7 Games and a little over a month until the B!g Opener, what do you hope to see?

[EG#9]

The Gophers have 7 games to improve and put themselves in position to compete in the B1G. On paper, the Gophers should win all 7 games fairly easily which should lead to plenty of time to experiment and hopefully improve. I hope the following can occur during the next 7 games.

1. Develop a big man off the bench- Pitino has to find someone he can trust at the 4/5 spots beyond Elliott/Mo/Joey. One of Buggs, Martin, or Konate needs to become a consistent part of the rotation. The good news is that all three of those guys are significant upgrades athletically over the guys who are getting consistent minutes, the bad news is that Pitino has been unable to trust any of them to even consistently execute fundamental concepts of his offense/defense. With some less pressurized situations coming up, hopefully one or more of these guys can earn coaches trust. While I think Pitino might need to establish a quicker hook with some of his Seniors, he's going to need to let these guys make a few mistakes and see if they settle in.

2. Figure out the guard situation- It's fairly clear that Pitino would much rather not play Charles Buggs at the wing position. He clearly wants his "3" to be a ball handler and Buggs is not that guy. Coach is going to have to either relent and start using Buggs on the wing, or develop another option off the bench. It may sound crazy to say this, but he might need to start giving Kendal Shell regular rotation minutes. It's just a fact of basketball that trying to rely on four guys for three positions over the course of an entire season, simply isn't going to work. If we are going to continue to play aggressive defense on the perimeter, fouls will always be an issue and their is always the possibility of injury/illness as well. Whether it's Buggs or Shell, someone else has to get regular minutes from the 1-3 so that the team is prepared when adversity hits.

3. Challenge the Seniors: Don't allow Mo more than two dribbles in the post against any of these teams likely to check him with an undersized player. He's become Sampson-like in the post and it's going to continue to lead to turnovers against better competition. There should also be a quicker hook (minutes for Konate?) when Mo fails to defend or box out. Force Andre to handle the ball more, so that he gets over this Mav-like timidity with the basketball, get him back to creating shots for himself. Set goals for Eliason in the blocks/charges/rebounds categories and make him feel good when he reaches the targets. He's got to take pride in being our best interior defender again and not worry about his offensive game- a quick hook for Eliason when he takes a wild shot on offense or gestures wildly about a whistle (damn, Konate will have to play until he fouls out). Let Mathieu play with foul trouble if it arises again. Due to our lack of depth at guard/wing, it's not always going to be possible to sit Mathieu for extended minutes because he has two fouls in the first half. Let him play with fouls against North Dakota or Seattle because he's probably going to have to against Ohio State or Illinois. If he fouls out, maybe that will be the lesson he needs to walk the line between being aggressive and being foul prone. We need all four of these guys to play at a higher level than they have so far this season. The competition likely won't challenge our Seniors over the next month, so it's imperative that Pitino and his staff do.

 

[Bad Gopher]

More consistency. This good half / bad half thing has to stop.

Better free throwing. What the heck is wrong with these guys?

Something, anything from the bigs, especially toughness, rebounding and defensive presence.

More of the 3 guard offense...assuming the Dre's re-become players we want out on the floor.

More Charles Buggs. Am I the only one who sees it?

Lots of playing time for Martin against cupcakes. We'll need him eventually. Time to throw him in the deep end.

Better respect for possession of the ball.

 

[WanderingGopher]

At this point I'm resigned to the fact that we are once again a bubble-type team, probably on the wrong side currently. With 4 returning starters, and 4 seniors and 2 juniors among our top 6 players (or at least we thought they were our top 6) this is a team that should've made hay in the beginning of the season. Sure we could improve over the next month, but what do you think all these teams that rely on freshmen and sophomores are going to do?

I could say "I'd like to see our guys become better players," but the more realistic and tangible thing that needs to happen is to get Eliason back into the starting lineup, give him most of the post minutes, and hope he (a) returns to last year's 1st half form, and (b) gets a little more respect from the officials as the starter. I've had it with the Mo/King front line experiment.

I'd also like to see Gaston Diedhou come in and win the backup PF job.

And I'd like to see Buggs make an impact other than by hitting spot-up 3 pointers, which will come and go. Rebound, use his length to disrupt passing lanes and deflect balls, and show some offensive moves besides hanging out at the 3 point line.

 

[lakesgopher]

At this point I'm resigned to the fact that we are once again a bubble-type team, probably on the wrong side currently. With 4 returning starters, and 4 seniors and 2 juniors among our top 6 players (or at least we thought they were our top 6) this is a team that should've made hay in the beginning of the season. Sure we could improve over the next month, but what do you think all these teams that rely on freshmen and sophomores are going to do? I could say "I'd like to see our guys become better players," but the more realistic and tangible thing that needs to happen is to get Eliason back into the starting lineup, give him most of the post minutes, and hope he (a) returns to last year's 1st half form, and (b) gets a little more respect from the officials as the starter. I've had it with the Mo/King front line experiment. I'd also like to see Gaston Diedhou come in and win the backup PF job. And I'd like to see Buggs make an impact other than by hitting spot-up 3 pointers, which will come and go. Rebound, use his length to disrupt passing lanes and deflect balls, and show some offensive moves besides hanging out at the 3 point line.

I couldn't disagree with you more about EE. He should not start. He is a guy that can give good minutes off the bench but he destroys offensive flow. He isn't an upgrade defensively, the only edge I would give EE over Mo is EE is better on the defensive glass. Mo should start but go with the hot hand after the game gets going.

 

[WanderingGopher]

2. Figure out the guard situation- It's fairly clear that Pitino would much rather not play Charles Buggs at the wing position. He clearly wants his "3" to be a ball handler and Buggs is not that guy. Coach is going to have to either relent and start using Buggs on the wing, or develop another option off the bench. It may sound crazy to say this, but he might need to start giving Kendal Shell regular rotation minutes. It's just a fact of basketball that trying to rely on four guys for three positions over the course of an entire season, simply isn't going to work. If we are going to continue to play aggressive defense on the perimeter, fouls will always be an issue and their is always the possibility of injury/illness as well. Whether it's Buggs or Shell, someone else has to get regular minutes from the 1-3 so that the team is prepared when adversity hits.

I agree, but if Pitino didn't want Buggs to have to play wing, he shouldn't have recruited a roster consisting of 4 PFs, and only 5 guards/wings to play 3 positions. Even if McNeil hadn't been arrested, it seemed crazy to think that 5 guys were enough to cover 3 positions over a full year, given inevitable issues with injuries, foul trouble, fatigue, etc. Now we're down to four. We simply cannot play Pitino's preferred style with this roster.

We either have to change our style a bit to conform to the current roster, or keep playing Pitino-ball which will help the young guys and "program culture" in the long run but probably result in fewer wins this year than a different style would have.

 

[cjbfbp]

More consistency. This good half / bad half thing has to stop.


Something, anything from the bigs, especially toughness, rebounding and defensive presence.

More Charles Buggs. Am I the only one who sees it?

Lots of playing time for Martin against cupcakes. We'll need him eventually. Time to throw him in the deep end.

No, you're not the only one who is bewildered by the Buggs situation. He had 9 point in 9 minutes yesterday but played only 9 minutes. He also didn't play bad defensively - at least on-the-ball defense. I don't get it. What does Pitino have against him?

He does need to try to get something out of Martin this year. We have six teams ranking from below average to terrible coming up after Wake Forest so he needs to take the chance.

I thought Elliot was pretty good defensively for the most part last night. He had no help defense when two guys game into the interior so he was burned a few times when he had to commit to the ball handler and the ball handler passed off to the guy behind him. Our interior help defense is nonexistent at times and our perimeter guys allow too much interior penetration. I think he is a bit softer defensively than last year but he had a problem staying on the court last year because of over aggressiveness. I know you don't like Elliot but I still think the team would be better with him playing the majority of minutes at the post. The extra five or six points the team gets from playing Mo the majority of the time isn't worth his poor defense and turnovers. Plus, Mo is even more foul prone than Elliot these days.

 

[cjbfbp]

I agree, but if Pitino didn't want Buggs to have to play wing, he shouldn't have recruited a roster consisting of 4 PFs, and only 5 guards/wings to play 3 positions. Even if McNeil hadn't been arrested, it seemed crazy to think that 5 guys were enough to cover 3 positions over a full year, given inevitable issues with injuries, foul trouble, fatigue, etc. Now we're down to four. We simply cannot play Pitino's preferred style with this roster.

We either have to change our style a bit to conform to the current roster, or keep playing Pitino-ball which will help the young guys and "program culture" in the long run but probably result in fewer wins this year than a different style would have.

Agreed and fewer wins this year will not be a good thing when you consider that the roster will have 8 or 9 freshmen and sophs next year. Right now this looks no better than an NIT team and an 8th or 9th place Big Ten team.

 

[mnsportsgeek]

I hope to see Andre and DeAndre play like all conference seniors.

Would also like to see EE lose the oven mitts on his hands and for Mo to play with some authority in the post.

Basically, I want to see the seniors wake up.

 

[bga1]

More consistency. This good half / bad half thing has to stop.

Better free throwing. What the heck is wrong with these guys?

Something, anything from the bigs, especially toughness, rebounding and defensive presence.

More of the 3 guard offense...assuming the Dre's re-become players we want out on the floor.

More Charles Buggs. Am I the only one who sees it?

Lots of playing time for Martin against cupcakes. We'll need him eventually. Time to throw him in the deep end.

Better respect for possession of the ball.

Bad- you will love these stats- A Charles Buggs 40 minute stat line this year looks like this: 20pts/8 rebs/2.5 assists/1.3 steals 1.3 turnovers.

I think- responding to a number of the posts here-

1. That they need two front court guys to play more from the younger guys- Martin, Buggs, Diedhou, Konate- those four are the only guys on the roster that can play above the rim.
2. I see no reason that Buggs couldn't play the 3 some -especially in the zone. He would make the zone tougher to shoot over and give us another guy who could compete on the boards. I don't blame Pitino for playing King 30 minutes- King is hustling- so why not get Buggs 10 minutes at the 3?
3. The seniors have to play better- and they will. No way does Andre keep playing like this. Mo is also a turnover machine and needs to return to the Mo who was a good passer. Right now he is just putting his head down and dribbling into double teams.

One good thing- the defense is better than last year even without Austin.

 

[GopherJake]

Others have made some good points. I will add that Carlos Morris needs to play under control. He is screwing up the entire offense with outside-the-scheme movement, poor shot selection and other puzzling choices. Either this, or Mason needs to play in his place. I do believe he is hustling and playing hard, so hopefully as the schedule eases, he will find out where he fits better.

 

[scher215]

Others have made some good points. I will add that Carlos Morris needs to play under control. He is screwing up the entire offense with outside-the-scheme movement, poor shot selection and other puzzling choices. Either this, or Mason needs to play in his place. I do believe he is hustling and playing hard, so hopefully as the schedule eases, he will find out where he fits better.

Agree on Morris. He is horrendous for the offense, but I would say has been great on D forcing turnovers.

(Unrelated to the quoted post) I don't think next year will be a step back just because guys are graduating, it may well still be, but just because we lose seniors doesn't mean we will be bad. If the freshman coming in are better than the seniors leaving, their class makes no difference

 

[SelectionSunday]

Want to see no losses in these next 7 games. Any loss to these 7 jokers could be fatal.

And more Charles Buggs. Would like to see what he does with extended minutes (15-20).

 

[Holy Man]

Want to see no losses in these next 7 games. Any loss to these 7 jokers could be fatal.

And more Charles Buggs. Would like to see what he does with extended minutes (15-20).

I caught a few minutes of Coach on on gravelly outstate post game radio on Friday night, and when Buggs was mentioned, he was clear. "There is more to it than hitting a few three's in a row. I have to trust him on defense." Paraphrased, but the decision maker does not seem as high on Charles as the frustrated fan base right now. I'm not seeing many alternatives to Charles getting extended minutes, though.

 

[SelectionSunday]

. ... I'm not seeing many alternatives to Charles getting extended minutes, though.

Pretty much sums up what I'm thinking.

If Diedhiou is here in January, will be interesting to see if Pitino puts him ahead of Buggs in the rotation (in terms of minutes played). If he does, that's pretty much the final indicator Pitino has no confidence in Buggs. That would speak volumes. ... a guy who hasn't even been on the team in November-December jumping right in ahead of a 3rd-year sophomore who at the minimum has shown an ability to knock down shots.

 

[Bad Gopher]

I caught a few minutes of Coach on on gravelly outstate post game radio on Friday night, and when Buggs was mentioned, he was clear. "There is more to it than hitting a few three's in a row. I have to trust him on defense." Paraphrased, but the decision maker does not seem as high on Charles as the frustrated fan base right now. I'm not seeing many alternatives to Charles getting extended minutes, though.

This dovetails with the Mo / Elliot thread and represents the classic question. What would you rather have, someone who has trouble executing the defensive game plan but does make plays or someone who can't defend even if they know what they're doing out there? Don't tell me they play different positions; I know that. Just making point that coaches tend to like guys who are more coachable, better learners and do what they're told, even if they're less talented. That's how you end up with the Twins' roster by the end of the season the last several years under Gardy - essentially a AAA roster, but an obedient AAA roster.

You can't teach people to do things that they physically can't do, but you can take people with talent and make them into more complete players. Step one for Buggs would be lots of playing time against lesser teams where the Gophers have some margin for error, and his errors can be teachable moments.

Buggs was one of the few out there against Louisville who didn't pee himself. Most of the rest of the team reminded me of the Chekov character in a Star Trek parody I read once. He was fine until a battle situation, where his voice would become high pitched and he'd start throwing up.

 

[bga1]

Pretty much sums up what I'm thinking.

If Diedhiou is here in January, will be interesting to see if Pitino puts him ahead of Buggs in the rotation (in terms of minutes played). If he does, that's pretty much the final indicator Pitino has no confidence in Buggs. That would speak volumes. ... a guy who hasn't even been on the team in November-December jumping right in ahead of a 3rd-year sophomore who at the minimum has shown an ability to knock down shots.

If Diedhou is able to take minutes from anybody in January that tells us that his potential is pretty high. If I were Pitino and think Diedhou has that kind of potential- I would spend the rest of the preseason playing Buggs at the 3 spot for 15 minutes a game and see if he can thrive there. We shouldn't really need Buggs at the 4 long term with Diedhou, Martin and even Konate capable of playing at the 4 behind King. I really don't like the idea of Hollins or Mason having to play the 3 when Morris is out of the lineup and it's also not a real good thing for Morris to think he can't be pulled.

 

[gopher7]

Better free throwing. What the heck is wrong with these guys?

Looked it up, and we are currently ranked:

342 of 345 in Free Throw shooting (55.8%).
298 of 345 in fewest number of fouls committed per game

In the few games I've been able to watch I think "All we do is foul the other team and miss free throws". That seems about it.

 

[bga1]

Looked it up, and we are currently ranked:

342 of 345 in Free Throw shooting (55.8%).
298 of 345 in fewest number of fouls committed per game

In the few games I've been able to watch I think "All we do is foul the other team and miss free throws". That seems about it.

Which would be fine if they would just let us shoot the other team's free throws for them.

 

[cjbfbp]

I don't think next year will be a step back just because guys are graduating, it may well still be, but just because we lose seniors doesn't mean we will be bad. If the freshman coming in are better than the seniors leaving, their class makes no difference

I wouldn't say that is true unless the freshman are top quality instead of just having more upside than existing seniors. So far Mason has been ready to step right in and play like a veteran, but how many Gopher freshman over the last six years or so were able to do the same? More often than not, big men take even a little longer to develop.

 

[Shawn Bradley Guy]

* Play more Buggs. Pitino: don't give us a line about his defense when you rolled out Malik Smith every game last year. I'll accept ball-handling, but defense doesn't fly on this matter.
* More Elliot over Mo. They both have warts, but start EE with the other four starting chuckers. They dominate (Mathieu, Hollins, Morris) the ball anyways. If Mo starts and doesn't get going offensively, he's usually a lost cause the rest of the game. Plus, I want Mathieu and Hollins to chuck even more. Gophers are only going as far as the guards take them. up
* When Mo does play, give him a 2 dribble limit on post-ups. The earlier comparison to Sampson was terrific. Too slow and methodical on his post up attempts.