I like this Gophers team.....when we are running. We have these fatal flaws in the half court offense:Not a strong rebounding team. No strong post up player. No one that can get their own shot except Nolan and he has trouble finishing. A great shooter-Hoff- that can't get open in the half court sets. A good scorer that is too short to deal with taller defenders in the half court- Westbrook. Add to that Tubby's offense lacks movement and purposeful passing.
But when we are pressing and running- this team looks great. All of the sudden guys like Westbrook, Hoff, Williams, Nolan and others all look very good. I was encourage last night that we were able to do it against Purdue for some stretches. We had a number of good looks at threes and drives that wouldn't go, otherwise the game would have been much closer. I hope we continue to press and run all season as we did last night. It takes advantage of our personnel and our depth-which is the best in the Big Ten.
Even though it was a losing effort pressing and running gave us a chance to compete against a team that just has more firepower on offense than us.
But when we are pressing and running- this team looks great. All of the sudden guys like Westbrook, Hoff, Williams, Nolan and others all look very good. I was encourage last night that we were able to do it against Purdue for some stretches. We had a number of good looks at threes and drives that wouldn't go, otherwise the game would have been much closer. I hope we continue to press and run all season as we did last night. It takes advantage of our personnel and our depth-which is the best in the Big Ten.
Even though it was a losing effort pressing and running gave us a chance to compete against a team that just has more firepower on offense than us.