How bad could Buggs be? ... 2/25/14 Update: Not bad at all!

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GopherinPhilly

GopherinPhilly

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After watching Oto get confused on D again and again, throw the ball away a couple times and almost do it a couple more, make stupid fouls and just plain look lost out there, it begs the question, how bad must Buggs be to not be getting any playing time on this team?

I think the Oto experiment has played out, time for Buggs to see the floor and see if he is a player. He has the athletic ability to make plays and he couldn't be a bigger spaz with the ball in his hands that Oto is.

I had high hopes with Oto's play earlier in the year, but clearly that was just false promise. Time for him to sit and hopefully Pitino can get one of these Spring recruits to replace him going forward. Oto is smart, has his degree in finance so see you later, thanks for playing, have a great life, sorry you weren't the player Tubby promised us, but then that was the norm and not your fault.
 

Can Charles make free throws? Oto does.
 

Bad Gopher said:
Can Charles make free throws? Oto does.
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At a clip of 64% this year, Oto isn't exactly a world beater at the charity stripe. I know its been talked to death, but Oto and King have just been frustrating. They seem so lost out there. When they are at their best, they don't hurt us, but they spend lots of time not at their best. That interception King through right under our own basket almost had me throwing my glass at the TV in BWW (and, unlike Joey's toss, the glass would have reached its target).
 

Bad Gopher said:
Can Charles make free throws? Oto does.
Click to expand...

He's a 64% freethrow shooter. That is pretty horrible for a "shooter" like him. I've said it many times, but Oto will not play next year. He will either get the Mav treatment or he will transfer (assuming he graduates this year).

So I agree that we should give some minutes to Buggs to see what he can do this year. Would have been nice to see him get minutes last night because Bo's plan to break our press, which was extremely successful, was to just let Hayes or Kaminsky bring the ball up since neither Mo or EE could guard them the length of the court. Buggs could have.
 

EE has been terrible lately. He is sooo weak and uncoordinated. Kaminsky made him look foolish. Mo cannot protect the rim at all. If teams continue to attack the basket we have no answer.
 


As Rick Pitino said a long time ago,

"Larry Bird is not walking through that door. Kevin McHale is not walking through that door. Robert Parrish is not walking through that door."

Our roster is what it is, folks. It's not changing until the season is over.

If Buggs had shown Pitino he'd give the Gophers a better chance to win games, I trust Pitino would be giving him more minutes than Oto and Joey. Maybe next season Buggs will move past both of 'em on the depth chart, but that's clearly not the case now.

What's become very, very apparent is why Pitino really, really, really wanted Rakeem Buckles on the roster. I think the first thing Pitino discovered upon arriving here is the Gophers had three holes on their roster. ... a true PG, another scorer/shooter, and a PF. He filled the first two (Mathieu and Smith), and what remains is Oto/Joey trying their best to fill the third one. That's not a knock on them, that's just the way it is.
 



I think adding Martin to Oto/King will get us up to B1G average at the 4. As far as Spring recruiting, I would spent all my money on wings, and if there happens to be any left, sign a big. I've had trouble following Coach P.'s substitutions etc., but IMHO he's the best bench coach we've had since Clem the Gem.
 



GopherinPhilly said:
After watching Oto get confused on D again and again, throw the ball away a couple times and almost do it a couple more, make stupid fouls and just plain look lost out there, it begs the question, how bad must Buggs be to not be getting any playing time on this team?

I think the Oto experiment has played out, time for Buggs to see the floor and see if he is a player. He has the athletic ability to make plays and he couldn't be a bigger spaz with the ball in his hands that Oto is.

I had high hopes with Oto's play earlier in the year, but clearly that was just false promise. Time for him to sit and hopefully Pitino can get one of these Spring recruits to replace him going forward. Oto is smart, has his degree in finance so see you later, thanks for playing, have a great life, sorry you weren't the player Tubby promised us, but then that was the norm and not your fault.
Click to expand...

I was thinking the same thing last night while watching the abysmal performance of our other two PFs.


I would not be surprised if Buggs starts to get about 5 minutes or so per game from here on out. If he plays hard he gets more if he looks lost- back to the bench. If he could come off the bench and give us some energy- perhaps full court press with him for a short stretch- we could use that.
 

I could see us going with the 4 guard line-up for more minutes than Buggs getting minutes.
 

I agree with everything here, but I don't see the situation getting much better next season. I have no faith that Oto will be any better. I think King could get better mentally and with his shooting, but he has physical limitations and he's pretty much maxed out what he can do physically. Martin is hopefully the answer to our blackhole at PF, but he'll be a freshman next season. Not many 3-star freshman are league average or better players at their position in the Big Ten, Nigel Hayes notwithstanding.

Realistically, we're two years away from PF competency. However, by then we'll have new players a PG, SG, and C. So we may have other holes that need filling by then.

Let's hope Martin can do what Hayes is doing as a freshman. If he can, then we could have a good team next year.
 

Oto is almost 24 years old and has been in the program for 4 years now. He plays like he's a 17 yo freshman that just stepped on campus. He's so damn tentative.
 



Just imagine how bad we'd be if the Tubbster was still running the show...... His prize recruits Mav, Wally, Oto, Buggs and EE on the court together! No Deandre, Malik Smith, King or Mo Walker since he'd still be obese. Would we even have 1 BIG victory at this point without the Hollins' going off for 50+?
 

SelectionSunday said:
As Rick Pitino said a long time ago,

"Larry Bird is not walking through that door. Kevin McHale is not walking through that door. Robert Parrish is not walking through that door."

Our roster is what it is, folks. It's not changing until the season is over.
If Buggs had shown Pitino he'd give the Gophers a better chance to win games, I trust Pitino would be giving him more minutes than Oto and Joey. Maybe next season Buggs will move past both of 'em on the depth chart, but that's clearly not the case now.

What's become very, very apparent is why Pitino really, really, really wanted Rakeem Buckles on the roster. I think the first thing Pitino discovered upon arriving here is the Gophers had three holes on their roster. ... a true PG, another scorer/shooter, and a PF. He filled the first two (Mathieu and Smith), and what remains is Oto/Joey trying their best to fill the third one. That's not a knock on them, that's just the way it is.
Click to expand...

I agree that we need to go to war with the army we've got. I just can't believe that, with how bad Oto and Joey play at times, that we wouldn't be better off rolling Austin to the 4 (where I think he is smart enough to defend a bigger guy) and get Malik into the game hoping he goes off. Also, realizeing that Oto and Joey is what we have at teh 4, they both make some mindless plays that I know they are better than. There was no reason for Joey to make that stupid pass last night, he is too smart of a ball player to do that.
 

tjgesquire said:
Just imagine how bad we'd be if the Tubbster was still running the show...... His prize recruits Mav, Wally, Oto, Buggs and EE on the court together! No Deandre, Malik Smith, King or Mo Walker since he'd still be obese. Would we even have 1 BIG victory at this point without the Hollins' going off for 50+?
Click to expand...

We would have Ellis. How has he been doing? Anyone?
 

tjgesquire said:
Just imagine how bad we'd be if the Tubbster was still running the show...... His prize recruits Mav, Wally, Oto, Buggs and EE on the court together! No Deandre, Malik Smith, King or Mo Walker since he'd still be obese. Would we even have 1 BIG victory at this point without the Hollins' going off for 50+?
Click to expand...

**shudders**
 



station19 said:
We would have Ellis. How has he been doing? Anyone?
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Forced into the fire a little more because of all the injuries, but Ellis III has become a solid contributor for a team at the top of the Big Ten standings. Would guess Izzo is very pleased with what he's gotten out of Ellis III his freshman season.
 


Nigel

On ESPN, Nigel was a 4 star player, #22 pf in the country, 3rd best player in Ohio. Martin is a 3*, #34 pf in the country. I am only using ESPN because that is what is easiest for me. I hope I am wrong but it would be foolhardidly to expect Martin to suprise as well as Nigel did. He is probably playing like a top 5 pf freshman, if Martin plays like Schilling has played for Michigan State I will be happy.
We have a good team this year and we will next year, it depends on what you mean by good? Tubby's team last year had 2 starters who could shoot the 3, no true pg, ya he had athletic forwards. Let's be patient and let our coach build something. Dekkar and Hayes are two of the toughest matchups in the big ten, let's not get over dramatic.



Gopherguy0723 said:
I. Not many 3-star freshman are league average or better players at their position in the Big Ten, Nigel Hayes notwithstanding.

Realistically, we're two years away from PF competency. However, by then we'll have new players a PG, SG, and C. So we may have other holes that need filling by then.

Let's hope Martin can do what Hayes is doing as a freshman. If he can, then we could have a good team next year.
Click to expand...
 

SCORING GP FG-FGA FG% 3FG-FGA 3PT% FT-FTA FT% PTS PTS/G
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Ellis III, Alvin.... 24 20-39 .513 6-11 .545 13-22 .591 59 2.5
 

SelectionSunday said:
Forced into the fire a little more because of all the injuries, but Ellis III has become a solid contributor for a team at the top of the Big Ten standings. Would guess Izzo is very pleased with what he's gotten out of Ellis III his freshman season.
Click to expand...

Yeah, Ellis is going to be a player. Hopefully we don't get daggered by him at some point; that would hurt.
 

Alex Foster has played in 18 games and is averaging 1.9 points per game.
 

Do we think Pitino wants Buggs to transfer after this year? Could this be a reason to not give him any minutes? (In addition to the fact that he's a marginal upgrade at best.)
 

march madness said:
On ESPN, Nigel was a 4 star player, #22 pf in the country, 3rd best player in Ohio. Martin is a 3*, #34 pf in the country. I am only using ESPN because that is what is easiest for me. I hope I am wrong but it would be foolhardidly to expect Martin to suprise as well as Nigel did. He is probably playing like a top 5 pf freshman, if Martin plays like Schilling has played for Michigan State I will be happy.
We have a good team this year and we will next year, it depends on what you mean by good? Tubby's team last year had 2 starters who could shoot the 3, no true pg, ya he had athletic forwards. Let's be patient and let our coach build something. Dekkar and Hayes are two of the toughest matchups in the big ten, let's not get over dramatic.
Click to expand...

I went by Rivals. At this point Hayes is a higher rated prospect, but all the rankings aren't final just yet.

By good team, I mean finish top five in the Big Ten.
 

howeda7 said:
Do we think Pitino wants Buggs to transfer after this year? Could this be a reason to not give him any minutes? (In addition to the fact that he's a marginal upgrade at best.)
Click to expand...

I wouldn't be surprised if Pitino is freezing him out. Wally is definitely being frozen out.
 

howeda7 said:
Do we think Pitino wants Buggs to transfer after this year? Could this be a reason to not give him any minutes? (In addition to the fact that he's a marginal upgrade at best.)
Click to expand...

Who knows? I would guess no though. Pitino has spoken highly of him at times and seems to think his potential is off the charts. Pitino also hasn't been afraid of putting him in the game when we are in foul trouble. I'd say Pitino has treated Buggs and Wally quite differently. I'd also guess that he wants Wally to transfer or switch to Track full time.
 

GopherinPhilly said:
After watching Oto get confused on D again and again, throw the ball away a couple times and almost do it a couple more, make stupid fouls and just plain look lost out there, it begs the question, how bad must Buggs be to not be getting any playing time on this team?

I think the Oto experiment has played out, time for Buggs to see the floor and see if he is a player. He has the athletic ability to make plays and he couldn't be a bigger spaz with the ball in his hands that Oto is.

I had high hopes with Oto's play earlier in the year, but clearly that was just false promise. Time for him to sit and hopefully Pitino can get one of these Spring recruits to replace him going forward. Oto is smart, has his degree in finance so see you later, thanks for playing, have a great life, sorry you weren't the player Tubby promised us, but then that was the norm and not your fault.
Click to expand...

Pitino has forgotten more about basketball then you will ever know...get off his back man! Tubby has moved on time to get over it and not hate on pitino and otto just because the gophs lose on the road to a top 25 team
 

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