Royce White tonight.

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WolfontheProwl

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I got to see White play for the first time tonight as he played in the State Semi-Finals. Reading many of the scouting reports on White I always imagined him being a SF at the college level. I have now changed my mind he is going to be a very nice PF with the ability to step away from the hoop at times but he is a PF. Its going to be interesting to see how he can blend in with our current young post players in Sampson III and Iverson.
 

Step away ???

WolfontheProwl said:
I got to see White play for the first time tonight as he played in the State Semi-Finals. Reading many of the scouting reports on White I always imagined him being a SF at the college level. I have now changed my mind he is going to be a very nice PF with the ability to step away from the hoop at times but he is a PF. Its going to be interesting to see how he can blend in with our current young post players in Sampson III and Iverson.
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I have seen him in a few games this year (on cable) and he looked pretty good tonight. But, really, "Step away" from the basket? I have yet to see him show any mid-range or deep shooting touch. I believe he was 0-4 from the line tonight. He played good defense and played under control. he has great moves to the hoop AND he got rid of that Mohawk he was wearing.

All in all a good showing by our future Gopher. :clap: :clap: :clap:
 

This is the guy that people are hyping as coming in as a freshman and starting? He will probably be a nice player at Minnesota, but he is going to be in for a rude awakening in college when the forwards can match up with his strength on a nightly basis. I saw nothing last night to indicate he will have the ability to play on the perimeter. There are going to be a lot of people seriously disappointed with his freshman year as expectations are already out of control. I don't see him playing much over anyone the Gophers have coming back. He will probably have a typical freshman season.
 


Not Typical

GVBadger said:
This is the guy that people are hyping as coming in as a freshman and starting? He will probably be a nice player at Minnesota, but he is going to be in for a rude awakening in college when the forwards can match up with his strength on a nightly basis. I saw nothing last night to indicate he will have the ability to play on the perimeter. There are going to be a lot of people seriously disappointed with his freshman year as expectations are already out of control. I don't see him playing much over anyone the Gophers have coming back. He will probably have a typical freshman season.
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I agree with most of your post except I expect Royce to have something better than a "typical freshman season". He may or may not start by the end of the season but he is going to get lots of minutes. He will give the Gophers something they didnt have this year.
 


Mbakwe and White

For those who watch more of them than I have (I have seen each of them once in my life), what is the difference between the two players. Based on descriptions, they strike me as very similar players, and thus competing for the same minutes next year. One would think Mbakwe gets the edge because of age and experience.
 

Not even close IMO. Mbakwe has a couple years on White so its not a fair comparison but at the same age White is way ahead of where Mbakwe was. When I saw Trevor Mbakwe in high school as a senior I never thought he would have enough offensive moves to be a very good college player. White showed off some nice post moves last night but with Tech playing the slow down game Hopkins didnt light it up in the first half.

Most college freshman struggle or are very up and down the first year. White will be no different but I like what I see. He will give us something at the power forward spot that guys like Iverson, Johnson, and Mbakwe probably cant.
 

Mbakwe is a serious force on defense and on the glass. Any points he scores will be fine, but his true talent is his size and strength. Obviously, White is very gifted at or around the hoop. They will each get minutes, but I believe Mbakwe will play a little more than Royce.
 

Royce has way too good of handles to be called strictly a power forward in my opinion. He definitely has the ability to play small forward you would be suprised how well he can take people off the dribble.
 



White

I finally watched one of his highlight reels on YouTube and was surprised. This guy will play the 3 or 4 but probably the 4. He apprears bigger and stronger than DJ or Carter and has a lot of offensive moves for such a young kid. I am super pumped for next season already. And love the faux-hawk; hope they let him keep it.
 

Royce at the 3........

I am hoping like all Gopher fans that Royce can play facing the basket. I really think teams that don't have a 3 that can at least threaten from outside, struggle offensively against other good teams.

The Gophers best OFFENSE last year came when Bostick/Abu-Shamala played the 3. They at least could threaten from outside and do some rebounding as well.

We are loaded at the 4/5 next year, but look for a sorry A$$ offense again if you see any 3 of Iverson/Sampson/DJ/Carter/Mbakwe/White on the floor at the same time.

My hope is White/Williams can give some time at the 3, but neither shoots well enough yet to do that, at least not in the Big Ten.

Our best offense might be a hockey strategy. "Dump and Chase," put it up and the board and go get it again. We should have a helluva rebounding/shot blocking team.
 

GVBadger said:
This is the guy that people are hyping as coming in as a freshman and starting? He will probably be a nice player at Minnesota, but he is going to be in for a rude awakening in college when the forwards can match up with his strength on a nightly basis. I saw nothing last night to indicate he will have the ability to play on the perimeter. There are going to be a lot of people seriously disappointed with his freshman year as expectations are already out of control. I don't see him playing much over anyone the Gophers have coming back. He will probably have a typical freshman season.
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You don't know much about basketball. Royce has a decent J and nice handles but he plays exclusively inside for Hopkins so he never gets a chance to show those skills. In AAU ball he often showed the ability to put the ball on the floor and the ability to hit outside jumpers. Many high school players have the same issues because they usually play out of position. When I went to DeLaSalle Alan Anderson played the 4/5 for us and scored most of his points inside with the occasional baseline jumper. Dude eventually played PG for a full year at MSU. Unless a guy is a scoring PG/SG or a pure post banger they usually won't show a ton of their stuff in high school. I've seen Jereme Richmond play 4 times this year. Dude is 6'7" and the top player in Ill for 2010 and he looked very average most of the time because he's a wing who plays the 5 for his team.

Royce won't be a superstar next year but he'll be very good offensively and should fit in very nicely
 

The Mohawk

vaporboy said:
I finally watched one of his highlight reels on YouTube and was surprised. This guy will play the 3 or 4 but probably the 4. He apprears bigger and stronger than DJ or Carter and has a lot of offensive moves for such a young kid. I am super pumped for next season already. And love the faux-hawk; hope they let him keep it.
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Nooooooooooooooooooooooo ! I hated the Mohawk !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Kids will be kids and Mohawks arent a big deal but in the context of Golden Gopher Basketball, sadly, it only reminded me of Mitch Lee and his Champagne glass.

Thankfully, Royce's Mohawk has been replaced by something more "Tubby-ish". :clap: :clap: :clap:
 



Let's put it this way.....

if Royce does what Tubby asks of him, we'll all have a nice time watching.

If he marches to his own drummer (as he has done in the past) it could be a tumultuous time for everyone.
 

oleboy41 said:
You don't know much about basketball. Royce has a decent J and nice handles but he plays exclusively inside for Hopkins so he never gets a chance to show those skills. In AAU ball he often showed the ability to put the ball on the floor and the ability to hit outside jumpers. Many high school players have the same issues because they usually play out of position. When I went to DeLaSalle Alan Anderson played the 4/5 for us and scored most of his points inside with the occasional baseline jumper. Dude eventually played PG for a full year at MSU. Unless a guy is a scoring PG/SG or a pure post banger they usually won't show a ton of their stuff in high school. I've seen Jereme Richmond play 4 times this year. Dude is 6'7" and the top player in Ill for 2010 and he looked very average most of the time because he's a wing who plays the 5 for his team.

Royce won't be a superstar next year but he'll be very good offensively and should fit in very nicely
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I still see White as a wing player too, with some time at PF to when needed. I hope your right about him being a decent outside shooter because he bricked everything he put up from beyond 3 feet last night, including his free throws. I don't think I could stand another "can't shoot" Gopher.
 

I love tournament time because people will see a kid for the first time and make all kind of judgements about his ability and what he can and can't do. Royce greatest skill is his ability to get to the basket but he also is a very good 15-17 foot jump shooter with ability to step out and shoot a three. His coaches have been on him all year to shoot more from the perimeter, kind of odd for someone who can't shoot. Royce will play 20 + minutes next year with a chance to start regardless of what some idiot Badger fan says and will be one of if not the best freshman in the Big Ten.
 

JohnnyGopher said:
I love tournament time because people will see a kid for the first time and make all kind of judgements about his ability and what he can and can't do. Royce greatest skill is his ability to get to the basket but he also is a very good 15-17 foot jump shooter with ability to step out and shoot a three. His coaches have been on him all year to shoot more from the perimeter, kind of odd for someone who can't shoot. Royce will play 20 + minutes next year with a chance to start regardless of what some idiot Badger fan says and will be one of if not the best freshman in the Big Ten.
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Time will tell. You can resort to name calling all you want, really mature. Before he shoots all the three's next year, maybe he should work on the free throws. He didn't come close to making one last night. The Gophers have some players ahead of him that have more experience and don't forget they are bringing in a Blake Griffin clone as well. The way Tubby played people this year, 20 minutes seems like quite a stretch.
 

And I think it is quite a stretch to call Mbakwe a Griffin clone. Maybe on the defensive end or glass, but offensively hardly. Let's not make blind assumptions about TM when for one you probably haven't seen him play at Miami Dade and two he's played a grand total of about 10 D1 games and didn't put up Griffin numbers. Now grant it he was a freshmen and he was coming off of a knee injury but you can't call him BG.
 

thebarnsback said:
And I think it is quite a stretch to call Mbakwe a Griffin clone. Maybe on the defensive end or glass, but offensively hardly. Let's not make blind assumptions about TM when for one you probably haven't seen him play at Miami Dade and two he's played a grand total of about 10 D1 games and didn't put up Griffin numbers. Now grant it he was a freshmen and he was coming off of a knee injury but you can't call him BG.
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(it was sarcasm)
 

GVBadger said:
Time will tell. You can resort to name calling all you want, really mature. Before he shoots all the three's next year, maybe he should work on the free throws. He didn't come close to making one last night. The Gophers have some players ahead of him that have more experience and don't forget they are bringing in a Blake Griffin clone as well. The way Tubby played people this year, 20 minutes seems like quite a stretch.
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No, it doesn't. Royce is a step or two Up the talent ladder to any Gopher F on 2009 team.

Tubby regularly played his starters 25 or 30 minutes a game at Kentucky. When he gets the talent he wants, he'll do that at Minnesota, too.
 

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