Richmond game thoughts....

Donate To GopherHole


GophersOnTheRise said:
You realize he shoots 80% right? He hit some clutch ones last year and he is definitely one of our best free throw shooters. Not sure how that area is troubling for him.
Click to expand...

I just started reading this thread and was just going to post the same thing.
 

Alright. Just watched all of EEs minutes from last night. He did get worked pretty good early by #34 defensively. He was just much quicker at 6'6". I'm not sure why the Gophers stuck with that matchup. On the other end of the floor EE exploited his size advantage very effectively though. Made some great passes that lead to fouls. Also had a couple decent post moves.
 

Derrick Williams on the court (#34) for Richmond changed the game.. he was out for the last 7 minutes or so of the first half (foul trouble), allowing Minnesota to come back and take the 1-point lead.

He put his back to Eliason and just strolled back leisurely to the basket while Eliason kept scooting back, back back.

Plumlee can do the same.. wouldn't mind seeing Walker and Trevor out there together if Duke is having success inside.
 


Gopher Warrior said:
Derrick Williams on the court (#34) for Richmond changed the game.. he was out for the last 7 minutes or so of the first half (foul trouble), allowing Minnesota to come back and take the 1-point lead.

He put his back to Eliason and just strolled back leisurely to the basket while Eliason kept scooting back, back back.

Plumlee can do the same.. wouldn't mind seeing Walker and Trevor out there together if Duke is having success inside.
Click to expand...

I wouldn't mind seeing us feed those two early to try to get Plumlee into foul trouble. Along with guys like Rodney and anyone else attacking the basket. He seemed somewhat careless with fouls against Kentucky.
 

From the Barn said:
The maverick defenders need to look at team stats when he is on the floor, not his individual stats.
Click to expand...

I saw you quote our record when he has significant minutes in B1G play. How many of those are from his freshman year when he played due to Nolen's injury? Mav will never be the reason we win. But he's also not the reason we lose. He's a medicore back-up PG. Nothing more or less. I don't get the hate for him.
 

Bayfieldgopher said:
Glad to see Trevor get some minutes. EE isn't the answer and I hope his minutes get cut. TM was on the floor with the other starters which hasn't been the case to this point. We need him in there and now with the Dukies next.
Click to expand...

We will certainly see games like last night when EE plays less minutes and games when gets 30 plus.....same with walker. That is the nice part of this team, they have many pieces for the puzzle and can mix and match depending on the competition.
 

Bad Gopher said:
That pretty much says it. If he's your shooting guard, he needs to be able to shoot. If you call him your small forward, that position should be able to shoot from the perimeter as well. I like some of the things Joe does, but he's an incomplete player at this point.
Click to expand...

A lot of teams are going to play zone against us and that's not great for Joe. There are games where Welch is going to need to come in a drop some threes. Joe is a tough player though who is going to do a lot of good things this year. But you are right-he's a little rough in some skill areas yet. I fear Duke is going to get a few charges out of him.
 



bga1 said:
A lot of teams are going to play zone against us and that's not great for Joe. There are games where Welch is going to need to come in a drop some threes. Joe is a tough player though who is going to do a lot of good things this year. But you are right-he's a little rough in some skill areas yet. I fear Duke is going to get a few charges out of him.
Click to expand...

Yes and no. You need to attack a zone. Joe can and has excelled against zone defenses by making hard cuts through the weak spots of the zone. More than one way to skin a cat.
 

lakesgopher said:
coleman is 6'4" his size isnt the issue his ball handling is his issue. he struggles with his jump shot but can attack the rim aggressively. only thing that hampers him imo is his lack of skill with ball handling, against better guards they sit on his dominant hand and ten he has problems
Click to expand...

It is apparent that I am not the only one who sees Coleman's shortcomings. He shot 72% from the FT line last year which is hardly stellar.He has had a lot of TOs against mediocre opposition. My opinion of him is based mainly what I saw last year but the Richmond game demonstrated his inability to consistently finish at the rim part of which may be his ball handling.I doubt he is 6'4"; basketball heights are typically embellished. He is not a good enough outside shooter to be a standout at the 2 and not big enough to be a 3. I don't hate Coleman I just know what I see and I hope he can improve his game so he can be a contributor when the B1G season starts. Dr. Don-let me guess, you were voted the "Most Annoying" in your high school class.
 

gopherMD said:
It is apparent that I am not the only one who sees Coleman's shortcomings. He shot 72% from the FT line last year which is hardly stellar.He has had a lot of TOs against mediocre opposition. My opinion of him is based mainly what I saw last year but the Richmond game demonstrated his inability to consistently finish at the rim part of which my be his ball handling..I doubt he is 6'4"; basketball heights are typically embellished. He is not a good enough outside shooter to be a standout at the 2 and not big enough to be a 3. I don't hate Coleman I just know what I see and I hope he can improve his game so he can be a contributor when the B1G season starts. Dr. Don-let me guess, you were voted the "Most Annoying" in you high school class.
Click to expand...

Wrong...I was Head Hall Monitor who corrected every know it all who blew smoke out their arse.
 

gopherMD said:
It is apparent that I am not the only one who sees Coleman's shortcomings. He shot 72% from the FT line last year which is hardly stellar.He has had a lot of TOs against mediocre opposition. My opinion of him is based mainly what I saw last year but the Richmond game demonstrated his inability to consistently finish at the rim part of which my be his ball handling..I doubt he is 6'4"; basketball heights are typically embellished. He is not a good enough outside shooter to be a standout at the 2 and not big enough to be a 3. I don't hate Coleman I just know what I see and I hope he can improve his game so he can be a contributor when the B1G season starts. Dr. Don-let me guess, you were voted the "Most Annoying" in you high school class.
Click to expand...

Perhaps the most important thing for Coleman to learn is to be patient and let his teammates move to the open spot on the court rather than force a pass. He tends to play with abandon, which often leads to loss of control. When he learns to let a situation play out before passing he'll be a much better player. Right now he relies on his athleticism, but honestly that could be said for most of the Gophers.
 



Joe Coleman I believe is a superb athlete. What I have noticed in games is that he often drives the lane without a clue of what he plans to do once he gets there. If he beats his man for an easy bucket, he looks great. If he is stopped halfway there, it often results in a turnover. That is why we've seen him dominate lesser competition and look lost out there at times when his turnovers start to pile on.

It's hard to hold his jump shot against him too much yet as he's just a sophomore and i trust that he will work on that part of his game. He doesn't have a terrible jump shot. However, it could be improved.

If he shows more patience and better decision making when driving the lane he can be very effective. In fact, it is going to be required of him to make better decisions if he wants to continue starting. You don't need to be the best player out there, but protecting the ball is #1 priority.
 

The thing I like most about Coleman is his physical nature. Yes he isn't a polished guy but neither was Rodney and Rodney has turned out pretty good. Coleman to me looks like he is better than last year and he had a good year for a freshman. He has a long ways to go but it's obvious he is working hard. We can talk about his lack of ability right now, but I'm excited to see the finished product.
 

Sophie said:
I am not a big poster however have followed the Gophers for past 50 years...and enjoy watching the elite officials coming to the Barn....Rucker,Hightower,Bain etc and yet everytime Mike Sanzere is officiating there is usually a crucial call...and it has seemed to go against the Gophers.. Keady and the General were two who seemed to work Mike for that correct call last night he seemed to have an excellent night and is improving immensely
Click to expand...

This is a wonderful post. I completely agree. Ted Valentine and Ed Hightower have the worst reputations, but I always thought Sanzere was a much worse referee than either of them. It would be nice if he does indeed improve.
 

Costa Rican Gopher said:
* MVP last night was Dre Hollins imo. Midway through the 2nd half we were down by 7 & it was starting to look like we might lose this one. I was thinking "Hey, Richmond has all the momentum/confidence right now, our guys are just standing around, no one can hit a jumper....YOU Dre Hollins need to take this team on your back & will something to happen, right now.", then he did. He drove his man & pulled up for a jumper. Hustled back on D & got a piece of a pass, dove to the floor to grab the ball, lost it, lunged forward, got the ball back, passed it ahead Austin who ended up getting a trip to the line for 2 points, then he made another steal, drove the lane again for a lay-up, almost had another steal, came back up the court & drained a 3 (normally it would have been a bad shot, but he was the ONLY guy doing anything offensively, he was feeling it & it gave us the lead, so fire away Dre!), suddenly the 7 point deficit was gone, we're up by 1 & had all the momentum/confidence. Ball game.
Click to expand...

Costa, Couldn't agree more. This was one of the most impressive individual stretches for a single player in recent memory. He willed that turnaround in the game last night. The guy is special.
 

lakesgopher said:
The thing I like most about Coleman is his physical nature. Yes he isn't a polished guy but neither was Rodney and Rodney has turned out pretty good. Coleman to me looks like he is better than last year and he had a good year for a freshman. He has a long ways to go but it's obvious he is working hard. We can talk about his lack of ability right now, but I'm excited to see the finished product.
Click to expand...

This is a great post Lakes & I agree on his physical nature + I love his ability to jump passing lanes & collect steals. I know this thread has taken on a life of it's own, but I didn't make my comments on Joe to rip on a good player, just that I would have preferred to see him work on his jumper & left hand against weaker competition because Joe with a killer jump shot would be scary good.
 

howeda7 said:
I saw you quote our record when he has significant minutes in B1G play. How many of those are from his freshman year when he played due to Nolen's injury? Mav will never be the reason we win. But he's also not the reason we lose. He's a medicore back-up PG. Nothing more or less. I don't get the hate for him.
Click to expand...

Actually, I think Mav does hurt us. People often like to talk about players who do all the little things that don't show up on a stat sheet, but contribute to the win. Mav is the opposite. He doesn't do the things that show up negatively on the stat sheet, but he does a lot to hurt us.

He kills offensive flow. I don't want to think of how many times I've watched him dribbling at the top of the key with no idea what to do. If he was a shooting guard or small forward then maybe you could be ok with that, but when his responsibility is to bring the ball up the court and initiate the offense, you're in trouble. And he's too short to be a 2 or 3.

He's slow, gets abused by his man on defense. If you see a guard get loose for a wide open 3, it's usually Mav's guy. If you see a big switch onto a guard and get burned, it's usually because Mav was forced to switch.

You're right, he doesn't have a lot of turnovers. And he does shoot a good percentage on kick-outs. But to say that he doesn't hurt the team is just wrong, even if it doesn't show up on the stat sheet.
 

Saber said:
Actually, I think Mav does hurt us. People often like to talk about players who do all the little things that don't show up on a stat sheet, but contribute to the win. Mav is the opposite. He doesn't do the things that show up negatively on the stat sheet, but he does a lot to hurt us.

He kills offensive flow. I don't want to think of how many times I've watched him dribbling at the top of the key with no idea what to do. If he was a shooting guard or small forward then maybe you could be ok with that, but when his responsibility is to bring the ball up the court and initiate the offense, you're in trouble. And he's too short to be a 2 or 3.

He's slow, gets abused by his man on defense. If you see a guard get loose for a wide open 3, it's usually Mav's guy. If you see a big switch onto a guard and get burned, it's usually because Mav was forced to switch.

You're right, he doesn't have a lot of turnovers. And he does shoot a good percentage on kick-outs. But to say that he doesn't hurt the team is just wrong, even if it doesn't show up on the stat sheet.
Click to expand...

Welcome to the Gopher's half court offense. haha
 

Did anyone else think our press break was unusual during the Richmond game? It literally went like this:

Rodney inbounds the ball to PG.
Trap comes from two Richmond Guards
Ball is given back to Rodney
Richmond PG, go back to defend Rodney
Rodney dribbles to break press versus Richmond PG

Is that really how it is setup to work for the Gophers? I find it strange that our Press break is setup to have our PF bring up the ball vs the opposing PG. That being said Rodney I believe only had one turnover against the press but there were more than a few times it was shaky and he looked a little nervous.
 

howeda7 said:
I saw you quote our record when he has significant minutes in B1G play. How many of those are from his freshman year when he played due to Nolen's injury? Mav will never be the reason we win. But he's also not the reason we lose. He's a medicore back-up PG. Nothing more or less. I don't get the hate for him.
Click to expand...

Only 3 games.
 

Saber said:
Actually, I think Mav does hurt us. People often like to talk about players who do all the little things that don't show up on a stat sheet, but contribute to the win. Mav is the opposite. He doesn't do the things that show up negatively on the stat sheet, but he does a lot to hurt us.

He kills offensive flow. I don't want to think of how many times I've watched him dribbling at the top of the key with no idea what to do. If he was a shooting guard or small forward then maybe you could be ok with that, but when his responsibility is to bring the ball up the court and initiate the offense, you're in trouble. And he's too short to be a 2 or 3.

He's slow, gets abused by his man on defense. If you see a guard get loose for a wide open 3, it's usually Mav's guy. If you see a big switch onto a guard and get burned, it's usually because Mav was forced to switch.

You're right, he doesn't have a lot of turnovers. And he does shoot a good percentage on kick-outs. But to say that he doesn't hurt the team is just wrong, even if it doesn't show up on the stat sheet.
Click to expand...

So what are your thoughts on EE? I would argue EE has played the worst of any player to this point after having a nice freshmen season. Mav has outplayed welch to this point and is much quicker/faster then welch. It's 3 games in and these guys have had their ups and downs, but damn give the kid some credit he has played pretty good in his limited minutes. He has not struggled more than EE or welch or Ingram.
 

dingo said:
Did anyone else think our press break was unusual during the Richmond game? It literally went like this:

Rodney inbounds the ball to PG.
Trap comes from two Richmond Guards
Ball is given back to Rodney
Richmond PG, go back to defend Rodney
Rodney dribbles to break press versus Richmond PG

Is that really how it is setup to work for the Gophers? I find it strange that our Press break is setup to have our PF bring up the ball vs the opposing PG. That being said Rodney I believe only had one turnover against the press but there were more than a few times it was shaky and he looked a little nervous.
Click to expand...

I dont recall the PG coming back over to guard Rodney. I thought it was a 1-2-1-1 zone, and a lazy one at that. The front of that zone should be coming to trap Rodney, but he wasn't making it over (from what I recall). Rodney was beating his side to the corner and beating that press. I think it was a matchup thing. I would rather see it broken through the middle, especially with an athletic big like Rodney (should be an instant zone breaker) but this worked. That zone press caused 0 issues for us.
 

Rodney brought the ball up because the defense was designed to have Rodney bring the ball up.
 

From the Barn said:
Rodney brought the ball up because the defense was designed to have Rodney bring the ball up.
Click to expand...

bingo, by doing that, Richmond kept the ball out of Andre's hands to start the half-court, plus it kept Rodney away from the basket longer. But the reasons for little things like that are beyond the comprehension of most.
 

Dr.Don said:
bingo, by doing that, Richmond kept the ball out of Andre's hands to start the half-court, plus it kept Rodney away from the basket longer. But the reasons for little things like that are beyond the comprehension of most.
Click to expand...

If that was the defensive play and that was the intent, it's easily fixed by not having Rodney in the back court... Have Joe or Austin be the other wing....

I think it was more of a poorly executed press followed by a "meh" reaction from Tubby as they weren't really pressuring and it wasn't causing any issues.
 

The other wing was also guarded, Rodney was generally unguarded.

The goal of the press isn't always to steal the ball.
 

lakesgopher said:
So what are your thoughts on EE? I would argue EE has played the worst of any player to this point after having a nice freshmen season. Mav has outplayed welch to this point and is much quicker/faster then welch. It's 3 games in and these guys have had their ups and downs, but damn give the kid some credit he has played pretty good in his limited minutes. He has not struggled more than EE or welch or Ingram.
Click to expand...

I have to admit Mav has done better so far this yr than I expected. Still can't finish around the rim, but his three pt shot has been good and looks smooth. Bottom line; we still only have one pg.
 

A lot of good posts in this thread, an enjoyable read for me.

I thought the Gophers looked absolutely terrible for most of the first half against Richmond. It wouldn't have been alarming to see an off performance if the same issues that have doomed this team over the past two years were not so apparent. The unforced turnovers were absolutely brutal. It wasn't that Richmond was forcing the Gophers in to bad decisions, it was that the Gophers were making bad decisions and being lazy with the ball. The other issue on offense was the half court offense looking disorganized and being completely ineffective. On defense, the Gophers were very good except for the fact that they allowed too many good looks from 3 and struggled on the defensive boards. Most of Richmond's offense seemed to come from the Gophers self inflicted wounds on the offensive end of the court.

The second half (aside from the stretch that allowed Richmond to go up by 7) seemed to be a much better performance as the team generally handled the ball better and allowed far fewer good looks from 3. Andre, Rodney, and Trevor all had their moments in the second half that got the crowd up off their seats and in to the game. I think Richmond will be a solid A-10 team and this will be a quality win for the Gophers as the season moves forward. Trevor looked significantly better in this game than he has early and it was great to see Andre have some success from the field after struggling in early games.

Thoughts on the players mentioned in this thread:

Joe Coleman: Joe seems improved to me. He seems more comfortable handling the ball (this might be more of a visual observation than one that can be confirmed by stats as I know he had a 5 to game) and he also seems to be playing better defense. I think the posts on this thread discussing Joe's size, athletic ability, and jump shot are right on. Joe looks like an elite athlete against lesser competition and has no problem getting to the rack and finishing (even with contact), but will that transfer to Big Ten competition? Once the scouting report on Joe got out last year, he was unable to score. I think Joe's made enough improvement in his game to be more effective this year, but he'll have to prove it.

Maverick: I am not used to the position of being a Maverick defender, but he appears improved to me this year. Maverick seems a little bit quicker and his jumper seems significantly improved as evidenced not only by his percentages, but also by the fact that he's taking it without hesitation this year. If I had to point to a player outside the top 6 (starting 5 plus Trevor) who looks to have improved his game this year, Mav would be that guy. I am not sure if that says more about Mav or some of the other guys in that second group.

I think we need to put the brakes on the idea that the Gophers are a deep team, until some guys in that second group start to play significantly better basketball. One of the major positives I took out of the Richmond game was the fact that Tubby played a much tighter rotation in the second half and the guys who we need on the floor were out there.
 

You must log in or register to reply here.



Top Bottom