Walker's Role

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lakesgopher said:
I still think that EE has looked the worst this year. He has the worst hands on the team and is always out of position on defense, and if hes guarding a big man with any athletic ability he is toast. The thing I love about him though is he plays really hard. I think he will bounce back and be an asset later in the year. Oto has been bad on offense but has played pretty solid defense. Mav has played damn good and people are holding their feelings from his previous years playing time. Coleman needs to quit making stupid passes and when that happens look out, we will be really hard to beat!
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This is what concerns me the most about EE.
 

march madness said:
Welch.. 26% on 2's, 14% on 3's, this is beyond a shooting slump.
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He's 5-19 on the entire season, and 1-7 on threes. That's hardly a sample size that I could place beyond a shooting slump considering he showed for a full season last year what he can do shooting the ball. I feel rather confident he'll warm up.
 

lakesgopher said:
I still think that EE has looked the worst this year. He has the worst hands on the team and is always out of position on defense, and if hes guarding a big man with any athletic ability he is toast. The thing I love about him though is he plays really hard. I think he will bounce back and be an asset later in the year. Oto has been bad on offense but has played pretty solid defense. Mav has played damn good and people are holding their feelings from his previous years playing time. Coleman needs to quit making stupid passes and when that happens look out, we will be really hard to beat!
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I don't know if they do drills to practice grabbing the ball, but if they do Eliason needs to do them a lot more. I don't know if he's too weak, or has hands of stone, or just a general lack of coordination, but he seems incapable of grabbing and holding a rebound in traffic. I've seen him fumble more rebounds out of bounds or to the other team than I care to remember.

Mav will be an asset, except against teams with good on the ball pressure.
 

HOOP DREAMS said:
Yes. I know. A program at this level should never recruit a player that they don't think has a chance to compete his freshman year. It was a messed up year.
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I think a program at our level can rarely rely on getting freshman that can contribute a ton every year. We are not Kentucky. Even UNC and Kansas stash guys. Mav has vastly improved over the past years. Is he a stud no. Will he ever be? No. Accept him for what he is and enjoy the development of him. It's not like Tubby has tried to not fix the issue. He has recruited Andre Hollins and Welch while still having Mav on the roster. Recruiting here will not pick up until we catch up on the facilities and show some stability.
 

I commented on Tubby not recruiting enough guards,instead of non ballhandling wings in the past. I was told we have plenty of guards.Coleman is not close to a perimeter player. The fact we turnover the ball way too much shouldn't surprise anyone.
 


I have heard that Tubby likes bigger guards. Not sure if that is accurate? He seems to not go after the smaller pure pg's and we try to convert 2 guards to the point. I can think of Tony Delk here also. Not sure if Tubby wanted Chambers or if Chambers was interested. Also that pg from st. paul would have probably been a great backup. I think Andre is a decent point, but a superstar combo guard. He would thrive with a real pg next to him. Then you could have Austin at the three and ball handling wouldnt be a liability.
 

march madness said:
I have heard that Tubby likes bigger guards. Not sure if that is accurate? He seems to not go after the smaller pure pg's and we try to convert 2 guards to the point. I can think of Tony Delk here also. Not sure if Tubby wanted Chambers or if Chambers was interested. Also that pg from st. paul would have probably been a great backup. I think Andre is a decent point, but a superstar combo guard. He would thrive with a real pg next to him. Then you could have Austin at the three and ball handling wouldnt be a liability.
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In that respect, Andre could fill a Bobby Jackson-type role. Jackson mainly played off guard but stepped up and handled the ball when he was needed to.
 

march madness said:
I have heard that Tubby likes bigger guards. Not sure if that is accurate? He seems to not go after the smaller pure pg's and we try to convert 2 guards to the point. I can think of Tony Delk here also. Not sure if Tubby wanted Chambers or if Chambers was interested. Also that pg from st. paul would have probably been a great backup. I think Andre is a decent point, but a superstar combo guard. He would thrive with a real pg next to him. Then you could have Austin at the three and ball handling wouldnt be a liability.
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Not sure of all the guards he has signed or what position the played, but off hand I think of guys like Rajon Rondo, Jodie Meeks, and Keith Bogans all guards around 6-3 or 6-4. I think Gerald Fitch was about that height too.
 

Another bonus of playing undersized Rodney at the 4. He can bring the ball up against pressure with a slower bigger power forward on him.
 



Why would Mo Walker stick around for next year? He is buried behind guys and obviously Tubby doesn't like his game. If he loses weight and gets quicker will he get more PT? That might be the case but who knows. The kid is supremely talented and you can't teach size.

I am concerned that Mo goes the way of Devoe and Iverson and heads to a new school to get a fresh start. He would be welcomed with open arms at a lot of schools and he can definitely hoop. It will be interesting to see when he gets into games going forward because he is a big body and can do some things the other bigs on the roster can't. If EE, Trevor or Ingram have an injury Mo will have to step up and play and I would prefer he get as many minutes as he can against lesser competition before he gets thrust into a B1G game.
 

khoffman43 said:
Why would Mo Walker stick around for next year? He is buried behind guys and obviously Tubby doesn't like his game. If he loses weight and gets quicker will he get more PT? That might be the case but who knows. The kid is supremely talented and you can't teach size.

I am concerned that Mo goes the way of Devoe and Iverson and heads to a new school to get a fresh start. He would be welcomed with open arms at a lot of schools and he can definitely hoop. It will be interesting to see when he gets into games going forward because he is a big body and can do some things the other bigs on the roster can't. If EE, Trevor or Ingram have an injury Mo will have to step up and play and I would prefer he get as many minutes as he can against lesser competition before he gets thrust into a B1G game.
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Go away. You are obviously not a Gopher fan if you are encouraging a great young player to transfer. Want to know why he isn't starting or getting as many minutes as you want him to get? First reason is the SENIORS. Mbakwe, Rodney, and Ingram are all seniors and more experienced than he is. Second reason is his INJURY. Mo had serious knee surgery and is slowly working his way back, just as Mbakwe is. Third reason, CONDITIONING. Mo is in the worst shape on the team, it's nothing too serious but it limits the amount of time he can play at an effective level.

Every one of these reasons should dissipate by the start of next season and his conditioning and injury recovery should be better as the season goes on. Mo has A LOT of playing time coming his way over the next 2.5 years. He WILL be a starter next year.
 

Tubby has been gushing about Walker to the media ever since the tip-off. He'll get some significant minutes in games where he has a good matchup.
 

MadtownGopher said:
Go away. You are obviously not a Gopher fan if you are encouraging a great young player to transfer. Want to know why he isn't starting or getting as many minutes as you want him to get? First reason is the SENIORS. Mbakwe, Rodney, and Ingram are all seniors and more experienced than he is. Second reason is his INJURY. Mo had serious knee surgery and is slowly working his way back, just as Mbakwe is. Third reason, CONDITIONING. Mo is in the worst shape on the team, it's nothing too serious but it limits the amount of time he can play at an effective level.

Every one of these reasons should dissipate by the start of next season and his conditioning and injury recovery should be better as the season goes on. Mo has A LOT of playing time coming his way over the next 2.5 years. He WILL be a starter next year.
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First off, I am a Gopher fan and Mo is one of my favorite players. I have been saying how much I liked him since his freshman year and I was devastated when he got hurt vs SDSU. A kid that size getting a bad knee injury is a tough break and is tough to recover fully from because conditioning and weight are a bigger issue than it would be for a guard or smaller post player.

At no point did I say he should be starting or getting more minutes, did I? I asked why he would stay here. Also, how am I at all encouraging him to transfer? Did I send him a text telling him to? RELAX.

If he gets himself into shape I think he will be a force next year and should start, I just hope its for the Gophers. Kids that are 18-19-20-21 years old don't always think rationally. I had plenty of teammates quit college teams midway through a season because they weren't playing as much as they wanted to, even though the guys taking "their" minutes were seniors who would be graduating.

If I had to choose a player next year between EE and Mo I would take Mo because he has greater upside. I want him to get healthier as the season goes on and contribute because odds are one of the bigs will miss games due to illness or injury and they will be short on size if that happens and Mo is unable to contribute.
 



khoffman43 said:
First off, I am a Gopher fan and Mo is one of my favorite players. I have been saying how much I liked him since his freshman year and I was devastated when he got hurt vs SDSU. A kid that size getting a bad knee injury is a tough break and is tough to recover fully from because conditioning and weight are a bigger issue than it would be for a guard or smaller post player.

At no point did I say he should be starting or getting more minutes, did I? I asked why he would stay here. Also, how am I at all encouraging him to transfer? Did I send him a text telling him to? RELAX.

If he gets himself into shape I think he will be a force next year and should start, I just hope its for the Gophers. Kids that are 18-19-20-21 years old don't always think rationally. I had plenty of teammates quit college teams midway through a season because they weren't playing as much as they wanted to, even though the guys taking "their" minutes were seniors who would be graduating.

If I had to choose a player next year between EE and Mo I would take Mo because he has greater upside. I want him to get healthier as the season goes on and contribute because odds are one of the bigs will miss games due to illness or injury and they will be short on size if that happens and Mo is unable to contribute.
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Why would Mo be worried about playing time going forward? Do you honestly think he doesn't realize that 3 front court players are graduating and EE and himself are the only TRUE post players on the roster? Both EE and Mo will start next year, at least to begin the season. If Buggs, Foster, Oto, or someone else proves they are good enough to start at the 4 then maybe Mo has to fight EE for the center spot. But until that happens I guarantee you Tubby will go back to his twin towers starting lineup with EE and Mo. You need to calm down because there is absolutely ZERO evidence that Mo is even leaning towards leaving or being upset about playing time. Might as well say, OMG I am so nervous Andre is going to transfer because he's going to become homesick (a la Cobbs). It's all made up with no evidence to suggest that it could happen.
 

talk about psychic

Monty519 said:
He's 5-19 on the entire season, and 1-7 on threes. That's hardly a sample size that I could place beyond a shooting slump considering he showed for a full season last year what he can do shooting the ball. I feel rather confident he'll warm up.
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Good call Welch looked great shooting against FSU and lets hope its just the start!
 

If I'm Big Mo, I use this season to get re-acclimated with basketball, I mean the dude's essentially missed two seasons. He needs to work back slowly, even more so cause he's a big dude. Next year, he will get plenty of opportunities to earn his starting spot, or at least a ton of minutes. He has to be able to physically play them though. That's on him, and transferring wouldn't really help him in that regard.

And also, Tubby gushes about the guy all the time. Another reason he'd stick around.
 

Didn't really like what little I saw of big Mo last night. Looked very slow and looked like he was just lazily jogging back to the other end when FSU was pushing it. Need that big presence in the paint when the ball gets there and want to see more hussle out of him. Otherwise defensively thought he did fine.
 

march madness said:
Good call Welch looked great shooting against FSU and lets hope its just the start!
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Haha, hardly psychic, I just try to be realistic about situations. Welch IMO has just gotten off to a slow start, and his pedigree shooting the ball warrants a reasonable amount of time to let him get back in a groove. Like you said, hopefully FSU is just the start of him getting that confidence back on his shot, he looked good out there.
 

MadtownGopher said:
Both EE and Mo will start next year, at least to begin the season. If Buggs, Foster, Oto, or someone else proves they are good enough to start at the 4 then maybe Mo has to fight EE for the center spot. But until that happens I guarantee you Tubby will go back to his twin towers starting lineup with EE and Mo. .
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I really hope Tubby realizes that playing a smaller, quicker, and more aggressive 4 is a smarter descision. Can you seriously imagine Walker guarding a stretch 4: Evans-Wisc, Thomas-ohio st, A. White-Iowa, etc. Yes he could post them up but it's much harder to expose that weakness you have to feed him. While a stretch 4 just walks out to the 3pt line and gets the pass. I hope walker and EE split time at the 5: ala john thomas and Trevor Winter.
 

I remembered this thread from when I first gone on Gopherhole. I started it, so it has to be good.

http://www.forums.gopherhole.com/boards/showthread.php?23447-Big-Mo-Walker

Anyway, lots of similar sentiment about him getting quicker, faster and in better shape. My initial comparison was to Dexter Pittman, I no longer like that comparison.

And Dr. Don made a random and insignificant comment on Page 3, so thats nice.
 

march madness said:
I really hope Tubby realizes that playing a smaller, quicker, and more aggressive 4 is a smarter descision. Can you seriously imagine Walker guarding a stretch 4: Evans-Wisc, Thomas-ohio st, A. White-Iowa, etc. Yes he could post them up but it's much harder to expose that weakness you have to feed him. While a stretch 4 just walks out to the 3pt line and gets the pass. I hope walker and EE split time at the 5: ala john thomas and Trevor Winter.
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I cringe at the though of having EE and Walker in the same lineup. It worked to a point with RSIII and Iverson, but RSIII was more of a face up 4 than a post player anyways.
 

Gold Vision said:
I cringe at the though of having EE and Walker in the same lineup. It worked to a point with RSIII and Iverson, but RSIII was more of a face up 4 than a post player anyways.
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+1

I would be shocked if they both started. Could you imagine all the open threes we would give up. Oto has a beter chace to start at the 4 than does Big Mo. There will be plenty of minutes to go around for Big Mo.
 

Walker will be fine. If you think about it the guy is still a freshman game wise. He played like 7 games before he got hurt and has had 8 so far this year. Not a lot of experience. Plus the gophers have a lot of depth at the 4-5 I mean Mbakwe is coming off the bench right now. If Big Mo doesn't get a lot of minutes this year he certainly will the next few.
 

Hey Khoff, didn't intend to plagiarize. Sorry man. Rather, this thread was intended to generate discussion be about Mo's current role in light of Gopher's current depth and his graduated return to action. Mo's greatest contributions will be in the two years to come and I suspect Tubby wants to keep Mo on the upward climb towards next year's prominent role.
 

march madness said:
I really hope Tubby realizes that playing a smaller, quicker, and more aggressive 4 is a smarter descision. Can you seriously imagine Walker guarding a stretch 4: Evans-Wisc, Thomas-ohio st, A. White-Iowa, etc. Yes he could post them up but it's much harder to expose that weakness you have to feed him. While a stretch 4 just walks out to the 3pt line and gets the pass. I hope walker and EE split time at the 5: ala john thomas and Trevor Winter.
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First of all, this is assuming Mo is in a little better shape. Secondly, you guys are assuming Tubby will put those two in situations where they are playing man defense. I could easily see them playing a 2-3 with those two down low, along with Austin/Buggs/Oto/etc. Then when Tubby bring in his 6th man for either EE or Mo they would have the option of going back to man defense. Or if the other team has two big post players, maybe they could start in man from the beginning. It's all about matchups and playing to your players strengths.

I'd like to know who you guys think is going to start at the 4 if EE and Mo don't start together. I highly doubt Tubby just gifts a starting spot to Buggs, Foster, or Oto (assuming he doesn't suddenly become a stud this year). Tubby will start the most experienced guys and then go from there. That's what the early non-conf is for.
 

MadtownGopher said:
First of all, this is assuming Mo is in a little better shape. Secondly, you guys are assuming Tubby will put those two in situations where they are playing man defense. I could easily see them playing a 2-3 with those two down low, along with Austin/Buggs/Oto/etc. Then when Tubby bring in his 6th man for either EE or Mo they would have the option of going back to man defense. Or if the other team has two big post players, maybe they could start in man from the beginning. It's all about matchups and playing to your players strengths.

I'd like to know who you guys think is going to start at the 4 if EE and Mo don't start together. I highly doubt Tubby just gifts a starting spot to Buggs, Foster, or Oto (assuming he doesn't suddenly become a stud this year). Tubby will start the most experienced guys and then go from there. That's what the early non-conf is for.
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I agree that Mo in man defense is where he's most liable. I think you'll see more zone stuff with Mo so he can conserve energy by not having to chase bigs like Bergeron and others around the top of the key. I hope the working through his knee stuff will allow him to gain some more quickness back as well. When he gets faced up in post situations he can't stay with guys past their first step. I was huge on Mo two years ago, and I hope I can regain that trust again. He can be huge (no pun intended) for us against teams like Michigan State and other physical teams that will try to beat up EE and Rodney and are too tall for Trevor.
 

BOUNDOUTPASSDUNK said:
Hey Khoff, didn't intend to plagiarize. Sorry man. Rather, this thread was intended to generate discussion be about Mo's current role in light of Gopher's current depth and his graduated return to action. Mo's greatest contributions will be in the two years to come and I suspect Tubby wants to keep Mo on the upward climb towards next year's prominent role.
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I wasn't trying to make that point, my bad. I was just showing I like Mo a lot and have since he suited up for the Gophers. This is a great thread because I think his role going forward will help shape the program the next couple of years. If he can't get himself in game shape and on the court the team will suffer because of it.
 

khoffman43 said:
I remembered this thread from when I first gone on Gopherhole. I started it, so it has to be good.

http://www.forums.gopherhole.com/boards/showthread.php?23447-Big-Mo-Walker

Anyway, lots of similar sentiment about him getting quicker, faster and in better shape. My initial comparison was to Dexter Pittman, I no longer like that comparison.

And Dr. Don made a random and insignificant comment on Page 3, so thats nice.
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In another post i said skill wise he could have some Oliver Miller in his game. Pittman was an athlete like Trevor, but he had very little basketball skills.
 



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