2009-10 Gopher Strengths/Weaknesses

Donate To GopherHole
Tater

Tater

f.k.a. "Tubtastic"
Joined
Dec 1, 2008
Messages
1,144
Reaction score
14
Points
38
In an effort to start a conversation not involving criminal allegations, what are your preseason predictions for the Gophers' strengths and weaknesses for this upcoming season (assuming we have everyone on our current roster for this Fall playing).

Here are mine:
Strengths: Defense and Rebounding
Weakness: 3-point shooting
 


It appears there is talent on this team -overall to match any we have had in years. The concern to me is getting some inspiring guard play when games are on the line. We lack - as of the moment - the guy who will put the team on his back when the game is on the line. Perhaps someone will step up and take the mantle. Bobby Jackson did that his senior year after an up and down junior season. I don't see that guy here yet but maybe someone will step up. Usually- come tournament time, the guards end up determining how far you can go.

Everything else about this team is looking good. This team should have rebounding and defense to spare. The ability to continually throw out fresh troops and to play without fear of fouling a star out is certainly an advantage. The depth is going to be incredible.
 

bga1 said:
It appears there is talent on this team -overall to match any we have had in years. The concern to me is getting some inspiring guard play when games are on the line. We lack - as of the moment - the guy who will put the team on his back when the game is on the line. Perhaps someone will step up and take the mantle. Bobby Jackson did that his senior year after an up and down junior season. I don't see that guy here yet but maybe someone will step up. Usually- come tournament time, the guards end up determining how far you can go.

Everything else about this team is looking good. This team should have rebounding and defense to spare. The ability to continually throw out fresh troops and to play without fear of fouling a star out is certainly an advantage. The depth is going to be incredible.
Click to expand...

is there a reason why you are completely disregarding Lawrence Westbrook? It seems to me that he's a guard and he put the team on his back twice against Wisconsin and he gave us inspiring guard play. No?
 

Westbrook would fall into the "up and down junior season" as well.

Not sure he can fill the mold. I would rather Devoe step up and be the guy, but I doubt LW will see a big cut in minutes unless somebody shows up at the 2 as an absolute star.
 


Tubtastic said:
In an effort to start a conversation not involving criminal allegations, what are your preseason predictions for the Gophers' strengths and weaknesses for this upcoming season (assuming we have everyone on our current roster for this Fall playing).

Here are mine:
Strengths: Defense and Rebounding
Weakness: 3-point shooting
Click to expand...

3-point shooting?? How about anything outside of 10-feet?

and ballhandling.... last year the Gophers led the Big Ten in steals and still finished with the second worse turnover ratio in the conference.

Unless newcomer Justin Cobbs comes in and shocks us all with big time contributions, I don't see where the Gophers have addressed these issues.
 

Stan said:
is there a reason why you are completely disregarding Lawrence Westbrook? It seems to me that he's a guard and he put the team on his back twice against Wisconsin and he gave us inspiring guard play. No?
Click to expand...

You make a good point Stan- he did fit the definition of inspiring in a number of games. My concern about Westbrook is that he can vary so widely depending on the matchup. He's a tough player and there are nights where he will be great but in others....

I'd love to see him have a great year.
 

To me it all hinges on Al Nolen's development and/or how well Cobbs does coming in. We have lots of talent/athleticism, but if the PG situation doesn't get better it could be frustrating on the offensive side of the ball.
 

Our strengths will be rebounding, defense and post offense (I hope)

Our weakness will clearly be scoring from the guards as of right now. We need penetration and outside shooting and we got neither consistently last year. LW needs to be at least a decent ball handler and be more consistent. Al needs to be able to be at least a mediocre shooter and a finisher at the basket. Devoe needs to be more confident and aggressive
 



oleboy41 said:
Our strengths will be rebounding, defense and post offense (I hope)

Our weakness will clearly be scoring from the guards as of right now. We need penetration and outside shooting and we got neither consistently last year. LW needs to be at least a decent ball handler and be more consistent. Al needs to be able to be at least a mediocre shooter and a finisher at the basket. Devoe needs to be more confident and aggressive
Click to expand...

The reason that last year our guards did not perform well was because we did not have a strong inside game. Our guards were defended so badly. Westbrook, Devoe, and Hof will be so much better this year. Al will have so many options when he penetrates. He can either go for the basket or find our great front men. Teams will be busy defending our inside people that will leave the outside people wide open. It is going to be a fun season.

Go Gophers.
 

Strengths

I think a very important part will be the play of Justin Cobbs. If he is able to handle miniutes at the pg spot with Nolen it will free up Devoe to play the 2 guard which he is much better suited for. Devoe has shown in the past that he can be a very good 3 pt shooter-especially if he doesn't have to worry about playing pg.

Many basketball people say the biggest improvement in players is from their frosh year to their soph year. I look for big years from Devoe, Ralf and Colt.
 

station19 said:
I think a very important part will be the play of Justin Cobbs. If he is able to handle miniutes at the pg spot with Nolen it will free up Devoe to play the 2 guard which he is much better suited for. Devoe has shown in the past that he can be a very good 3 pt shooter-especially if he doesn't have to worry about playing pg.

Many basketball people say the biggest improvement in players is from their frosh year to their soph year. I look for big years from Devoe, Ralf and Colt.
Click to expand...

Great points. Totally agree.
 

At a certain level, I want to say that we honestly won't know what this team's strengths and weaknesses are until we see them play a bunch of games. Yeah, we can go off of what we saw last year, but the fact of the matter is that there are too many variables at work (an extra year of experience for everybody, off-season and summer workouts, impact of newcomers) to know for sure.

We can guess that the team will be big upfront, pretty athletic on the wings and play pretty good defense. After that, it's hard to know for sure. Would I like to see better outside shooting from last year? Absolutely. And obviously, we need to have improvements over last year. But as to strengths and weaknesses? It's all guesswork at this point.
 



I Think Gophers Can Win 25+ Games

And compete for Top 3 spot in Big 10.

It's a slow process but 9-22 to 20-14 to 22-11 is in the right direction.

Gophers have 5 good F, 2 good C, 4 good SG, and 3 good PG (counting Bryant Allen).
 

MRJ said:
And obviously, we need to have improvements over last year. But as to strengths and weaknesses? It's all guesswork at this point.
Click to expand...
Great point! Spoken like a true j#*@karse. Of course this is guesswork. That's the whole idea behind asking people to predict something. Great job though figuring that out.
 

I tend to think the post position is still key. With a young Colt and Ralph we couldn't control inside. Let's hope this weakness becomes a strength and they can distribute the ball - in and back out- to open shooters or finish inside. They got pushed around and couldn't push back without fouling. The last game with Texas was a prime example Let's hope to see Colt and/or Ralph play like Blake Griffin. That would be a strength!
 

Obey: you are spot-on in your analysis. Also, I don't have confidence that AN will be improved this year.
 

Tubtastic said:
Great point! Spoken like a true j#*@karse. Of course this is guesswork. That's the whole idea behind asking people to predict something. Great job though figuring that out.
Click to expand...

Wow. Didn't know not making a complete guess about what the team's strengths and weaknesses might be qualified me as a jackass. Oh well. Carry on. :rolleyes:
 

station19 said:
I think a very important part will be the play of Justin Cobbs. If he is able to handle miniutes at the pg spot with Nolen it will free up Devoe to play the 2 guard which he is much better suited for. Devoe has shown in the past that he can be a very good 3 pt shooter-especially if he doesn't have to worry about playing pg.

Many basketball people say the biggest improvement in players is from their frosh year to their soph year. I look for big years from Devoe, Ralf and Colt.
Click to expand...

station19, your posts are always good ... thank you.
 

Minnesota needs a shooter, that's obvious. If Blake can return to his freshman form, that will help, but it won't solve the problem. The great thing about this team, though, is that everyone is going to have to push themselves to see the floor. There is some level of competition at EVERY position. I think this could bring the best out in each player.
Let's assume (NOT BECAUSE I THINK HE DID IT) that Trevor cannot return, here is what things could look like:

PG-Joseph
G-Westbrook
F-Johnson
F-White
C-Iverson

PG-Nolen
G-Hoffarber
F/G-Williams
F-Carter
F-Sampson

Let me say this, if Trevor remains eligible -- and I HOPE he does --, this could be a pretty nasty 9-man rotation with Royce sliding to the second team, at least right away.
 

Weisbrod said:
Minnesota needs a shooter, that's obvious. If Blake can return to his freshman form, that will help, but it won't solve the problem. The great thing about this team, though, is that everyone is going to have to push themselves to see the floor. There is some level of competition at EVERY position. I think this could bring the best out in each player.
Let's assume (NOT BECAUSE I THINK HE DID IT) that Trevor cannot return, here is what things could look like:

PG-Joseph
G-Westbrook
F-Johnson
F-White
C-Iverson

PG-Nolen
G-Hoffarber
F/G-Williams
F-Carter
F-Sampson

Let me say this, if Trevor remains eligible -- and I HOPE he does --, this could be a pretty nasty 9-man rotation with Royce sliding to the second team, at least right away.
Click to expand...

If we are forced to play Joseph at PG, we won't be having a good season. Devoe is much better suited for SG, and keep in mind it will be good to get him thriving in that position so he can take over from Westbrook next season.
 

Strength: Depth. This team can go 2 deep at every position on the floor with solid basketball players.

Weakness: Lack of a go to guy. While Royce seems to have the qualities to become a go to guy, he'll only be a freshman. The Gophers lack a player that can get twenty against anyone and perhaps more importantly isolate one on one and get a big bucket in the last minutes of a game.

Rebounding could be a strength but that assumes Trevor is here and Ralph and Colton take a significant step forward.

Guard play will be a key as Nolen seemed to regress as the season went on and Justin Cobbs is an unknown to most of us. Westbrook and Joseph both seem more comfortable off the ball.

One thing I hope is that Tubby either commits to playing an uptempo style or works on the half court offense extensively during the non-conference season. It is my opinion that the Gophers got a lot of easy baskets in transition during last years non-conference season, but then struggled to score in the half cout once the Big Ten rolled around.
 

The Big L said:
If we are forced to play Joseph at PG, we won't be having a good season. Devoe is much better suited for SG, and keep in mind it will be good to get him thriving in that position so he can take over from Westbrook next season.
Click to expand...

Great point. Gophers should keep Joseph off the ball to free him up on the perimeter with Hoffarber. That means Cobbs will need to step up and gobble minutes on the second team.
On another note, I hope Mbakwe plays. In my opinion, he is the guy that could make the biggest impact. Apparently ESPN.com has him nabbed as the Preseason Newcomer of the Year for the Big Ten. Having Mbakwe would also keep Tubby from being forced to possibly play Rodney Williams as a freshman. Personally, I think he is a perfect red-shirt type player. He's got the athletic skills, but a tiny frame. Weight room and shooting drills could make this kid a dynamic player some day...just not in 09-10.
 

You must log in or register to reply here.



Top Bottom