WHERE IS WESTBROOK?

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Moonlight

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Theres no reason to give Nolen all the hate.
 

Little man in a big man's game. Quick defenders seem to shut him down. Still, he had five boards during the first half.
 


We dont need westbrook hoff is going off
 



What does that mean? Westbrook 2-10, and 0-5 from 3 and yet, its all Al's fault.
 

Funny how ppl pin all the blame on Nolen yet when our leading scorer disappears (happens often), nothing is said.
 

And no one has a comment on the fact that our most aggressive player didn't get to the line once tonight.
 

Hoff was 6-10 3pt and the rest of the team was 1-12. Nolen and Westbrook let the team down.
 



Westbrook is too short. He is easily shut down by longer, athletic defenders. However, he is strong and he doesn't use his strength enough to force the issue and get to the line.
 


Gopher4Life said:
Little man in a big man's game. Quick defenders seem to shut him down. Still, he had five boards during the first half.
Click to expand...
You be the coach. The other team has only one guy in the starting line-up who's even a moderate threat from the perimeter or an average threat to create (and make) his own shot. What do you do?

Look at the Gopher starters 3-point stats for the season:
Iverson 0-0 0%
Sampson 0-3 0%
Johnson 6-28 21.4%
Westbrook 35-91 38.5%
Nolen 17-53 32.1%
And the guy everyone wants to start ... Carter 2-12 16.7%

To me, these stats scream out how bad the Gophers need a forward that can keep defenses honest. How much will Royce or Rodney help here next year?
 

westbrook at 7 rebounds and 5 assists atleast, with 3 TO's instead of nolens 5
 



I have been saying for awhile now that Westbrook is our most overrated player and its not even close. Minus the Wisc. game where I agree he was the best player on the court. He does have some offensive game but un-like most scorers he has no idea when to create. He disappears at key moments and he is consistantly picking up the bulk of his points in the last two min of a loss i.e numerous times going for lay-ups with under one min in a 6-10 point game, when he hasn't driven to the hoop all game.

Anyone who has or will be going to see a game in person I beg of you to watch his effort on defense and its horrible. He is the only player that flat out gives up on plays its hard to watch. This team has a lot of problems like a lot of teams this year that keep boucing in and out of the top 25. Although I do feel we will make the tourney, our offense is horrible (even with Blake) and we will be one and done. I just hope we don't "soil ourselves" again like Tubby stated.
 

And yet

Westbrook missed a few 3's, several of them pretty open, that he normally makes. I don't know that that makes him responsible for the loss.

Gophers turned it over 17 times to 10 for OSU, and yet if Westbrook makes a few of those shots, they could have stolen a nice win on the road.

But the sky is falling somehow...

You can point to a number of reasons the Gophers came up short, and it was a fine line between winning and losing:

> missed FT's (including missed front-ends)
> missed layups

More than enough to account for a 6-point ROAD loss
 

The offense has looked terrible, but it's not because guys can't shoot. If you look at the non-conference we were a very good shooting team. The guys were able to get open against the lesser competition and we shot well. Nolen has not looked good simply because he is not getting much help from movement by others and production by others. Last night most of his turnovers were the result of him attempting to force the action, rushing it up court or forcing a play. This is not like him but it reflects a collective lack of confidence out there. Nolen is a very good point guard and he will return to nearly mistake free play again when the group regains it's grasp of some scheme and it's confidence in hitting shots.

I thought we saw some good signs out of Iverson last night. He could have had a 12 to 15 point game had he made all the one footers. To me that means he at least got himself in better position.
 

I think bga makes some pretty good observations here. Against the deep competition in the big ten this year, it will be interesting to see the development of our young guys like Iverson and Sampson. I could see us making the tourney, but not getting past the first or second round. Next year, with virtually everyone returning and with a couple of critical additions we will make a run and compete for the big ten title. Iverson and Sampson definitely show a lot of promise, and we have seen some glimpses of brilliance, we just have a team that is uncomfortable playing outside the confines of their home. All teams we lost to - OSU, Mich St, Purdue, even NW have had some pretty significant wins this year. It comes as no surprise to me that we would have a difficult time playing against these guys, even getting a little rattled playing in their house.

Furthermore, I would add that there is only one undefeated big ten team on the road this year and that is Mich St who laid a couple of eggs during home games. Nobody is perfect in the conference and that clearly reflects the level of competition.
 

Ogee Oglethorpe said:
Westbrook missed a few 3's, several of them pretty open, that he normally makes. I don't know that that makes him responsible for the loss.

Gophers turned it over 17 times to 10 for OSU, and yet if Westbrook makes a few of those shots, they could have stolen a nice win on the road.

But the sky is falling somehow...

You can point to a number of reasons the Gophers came up short, and it was a fine line between winning and losing:

> missed FT's (including missed front-ends)
> missed layups

More than enough to account for a 6-point ROAD loss
Click to expand...

The game of basketball is really simple, make more TO's & fewer FT's than the other team... you'll usually lose....The Gophers did both last night, so they lost. It's hard to win on the road when you fail to do the above. They had opportunities to make less TO's and more FT's but they didn't. I think their % of made FT's will be their ultimate downfall. Because of their lack of players that can create shots, this team has to average more than 65-70% at the line. If not, it'll be tough to advance in the BT and the NCAA tourney.
 

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