Half-way thru Big 10 season . . .

At the half-way mark, the Gophers are 5-3 in the Big 10 and 17-3 overall. If you had asked me ahead of time if that would be a success for this team, I would have said yes. So overall, I think the Gophers have been reasonably successful in Tubby's 2nd season. THey have had some good wins and some losses that would have been nice to take back. Overall I am pleased with our progress and hopeful that they can finish out and make the Big Dance this year. In any event, the future looks bright with the newcomers that we will have next season and the fact that we don't lose much.

In reviewing the individual players, I would make some of the following observations:

1. Nolen - grade B+, his game has been inconsistent the last 3/4 games. When he keeps his turnovers down and his assists up, the Gophers win!
2. Westbrook - grade A-, our most consistent scorer. When he's at the free-throw line I expect them to go in.
3. Sampson - grade B+, he has been good the past few games and coming along faster than I expected. He needs to keep moving his feet on defense. His offensive game will only get better and it's already decent.
4. Iverson -grade B-, lots of potential and I am thankful we have him.
5. Johnson - grade A-, great defensive player, his offensive game has greatly improved over the past 2 years.
6. Hoffarber - grade B-, would give him a C+ but for the fact that he can do other things on the court, which is why he has been getting playing time, but he's lost his shot lately for sure.
7. Carter - grade B-, good rebounder and defender, needs to improve offense
8. Bostick - grade C+, had a couple good games, but I expected more from him at this point
9. Abu Shamala - grade B-, capable of hitting some shots, not a great defender
10. Busch - grade B-, sparkplug who can get into a groove and make a difference at times, but only at times. Would grade higher if he could do it consistently.
11. Joseph - grade B-, decent ball handling skills, inconsistent shooter, some turnover problems and shot selection issues. Good athlete and I expect him to be a good player down the road.

What do you guys think?

Since it is an 18 game B10 schedule, we won't really know how the first half went until Thursday night.

Regarding 18 game schedule--Questions

Please help me out on this. For years we had an 18 game Big 10 schedule (back when there were 10 teams). We played every conference opponent twice. Then we added PState and the schedule became an unbalanced 18 game schedule due to the extra team.

Then we started the Big 10 tourney and cut back to a 16-game schedule to allow time to play that Big 10 tourney week....right?

We are now back to an 18 game schedlue (which I like) Why did the conference decide to go back to the 18 game schedule? I'm assuming we just cut out two non-conference games....right?

The coaches wanted the move back to 18 games because they feel like the regular season champ means more with 18 games. It's not as good as 20, but there was some grumbling among the coaches that a 16-game schedule left too much up to chance in terms of who teams played once vs. twice.

The league administration allowed the move.

I meant to say . . .

4/9 into the Big 10 season, which rounds up to half-way!

The only player I would give an "A" to is Westbrook. I would say your other rankings are pretty close except I would stick with the C+ on the Hoffmeister.
In Big Ten play he is 5-31 on the 3 point shot and he is now starting to make additional on court errors. His technique in shooting is out of wack since he started working on a quicker release. At the Purdue game during the pre-game warmups he was making about half his three's. I would venture to guess half the people on this board could do that

ruppertflywheel said:

At the Purdue game during the pre-game warmups he was making about half his three's. I would venture to guess half the people on this board could do that

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Are you out of your mind? Half the people on this board could shoot 50% from 3? Give me whatever you're smoking.

His technique actually doesn't look to have changed at all. It's all in his head. He is still shooting a higher percentage than Nolen, JAS, DJ, and a tad under Westbrook & Joseph, while shooting way more shots (if they shot as many as he did their % would probably be lower).

He's in a slump. He'll get out of it.

I love how we are breaking down Hoff's stats in pre-game warmups! That's like the OSU player on his blog. hahaha

ruppertflywheel said:

At the Purdue game during the pre-game warmups he was making about half his three's. I would venture to guess half the people on this board could do that

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What? You're joking right?

ruppertflywheel said:

The only player I would give an "A" to is Westbrook. I would say your other rankings are pretty close except I would stick with the C+ on the Hoffmeister.
In Big Ten play he is 5-31 on the 3 point shot and he is now starting to make additional on court errors. His technique in shooting is out of wack since he started working on a quicker release. At the Purdue game during the pre-game warmups he was making about half his three's. I would venture to guess half the people on this board could do that

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You must have been watching at a different time that I was. I posted this last week, that at one point during his pre-game warmups I counted that he had made 13 straight 3-pt shots. I remember posting that some of this shooting slump is simply bad luck, some is Big Ten defense, etc. But, I watched him in each of the past couple of home games and he was making more than half. As I said, at one point in the Purdue pregame he made 13 straight and I remember telling my wife that he would have a big game. Obviously, he didn't but the point stands.

And, NO chance half this board could make half their three attempts. NONE! I know you were using that as a hyberbole (at least I hope you were).

tjgopher said:

You must have been watching at a different time that I was. I posted this last week, that at one point during his pre-game warmups I counted that he had made 13 straight 3-pt shots. I remember posting that some of this shooting slump is simply bad luck, some is Big Ten defense, etc. But, I watched him in each of the past couple of home games and he was making more than half. As I said, at one point in the Purdue pregame he made 13 straight and I remember telling my wife that he would have a big game. Obviously, he didn't but the point stands.

And, NO chance half this board could make half their three attempts. NONE! I know you were using that as a hyberbole (at least I hope you were).

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With no one guarding you, I would bet a decent amount of people on this board could make 50% from three. A decent HS player makes well more than that.

In a game, I bet no one on this board could touch 5% in game play.

How are you rating Big Jon?

Big Jon

12) Big Jon gets a C. I was hoping for a John Thomas turn around, but that hasn't happened. He seems like a good team player though. With his body, he could have been a force.

I think your grades are a bit off. Reason I say this is that I think a lot of guys looked great against really poor comp but have looked pretty bad in conference. Not to bite your idea but I think its a good idea to grade guys based on in conference performance

Nolen- B- - He had a few very good games in conference but had about 3 straight poor games. When he's played within himself and been a distributer and floor leader he's been great

Westbrook- B+ - He's been great at times and ok at others but he hasn't been bad IMO. He's our only aggressive player offensively and I think he's doing a good job considering his height and quickness limitations

DJ- A- - He's been our best player IMO. However he isn't always aggressive on offense and can get lost for entire halfs at a time. Also he is very bad off the ball on D. He has lost his man too many times giving up layups and jumpers, mainly because he loves to fly in for steals and blocks. Still it hurts our defensive integrity.

Colt 45- C - in B10 play he's been ok. For a frosh big man he's held his own which is all you can ask. He hasn't been bad but hasn't been given much opportunity offensively and when he has he's had a tendency to rush

RSIII- B- - He's had a few very good games and a few fairly poor ones. He's a young guy and has gotten better each game. Once he gets fully comfortable and starts knocking those jumpers down he'll be a force

Hoff - C- - I know he has good basketball IQ but he really doesn't bring much to the table if he's not hitting shots. He's been a steady hand on the court but since he plays off guard thats not as important as it would be at PG. Plus for a team without a consistent inside scoring threat we need our guards to score the rock

JAS - D - I don't hate JAS but the truth is that against even moderately talented teams he's hurt us more than helped. For a guy who has been inconsistent with his shot and is not a good athlete on the wing he's made way too many mistakes with the ball. He looked great against a MAC level IU team and in a blowout against PSU but looked terrible against every good team we've played

Carter - B+ - Carter has played with toughness and hustle and has flashed offensive ability. I wish he got a lot more PT

Bostick - C- - This grade is one I'm giving because I've expected more but I also have hope. I wish he got more consistent PT so that he can gain confidence offensively. It seems like once he hits a shot he starts to play more aggresively. However he's been poor defensively and you can't be passive coming off the bench

Joseph- B - Kid has done a decent job at pg. I wish he were more aggresive but he's run the offense ok and has been great at times. He still looks like a frosh out there though

Busch - B- - he is what he is and plays his role very well. Still against B10 teams he doesn't have the size to play D on big men or the quickness to play on the wing. He has a role and does it well when he's in a position to do so

gopherbadgerman said:

With no one guarding you, I would bet a decent amount of people on this board could make 50% from three. A decent HS player makes well more than that.

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No, a decent HS player cannot make "well more" than half of his 3's even with no one guarding them. Go to a high school game sometime and chart it in warmups. Everyone thinks they are better than they really are. People quickly forget all of their misses. Decent high school players are not making "well more" than half of their 3's. And, how do you define "well more" than half of their 3's. If he shoots 20 three-pointers in warmups, then you're suggesting he'd make 12 or 13?? No way.

GopherBadger is Correct

"With no one guarding you, I would bet a decent amount of people on this board could make 50% from three. A decent HS player makes well more than that.

In a game, I bet no one on this board could touch 5% in game play."


Decent being the operative word.