Best Gopher Shooter ever...

Who is the best pure shooter in Gopher history?

  • Trent Tucker

    Votes: 22 42.3%

  • Blake Hoffarber

    Votes: 28 53.8%

  • Cade Tyson

    Votes: 1 1.9%

  • Other (explain why)

    Votes: 1 1.9%
  • Total voters
    52
Donate To GopherHole



Google says Trent Tucker was a 50% shooter as a Gopher. Willie Burton shot 59% his junior year...again according to Google.
Those two guys were fun to watch.
As mentioned, nobody shot deeper shots than Clyde Turner. He poured them in at at 44.5% clip for his Gopher career.
Flip Saunders was the Gophers career free throw shooting percentage leader at 80.9%. He made a lot of money shots in his career.
 

60's Guy said:
Google says Trent Tucker was a 50% shooter as a Gopher. Willie Burton shot 59% his junior year...again according to Google.
Those two guys were fun to watch.
As mentioned, nobody shot deeper shots than Clyde Turner. He poured them in at at 44.5% clip for his Gopher career.
Flip Saunders was the Gophers career free throw shooting percentage leader at 80.9%. He made a lot of money shots in his career.
Click to expand...

Flip isn’t top 10 for career free throw percentage.

Joey King is #1 at 88.6%
 


FinnGopher said:
Best junkyard dog ever!
Click to expand...
Miles had almost zero ball skills, but coming off the bench he made teams better. He played his ass off and knew his limitations. He was also the best quote in program history and would say more interesting things in one game than CBJ said in 4 years. I was a fan. As long as he didn’t shoot beyond…. a dunk….which he was still known to miss and then joke about..
 

I went with Hoffarber!

But, I used to play pickup down at Target Center and watched KG, Flip, Randy Whitman and Mchale play each other in an NBA 3 point shooting contest.
Mchale didn’t last very long.
Rookie KG got to around 24 without a miss.

Then Flip and Whitman blew all of our minds.

They got to 30 and then they started backing up a step every shot.

Whitman dropped at like 46! Shooting from the center circle.

Flip kept going as KG asked him to go for 50. Flip rimmed out on 49 from a stride inside half court!

Unguarded these guys were automatic!
 

Have to make a distinction between scorers vs pure shooters. Grier, Burton, Bobby Jackson, etc. were great scorers but not necessarily great shooters. I never saw the pre-70s Gopher greats, but Tucker was money. He would probably be the all-time scorer had there been a 3-point line in his era.
 

Probably Trent Tucker is the best pure shooter, but Lou Hudson a close second. I only saw one or two of Lou's college games, but listened to many games on WCCO, and watched him as a pro whenever his teams were televised. He shot 47% as a guard in his 3 years in college, mostly from long range, including 19 games as a senior with his right shooting hand broken and in a cast. He still averaged 19.8 points per game that year. During his 13 year pro career, he had 4 years where he shot 50% or better, and 4 years where he averaged more than 25 points per game. And no, I'm not related to Lou.
 




I said Blake Hoffarber because he is #1 in the list below.

These are the top 10 seasons in TRUE SHOOTING PERCENTAGE according to College Basketball at Sports Reference.

NameYearTS%
Blake Hoffarber2009-10
0.686​
Cade Tyson2025-06
0.679​
Jim Peterson1983-84
0.654​
Randy Breuer1982-83
0.628​
Mychal Thompson1976-77
0.624​
Willie Burton1989-90
0.624​
Mark Hall1980-81
0.621​
Ben Johnson2003-04
0.615​
Daniel Oturu2019-20
0.612​
Willie Burton1988-89
0.611​


True Shooting Percentage is the most comprehensive measure of shooting, or maybe more precisely scoring efficiency. It weights 3 point goals more and also includes free throw shooting.

FinnGopher's guess is correct. Cade Tyson is having among the best Gopher seasons of all time shooting and scoring with the ball.

Note that Willie Burton has two seasons in the Top 10.

Also, never let it be said that Ben Johnson wasn't good at anything during his long association with the Gophers.
 









TwistingMyMelon said:
I said Blake Hoffarber because he is #1 in the list below.

These are the top 10 seasons in TRUE SHOOTING PERCENTAGE according to College Basketball at Sports Reference.

NameYearTS%
Blake Hoffarber2009-10
0.686​
Cade Tyson2025-06
0.679​
Jim Peterson1983-84
0.654​
Randy Breuer1982-83
0.628​
Mychal Thompson1976-77
0.624​
Willie Burton1989-90
0.624​
Mark Hall1980-81
0.621​
Ben Johnson2003-04
0.615​
Daniel Oturu2019-20
0.612​
Willie Burton1988-89
0.611​


True Shooting Percentage is the most comprehensive measure of shooting, or maybe more precisely scoring efficiency. It weights 3 point goals more and also includes free throw shooting.

FinnGopher's guess is correct. Cade Tyson is having among the best Gopher seasons of all time shooting and scoring with the ball.

Note that Willie Burton has two seasons in the Top 10.

Also, never let it be said that Ben Johnson wasn't good at anything during his long association with the Gophers.
Click to expand...
Not a great measure for perimeter players like Trent Tucker (1st Team Big Ten), Daryl Mitchell (1st team Big Ten), Tommy Davis (1st Team Big Ten), etc who never played with the three-pointer in college. Also, Blake was a catch and shoot player who had few contested shots. Other players like Willie who ere taking a lot of contested shots are not going to fare as well. And, I question any measure that puts Ben Johnson (ok player but nowhere near what you would call really good or even sniffing all conference) ahead of Willie or I could name a whole bunch of other players.

I didn't think of Mark Hall. He was an amazing guard, and I didn't see Ray Williams mentioned.
 

The most impressive gopher shot I ever saw was in 2014-15 when Carlos "Squirrel" Morris elevated for a straightaway three and somehow managed to launch the ball straight backwards on a line drive trajectory. I can imagine how a player might lose their grip and drop the ball behind them, but despite spending a substantial amount of time contemplating how that happened, I still have no idea how he managed to do that with the ball.
 

Otis said:
I went with Hoffarber!

But, I used to play pickup down at Target Center and watched KG, Flip, Randy Whitman and Mchale play each other in an NBA 3 point shooting contest.
Mchale didn’t last very long.
Rookie KG got to around 24 without a miss.

Then Flip and Whitman blew all of our minds.

They got to 30 and then they started backing up a step every shot.

Whitman dropped at like 46! Shooting from the center circle.

Flip kept going as KG asked him to go for 50. Flip rimmed out on 49 from a stride inside half court!

Unguarded these guys were automatic!
Click to expand...
Randy Whitman. No there was a rascal when it came to the ladies. Glen spent the entire season putting out fires.
 

60's Guy said:
Google says Trent Tucker was a 50% shooter as a Gopher. Willie Burton shot 59% his junior year...again according to Google.
Those two guys were fun to watch.
As mentioned, nobody shot deeper shots than Clyde Turner. He poured them in at at 44.5% clip for his Gopher career.
Flip Saunders was the Gophers career free throw shooting percentage leader at 80.9%. He made a lot of money shots in his career.
Click to expand...
I had the opportunity to play a little pick up ball against TT. His range was unbelievable. His 50% FG was based on 85% of this shots being taken from the NBA 3 point line. Best shooter for sure.
 

Tucker32 said:
Not a great measure for perimeter players like Trent Tucker (1st Team Big Ten), Daryl Mitchell (1st team Big Ten), Tommy Davis (1st Team Big Ten), etc who never played with the three-pointer in college. Also, Blake was a catch and shoot player who had few contested shots. Other players like Willie who ere taking a lot of contested shots are not going to fare as well. And, I question any measure that puts Ben Johnson (ok player but nowhere near what you would call really good or even sniffing all conference) ahead of Willie or I could name a whole bunch of other players.

I didn't think of Mark Hall. He was an amazing guard, and I didn't see Ray Williams mentioned.
Click to expand...
Both Mark Hall and Ray Williams were scorers - always found a way to get a bucket. Great players. But neither is what I would call an excellent shooter.
 

Trent Tucker's partner in crime, Darrell Mitchell, was Dead Eye Dick too.
 


You must log in or register to reply here.



Top Bottom