, but he made several during the 3-point contest. I hope he gets some confidence in his shot by the time the season rolls around.
Mo does look a bit thinner.
I have to say that a number of the guys were really nice with my two little boys during the autograph signing. It seems like these guys enjoy one another, and we have a lot of guys that are quick to smile. While you want to have a mean-streak sometimes on the court, I view this a overall a plus. Andre just smiles non-stop when he's out there, and it seems to be contagious.
 

-Trevor was a beast. Just a beast. Ralph had no chance of stopping him. Big, aggressive, and with a real mean streak, plus a nice new free throw stroke to boot. Big time.

-Rodney still doesn't look aggressive enough to me, but maybe he's doomed to be Dan Coleman (who was always good but didn't reach his potential because of his mindset, in my opinion). Highlight reel plays, and some standing around the rest of the time. His shot does look a lot better though.

-Mav was a revelation. Played under control, hit his jumpers, made the easy pass, didn't turn it over. I've dogged him for a long time, but he showed me something tonight.

- Austin's shot is broken. Plain and simple. But he plays hard, gets after it on D, and will be good in the open floor.

-Joe also was better than he looked in Pulley. Plays hard on D, and gets to the basket very well. Plus, he hit some jumpers. Good showing.

-Ralph couldn't do anything with Trevor, and missed his hook shots tonight. Not his finest hour. He looks to have taken a bit of a leadership role on the team though.

-Welch was a bit of a disappointment. I didn't see anything from him. Handles look okay, didn't really take any shots, didn't seem comfortable in his role.

-Andre has so much bounce, so much athleticism, so much personality, I can tell he's going to be a fan favorite. Takes too long to get off his three point shot, but his mid-range game looks great. Still is developing as a point guard. It doesn't come naturally to him. However, he was going HARD on D. We've got a bunch of scrappers.

-Chip is not afraid to shoot. And he was missing tonight. He plays some good D, but I'm guessing he won't see much time this year.

-Chris could compete for some minutes. He's athletic, he's strong, and he's got the worst shot I've seen in quite some time. Will be valuable in the press, and in a pinch at PF.

-Oto looked good. He plays so smart, and his shot still is looking smooth even though he missed a couple. He makes the right passes, crashes the boards hard, and can pump fake and make a move to the basket. He'll get some major minutes this year.

-Kendal Shell was a non-factor. Maybe he'll help us senior year like ARobb or somebody.

-Mo looked skinner, Ingram looked athletic, Elliot looked like his usual goofy, uncoordinated self. His injured ankle couldn't have helped.
 



jmag21 said:
Austin's shot is broken. Plain and simple. But he plays hard, gets after it on D, and will be good in the open floor.
Click to expand...

Tubby on sophomore wing Austin Hollins:
“I think Austin averaged all the most minutes of all the returning sophomores. He averaged about 15, 16 minutes a game, which is good. He didn’t shoot the ball well, but he led us in steals and deflections per minutes played. Very active, very athletic, and he’s going to be vying for that starting spot at the shooting guard spot. He’s a guy that has improved his outside shooting, improved his strength. You combine that with his hard-nosed toughness, and it’s going to be hard for someone to beat him out if he’s got an opportunity to start.”

I'm expecting big things out of Austin.

Of course Trevor was a man among boys, I think Joe already fits in that category too. He's strong, athletic, extremely aggressive & confident. He will play on his hard-nosed defense, steals and rebounding alone will earn him good minutes. Joe opened some eye's last night for all those who thought he was too small to score inside in the B1G... when your a slasher that doesn't mind contact and plays that high above the rim you can score on anybody.
 

Only thing missing last night was the ROUSER - it could have been piped in at least once after Tubby's boxing introduction!
 

Coleman is always the first guy down the floor on the break. Their going to need that advantage.

I can't understand why Andre has lost his shot. His jumper is all over the place. Excellent form- no results.

Tubby said Maverick had improved and he has.

Halverson has done a great job on his body with the weights. He and Trevor are really the only two guys that look strong.

I like what Oto and Halverson bring to the team. Two big 6'-8" forwards who can fill in or maybe take over.
 

Andre Hollins is someone that will be able to create his own shot and get it off whenever he pleases. That's something we just didn't have last year. Really looking forward to watching him progress.
 



figi, you're saying Trev and Halverson are the only 2 guys that look strong. Have you ever seen Joe Coleman? Kid looks like, and plays like a tank.
 

So Ralph won the three point contest? Hate to be pessimistic but that does not bode well for us. Teams will just collapse on Trevor if we have no outside threat.
 

We have 3-4 viable threats. Mav, Ralph, Oto, Andre, Julian, and who knows Rodney and Austin could've improved.
 

You guys are looking at Ralph's dominance in the 3pt contest the wrong way. Tubby loves to do the high-low action with his bigs, one guy works the block, the other plays at the top of the key. Trevor is going to dominate the block while Ralph pulls his man outside. If the defense collapses on Trevor then he can kick it out to Ralph for an uncontested 3, then when the D plays Ralph tight he can lob it in to Trevor for an easy dunk. I think Trevor and Ralph are going to be a great front court combo. You could even say Mo and Elliott could make a similar combo because Mo can stretch the floor with his shot too.
 

ChemEGopher said:
So Ralph won the three point contest? Hate to be pessimistic but that does not bode well for us. Teams will just collapse on Trevor if we have no outside threat.
Click to expand...

Ralph didn't win it because everyone else sucked, he won it because he was shooting very well, he made 13 of 15 shots or something like that. I wanna say Andre Hollins, Mav, and Mo did well in the 3-point contest as well. Feel free to correct me if I'm wrong.
 

Alumni-- fun to think about our current players and wonder which might make the NBA..

I thought it was great having the gopher alumni take part. Willie Burton and Voshon Lenard still shoot straight, Quincy Lewis not so much...
From Below Wikipedia link
“Willie Burton once scored 53 points in an NBA game with the Philadelphia 76ers."


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minnesota_Golden_Gophers_men's_basketball#Players
 

Mav was a positive for sure, I know many have been down on him lately. Also, I think Trevor destroying last night was a given, but RSIII seems to have regressed; that wasn't good. Coleman looked like I thought he would; I don't know why some are down on his game...he's going to be a player. He's super athletic, very aggressive, and seems to understand the game quite well.

I don't know what has happened to Austin Hollins, or if he just was more hype, but he's going to really have to fight for PT. Andre seems like he'll be getting some major minutes, excited to see what he can bring to the table.
 

My thoughts on last night... It was fun seeing all the alumni.. especially Vo. He never comes home again...so that was good. I did think it was a little sloppy in the organization, the MCs werent sure what was next and kind of went off the cuff.. oh well.

Anyway, it was fun. Ralph winning the 3pt contest was mainy as a result of his hot shooting, he would have beat anyone.

Now, as for those of us trying to make generalizations about the roster and season based on last night.. I say, easy fellas. Its the opening scrimmage. It means little to nothing. Am I the only one the remembers thinking, "man, that Kerry Wooldridge really looks good" after walking out from a opening night scrimmage??
 

Can't take much of anything from a group of kids practicing together with their coaches for the first time ever.

On a couple of plays when some were admiring Maverick knocking down the open three, I was just as happy with the nice dish to the open man from Julian Welch. I thought Julian was there feeling things out, taking it all in. Looking to pass first. But Welch can score and he can play.

Glad to see the appreciation of Joe Coleman growing already.

Shik looked a little shorter than I remember, but looked good. Seeing Voshon, Randy, Willie and others... brings back some good memories.

Jeff Hagen in a 3-pt shooting contest looked exactly like I thought it would.
 

Gopher Warrior said:
Can't take much of anything from a group of kids practicing together with their coaches for the first time ever.

On a couple of plays when some were admiring Maverick knocking down the open three, I was just as happy with the nice dish to the open man from Julian Welch. I thought Julian was there feeling things out, taking it all in. Looking to pass first. But Welch can score and he can play.

Glad to see the appreciation of Joe Coleman growing already.

Shik looked a little shorter than I remember, but looked good. Seeing Voshon, Randy, Willie and others... brings back some good memories.

Jeff Hagen in a 3-pt shooting contest looked exactly like I thought it would.
Click to expand...

Agree with you on welch. He didn't make any highlight plays, but he was smart and played under control and within the game. Didn't try to do to much. Was just smart.
 


Thanks for all the impressions of the scrimmage, I enjoyed reading this thread. It seems like we have several guys who would be good as 3rd guards if we went small (Coleman, Austin Hollins, possibly Chip), but it would be great if one of those guys could develop in to a legitimate 2 guard who could handle and shoot. I also wonder if we might go really small this year with someone like Rodney, Oto, or Halvorsen at the 4 with Mbakwe at the 5 for stretches. Something like Hollins/Hollins/Coleman/Williams/Mbakwe and just try to push the pace on some teams.
 

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