Soph Class: Key to this year and next year

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akgopher

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No doubt we'd have a top 5 finish and a bid secured if Hoffarber and Nolen progressed from last year. It's debatable if they regressed from last season.

That said, as much as the Big Ten will improve next year I think we could make a run at a top 3 finish. That's if next year's sophomore class develops. The new additions should make an enormous impact, but we need Sampson to become a more polished option and Iverson to develop into a physical force in the post. Joseph could hit the weights and surpass Westbrook and Hoffarber and provide us with more of versatile shooter at the 2.

I'm really disappointed with the way the conference season played out. The Big Ten was down this year and we had a chance at a top half finish. I think the primary reason for us not making the leap was the sophomore play.
 

I would say Blake has done just fine this year!!! He hit a slump for a while there but overall i think his game has improved!!! Nolen has been talked about enough where i am not going to touch on that one.
 

I'd also agree that the only part of Hoff's game that has somewhat "regressed" is his shooting (as evidenced by a lower % by about 6% this year compared to last year). However, the rest of his game has markedly improved (passing, on the ball defense, rebounding, movement off the ball, etc.). He's a much more well-rounded player this year than he was last year.

Like ole1710, I won't address Nolen, as most have picked his game apart pretty heavily over the past month.
 

ShowinGoldyLove said:
I'd also agree that the only part of Hoff's game that has somewhat "regressed" is his shooting (as evidenced by a lower % by about 6% this year compared to last year). However, the rest of his game has markedly improved (passing, on the ball defense, rebounding, movement off the ball, etc.). He's a much more well-rounded player this year than he was last year.

Like ole1710, I won't address Nolen, as most have picked his game apart pretty heavily over the past month.
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We can argue that the only stats from this season that matter are from the Big Ten season. That is when we lost our 9 games and most of them down the stretch.

From 3, Blake shot 18 for 70 (i think). That is 25%. Take out the Ohio State game, that is 20%. That is not somewhat regressed.

He may have shot 46% in the "pre"-season, but none of those games besides one are doing much for us as resume games now. I think Hoff is a great player for this team when he is shooting well. However when he is shooting like he is now, he is just a turnover machine. When you are shooting 20% from downtown your misses are no longer missed shots but turnovers.

I will agree he is more well rounded player and not the defensive liability he was last year but lets hope he is not shooting like this come next year. At 20 minutes a game, you cannot shoot 20%.

I think our All/Hoff were basically double edge swords all year for this team.
 

akgopher said:
No doubt we'd have a top 5 finish and a bid secured if Hoffarber and Nolen progressed from last year. It's debatable if they regressed from last season.

That said, as much as the Big Ten will improve next year I think we could make a run at a top 3 finish. That's if next year's sophomore class develops. The new additions should make an enormous impact, but we need Sampson to become a more polished option and Iverson to develop into a physical force in the post. Joseph could hit the weights and surpass Westbrook and Hoffarber and provide us with more of versatile shooter at the 2.

I'm really disappointed with the way the conference season played out. The Big Ten was down this year and we had a chance at a top half finish. I think the primary reason for us not making the leap was the sophomore play.
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How exactly was the Big Ten down this year?
 


Hoffarber is not a "well-rounded" player. He's a nice complimentary play, but not a complete player. He lacks the necessary quickness to put the ball on the floor and averaged a turnover for every assist. I understand he's a local kid from the western suburbs, but the truth hurts.

Freshman year 20 minutes/44%FG/43%3pt/76%ft/2.9rebs/37assts-27tos/18stl/8.4pts
Sophomore year22minutes/42%FG/35%3pt/72%ft/2.8rebs/39assts-30tos/21stl/6.8pts

Bobby Knight said the best thing about freshman is they become sophomores. Not the case for our sophomores this year. If we don't get an invite, I think that is the #1 reason.
 

How exactly was the Big Ten down this year?

A lot of young teams and the most experienced, Purdue, had injuries all year. Not to mention Indiana being brutal, and that might not happen again in our lifetimes.
 

anticallihan said:
We can argue that the only stats from this season that matter are from the Big Ten season. That is when we lost our 9 games and most of them down the stretch.

From 3, Blake shot 18 for 70 (i think). That is 25%. Take out the Ohio State game, that is 20%. That is not somewhat regressed.

He may have shot 46% in the "pre"-season, but none of those games besides one are doing much for us as resume games now. I think Hoff is a great player for this team when he is shooting well. However when he is shooting like he is now, he is just a turnover machine. When you are shooting 20% from downtown your misses are no longer missed shots but turnovers.
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I don't even know where to start.

You want to pick and choose what statistics "matter?" As in, non-conference statistics matter less because they aren't actual games or something? And "take out the Ohio State game?" That's completely ridiculous. I guess from now on we should just compute statistics to our own liking, leave out some games where someone had good stats and include others where they had bad ones.

"Turnover machine" and "averaged a turnover for every assist":

Hoffarber has a better assist to turnover ratio (1:1) than every single player on the team besides Nolen & Johnson. If you think he's bad, there are 10 other players on the team with a worse assist/TO ratio than him.

Lastly, regarding his shooting %, he's statistically tied with Westbrook as the 2nd best 3 pt shooter on the team at 35%.

Every person is entitled to their own opinion, but not their own set of facts.
 

akgopher said:
How exactly was the Big Ten down this year?

A lot of young teams and the most experienced, Purdue, had injuries all year. Not to mention Indiana being brutal, and that might not happen again in our lifetimes.
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Purdue doesn't have any seniors that are key to their success. If the Big Ten sends 7-9 teams to the tournament, and none of them are Indiana, wouldn't that make it one of the best years for the conference?
 



akgopher said:
No doubt we'd have a top 5 finish and a bid secured if Hoffarber and Nolen progressed from last year. It's debatable if they regressed from last season.

That said, as much as the Big Ten will improve next year I think we could make a run at a top 3 finish. That's if next year's sophomore class develops. The new additions should make an enormous impact, but we need Sampson to become a more polished option and Iverson to develop into a physical force in the post. Joseph could hit the weights and surpass Westbrook and Hoffarber and provide us with more of versatile shooter at the 2.

I'm really disappointed with the way the conference season played out. The Big Ten was down this year and we had a chance at a top half finish. I think the primary reason for us not making the leap was the sophomore play.
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I disagree that the Big Ten was down this year and think it was one of the top 2 conferences in the nation. I do agree that Nolen and Hoffarber did not improve at all and Hoffarber likely took a pretty large step back. It could be because his playing time decreased a little but this guy (and the rest of the team) just could not shoot for long periods at a time all season.

As for next year's sophs, what happened to Devron Bostick this year? He has not seen much of the court after some fairly decent outings. He's a senior next year, correct?
 

Regression

I think anyone who is even remotely objective about Hoffarber realizes that Blake took a big step backwards this season. He still has a chance to play well in the post-season, so hopefully he will find his three-point range again.

Hoffarber is a one-dimensional player who got significantly worse at that one thing. His 3-point shooting is down about 8% overall from last year (from .427 to .349). In the Big Ten season it looks like he shot 18 for 70, which is under 26%. Even worse, it's only 1 made three-pointer per game.

Yes, his assist to turnover ratio isn't bad, but it got significantly worse from last season to this one too (1.37 down to 1.00). If his rebounding has "improved significantly" it must be in ways that do not result in actual rebounds, because he is playing 2.1 minutes more per game and recording fewer rebounds per game.

I like Blake and want him to succeed, but he needs to hit threes to really contribute and he flat-out is not doing it right now. Hopefully he gets it going, the offense gets him more good looks, and he bounces back as a junior.
 

To expand on playhosea's points, Hoffarber's TO rate is way too high for a player that fits his profile. Spot-up shooters tend to have artificially low TO rates because, well, they don't put the ball on the floor much. Relative to other players that fit Hoffarbers profile -- hell, relative to last year's Hoffarber -- his TO rate is actually quite high.
 

As disappointed as I am in how our conference schedule turned out and our sophomores not meeting expectations for development, I'm really optimistic about next year. I'm more fired-up about Iverson, Sampson, and Joseph progressing than our top 10 recruiting class.

Our half-court offense should be exponentially better with a stronger, more polished Sampson, a dynamic front court player in Royce White, and a stronger Joseph who'll hopefully will get ample time at the 2 to give us more versatility at that position.

I'm hoping for a Top 3 conference finish and a top 20 ranking.
 



I encourage everyone to watch Hoffarber closely on offense. He is one of the only guards who consistantly looks to feed into the post. When he gets the ball, he instantly looks to spot up, or swing the ball.

Without the ball, he makes very smart cuts to the basket that have ended up in a handful of lay-ups this season. Even when he isn't open on the cuts, it helps clear things out, everyone rotates, and the offense keeps moving.

The kid is a smart basketball player. We have too many guards who stand around or float on the perimeter. Blake's biggest problem was that he hit all those three's last year, everyone is upset when he misses shots. He has struggled shooting wise, but it's crazy to say he has regressed. He has improved in every facet besides shooting. Unfortunately, that seems to be the only thing people look at. Hopefully he will get his touch back.
 

The Big L said:
I encourage everyone to watch Hoffarber closely on offense. He is one of the only guards who consistantly looks to feed into the post. When he gets the ball, he instantly looks to spot up, or swing the ball.

Without the ball, he makes very smart cuts to the basket that have ended up in a handful of lay-ups this season. Even when he isn't open on the cuts, it helps clear things out, everyone rotates, and the offense keeps moving.

The kid is a smart basketball player. We have too many guards who stand around or float on the perimeter. Blake's biggest problem was that he hit all those three's last year, everyone is upset when he misses shots. He has struggled shooting wise, but it's crazy to say he has regressed. He has improved in every facet besides shooting. Unfortunately, that seems to be the only thing people look at. Hopefully he will get his touch back.
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Before this season started and even now... what would you say Hoffs main roll is on the team? Would it be three-point specialist? Keeping the defense out of the paint and allowing more space for our team to move? Because when you shoot 20% you are not keeping anyone honest. You are just chucking up rebounds to the other team.

If you didn't noticed they went to a 2-3 zone at the end of the game preventing our team from going to Ralph on the block. That was the last 5 minutes of the game, and the only offense was 4 made FTs by Westbrook.

I am not debating if he is smart basketball player, but the fact is that he is struggling at his most important roll on the team. His job isn't to feed the post. It is to hit threes.
 

ShowinGoldyLove said:
I don't even know where to start.

You want to pick and choose what statistics "matter?" As in, non-conference statistics matter less because they aren't actual games or something? And "take out the Ohio State game?" That's completely ridiculous. I guess from now on we should just compute statistics to our own liking, leave out some games where someone had good stats and include others where they had bad ones.

"Turnover machine" and "averaged a turnover for every assist":

Hoffarber has a better assist to turnover ratio (1:1) than every single player on the team besides Nolen & Johnson. If you think he's bad, there are 10 other players on the team with a worse assist/TO ratio than him.

Lastly, regarding his shooting %, he's statistically tied with Westbrook as the 2nd best 3 pt shooter on the team at 35%.

Every person is entitled to their own opinion, but not their own set of facts.
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You win..... over the last 18 games Hoff shot 25%. During 17/18 games he shot 20%. During that stretch we went 9-9 after starting 12-0. One game hoff was 6/10 on threes, but the Gophers lost.

He had a stat line during the BT of 21 minutes 4.5 points 2 rebounds 1.4 assists 1 TO .5 steals and 2.8 missed three pointers.

When we were 12-0 Hoff shot 46%. We beat 2 teams in the RPI top 100 (Louisville 9, NDSU 97).
 

He was such a smart player that he lost Lucas-Perry on his first two threes that started the Michigan comeback.

In both cases, he opted to go around a screen the easy way (exactly what the defense wants) and Lucas-Perry had enough time to get off his shot.

I'm probably most disappointed that Blake has not found other ways to score. I would have thought that he would have spent his summer working on putting the ball on the floor when teams crowd him. Or getting a one-bounce-rise-up move.

To me, he is even more of a one-trick pony than he was a year ago. A higher percentage of his field goal attempts this year are from behind the three-point line at 78.8 percent vs. 74.5 percent (and that's with a deeper three-point line). In Big Ten play this season, he has taken only 14 shots that weren't threes -- well less than one per game.

He is a three-point gunner and that's it. Until he proves he can score in other ways, opponents are going to crowd him like crazy.
 

anticallihan said:
You win..... over the last 18 games Hoff shot 25%. During 17/18 games he shot 20%. During that stretch we went 9-9 after starting 12-0. One game hoff was 6/10 on threes, but the Gophers lost.

He had a stat line during the BT of 21 minutes 4.5 points 2 rounds 1.4 assists 1 TO .5 steals and 2.8 missed three pointers.

When we were 12-0 Hoff shot 46%. We beat 2 teams in the RPI top 100 (Louisville 9, NDSU 97).
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Absolutely agree. The Hoff worship among Gopher fans is ridiculous. He has been terrible during the conference season. Period. He is still slow on rotations on defense (see Perry lighting him up twice in a 1 minute stretch yesterday coming off of screens) and is a liability on offense as he can't shoot.

And the 1:1 A/TO ratio...my god that's a good thing? For a guy who doesn't handle the ball? Where do you people get these ideas?

edit: I see that anonymous beat me to my point. There isn't a facet of the game where he improved this year, IMO.
 



GoGoGophers said:
Did you watch him yesterday? He was pathetic.
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Oh, my mistake. I didn't know we were allowed to narrow down an entire season to one game's performance.

By the way Al Nolen has been an offensive machine this season. Did you see that game against Louisville!?!

If you honestly think Blake's defense this year isn't better than last...well, I'm simply at a loss of words.
 

I'm with the group that says Hoff gets a bit of a free pass. But to say he hasn't improved is utterly rediculous. He earned his time on the court this year, it was no gift. Tubby was playing him not for his 3 pt skills but for his ability positively impact Tubby's scheme. He most had the on court leadership skills this team was lacking. If he had AN's skill set he would be our starting PG, not even close. Just like all our players we're lucky to have him. He'll be an important part of the next two years as a starter or bench player.
 

i am expecting hoffarbor to me much improved next year because i am banking on royce, and cobbs putting the ball on the floor and breaking some defense down and getting blake better looks

i am also expecting sampson, iverson and mbwake to command more attention and freeing up hoffarbor more

he rarely gets the wide open looks anymore

last year mckenzie was at least decent in breaking a defense down and helping hoffarbor get better looks
 

Schnoodler said:
I'm with the group that says Hoff gets a bit of a free pass. But to say he hasn't improved is utterly rediculous. He earned his time on the court this year, it was no gift. Tubby was playing him not for his 3 pt skills but for his ability positively impact Tubby's scheme. He most had the on court leadership skills this team was lacking. If he had AN's skill set he would be our starting PG, not even close. Just like all our players we're lucky to have him. He'll be an important part of the next two years as a starter or bench player.
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This is what I'm talking about. AK posted the stat lines from this year and last year. In more minutes, Hoff is worse in every objective category, save total number of assists (which is a ridiculously low number for a guard, btw). The entire board comes to his defense in something absolutely subjective like defense and leadership. Because we all know leadership can be seen from the stands and on tv, right?

Here's what I remember:
- Hoff getting worked yesterday. Couldn't keep up with his man repeatedly, contributing to blowing a 12 point lead
- Hoff getting worked at Michigan, in much the same manner
- Hoff missing 2 wide open threes at PSU that would have been daggers
- Getting run off the floor in both MSU games and the Purdue game because he couldn't keep up with the pace
- Hoff shooting 3's worse than Nolen during B10 play

Now I do agree that Blake is one of the few on the floor that will consistently attempt to feed the post. And is a good passer, but that's about it in my mind. Bottom line is he needs to shoot the 3 to really contribute on a good team. His minutes being so high is another indictment of this average ball club.
 

agreed

I agree as well, especially when you consider how soft the beginning of the season's schedule was
 

ShowinGoldyLove said:
I'd also agree that the only part of Hoff's game that has somewhat "regressed" is his shooting (as evidenced by a lower % by about 6% this year compared to last year). However, the rest of his game has markedly improved (passing, on the ball defense, rebounding, movement off the ball, etc.). He's a much more well-rounded player this year than he was last year.

Like ole1710, I won't address Nolen, as most have picked his game apart pretty heavily over the past month.
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but shooting is hoff's game!! if he was going to regress this year that couldn't be the area that it happened if the gophers wanted to be more successful. unfortunately, i think he has taken a step back regardless of the other areas where he is doing better.
 

It started last year for hoff. he said it. It's one thing to shoot uncontested it's another with a man trailing you trying to take it away. Creating a three pt shot is tougher. It's a learning process. He'll have more luck shooting when we're abusing teams in the paint.
 

Look, I agree that he plays the game smarter than a lot of players. But there's no getting around the fact that he was a major contributor to Michigan's run on saturday. He went underneath two screens in a row, and he couldn't keep the defense honest. And guess what, Hoffarber's main game is outside shooting, because despite the one or two nice cuts to the basket for lay-ins during the game, he doesn't contribute all that much elsewhere. Playing the game "smart" is all well and good, but all that means is that he's not contributing negatively with a lot of turnovers. I wish Jamal would get some of Blake's minutes. He usually plays pretty smart, but he's also shown an ability to hit shots, especially mid-range, which nobody else on the team seems willing or able to do.
 

Which Hoffarber would you rather have?

Which Hoffarber would you rather have?

The Freshman who was a crappy defender and ball handler who was deadly from beyond the arc?

The Sophomore who is a good defender and ball handler with a savvy floor game but can't get the ball to drop?

Hint: The Gophers finished dead last in three-point shooting percentage for in-conference games. (.312, WHICH INCLUDES A 9-9 PERFORMANCE IN ONE GAME)
 

Schnoodler said:
It started last year for hoff. he said it. It's one thing to shoot uncontested it's another with a man trailing you trying to take it away. Creating a three pt shot is tougher. It's a learning process. He'll have more luck shooting when we're abusing teams in the paint.
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While watching Jamal, I started wondering if Hoff is destined down the same path. A guy who comes in and lights up from 3pt land as a surprise, and then never gets an open shot again.
 

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