Big Mo Walker

Donate To GopherHole
W

WILLBGOPHER

Member
Joined
Mar 1, 2011
Messages
244
Reaction score
0
Points
16
I probably just missed this, but Tubby said on the radio today that he hurt his ankle in the final practice before the Stanford game. Had surgery, arthroscopic i presume, to clean it up and remove a bone spur. Stated he would be just fine. Lets hope he can get in shape and stay healthy as he has a nice upside.
 

He just has the worst luck. Here's to hoping his luck turns around this year.
 

The B1G usually sends a team overseas in the summer. Hope Huge Mo is our rep. I expect alot of rust, but hope he's ready by the B1G season. Big part of our future IMO. Shares time with EE next year at 5, takes over his natural position at 4 the next two.
 

I would be very surprised to see Mo at the 4. I don't see him being able to defend 4's on the perimeter. His body is built to play the 5.
 

Mo Walker hurts foot

Per Sid Hartman:

Maurice Walker, the Gophers basketball sophomore forward who played only 12 games his freshman year and was a redshirt this past season after knee surgery and didn't play at all, recently suffered a foot injury and will miss summer practice for four weeks, but he should be healthy when the season starts.

http://www.startribune.com/sports/vikings/148984025.html
 


Let's hope this doesn't start a steady stream of bad news. Would like to get through this summer with as little drama as possible.

Any injury to Mo is a concern. He needs to get on the court, both offseason and in-season. He's not going to get any better sitting out drills/conditioning, etc., not to mention games.
 

Im not concerned about this can't guard fours stuff. Basically teams play two bigs and three guards. It's all about matchups. I'm guessing there are some so called fours that will also have trouble handling big Mo.
 

I am wondering if the hopes are a bit too high for Mo at this point. He absolutely showed promise in his first (and only) 12 games. But a) small sample size and 2) is he injury prone? He is a very big dude. Some of those guys tend to get injured a lot. We've seen him against Jo Jo's Near MIAC Rangers and he looked good. I worry that our expectations are too high for high impact at the Big Ten level. I like his upsde a lot, but..............
 

GopherJake said:
I am wondering if the hopes are a bit too high for Mo at this point. He absolutely showed promise in his first (and only) 12 games. But a) small sample size and 2) is he injury prone? He is a very big dude. Some of those guys tend to get injured a lot. We've seen him against Jo Jo's Near MIAC Rangers and he looked good. I worry that our expectations are too high for high impact at the Big Ten level. I like his upsde a lot, but..............
Click to expand...

Too highly recruited not to be an impact player in the B1G. That said, next year we really only need quality backup minutes at the 5 and probably 4. I'm not expecting much early, but believe he'll be a solid B1G player at some point next season. It's almost like starting over.
 



howieramone said:
Too highly recruited not to be an impact player in the B1G. That said, next year we really only need quality backup minutes at the 5 and probably 4. I'm not expecting much early, but believe he'll be a solid B1G player at some point next season. It's almost like starting over.
Click to expand...

Depends on what you believe an "impact" player is. There are many examples on highly recruited players that dont pan out due to injuries.

I thought he looked good in the 10-12 games he played. I hope he heals up.
 

This is just a setback, not a career ending injury. Exhale everyone.

Next, we have tons of depth, except at PG. With Trevor, Rodney, Elliot, Oto & Ingram, I don't think we'd miss Mo that much next season if he were set back another year. The most important player for next season is Dre Hollins. We can overcome the loss of any other starter due to our depth, but if we have to start Welch against MSU/W/Mich/OSU, were screwed.
 

Costa Rican Gopher said:
This is just a setback, not a career ending injury. Exhale everyone.

Next, we have tons of depth, except at PG. With Trevor, Rodney, Elliot, Oto & Ingram, I don't think we'd miss Mo that much next season if he were set back another year. The most important player for next season is Dre Hollins. We can overcome the loss of any other starter due to our depth, but if we have to start Welch against MSU/W/Mich/OSU, were screwed.
Click to expand...

Good point and that's exactly why we need a PG in this year's recruiting class. If Dre, heaven forbid, tears an ACL alot of basketball needs to be played before the Tyus Express decides if he is coming to Dinkytown.
 

Walker at the 4?

The closest comparison in the big ten i can find to the potential i saw in Walker as a freshmen is Nix of michigan St. Can you imagine Nix not playing center and trying to guard a 4? Some of the best 4's in the big ten: Thomas, Hummel, Watkins. All guys who can play inside and out. Walker may have a decent shooting touch, but that wont help him on defense on one of these guys. I'm expecting EE to start and Walker to back him up at the 5, with small doses of Trevor at the 5 when we go small.
 




march madness said:
The closest comparison in the big ten i can find to the potential i saw in Walker as a freshmen is Nix of michigan St. Can you imagine Nix not playing center and trying to guard a 4? Some of the best 4's in the big ten: Thomas, Hummel, Watkins. All guys who can play inside and out. Walker may have a decent shooting touch, but that wont help him on defense on one of these guys. I'm expecting EE to start and Walker to back him up at the 5, with small doses of Trevor at the 5 when we go small.
Click to expand...

Several thoughts. EE and Huge Mo were in the same recruiting class. No way Tubby recruited 2 true centers in one class. Huge Mo will play the 4 when the Beast graduates. As a frosh as I recall Huge Mo played mostly the 4. I admit I wasn't watching for his D, other than he looked game. He played at 330 lbs. and I read he's now about 285. No, our 2 bigs aren't going to be chasing guys around the perimeter, but they will make a visit to the paint rather unpleasant.
 

howieramone said:
Several thoughts. EE and Huge Mo were in the same recruiting class. No way Tubby recruited 2 true centers in one class. Huge Mo will play the 4 when the Beast graduates. As a frosh as I recall Huge Mo played mostly the 4. I admit I wasn't watching for his D, other than he looked game. He played at 330 lbs. and I read he's now about 285. No, our 2 bigs aren't going to be chasing guys around the perimeter, but they will make a visit to the paint rather unpleasant.
Click to expand...
And they also recruited EE with the thought of a redshirt year. Mo was supposed to play right away.
 


It doesn't really matter what Mo plays on offense, it's who can guard who on defense. Their were times when Colt and Sampson had some nice high low on offense, but then whichever one was guarding the forward got killed on the other end.

I'd rather see the smaller quicker lineup myself. I would probably rarely play Walker and EE together. We will just have to wait and see.
 

I am not worried about the defense at all. Play more zone when the two bigs are on the floor at the same time and it takes away many problems they might have chasing after smaller players. I would like to see teams try to body us up around the basket on either end of the floor with those two on the floor together. Walker has been out so long it will be interesting to see how much his game has changed over the nearly two years he has been out.
 

You must log in or register to reply here.



Top Bottom