Rodney Williams and Royce White putting on a show

Donate To GopherHole
S

stevenmgr

Member
Joined
Nov 12, 2008
Messages
172
Reaction score
2
Points
18
Royce White and Rodney Williams put on a show on Tuesday night at the Sal. Will up date later on but have seen some neat slam dunks from both of these guys.

The Gym is packed for an 8:45 tip off.
 

Man, I wish I could be there! Thanks for your reports Steven.
 

I had to leave just after half, but those two were definitely showing the good stuff.

They were guarding each other, and it was cool to see the contrast. Royce would muscle his way down low and stuff it over Rodney with authority. Rodney had several high-flying put backs over whoever happened to be under him, gliding out of nowhere to put it home. Part of the first half was pretty much the Royce/Rodney show. Crowd seemed to react to Rodney a bit better - a little flashier.

Both run the floor well when they want to and should help our transition game. Can't wait to see both under Tubby.
 

What a fun preview of things to come! I couldn't be more excited about these two players.
Gopherlady and I met up tonight and had a great time.
For those who remember the good old days of J'son Stamper, I must admit he is looking lean and mean. It always surprises me how intense he is on the court and how pleasant on the sidelines after the game.
 

Rodney electrified the crowd tonight, but still did show how much he needs to work on his non-dunking skills. Royce pummeled Rodney in the post (not sure why he was even guarding Royce). And Hoff looked pretty good from distance and on slashes to the basket. At one stretch Blake made 6 of 8 three point attempts (including 4 in a row). Dom Dawson sat throughout almost all of the game, but the very little he played he looked like a deer in headlights.
 


Oops...I posted this on the wrong topic so I'm gonna paste what I just wrote...

"Good game between B-2-X and Troy Hudson's Enterprises. Rodney guarded Royce the whole game and Royce guarded Rodney at least half of the game if I remember correctly, but he stopped guarding him at some point.

Royce dominated Rodney pretty badly in the first half. He was just way too strong for Rodney inside and he was really aggressive in the first half. Royce was easily the best player out there in the first half and pretty much scored whenever he wanted. Second half he disappeared for quite a while and definitely never got close to how he played in the first half. When he dominated in the beginning his team was up the whole time, then he disappeared and they were down the whole second half.

Hoffarber's shot was off in the beginning, but he picked it up and couldn't miss. It was great to see him hitting a ton of threes. Looked just like he did in his freshman days with that quick release with a guy closing in. Best I've seen him play in a long long time from a shooting stand point.

Rodney had some of his usual highlight reel dunks, tip slams, and a few blocks, but not quite as many as usual. To his credit, he had a better defender than usual guarding him in Royce White, and he tweaked his ankle a little in the beginning.

I was happy with how all of the Gophers played. Not much from Rodney but I'm giving him a pass for hurting his ankle and going against Royce. I was a little disappointed in Royce during the 2nd half but he was so good in the first that I can't really complain."
 

It was just good to see..........

a real basketball atmosphere in the middle of July! It was as big a crowd as I've ever seen for the late game. Rodney and Royce just ooze potential, yet you can really see where each has a ton of room for improvement........mainly shooting the rock!

Hoffarber did drop some bombs though....and played (along with the two young Gophers to be,) virtually without substitution.

I had fun, and the popcorn is better than the Williams Arena brand.....which I admit does not take much.
 

leftyslefty said:
a real basketball atmosphere in the middle of July! It was as big a crowd as I've ever seen for the late game. Rodney and Royce just ooze potential, yet you can really see where each has a ton of room for improvement........mainly shooting the rock!

Hoffarber did drop some bombs though....and played (along with the two young Gophers to be,) virtually without substitution.

I had fun, and the popcorn is better than the Williams Arena brand.....which I admit does not take much.
Click to expand...

If Hoff can find his stroke again, this team is going to be really tough to match up with. Others have said the team's biggest weakness is shooting and I tend to agree. However, if Blake and Devoe both improve their shooting from last year and Nolan can hit any kind of jump shot whatsoever, we're going to be a very good team imo. If not, we'll look a lot like last year again.
 

MRJ said:
If Hoff can find his stroke again, this team is going to be really tough to match up with. Others have said the team's biggest weakness is shooting and I tend to agree. However, if Blake and Devoe both improve their shooting from last year and Nolan can hit any kind of jump shot whatsoever, we're going to be a very good team imo. If not, we'll look a lot like last year again.
Click to expand...

We will not be last year's team, not that they were bad or anything. We have so much more experience with so many returning players. We're so deep that if players (cough.hoff.cough) aren't hitting on a particular night then we can find somebody else that will contribute. These guys are going to be fighting for playing time the way it is.
 



leftyslefty said:
a real basketball atmosphere in the middle of July! It was as big a crowd as I've ever seen for the late game. Rodney and Royce just ooze potential, yet you can really see where each has a ton of room for improvement........mainly shooting the rock!

Hoffarber did drop some bombs though....and played (along with the two young Gophers to be,) virtually without substitution.

I had fun, and the popcorn is better than the Williams Arena brand.....which I admit does not take much.
Click to expand...

Lefty- Here's a tip:Try going to the northeast end of the Barn this winter and trying some of the buttered popcorn or carmel corn they are making. It's terrific.
 

GoldyPush-Ups said:
We will not be last year's team, not that they were bad or anything. We have so much more experience with so many returning players. We're so deep that if players (cough.hoff.cough) aren't hitting on a particular night then we can find somebody else that will contribute. These guys are going to be fighting for playing time the way it is.
Click to expand...

Touche. Certainly, depth isn't going to be a problem. As it is, finding minutes for the guys might prove to be interesting and establishing a sound player rotation will be very important.

Overall, I see it this way: 1. We're going to be more athletic, 2. We're going to be deeper and 3. We're definitely going to be more experienced. How all that adds up I'm not sure at this point. The incoming recruits figure to bring us several options we didn't have last year. Which, like you said, should make us more flexible and dynamic this season. The reason I bring up outside shooting is because it proved to be a team-wide difficulty last season. Hopefully, that won't happen this time around. But I don't think there's any question we should be significantly improved overall this season.
 

Hoff needs to build up his wind more than his shot. It was the D taking away his shot last season I thought, not his shot fading. No wind no accuracy. He upped his overall game but I think he was getting more gassed, and his shooting will catch up to his more complete game, if his conditioning goes up a level.

Shooters tend to improve their percentages through college to some degree, and any help shooting from teammates is equal to an extra 1/2 step of freedom for Hoff, so I look for better stuff to be there this season.
 

Hoff will be needed this coming season more than we think. If I had to note the incoming team's biggest flaw at this point in the pre-season, it would be a questionable outside shooting force.

Our three point specialists are Hoff (who as off last year) and then who? Cobbs? Anyone?
 



Westbrook shot almost 40% from 3 as a sophomore and 36% last year. I think Devoe will be a good 3 point shooter too. From what I've seen from him he looks like he's only going to improve and he shot 37% from 3 last year. Allen was an amazing 3 point shooter in high school but who knows what to expect from him.
 

I saw White today for the first time in person. I see why some of you are saying his body is already Big 10 ready. He doesn't resemble a typical freshman at all. The guy has some serious pipes. If his skills match his build -- which by most accounts that appears to be the case -- and he keeps his head on straight, look out.
 

underground629 said:
Westbrook shot almost 40% from 3 as a sophomore and 36% last year. I think Devoe will be a good 3 point shooter too. From what I've seen from him he looks like he's only going to improve and he shot 37% from 3 last year. Allen was an amazing 3 point shooter in high school but who knows what to expect from him.
Click to expand...

The thing I like about Devoe is he has the potential to be a good jump shooter from mid range. Westbrook either shoots threes or drives to the basket. I'm not complaining, it would just be nice to have a diverse set of weapons at SG. I'd really like to see Devoe knocking down mid-rangers this season.
 

You must log in or register to reply here.



Top Bottom