Andy Katz has Gophers at #26 in his Power 36

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60's Guy said:
Jimmy, having a rim protector is one way to construct a basketball team. Or at the very least there are different ways defensively to protect the rim. Sound defense does not have to have a rim protector. Against Happ, we need a post defender. Rim protector and a post defender are not the same thing. A 5'8" guy can take a charge and be a rim protector. On and on.... We'll find a way if we have a healthy roster.
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I disagree. You saw the way Lynch affected games. Taking a charge does not equal rim protection. A rim protector is going to have a lot more opportunities to block a shot or affect a shot than a point guard attempting to take a charge.


I agree that if you don't have a rim protector, your man to man needs to be stellar. Unless returning players step up that part of the game, its not going to be a great defensive team.
 

Otis said:
I don't think IW's scoring is the most important stat we need out of him. Keeping turnovers to a minimum would be excellent if he can drive and feed Stull and others for open looks.
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This is so dead on that I'm actually not mad at you for posting it twice. I hope IW knows this.
 

bizzle22 said:
This is so dead on that I'm actually not mad at you for posting it twice. I hope IW knows this.
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Mason and Washington were very close in assists per 40 minutes, with Mason at 4.9 and Washington at 4.7. However, Mason only had 1.8 turnovers per 40 while Washington had 3.0.
 


JimmyJamesMD said:
I disagree. You saw the way Lynch affected games. Taking a charge does not equal rim protection. A rim protector is going to have a lot more opportunities to block a shot or affect a shot than a point guard attempting to take a charge.


I agree that if you don't have a rim protector, your man to man needs to be stellar. Unless returning players step up that part of the game, its not going to be a great defensive team.
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Yes, this, again. ^^^.

I posted how poor our defensive efficiency was a page back when Lynch went out. This goes hand-in-hand.

2016-2017 block %: #2 in the nation
2017-2018 prior to Lynch suspension: #3 in the nation
2017-2018 block % at the end of the year: 27th. We dropped from a 11.6% rate to 8.2%. I don’t have the splits, but that likely means we had about a 6% rate which would be 150th or so.

Having Lynch allowed us to stretch our defense out to the perimeter with the other 4:
2016-2017 Opponent 3P%: #13 in the nation
2017-2018 prior to Lynch suspension: 180th
2017-2018 Opponent 3P%: finished 300th. Again, I don’t have the split but I’d imagine we were the worst in the nation or very close once Lynch was gone.

I’ll repeat that this doesn’t mean that we can’t play a different style or others cannot step up, but having probably the best defensive C in the nation that was a solid offensive player was a really, really big deal.

Obviously just having Curry and Oturu instead of Konate and Fitz is a big deal but it’ll take one of those guys being very, very good to return to 2016-2017 level.
 


All things being equal, yeah, I'd like to have a strong post player to anchor the defense.

If you don't have that post player, you can survive by going up-tempo, pressing and forcing turnovers - but that is a more high-risk strategy.
Or, I suppose you can sit back, pack in a 2-3 zone, and let teams shoot from the perimeter, but most teams can shoot well enough to negate that option.

In reality, what I suspect is most likely to happen is this: Gophers are a little better on D than last year, and a little better on O. How much better remains to be seen, and that will make the difference in whether the team is an NCAA team, an NIT team, or something else.
 

short ornery norwegian said:
All things being equal, yeah, I'd like to have a strong post player to anchor the defense.

If you don't have that post player, you can survive by going up-tempo, pressing and forcing turnovers - but that is a more high-risk strategy.
Or, I suppose you can sit back, pack in a 2-3 zone, and let teams shoot from the perimeter, but most teams can shoot well enough to negate that option.

In reality, what I suspect is most likely to happen is this: Gophers are a little better on D than last year, and a little better on O. How much better remains to be seen, and that will make the difference in whether the team is an NCAA team, an NIT team, or something else.
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I agree with the majority of this.
 


RickDornsby said:
Yes, this, again. ^^^.

I posted how poor our defensive efficiency was a page back when Lynch went out. This goes hand-in-hand.

2016-2017 block %: #2 in the nation
2017-2018 prior to Lynch suspension: #3 in the nation
2017-2018 block % at the end of the year: 27th. We dropped from a 11.6% rate to 8.2%. I don’t have the splits, but that likely means we had about a 6% rate which would be 150th or so.

Having Lynch allowed us to stretch our defense out to the perimeter with the other 4:
2016-2017 Opponent 3P%: #13 in the nation
2017-2018 prior to Lynch suspension: 180th
2017-2018 Opponent 3P%: finished 300th. Again, I don’t have the split but I’d imagine we were the worst in the nation or very close once Lynch was gone.

I’ll repeat that this doesn’t mean that we can’t play a different style or others cannot step up, but having probably the best defensive C in the nation that was a solid offensive player was a really, really big deal.

Obviously just having Curry and Oturu instead of Konate and Fitz is a big deal but it’ll take one of those guys being very, very good to return to 2016-2017 level.
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The difference in athletes on the floor at all positions is a pretty big factor. No Coffey, half a McBrayer, a limping Mason, Fitzgerald, Hurt, Harris are not going to elevate your defense. 11 or 12 healthy athletes to play with and 13 effective players to practice with and we will be dramatically improved in all phases. It's hard when you can't practice guys for fear of injuring your few healthy guys, plus resting the wounded. We'll be better!
 



Oh yeah, after years and years of watching this football and basketball team, I should’ve trained myself to be an ...optimist?
 

Cayman said:
Mason and Washington were very close in assists per 40 minutes, with Mason at 4.9 and Washington at 4.7. However, Mason only had 1.8 turnovers per 40 while Washington had 3.0.
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Not only turnovers but just feel for the game and understanding situations, shot selection, etc. Those things on top of turnovers will dictate IW's season.
 

Ewert86PC said:
We're in the 27th percentile! LET'S PARTY!!! [emoji14]

Sent from my SM-N950U using Tapatalk
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Uh...no. If we really are the 26th best team, then given that there are about 355 D1 teams, that would put us in about the 93rd percentile.
 




short ornery norwegian said:
In reality, what I suspect is most likely to happen is this: Gophers are a little better on D than last year, and a little better on O. How much better remains to be seen, and that will make the difference in whether the team is an NCAA team, an NIT team, or something else.
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I suspect that, if their are no key injuries or defections, they have to be better on both ends. The extra bodies allow them to exert more effort on the defensive end. Similarly, on the offensive end, the extra bodies should give them more options. For the last half of the past season, they had only two reliable scorers and another freshman who was growing into his potential. The rest had severe offensive anemia. McBrayer, hobbled by injuries, looked flat out terrible in trying to be the team's 3rd option. The result was that the top two scorers, but especially Mason, dominated the ball too much. Usually when you have that situation, you have a bad offense.

Now, having said all that, Pitino has disappointed me more often than not in his five year tenure, so I'm not going to believe any hype about them being the 26th best team until they're 16 games through the season with a record of at least 13-3.
 

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