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The Good, The Bad and The Interesting: The Well, Here We Are, What Happened? Edition
By zipsofakron
http://www.gopherhole.com/news_article/show/475563?referrer_id=
I guess I’ll say it again. Funny how things can change in a month. After rolling through non-conference cupcakes like butter, the Gophers at least looked like a team that could be taken seriously in the Big Ten. Sure, you never know what you’re going to get after killing a slate of nobodies in November and December, but at least the team looked competitive against equal BCS conference competition.
But, as this game continues to show, you never really can know. Who knew that Gophers had no on-court leadership with a team full of veterans? Who knew they’d be so fragile that they’d let multiple sizeable leads slip through their fingers on a nightly basis. What was a brief glimmer of promise quickly evaporated into snarky hopes for a return to the NIT .. at best.
An 0-5 start is basically insurmountable, no matter how you slice it. And in a conference with quite a bit of parity, you need to rattle off a pretty impressive string of games to even battle back to .500, let alone get in the conversation of being an upper-tier team. And while the Gophers have kinda turned things around, at least comparatively, they’re still a long ways from saving the season, and a recent loss to Penn State does nothing to assuage the idea that they’re just not that good this year.
Is it over? No. But with 8 games left to get it together and two dates with Bucky in the offing, the expectations of this team compared to late December have changed dramatically.
GOOD: Andre Hollins is NOT dead
Hollins certainly did a great disappearing act to start the Big Ten season. Though he went through the non-conference season in fairly up and down fashion, he shot well from the field and converted when he could. He didn’t take over games, but that’s was simply because he didn’t have to. However, nothing could prepare us for the trainwreck that accompanied the start of the Big Ten. Consider that in first five games of the conference season Hollins shot an abysmal 21%. This included lines of 2-10, 1-9 and 2-12 from the field. For a team screaming for a leader to arise from a season already up in smoke, Hollins was nowhere near the reins. It was eerily reminiscent of the untimely slump that Austin Hollins ran into a couple seasons ago. It stung a little more, too, since the Gophers were so desperate for a leader on the court to turn to when things get tough. Hollins was the one guy the team couldn’t afford to lose mentally.
Perhaps responding the cries of someone, ANYONE to kickstart the team and avoid a further plunge into the depths of mediocrity, Hollins finally has his season back on track in a big way. In the last five games, he’s averaged 22 points while shooting a savvy 56% from the field. And his three pointers are clicking as well. While it hasn’t resulted in five straight wins, at the very least we can be assured that Hollins hasn’t fallen apart in his final season. Believe it or not, in fact, he has the highest FG% and 3P% of his career as we speak. Hard to believe after such a conspicuous slump.
BAD: Deandre Mathieu is missing
It feels weird to write this merely weeks after I called out how special Mathieu’s season had been up until the start of Big Ten season, but since then it has truly done a 180. Until the Purdue opener, Mathieu was among the conference leaders in assists per game, steals per game and assist/turnover ratio, was frequently scoring in double digits and largely had his turnovers under control. In fact, when he was playing his best, he was one of the scariest players on the court since he could hurt teams in so many ways.
Yet, once the Big Ten season started everything changed. Turnovers games in droves, assists dwindled and steals basically became non-existent. And while he gained it back, Mathieu even lost his starting spot to a true freshman in Nate Mason. Unfortunately, he still hasn’t really recovered. While he’s not expected to be an offensive threat, he’s scored in double digits once since January 7th, and hasn’t topped five assists in a game since UNC-Wilmington. He’s fouling more, not getting to the line as much and, on paper and in person, doesn’t look like the MVP he was last season. It’s tough not to feel for a guy who went through so much to come out on top, but as the season wears on and the Gophers continue to drop winnable games, it’s hard not to see the writing on the wall for the future of Nate Mason, and the reversal of fortune for Deandre Mathieu.
INTERESTING: Remember Elliott Eliason?
At one point in time Elliott Eliason looked to be one of the next big time centers in the Big Ten. No, I’m serious. He was lanky, sure, but somehow he got the job done. He was gritty, goofy and a menace on the defensive end. And he could score, somehow.
That’s the part no one seems to remember, and something I bring up from time to time. You’d never know it now, but at one point, Eliason was piling on the points and was a daily double-double threat. This even happened in conference play as recently as last year.
Hop into the Way Back Machine to January 16, 2014. The Gophers had just beaten then-#11 Ohio State at home to jump to 3-2 in the Big Ten. Eliason had scored 12 points and pulled down 13 rebounds for his sixth double-double of the season and racked up 33 minutes. In fact, it was the eighth straight game he’d played 24 minutes or more. In this span he’d averaged 9 points and 10 rebounds per game. And most of those games came against conference opponents. Things were certainly looking rosy for Eliason in his junior season.
But that was the end. Almost literally. That game was the last time Eliason would either score in double digits, grab double digit rebounds or even top 30 minutes in a game. In fact, since that game, a span of 43 games, he’s scored 8 points only twice and has topped 7 rebounds only a single time. This season, he hasn’t had a single game where he’s managed 20 minutes of court time. In three games against Rutgers, Nebraska and Illinois, he played a TOTAL of 8 minutes.
Granted, with Mo Walker dominating as the starting center, there is less room for Eliason to make a mark. But I still find it astounding that as recently as a few games into the conference season last year, Eliason was an actual double-double threat. Like, he was a dangerous player. Yet, after that one game against Ohio State, he literally devolved into a clear backup overnight.
What happened?
By zipsofakron
http://www.gopherhole.com/news_article/show/475563?referrer_id=
I guess I’ll say it again. Funny how things can change in a month. After rolling through non-conference cupcakes like butter, the Gophers at least looked like a team that could be taken seriously in the Big Ten. Sure, you never know what you’re going to get after killing a slate of nobodies in November and December, but at least the team looked competitive against equal BCS conference competition.
But, as this game continues to show, you never really can know. Who knew that Gophers had no on-court leadership with a team full of veterans? Who knew they’d be so fragile that they’d let multiple sizeable leads slip through their fingers on a nightly basis. What was a brief glimmer of promise quickly evaporated into snarky hopes for a return to the NIT .. at best.
An 0-5 start is basically insurmountable, no matter how you slice it. And in a conference with quite a bit of parity, you need to rattle off a pretty impressive string of games to even battle back to .500, let alone get in the conversation of being an upper-tier team. And while the Gophers have kinda turned things around, at least comparatively, they’re still a long ways from saving the season, and a recent loss to Penn State does nothing to assuage the idea that they’re just not that good this year.
Is it over? No. But with 8 games left to get it together and two dates with Bucky in the offing, the expectations of this team compared to late December have changed dramatically.
GOOD: Andre Hollins is NOT dead
Hollins certainly did a great disappearing act to start the Big Ten season. Though he went through the non-conference season in fairly up and down fashion, he shot well from the field and converted when he could. He didn’t take over games, but that’s was simply because he didn’t have to. However, nothing could prepare us for the trainwreck that accompanied the start of the Big Ten. Consider that in first five games of the conference season Hollins shot an abysmal 21%. This included lines of 2-10, 1-9 and 2-12 from the field. For a team screaming for a leader to arise from a season already up in smoke, Hollins was nowhere near the reins. It was eerily reminiscent of the untimely slump that Austin Hollins ran into a couple seasons ago. It stung a little more, too, since the Gophers were so desperate for a leader on the court to turn to when things get tough. Hollins was the one guy the team couldn’t afford to lose mentally.
Perhaps responding the cries of someone, ANYONE to kickstart the team and avoid a further plunge into the depths of mediocrity, Hollins finally has his season back on track in a big way. In the last five games, he’s averaged 22 points while shooting a savvy 56% from the field. And his three pointers are clicking as well. While it hasn’t resulted in five straight wins, at the very least we can be assured that Hollins hasn’t fallen apart in his final season. Believe it or not, in fact, he has the highest FG% and 3P% of his career as we speak. Hard to believe after such a conspicuous slump.
BAD: Deandre Mathieu is missing
It feels weird to write this merely weeks after I called out how special Mathieu’s season had been up until the start of Big Ten season, but since then it has truly done a 180. Until the Purdue opener, Mathieu was among the conference leaders in assists per game, steals per game and assist/turnover ratio, was frequently scoring in double digits and largely had his turnovers under control. In fact, when he was playing his best, he was one of the scariest players on the court since he could hurt teams in so many ways.
Yet, once the Big Ten season started everything changed. Turnovers games in droves, assists dwindled and steals basically became non-existent. And while he gained it back, Mathieu even lost his starting spot to a true freshman in Nate Mason. Unfortunately, he still hasn’t really recovered. While he’s not expected to be an offensive threat, he’s scored in double digits once since January 7th, and hasn’t topped five assists in a game since UNC-Wilmington. He’s fouling more, not getting to the line as much and, on paper and in person, doesn’t look like the MVP he was last season. It’s tough not to feel for a guy who went through so much to come out on top, but as the season wears on and the Gophers continue to drop winnable games, it’s hard not to see the writing on the wall for the future of Nate Mason, and the reversal of fortune for Deandre Mathieu.
INTERESTING: Remember Elliott Eliason?
At one point in time Elliott Eliason looked to be one of the next big time centers in the Big Ten. No, I’m serious. He was lanky, sure, but somehow he got the job done. He was gritty, goofy and a menace on the defensive end. And he could score, somehow.
That’s the part no one seems to remember, and something I bring up from time to time. You’d never know it now, but at one point, Eliason was piling on the points and was a daily double-double threat. This even happened in conference play as recently as last year.
Hop into the Way Back Machine to January 16, 2014. The Gophers had just beaten then-#11 Ohio State at home to jump to 3-2 in the Big Ten. Eliason had scored 12 points and pulled down 13 rebounds for his sixth double-double of the season and racked up 33 minutes. In fact, it was the eighth straight game he’d played 24 minutes or more. In this span he’d averaged 9 points and 10 rebounds per game. And most of those games came against conference opponents. Things were certainly looking rosy for Eliason in his junior season.
But that was the end. Almost literally. That game was the last time Eliason would either score in double digits, grab double digit rebounds or even top 30 minutes in a game. In fact, since that game, a span of 43 games, he’s scored 8 points only twice and has topped 7 rebounds only a single time. This season, he hasn’t had a single game where he’s managed 20 minutes of court time. In three games against Rutgers, Nebraska and Illinois, he played a TOTAL of 8 minutes.
Granted, with Mo Walker dominating as the starting center, there is less room for Eliason to make a mark. But I still find it astounding that as recently as a few games into the conference season last year, Eliason was an actual double-double threat. Like, he was a dangerous player. Yet, after that one game against Ohio State, he literally devolved into a clear backup overnight.
What happened?
