STrib: Sunday's rebounding mess shows Minnesota still has a ways to go

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BleedGopher

BleedGopher

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per Amelia:

Early in the second half, Richard Pitino had some extra words for Joey King after a timeout was over and the power forward had retaken his seat on the bench.

The coach put his face up to King's and let him have it.

Yes, several times King was slow to close out on a perimeter shooter, and he -- like every player in maroon and gold -- was scored on plenty.

But that wasn't Pitino's biggest concern -- his rants revolved around rebounding.

"He wasn't boxing out," Pitino said either.

http://www.startribune.com/sports/blogs/292105371.html

Go Gophers!!
 

Joey's funny. He's expert at getting into position and drawing a charge, but he can't seem to get into rebounding position or block out. Enigmatic.
 

Bad Gopher said:
Joey's funny. He's expert at getting into position and drawing a charge, but he can't seem to get into rebounding position or block out. Enigmatic.
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yeah- it's like he checked out a five chapter book on basketball fundamentals-
chapter one: head fakes (check)
chapter two: the set shot (check)
chapter three: taking the charge (check)
chapter four: the jump shot (did not read)
chapter five: blocking out (did not read)
 

ITEM #1 - Joey King played 31 minutes of a basketball game and didnt get one fn rebound. Not one. Never mind he is a Power Forward (which I almost cant say with a straight fact as its hilarious in of itself that this is what we trot out at the 4 spot) but how can anyone, even a pg, play 31 minutes and not get one God damn rebound?

ITEM #2 - This is almost incomprehensible. King is 3rd on the team in minutes played per game. Rebounding wise? He is tied for 6th. Your starting PF, playing more mins than anyone not named "dre" is tied for 6th in rebounding. Both starting guards get more rpg. The back up PG gets almost exact same rpg. Elliot Eliason plays half the minutes of King and has more rpg.


stolen from someone else
 

Crazy a team can score 1.36 ppp when they turn it over 27%+ of the time.

...from 1/19/15

LateNightHoops.com said:
The Gophers haven’t held a conference opponent to under 50% 2FG shooting since the opener at Purdue. The Maroon & Gold’s defensive 2FG% is 52.5% – dead last in the Big Ten where teams average only 48.1%.

Part of the issue – but certainly not all of it – are second chances Minnesota is giving up. Their defensive rebounding percentage of 62.3% is also last in the B1G and far from the conference average of 70.5%.

What can help? The answer is more minutes for fifth-year senior Elliott Eliason. He’s not the most graceful of athletes, but EE impacts the decisions of opposing offenses by causing them to take more difficult shots further away from the basket. He is also capable of being a top defensive rebounder as compared to his peers.

For the season overall, Eliason’s offensive rating is the best on the team. He’s a low usage player who makes his shots and doesn’t turn it over a lot – which is just fine when playing with the likes of Dre Hollins, Carlos Morris and Nate Mason, all of whom can be medium-heavy volume shooters with success.

To potentially optimize this team’s play, we would consider trying to play Mo Walker and Eliason together. The Walker story has been very good and could get better. From a mountainous man carrying around a lot of weight, to a lean scoring machine… imagine the story Pitino could tell about the kid who came to Minnesota as a huge center and left as a strong, scoring PF.

The opportunities may be limited for this pairing, but it’s worth consideration. At a minimum, we believe Eliason should be getting substantially all the minutes at center when Walker is not on the floor.
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The question is - who is out there to help fix the rebounding issue. Mo and EE are gone after this season; King is who he is - he's not going to turn into Richard Coffey during the off-season. Gaston and Konate are beyond raw - they're simply not ready to play D1 BB, and I'm skeptical that one off-season is going to make them into competent B1G caliber players.

I think the Gophs must go out and sign a JUCO big man. I don't care if he never scores a point - just find some guy with balls who will rebound and play defense.
 

Bad Gopher said:
Joey's funny. He's expert at getting into position and drawing a charge, but he can't seem to get into rebounding position or block out. Enigmatic.
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Maybe he doesn't mind contact when facing a player but has a phobia about contact when his back is turned.
 

short ornery norwegian said:
The question is - who is out there to help fix the rebounding issue. Mo and EE are gone after this season; King is who he is - he's not going to turn into Richard Coffey during the off-season. Gaston and Konate are beyond raw - they're simply not ready to play D1 BB, and I'm skeptical that one off-season is going to make them into competent B1G caliber players.

I think the Gophs must go out and sign a JUCO big man. I don't care if he never scores a point - just find some guy with balls who will rebound and play defense.
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Chris Boucher. Beg, threaten, bribe, whatever it takes to get him.
 



short ornery norwegian said:
The question is - who is out there to help fix the rebounding issue. Mo and EE are gone after this season; King is who he is - he's not going to turn into Richard Coffey during the off-season. Gaston and Konate are beyond raw - they're simply not ready to play D1 BB, and I'm skeptical that one off-season is going to make them into competent B1G caliber players.

I think the Gophs must go out and sign a JUCO big man. I don't care if he never scores a point - just find some guy with balls who will rebound and play defense.
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Does signing a Juco player ensure rebounding? I don't think so. The only way to improve rebounding is a coach and staff who demand their players rebound and practice it every day. See Tom Izzo's method of bringing in some football helmets and pads and let the players have at it.
 

GopherPop said:
Does signing a Juco player ensure rebounding? I don't think so. The only way to improve rebounding is a coach and staff who demand their players rebound and practice it every day. See Tom Izzo's method of bringing in some football helmets and pads and let the players have at it.
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Your point is sound and obviously there are team issues and not just individual issues that are causal factors in the Gophers' poor rebounding. The quickness and athleticism of individuals help a great deal though so if we can upgrade that in our frontline players we should see some improvement.
 

cjbfbp said:
Your point is sound and obviously there are team issues and not just individual issues that are causal factors in the Gophers' poor rebounding. The quickness and athleticism of individuals help a great deal though so if we can upgrade that in our frontline players we should see some improvement.
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+1.....totally agree
 

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