3 Thoughts from Today: Jelly's rebounding, crowd size, Hurt's continued development

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BleedGopher

BleedGopher

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A methodical win today, not flashy, at times a slog, but a workmanlike win that we can put behind us.

A few thoughts:

- I was very impressed with Wahington's rebounding. I don't think we've seen a guard rebound like that since Bobby played. When he got rebounds, it started the transition much quicker than if one of the bigs gets it, needs to clear space and then the outlet pass...Washington was great on the glass and he had an incredible offensive rebound off his own miss in between three Harvard players that were much bigger than him, and that rebound was all effort. Great to see!

- About mid-way through the first half I glanced around The Barn and I couldn't believe how full it was, especially given it wasn't a marquee non-conference opponent. The flow of the game (lack of runs, low scoring, etc.) didn't give the crowd a chance to get loud, but the place was full. Great to see!

- I think Michael Hurt is going to end up being a crowd favorite before his time is up, and I hope he is. His confidence has blossomed in the last 2-3 weeks, he rotates the ball as well as anyone on the team (both he and Washington are the two best on the team in skip passing) and he flat out works hard. Great to see!

I'm excited for the Big Ten season to get going, and hopefully we take care of business in the next two games.

Go Gophers!!
 

Agree on Washington's rebounding, that rebound of his own miss in traffic was something rarely seen from a Gopher guard since the days of Bobby. I also think we (on this board at least) take for granted how comfortable he is handling the ball in all situations.

It's awesome that the Barn was near full for the is game given the weather, the opponent, and its placement during the holidays. I wish something could be done to get the crowd in to the game from the opening tip. When watching on TV, a number of other arenas are loud from the tip and make it clear to the opposing team that they are in a tough place to play. Obviously a lot of those fans have witnessed a lot more winning and seen the benefit of getting in to it early. Maybe the lights out introductions will be a spark. I feel like the much of the crowd is in "alright entertain us" mode and get loud when they do but stay quiet until that point.

I am cautiously optimistic about Hurt after what I've seen from him post Arkansas. My hesitation is that he hasn't done it against high major athletes yet and we've had some guys recently who looked like they could help against the Drake's of the world but were over-matched on many nights when playing against B1G competition. That said, I've given thought to whether this team might be better served starting Michael and bringing Dupree off the bench. If what we've seen from Michael is repeatable, he gives us a ball mover/role player in the starting lineup that also forces the ball in to Amir's hands as the clear second ball handler in the starting group. I think Amir getting more touches early could really be beneficial to this team.
 

The Washington/Hurt combo is effective. He moves well without the ball, and Washington always has his eyes open.

When it comes to Washington, it's clear he's committed to working on his game. He's already improved his defense by an order of magnitude, and yesterday's rebounding indicates his willingness to stick his nose in there and scrap. I don't know if there was a come-to-Jesus meeting or if a light bulb simply came on, but I don't worry about this guy at all any more. His shot selection was still crap for much of the game, but I trust he'll become better there, too, with increasing familiarity and mastery of the offense. If he follows Dupree's example and concertedly works on his shooting, look out.
 

It was good to see Hurt more aggressive with the ball. I think he took it to the hoop 3-4 times. He needs to get to the line more often as he seems to have an excellent stroke.

IW is still learning and shot selection is something that will improve watching film and more PT. I like how he moves the ball up the floor.
 

Bad Gopher said:
The Washington/Hurt combo is effective. He moves well without the ball, and Washington always has his eyes open.

When it comes to Washington, it's clear he's committed to working on his game. He's already improved his defense by an order of magnitude, and yesterday's rebounding indicates his willingness to stick his nose in there and scrap. I don't know if there was a come-to-Jesus meeting or if a light bulb simply came on, but I don't worry about this guy at all any more. His shot selection was still crap for much of the game, but I trust he'll become better there, too, with increasing familiarity and mastery of the offense. If he follows Dupree's example and concertedly works on his shooting, look out.
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washington is getting more impressive each time out. His rebounding shows that he is hungry. Anyone had to be impressed with that offensive rebound he had. His offense and shot selection will continue to improve as he learns his limitations. I believe he has already learned or is learning that unless he gets a step on someone his layups will still be an adventure. And I am certain he doesn’t like his shot blocked anymore than anyone else does.
 


Check out McKinley Wright’s stats at Colorado and Davison st Wisconsin. Washington cant compare. His intensity is disturbing so far.
 

Jmarksor said:
Check out McKinley Wright’s stats at Colorado and Davison st Wisconsin. Washington cant compare. His intensity is disturbing so far.
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Darn, you're right. We recruit players for their stats in the first half of their first year without regards to context. Pitino really messed up.
 

Jmarksor said:
Check out McKinley Wright’s stats at Colorado and Davison st Wisconsin. Washington cant compare. His intensity is disturbing so far.
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Wright is impressive and on a team loaded with guards he is the scoring leader. Davison is also impressive, I have watched him play six games this year. All three teams are in different places though in terms of quality of starting five, senior leadership, etc., and where their teams wins and losses are at. In my estimation Wright and Davison would be effective in Minnesota but wouldn’t play as many minutes on Minnesota as they are getting with their current teams just as Washington would likely have more minutes playing for either of the other two teams. So not easy to compare the three.
 

It would be nice to have Wright on this team for sure. I'd rather have Washington over Davison all day long though. Davison looks like he is made out of glass and we haven't even gotten into the more physical big ten play. I wish him the best but he looks like me might be injury prone his entire career.
 



Why do we still compare Wright to Washington? Wright had plenty chances to commit to gophers and he didn't. Would love to have Reid Travis too but he didn't want to play here either. Let's move on!
 

Jmarksor said:
Check out McKinley Wright’s stats at Colorado and Davison st Wisconsin. Washington cant compare. His intensity is disturbing so far.
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You're a troll. You're jocking guys who were forced to start for lack of other options on teams who won't even sniff the NIT this year. Get real.
 

Jmarksor said:
Check out McKinley Wright’s stats at Colorado and Davison st Wisconsin. Washington cant compare. His intensity is disturbing so far.
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I've watched the Badgers play a few times this year. I'm not overly impressed with Davison. He's averaging less than 2 assists per game to go with 23 turnovers. He is also getting close to 30 minutes per game. I'd take Washington over him all day long.
 

Washington has improved since the start of the season and he will continue to get better. As a coach I would rather have to "pull" a player back then have to prop them up. He competes and I love his confidence. Gophers were put in a position that wasn't anticipated when Curry went down for the season. That being said I think they did a good job of developing an inexperienced bench. Hurt has been playing better and the more confidence he gets the more his shot will drop. I'm in the minority in liking Konate but he plays D. Hopefully he can get a little more sure handed with his rebounding. The player I'm somewhat disappointed in is Fitzgerald. From all the talk about him coming into the season he is not the player I expected. I just keep thinking he hasn't played for so long that he hasn't caught up to the speed of the game. Some thoughts going into the new year. 1) We are 12-3 which without the Nebraska game was expected. 2) We have seen quite a bit of teams play zone against us which is a weakness for us. Ball movement against them still needs to improve. 3) We have pretty much played straight up man to man defense without pressing or mixing it up at all.
 



Washington played a very solid game against a Harvard team that, while they struggled shooting, doesn't make a ton of mistakes and is pretty disciplined. IW had some tough luck with good looks that just didn't go in. There were only a few shots he took that were questionable in terms of shot selection.

He was a different player in the second half, had much more energy and played within the flow of the offense. Loved the sequence when he went coast-to-coast for a lay-up and hit a 3 when the game got close in the second half. He also out-hustled three Harvard defenders for a rebound. As Chip Scoggins wrote, we've seen the potential. Now you want the consistency. He's a freshman and will make mistakes, but he also isn't afraid of the big moment. He's fun to watch.
 

Bleed--get the word slog into more of your posts. Please.
 


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