Officially a Sophmore Slump, and rankings

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husker70

husker70

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Blake is in a season long slump. And why is Louisville rated that high? We play in the Big 10 and we beat them 17-3 and they are 7 and we are 24? What's up with that?
 

Louisville is a darned good team. End of question.
 


husker70 said:
Blake is in a season long slump.
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Not quite.

Actually for a majority of it (non-conference), he was shooting a higher 3 point % than he shot last year, and by far the best on the team (45%). His rebounding numbers are also up, as are his steals and assist ratio from last year. I'd say his defense has markedly improved as well.

The only thing that has been a struggle lately is his %. He still brings more to the floor this year than just shooting, which may have not been the case last year. If he didn't, he wouldn't be getting 23 min/game.

UL is ranked so high b/c they've beaten like 5 ranked teams in the past 3 weeks, including #1 Pitt. Where have you been this year?
 

December 20, 2008

Neutral Site. Gophers 70 Louisville 64. That says it all.
 


husker70 said:
Neutral Site. Gophers 70 Louisville 64. That says it all.
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No that doesn't say it all. Since losing to us they have beaten Kentucky, Villanova, Syracuse, and Pitt. One game doesn't make a season.
 

The Gophers beat Louisville. The higher Louisville's ratings go, the more impressive that victory looks. It's a good thing.
 

This isn't college football where you're ranking can be drastically changed by 1 game. You can go up and down the rankings and find teams ranked behind teams they beat. The Ville is obviously a top 10 team right now and have proven it by taking down the B E's best. We're right where we should be as a fringe top 25 team right now. We've gotten handled by the other 2 legit top 20 teams we faced in MSU and Purdue at home, then we laid an egg at NW.
 

Louisville is overated

They beat Kentucky, big deal. Pitt was number 1 for what a week, after North Carolina took a dive. Syracuse is not that good. Big East basketball does not compare to SEC, ACC. And we get no love for playing in the Big 10 as the conference is looked at askewed. Michigan State and Purdue are pretty good and we are a close third or fourth. And then you have the West Coast that gets no cred at all. The truth be told Louisville is closer to 12th and we are closer to 16th.
 



husker70 said:
They beat Kentucky, big deal. Pitt was number 1 for what a week, after North Carolina took a dive. Syracuse is not that good. Big East basketball does not compare to SEC, ACC. And we get no love for playing in the Big 10 as the conference is looked at askewed. Michigan State and Purdue are pretty good and we are a close third or fourth. And then you have the West Coast that gets no cred at all. The truth be told Louisville is closer to 12th and we are closer to 16th.
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The Big East is pretty good this year, certainly better than the SEC. I agree with you the Big 10 certainly gets no love from the rest of the country.
 

I don't know what Blake's issue is. During warm-ups against Illinois he was hitting at least 2/3 of his three's. Then he bricked a couple open ones in the game.
 

The Big L said:
I don't know what Blake's issue is. During warm-ups against Illinois he was hitting at least 2/3 of his three's. Then he bricked a couple open ones in the game.
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When you only shoot 3-4 shots a game and miss 2, people think the sky is falling. You go 5-12, 4-11, or 3-13 like Westbrook, Johnson, or Nolen, no one says anything, and says "good 12 pt performance."

You say you saw him hit 2/3 in warm-ups, then only gets 3 shots in the game. He shoots 6, he makes 3-4. He shoots 9, he'd probably hit 4-5.

The kid needs to get more shots. We've all seen over the past few games how a couple of the guards over-penetrated and attempted to throw up a bad shot in traffic, either getting it blocked or missing badly, while Hoffarber sat open on the wing.

If they really want to help get him "out of his slump," as they said in the Star Tribune, getting him the ball on-time when he's wide-open could help immensely.
 

ShowinGoldyLove said:
When you only shoot 3-4 shots a game and miss 2, people think the sky is falling. You go 5-12, 4-11, or 3-13 like Westbrook, Johnson, or Nolen, no one says anything, and says "good 12 pt performance."

You say you saw him hit 2/3 in warm-ups, then only gets 3 shots in the game. He shoots 6, he makes 3-4. He shoots 9, he'd probably hit 4-5.

The kid needs to get more shots. We've all seen over the past few games how a couple of the guards over-penetrated and attempted to throw up a bad shot in traffic, either getting it blocked or missing badly, while Hoffarber sat open on the wing.

If they really want to help get him "out of his slump," as they said in the Star Tribune, getting him the ball on-time when he's wide-open could help immensely.
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Sometimes its not about how many shots you missed but how you missed. Blake sailed one off the backboard against Illinois. He did this too against Indiana. He is way off, and has been for a while. He isn't the Blake of old right now.

But I do agree that feeding him the ball and giving him good looks will help. He is a shooter and will break out of this.
 



I love how everyone wants Blake to shoot. Think about it, it's not that often when the crowd wants a (currently) bad shooter to shoot. I think it was kind of the same feeling for Jamal when he was slumping. It shows how much we get into the character of the player also. Which I think says a lot about MN fans.
 

What we need to look at is that Blake although in a slump has been playing well in other facets of the game, he ran point in the Wisconsin game and did a heck of a job, he has been playing decent defense, his shot will come around. He seems to be forcing shots instead of letting the flow of the game come to him...
 

husker70 said:
They beat Kentucky, big deal. Pitt was number 1 for what a week, after North Carolina took a dive. Syracuse is not that good. Big East basketball does not compare to SEC, ACC. And we get no love for playing in the Big 10 as the conference is looked at askewed. Michigan State and Purdue are pretty good and we are a close third or fourth. And then you have the West Coast that gets no cred at all. The truth be told Louisville is closer to 12th and we are closer to 16th.
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Are you kidding? The SEC is by far the worst of all the BCS conferences. As of now they would probably get two or three teams into the tournament. At the most 4.

And who cares if Pitt isn't #1 anymore, they are still clearly a top 5 team. Louisville also beat Villanova whose only other losses are to Marquette and Uconn.
 

husker70 said:
They beat Kentucky, big deal. Pitt was number 1 for what a week, after North Carolina took a dive. Syracuse is not that good. Big East basketball does not compare to SEC, ACC. And we get no love for playing in the Big 10 as the conference is looked at askewed. Michigan State and Purdue are pretty good and we are a close third or fourth. And then you have the West Coast that gets no cred at all. The truth be told Louisville is closer to 12th and we are closer to 16th.
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I don't think the SEC will even have a single team in the top 25 when the polls are released tomorrow.

Big East Basketball > SEC

Who even cares if they are ranked ahead of us. There is a tournament that determines the champion. The rankings don't matter in basketball.
 

SCSU Gopher Fan said:
What we need to look at is that Blake although in a slump has been playing well in other facets of the game, he ran point in the Wisconsin game and did a heck of a job, he has been playing decent defense, his shot will come around. He seems to be forcing shots instead of letting the flow of the game come to him...
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I agree.

I know little about basketball, so take it for what it's worth, but it could be that part of the reason he is struggling a little with shooting is that he is working so hard at improving the other aspects of his game. My guess is that as time progresses is that he will regain his touch be a much better all-around player.
 

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