If Hoffarber and Nolen Have Leveled Off...

Then they are typical Monson recruits. Good enough to play for any Big Ten team, but not good enough to be key players on those teams. Are these two any better than they were last year?

akgopher said:

Then they are typical Monson recruits. Good enough to play for any Big Ten team, but not good enough to be key players on those teams. Are these two any better than they were last year?

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Nolen is better. Hoffarber is (or was) slumping but still better than last year (overall).

akgopher said:

Then they are typical Monson recruits. Good enough to play for any Big Ten team, but not good enough to be key players on those teams. Are these two any better than they were last year?

Click to expand...

Certainly, this is a fair point and question. Hoff has been pretty much awful for the past month-plus. He often turns the ball over because he's neither skilled, nor confident with the ball in his hands. On defense, his feet are slow and he gets beat to the spot a lot. And his shooting has been terrible for the better part of six weeks. Not sure if all that means he's regressed or stagnated or not. Opposing players have certainly adapted to him and he's not showing the ability to adjust, at least at this point.

Nolen also looks lost on offense. While a good ballhandler, he has no confidence in his jump shot to speak of and only resorts to taking it if the defense either falls asleep completely, as happened today a couple of times, or if there is absolutely no other passing option. He also can't finish worth a lick on the dribble drive, which makes him a one-trick pony on offense: Drive the middle and hope somebody is open to kick it to.

All and all, these two are both very easy to defend. Al is much better defensively than Hoff however and for that reason alone, he needs to play. But if Hoff isn't shooting the ball well, the rest of his game is so suspect that he really doesn't add much to the equation. (much like Abu-Shamala).