The first 5 minutes with HOFF

OK I'll use this as an excuse. My foot is bothering me and I have to rest it in order to be at the top of my game tomorrow. So, I watched the first 5 minutes of the game with my trusty DVR from Dish.

We start 2 new guards after having several games where we struggle to even score before the 1st TV timeout. I watched this with particular attention to what HOFF brings to the court for the team. We all know what Westbrook did the last couple minutes of the game so I thought I would concentrate on HOFF for the 1st 5 minutes.

20:00 Opening tap tipped toward WI player - HOFF gets his hand on it and tips it back to Joseph in the back court.

19:20 HOFF Cuts and curls thru the lane clearing out a little space for Joseph to make his opening shot jumper off of a pass from Iverson. MN 2-0

18:35 WI misses a shot and rebound hits the floor - ball sort of goes thru Hoffs's hands but he recovers with quick hands and tips the ball out of WI hands and recovers the ball. Pass to Joseph.

18:10 Hoff lobs a great pass to Iverson but C45 misses the layup (in traffic).

18:04 Hoff moving w/o the ball curls into the lane rcvs a pass and makes a 5 ft runner heading to the basket. MN 4-0

17:04 Hoff passes up a wide open 3 pt shot and passes to Sampson - not necessarily a bad pass but Sampson misses it and ball goes out of bounds. (Note: when his shooting touch comes back - that should be 3 points).

17:00 WI Bohanon (sp?) misses a 3 with HOFF's hand in his face.

16:14 Iverson misses a dunk but steals a subsequent WI outlet pass and feeds Hoff for an OPEN 3. He misses and Nankivill knocks him to the floor with no call. (See note above about when his shooting touch comes back). Sampson misses a followup dunk.

15:20 DJ hits a pull up jumper. MN 6-2.

Not a bad start for the GOPHERS who have struggled mightily to get things going early. I hope Tubby starts HOFF & JOE against Michigan and lets Westbrook come in after getting a good look at things from the bench. Also, maybe Nolen will pick up on Westbrook's response to starting the WI game on the bench and have a better game against Michigan. Its about time he has a good game again.

He offers nothing if he can't hit 3's. At least that's what I've heard.

"He offers nothing if he can't hit 3's. At least that's what I've heard."


I love judgements based on "...what I've heard." LMAO

WilliamsArenaGuy said:

He offers nothing if he can't hit 3's. At least that's what I've heard.

Click to expand...

Exactly, haha!

Seems like most that make that comment really don't watch much basketball, or at least know the game very well.

Dr.Don said:

"He offers nothing if he can't hit 3's. At least that's what I've heard."


I love judgements based on "...what I've heard." LMAO

Click to expand...

It's called sarcasm Don. I thought the "What I've heard" would make that clear.

He has basketball sense. That means alot and helps your team. Some of our other guards don't. He also passes and moves the ball rather than dribbling around looking to go one on one(L.W. and A.N.) I think him and Joseph starting had alot to do with how the game played out. Seemed to me when those 2 were in at the guard positions, the team would open up a lead. Nolen and Westbrook together and Wisky would close in.
I will give LW tons of credit, he put us on his back and carried us the last minutes of the game. However, he was IMO out of control and if he misses some of those runners, its over and we lose. I guess what I am saying is that those 2(Nolen, Westbrook) don't seem like they try to run the offense. Hoffy and Joseph seemed like they were a little more interested in moving the ball and getting it inside where our strength lies.

Got to add those emoticons ...

Sorry WilliamsArenaGuy if you don't add a damn emoticon, the humor impaired here will just not get it.

WilliamsArenaGuy said:

It's called sarcasm Don. I thought the "What I've heard" would make that clear.

Click to expand...

I got ya WAG. Hoff is a solid all-around player. He is the best passer on the team. Best shooter-sometimes.. Can rebound a little. Needs to work on footwork and defense to be harder to keep off the floor. We all know about his shooting problems this season, but with better big-man play, the touch will come back.

What Hoff lacks in his 3's (as of late) he more then makes up for in his aggressiveness and smarts on the court. For only a sophmore he really sees the floor well.

If I remember right from last night, he was the first to lob it over Colts head. It seemed like once everyone saw that happen, they realized how easy it can be to get points that way or at least draw some fouls, which helped put Landry on the bench.

Mikie S said:

Sorry WilliamsArenaGuy if you don't add a damn emoticon, the humor impaired here will just not get it.

Click to expand...

I know. I was to going to add one too, but I did a quick reply and don't think they're available when you do that. I'll be more careful next time.

Mikie....where did you hear that I was "humor impaired"? Why oh why is everyone out to get me?

While I agree Hoff is solid for the most part, the first post was clearly biased. Anytime Blake did anything wrong in the first 5 minutes, jack decided to make an excuse every time. Hoff's pass to Sampson was horrible, it sailed well out of bounds, and even Hoff admitted it was his fault. Passing on an open 3 made it that much worse.

Getting knocked down as he missed the 3 had no effect on the actual shot.. the ball had been released and he had followed through before he got hit.

I do hope they keep this starting lineup, but the blind defense of Blake is getting old when it's not being given to other players on this team.

So Jefferson grad and Cole's buddy, you're knocking him b/c he missed 2 shots and had 1 turnover all night? Despite leading us in assists, 3rd in rebounds, moving the ball extremely well, and not allowing the guy he was defending all night to score a bucket?

Re-read my post. I wasn't critical of Blake at all, and even mentioned he's a good all-around player.

I criticized the poster who created this thread. His bias is extremely apparent, as he defended the two things Blake did wrong with a lame excuse. Making two mistakes in 5 minutes certainly isn't a big deal, especially as sloppy as the first few minutes were.

Personally, I would like to see Tubby run 9-10 plays a game, at least, to strictly get Blake his shot. He's the best shooter I've ever seen, outside of the NBA, clearly. His percentage is down because he's not getting enough looks. He dominated the OSU game when given his shots. That needs to be our half court offense against a team with any defensive presence in the middle.

I'm a big fan of Blake. I just get sick of seeing the blind defense of Blake, when players like Nolen and Westbrook are ripped on. None have played well lately (Besides LW last night, of course) so this kind of bias bothers me.