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The Good, The Bad and The Interesting: The We Gotta Take Care of Business Edition
By zipsofakron
http://www.gopherhole.com/news_article/show/349410?referrer_id=388419
The gauntlet that came with the beginning of the conference season was fantastic, but it was the “easy” part of the conference schedule that left us scratching our heads. How could a team that beat Wisconsin, Ohio State and took Michigan State to overtime fall victim to the likes of Nebraska, Northwestern and Purdue? It’s a problem that the Gophers have faced all season, for better or for worse, which is playing up or down to the competition. With the exception of the Iowa thrashing, all of Minnesota’s conference games have been close, and they’ve been as painful as they’ve been heartening.
But with the breathing room they gave themselves with unexpected victories over OSU and Bucky quickly squandered with borderline inexcusable losses against some of the conference’s most inept teams, the Gophers now find themselves in the thick of the Big Ten race, with a potential NCAA Tournament invite in the balance. The good news is that by all accounts the Gophers have done enough to make the tournament if the season ended today. The bad news is that they aren’t far from the chopping block. And with four of the final seven games against teams ranked in the Top 25, it’s not like the stretch run will be a walk in the park, and their margin for error is slim if they’re unable to steal a victory against the best in the conference. Can they do some more damage against the major players? It certainly won’t be easy, as they go on the road for three of the four attempts.
The Indiana victory helps tremendously, but if the Gophers want to stay in the postseason conversation they need to take care of business against the teams they should beat, which means handling Northwestern, Illinois and Penn State. Sounds easy enough, right? We’ll see.
GOOD: Holy Mo Walker!
In what has been the biggest surprise of the season this side of Deandre Mathieu, Mo Walker is showing folks that he’s to be taken seriously as a Big Ten forward. And, really, the transformation has been significant. Consider that in a single calendar year we’ve seen Walker evolve from a troubled, overweight, underachieving underclassman to a powerful, agile, double-digit scoring threat in the heart of the conference schedule.
And it’s not like he’s had one-off games where he’s shown the ability to have a big performance; the evolution has been stark. In fact, after going nine games without scoring in double digits or pulling down more than five rebounds, he’s now scored 14 or more points in four of five games and grabbed five or more rebounds in five of his last six games. That’s quite the turnaround.
His numbers, while impressive, are only half the story. We know that his offseason consisted of huge weight loss, but a big story coming into the season was how that would affect his mechanics on the court. And for most of the season it seemed like Walker was just a thinner version of his previous self – weak with the ball, kinda soft, and not really great at getting to the hoop. But then something clicked, and Walker looks like a completely different player. He’s confident with the ball, knows how to get around his defender, and has flashed some excellent footwork. And, coincidence or not, his minutes and Elliott Eliason’s are beginning to invert.
At this point it looks like the turnaround is a trend, and five games in a row of excellent performances are encouraging. The key will be seeing Walker remain a consistent scoring threat and post presence once teams realize that he’s legit all of a sudden.
BAD: But where’s Elliott?
Speaking of Elliott Eliason, he’s had a frightening transition of his own, falling from conference darkhorse to virtually the second option in the Minnesota frontcourt. Little more than three weeks ago, Eliason was a double-double and blocks machine, grabbing double-digit rebounds in four of his first five Big Ten games. But ever since his game against Iowa, where he ran into foul trouble and never really got going, we’ve seen his production and minutes drop. In fact, in his last five games he’s failed to top five points or five rebounds, while seeing his court time drop substantially. Perhaps not coincidentally, Mo Walker’s presence and confidence on the court has grown.
But what’s bothering Elliott? It’s unclear. We saw him go through a stretch early in the season where he picked up plenty of dumb fouls and couldn’t really get anything going on offense, which are two problems that have resurfaced recently. He’s still a blocks machine, but it’s clear that something is going on between the ears. For a heady player that tends to rely on momentum, Eliason needs to be on the court in long stretches to be effective. But when he’s seeing the bench early due to foul trouble and watching Mo Walker clean up, it’s not a boon for confidence or smarter play. The good news is that there’s plenty of room for this team for two big men, it’s just a matter of getting them both to play well at the same time.
INTERESTING: Malik Smith is who we thought he’d be
This might be better placed in the BAD section, but it’s not really all bad. Coming into the season, we knew that Malik Smith was a shooting guard who lived up to the name. Canning 96 three pointers last year at FIU, we knew that we’d have someone frustratingly special. Here we had a guy with unwavering confidence, and with that comes both good and bad streaks.
Up til now, though, we really hadn’t gone through a truly cold Malik Smith streak -- he didn’t have less than two made three-pointers in consecutive games until recently. And even in the midst of his current streak of missed threes, he still tossed in an 8-12 game against Nebraska, which was a ridiculous display. Unfortunately, he’s still just 5-26 outside of that game recently, and has hit more than one three-pointer just once in the past seven games.
Still, he’s fifth in the conference in 3PM and, honestly, he’s attempting LESS three-pointers than he did last season, by a long shot. In fact, he’s actually shooting better from deep than last season, which is a frightening prospect when you think about him being even MORE of a chucker. Has he been figured out by the rest of the conference? Unlikely. Shooters like Smith have up and down performances, that can come in bunches. He was a valuable bench player up until now and Richard Pitino knows what he has in Smith. And Malik has figured out how to score when he’s not hot from deep, as we’ve seen him convert in the paint and flash a decent ability to get to the hoop. All shooters go through streaks, and a professional shooter like Smith didn’t get this far without being able to bust out of a slump. He’ll be fine.
By zipsofakron
http://www.gopherhole.com/news_article/show/349410?referrer_id=388419
The gauntlet that came with the beginning of the conference season was fantastic, but it was the “easy” part of the conference schedule that left us scratching our heads. How could a team that beat Wisconsin, Ohio State and took Michigan State to overtime fall victim to the likes of Nebraska, Northwestern and Purdue? It’s a problem that the Gophers have faced all season, for better or for worse, which is playing up or down to the competition. With the exception of the Iowa thrashing, all of Minnesota’s conference games have been close, and they’ve been as painful as they’ve been heartening.
But with the breathing room they gave themselves with unexpected victories over OSU and Bucky quickly squandered with borderline inexcusable losses against some of the conference’s most inept teams, the Gophers now find themselves in the thick of the Big Ten race, with a potential NCAA Tournament invite in the balance. The good news is that by all accounts the Gophers have done enough to make the tournament if the season ended today. The bad news is that they aren’t far from the chopping block. And with four of the final seven games against teams ranked in the Top 25, it’s not like the stretch run will be a walk in the park, and their margin for error is slim if they’re unable to steal a victory against the best in the conference. Can they do some more damage against the major players? It certainly won’t be easy, as they go on the road for three of the four attempts.
The Indiana victory helps tremendously, but if the Gophers want to stay in the postseason conversation they need to take care of business against the teams they should beat, which means handling Northwestern, Illinois and Penn State. Sounds easy enough, right? We’ll see.
GOOD: Holy Mo Walker!
In what has been the biggest surprise of the season this side of Deandre Mathieu, Mo Walker is showing folks that he’s to be taken seriously as a Big Ten forward. And, really, the transformation has been significant. Consider that in a single calendar year we’ve seen Walker evolve from a troubled, overweight, underachieving underclassman to a powerful, agile, double-digit scoring threat in the heart of the conference schedule.
And it’s not like he’s had one-off games where he’s shown the ability to have a big performance; the evolution has been stark. In fact, after going nine games without scoring in double digits or pulling down more than five rebounds, he’s now scored 14 or more points in four of five games and grabbed five or more rebounds in five of his last six games. That’s quite the turnaround.
His numbers, while impressive, are only half the story. We know that his offseason consisted of huge weight loss, but a big story coming into the season was how that would affect his mechanics on the court. And for most of the season it seemed like Walker was just a thinner version of his previous self – weak with the ball, kinda soft, and not really great at getting to the hoop. But then something clicked, and Walker looks like a completely different player. He’s confident with the ball, knows how to get around his defender, and has flashed some excellent footwork. And, coincidence or not, his minutes and Elliott Eliason’s are beginning to invert.
At this point it looks like the turnaround is a trend, and five games in a row of excellent performances are encouraging. The key will be seeing Walker remain a consistent scoring threat and post presence once teams realize that he’s legit all of a sudden.
BAD: But where’s Elliott?
Speaking of Elliott Eliason, he’s had a frightening transition of his own, falling from conference darkhorse to virtually the second option in the Minnesota frontcourt. Little more than three weeks ago, Eliason was a double-double and blocks machine, grabbing double-digit rebounds in four of his first five Big Ten games. But ever since his game against Iowa, where he ran into foul trouble and never really got going, we’ve seen his production and minutes drop. In fact, in his last five games he’s failed to top five points or five rebounds, while seeing his court time drop substantially. Perhaps not coincidentally, Mo Walker’s presence and confidence on the court has grown.
But what’s bothering Elliott? It’s unclear. We saw him go through a stretch early in the season where he picked up plenty of dumb fouls and couldn’t really get anything going on offense, which are two problems that have resurfaced recently. He’s still a blocks machine, but it’s clear that something is going on between the ears. For a heady player that tends to rely on momentum, Eliason needs to be on the court in long stretches to be effective. But when he’s seeing the bench early due to foul trouble and watching Mo Walker clean up, it’s not a boon for confidence or smarter play. The good news is that there’s plenty of room for this team for two big men, it’s just a matter of getting them both to play well at the same time.
INTERESTING: Malik Smith is who we thought he’d be
This might be better placed in the BAD section, but it’s not really all bad. Coming into the season, we knew that Malik Smith was a shooting guard who lived up to the name. Canning 96 three pointers last year at FIU, we knew that we’d have someone frustratingly special. Here we had a guy with unwavering confidence, and with that comes both good and bad streaks.
Up til now, though, we really hadn’t gone through a truly cold Malik Smith streak -- he didn’t have less than two made three-pointers in consecutive games until recently. And even in the midst of his current streak of missed threes, he still tossed in an 8-12 game against Nebraska, which was a ridiculous display. Unfortunately, he’s still just 5-26 outside of that game recently, and has hit more than one three-pointer just once in the past seven games.
Still, he’s fifth in the conference in 3PM and, honestly, he’s attempting LESS three-pointers than he did last season, by a long shot. In fact, he’s actually shooting better from deep than last season, which is a frightening prospect when you think about him being even MORE of a chucker. Has he been figured out by the rest of the conference? Unlikely. Shooters like Smith have up and down performances, that can come in bunches. He was a valuable bench player up until now and Richard Pitino knows what he has in Smith. And Malik has figured out how to score when he’s not hot from deep, as we’ve seen him convert in the paint and flash a decent ability to get to the hoop. All shooters go through streaks, and a professional shooter like Smith didn’t get this far without being able to bust out of a slump. He’ll be fine.
