Big Problems, one suggestion

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balds

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The 180 this team has done since Puerto Rico is amazing. We have some big problems:

1) exactly two guys who can shoot (Joseph and Hoff). They both, however are too slow to create their own offense.

2) Zero guys who can score down low from the post.

3) Only one guy who can take anyone off the dribble, and he can't shoot or finish.

4) a plethora of slow footed defenders causing us to constantly shift and play catch up the thus leaving someone wide open beyond the arc.





Possible new wrinkles:

1) Go insanely big with Colt, Ralph, Mbakwe and Rodney at SG. Could be a nightmare defensively, but it would likely create a mismatch somewhere down low and at least create some defensive movement we might capitilize on.

2) Run the offense through Devoe. He is the only one who has shown he can score. He should play 30-35 minutes a game and be green lit all light long.

3) get Hollins on the floor as much as possible. Him and Rodney with their reach and relative quickness figure to be two of our best defenders, especially in the zone.

4) Use someone else to set screens out top. I want to puke every time I see Mbakwe pick up a foul 22 feet from the goal. Actually 4 suggestions rather than one.

Lot of season to go. I doubt that if these were games 6 and 12 of the Big Ten season we would see such a melt down.
 

balds said:
Possible new wrinkles:

1) Go insanely big with Colt, Ralph, Mbakwe and Rodney at SG. Could be a nightmare defensively, but it would likely create a mismatch somewhere down low and at least create some defensive movement we might capitilize on.

2) Run the offense through Devoe. He is the only one who has shown he can score. He should play 30-35 minutes a game and be green lit all light long.

3) get Hollins on the floor as much as possible. Him and Rodney with their reach and relative quickness figure to be two of our best defenders, especially in the zone.

4) Use someone else to set screens out top. I want to puke every time I see Mbakwe pick up a foul 22 feet from the goal. Actually 4 suggestions rather than one.

Lot of season to go. I doubt that if these were games 6 and 12 of the Big Ten season we would see such a melt down.
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With the exception of #4, the first 3 are truly some terrible ideas.

#1: Our wings can't get out on the shooters now, could you imagine how brutal it would be with all posts in the game defensively? Forget defense, who the heck would score with that lineup? Our opponents will just pack it in, keep their defense within 5 feet of the basket and watch Iverson, Williams, etc. clank from 10 ft? A complete lack of any outside threat would basically allow us to score maybe 15-20 pts for an entire game. Also, not having a single player on the floor that can dribble might present a slight problem; like not getting the ball past half court. Watching Lucas, McCamey, or Buford pressuring Iverson or Mbawke at 3/4 court, stealing the ball before they take 3 dribbles would be pretty entertaining, at least if you're our opponent that night.

#2: Joseph simply isn't good enough to have the offense run through him, nor any other player on our team. He's not Kemba Walker or Kevin Durant. He doesn't shoot very well, isn't smart enough with the ball, isn't quick enough to get by anyone 1 on 1, doesn't pass it well off the dribble....so basically, running our offense through him would single-handedly kill any chance we have at winning a basketball game. I don't know why "he's the only one that has shown he can score" when Mbakwe & Hoffarber are averaging more pts/game than he is, and Sampson is on par with him in the scoring department.

#3: If you think Hollins and Williams have the potential to be our "best defenders," you really haven't been paying attention to Gopher basketball this year. Williams is consistently beat out for rebounds because he relies on his athleticism for rebounds and doesn't actually box anyone out. That's why Tubby barely played him last year (according to Tubby himself). Forget just the rebounding, out of our whole team, Hollins and Williams are consistently in the worst possible defensive position possible. Hollins is extremely slow to rotate on the baseline in our zone (SDSU game?!), rarely gets rebounds despite being in the general area for a rebound, and Williams has shown a propensity to not find shooters, despite his length (including many instances of fouling 3 pt shooters when he's late on getting out to contest their shot).

I can't imagine how implementing #1-3 would do anything but cause us to get blown out the rest of the way. But that's just me...
 


Geez, with how you put it you'd think we'd be the worst Div. 1 basketball team there is. We lost at Madison and East Lansing. That's not a good thing, but it's not the end of the world.
 



balds said:
The 180 this team has done since Puerto Rico is amazing. We have some big problems:

1) exactly two guys who can shoot (Joseph and Hoff). They both, however are too slow to create their own offense.

2) Zero guys who can score down low from the post.

3) Only one guy who can take anyone off the dribble, and he can't shoot or finish.

4) a plethora of slow footed defenders causing us to constantly shift and play catch up the thus leaving someone wide open beyond the arc.







Possible new wrinkles:

1) Go insanely big with Colt, Ralph, Mbakwe and Rodney at SG. Could be a nightmare defensively, but it would likely create a mismatch somewhere down low and at least create some defensive movement we might capitilize on.

2) Run the offense through Devoe. He is the only one who has shown he can score. He should play 30-35 minutes a game and be green lit all light long.

3) get Hollins on the floor as much as possible. Him and Rodney with their reach and relative quickness figure to be two of our best defenders, especially in the zone.

4) Use someone else to set screens out top. I want to puke every time I see Mbakwe pick up a foul 22 feet from the goal. Actually 4 suggestions rather than one.

Lot of season to go. I doubt that if these were games 6 and 12 of the Big Ten season we would see such a melt down.
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1) Have seen blake take his guy of the dribble several times this season. I also believe some freshman can shoot

2) Trevpr can, we just need to feed him the ball constantly

3) Rodney, Devoe and yes even Hoff can and have done this at various points this season

4) Not necessarily slow footed. More lazy not being ready to get out there to defend from what I saw at M state
 

uguysareallmorons! said:
Balds you are a moron!
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I've been called worse. The best basketball I've seen them play under Tubby was last March. During that time Devoe was playing about 35 minutes and was our best scorer, despite playing the Pg position. Also during that time, Iverson and Sampson were playing a lot together and having a big lineup was certainly a big part of their success.

We have a lot of lineup variations that we never seem to even try.

1) go big
2) Play Nolen, Joseph and Hoff a lot together. Adding quickness and a second shooter/ball handler to the floor. Maybe interchange Hollins in this group to keep at least two shooters on the floor at all times.

3) Go Athletic/long and press/trap Hollins, Nolen, Rodney and Mbakwe come to mind.

I am indeed most likely a moron and none of these things would work. I'm sorry for thinking about different things to try instead of accepting what we've seen lately and simply complaining about it.
 

We had two leads in the 2nd half of both games and failed to hold them. That's what bothers me. we should have won one of these games. We just can not say we are going to lose because it is at MSU and Wisconsin - to take the next step we have to win one of those games.
 

Most of Mbakwe's fouls have been called when he's under the rim. Many of his calls have been bias for one reason or another. Watch the D, we need more people helping weak side, when Mbakwe, or Blake go to help the other Gopher's don't work the switch. That is why they sometimes are caught out of position. Not because of "slow feet." Also, we have found another scorer, 17 pts in 22 minutes is a solid number any coach will take that. Agree a lot needs to change, but don't agree with some of your "problem points."
 



30-35 minutes for Joseph would be a good start to fixing the half court offense. Let Nolen be a 10-15 minutes per game 'energy boost' and some of those minutes can come at the expense of Hoffarber.

Sitting one of the few guys on this team who is capable of scoring is a mistake.
 

book said:
We had two leads in the 2nd half of both games and failed to hold them. That's what bothers me. we should have won one of these games. We just can not say we are going to lose because it is at MSU and Wisconsin - to take the next step we have to win one of those games.
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This is what it troubling to me as well. I think it can snowball and negative thoughts creep in everyone minds when you lose leads in the 2nd half...
 

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