My opinion of the Gophs has changed this weekend

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gopherbadgerman

gopherbadgerman

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Watched most of the game tonight - I am impressed with the team and had a few thoughts:

Trevor is a beast, and might be a 1st team all Big Ten player

Blake is invaluable - when he can get looks, he is a huge weapon

Colt can bang and is a tough SOB, between him, Sampson, and Trevor MN has a very good front line.

Nolen can really get to the rim, not a great finisher or shooter, but he can get up off the dribble.

I think Chip will be a very good B10 player before it is all said and done. Like him a lit more than Cobbs last year.

I underestimated this team before the season began, I truly believe they can challenge in the B10. Not saying they will win the B10, but I think they will be a factor in a major way.

I thought a 6th place finish was what the Gophs were looking at, but I would hope for a top 4 finish now.

I am usually a glass half empty not half full guy, but there really seems to be a nice combination for players on this team. If Williams can develop at all and Joseph comes back, this team has the look of a Sweet Sixteen team at minimum.

Count me in as a believer.
 


People hate on Al for lack of finishing at the rim and that has been the case. We saw a different story tonight though - he was great at the rim.
 

nolen may not be a finisher and scorer throughout the season, but without him, we are much worse off....he controls the offense like no one else can.
He is a huge key for our team, and we are not the same without him.
 

Good observations. We still have games like tonight where Rodney and Ralph don't contribute much, but this team has enough players now to survive some off-nights by some of its players.

It's possible that the Gophers have beaten 5 NCAA tourney teams to start the season...although UNC came into the Puerto Rico tourney vastly overrated and lost 2 games in that tourney. Also, not a bad time to catch a West Virginia team that lost some players off a Final Four team.

We may not know how the Gophers will do in the B10 until after the first 5 games of the conference schedule. The B10 is still very tough this year and I would think this team can finish as high as 3rd or as low as 5th if they stay healthy. But, yes, Sweet 16 is a very realistic goal.
 


gopherbadgerman said:
Watched most of the game tonight - I am impressed with the team and had a few thoughts:

Trevor is a beast, and might be a 1st team all Big Ten player

Blake is invaluable - when he can get looks, he is a huge weapon

Colt can bang and is a tough SOB, between him, Sampson, and Trevor MN has a very good front line.

Nolen can really get to the rim, not a great finisher or shooter, but he can get up off the dribble.

I think Chip will be a very good B10 player before it is all said and done. Like him a lit more than Cobbs last year.

I underestimated this team before the season began, I truly believe they can challenge in the B10. Not saying they will win the B10, but I think they will be a factor in a major way.

I thought a 6th place finish was what the Gophs were looking at, but I would hope for a top 4 finish now.

I am usually a glass half empty not half full guy, but there really seems to be a nice combination for players on this team. If Williams can develop at all and Joseph comes back, this team has the look of a Sweet Sixteen team at minimum.

Count me in as a believer.
Click to expand...

I'm with you. Coming into the year, I thought "we'll have a good, solid team" but was thinking middle of the pack and another NCAA appearance would be reasonable goals. And after the Wofford and Siena games, I wasn't sure what we would get in Puerto Rico.

But the team really turned it up a notch in terms of intensity during this tournament, all without their best all-around offensive player in Devoe. Also, I figured Trevor would be a difference maker but wow, he's better than even I thought. He's a nightmare of a matchup for other bigs and has been flat-out imposing his physicality on the opposition.

Hope Devoe gets back sooner rather than later, but the guys have shown they can win games without him if need be. All and all, this has the makings of a really really good year. Still early, but they have that "look" about them...
 

I would be shocked if we weren't undefeated this year!
 


Back from a long weekend of covering the Football semis and watching the Gophers on DVR at 2AM while screaming at the top of my lungs.

The OP is right on. The biggest thing I take away from the weekend is that my opinion of this team has changed. The UNC game had the Louisville feel of 2 years ago. We saw a team whose shots were a little bit off, and the Gophers took advantage. The Gophers of years past would be able to win those games once-in-a-while

To me, the WVU win was far more impressive, and a game we would have never won in the past. That game was a knock-em-out street fight. The Gophers showed +1 Million times more mental and physical toughness against WVU than they did against UNC.

WVU made far more "unexpected" shots, had a player on fire the whole game, was the beneficiary of more "random off the ball foul calls," and the Gophers still fought all of that off and won the game.

Nolan, Iverson, Mbakwe, Hoff, and Armelin were all terrific tonight.

Great weekend for the boys.
 



Nolen has a knack of drawing fouls, getting to the line, and making free throws. This is a huge ability and could mean the difference in lots of close games.
 

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