Pitino on Al Nolen:

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What Up Guy

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"I love him as a basketball player," Pitino said. "He goes left and right, makes his free throws. I love him. Tell him to transfer."
 

Al Nolen our go-to guy?

What Up Guy said:
"I love him as a basketball player," Pitino said. "He goes left and right, makes his free throws. I love him. Tell him to transfer."
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Nolen was great today. He WAS our "offense" in the second half. If someone had told me at the start of the year that we would rely on him to beat Louisville, I would've expected us to get run out of the gym. He still needs to finish better, but he controlled the ball, got into the lane, dished and made the important free throws. He exceeded my expectations last year as a freshman and he has improved immensely since then. Keep it up, Al!
 

Nolen Our Go-To Guy? YES

Hates Monikers said:
Nolen was great today. He WAS our "offense" in the second half. If someone had told me at the start of the year that we would rely on him to beat Louisville, I would've expected us to get run out of the gym. He still needs to finish better, but he controlled the ball, got into the lane, dished and made the important free throws. He exceeded my expectations last year as a freshman and he has improved immensely since then. Keep it up, Al!
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No offense, but you haven't been paying attention...
 

Drex96 said:
No offense, but you haven't been paying attention...
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My thoughts exactly...you are acting like Kevin Payton just put up 18-5-5 against Louisville. Nolen has serious talent. Defensively, its always been there, same with ball handling. Now he is using his quicks offensively and developing on that end.
 

Hates Monikers said:
Nolen was great today. He WAS our "offense" in the second half. If someone had told me at the start of the year that we would rely on him to beat Louisville, I would've expected us to get run out of the gym. He still needs to finish better, but he controlled the ball, got into the lane, dished and made the important free throws. He exceeded my expectations last year as a freshman and he has improved immensely since then. Keep it up, Al!
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With regard to your second sentence, note that he also scored our first 7 points of the game (I think).

A couple of his dishes were wobbly - if he can get crisper passes out to say, Hoffarber, Westbrook, Joseph, Bostick, JAS, etc., then this will really open up our outside game too.
 


Drex96 said:
No offense, but you haven't been paying attention...
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Perhaps not.

Entering the season, I would've guessed Westbrook or Johnson (or even Bostick or Carter -- again, before the season started) would've been the ones to score when we needed it in a game like this. My bad. I guess a guy who averages 9 per game and is shooting 40 percent from the field (66 percent from the line) should be expected to put the team on his back and score 18 points against a top-10 team. :)

It's not that I'm not surprised that he scored 18 and played great. I'm surprised that our second half offense was, "Al, make something happen."
 

It is really like how Al Nolen has added the ability to drive the lane and create contact to get to the line. His ability to create and run the offense is so far ahead of where it was last year. It is very nice knowing that Al Nolen will be our PG for the next 2 years after this season.
 

HatesMonikers - A Clarification

If someone had told me at the start of the year that we would rely on him to beat Louisville, I would've expected us to get run out of the gym..
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This is the part of your post that I was referring to and quite frankly, it's quite offensive considering what Nolen does for this team.

Nolen does what it takes to WIN, period.

Some games it's scoring the most points; MOST games it's playing tough defense and making the offense happen by getting the ball into the hands of other scorers (like Hoffarber, Westbrook, Iverson, Sampson, and to a lesser degree Johnson who creates most of his points off of defense and a badass attitude).

To even suggest that Nolen wasn't the guy the Gophers "rely on" means you have NOT been paying attention. ;)
 

Drex96 said:
This is the part of your post that I was referring to and quite frankly, it's quite offensive considering what Nolen does for this team.

Nolen does what it takes to WIN, period.

Some games it's scoring the most points; MOST games it's playing tough defense and making the offense happen by getting the ball into the hands of other scorers (like Hoffarber, Westbrook, Iverson, Sampson, and to a lesser degree Johnson who creates most of his points off of defense and a badass attitude).

To even suggest that Nolen wasn't the guy the Gophers "rely on" means you have NOT been paying attention. ;)
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I agree with every single word you wrote right there, and that's exactly how I see Nolen's role. If it read as though I'm knocking Nolen somehow, it came across wrong. I guess we define "go to guy" differently -- at least in this case. I'm talking about scoring. If we absolutely need two points ... I never expected Tubby to look at Nolen and say, "you're the guy who gives us our best chance to score; go do it." Until yesterday, I didn't see him as that kind of scorer.
 



Some players play better against better competition. Al is not the typical Minnesota player. We have a number of skilled players, but no one can match Al's quickness and athleticism (DJohnson is close). Louisville is stacked with athletic talent and in my opinion played Minnesota as if we were just as athletic (guarding the passing lanes and playing more 1on1/man-to-man). This played into Al's strength with more open lanes allowing him to penetrate at will. I think Virginia did this to a lesser extent and Al had a solid game then as well (5 assists + efficient shooting).

I think we'll see Al step up big in games against better competition (and more man to man defense).
 

>>"I love him as a basketball player," Pitino said. "He goes left and right, makes his free throws. I love him. Tell him to transfer."<<

Quite a bit different than his whining rant during the game: "Outta control! Outta control!"
 

Gopher4Life said:
>>"I love him as a basketball player," Pitino said. "He goes left and right, makes his free throws. I love him. Tell him to transfer."<<

Quite a bit different than his whining rant during the game: "Outta control! Outta control!"
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Like I said earlier, he was just referencing Nolen's drive on that play and the foul. He wasn't calling him out of control as a player or in general. On that play Nolen went to the rack and got bailed out a little bit by the call and Pitino's argument was that he was out of control and therefore shouldn't have drawn a foul on that play. I agreed with Pitino actually. However there were so many terrible calls on both sides it evened out. A reason Al did get that call was that he was so consistently able to get to the hoop, so you have to give him credit there.
 

From Sec 120 - row 10 -

Loved it when Tubby had AN at the top of the key with the ball while the other 4 Gophers were on the baseline ... nobody from Louisville could stay with Nolen. That call (by Tubby) probably preserved the win more than anything.
 



That was a horribly officiated game. Calls and non calls.
 

station19....but from what I saw, calls and non-calls in that game were both ways. The officials, from what I understand, were PAC10, and they officiate differently from what Louisville and the Gophers are accustomed to. But our guys did NOT let that bother them, WE, players and coaches, concentrated on our game, and WON. So the officiating in that game is now a dead issue.
 

Calls ...

I agree w/you Doctor for the most part. There was one (non) call that was obvious.... Earl Clark was clearly hanging on DJ (who had position on EC) when DJ was going up for a rebound. DJ got the ball, and Earl Clark did not get called.
Couple of points from the stadium.....Earl Clark by the way did show great vision by making some outstanding passes. The dude is a 6'10" stud with skills......Samardo Samuels has a ways to go. Right now I'd take Colton over him.
 

the refs sucked because they were very inconsistent with the amount of contact they would allow so the players had no idea what the lines were.
 

oleboy41 said:
the refs sucked because they were very inconsistent with the amount of contact they would allow so the players had no idea what the lines were.
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The difference in officiating between the conferences has always been a bone of contention with me. It seems that sometimes a foul in the Big Ten isn't a foul in the SEC etc. I know when you factor in human judgement you're going to get some diffences (some subtle, some not so) but I've been a proponent for a while of taking officiating out of the hands of the conferences and placing it under the NCAA fully. I think this would allow for a more uniform standard in the game.


Another thing is the "temptations" that officials are often under. I spoke with a top official in the THSAA last year who had done work with the SEC's officiating group and he bluntly said at least 25% of the officials in SEC football was suspect due to gambling or "pressure" from the league office. Taking it away from conference control totally would be a step in the right direction in my mind.
 

Tongue in cheek comment here.....I strongly suggest that we use the 3 officials this way: One on each bench beside the HeadCoach, because we all know the best view of every official's call is right there. The 3rd official runs all over the floor for in-bounds situations, and free throw situations. The one on the floor will only use his whistle if neither of the other two on the benches can make the call. Then we could also add two more officials to roam in the spectator sections to review things with the other 3 officials at the 10 minute mark of each half, and at half time. Then maybe we would get "perfectly officiated" games. DUH!!!!!!!
 

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