7 Games and a little over a month until the B!g Opener, what do you hope to see?

AZ Gopher

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The Gophers have 7 games to improve and put themselves in position to compete in the B1G. On paper, the Gophers should win all 7 games fairly easily which should lead to plenty of time to experiment and hopefully improve. I hope the following can occur during the next 7 games.

1. Develop a big man off the bench- Pitino has to find someone he can trust at the 4/5 spots beyond Elliott/Mo/Joey. One of Buggs, Martin, or Konate needs to become a consistent part of the rotation. The good news is that all three of those guys are significant upgrades athletically over the guys who are getting consistent minutes, the bad news is that Pitino has been unable to trust any of them to even consistently execute fundamental concepts of his offense/defense. With some less pressurized situations coming up, hopefully one or more of these guys can earn coaches trust. While I think Pitino might need to establish a quicker hook with some of his Seniors, he's going to need to let these guys make a few mistakes and see if they settle in.

2. Figure out the guard situation- It's fairly clear that Pitino would much rather not play Charles Buggs at the wing position. He clearly wants his "3" to be a ball handler and Buggs is not that guy. Coach is going to have to either relent and start using Buggs on the wing, or develop another option off the bench. It may sound crazy to say this, but he might need to start giving Kendal Shell regular rotation minutes. It's just a fact of basketball that trying to rely on four guys for three positions over the course of an entire season, simply isn't going to work. If we are going to continue to play aggressive defense on the perimeter, fouls will always be an issue and their is always the possibility of injury/illness as well. Whether it's Buggs or Shell, someone else has to get regular minutes from the 1-3 so that the team is prepared when adversity hits.

3. Challenge the Seniors: Don't allow Mo more than two dribbles in the post against any of these teams likely to check him with an undersized player. He's become Sampson-like in the post and it's going to continue to lead to turnovers against better competition. There should also be a quicker hook (minutes for Konate?) when Mo fails to defend or box out. Force Andre to handle the ball more, so that he gets over this Mav-like timidity with the basketball, get him back to creating shots for himself. Set goals for Eliason in the blocks/charges/rebounds categories and make him feel good when he reaches the targets. He's got to take pride in being our best interior defender again and not worry about his offensive game- a quick hook for Eliason when he takes a wild shot on offense or gestures wildly about a whistle (damn, Konate will have to play until he fouls out). Let Mathieu play with foul trouble if it arises again. Due to our lack of depth at guard/wing, it's not always going to be possible to sit Mathieu for extended minutes because he has two fouls in the first half. Let him play with fouls against North Dakota or Seattle because he's probably going to have to against Ohio State or Illinois. If he fouls out, maybe that will be the lesson he needs to walk the line between being aggressive and being foul prone. We need all four of these guys to play at a higher level than they have so far this season. The competition likely won't challenge our Seniors over the next month, so it's imperative that Pitino and his staff do.
 





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