Rodney Williams, Jr., Senior

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Nothing but the highest praise for Rodney Williams, who brings up the ball against the press, blocks shots in bunches, sets the tone for the game, follows up misses with dunks, rebounds, passes to the open man, hits the j and plays with passion and leadership.

While 99 percent of this praise goes to Rodney, his family and advisors, for staying with the program for 4 years, how about just a little acknowledgement that Tubby and staff did coached up number 33 helping him on his way to being the first round NBA draft pick that we all thought he could be.

Had Rodney gone to a KY, KS, NC and gotten lost in the shuffle of the play and declare crowd, his game may never have developed to the level it has reached. Heard that there were double digit NBA scouts watching tonight's game, who undoubtedly were impressed not only with Rodney's leaping ability but all around polish.

Here's to you Rodney, keep it up young man!

Take notice local top 100 recruits, Tubby Smith's Minnesota is building something strong and Rodney Williams is that cornerstone.
 

Rodney, Austin, Andre are three great examples of guys that have improved every year with this staff. Some on the Hole won't admit it.
 

I had a thought during the game tonight. I was explaining to my wife how he was on several NBA draft lists every year he's been here, and it is amazing to me how much better of a player he is now then when he started. He still has the super freak athleticism, but he now has a jump shot, defense, ability to drive and finish, rebounding, etc. So my thought was: "How much better of a NBA player is Rodney going to be because he stayed 4 years, versus if he left after his first?" I think Tubby was the right coach for Rodney.
 

Rodney is my favorite Gopher. Glad he stayed 4 years and it's awesome to see how far he has come. Hopefully he can go out with a bang and he and the Gophers have a big season and run in the tournament.
 

His outside shot has come a long ways. He seems to be a lot more confident from the outside. A lot of fun to watch.
 


He made the right choice to come back. He's going to go out with a bang this year and probably improve his draft stock significantly.
 

shooting

GophersInIowa said:
His outside shot has come a long ways. He seems to be a lot more confident from the outside. A lot of fun to watch.
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i completely agree. Obviously it makes defenders respect him more with the ball-- but without the ball he has to be watched more closely which further opens it up for everyone
 

Stan said:
Rodney, Austin, Andre are three great examples of guys that have improved every year with this staff. Some on the Hole won't admit it.
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Mav, much better this year, EE coming along nicely.

I'm fully expecting this team to stay healthy, by conventional standards, i.e. no season ending injuries, but B10 players get banged up. And we'll get a taste of what Tubby can do with a full line-up for once.
 

Everybody has been waiting for Rodney to show how could he can be. It took until his Sr. year but his time has come.
 



Rodney is number 7 and number 1 in the ESPN Top Plays tonight. I think he got the attention he deserves. This is going to be a fun year. Ski U Mah
 


Number 2 was the put-back and number 7 was the baseline. Both nice dunks and very cool to see the Gophers twice in the Top 10.
 

Rodney was bumped to #2 by a game-winning layup by George Hill. I get the situation aspect but Rodney's put-back was far more impressive.
 



GophersInIowa said:
His outside shot has come a long ways. He seems to be a lot more confident from the outside. A lot of fun to watch.
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To me it looks like he has totally revamped his shot. It looks much different, and he is getting better results. Free throws have been huge too.
 

WILLBGOPHER said:
To me it looks like he has totally revamped his shot. It looks much different, and he is getting better results. Free throws have been huge too.
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My guess is he's been working on that a lot lately.

Some people think u spend one summer in the gym and you are Kyle Korver. Rodney had to relearn all the muscle memory and habits of a shot he's used for over ten years.

Takes a while to not only know what to do mentally but to get your body to do them in a game setting with no time to think about the shot.

Glad to see it is coming around.
 

Rodney has improved a lot. I wish he was better off the bounce. He seems hesitant to beat guys off of the dribble from the wing or in a full court setting. I am not comfortable with him handling the ball against pressure defense. He got stripped at least once last night, but he has improved in this area as well.

I like Rodney's game a lot right now. He blocks and alters a ton of shots and his dunks really get the team and crowd fired up. Imagine the reaction had that put back dunk been at The Barn...crazy
 

scher215 said:
My guess is he's been working on that a lot lately.

Some people think u spend one summer in the gym and you are Kyle Korver. Rodney had to relearn all the muscle memory and habits of a shot he's used for over ten years.

Takes a while to not only know what to do mentally but to get your body to do them in a game setting with no time to think about the shot.

Glad to see it is coming around.
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He's been hard working on that shot since at least after his soph season. You could see the improvements last year, but I think the confidence was more lacking. Another off-season of work and we're seeing both the improvement and the confidence behind it.
 

I actually like Rodney bringing the ball up against man to man pressure. Most power forwards he faces are 6'8" 230+ and will be unable to pressure him fullcourt. I would rather our guards do it so he could conserve his energy, but the matchup doesnt scare me. Rodney at the 4 isn't expected to make the 3. Now its there when he wants it, whether wide open, or when defenders give him 5 feet of room because he is blowing by them so much. Different mind set and improved stroke.
 

Mentally Rodney's locked in right now. He doesn't get too high or too low out there. He sets a good example for his teammates - just taking care of business.
 

"I actually like Rodney bringing the ball up against man to man pressure. Most power forwards he faces are 6'8" 230+ and will be unable to pressure him fullcourt."

I love Rodney and agree that he is significantly improved this year, but he is a turnover waiting to happen when he dribbles the ball up the court. This approach will work against some defenders, but Rodney gets himself off balance when he dribbles and he also dribbles too high. Rodney needs to get the ball into a guards hands rather than dribble one on one.
 

Rodney has actually done quite well dribbling through the press. His ball-handling really looks a lot better. Unless he starts turning the ball over, I don't see why there's a problem with him continuing to do what he's been doing. We've done well against the press.
 

I agree underground. Look at the numbers, Rodney is a good ball handling 4. Against a man to man he is bringing it up against a power forward. When they are denying Dre the ball, would you rather have Austin against a sg, Coleman against a sf, or rodney. I thought so.
 

When I said I wish he was better off the bounce I meant attacking the basket. He is so athletic he should be able to take a guy off the dribble and dunk/score on him. Maybe we will see it more, or I have missed it when he did it this year.

He is fine against a PF when bringing the ball up the court. Against a SF, I am less thrilled with he but he can do it. I'm really only comfortable with Dre handling the ball against good pressure defense but thats because he can dribble past a guy and create easy baskets by drawing other defenders to him
 

khoffman43 said:
When I said I wish he was better off the bounce I meant attacking the basket. He is so athletic he should be able to take a guy off the dribble and dunk/score on him. Maybe we will see it more, or I have missed it when he did it this year.
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I think you've missed it a ton this year. He has taken his guy off the dribble multiple times this year and been very effective at it.
 

One of the biggest differences between Rodney's first 2 and 1/2 seasons and the last season and 1/2 is his aggressiveness taking it to the basket. I'd say something he could add is when he is taking his guy off the dribble from the 3 pt line that he may need to stop 6 feet short of the basket and shoot a floater, when a help defender steps out to take a charge. Coleman could learn this too along with 75% of college players actually.
 

Gold Vision said:
I think you've missed it a ton this year. He has taken his guy off the dribble multiple times this year and been very effective at it.
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Multiple times in 8 games? Doesn't seem like its a big part of his game at this point if thats true. I will be able to watch more now since I am not going to be traveling for work as much the next 2 months.
 

khoffman43 said:
Multiple times in 8 games? Doesn't seem like its a big part of his game at this point if thats true. I will be able to watch more now since I am not going to be traveling for work as much the next 2 months.
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Multiple as in consistently every game, all year.
 


He has dribble driven multiple times per game; sometimes cut off defensively and not finishing each effort, but most importantly he has the confidence to do it and drive the action, which is a catalyst for the offense generally. It is piece of the reason why the half court offense looks so much more energetic.
 

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