Blake needs help

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GopherJake

GopherJake

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He is not a PG; everyone knows this. He needs help from the shooting guard and small forward. Here are the stats for the SGs/SFs:

Rodney 0-1 FG, 0-1 3 pt, 2-2 FT, 2 pts
Hollins 1-6 FG, 0-2 3 pt, 0-0 FT, 2 pts
Chip 3-6 FG, 0-1 3 pt, 1-3 FT, 7 pts

Totals: 4-13 FG, 0-4 3 pt, 3-5 FT, 11 pts.

Unless these guys score more (hopefully with an occasional outside shot or - gasp! - a 3 pointer) and get to the line more, Blake will be smothered.

Rodney was extremely disappointing today. Benchable, in my opinion. I think outside of 1-6 shooting, Hollins was good. Chip is a loose cannon, but is the only one who has any Larry Westbrook in him (i.e., aggressive, can finish).
 

GopherJake said:
He is not a PG; everyone knows this. He needs help from the shooting guard and small forward. Here are the stats for the SGs/SFs:

Rodney 0-1 FG, 0-1 3 pt, 2-2 FT, 2 pts
Hollins 1-6 FG, 0-2 3 pt, 0-0 FT, 2 pts
Chip 3-6 FG, 0-1 3 pt, 1-3 FT, 7 pts

Totals: 4-13 FG, 0-4 3 pt, 3-5 FT, 11 pts.

Unless these guys score more (hopefully with an occasional outside shot or - gasp! - a 3 pointer) and get to the line more, Blake will be smothered.

Rodney was extremely disappointing today. Benchable, in my opinion. I think outside of 1-6 shooting, Hollins was good. Chip is a loose cannon, but is the only one who has any Larry Westbrook in him (i.e., aggressive, can finish).
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Hollins and Armelin are both young, but very impressive thus far. It will take seasoning. Williams simply cant shoot it, at least not yet.
 

I hope Armelin is around for 4 years. He could be really good.

I really hope Andre or Joe can be shooters for us the next few years. It's incredible that we are as competitive as we are in the BT with only one shooter, and you can't even count Blake when he plays the point. Sampson is probably our 2nd best from outside 12 feet. Kind of a poor man's JaJuan.
 

Blake

Blake really deserves a Tip of the Hat. He is taking quite a load on his shoulders. The team is what it is. I hope they can kick up the perimeter shooting a bit but we have to figure out how to beat good teams with what we have.

If anyone can do it, Tubby can.
 

Hoff is clearly not a natural PG, he's doing the most he can really. Tough to get him screens/curls when he's forced to handle the ball the majority of the time. Hard to imagine what this team would be like w/o him to be honest...
 


I foresee Armelin being like Lawrence Westbrook with better finishing skills in 4 years. He is an exciting player to watch.
 

Section201 said:
If anyone can do it, Tubby can.
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This is where coaches prove their worth. How Tubby decides to match up and play with each team will determine our success until (if) Al comes back. The right game plan will make us competitive each game, the wrong plan will be ugly.

Tubby makes the plan, it's up to the players to execute. If they do, we can still get a decent seed in March.
 

More than a PG, Gophers need another shooter. Ralph should just start firing from the top of the key. He is wide open and has shown can hit a few (don't try for threes). Just keep shooting until they guard him and then dump it down to Trevor.
 




Gotta find more minutes for Hoff at 2. Have to. There's just no way this ends well with him playing 30+ minutes at the point.

My amateur opinion.
 

Tubby's Scheme/Devoe

I thought Tubby should have made an adjustment to take the pressure off Blake taking the ball up alone when Purdue put on the pressure--and really took us out of the game.
 

I am very disappointed at what we got from Rodney today. People complain about Blake's ball-handling. What about Rodney's? I just think his performance today was alarmingly poor.

I'm trying to keep it in perspective - it's only one loss, on the road to a higher ranked team. And there were some nice things happening out there - particularly the first 15 minutes of the game.

But none of those good things involved Rodney. And that is highly concerning to me.
 

BarnBurner said:
Hollins and Armelin are both young, but very impressive thus far. It will take seasoning. Williams simply cant shoot it, at least not yet.
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With all due respect, I think very impressive is a tad strong. I think they have both been solid freshman, maybe better than expected, but I think very impressive might be a little to much...
 



I think the thing that most worries me about Rodney after today is that it seems as if he even draws a breath while on defense, he gets a foul call on him!! I do not think that this one game sample size of what Rodney can do a the 2 is real fair....the refs pretty much kept him out of the game today.
 

gopherbadgerman said:
With all due respect, I think very impressive is a tad strong. I think they have both been solid freshman, maybe better than expected, but I think very impressive might be a little to much...
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By my agreeing with the term "impressive" I mean to say that I had to sit through the freshman seasons of Colt and RS3 and by comparison Chip looks much more comfortable attacking the rim in B10 style basketball.
 

That game really showed how much they are going to miss Nolen. Hoffarber really couldn't get any shots, and even the scoring oppertunities for others just wasn't there. I thought Sampson played a one of his better games and maybe kept it close in the first half.
 

jovs said:
That game really showed how much they are going to miss Nolen. Hoffarber really couldn't get any shots, and even the scoring oppertunities for others just wasn't there. I thought Sampson played a one of his better games and maybe kept it close in the first half.
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+1

Gophers will really miss Nolen driving to the basket and drawing fouls. Creates easy points and opens up some shots for Hoff. Nolens dribble drive was important in several wins (NC).

Chip can drive but needs to work on FTs. Looked like Chip got out of control towards the end and Tubby was giving him some "coaching" when he took him out.
 

PeanutButterTubbyTime said:
I foresee Armelin being like Lawrence Westbrook with better finishing skills in 4 years. He is an exciting player to watch.
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If Chip can learn how to shoot he has a chance to be as good as Westbrook. Right now he isn't even a poor man's version of Lawrence Westbrook. Chip is a one trick pony right now. That is to be expected from a freshman that wasn't wanted by most schools. Give him time and maybe he becomes starter material.
 

GopherJake said:
I am very disappointed at what we got from Rodney today. People complain about Blake's ball-handling. What about Rodney's? I just think his performance today was alarmingly poor.
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I don't know why anyone would complain about Blake's ball-handling since he is the best on the team (minus Nolan) by far. Hollins, Mav, Chip, Ralph, Rodney, etc. are all bad ball-handlers. I mean really bad. The amazing thing is that the Gophers will still find ways to win despite this.
 

tikited said:
I don't know why anyone would complain about Blake's ball-handling since he is the best on the team (minus Nolan) by far. Hollins, Mav, Chip, Ralph, Rodney, etc. are all bad ball-handlers. I mean really bad. The amazing thing is that the Gophers will still find ways to win despite this.
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I totally agree. Blake is a very good ball-handler. I just get weary of fighting the majority opinion here.
 

No one on this thread said Hoff was a bad ball handler, and I don't recall reading it on any other threads. Please enlighten.:confused:
 

Chip at the point

I'm not sure how people will respond to this, but have we ever thought about having Chip run the point?? I understand it isn't his natural position, but the same can be said for Hoff. Why not move Blake over to his normal 2 spot and have Chip run the point? He may not be able to handle the ball as well as some would want, but he has only 1 turnover the last 3 games (44 minutes) and 6 assists. This would also allow Blake to get more involved offensively, moving without the ball, coming off screens, etc. I think its at least worth a shot, anyone else?
 

station19 said:
No one on this thread said Hoff was a bad ball handler, and I don't recall reading it on any other threads. Please enlighten.:confused:
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Um, ok, 19. (I'm a bit surprised.) But does this qualify? (There are dozens more, from several different sources.)

lakesgopher said:
I'm sorry but blake was far from stellar! he played effecient against a team that is average. he gave up his dribble all night in horrible spots! our bigs dominated tonight, but without guards that can't hit mid range shots, the top tier teams will dominate us.

hoff played a decent game-but he isn't a point guard and if teams press us blake is going to look like a 6th grader vs a senior!
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I was in Brookings on Saturday night and caught the SDSU Jackrabbits taking on the hated Thunderbirds from Southern Utah. The starting point guard for SDSU would look awfully good in Maroon and Gold right now. Nate Wolters out of St Cloud is a 6' 3" sophomore pg who is averaging 19 points, 6 assists and 4 boards per game for the Jackrabbits, including a 16 pt 11 assist night against our Gophers.

Wolters is something of a Ben Woodside story in that he was not highly sought after out of high school but quickly found his groove at SDSU. I believe he was newcomer of the year or made the all-newcomer team in the Summit. The Gophers ought not be faulted for missing on this guy, as just about every other DI school did as well. He certainly wouldn't be all Big 10 (maybe in 4?), and might even have drowned playing in the Big 10 out of H.S., but he now has a pretty darn good handle and, in my opinion of little to no esteem, would be an improvement on our current point guard situation by leaps and bounds.

These are the type of kids who, I think, not that long ago may have considered walking on at the U before choosing an NCC school. Now, there are DI opportunities not far beyond our borders and it seems as though the mid-majors (if the Summit can even be considered that) are not that unsexy of an option as they might have been 10 - 20 years ago.
 

Swede said:
I was in Brookings on Saturday night and caught the SDSU Jackrabbits taking on the hated Thunderbirds from Southern Utah. The starting point guard for SDSU would look awfully good in Maroon and Gold right now. Nate Wolters out of St Cloud is a 6' 3" sophomore pg who is averaging 19 points, 6 assists and 4 boards per game for the Jackrabbits, including a 16 pt 11 assist night against our Gophers.

Wolters is something of a Ben Woodside story in that he was not highly sought after out of high school but quickly found his groove at SDSU. I believe he was newcomer of the year or made the all-newcomer team in the Summit. The Gophers ought not be faulted for missing on this guy, as just about every other DI school did as well. He certainly wouldn't be all Big 10 (maybe in 4?), and might even have drowned playing in the Big 10 out of H.S., but he now has a pretty darn good handle and, in my opinion of little to no esteem, would be an improvement on our current point guard situation by leaps and bounds.

These are the type of kids who, I think, not that long ago may have considered walking on at the U before choosing an NCC school. Now, there are DI opportunities not far beyond our borders and it seems as though the mid-majors (if the Summit can even be considered that) are not that unsexy of an option as they might have been 10 - 20 years ago.
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Playing time is key. Why risk walking on and not getting to play, when you can go SDSU and get lots of playing time against top competition.

Recruiting can be a gamble, tough to project how things will turn out. I think Andre and Joe will work out well and thus will stick around. I think I read it on GopherHole that Tubby is being more selective and making sure the players will stick.

Gophers could really use Nate.
 

GopherJake said:
Um, ok, 19. (I'm a bit surprised.) But does this qualify? (There are dozens more, from several different sources.)
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Blake is a good ball handler but he doesn't have the speed or quickness to slip past most defenders like a true point guard(or guard an opposing pg). Sometimes this causes him to pick up his dribble when he gets in a bad situation but this doesn't mean or say he is a poor ball handler.

Not trying to start an argument, just saying.
 

station19 said:
Blake is a good ball handler but he doesn't have the speed or quickness to slip past most defenders like a true point guard(or guard an opposing pg). Sometimes this causes him to pick up his dribble when he gets in a bad situation but this doesn't mean or say he is a poor ball handler.

Not trying to start an argument, just saying.
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Completely agree. I believe he picks up his dribble earlier than a quicker, better dribbler, because he knows he would become a turnover machine if he didn't. That's just smart. "Know your limitations."

As you clearly have demonstrated you know, "ball-handling" and "dribbling skills" are related, but not the same. Some folks don't realize this.
 

station19 said:
Blake is a good ball handler but he doesn't have the speed or quickness to slip past most defenders like a true point guard(or guard an opposing pg). Sometimes this causes him to pick up his dribble when he gets in a bad situation but this doesn't mean or say he is a poor ball handler.

Not trying to start an argument, just saying.
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The ability to penetrate is important for a pg. It forces the defense to react and that creates opportunities for everyone. That is what the team is missing without Nolen. There is no one on the team with the exception of Armelin that can do that, and with Armelin there is no chance he will give up the ball, so it really doesn't help.
 

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