Hoffarber and Nolen

Just felt like these guys deserve their own thread (I realize they have individual threads, but I'm just so sick of people talking crap about them that I want them to have another dedicated to the two of them). As much as people on here love to talk crap about them (which I've never really understood), I think we're really going to miss them next year.

Hoffarber - We can't replace that kind of shooting ability, passing ability, ft shooting, and he's one of our few guys we can somewhat rely on to hit a big shot when our offense goes stagnant. His 3s always get the team and crowd going.

Nolen - We can't replace his defense, his ball handling, his driving ability, or his ability to get open and beat the press. And as bad as people think his offense is, he still can beat his man almost whenever he wants, he's good at finding Hoffarber for 3, he finds our big men for easy looks, and he's not that bad of a 3 point shooter or ft shooter (I know, it's hard for a lot of people to believe).

I'm going to miss having them on the team once they graduate. Hopefully they can lead us to a big run in the tournament before they are gone.

Hoffarber is amazing, he makes watching the games really fun. Anytime he releases the ball from 3 I think it should go in. Nolen has been awesome controlling the team this year and playing big minutes with Devoe out. Al is pretty much the most important player on the team right now. He must play 35 minutes a night when we play tough opponents.

Agreed. When Maverick came in he could barely even make it to the perimeter. I don't know how good Andre Hollins will be at pg next year, but I think it's going to be tough for us with Devoe playing pg when he's defended by a pg who's really quick and plays close on defense. Will certainly miss Nolen for beating the press as well.

Dirk Diggler said:

Al is pretty much the most important player on the team right now. He must play 35 minutes a night when we play tough opponents.

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underground629 said:

Agreed. When Maverick came in he could barely even make it to the perimeter. I don't know how good Andre Hollins will be at pg next year, but I think it's going to be tough for us with Devoe playing pg when he's defended by a pg who's really quick and plays close on defense. Will certainly miss Nolen for beating the press as well.

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The way Al broke the trap they were trying to put on him just over half court was huge. He went beyond just breaking it and made unc pay by finding a guy open near the rim time after time.

We had some turnovers when they first started pressing, but it was nice to then get some easy buckets from Al and Blake quickly finding open guys

Gophers09 said:

The way Al broke the trap they were trying to put on him just over half court was huge. He went beyond just breaking it and made unc pay by finding a guy open near the rim time after time.

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underground629 said:

We had some turnovers when they first started pressing, but it was nice to then get some easy buckets from Al and Blake quickly finding open guys

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Not only that, but did you see how well the Gophers broke the UNC press come crunch time? I think they did have a turnover or two, but made most of the right passes and led to a few easy buckets. They looked well-coached!

They definitely figured out how to break the press easily. It was hard not to think that they were going blow the game at the end. So nice to see them pull it out. I don't care how terrible we are at fts (well I do), but I love that we draw so many fouls. Better that we're a poor ft shooting team that draws a ton of fouls than a good ft shooting team that doesn't draw fouls.