Dre Mathieu's teammate says Mathieu a Gopher!

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Tim1406 said:
Am I the only one who thinks that the team at guard is better with Hollins, Hollins, Coleman(instead of Mathieu) as the 3 guards? I don't doubt this kids ability I just question why people hate on Coleman so much. When he scored 10 pts MN won. Plain and simple. Lack of a consistent jumper but outside of that he's a good player.
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Coleman is a decent player but along with a suspect jumper he's too small to defend bigs and to slow to defend wings.
 

Tim1406 said:
Am I the only one who thinks that the team at guard is better with Hollins, Hollins, Coleman(instead of Mathieu) as the 3 guards? I don't doubt this kids ability I just question why people hate on Coleman so much. When he scored 10 pts MN won. Plain and simple. Lack of a consistent jumper but outside of that he's a good player.
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I don't disagree with this in any way. However, the one thing that really appeals to me about starting Mathieu instead of Joe is that it frees up Andre to play the 2 and focus more on scoring than handling and distributing the ball. Joe should flourish in Richie's system, he'd be a monster off the bench and will play just as many minutes as he would if starting. The way the roster is shaping up, I wouldn't be surprised to see Joe, Andre, Austin and Mathieu on the court at the same time with Eliason manning the post. Elliot's game really needs to get to the next level if we're going to have a lot of success next season.
 

My poor Dad is going to be so confused - two Hollins and now two Dre's.

Welcome to Gophers Dre#2
 


920/414 Gopher said:
Interested to see how things shake out in the coming months. A Dre/Dre backcourt would be pretty small, but I have a really good feeling about Hollins moving to the 2 and feeling less pressure to carry the team. Fingers crossed for Mathieu and McNeil.
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Hopefully our Dre Dre backcourt is as effective as Arkansas's May Day backcourt.
 



Tim1406 said:
Am I the only one who thinks that the team at guard is better with Hollins, Hollins, Coleman(instead of Mathieu) as the 3 guards? I don't doubt this kids ability I just question why people hate on Coleman so much. When he scored 10 pts MN won. Plain and simple. Lack of a consistent jumper but outside of that he's a good player.
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I think it's too early to predict who will start (other than Hollins and Hollins), but I think Mathieu, Hollins, and Hollins has the potential to be significantly better than Hollins, Hollins, and Coleman DEFENSIVELY in Pitino's system. We need a guard who is able to hound the ball and force the turnovers that Pitino's style emphasizes/thrives on. Mathieu is the type of quick/athlete who potentially could do that and it also allows Austin to bet that 3rd guard and he's going to be more active in that spot than Joe Coleman would be. Joe is the proven commodity though and none of us really know what Mathieu is capable of in the B1G.

As to why people hate on Coleman? I am not sure I see more "hate" for him than other similar players on the team (ie anyone other than 'Dre and Austin). I will say that Joe committed many of the most egregious turnovers on the roster last season. While it was more painful to watch Mav, I found myself saying "Joe, what the F are you doing?" to myself more often than any other player on the roster. The other issue that was tough with Joe is that teams could leave him (and often did) WIDE OPEN on the perimeter and he simply could not make them pay.

If Joe does see more "hate" here's my theory as to why: He scored 29(!) against Illinios. Similar to the famous "a star is born" game of his freshman year, Coleman had a huge performance and failed to replicate it throughout the rest of the season. Nobody else on the returning roster without the last name Hollins, has had a game that made fans believe that player had All Conference potential. Joe has rasied the bar, so when the team loses and he scores 7 points...he's going to get more heat than a guy like Eliason who has never shown the ability to put up 20 points. Again, I haven't noticed this hate and seem to find that most Gopher fans tend to go easier on the instate kids than they do on some of the out of state guys.

I hope Joe takes another step next year and Dre Mathieu turns out to be a good player....this isn't a deep roster and we could certainly use big minutes from both of them.
 






Tim1406 said:
Am I the only one who thinks that the team at guard is better with Hollins, Hollins, Coleman(instead of Mathieu) as the 3 guards? I don't doubt this kids ability I just question why people hate on Coleman so much. When he scored 10 pts MN won. Plain and simple. Lack of a consistent jumper but outside of that he's a good player.
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Theres no hate for Coleman, there's just the recognition that he is a very limited player that is likely playing a bigger role than he should be. I love Joe's toughness, passion and power and think he'd be perfect bringing some attitude and athleticism off the bench. However he's a guy that lacks a consistent jump shot and ALSO lacks the ball handling AND body control to be a consistently effective slasher and penetrator which leads to him getting stuck in traffic and or committing fouls and TO's. We see big men all the time that specialize on getting 'garbage points' and Joe is basically the 6'4" version of that. In the ILL game he made a few shots but he scored a ton just beating people down the court and thats what he'll do. I'd rather have another guy out there in the starting lineup that can get his own shot OR consistently hit shots created for him by others
 

oleboy41 said:
Theres no hate for Coleman, there's just the recognition that he is a very limited player that is likely playing a bigger role than he should be. I love Joe's toughness, passion and power and think he'd be perfect bringing some attitude and athleticism off the bench. However he's a guy that lacks a consistent jump shot and ALSO lacks the ball handling AND body control to be a consistently effective slasher and penetrator which leads to him getting stuck in traffic and or committing fouls and TO's. We see big men all the time that specialize on getting 'garbage points' and Joe is basically the 6'4" version of that. In the ILL game he made a few shots but he scored a ton just beating people down the court and thats what he'll do. I'd rather have another guy out there in the starting lineup that can get his own shot OR consistently hit shots created for him by others
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Joe Coleman should have been Dan Coleman, part duece. Only problem is, Joe stopped growing.
 

JimmyJamesMD said:
Joe Coleman should have been Dan Coleman, part duece. Only problem is, Joe stopped growing.
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Dan was a much more fluid athlete than Joe and had much better skill. Joe is stronger, faster and a more explosive athlete and also a much tougher player. If Joe had Dan's skill set he'd be a potential NBA player and if Dan had Joe's mentality he would be an NBA player
 



oleboy41 said:
Theres no hate for Coleman, there's just the recognition that he is a very limited player that is likely playing a bigger role than he should be. I love Joe's toughness, passion and power and think he'd be perfect bringing some attitude and athleticism off the bench. However he's a guy that lacks a consistent jump shot and ALSO lacks the ball handling AND body control to be a consistently effective slasher and penetrator which leads to him getting stuck in traffic and or committing fouls and TO's. We see big men all the time that specialize on getting 'garbage points' and Joe is basically the 6'4" version of that. In the ILL game he made a few shots but he scored a ton just beating people down the court and thats what he'll do. I'd rather have another guy out there in the starting lineup that can get his own shot OR consistently hit shots created for him by others
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This statement assumes that he is not coachable and can't overcome these issues as he matures and develops through his final two years...a premise that i do not agree with.
 

JUCO recruiting is always a crap shoot. I just googled last year's JUCO AA first team (which has 10 guys).

The best was a kid who went for 20.1 ppg at Ole Miss. One averaged 12.0 at A&M. Low end: A dude who averaged 3.1 ppg at Oregon, one who averaged 4.9 at Delaware State and one who got a DUI and didn't play.

We need ball handlers so hopefully Dre fits the bill. To go from a walk-on at Moorehead State to JUCO AA to the Big Ten is a heck of a progression. If this is a sign that he's a late bloomer and coming into his own, we then will have really added some talent to the backcourt.

Go Gophers!!
 

MDGopherFan said:
This statement assumes that he is not coachable and can't overcome these issues as he matures and develops through his final two years...a premise that i do not agree with.
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My statement assumed absolutely none of that. It was a statement about the player he has been and unless you want to start assuming all our players will fix the obvious holes in their games in one off season I'm sure they won't change much. Not many players go from poor shooters to above average shooters. Not many go from below average ball handlers to above average, and not many people can do much about their body control. Coaching has nothing to do with it. Some guys just aren't natural in certain areas. Joe played for a top coach in HS and has spent 2 years in college and still has those holes in his game. My guess is that his ball handling and shooting continues to improve and hopefully they become adequate enough that he can really exploit the strengths of his game (strength, explosion, aggressiveness). However I doubt he ever magically gains the ability to contort his body in traffic or maneuver through the lane like Austin Hollins but physically it's just not who he is
 

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