LOTS to work on
1. Iverson and Sampson should not be on the floor at the same time next year. We need one center on the floor. Neither is the player I want at the 4. They will both develop as good post players that can defend but still give us offense. Now if we will just run some offense for them.
2. Mbakwe is the body that we need at the 4. A beast who can defend, rebound and get garbage points. No need to run offense through him, just let him crash the boards and dunk. The problem is we have no other body like his. DJ has disappointed. Defense only. No consistent shot and not dangerous with the ball (hated how many times the ball ended up in his hands with the shot clock running down... WTH? He's our best option to create his own shot?!). Carter may bulk up and grow into this role, but he and DJ are tweeners (not enough skills for the 3, not enough bulk and intensity for the 4).
3. We better hope that one of the two following things happen: a) Nolan develops some offense and improves on defense (I don't buy his rep for on-ball D. He takes chances and guys get by him... leading to easy inside points), but more importantly he needs to become a better passer (anticipation anyone? anyone??!); or b) Cobbs turns out to be an absolute stud as a frosh (unlikely, but if he could contribute like Canada did this year, I'll be satisfied). By 2010 Cobbs will be starting unless Nolen turns onto the second coming of Eric Harris.
4. We are going to have a crowded mess at the 2 and 3. The advantage is Tubby will have lots of flexibility. He could go big or small, as he can pick from 7 guys (Canada, Westy, Bosty, Blakey, Buschy, Rodney and Royce) to use in those two spots. The problem is we may never develop a decent rotation. Our substitution patterns this year seemed to be whatever popped into Tubby's head. Does anyone on the bench keep track of this? Anyone?? ((This was one thing I appreciated about Clem. You knew how the minutes were going to be distributed and people figured out their roles. I don't appreciate the "yank 'em for a mistake" substitution pattern or having guys get 25 minutes one game and none the next)). One thing is for sure: we need scorers. Westy isn't enough.
5. Tubby needs to realize that he may need to sacrifice a little defense to keep some offense on the floor. It seemed like Tubby would leave five defenders out there that can't make a layup as long as they played solid D. You can beat the non-cons that way (and we did), but you go .500 in the BigTen (and we did). It seems like Tubby realized this too late (that's what I read into his comments about making a mistake in not playing Devron). The game is played at both ends, and it would be nice to have some playing time for guys that can put it in the hole.
6. If we won't play more effective offensive players, then we need a more effective offense. We are not dangerous with the ball. I know we were young, but this year looked more like Monson ball (uff-da) than Clem ball. We run ball screens all night but never pick and roll. We never feed the post. We never swing the ball to catch the defender on the high side and feed the post. Did I say we never feed the post. Geez. We get one give and go per game (if Hoff cuts through the paint and somebody makes a mistake and actually passes the ball into the paint). So we have no post game, no dribble penetration (when Nolen gets in the paint he can't finish and he can't pass... sounds like a turnover to me; Westbrook is too small to be dangerous every possession), no pick and roll, and we area terrible screening team, so we rarely even free up our spot-up jump shooters (as if they could make them anyway). We seem to run offense to use clock (which only works if you have a big lead with minutes to play!) rather than to accomplish anything. If Tubby is supposed to be some kind of defensive guru, he needs to hire an assistant that can actually run an offense.
7. Yes, we were young. But we seemed to get worse as the year went along, instead of better. Ralph is maybe the one exception (with Joseph a partial... and that's only because Tubby discovered that he could shoot).
Lots of room for improvement, but in my mind a bunch of it is going to have to come from the new faces.
Here's hoping. Thanks for the brief tourney exposure, Tubby. Let's stay ahead of schedule and keep bringing in the talent.
Go (home) Gophs. (sorry for the rant).
