Shooter says Mbakwe to visit Memphis this week

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Damian

He definitely was more a small forward than a power forward- point is he played both..

As far as slashing to the hoop I dont remember to many times him getting the ball on the wing in a half court set and slashing his way to the hoop for a finish... He got the ball alot on the right block and would shoot the little shot over his left shoulder that was his little go to move... 15 jumpers and dunks

Vincent Grier was a slasher..
 

The correct label for Damian is a tweener. He is simply not a true SF or a true PF.

Small forwards have morphed into two basic types on offense...either taller, athletic dead-eye shooters (i.e. Hummel, Hayward, Singler, Shurna, Diebler, Gatens, etc.) or slashing type scorers/rebounders who run the floor (i.e. Damion James, Aminu, Pondexter, Ebanks, Lighty, Morgan). Some can shoot and slash (Wesly Johnson). Damian Johnson is really none of those. His outside shot is not great, and while he can create a little, he can't consistently get to the rim to score, either. Tubby talked a lot about this, that he couldn't play Damian at the 3 very much.

That said, Damian is obviously not a power forward, either, as he cannot rebound or post up or body up like a really good PF should.

Defensively, he is a tweener, as well. He blocks shots like a PF, but doesn't rebound like one. Yet he defends the wings, plays the press, and creates steals like a SF.

So, he is an absolute tweener on offense -- a guy who can do enough of all of those things okay (shoot, rebound, slash, post-up) that he is valuable, but he can't do any of those things great. Defensively, he is valuable as either a PF or SF, but still a tweener.
 


Guys the thought of Mo walker and Colt in the same lineup only works if youre playing in the Big East. Will Mo be able to defend PFs like Shurna, Leuer, or green like I said above? no he is too slow, the only thing that works is if Colt/Samps or Mo/Samps play together. Hopefully sampson doesn't get into foul trouble. becaue I don't see RW or Oto playing PF.
 



Go Gophs eh? said:
They deffinately aren't small fowards, they do mix it up in the post every once in awhile.
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Shurna and Coble are not PFs. They are taller small forwards who can shoot the lights out. About the only points they get in the paint are from screens and backcuts, not from posting up with their back to the basket. Mo Walker will NEVER be assigned to guard either of those guys or Leuer for that matter.
 

Mixing it up in the post every once in a while is the definition of a small forward. Being tall does not make a player a post player.
 

And Leuer does have the tools to be a more traditional power forward, but he doesn't go inside enough.
 

Alright fine they're tweeners, which we have no one to guard them with. And you people are sugesting that Mo should gaurd them? Or hoffarber? They would kill hoff in the post or kill Mo off the dribble, my point is, if you have a Mbakwe, he will dominate these guys in the post and shut them down on the perimeter, we need one of him. We wont have one next year, RW is too small to go in the post, Oto is a freshman who i assume wont get big minutes.
 



Go Gophs eh? said:
which brings up my next question, are we at all pursuing Cinemon Bowers? we should really offer him.
http://insider.espn.go.com/ncb/recr...ng/tracker/player?recruitId=67027&season=2011
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Yes, Minnesota is involved with Cinmeon. The information in the link you provided is outdated -- it's a couple of high schools behind, and Cim is a 2012 guy. Big boy, that can play mean and hungry. If he puts it all together could wind up being a nice player. Marquette, LSU, Texas and others involved in addition to Minnesota.
 

Go Gophs eh? said:
Alright fine they're tweeners, which we have no one to guard them with.
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Who do you think guarded Shurna the last two years?

Go Gophs eh? said:
my point is, if you have a Mbakwe, he will dominate these guys in the post
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You really think Mbakwe would be assigned to guard Shurna?

Go Gophs eh? said:
RW is too small to go in the post.
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Rodney Williams can handle Shurna just fine.

I'm thinking you may have Shurna confused with Bill Walton or something. Shurna will not be posting up anyone very often. He will be asked to spot up to shoot three point shots and move off of screens for backdoor layups.
 

tjgopher said:
Who do you think guarded Shurna the last two years?



You really think Mbakwe would be assigned to guard Shurna?



Rodney Williams can handle Shurna just fine.

I'm thinking you may have Shurna confused with Bill Walton or something. Shurna will not be posting up anyone very often. He will be asked to spot up to shoot three point shots and move off of screens for backdoor layups.
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1. Damian guarded him, and if he didn't, maybe thats why they beat us
2. If not coble yea
3. No, we got torn up by him last year, no one on our team was capable of gaurding him. With Damian gone, we no longer have a defensive stoper. RW can get there, but if we wanted one by next year, Mbakwe was the only one capable of stopping a guy inside and out. Who will gaurd him next year if Rodney isn't a starter? do you have an answer to that, and if its RS3 or Hoff, explain how they could gaurd him
 

Go Gophs eh? said:
we got torn up by him last year, no one on our team was capable of gaurding him.
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I'm not sure I'd go that far. He shot 14-for-34 against us in two games (41%), including 6-for-16 in MN's win (in which Damian sat most of it with foul trouble.) He was 8-for-18 in NW's win (overtime). He's a fine player who I suppose can create matchup problems, but we will have much more troubling small forward matchups than John Shurna this coming year. Shurna gets his points, but he is amongst the league leaders in shot attempts, which is a big reason why. You shoot 34 times in 2 games, you're going to get your points.
 



Having Trevor would have been great, but he's now 99 percent gone. Time to move on, tough it out this season, and start working toward the future. I think the Gophers would have a successful season if they finish 5th or 6th.
 

Shurna

Shurna was shooting lots of 3's so 41% is not that bad.

Against the Gophers he was 10-22 from 3(45%) which is pretty good... he scored 30 pts from 3 in two games.... my coach use to calculate that out... that equates to a guy scoring 30 pts by going 15-22 on two pointers...not to bad..

10 of 22 from 3 = 15 of 22 from 2 point land.... so he avg 20.5 pts 6 rebs and 2 assists against the Gophs...
 

Is he visting Memphis on Tuesday? it sounds like he is gone from his fb status if he is visiting on tuesday. Tubby really needs to let Royce back if mbakwe is gone.
 

Roland Brooks said:
Shurna was shooting lots of 3's so 41% is not that bad.

Against the Gophers he was 10-22 from 3(45%) which is pretty good... he scored 30 pts from 3 in two games.... my coach use to calculate that out... that equates to a guy scoring 30 pts by going 15-22 on two pointers...not to bad..

10 of 22 from 3 = 15 of 22 from 2 point land.... so he avg 20.5 pts 6 rebs and 2 assists against the Gophs...
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Yeah, he averaged 20.1 pts, 5.3 reb, 2.5 assists against the rest of the Big Ten, so it isn't like what he did to MN was something unique. As I said, he's a fine player. He shoots a lot (476 attempts, which is more than Evan Turner took!), which means he will score a lot of points. His matchup isn't any more difficult than a lot of guys. Shurna is no tougher a matchup for MN than Diebler, Hummell, Richardson or some other really nice SFs in the Big Ten. In fact, I like our chances guarding Shurna as a relatively unathletic spot-up shooter more than having to go against guys like Hummel or Lighty or Richardson. I don't understand the panic about Shurna, I guess. Yes, he'll get his points, but mostly because he shoots a lot, not necessarily because he is some freaky mismatch. To say we have no one who could possibly guard him, as someone did here earlier, is just a bit over the top, IMO. Of all of the potential problems we have going into next season, guarding John Shurna would not likely rank in the Top 50 concerns.
 

How exactly did you calculate that 99%? He said he's not going to transfer to Memphis if he doesn't get the waiver. Are you assuming he will?

BigGopherFan said:
Having Trevor would have been great, but he's now 99 percent gone. Time to move on, tough it out this season, and start working toward the future. I think the Gophers would have a successful season if they finish 5th or 6th.
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Go Gophs eh? said:
Is he visting Memphis on Tuesday? it sounds like he is gone from his fb status if he is visiting on tuesday. Tubby really needs to let Royce back if mbakwe is gone.
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I'm sure Tubby and co. are fast at work with this... :rolleyes:
 

Diebler

We will see how good Diebler is without Turner. Turner use to draw double teams and kick it out to Diebler for wide open jumpers. Diebler is great shooter but we will see what he does when a guy is in his face and he has to shoot over people.

Diebler and Hummel in the same sentence? Richardson and Lighty the player you should mention is Buford he is better then both of them.
 

Roland Brooks said:
Diebler and Hummel in the same sentence? Richardson and Lighty the player you should mention is Buford he is better then both of them.
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I was only mentioning small forwards since that was the discussion topic. Buford, of course, is a guard. I guess Richardson is a guard, too. So, sure, throw Buford in there.

Point I'm making is there are some tough matchups and to waste any extra time on worrying about John Shurna as some freaky mismatch would be misappropriating your time.
 

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