Have the Gophers turned the corner?

[Bob_Loblaw]

Well Henley had 5 points. Holloman is averaging 1.5.

Did I list his minutes in a blow out as a positive take away for Michigan state? Nope. It takes a special kind of idiot to make that argument.

BTW Holloman, per 40, is also averaging more assists, points, steals, and better shooting and defensive metrics than Henley. As disappointing as Holloman has been, he’s been better than Henley.

 

[jblass]

We are back at the corner after the Michigan game. We were about to turn the corner until we hit the break pedal by taking Garcia out in the first half. Sure he had two fouls but the offense stalled without him.

 

[Wet_Blanket_Guy]

We are back at the corner after the Michigan game. We were about to turn the corner until we hit the break pedal by taking Garcia out in the first half. Sure he had two fouls but the offense stalled without him.

a solid 15 minutes of basketball in a game, in which we still lost, is not back at the corner. How about we string 2 wins together before we say we are at the corner.

As the saying goes, a broken clock is right twice a day. Some of these games the gophers have looked good, but the basketball has been putrid. This was an atrocious basketball game (same as the WI game *another one in which people thought we turned the corner). Just because the end result against a bad team is a closely contested match, doesn't mean we turned the corner.

Switching subjects somewhat, is the brand of ball we play, this slow down play really appealing to future recruits? Granted we already have Evans and Christie locked in for next year, do recruits really want to play in this incredible slow tempo style? Besides the Virginia's of the world & Wisconsin's (both of whom do it 10x better than the gophers), there are not a lot of teams that does this regularly and land top recruits (and WI doesn't regularly land top recruits...they just coach the shit out of what they get).

Is Ben's vision to play the slow grind it out style or is that being forced on him with the roster that he poorly constructed?

 

[EasyThere Pilgrim]

Is Ben's vision to play the slow grind it out style or is that being forced on him with the roster that he poorly constructed?

Haskins was said to have a slow grind it out style too. But when we had our Final Four team...like magic, all of a sudden we were pushing the ball up the floor as fast as possible.

 

[Wet_Blanket_Guy]

Haskins was said to have a slow grind it out style too. But when we had our Final Four team...like magic, all of a sudden we were pushing the ball up the floor as fast as possible.

I think in some of these games, Purdue being a perfect example, they should’ve pushed the tempo and tried to get Edey running. Whether it’s Garcia or Payne, whoever was playing C was more mobile. And it was clear we were not scoring in the half court as Edey just camped in the paint.

I would have to think that’s a stubborn coaching stance to play slow even though an uptempo game gave them a much better chance to win and score (by tiring the monster out). How does CBJ not make that adjustment?

 

[tikited]

Is it this corner?

 

[formerlybis]

a solid 15 minutes of basketball in a game, in which we still lost, is not back at the corner. How about we string 2 wins together before we say we are at the corner.

As the saying goes, a broken clock is right twice a day. Some of these games the gophers have looked good, but the basketball has been putrid. This was an atrocious basketball game (same as the WI game *another one in which people thought we turned the corner). Just because the end result against a bad team is a closely contested match, doesn't mean we turned the corner.

Switching subjects somewhat, is the brand of ball we play, this slow down play really appealing to future recruits? Granted we already have Evans and Christie locked in for next year, do recruits really want to play in this incredible slow tempo style? Besides the Virginia's of the world & Wisconsin's (both of whom do it 10x better than the gophers), there are not a lot of teams that does this regularly and land top recruits (and WI doesn't regularly land top recruits...they just coach the shit out of what they get).

Is Ben's vision to play the slow grind it out style or is that being forced on him with the roster that he poorly constructed?

FWIW Houston is another consistently high-ranked team that's also among the slowest teams. Bielein's Michigan teams were slow by the metrics, too.

But the importance of tempo is overestimated - it's just not that different from team to team.

Houston is at 63 possessions per game this year, which ranks in the #340s. UConn is #160 - their possessions per game is 68. That means a UConn game has one more possession than a Houston game for every 8 minutes of game time. It's imperceptible. And half of all college teams are between those two. It's just not a big deal.

 

[WindyCityGopher]

Haskins was said to have a slow grind it out style too. But when we had our Final Four team...like magic, all of a sudden we were pushing the ball up the floor as fast as possible.

Bobby Jackson will do that to a coaching philosophy. He was magic, but I don’t see Bobby Jackson walking through that door.

 

[oak_street1981]

Bobby Jackson will do that to a coaching philosophy. He was magic, but I don’t see Bobby Jackson walking through that door.

I never really thought about it until reading your post, but Bobby Jackson was probably my favorite Gopher player ever. By a lot. (rest of a long post about watching his 1997 NCAA run deleted)

 

[WindyCityGopher]

I never really thought about it until reading your post, but Bobby Jackson was probably my favorite Gopher player ever. By a lot. (rest of a long post about watching his 1997 NCAA run deleted)

Mine too, just ahead of Willie. The first time I saw him play I knew he was different, dramatically better than anyone on the floor, no matter who we played.

 

[oak_street1981]

Mine too, just ahead of Willie. The first time I saw him play I knew he was different, dramatically better than anyone on the floor, no matter who we played.

I have to admit I did watch that whole UCLA game again when I posted that Youtube video Tuesday night. I think The Clemson game was not where to be found,an, but I'll look again since Bobby Jackson put that one on his shoulders.

Back to UCLA, that was one tough Lavin coached UCLA team they beat. I almost felt sort of sad they lost, I appreciated the way they played in that Gopher game, with the guy coming back from the chest injury and a bunch of physical and athletic players trying to bang with Miles Tarver, Courney James, John Thomas (and maybe Trevor Winter). I think that UCLA usually won the match ups when getting in a physical game, but not in San Antonio that night.