Hoffarber Starting

[SonOfTheVarsity]

Okay this is getting way off-topic. Hoff shouldn't be used off the bench only in certain situations. He's the kind of guard that can be used to disrupt the defensive flow of the other team, regardless of the score. What I was trying to discuss was the combination of Nolen, Devoe, and Rodney. I think that three guard (Rodney plays SG/SF - so take it with a grain of salt) could be more explosive against the more athletic teams in the conference than the Nolen, Devoe, Blake combo...this thread is going on a tangent.

I'm sorry, but your original post had nothing to do with a comparison of the line-ups with either Rodney or Blake in. You pretty much just said Blake's only use is as a shooter. In fact, here's a quote: "The second he is covered by a defender that knows what they are doing it's pretty much over for him." Nowhere did you mention anything about a line-up with Rodney being more explosive or being better able to compete in the Big Ten. Or really anything close to that.

I agree that the thread has gone off course, but your original post was about criticizing Blake, not comparing him to Rodney.

 

[KSBGopher]

I'm sorry, but your original post had nothing to do with a comparison of the line-ups with either Rodney or Blake in. You pretty much just said Blake's only use is as a shooter. In fact, here's a quote: "The second he is covered by a defender that knows what they are doing it's pretty much over for him." Nowhere did you mention anything about a line-up with Rodney being more explosive or being better able to compete in the Big Ten. Or really anything close to that.

I agree that the thread has gone off course, but your original post was about criticizing Blake, not comparing him to Rodney.

I agree. My original post was poorly articulated and hardly well thought out. My main issue isn't with Blake as a player. He's an excellent player with a great IQ and has been incredible for the Gophs overall. I have no issue of personally attacking Hoff. What I was trying to get at (likely misleading by the original post) was whether in certain big ten games should Rodney start over Hoff and play more minutes. Right now I'm feeling pretty horrible about the direction of this thread. It was not to hate on Blake at all, it was about strategy regarding the more athletic teams in the conference that will be able to get past Blake's presence. Again, I apologize for the original post - it was not well thought out whatsoever.

I'm sorry for the people who thought this was an attempt at trolling. It truly wasn't.

 

[benmint0n]

Randy Moss is the second best WR to ever play football, so if Hoff is the equivalent to that, then i definitely want him on the court as much as possible!

In all seriousness though; i think many people in this thread have given evidence to the value of Hoff, 3point phenom as well as everything else. He's not a complete player, but very few ever are. I love watching him play, at almost every single game last year i caught myself just watching Hoff when he's on the court because he is always making the correct decisions in each situation. I love watching him play and he brings much more to the table than just the 3pointer.

 

[matt]

Randy Moss is the second best WR to ever play football, so if Hoff is the equivalent to that, then i definitely want him on the court as much as possible!

In all seriousness though; i think many people in this thread have given evidence to the value of Hoff, 3point phenom as well as everything else. He's not a complete player, but very few ever are. I love watching him play, at almost every single game last year i caught myself just watching Hoff when he's on the court because he is always making the correct decisions in each situation. I love watching him play and he brings much more to the table than just the 3pointer.

I wholeheartedly agree with that and think that is a big reason why he stays on the floor. When the offense is running wild or getting inconsistent, you can count on him to make a good decision and feed the ball inside or put it back out top to settle things down or something. I just don't worry about some dumb turnover happening or some other stupid mistake happening when the ball is in his hands.

 

[Friend Of Tubby]

Randy Moss is the second best WR to ever play football, so if Hoff is the equivalent to that, then i definitely want him on the court as much as possible!

In all seriousness though; i think many people in this thread have given evidence to the value of Hoff, 3point phenom as well as everything else. He's not a complete player, but very few ever are. I love watching him play, at almost every single game last year i caught myself just watching Hoff when he's on the court because he is always making the correct decisions in each situation. I love watching him play and he brings much more to the table than just the 3pointer.

Raymond Berry being the best ever...

 

[station19]

Raymond Berry being the best ever...

But he didn't have a 'corner' named after him.

 

[GopherJake]

I agree. My original post was poorly articulated and hardly well thought out. ..........I'm sorry for the people who thought this was an attempt at trolling. It truly wasn't.

Well done KSB, well done. You do have a valid question. I disagree with the premise, but it is a legitimate, debatable question. Start a new thread?

 

[march madness]

So you want 1 3pt shooter on the court. Ill play that lineup with a 2-3 matchup and your lucky to score 50 pts against it. Or i would just box and one devoe. You need shooters.

 

[GophersInIowa]

You can't undervalue the effect Hoffarber has by just being on the floor, especially after the season he had last year. No matter how good or bad you think his rebounding, passing, defense, etc. is, his 3-point shooting causes concern for the opponent. Without a real superstar on the team right now, Hoffarber is certainly a guy the other team will key on. He can affect the game more than anyone else. He's very capable of hitting 4 or 5 3-pointers in just a few minutes time.

 

[Minnesconsin fan]

does anyone have +/- stats for the Gophers? that might be an indicator for some of the team defense and pass leading to the pass that is the assist plays that I see Blake doing more than most players.

as for the people that read this less and less-- I have only been on here for a couple of years and don't check out other teams sites very often but when I do it seems like the GopherHole has way more people attacking mis-spelling or a mis-use of a word or phrase. Other sites seem to take a mistake in stride, here it is 10 responses pointing out someones shortcomings. Seems petty. (That being said, I am in the camp that doesn't need to see Friend of Tubby's resume again)

 

[march madness]

The most important player on this team to me is either Devoe or Hoff. IF we lost them to an injury for the season i could see a 8 game swing. They are our only relibable outside shooters. The reason Iverson, Sampson, and Trevor can go one on one in the post is the threat of a kick out to a consistent 3 pt shooter.

 

[oleboy41]

I agree. My original post was poorly articulated and hardly well thought out. My main issue isn't with Blake as a player. He's an excellent player with a great IQ and has been incredible for the Gophs overall. I have no issue of personally attacking Hoff. What I was trying to get at (likely misleading by the original post) was whether in certain big ten games should Rodney start over Hoff and play more minutes. Right now I'm feeling pretty horrible about the direction of this thread. It was not to hate on Blake at all, it was about strategy regarding the more athletic teams in the conference that will be able to get past Blake's presence. Again, I apologize for the original post - it was not well thought out whatsoever.

I'm sorry for the people who thought this was an attempt at trolling. It truly wasn't.

I understand what you're saying about matching up athletically but I still think Hoff will/should start most of the year for a few reasons

- as I've said, Nolen and DJ are the only 2 pgs any of us fans have any confidence in to start the year. To start them together would be tough as someone would play a ton of minutes off the bat, plus we'd be less likely to pressure
- to start games off you want to be efficient on both ends. For reasons already stated, Hoff gives you that efficiency from the 2 spot. He'll execute the sets, get the ball to the right spot, and give the bigs room to work down low
- matching up athletically isn't going to be a big issue for this team due to our size and length. Sure if a team has a great, very athletic 2 guard that they let work one on one it may hurt us a bit to have Hoff guarding him but that's what help D and positioning are for. Devoe isn't a great one on one defender either
- If Nolen is going to be your starter, he and Hoff presumably have more chemistry in the backcourt than he and Joseph as DJ was primarily the backup PG for his first 1.5 years until Nolen went out. Nolen and Hoff have played together for 3 years. First they were the top 2 guards off the bench their freshmen year and then starting together the next 1.5 years part time (when they went to a 3 guard lineup)
- I'd rather have Blake's experience and smarts starting games because of the venues. The barn gets rocking and hyped and B10 road venues are tough too. Rather have my most experienced guard out there when the nerves can get going

 

[KSBGopher]

I understand what you're saying about matching up athletically but I still think Hoff will/should start most of the year for a few reasons

- as I've said, Nolen and DJ are the only 2 pgs any of us fans have any confidence in to start the year. To start them together would be tough as someone would play a ton of minutes off the bat, plus we'd be less likely to pressure
- to start games off you want to be efficient on both ends. For reasons already stated, Hoff gives you that efficiency from the 2 spot. He'll execute the sets, get the ball to the right spot, and give the bigs room to work down low
- matching up athletically isn't going to be a big issue for this team due to our size and length. Sure if a team has a great, very athletic 2 guard that they let work one on one it may hurt us a bit to have Hoff guarding him but that's what help D and positioning are for. Devoe isn't a great one on one defender either
- If Nolen is going to be your starter, he and Hoff presumably have more chemistry in the backcourt than he and Joseph as DJ was primarily the backup PG for his first 1.5 years until Nolen went out. Nolen and Hoff have played together for 3 years. First they were the top 2 guards off the bench their freshmen year and then starting together the next 1.5 years part time (when they went to a 3 guard lineup)
- I'd rather have Blake's experience and smarts starting games because of the venues. The barn gets rocking and hyped and B10 road venues are tough too. Rather have my most experienced guard out there when the nerves can get going

Yeah, the chemistry between Hoff and Nolen is probably going to be better than the chem between Devoe and Nolen (although the Devoe interview made me question that maybe Devoe and Nolen worked extraordinarily well). I guess Hoff's experience and IQ will definitely come into play regarding the lines.

Just as a question, are you gonna propose starting Nolen, Hoff, Williams, Mbakwe, Colt/Ralph or is it going to be Nolen, Hoff, Mbawke, Colt, Ralph...obviously these are gonna depend on the match-ups.

You probably aren't suggesting this, but I don't think reserving DJ to play back-up point is a good idea. Tubby should save DJ to make him available to play point for 4-5 min. while Nolen rests (as opposed to throwing Mav in there), but most of his PT should go to playing the 2. I like starting those two together and probably resting them in sequence (rest Devoe, then let Devoe go in to play point while Nolen rests, then have Devoe shift to the 2 when Nolen gets back).

 

[oleboy41]

I definitely don't propose to start Mbakwe at the 3. I see no need for it, plus he isn't a wing player, he's a paint player. Also I think RSIII starts no matter what as you don't want Colt and Mbakwe both starting since they're both low block bangers for the most part and as Ryan James said they both are going to be more foul prone than RSIII due to their aggresion.
As for DJ I think he plays about the same number of minutes as Nolen and they probably will spend some time on the court together but we're in a bit of a bind as nobody really wants to see Maverick out there this year

 

[KSBGopher]

I definitely don't propose to start Mbakwe at the 3. I see no need for it, plus he isn't a wing player, he's a paint player. Also I think RSIII starts no matter what as you don't want Colt and Mbakwe both starting since they're both low block bangers for the most part and as Ryan James said they both are going to be more foul prone than RSIII due to their aggresion.
As for DJ I think he plays about the same number of minutes as Nolen and they probably will spend some time on the court together but we're in a bit of a bind as nobody really wants to see Maverick out there this year

So you must be proposing nolen, hoff, williams with RSIII and Colt? I figured starting Mbakwe would with Colt would be appropriate as you have Walker able to sub for Colt - he plays that same kind of aggressive inside post. I have no idea what the foul situation is going to be like with Mbakwe this year so I didn't really take that into consid.

 

[Gold Vision]

3 guards, 80+ minutes to go around. Any combination of the 3 will play out there. Not one of them is going to be averaging over 30 minutes.

Starting lineups will mean very little.

 

[KSBGopher]

3 guards, 80+ minutes to go around. Any combination of the 3 will play out there. Not one of them is going to be averaging over 30 minutes.

Starting lineups will mean very little.

I guess it wasn't an issue of the starting lineup as opposed to the main lines we want out there. Who's coming off the bench to replace who and such...

 

[oleboy41]

So you must be proposing nolen, hoff, williams with RSIII and Colt? I figured starting Mbakwe would with Colt would be appropriate as you have Walker able to sub for Colt - he plays that same kind of aggressive inside post. I have no idea what the foul situation is going to be like with Mbakwe this year so I didn't really take that into consid.

I'd actually be good with
Nolen
Hoff
Williams
Mbakwe
RSIII

I agree that Walker would be good to come off the bench for Colt so I can see the logic to start Colt and RSIII, plus they've been developing chemistry for 2 years, but part of me wouldn't mind seeing them split time at Center. Or Colt and Walker can get the C minutes with Ralph and Trevor splitting the PF minutes. Similar to the guard spots though I see those 3 playing about 24 mns each with Walker getting about 8.