Hole Poll: With the completion of the non-conf schedule, the Gophers are...?

[GopherHole Staff]

Hole Poll: With the completion of the non-conf schedule, the Gophers are...?

 

[upnorthkid]

about what I expected. We still don't have anything really as far as a post presence and we lack some athletes to make the press work as well as it could. we are doing well against guards that can't handle it but I'm scared an experienced backcourt will slice us up. Our shooters are better than I expected though by far. I hold out on hope for the dance at this point. These first few big ten games will be very telling

 

[Gophers7NatTitlesBadgers0]

... a 6-9 win conference team.

 

[tmvander]

They are about where they needed to be in order to have a chance at making the tournament. 9 wins in conference play and I can't see how we are left out. 8 wins and we will have to do a little damage in the big ten tourney. I think either of those options are doable.

 

[book]

Getting psyched up for Michigan. We need the shooting averages to go up. I like the way we pass the ball round and find open shots. Now we need to make them and shoot betters fts!

 

[burton34]

I said worse. But I always have ridiculous expectations. I am happy with where the team is at.

 

[tinyarch]

They've done about what I was hoping for. They played Syracuse and Florida State much better than I thought they would, but really had a drop against Arkansas. Our lack of solid inside presence still concerns me. We will likely really struggle against MSU, OSU and Wisconsin due to their inside presence and solid fundamental play, but I think we can compete with the rest of the B1G on any given night. I won't be surprised to see us living on the bubble once again, but that will actually be an improvement over what I think Tubby would have got out of this unit.

 

[howieramone]

They've done about what I was hoping for. They played Syracuse and Florida State much better than I thought they would, but really had a drop against Arkansas. Our lack of solid inside presence still concerns me. We will likely really struggle against MSU, OSU and Wisconsin due to their inside presence and solid fundamental play, but I think we can compete with the rest of the B1G on any given night. I won't be surprised to see us living on the bubble once again, but that will actually be an improvement over what I think Tubby would have got out of this unit.

With Ellis, Foster, and Coleman, Orlando would have gotten more than 4-6 B1G wins. Let's see how this plays out. I'm not saying Orlando didn't need to go, because he did, but there is no need to be naïve. No one has heard the fat lady sing, but as of this moment it's unlikely we will be dancing come 2014/2015 either. But feel free to continue to pile on Orlando.

 

[Atl Gopher]

Hole Poll: With the completion of the non-conf schedule, the Gophers are...?

I put down better but I am really not sure what I expected. I have watched all of the games and some of them I felt like we played down to our competition. I felt like our performances were not great, like against TTCC last night, but coach seems really pleased apart from the fact that the ball did not go in the basket as often as he expected. Florida State and Syracuse may be the closest that we came to Big Ten type competition and we did darn good.

 

[DeathClutch]

With Ellis, Foster, and Coleman, Orlando would have gotten more than 4-6 B1G wins. Let's see how this plays out. I'm not saying Orlando didn't need to go, because he did, but there is no need to be naïve. No one has heard the fat lady sing, but as of this moment it's unlikely we will be dancing come 2014/2015 either. But feel free to continue to pile on Orlando.

I'd take Mathieu, Smith, and King over Coleman, Ellis, and Foster any day of the week.

 

[gopherbadgerman]

I said about the same. Not as good as the good teams and better than the bad ones. I think they are in the middle third of the big 10, and expect somewhere around 6-9 wins during conference play. Nothing in the early changed my mind. Still think they have major problems on the front line, and think their guards are pretty darn good as a unit.

 

[tinyarch]

With Ellis, Foster, and Coleman, Orlando would have gotten more than 4-6 B1G wins. Let's see how this plays out. I'm not saying Orlando didn't need to go, because he did, but there is no need to be naïve. No one has heard the fat lady sing, but as of this moment it's unlikely we will be dancing come 2014/2015 either. But feel free to continue to pile on Orlando.

Not sure I agree with you in regard to Ellis, Foster and Coleman. Could any of those folks hit a three point shot at better than 30%? I tend to agree that Mathieu, Smith and King are an upgrade on our shooting percentage, however, I think Coleman would have helped with rebounding. Where I think we'd be struggling is in the confidence and play of Eliason, Hollins and Hollins. Those three and Walker have made strides forward that I'm not sure we'd see without a coaching change.

I agree that this team is likely a bubble team at best, which is why I voted that they are about where I thought they might be or a bit better than I expected. As to piling on Tubby...it's more what you perceived than what I actually did.

 

[tjgopher]

With Ellis, Foster, and Coleman, Orlando would have gotten more than 4-6 B1G wins. Let's see how this plays out. I'm not saying Orlando didn't need to go, because he did, but there is no need to be naïve. No one has heard the fat lady sing, but as of this moment it's unlikely we will be dancing come 2014/2015 either. But feel free to continue to pile on Orlando.

Huh?

What the heck have Ellis and Foster done to make you think they would have done anything major for the Gophers this year? Foster can't even crack the regular rotation for Tubby's less than good team at Texas Tech. He gets mop up duty in blowouts. Ellis is playing about 8 minutes a game. He probably would have played a few more minutes with Minnesota, but would he have been a difference maker this year? Doubtful.

And, trust me, there is no guarantee that Coleman would not have transferred either way. He may not have been on this team, either.

On top of that, a Tubby-coached Gopher team wouldn't have DeAndre Mathieu or Malik Smith or Joey King.

To me there's no comparison, the Pitino version is superior to the Tubby version (for this year).

 

[samloupete]

King and osenieks are barely passable and the reason this team won't do well in conference play.

 

[Winasota Gopher]

With Ellis, Foster, and Coleman, Orlando would have gotten more than 4-6 B1G wins. Let's see how this plays out. I'm not saying Orlando didn't need to go, because he did, but there is no need to be naïve. No one has heard the fat lady sing, but as of this moment it's unlikely we will be dancing come 2014/2015 either. But feel free to continue to pile on Orlando.

I'm starting to feel like I'm trolling you, but I cannot help but disagree with absolutely everything you say on this board.

I'm seriously not trying to track you down, but this statement is ridiculous.

What have you seen out of Ellis or Foster that would make you think either is better than what we have playing today? Where exactly would they fit into Tubby's scheme and or Pitino's scheme (not sure if you're implying the loss of Tubby or the loss of the recruits was a bigger hit).

 

[march madness]

I would take a true pg in Mathieu over all three of those players: Coleman, Ellis, and Foster. PG is the most important position in college and Tubby kept recruiting combo guards to play there and wondered why we had a horrible turnover percentage. Mathieu will have some higher TO games but he will also have 4-6 assists every night. We just need him to get adjusted to the better competition.

 

[SelectionSunday]

I'm still scratching my head why Coleman left. A nice fit for Pitino's system, and despite our abundance of 2's and 3's I still think he'd look good in a Gopher uniform. Same for Ellis @ MSU. Foster, not so much.

 

[bemidjigopher]

I think Coleman ans Ellis would've been fine here, as far as I know Foster, Oto and King are a wash, but Oto hustles on defense and at the very least he hasn't hurt the team, King when on can stretch the floor. Don't know much about Foster, but if he can't crack the line up at Texas Tech CC than I can't say I miss him. As for the guards Mathieu is a true PG, which we haven't had in awhile, Smith can drain threes. Although Coleman/ Ellis would be an upgrade over Mav. I've seen some sparty games, i've liked what I've seen in Ellis and last year I was really excited when we signed him, thought we had a steal.

 

[e.bigelow]

Don't post a lot on the B-Ball forum as I'm usually on the football forum. But, I am very anxious to see how this team plays with the B1G Ten Conference schedule finally kicking off Thursday. I was fortunate to be able to attend 2 games this year already (the only two I've been to since college) and what had me concerned is the teams rebounding ability once we face stiffer competition. Sure, we did great against sub-par competition, but better teams, i.e. Conference teams may be a little more of a challenge.

I am certainly anxious though to see how we preform against Michigan. I think the next game will definitely give us a clearer picture where we're at this season.

 

[tinyarch]

Don't post a lot on the B-Ball forum as I'm usually on the football forum. But, I am very anxious to see how this team plays with the B1G Ten Conference schedule finally kicking off Thursday. I was fortunate to be able to attend 2 games this year already (the only two I've been to since college) and what had me concerned is the teams rebounding ability once we face stiffer competition. Sure, we did great against sub-par competition, but better teams, i.e. Conference teams may be a little more of a challenge.

I am certainly anxious though to see how we preform against Michigan. I think the next game will definitely give us a clearer picture where we're at this season.

I think anyone who is honest would agree with the concerns regarding rebounding. The only three games that can really be used as a measuring stick are the Syracuse, Arkansas and Florida State games. Other than running out of gas against Arkansas we saw that this crew can compete on an individual basis. The key, I think, is for us to dictate tempo and style. If we light it up from the 3 point arch we can play with nearly anyone in the B1G. However, if those teams dictate pace and style then we may really struggle. MSU, OSU and Wisconsin are all very fundamentally sound teams that may very well beat us down on the boards and dictate tempo and style. Those teams make me very nervous about being blown out by them. The rest of the teams seem to have areas of weakness that we can exploit and thus compete with and I think our tempo will be able to negate some of the deficiencies we have with rebounding the ball.

 

[station19]

Huh?

What the heck have Ellis and Foster done to make you think they would have done anything major for the Gophers this year? Foster can't even crack the regular rotation for Tubby's less than good team at Texas Tech. He gets mop up duty in blowouts. Ellis is playing about 8 minutes a game. He probably would have played a few more minutes with Minnesota, but would he have been a difference maker this year? Doubtful.

And, trust me, there is no guarantee that Coleman would not have transferred either way. He may not have been on this team, either.

On top of that, a Tubby-coached Gopher team wouldn't have DeAndre Mathieu or Malik Smith or Joey King.

To me there's no comparison, the Pitino version is superior to the Tubby version (for this year).

Agreed.

I'm still scratching my head why Coleman left. A nice fit for Pitino's system, and despite our abundance of 2's and 3's I still think he'd look good in a Gopher uniform. Same for Ellis @ MSU. Foster, not so much.

I have to disagree SS. Coleman could score well in the open court but he just plain could not shoot, was a terrible ball handler and often got lost on defense.

 

[CentralGopher]

If they can play decent half court offense against good defensive teams I'll say better than I expected.

 

[howieramone]

I would take a true pg in Mathieu over all three of those players: Coleman, Ellis, and Foster. PG is the most important position in college and Tubby kept recruiting combo guards to play there and wondered why we had a horrible turnover percentage. Mathieu will have some higher TO games but he will also have 4-6 assists every night. We just need him to get adjusted to the better competition.

Our All B1G guard hasn't really looked like one has he? My first thought was Dre's adjusting to playing without the ball. It's still a little early to tell, but he may only be a All B1G guard when he plays the point.

 

[march madness]

When was Dre an ALL B1Guard? Why don't you make a poll and ask if Dre should move back to the point versus off the ball?

 

[tikited]

Our All B1G guard hasn't really looked like one has he? My first thought was Dre's adjusting to playing without the ball. It's still a little early to tell, but he may only be a All B1G guard when he plays the point.

Good point, but Mathieu is the better point guard hands down imo. I really wish we would have kept Ellis, but Mathieu has been huge for us and has been our best player so far. Dre Hollins will come around making the whole Mathieu, Smith, King v. Ellis, etc.. a win for us.

 

[DeathClutch]

Our All B1G guard hasn't really looked like one has he? My first thought was Dre's adjusting to playing without the ball. It's still a little early to tell, but he may only be a All B1G guard when he plays the point.

He's averaging more ppg than last year and went through a mini shooting slump. Nothing wrong with him.

 

[Rosemountian]

With Ellis, Foster, and Coleman, Orlando would have gotten more than 4-6 B1G wins. Let's see how this plays out. I'm not saying Orlando didn't need to go, because he did, but there is no need to be naïve. No one has heard the fat lady sing, but as of this moment it's unlikely we will be dancing come 2014/2015 either. But feel free to continue to pile on Orlando.

Orlando was the reason Coleman left. He had made up his mind before the hire an Pitino couldn't change his mind, but with 100% certainty Coleman wouldn't be on the team if tubby was the coach. Got this from a family member of his about a month ago.

 

[Bad Gopher]

This is a remarkably flawed team, yet they're rated top 40 by the computer models after the non conference. That's much better than I had hoped. Obviously Deandre, Malik and, to a lesser extent, King are the reasons why this thing has held together. There's no guarantee that it will continue to hold together, and people need to be realistic about how this is going to go. As I've said before, anything better than 9th place and/or 6 wins should be considered a pleasant and unexpected surprise.

The idea that retaining Tubby and Coleman and adding Ellis and Foster would have produced at least 7 conference wins is mindbendingly ludicrous. Keep in mind that they only won 8 last year with Mbakwe, Williams and Ingram. And the idea that we'd be better off with Coleman, Ellis and Foster than we are with Mathieu, Smith and King takes the mind bending to a new level.

 

[Winasota Gopher]

This is a remarkably flawed team, yet they're rated top 40 by the computer models after the non conference. That's much better than I had hoped. Obviously Deandre, Malik and, to a lesser extent, King are the reasons why this thing has held together. There's no guarantee that it will continue to hold together, and people need to be realistic about how this is going to go. As I've said before, anything better than 9th place and/or 6 wins should be considered a pleasant and unexpected surprise.

The idea that retaining Tubby and Coleman and adding Ellis and Foster would have produced at least 7 conference wins is mindbendingly ludicrous. Keep in mind that they only won 8 last year with Mbakwe, Williams and Ingram. And the idea that we'd be better off with Coleman, Ellis and Foster than we are with Mathieu, Smith and King takes the mind bending to a new level.

Agreed, however I'm a bit more optimistic than you, I see this team getting hot and or catching some teams off guard and causing a bunch of TO. We did a terrible job converting on TO and half the time gave the ball right back....