Lineup Next Year

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I can't be the only person here who thinks Nate Mason starts at PG next year. I understand Dorsey is a 4-star coming in, but Mason actually started games at the 1 last year.
 

I think they'll both start. Mason will complement Dorsey very well off the ball, but when they are both on the floor whoever can get to the ball first will be the PG.
 

Pitino chimes in:

On the hole that Jonathan Nwankwo's release leaves the backcourt: "We're going to play Gas [sophomore Gaston Diedhiou] a lot at the backup five, so I think we've got two good guys there. That will then provide some flexibility with [freshman] Jordan Murphy because he is very flexible, he can play the four some, Buggs can play the four some, so I don't think that necessarily impacted the frontcourt."

On whether Murphy could challenge for the starting power forward spot:
[Senior] Joey King is just a veteran, he knows how to play. I think Joey will really help him. He's got more versatility than Joey does in that he can play the three. I like the fact that he can play multiple positions, that gives him opportunities to get on the court. But we got bigger with him and we got bigger with Ahmad, and that's what we set out to do.

http://www.startribune.com/tidbits-...st-gopher-road-trip-stop-in-spicer/305216131/

Go Gophers!!
 

howieramone chimes in:

Losing Nwankwo does impact the frontcourt. At some point in time you will need 10+ fouls at the 5. Now you only have 10 to give. Murphy can play the 3, but you brought him in to play the 4. With Morris, Gilbert, and Buggs at the 3, I seriously doubt we will ever see Murphy at the 3.
 

howieramone said:
howieramone chimes in:

Losing Nwankwo does impact the frontcourt. At some point in time you will need 10+ fouls at the 5. Now you only have 10 to give. Murphy can play the 3, but you brought him in to play the 4. With Morris, Gilbert, and Buggs at the 3, I seriously doubt we will ever see Murphy at the 3.
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Is the a rule somewhere you need to give ten plus fouls at the five spot? Wonder how many Wisconsin gives there a year and I'm talking even when they don't have a lottery five, Three, four a game? You can't be fouling that much and play winning basketball. Like the size Mcbrayer, Gilbert, Murphy add. Team defense and team rebounding can help make up for not having dominating big men.
 


Blackhammer said:
Is the a rule somewhere you need to give ten plus fouls at the five spot? Wonder how many Wisconsin gives there a year and I'm talking even when they don't have a lottery five, Three, four a game? You can't be fouling that much and play winning basketball. Like the size Mcbrayer, Gilbert, Murphy add. Team defense and team rebounding can help make up for not having dominating big men.
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Konate is a foul machine with 222 minutes of experience and Gaston is as raw a player as we have had in some time with approximately 60 minutes. Why did they recruit Nwankwo if they didn't need him? Classic coachspeak.
 

howieramone said:
Konate is a foul machine with 222 minutes of experience and Gaston is as raw a player as we have had in some time with approximately 60 minutes. Why did they recruit Nwankwo if they didn't need him? Classic coachspeak.
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Agreed. That's my concern. The argument going on and on about Murphy is meaningless. He's big enough to play the 4. IMO, the problem comes at C. I think Konate can do pretty well, but his fouling and his backup still concern me. Will be interesting to see how that goes.
 

scher215 said:
Agreed. That's my concern. The argument going on and on about Murphy is meaningless. He's big enough to play the 4. IMO, the problem comes at C. I think Konate can do pretty well, but his fouling and his backup still concern me. Will be interesting to see how that goes.
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Before I think the plan was to play Gaston at the 4 and the 5. Now he's a 5 for the coming year. Nwankwo would have been a 5.
 

Konate and Diedhiou will get a ton of playing time at the 5 this coming season. Which is perfect. They'll hone their game so they are ready to be solid bigs off the bench the following year when Lynch will be our starting 5.
 



Fluid situations

MadtownGopher said:
Konate and Diedhiou will get a ton of playing time at the 5 this coming season. Which is perfect. They'll hone their game so they are ready to be solid bigs off the bench the following year when Lynch will be our starting 5.
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Why doesn't Nwanko matter? Because we replaced him with Lynch and Nwanko wasn't likely to play much as a freshman when he was coming.
You could be right about Lynch but I think there is a good possibility Konate wins the job. He is much more mobile.
Agree with Blackhammer and it meshes with Pitino's philosophy too...you can't foul and win. It's not a formula for success.
Murphy will play a lot of 3. Pitino just said as much. Joey is the 4.
 

Isn't the point of getting so many versatile players is that you can shift and change spots on the fly in the game? Guys with long wingspans and quick feet that can play a pestering defense that just gets others teams out of their comfort zone. Doesn't that blur the line between who is the the 1, 2.... 5?

More akin to chess instead of smash mouth football.
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howieramone said:
Konate is a foul machine with 222 minutes of experience and Gaston is as raw a player as we have had in some time with approximately 60 minutes. Why did they recruit Nwankwo if they didn't need him? Classic coachspeak.
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Konate fouled at a rate of 1.6 fouls per 8.9 minutes last year. If he doesn't learn a single thing about fouling that would give him enough fouls to play 28 minutes per game. I think he will learn. We will be alright for center PT if there are no serious injuries.
 

Will we ever see these five on the floor together next year?

PG - Dorsey
SG - Johnson
SF - McBrayer
PF - Gilbert
C - Murphy

All five freshman out at once in a small ball, maximize the athleticism lineup! Probably would have to run a match-up zone to be effective. But I think they would be fun to watch!
 



bga1 said:
We will be alright for center PT if there are no serious injuries.
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Here is a list of all the players in the BIG who are 6'10" or taller.

Purdue(hammonds, haas), Iowa(woodbury), Maryland(Dodd, Stone*), Ohio state(Giddens*), Indiana(Bryant*), Illinois(Maverick Morgan), Northwestern(Olah), Nebraska(jake Hammond), Penn St. (Jordan dickerson, julian moore), Rutgers(Dooreson), Minnesota(Konate).

*denotes incoming freshmen.

Thats 14 players on 11 teams one of which is us. My point to this post is players who are 6'7" can(with long arms and some strength) guard players who are 6'9" no problem. only once there gets the be a 3" size difference does it really start to show. We will be perfectly fine on the defensive end of the ball this season(in terms of height). Remember we have king, Buggs, Diedhiou all listed at 6'9" with a backup plan of Jordan murphy (6'7" wit a 7'+ wingspan). I really am not worried too much about our post defense(though having Buggs guard man to man against Hammonds is not something I'd like to see, we'd probably have to play zone)
 

bga1 said:
Konate fouled at a rate of 1.6 fouls per 8.9 minutes last year. If he doesn't learn a single thing about fouling that would give him enough fouls to play 28 minutes per game. I think he will learn. We will be alright for center PT if there are no serious injuries.
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Take the ball right at Konate. Get 2 quick fouls and put him on the bench early in the first half and get Gaston on the floor.
 

howieramone said:
Take the ball right at Konate. Get 2 quick fouls and put him on the bench early in the first half and get Gaston on the floor.
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Are there enough teams with a huge strength scoring in the offensive post? Why play that way if you are Michigan? Wisconsin doesn't have a dominant center lined up. Msu? What about Nebraska? Sure maybe that works if you are Maryland, but Maryland won't find a tough time getting good match ups against us.

Relax everyone. This year is a building year. Deal with it and hope that Konate learns instead of clamoring that he's not good enough. He had offensive moves by the end of the year that were pretty polished for a 'raw' freshman.


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bc2211 said:
Are there enough teams with a huge strength scoring in the offensive post? Why play that way if you are Michigan? Wisconsin doesn't have a dominant center lined up. Msu? What about Nebraska? Sure maybe that works if you are Maryland, but Maryland won't find a tough time getting good match ups against us.

Relax everyone. This year is a building year. Deal with it and hope that Konate learns instead of clamoring that he's not good enough. He had offensive moves by the end of the year that were pretty polished for a 'raw' freshman.


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What am I supposed to deal with? I've already posted they will win no more than 4-6 B1G games this season, and am actually trying to figure out if our new recruits will get us on the bubble in 2016/17. By take the ball right at Konate, I'm not restricting it to post players.
 

howieramone said:
What am I supposed to deal with? I've already posted they will win no more than 4-6 B1G games this season, and am actually trying to figure out if our new recruits will get us on the bubble in 2016/17. By take the ball right at Konate, I'm not restricting it to post players.
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Anybody who thinks our lack of size in the paint isn't a problem for 2015/16 is delusional and doesn't understand how small lineups work.

We need Murphy to be much better than advertised, King to be a different player in terms of strength/athleticism, and for Konate to go from marginal B10 player on a good day to a legitimate rim protector. I'm not saying all 3 things can't happen, but I have no idea why anybody would assume they will. We will probably get 1 of the 3.

Things will look much better once Lynch is eligible in 2016/17, but I just hope the 2015/16 fall isn't as hard as it might be with the current roster.
 

jwhoops said:
Anybody who thinks our lack of size in the paint isn't a problem for 2015/16 is delusional and doesn't understand how small lineups work
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Kontae a legit 7'er, Gas is a big strong fella, King is a senior with a lot of starts/minutes.

Buggs and Murphy are long.

Morris and Gilbert are 6'-6".

Real 'small' team.
 

I was assuming that those who might read my post would have watched a basketball game before, and might understand that being tall without being effective is meaningless, that they have to be tall and good at basketball. My fault on that.

Would you like to come up with some sort of bet on the effectiveness of the gopher frontcourt this year?
 


jwhoops said:
Things will look much better once Lynch is eligible in 2016/17, but I just hope the 2015/16 fall isn't as hard as it might be with the current roster.
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Fall from what? We were 6-12 last year. Our interior depth would be a problem if we were a legit contender in 2015/16 trying to win nearly every game, but isn't a priority when you're looking at winning 5-6 games again, getting young guys experience for the future, and adding another 6-10 beast in the middle next year.

I think Konate's going to be good. Pitino thinks Konate's going to be really good (he's said so). We'll probably lose some games this year because he gets in foul trouble and the smaller backups have to play too many minutes at the 5. But I think the coaching staff looks at this as a building year and isn't concerned with a couple extra losses. Basically they chose to add high-upside Fitzgerald (who can't help this year) with the last scholarship instead of a low-upside freshman or grad transfer C who could've provided another body in the middle this year.
 

WanderingGopher said:
Fall from what? We were 6-12 last year.

But I think the coaching staff looks at this as a building year and isn't concerned with a couple extra losses. Basically they chose to add high-upside Fitzgerald (who can't help this year) with the last scholarship instead of a low-upside freshman or grad transfer C who could've provided another body in the middle this year.
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I would agree but I have mixed feelings about that, particularly since last year was so disappointing. I can still enjoy next season but it will require having a perspective of viewing next season strictly as a developmental one.

Fitzgerald still seems like somewhat of an odd pickup under the circumstances. Pitino just recruited two prospective small forwards and Fitzgerald's freshman year stats give the impression of a less efficient Carlos Morris.
 

Now that we know the full roster, a guess at opening night starting lineup:

G: Mason
G: Johnson
F: Morris
F: King
C: Konate
 

Letting Nwankwo go was right thing to do

Nwankwo was a project, that's why they did the right thing & let him pursue another opportunity. If they thought he was a true difference-maker they would have waited it out to see what happens with the NCAA issues. At least now Nwankwo has a chance to latch on with a school/coach more willing to take the risk on a marginal recruit. Good move by Pitino, because he probably got better players in the meantime.
 

SelectionSunday said:
Now that we know the full roster, a guess at opening night starting lineup:

G: Mason
G: Johnson
F: Morris
F: King
C: Konate
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I'll go:

Dorsey
Mason
Murphy
King
Konate

Pitino seemed extra excited about the Murphy signing so I think he's a starter from day one. Could end up being at the 4 if King is unimpressive and another wing develops quickly.
 

SelectionSunday said:
Nwankwo was a project, that's why they did the right thing & let him pursue another opportunity. If they thought he was a true difference-maker they would have waited it out to see what happens with the NCAA issues. At least now Nwankwo has a chance to latch on with a school/coach more willing to take the risk on a marginal recruit. Good move by Pitino, because he probably got better players in the meantime.
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Long term it was a good move. For next season, the hole just got a little bit deeper.
 

howieramone said:
Long term it was a good move. For next season, the hole just got a little bit deeper.
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punternfl.jpg
 

MadtownGopher said:
I'll go:

Dorsey
Mason
Murphy
King
Konate

Pitino seemed extra excited about the Murphy signing so I think he's a starter from day one. Could end up being at the 4 if King is unimpressive and another wing develops quickly.
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Murphy's not eligible until 2016, both Lynch and Murphy will see their first court time that year, it sure seems like next year is going to be a rebuilding year.
 

jovs said:
Murphy's not eligible until 2016, both Lynch and Murphy will see their first court time that year, it sure seems like next year is going to be a rebuilding year.
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You're thinking Fitzgerald. Murphy is eligible this year.
 

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