So...What Troubles Are We Going To Have This Season?

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TheHofferette

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most people on here are talking about tripling the W total in 3 years, how deep we are, and how good all the incoming players are....let's take off the Gopher shades for a minute and discuss things that people saw last night that are potential red flags. since I didn't go to the Tipoff and I fancy myself a realist, I am curious what the more level-headed fans on this forum see as trouble spots for us (even just based on one inter squad scrimmage, which isn't a great measuring stick of things to come).

someone mentioned FT%...what else??

also, after getting a glimpse of the team, do you think the pundits pick of 4th in the B10 is a good educated guess a this point?

note: I am not at all dissing those that are excited, optimistic, and think we will be awesome, I am just curious.
 

I think we will be sound on defense, at rebounds, and in transition. I am a bit concerned with the play at point guard, the lack of a go-to scorer who can hit consistently from outside, and our 1/2 court offense.
 

A lack of consistent outside scoring.
 

Obviously I wasn't there last night, but I'm concerned about keeping everyone happy with their minutes.
 

coolhandgopher said:
Obviously I wasn't there last night, but I'm concerned about keeping everyone happy with their minutes.
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Wow thats a crazy opimistic view. I can tell a handfull of things that Purdue needs to work on this year, so if you think the Gopher's don't have anything they can work on you are in for a rude awaking.
 


perimeter scoring is going to be troublesome for us this year...or at least like mggoph said, consistent perimeter scoring/shooting
 

We still don't know if our Mbakwe is going to be available...that is my first and primary concern.

Next is do Iverson/RSIII improve or do they have Soph slumps?

Can we get legitimate scoring from the three position in our half court sets? Everyone insists on blaming our failures in this area on 1/2 play...but I see the failure of our 3s to get their own shot or get open as a huge reason why our 1/2 play looks forced. IF DJ and Carter can get open and hit the 15 foot shot, Westbrook, Joseph and Hoffarber all will see more open looks and Nolan/Cobbs will have lanes to drive and dish.

Will Nolan suck like last year down the stretch?
 

Huh?

I didn't quite get your point mnboiler. . .some of the concerns I have (perimeter shooting, go to player) were already stated, I'm living in Peru so I wasn't there to witness the Tipoff, and one of my concerns that hadn't been addressed by others is how to keep all the veterans plus the four newcomers cohesive and on the same page throughout the season when some of them inevitably will want to be playing more minutes. I don't see the crazy optimism in that concern.
 

coolhandgopher said:
I didn't quite get your point mnboiler. . .some of the concerns I have (perimeter shooting, go to player) were already stated, I'm living in Peru so I wasn't there to witness the Tipoff, and one of my concerns that hadn't been addressed by others is how to keep all the veterans plus the four newcomers cohesive and on the same page throughout the season when some of them inevitably will want to be playing more minutes. I don't see the crazy optimism in that concern.
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I'm sorry CHG, I misread your post. I thought your only concern is keeping everybody happy with PT. The reason I thought of "crazy optimism" was that if keeping everybody happy with PT was your only concern I thought you thought the Gopher's would be dominate in every part of the game. I'm sorry.
 



1. Point Guard play
2. Consistency scoring the ball in a half court set

I really think if we can answer the question to 1, it will lead to the answer for 2. If we can improve on these 2 things we should be a top 20 team all season.
 

Hey, no worries Boiler, just threw me off. Good luck to your Boilers this season, it could be a great season.
 

If the ball bounces Purdue's way at a few at key times this season it could be really, really, special. A national championship is not just a wild dream for this team. Not saying it's likely, just saying its possible. The general thinking in West Lafayette now a days is that-with everyone healthly(knock on wood)-that the Elite Eight is the expecation. Also tack on a regular season Big 10 Championship-I don't know about what people on this board think but given the option between the regular season B10 Championship or the BTT Championship I'll take the regular season. Not saying I wouldn't take a BTT Championship. It would be a really specail seaon in West Lafayette. Then tack on beating Ohio State in football it would be a great year in Purdue Sports.
 

Point guard play, point guard play, point guard play. I think we'll be tougher inside, so this, to me, stands head and shoulders as the main concern. Will Al be better? (I sure hope so because I am a huge fan of his... probably my favorite Gopher.) Will Devoe give minutes while also playing the 2? Will Cobbs be a contributor as a frosh? Will Allen earn any minutes in Jan-Feb-Mar?

I can't help but think what Verdell Jones would do for this team. Oh well. By no means am I complaining about what Tubby and staff have been able to do in terms of recruiting the first 2+ years. Let's hope Al outshines Jones in the two meetings with IU this year.
 



Mbakwe

I second that. What we haven't had in a long time is someone like Mbakwe who can physically dominate the boards. It will bring up everyone a notch. Without him, our season will be a repeat of last year's with a few more wins. With him, assuming he sticks all year, we will be a force come tournament time. JMHO...
 

Year of the Gophs said:
Point guard play, point guard play, point guard play. I think we'll be tougher inside, so this, to me, stands head and shoulders as the main concern. Will Al be better? (I sure hope so because I am a huge fan of his... probably my favorite Gopher.) Will Devoe give minutes while also playing the 2? Will Cobbs be a contributor as a frosh? Will Allen earn any minutes in Jan-Feb-Mar?

I can't help but think what Verdell Jones would do for this team. Oh well. By no means am I complaining about what Tubby and staff have been able to do in terms of recruiting the first 2+ years. Let's hope Al outshines Jones in the two meetings with IU this year.
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Jones will never be more than an ok PG in the B10. He looked ok last year at times but he played like 30 mns a game by default. If Joseph was in that spot he'd have looked even better. Plus Jones just looks goofy on the court, lol
 

3's & boards

A stone-cold sniper from 3-point range & a true glass cleaner that will average at least 8-10 rebounds per game.

Translation: we need productive seasons from Hoffarber and/or Joseph and Mbakwe.
 

I agree with both main points. Point guard play and outside shooting.

Lets hope that Al's play comes back and he performs the way people expected after his first season. Also, lets hope Cobbs can come in and make plays.

Also, I hope we play Devoe more at shooting guard and let him unleash it a little.
 

Besides pg play and outside shooting, the biggest problem was our post play. Once the Big Ten started, Iverson was no longer able to get the ball in the post, and Sampson never did. Iverson did an okay job at times getting position, but Al could never get him the ball and other players couldn't really either. The only person who could was Hoffarber, at least that I remember. If we could actually have a post presence, it would open up our outside shooting.
 

Others have said PG play.. it was a serious problem last year. Joseph should be better at it this year, hopefully Al pulls his head out of his ass, and Cobbs seems very promising. We do not have a proven quantity here, but it's not unreasonable to think we'll be alright. Better than last year, in any case.

Last year we lacked a post presence a bit, since our bigs were both freshmen. I think that added strength and experience from C45 and RS3 will make things better, but Mbakwe brings what we were really lacking. Better PG play can hopefully get the ball into our bigs more effectively too. I'm feeling good here with just the addition of Mbakwe, but the other improvements would be fantastic.

Shooting is my biggest concern, as it absolutely killed us at times last year. Hopefully a stronger post presence and better PG play will help with this a lot. I also expect Devoe to be more aggressive this year in looking for his shot, now that at least half of his minutes will be played at the 2. Cobbs adds some shooting at the point, and hopefully Hoff has his shot back. It would be fantastic if Carter's range has increased a couple feet to extend beyond the arc too.

We also were missing an effective slasher last year, and I'm really hoping Royce can provide that for us this year. Attacking the basket off the dribble, creating, drawing fouls and scoring. This kind of goes hand-in-hand with the lack of a go-to scorer. Devoe also has the potential to be a go-to scorer, but his lack of scoring while driving hurts that. Still, with that release that he has, from behind his head, it's very difficult for a defender to interfere with his shooting motion. I just wish he were a bit more consistent with it.. He makes some hard shots, but also missed quite a few easy shots last year.

So yes, we have lots of question marks still, but we also have reason to be optimistic about all of them. I think that finding a go-to scorer will be the hardest part. If it's Westbrook, we'll only go so far. He's simply too short, but he certainly has his moments, and he was easily our best shooter last year.
 

it will be interesting to see what Westbrook's and DJ's roles are on the team this year since talent-wise they are being surpassed (the impact they can have on the B10 is limited, IMO). however, in experience, floor leadership, and hustle they are better than the rest. I want to see how that shakes out throughout this season...I think one of our issues last year was no real leader on the floor (Al struggling, JAS not really that guy, Big Jon not good enough). Westbrook or DJ NEEDS to be that guy this year.
 

I don't think we know yet. I think we know what to expect from DJ and Westbrook, and as seniors maybe even expect a little more. I assume sampson and iverson will be bigger, stonger, smarter and better. My biggest question is Nolan. He needs to have a huge improvement from last year. If not, hopefully one the second year guys will step up.

Also questions are will Hoffarber step up, and how much to expect from our freshman?

My expectations for this year are 3-5 in the conference. Next year its time ti make the big run.
 

underground629 said:
Besides pg play and outside shooting, the biggest problem was our post play. Once the Big Ten started, Iverson was no longer able to get the ball in the post, and Sampson never did. Iverson did an okay job at times getting position, but Al could never get him the ball and other players couldn't really either. The only person who could was Hoffarber, at least that I remember. If we could actually have a post presence, it would open up our outside shooting.
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That's the key, isn't it. Of course it's hard to feed the post when you've got only one guy on the floor that can hit an open shot outside 10 feet. Nolen himself, as well as DJ, Carter, RSIII (as a PF) were just not able to keep defenses honest.

So many here are saying that 3-point shooting is a major concern. I'm saying that the shooting problem starts at 10+ feet and not just behind the arc.
 

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