Rodney

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Dampshoe

Dampshoe

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As I watch this Gopher team this year I am constantly impressed by the level of talent on this team. Tubby has made every conceivable roster moves BUT one. The move to reduce Rodney Williams minutes and put him on the bench more. He simply hasn't lived up to the hype and he simply slows the offense. When passed the ball he holds the ball. He simply hasn't learned to move well off the dribble. He's tentative at best. When passed the ball ...he raises his arms and the ball and holds the ball 2-3 second looking for a pass that he rarely makes. Why ... he can't dribble. When he does pass it's 50-50 whether it will to a turnover.

He clearly has a jumping ability that is five star BUT that's pretty much sums up ability. He has difficulty shooting, dribbling, and playing good D.

Where I commend him his stepping up as a leader and being vocal on the floor. He's a senior and Tubby plays seniors.

One man's opinion: If we ever get to see his minutes are reduced I believe this club will move the ball better, score easier, and play better defense and put more pressure on the opposition.
 


Dampshoe said:
As I watch this Gopher team this year I am constantly impressed by the level of talent on this team. Tubby has made every conceivable roster moves BUT one. The move to reduce Rodney Williams minutes and put him on the bench more. He simply hasn't lived up to the hype and he simply slows the offense. When passed the ball he holds the ball. He simply hasn't learned to move well off the dribble. He's tentative at best. When passed the ball ...he raises his arms and the ball and holds the ball 2-3 second looking for a pass that he rarely makes. Why ... he can't dribble. When he does pass it's 50-50 whether it will to a turnover.

He clearly has a jumping ability that is five star BUT that's pretty much sums up ability. He has difficulty shooting, dribbling, and playing good D.

Where I commend him his stepping up as a leader and being vocal on the floor. He's a senior and Tubby plays seniors.

One man's opinion: If we ever get to see his minutes are reduced I believe this club will move the ball better, score easier, and play better defense and put more pressure on the opposition.
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Post more often. You're very astute.
 


I would have to disagree with you. What is your desired lineup?
 


Right now, Rodney is probably the top talent of all that talent you're impressed by. He's starting to penetrate a little better, has been finishing reasonably well around the rim, and plays above average defense.

I also disagree that he has stepped up as a (vocal) leader on the floor. He has shown flashes of this, but he's still learning how to be a leader. That's another big reason why I think he should stick around for his senior season (which is next year, not this year).

Your thread topic just strikes me as odd. If anything, it seems to be more of a description of the Rodney from the past couple seasons, or even this year before the Trevor injury.

Edit: Out of sheer curiously, who would you want to take Rodney's minutes?
 

You do realize Rodney was one of the few reasons we were in the last 2 games, right?
 

Less minutes for Rodney? Sure, let's begin the Andre Ingram experiment (rimshot) :) But seriously folks...

Rodney despite his inconstancy is getting better & is arguably the most talented player on the team. Not progressing as fast as any of us would like, but he's gotten much better from last year to this year, from early in the season until now & logically should come back & give us a strong Senior year. He played his heart out at Mich St. against Green, Nix and the other beasts they have. He disappeared in the 20-0 famine the other night but still ended up wit 21 pts, 9 rebs, 2blks. Strong showings against top talent. What he lacks is consistency & he won't get that on the bench.
 

Dampshoe said:
As I watch this Gopher team this year I am constantly impressed by the level of talent on this team. Tubby has made every conceivable roster moves BUT one. The move to reduce Rodney Williams minutes and put him on the bench more. He simply hasn't lived up to the hype and he simply slows the offense. When passed the ball he holds the ball. He simply hasn't learned to move well off the dribble. He's tentative at best. When passed the ball ...he raises his arms and the ball and holds the ball 2-3 second looking for a pass that he rarely makes. Why ... he can't dribble. When he does pass it's 50-50 whether it will to a turnover.

He clearly has a jumping ability that is five star BUT that's pretty much sums up ability. He has difficulty shooting, dribbling, and playing good D.

Where I commend him his stepping up as a leader and being vocal on the floor. He's a senior and Tubby plays seniors.




One man's opinion: If we ever get to see his minutes are reduced I believe this club will move the ball better, score easier, and play better defense and put more pressure on the opposition.
Click to expand...

Yeah good idea, lets bench the guy who not only leads the team in scoring, rebounding, blocks, steals, and field goal percentage, but is also the vocal leader. By the way, he isn't a senior. Have you watched any games this year?
 



Yeah, Williams still isn't probably always living up to the hype, but he has improved a lot this year. If he improves this much next year, he could be a real "difference maker" for us. From last year, he's increased minutes played, shooting percentage (by a long shot), 3-point shooting (still not good, but much better), rebounds, blocks, steals, and points per game. His turnovers are down from last year as well.

I understand the "holding the ball" comment, but I think that's more of a team thing than just him. At times, we hold the ball way too much. Part of that is lack of guys moving without the ball. He has his lazy moments on defense, but overall I think his positives easily outweigh his negatives.
 

The only reason the loss of Mbakwe didn't completely floor this team is Rodney Williams. And you want him to play less?? And who would get his minutes?

No doubt he's not comfortable putting it on the floor on many occasions, which is disappointing considering he's done it plenty of times successfully.

Unfortunately, I think his bad eye on the FT line kills him. He could go to the rim anytime he wants, but most likely he's getting hacked, and when he gets hacked, those FT woes stand out like a sore thumb. I don't think his form is that brutal either, not the greatest, I think his elbow comes out a tad much, but it's just one of those things. It's too bad he can't get it straight though, cause if he could reliably hit like 70% or so at least, then it'd make him more of a threat on the drive cause the fouls wouldn't lead to automatic 1 out of 2s. I think it's even become more mental than anything at this point.
 

Dampshoe said:
As I watch this Gopher team this year I am constantly impressed by the level of talent on this team. Tubby has made every conceivable roster moves BUT one. The move to reduce Rodney Williams minutes and put him on the bench more. He simply hasn't lived up to the hype and he simply slows the offense. When passed the ball he holds the ball. He simply hasn't learned to move well off the dribble. He's tentative at best. When passed the ball ...he raises his arms and the ball and holds the ball 2-3 second looking for a pass that he rarely makes. Why ... he can't dribble. When he does pass it's 50-50 whether it will to a turnover.

He clearly has a jumping ability that is five star BUT that's pretty much sums up ability. He has difficulty shooting, dribbling, and playing good D.

Where I commend him his stepping up as a leader and being vocal on the floor. He's a senior and Tubby plays seniors.

One man's opinion: If we ever get to see his minutes are reduced I believe this club will move the ball better, score easier, and play better defense and put more pressure on the opposition.
Click to expand...

I promise my first 4 posts will be better than this one.

1/1
 

zambam said:
You do realize Rodney was one of the few reasons we were in the last 2 games, right?
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We were in the Ohio State game? lol Rodney is a decent player not a star. If only dunks counted for ten points.
 




Winasota Gopher said:
I promise my first 4 posts will be better than this one.

1/1
Click to expand...

you waited for this thread just to set the bar that low? lol-- I think that is a very achievable promise on your part.

Tubby has made some questionable moves for sure but having Rodney on the floor has not been one of them.
 

920/414 Gopher said:
Your thread topic just strikes me as odd. If anything, it seems to be more of a description of the Rodney from the past couple seasons, or even this year before the Trevor injury.
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That's exactly what I was thinking. This post seems like old news considering how much Rodney has improved this season and the fact that he's leading the team in almost every meaningful statistic. No, he's not perfect and still has a lot of room to improve, but c'mon man. He's clearly the best all around player on the team right now. Who else should be getting his minutes? Every player on this team is inconsistent.
 

Blackhammer said:
We were in the Ohio State game? lol Rodney is a decent player not a star. If only dunks counted for ten points.
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Regardless of how big of a star Rodney is on the national level, he's our star since Mbawke went down. He gives us our best chance out there.

And there were a couple times in the second half against OSU where we got it down to 8 and had the ball (if I recall correctly). As bad as other parts of the game were, I would say we were relatively in the game in those moments. Then again, every time they needed to, OSU just flipped a switch and got a bucket on us...so I would agree that they were in control most of the way.
 

Blackhammer said:
We were in the Ohio State game? lol Rodney is a decent player not a star. If only dunks counted for ten points.
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I think some people undervalue his dunking ability. Sure, sometimes its just for show. But he is very aggressive going to the hoop, and its much harder to block someone who goes in strong compared to someone just going up to lay it in. Plus its much harder to run the alley-oop play with someone who isn't very athletic.
 

Free throw shooting.

Rodney seems to let his head drift to the side when he releases. Has anyone else noticed, or did I just see an isolated case. The key in shooting free throws is to repeat the same routine each time.
 

surpher said:
Rodney seems to let his head drift to the side when he releases. Has anyone else noticed, or did I just see an isolated case. The key in shooting free throws is to repeat the same routine each time.
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I have noticed this. I hope Tubby has as well, if not, EVERYONE EMAIL HIM! Nah I'm jk.
 

GophersInIowa said:
I think some people undervalue his dunking ability. Sure, sometimes its just for show. But he is very aggressive going to the hoop, and its much harder to block someone who goes in strong compared to someone just going up to lay it in. Plus its much harder to run the alley-oop play with someone who isn't very athletic.
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Exactly. For example, look at Ralph going to the hoop as opposed to Rodney.
 

Ralph goes to the hoop? When? I must have missed that. Which year? Was he wide open?
 

Can we send Ralph on a plane back home right after the Nebraska game? I'll buy the ticket to get him out of here sooner. He probably isn't getting a degree if he put as much effort into school as he did in to developing his game.
 

afurry91
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Can we send Ralph on a plane back home right after the Nebraska game? I'll buy the ticket to get him out of here sooner. He probably isn't getting a degree if he put as much effort into school as he did in to developing his game.


You might be taking basketball too seriously.
 


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