The Fox is on the loose!

[Costa Rican Gopher]

When he made that late block he tumbled out of bounds and off the floor landing awkwardly, the coaches immediately took him out. Hopefully didn’t screw up one of his repaired knees. His experience helps this team, when he was at Northern State he was the guy, leading scorer, rebounder and a dunkaholic. Would like him to get 15-20 minutes a game.

It was scary, but he was walking around just fine, no limp, not long after that fall.

 

[Costa Rican Gopher]

They really play two different positions.

Fox is the back-up at the 4, or Power Forward, behind Josh, and Garcia. Which one of those would you want to take minutes away from? Plus, he's got the bad knees. I think he's perfect coming in off the bench & firing us up.

Ihnen is more of a 3, a Wing, where he plays behind Christie, Josh & Carrington. I'd like it a lot better if his shot was falling, but he'll have a few nights off the bench where he cant miss, and also when other teams go big on us, he can guard their longer wings. You could do a lot worse than Isaiah Ihnen as your 8th man on the bench.

 

[Gold Vision]

Johnson has distributed minutes quite well at the 3/4 in my opinion. Both Ihnen and Fox should be used very sparingly, like 10-15 mpg total between the 2 of them. Both should be buried far behind JOJ, Garcia, Christie and Carrington in those spots.

Use Fox for help protecting the rim, offensive rebounds and fouls; and Ihnen if we need another outside shooting presence to stretch the floor.

Core 7
Hawkins
Mitchell
Christie
Carrington
JOJ
Garcia
Payne

Spot Situational Minutes
Ihnen
Fox

 

[tikited]

I love what Fox brings. Great to see both playing again.

 

[dlnavra]

Ihnen has played a total of 34 minutes in the four Big Ten games.......yet GH posters are acting like the guy is some sort of troll. He had a major cold streak shooting earlier in the non-con....yet is still managing 37.8% from three point range. That's not bad. Fact is.....I prefer someone who is able to provide some offense. Fox is incredibly limited which puts a greater burden and more attention on the other four players.

But I guess I don't understand why people are complaining about the limited minutes of either of these guys.

This I think is the point. I realize lots (besides me) watch games over multiple conferences, and see this is a pretty deep roster. To me it's really impressive to have a guy like Ihnen come off the bench. His height/length along with Fox. In Fox's case, maybe a bit more hyper, and all his chatter with the ref's, but it's good overall. Ihnen (if) he can get the shot going, man this team is going to be tough.

I think the interesting dynamic as the season progresses, is how do they manage the roster and minutes. Mitchell/Carrington/Christie. Very impressive if they continue to gel. Hawkins has been a revelation.

 

[stocker08]

This I think is the point. I realize lots (besides me) watch games over multiple conferences, and see this is a pretty deep roster. To me it's really impressive to have a guy like Ihnen come off the bench. His height/length along with Fox. In Fox's case, maybe a bit more hyper, and all his chatter with the ref's, but it's good overall. Ihnen (if) he can get the shot going, man this team is going to be tough.

I think the interesting dynamic as the season progresses, is how do they manage the roster and minutes. Mitchell/Carrington/Christie. Very impressive if they continue to gel. Hawkins has been a revelation.

100%

CRG said it a few posts up. You could do a lot worse (and Gophers teams have typically) than a guy like Ihnen as your eighth. Or 8th/9th along with Fox.

 

[MNVCGUY]

Was at the game yesterday and agree that Fox definitely raises the energy level when in the game or on the bench. However, when he came out of the game for the last time he was noticeably limping and uncomfortable. His health may be why he doesn't log more minutes.

He hurt himself on that crazy block he had when he went off the floor. Probably turned an ankle or something, hopefully nothing that lingers.

 

[Holy Man]

This I think is the point. I realize lots (besides me) watch games over multiple conferences, and see this is a pretty deep roster. To me it's really impressive to have a guy like Ihnen come off the bench. His height/length along with Fox. In Fox's case, maybe a bit more hyper, and all his chatter with the ref's, but it's good overall. Ihnen (if) he can get the shot going, man this team is going to be tough.

I think the interesting dynamic as the season progresses, is how do they manage the roster and minutes. Mitchell/Carrington/Christie. Very impressive if they continue to gel. Hawkins has been a revelation.

I think Ihnen needs to play a lot better against good competition before there is much concern about dividing up minutes.

 

[UpAndUnder43]

He's made plenty of contested threes this year too. But again.....I can't help but laugh that this is what people point to as reason why Ihnen shouldn't play......considering that Fox only has a single bucket himself in BT play.

It’s not the reason he shouldn’t play. The reason is there are many better guys to play instead of him.

Fox provides more than Ihnen.

 

[bc2211]

Ihnen's playing time is going to come down (only four minutes last night). But you throw him out there every game because you never know when the streaky 3-pt shooter will catch a streak.

This is a deep team. Some where along the line when we are down ten in the second half, Ihnen will hit three in a row and erase the lead.

Charles buggs Iowa game

 

[dlnavra]

They really play two different positions.

Fox is the back-up at the 4, or Power Forward, behind Josh, and Garcia. Which one of those would you want to take minutes away from? Plus, he's got the bad knees. I think he's perfect coming in off the bench & firing us up.

Ihnen is more of a 3, a Wing, where he plays behind Christie, Josh & Carrington. I'd like it a lot better if his shot was falling, but he'll have a few nights off the bench where he cant miss, and also when other teams go big on us, he can guard their longer wings. You could do a lot worse than Isaiah Ihnen as your 8th man on the bench.

I see this now, after my own post (which now looks like plagiarism). Johnson has pulled together a really solid roster, me among initial skeptics as I wasn't seeing the early returns on Mitchell and Hawkins. Hawkins has been unreal. Gophers can roll out a really intimidating (height/length) lineup when/if they want. As the wins add, teams will start to take notice it's a talented and deep lineup. It won't work against certain teams, but they're definitely building. Will be interesting to see how they do second time around on the road against an also significantly improved Nebraska.

 

[Costa Rican Gopher]

Johnson has distributed minutes quite well at the 3/4 in my opinion. Both Ihnen and Fox should be used very sparingly, like 10-15 mpg total between the 2 of them. Both should be buried far behind JOJ, Garcia, Christie and Carrington in those spots.

Use Fox for help protecting the rim, offensive rebounds and fouls; and Ihnen if we need another outside shooting presence to stretch the floor.

Core 7
Hawkins
Mitchell
Christie
Carrington
JOJ
Garcia
Payne

Spot Situational Minutes
Ihnen
Fox

We may even go 10 deep with Jack Wilson against certain teams. It won't be often, but how many teams get any value at all from their 10th man?

CBJ's done a great job of collecting guys, even at the end of the bench, who can help us in certain match-ups, or who have a certain skill that can help the team some nights.

 

[Costa Rican Gopher]

Ihnen's playing time is going to come down (only four minutes last night). But you throw him out there every game because you never know when the streaky 3-pt shooter will catch a streak.

This is a deep team. Some where along the line when we are down ten in the second half, Ihnen will hit three in a row and erase the lead.

Just read your comments. Exactly my thoughts on Ihnen. There will be a couple nights for no particular reason, where Ihnen will go on a heater, and help win us a game/get us back in a game.