Run, Gophers, Run

I like this Gophers team.....when we are running. We have these fatal flaws in the half court offense:Not a strong rebounding team. No strong post up player. No one that can get their own shot except Nolan and he has trouble finishing. A great shooter-Hoff- that can't get open in the half court sets. A good scorer that is too short to deal with taller defenders in the half court- Westbrook. Add to that Tubby's offense lacks movement and purposeful passing.

But when we are pressing and running- this team looks great. All of the sudden guys like Westbrook, Hoff, Williams, Nolan and others all look very good. I was encourage last night that we were able to do it against Purdue for some stretches. We had a number of good looks at threes and drives that wouldn't go, otherwise the game would have been much closer. I hope we continue to press and run all season as we did last night. It takes advantage of our personnel and our depth-which is the best in the Big Ten.

Even though it was a losing effort pressing and running gave us a chance to compete against a team that just has more firepower on offense than us.

Even though it was a losing effort pressing and running gave us a chance to compete against a team that just has more firepower on offense than us.

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I really agree and I was surprised. For a team that takes care of the ball so well, our press, at times, really bothered them. Painter said the Gophers outplayed them last night. On some counts he was right, others he was just being polite but I think the Gophers showed some good fight last night.

We have lots of long wing players and some good instincts when pressing: Johnson, Nolan, Williams, Carter. But these athletic guys need to learn more basketball skills. The good teams are going to take the fast break away. The big ten does it to all those "athletic" teams in the tourney every year.