Some Rutgers game thoughts

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UpAndUnder43

UpAndUnder43

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1. Large crowd. Got loud a few times but especially in that magical few possessions in the 2nd half with a monster Coffey dunk, a Murphy block, an Oturu block and an IW jelly.

2. Washington was really good today. Getting ejected was dumb but he played a really good game. The team is soooo much more fun to watch when he is in and playing well. Better tempo, better ball movement and more open looks. He breaks down guys so well late in the shot clock. Gets us a lot of good looks.

3. McBrayer has been very strong the past few games. Happy to see him back to form.

4. Hurt played more today. Did very little.

5. Murphy had a nice second half. Good bounce back from a weak 2 1/2 games.

6. Gabe might be out of his shooting funk. Would be huge to have him back to normal. He was sooooo good early in the year and then soooo bad. I expect him to be between those two extremes and he was today.

7. Coffey is our best player. Offense, defense, intangibles. He finishes so well in transition and is making a lot of big buckets. Very excited with how he is playing lately.
 

I think it is time to let IW start. Kalsheur would be a great 6th man, instant offense guy. McBrayer is really playing well so he should be in the starting lineup. IW needs to be in the game 25 minutes from here on unless he reverts to bad habits.
 

It all starts and ends with Coffey's A) assertiveness/aggressive and B) effectiveness. Underlined, capitalized and bolded.
 

bga1 said:
I think it is time to let IW start. Kalsheur would be a great 6th man, instant offense guy. McBrayer is really playing well so he should be in the starting lineup. IW needs to be in the game 25 minutes from here on unless he reverts to bad habits.
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Disagree. Let Gabe start. IW coming off the bench as an energy 6th man is a great place to have him.


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gall0249 said:
Disagree. Let Gabe start. IW coming off the bench as an energy 6th man is a great place to have him.


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Fair enough view. My view is that the point guard sets the pace of the game. I'd like to see us come out of the blocks up tempo and moving the ball quickly.
 


bga1 said:
I think it is time to let IW start. Kalsheur would be a great 6th man, instant offense guy. McBrayer is really playing well so he should be in the starting lineup. IW needs to be in the game 25 minutes from here on unless he reverts to bad habits.
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Gabe's foot speed is getting exposed. He's a good defender and plays the opponents best player, but he has been getting fouls because it's hard for him to keep up with quicker players.

Dupree is doing exactly what he needs to do as option 3 on offense. The other teams are not guarding him and he's canning the open shots. That's a formula for success. It was clear that Rutgers game planned to allow him to shoot and bit them in the behind today.

Agreed that IW needs more floor time in most match-ups, but it's clear Pitino is playing a chess game and not all the pieces are needed the same way every game.
 

Holy Man said:
Gabe's foot speed is getting exposed. He's a good defender and plays the opponents best player, but he has been getting fouls because it's hard for him to keep up with quicker players.

Dupree is doing exactly what he needs to do as option 3 on offense. The other teams are not guarding him and he's canning the open shots. That's a formula for success. It was clear that Rutgers game planned to allow him to shoot and bit them in the behind today.

Agreed that IW needs more floor time in most match-ups, but it's clear Pitino is playing a chess game and not all the pieces are needed the same way every game.
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Did you see IW play defense against Maryland?
 

bga1 said:
I think it is time to let IW start. Kalsheur would be a great 6th man, instant offense guy. McBrayer is really playing well so he should be in the starting lineup. IW needs to be in the game 25 minutes from here on unless he reverts to bad habits.
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Let him start if you like, but that doesn't mean he'd play extra minutes. He can't play unless he can be counted on. That means playing defense. That means not jacking up shots. It mean not trying that jelly nonsense too often, because it gets rejected as often as it goes in. It means not letting opposing players get inside your head. Right now, he can't be counted on to do any of these things and is a situational player.

What I think is we need to try to get him more minutes because his progression is the one thing that could really out us over the top some March, but not at the expense of losing games in January.
 

There is no denying how much offensive basketball talent IW has. I'd like to see him in the rotation and let him determine his minutes by his play. Sitting watching...the point has been made. We need IW to be part of the rotation to reach our highest potential. If he's outta control, not defending anybody he gets that explained to him on the bench and he re-enters understanding what's expected...doesn't do it again...comes out. Coach him up.

No denying also, he's gotta be exasperating to coach. Great kid, that wants so bad to do well, but can't get out of his own way too often.
 




Sorry to disagree. Murphy is our best player...not even close. Coffey is #2.

UpAndUnder43 said:
1. Large crowd. Got loud a few times but especially in that magical few possessions in the 2nd half with a monster Coffey dunk, a Murphy block, an Oturu block and an IW jelly.

2. Washington was really good today. Getting ejected was dumb but he played a really good game. The team is soooo much more fun to watch when he is in and playing well. Better tempo, better ball movement and more open looks. He breaks down guys so well late in the shot clock. Gets us a lot of good looks.

3. McBrayer has been very strong the past few games. Happy to see him back to form.

4. Hurt played more today. Did very little.

5. Murphy had a nice second half. Good bounce back from a weak 2 1/2 games.

6. Gabe might be out of his shooting funk. Would be huge to have him back to normal. He was sooooo good early in the year and then soooo bad. I expect him to be between those two extremes and he was today.

7. Coffey is our best player. Offense, defense, intangibles. He finishes so well in transition and is making a lot of big buckets. Very excited with how he is playing lately.
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CoMn said:
Sorry to disagree. Murphy is our best player...not even close. Coffey is #2.
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You’re free to your opinion. Either way. It’s close.

And it’s not even close as to whether or not it’s close.
 




I absolutely love iw getting the ball to the front court fast, be it pass or dribble. It puts pressure on the opponent and it frees Mn offense, and the ball actually moves much much better, creating better scoring opportunities.

I love it.
 

BarnBurner said:
I absolutely love iw getting the ball to the front court fast, be it pass or dribble. It puts pressure on the opponent and it frees Mn offense, and the ball actually moves much much better, creating better scoring opportunities.

I love it.
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This


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CoMn said:
Sorry to disagree. Murphy is our best player...not even close. Coffey is #2.
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Murphy is our best rebounder, not even close. He is also our best player at getting really stupid fouls and forcing his own offense that isn’t there, resulting in blocked shots and turnovers. When he doesn’t force things he does really well.

Coffey is by far the best all-around player. He has been the only player that gets points for us when needed.


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Solid response after a tough night against Maryland. Loved to see Murphy and Coffey play more aggressive, we need to see that consistently throughout the Big Ten schedule. This team is at its best running, and they did it at every opportunity in the second half, especially after defensive stops.

IW increases the pace when he's on the floor and played largely under control against Rutgers, that's the IW we need on the floor. It seemed like the bank shot 3 gave him a ton of confidence, his next 3 from the baseline was a perfect swish. Hurt gave valuable minutes without scoring. He rebounded, set good screens and kept the ball moving in the half-court.

It sure looks like the zone offense runs better with Oturu at the high post and Murphy down low. They got mostly good looks and moved the ball well. Fun to see the Gophers run, play free and have fun out there.
 

Hurt is so much better than anybody else on this team against the zone, he positions himself in the open spot, keeps the ball moving, doesn't catch and hold, they exploded against Rutgers when Hurt and Washington were in the game, they were fun to watch, he does't look for his shot as much as he should though, not sure why but he is a decent shooter, when teams are playing man against the gophers he just isn't athletic enough to make much of a contribution.
 

Costa Rican Gopher said:
That means playing defense. That means not jacking up shots. It mean not trying that jelly nonsense too often, because it gets rejected as often as it goes in. It means not letting opposing players get inside your head. Right now, he can't be counted on to do any of these things and is a situational player.
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His defense, while still not great, is improving. He's rarely jacking up bad shots these days. He's not a good shooter so some of his shots may look like bad shots even when they aren't. He has to take some of those shot opportunities when he gets them; otherwise he'll be like Hurt - someone the opposing team doesn't have to worry about guarding. As far as the episode yesterday, I'd say it was relatively mild compared to many episodes I've seen over the years and he apologized to the fans afterward which is something I don't see that often.

You seem like the type who makes up his mind about someone early and maintains that perception regardless of subsequent information.
 

jovs said:
he does't look for his shot as much as he should though, not sure why but he is a decent shooter, when teams are playing man against the gophers he just isn't athletic enough to make much of a contribution.
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I'd say that's an understatement. When he gets the ball and has an open shot, he acts like a player who knows he isn't any good.

Not taking a couple of the open shots he had yesterday was ridiculous. Although he didn't take many 3s last year, he hit 43% of them. This year he's only 1 of 11 so he must have gotten spooked about taking them. It makes no sense to put the ball on the floor and try a long 2 pointer when you have an open 3 pointer. If course, he doesn't have confidence to go towards defenders and shoot the ball either so he usually just passes it away.
 

cjbfbp said:
His defense, while still not great, is improving. He's rarely jacking up bad shots these days. He's not a good shooter so some of his shots may look like bad shots even when they aren't. He has to take some of those shot opportunities when he gets them; otherwise he'll be like Hurt - someone the opposing team doesn't have to worry about guarding. As far as the episode yesterday, I'd say it was relatively mild compared to many episodes I've seen over the years and he apologized to the fans afterward which is something I don't see that often.

You seem like the type who makes up his mind about someone early and maintains that perception regardless of subsequent information.
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There's a lot of that going on.

What I see is that Coffey can bring up the ball but he cannot run the offense. There's a lack of movement and penetration without IW on the floor - this wasnt such an issue against Wisconsin, and I don't fault Pitino for not playing him against them. But I do fault him for not inserting him more into the Maryland game when the team was collapsing (and then 'publicly' apologizing to Hurt??).
Pitino needs to take some of the responsibility here. This is his first player with real skills who is under-performing and failing to contribute on a team that needs him. I see a ready-made excuse for Pitino - that everyone will buy that its all the kid from Harlem's fault. Again, I expect to see something of what Izzo did with Tum Tum.
 

Unfortunately, Pitino is no Izzo. Not yet.
 



This smells like Charles buggs where Gopherhole has sided with the player over the coach.

IW like Charles has some skills that the team could use. IW like Charles needs to understand what coach is asking for and find his way into the lineup.

IW unlike Charles can help this team without doing exactly what coach wants. So I hope this coach finds a common ground to allow for the player to develop into a big 10 version of himself rather than a shell of himself. He appears to be doing just that.
 

Moonlight said:
There's a lot of that going on.

What I see is that Coffey can bring up the ball but he cannot run the offense. There's a lack of movement and penetration without IW on the floor - this wasnt such an issue against Wisconsin, and I don't fault Pitino for not playing him against them. But I do fault him for not inserting him more into the Maryland game when the team was collapsing (and then 'publicly' apologizing to Hurt??).
Pitino needs to take some of the responsibility here. This is his first player with real skills who is under-performing and failing to contribute on a team that needs him. I see a ready-made excuse for Pitino - that everyone will buy that its all the kid from Harlem's fault. Again, I expect to see something of what Izzo did with Tum Tum.
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Fortunately, we have a coach who took a lower rated player than Tum Tum and developed Nate Mason way beyond Tum Tum. Think IW's in good hands.
 

Winasota Gopher said:
This smells like Charles buggs where Gopherhole has sided with the player over the coach.

IW like Charles has some skills that the team could use. IW like Charles needs to understand what coach is asking for and find his way into the lineup.

IW unlike Charles can help this team without doing exactly what coach wants. So I hope this coach finds a common ground to allow for the player to develop into a big 10 version of himself rather than a shell of himself. He appears to be doing just that.
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My hunch is Richard will point out the success of yesterday’s game to iw. And reinforce what he wants iw to do.
 

An additional observation from the game was the incredible face guard that Dupree put on Baker for about 8 seconds. It got the crowd on its feet, and he proceeded to immediately go down and drill a 3-ball as an exclamation mark. I think that Dupree is our most active defender and a typically overlooked contributor to this team. We will miss Pree next year. When we get solid to great performances from Dupree, Coffey, and Murph we are tough to beat.
 

GopherHoopsFan said:
An additional observation from the game was the incredible face guard that Dupree put on Baker for about 8 seconds. It got the crowd on its feet, and he proceeded to immediately go down and drill a 3-ball as an exclamation mark. I think that Dupree is our most active defender and a typically overlooked contributor to this team. We will miss Pree next year. When we get solid to great performances from Dupree, Coffey, and Murph we are tough to beat.
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Thanks for reminding me of that - it was fantastic!!
 

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