Note To Nolen

Keep taking the ball to the hole. Eventually the refs might call the fouls in your favor and/or your teammates might figure out a way to get open. Continue to feed Hoffarber and Westbrook on the wings and the big guys down low when they are open. Be ready to take the shot when they are not.

Ignore these wanna be gym rats posing as Gopher fans who reserve their worse criticism for you, despite the failings of your teammates. As the PG and team leader, you are always gonna be the target of couch potato frustration. Just keep working on your game and doing what you do. It's a long season, stay focused on the goal.

Put this game behind you and get ready to send tOSU packing on Saturday. Purdue at the Barn next month--that's when your team will even the score.

Thanks for putting up with such negative fan support for three years. You'll leave here owning several Gopher records and maybe a Big Ten title or more. Then they'll talk about how you were possibly the best PG in Gopher history.

I agree with everything.

Agree as well.

Strongly agree that Nolen needs to continue driving to the hole. I think he is the only guard on our team that consistently get past his man. With that said we need him to look to pass more off the drive than what he did tonight. I think this may have been caused by Purdue's perimeter players not sagging as much on the drive. Overall rough shooting game by Al tonight but good defense can cause that.

Hey man we all love Al. The bottom line is he doesn't show up in big games. Against ranked teams this year his line is as follows:
FG%: 15%
FT%: 60%
A/T: 0.5
STL: 1.5
REB: 1.5
BLK: 0

The game he played only 19 minutes in was against #10 Butler and they won.


He is having a pretty average season shooting 37% from the field and only 72% from the line. These numbers would be acceptable if he was distributing the ball and running our offense, but he's not.

Nolen will be fine. With the exception of today's game, Nolen has played well this season (shooting percentage, assists, steals, etc.).

The sun will rise tomorrow, we'll all go to work, the Gophers will keep practicing, etc. What I've learned in my years (more than I care to count) is that things always work out...people often get way too caught up in the moment of one play, one game, one day. Nolen's career resume will be looking just fine come graduation day next year.

There are always ups, and there are always downs. It's a person's collective resume of all the days of their life that matters in the end.

UofM Fan said:

Strongly agree that Nolen needs to continue driving to the hole. I think he is the only guard on our team that consistently get past his man. With that said we need him to look to pass more off the drive than what he did tonight. I think this may have been caused by Purdue's perimeter players not sagging as much on the drive. Overall rough shooting game by Al tonight but good defense can cause that.

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This is my biggest beef with Nolen. Not that he drives the lane so much as that he doesn't dish the ball off more often. Al had a marvelous game earlier this year where he did that consistently, and if he did do that on a regular basis, instead of once or twice a season, I'd be happy (and so would his teammates). But when Al gets frustrated, he forgets team basketball and starts playing one-on-five basketball with predictably bad results.