Why do the Gophers start slow?

I would say, in a word, confidence.

With no strong senior leadership or dominant scorer, the Rodents just don't seem to take the floor with a swagger. Unfortunately, I don't know that I see that confidence or swagger emerging any time in the near future.

Ironically, I think the best chance they have of this happening is if Carter DOES start getting in the starting rotation and develop some more confidence. I think it could also come from somebody who's had the previous success that Bostick has had in his career but it sure doesn't look like he's going to emerge as a big-time player for the Gophers, at least not any time soon.

Any other theories?

I agree, Ogee. Confidence and experience.
The Spartans have 3 red-shirt seniors - Gray, Sutton, and Idong and senior Walton. Raymar Morgan is a Junior. Thats a lot of experience to build confidence, but sometimes they don't even come out strong (unless they're playing us!)
Carter's injury really slowed him down and I see him as having possibilities in this dept., and sadly Bostick seems to having confidence problems of his own. I disagree w/bga on Tubby's handling of him - I think he gives him more opportunities than he'd be likely to be getting on another team but I still have hopes he'll work it out. Johnson and Nolen are our best bets for leadership and are on track to be influential for next year. Westbrook is a good scorer when its works out but he's not a steadying influence on a young team.
Everyone is working too much on getting their own game to the necessary level to effectively lead.

Its great that this team looks this good this "early", I'd say they're ahead of schedule. Sometimes someone emerges as key in the later half of the BT season - my vote would also go to Carter as the most likely, or maybe Nolen if he can do well in these next few games that won't be quite as pressured.

I remember a home game, maybe Purdue, where the lineup that showed the best flow and best looks at the basket had DJ, Blake, Bostick, Carter and Nolen. I don't think the guys scored a ton of points, but the looks were there, the passing was great and the spacing was good. They looked like an offense with a purpose!!

The starting lineup, as it now stands, feels stagnant to me as well and the guys seem to be afraid to pull the trigger. (Westbrook can't shoot over a defender, and, like we've all discussed, Nolen can't make the great pass if no one is cutting to the basket.)

I propose a starting lineup with Nolen, Blake, Carter, DJ and Ralph. Paul Carter brings so much energy and he really has a nose for the offensive glass. Blake is too good of a shooter to keep going the way he is. He makes great decisions with the ball as well (MSU game notwithstanding.)

Here's to hoping Tubby will shuffle the starting lineup a bit and start us off on a better foot!!!

That's one thing that has gone unnoticed; even though Hoff hasn't been shooting well as of late, the offense does look more decent than not when he's in.

He makes some pretty nice cuts, always moving on offense, as I can remember 3-4 layups he's gotten in the past few games by cutting to the hoop off the ball.

Also, and maybe more importantly, he doesn't ever hold the ball for more than a second or two, and doesn't try to penetrate out of control. If he gets it, he either reverses it quickly, throws it cross-court over the defense, or feeds Sampson or Iverson with a bounce pass.

Making the right pass, the easy pass, ON TIME is one of the most overlooked but essential skills in basketball.

There were a number of times off the top of my head over the past few games where he has had it on the wing, and as soon as he caught it whipped it back cross-court for either a Joseph or Bostick open 3 pointer. Now, everyone, including The Hoff, has to work on hitting those shots!

I have to agree with you Jim, good point on offensive movement.

I would go with the leadership or dominant scorer. We definitely have a bunch of good to very good players, but not anyone head & shoulders above the rest. Especially on the road, we're lacking that guy who is just simply going to get his regardless. We depend on everyone getting a little. From the report of summer ball, I thought Bostick would be that guy. Obviously that hasn't happened. Westbrook is a great competitor (not a leader from what I've seen), but doesn't have the quickness or length to do it at will

At this point I am concerned about any team that plays in your face half court defense. tOSU zone may be a blessing if they don't extend.... Then again, we could get caught settling for 3s. I believe we will have more leadership next year with Westbrook & DJ being seniors, and realizing their time is running out.

We start slow because we start a lineup of Sampson, Iverson, Johnson, Westbrook, and Nolen. One of the 2 big guys usually has a huge mismatch in terms of speed to start the game and neither is polished enough to take advantage of the huge size advantage that one of them usually enjoys. We start only one guy who is comfortable shooting 3's and he's the only guy opposing defense's must close out on. Teams can double team off anyone, but Westbrook, and it's tough to get easy shots under that scenario.

This starting lineup usually does fine defensively (even though the 4 man can usually take Colton/Ralph off the dribble, we have enough athleticism to bother a lot of shots), we just can't score with it. Even in the big win against Illinois, we had a whopping 5 points more than 5 minutes in to the game. I can't tell you how often during the Big Ten season we've still been in single digits after 5 minutes, but I'd wager it's happened in more than half the games.

The starting lineup should either be Nolen/Westbrook/Carter/Johnson/Sampson or Nolen/Westbrook/Hoffarber/Johnson/Sampson. My only concern with starting Carter and Johnson is that we don't have a similar athlete to put on the floor when the 2nd unit comes on.

The slow start has been a staple of this team, and we are not always going to be able to overcome it. Occasionally that slow start turns in to an avalanche (see MSU) and we've probably been lucky that's only happened once this year.

Very Accurate showingoldy

ShowinGoldyLove said:

That's one thing that has gone unnoticed; even though Hoff hasn't been shooting well as of late, the offense does look more decent than not when he's in.

He makes some pretty nice cuts, always moving on offense, as I can remember 3-4 layups he's gotten in the past few games by cutting to the hoop off the ball.

Also, and maybe more importantly, he doesn't ever hold the ball for more than a second or two, and doesn't try to penetrate out of control. If he gets it, he either reverses it quickly, throws it cross-court over the defense, or feeds Sampson or Iverson with a bounce pass.

Making the right pass, the easy pass, ON TIME is one of the most overlooked but essential skills in basketball.

There were a number of times off the top of my head over the past few games where he has had it on the wing, and as soon as he caught it whipped it back cross-court for either a Joseph or Bostick open 3 pointer. Now, everyone, including The Hoff, has to work on hitting those shots!

I have to agree with you Jim, good point on offensive movement.

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Very well stated.

Ogee Oglethorpe said:

I would say, in a word, confidence.

With no strong senior leadership or dominant scorer, the Rodents just don't seem to take the floor with a swagger. Unfortunately, I don't know that I see that confidence or swagger emerging any time in the near future.

Ironically, I think the best chance they have of this happening is if Carter DOES start getting in the starting rotation and develop some more confidence. I think it could also come from somebody who's had the previous success that Bostick has had in his career but it sure doesn't look like he's going to emerge as a big-time player for the Gophers, at least not any time soon.

Any other theories?

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The only game I saw (in person) was at NWU. The Gophers led from the start and were well ahead (9 points) near halftime. Then the bottom fell out.

I think our starting lineup is just poor offensively. Nolen has his struggles offensively, Johnson isn't a guy who gets plays ran for him and scores more opportunistically than by design, Colt 45 looks terrified when he gets the ball lately, and RSIII is right now more comfortable on the low block but with Colt in there he can't get to that spot. Westbrook is the only confident scorer in that lineup and if you've noticed we often run him off of screens to get him shots early on. If he's hitting it gets us going, if not we struggle. I really think swapping carter for C45 would give us a lot more diversity and let us spread the floor more.

I agree that the starting lineup is just poor offensively... I just hope they will score before the first TV timeout!

Ogee Oglethorpe said:

I would say, in a word, confidence.

With no strong senior leadership or dominant scorer, the Rodents just don't seem to take the floor with a swagger. Unfortunately, I don't know that I see that confidence or swagger emerging any time in the near future.

Ironically, I think the best chance they have of this happening is if Carter DOES start getting in the starting rotation and develop some more confidence. I think it could also come from somebody who's had the previous success that Bostick has had in his career but it sure doesn't look like he's going to emerge as a big-time player for the Gophers, at least not any time soon.

Any other theories?

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I agree that confidence is one big issue and the starting lineup is the other. I would like to see a stat on how may times the starting lineup as won the first five minutes. I'd guess it's rare. Time to change it up Tubby.

I'd settle for starting slow. Against Sparty they didn't start at all.