Marcus blog: Mbakwe coming off the bench good or bad for the Gophers?

Donate To GopherHole

Overall a good article. I liked Tubby's comments about Austin and Rodney shooting more. Even if they haven't been hitting, if you get a good look you have to be confident and take it and not be scared of the shot. If you start taking the shot at least, teams will have to close on you. Hopefully they can start to knock them down.
 

--" A big reason why the Gophers have really struggled in the half-court offense to score is because they have been inconsistent shooting three-pointers".

Inconsistent? How about horrible.

"Senior Blake Hoffarber is shooting 42 percent... but the rest of the team is shooting 13 percent......"

13%:eek:
 


scher215 said:
If you start taking the shot at least, teams will have to close on you.
Click to expand...

Respectfully, I disagree. If they take the 3-point shot and continue to misfire, the defense will sag in on the shooter more & more until they prove they can make it.
 


SelectionSunday said:
Respectfully, I disagree. If they take the 3-point shot and continue to misfire, the defense will sag in on the shooter more & more until they prove they can make it.
Click to expand...
Hello Ohio State game.

They had Hoffarber face-guarded at the 3 pt line, and Rodney and Nolen's guys were literally standing in the paint for help on the big men.
 

Respectfully, I disagree. If they take the 3-point shot and continue to misfire, the defense will sag in on the shooter more & more until they prove they can make it.
Click to expand...

Agree sadly.

coughalnolencough
 

ulmer

I`m hoping that by the time he gets in the game he`s not so cranked up that he commits two fouls in two min.
 




Al has shot a decent percentage in the past. Rodney I'm not sure. This is why many have suggested playing a small lineup with him at the 4 might be to our advantage. Maybe not against purdue as they play 1 big and 1 undersized scrapper and three guards.

I really feel we have to get the ball inside if we are to win.
 

SelectionSunday said:
Respectfully, I disagree. If they take the 3-point shot and continue to misfire, the defense will sag in on the shooter more & more until they prove they can make it.
Click to expand...

That's what I mean, they need to make at least a few of them. But, my main point being. If Rodney or Austin get a wide open three, even if they miss, I don't think Tubby is to upset. If the defense is giving you good shots you need to take (and hopefully make) them. If there is a better shot down low though, get that.

Offense gets bogged down though when the D defends every shot except an Al or Rodney three and they have to stand there and wait because they are the only ones open.

However, even if they take and miss a bunch, the D at least now knows you are going to try it and might pay a little more attention to it.

Do teams sag off Al and Rodney more so because they can't shoot or because they won't shoot?
 

station19 said:
--" A big reason why the Gophers have really struggled in the half-court offense to score is because they have been inconsistent shooting three-pointers".

Inconsistent? How about horrible.

"Senior Blake Hoffarber is shooting 42 percent... but the rest of the team is shooting 13 percent......"

13%:eek:
Click to expand...

More important than the numbers (by the way, looks like Marcus struggled with his math on this one) are the reasons..the article says, "Senior Blake Hoffarber is shooting 42 percent (8 for 19) from three-point range in Big Ten play, but the rest of the team is shooting 13 percent (6 for 45)."

Blake's figures look correct, but the rest of the team is actually 6/35, which is 17.1%. Still, it's terrible.

However, 2/7 came from a guy who isn't in the program any longer... that drops you to 14.3% for current members of the roster. 3/5 is from Ahanmisi, who if you want to count on him to be a consistent three-point threat for us, good luck (5 turnovers in 28 minutes.. ugly). So, of players on our roster excluding Blake and Maverick, we've shot 1/23, or 4.3% in Big Ten play. That same group for the full year is only around 22%.

The issue isn't that we've been inconsistent, it's that we don't have much in to offer when it comes to long-range shooting ability. In four games, our Big Ten opponents have shot from deep 67% more often than we have. But, stop turning it over, get offensive rebounds and keep getting to the line and we can be fine. (by the way, we're 63/83 or 75.9% from the line in the Big Ten, including Mbakwe hitting 79% of his foul shots).
 

Gopher Warrior said:
3/5 is from Ahanmisi, who if you want to count on him to be a consistent three-point threat for us, good luck QUOTE]

I would agree but perhaps we should be looking to get him some shots. For example, maybe he should have been on the court at the end of the tOSU game as a second or third alternative to Blake or get him on the floor with Nolen and Blake in certain situations.

Of course, given the small sample size, this depends on how he shoots in practice, maybe he is not a good shooter and has just been lucky. His stroke looks pretty good to me though.
Click to expand...
 



The fact that he has to sit out the first 5 mins. can't be a good thing.
 

The consolation I'll take from Trevor coming off the bench is that if Tubby still insists on the line-change substituting (not a fan of it), at least we'll be bringing in someone who's a threat both offensively and on the boards. Hopefully Colton & Ralph hold the fort for the bigs until then.
 

Many times when a starter like Mbakwe has to come in off the bench instead of starting
it elevates their game. Sometimes they feel they have something to prove or in his case
to atone for. I would be willing to bet that Mbakwe has one of his best games yet when
he gets off the bench.
 

You must log in or register to reply here.



Top Bottom