Current game of Mi. Hurt

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SelectionSunday said:
Jim Shikenjanski, Eric Harris, both guys I wondered WTH Clem was thinking when he recruited them after watching their freshman and maybe even sophomore seasons. Turned out OK for Shik and Harris.
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Damian Johnson- utterly useless his redshirt freshman season, was not highly recruited. Turned into a very good player.
 

He must be showing something in practice to see floor time - no way can you jump in for 2-3 minutes and do something that impresses the casual fan - he moves well, has size and if you've seen the stories and video on him a strong work ethic. Every player gets better as they mature at that age ( unless they've matured early) Hurts got a baby face and looks like a late bloomer.
 

LakerFan said:
Looks like the kind of kid we would have put on the floor last year. Undertanlented and overmatched. In the last 10 years I've never seen a kid at his relative talent amount to a significant player. He's small, not overly strong, not a great ball handler and not a great shooter. Defensively I haven't noticed him much so he's probably all right. If he was terrible at defense they would abuse him more when he is out there. Basically he can spell a guard or small forward for 2-3 minutes and as long as he doesn't touch the ball on offense he won't hurt you.
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So far - I would compare him to Abu Shamala, who made some pretty nice contributions over his career.
 

Ok can people stop with the "Coffey and Curry" are phenomenal recruits bit? Coffey has been very good. Better than I was expecting. He's not "phenomenal." Curry has been a nice surprise and a useful rotation guy. I like him and I think he'll be a good 4-year player. He hasn't been "phenomenal" though.

Whatever you think of Coffey and Curry, it's okay to want more out of Hurt too. His lack of production has nothing to do with those two guys. He hasn't been good. I tend to think he would've been a redshirt candidate had Fitzgerald not gotten hurt and it shows because his shot is too slow and he's not athletic enough to play reliable minutes in major college basketball right now.

Doesn't mean he won't become a nice player. He very well might. And I tend to think he'll be a nice bench guy throughout his career. Never a starter but a good 8th or 9th man on a good team.

He's just not there yet.
 

ethomasp31 said:
I went and saw the John Marshall vs Mayo game last Saturday....and it was so awful to watch. JM was up about 35 by halftime, but it was like watching a pickup game at the "Y". Almost like a layup drill. JM has a few other very good players....and I know that Lakeville North and Reuvers are in their section, but this is the year JM might be able to make it to state.

I agree though....his younger brother is going to be one of the top players in the country in his class. I heard Roy Williams was at the game the week before against Austin.
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That JM team is the same as every JM team. Undisciplined. They look amazing against bad teams because they out-athletic people. When they can't do that, they don't have the discipline to grind against quality clubs. They got murdered by Champlin Park and murdered by Hopkins. Lakeville North is that kind of team. They've got a superior coach and superior depth.
 


Hurt will be fine. He needs to get a little stronger and by the time he is an upperclassman he will be a very solid player. I thought the turnover that people are talking about against Maryland was more on Mason not meeting the pass. Hurt has struggled shooting the ball this season but was a very good HS shooter and I think he still will end up a good shooter at the college level. I like him seeing some backup minutes behind Coffey. He is a guy you can count on to compete and has a high basketball IQ.
 

He's adjusting to the speed of the game, he can shoot, if he can hit a couple and get his confidence up a bit he will be fine.
 

ahem

Ok Curry hasn't been phenomenal, but Coffey has. He is putting up the best freshmen SF numbers in at least a decade or longer.

12ppg, 3.8 reb, 3.1 ass, 1.1 stls, 46% FG, 74%FT, 32% on 3's. I also imagine his 30 points against St. John's is among the highest among Gopher freshmen in quite a while.

As far as Hurt is concerned, there has been redshirt talk about him on this board for over a year now so your bringing nothing new. Not all freshmen look good, especially if one of your main assets is 3pt shooting and your struggling with your shot.



Biggsohnasty said:
Ok can people stop with the "Coffey and Curry" are phenomenal recruits bit? Coffey has been very good. Better than I was expecting.
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Take a look at Michael Hurt's face.....he looks like he's 12 years old and in the midst of puberty. He's going to get bigger and stronger and he'll end up being a fine 4 year player. I could see him ending up like Nigel Hayes....
 



cheeseheadgophfan said:
Take a look at Michael Hurt's face.....he looks like he's 12 years old and in the midst of puberty. He's going to get bigger and stronger and he'll end up being a fine 4 year player. I could see him ending up like Nigel Hayes....
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Too bad this year was wasted. Should have rs him.
 

BarnBurner said:
Too bad this year was wasted. Should have rs him.
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Basketball isn't football. There really aren't that many redshirts each year and even fewer players who are willing to take one. Plus, we are light at the 1-3 positions and if Pitino thought he was better than Gilbert then he needed a 5th 1-3 position player.
 

He is a smart player and a good defender. He needs to have shots created for him to get into a rhythm. I wish when he was towards the corner, the guard near him would drive to the lane to suck down his defender, give him a kick out for an open 3 a few times doing that. Instead, the play is always designed as him being the middle guy in the passing rotation, where he gets it away from the 3 point line and his job is to pass it right away.
 

He will improve. he seems like he is playing tight. He doesn't want to take any chances and is playing very cautious. That will change. You cannot give up on a guy 1/2 way through his freshmen season!
 



I thought he has done a decent job when he has been in there as a true freshman. He will bring things to the table as he grows into his body and thr pace. I expect him to contribute as a junior and senior.
 

Only on Gopherhole do you see posters telling guys who do shoot, not to shoot. And guys who don't shoot, to shoot.
 

What I've observed of Hurt to this point is a kid who is very fundamentally solid on both ends of the court who might not be ready from a physical standpoint for B1G basketball. He's played a grand total of 20 minutes in this 5 game losing streak with 8 of those minutes coming in the blowout at Michigan State. So he's had 12 minutes of floor time in the 4 games the Gophers had every opportunity to win. It's hard for any player to get comfortable in such short minutes, but especially a freshman.

The Gophers are basically playing with 9 scholarship guys right now when you consider that 4 scholarships are going to Fitzgerald (injured) Diedhiou (hasn't played in conference play), Gilbert (hasn't played in conference play), and Haugh (walk on). There was just no way to redshirt Hurt.

On a big picture level, I am disappointed that only the 5th year Senior Akeem Springs can be pointed to as a guy who has improved as this season has went on. I think you could argue that all of Mason, McBrayer and Murphy are all actually performing worse than they did earlier in the season while Curry, Coffey, Lynch and Konate have stayed about the same. Hopefully, that changes in the second half of conference play.
 

He appears to have some potential to be a good not great player in his Junior or Senior year and hopefully can find a fit on offense, (too small for a 4 and not quick enough to be a 2) If he gets his 3 pt shot down he could be a good 6th man at the 3 or maybe 4 if he gets stronger. But to put in bluntly he is really here to help bring his brother here. Not saying he's bad or doesn't have a chance to be a good player in the future, just he helps in recruiting Matt.
 

EG#9 said:
What I've observed of Hurt to this point is a kid who is very fundamentally solid on both ends of the court who might not be ready from a physical standpoint for B1G basketball. He's played a grand total of 20 minutes in this 5 game losing streak with 8 of those minutes coming in the blowout at Michigan State. So he's had 12 minutes of floor time in the 4 games the Gophers had every opportunity to win. It's hard for any player to get comfortable in such short minutes, but especially a freshman.
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Michael Hurt is 6-7, 200 lbs. and he is not an awkward body type - he IS physically ready for B1G competition. If you have observed him being fundamentally solid on the offensive end of the court then I'm very curious when those possessions occurred. When Hurt is in the game, I can totally see the PG of the moment NOT want to include him in that offensive set. It's as if we are playing short-handed when he's on the court. Now, your point of him only getting 12 minutes in the four meaningful games is a fair point with regard to getting into a comfort level, but that would suggest that there is truly an upside to cultivate. I have NOT seen this upside. I do not understand why Pitino is giving #42 any minutes at all. I'd go back to Gilbert for these limited minutes when Coffey needs a break and I don't think it's even close to a "tough call."
 

TheMetroTheFaust said:
Michael Hurt is 6-7, 200 lbs. and he is not an awkward body type - he IS physically ready for B1G competition. If you have observed him being fundamentally solid on the offensive end of the court then I'm very curious when those possessions occurred. When Hurt is in the game, I can totally see the PG of the moment NOT want to include him in that offensive set. It's as if we are playing short-handed when he's on the court. Now, your point of him only getting 12 minutes in the four meaningful games is a fair point with regard to getting into a comfort level, but that would suggest that there is truly an upside to cultivate. I have NOT seen this upside. I do not understand why Pitino is giving #42 any minutes at all. I'd go back to Gilbert for these limited minutes when Coffey needs a break and I don't think it's even close to a "tough call."
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I would say that at 6'7 200lbs, Hurt is not physically ready for B1G competition. To me, he's a little slow to guard wings or small forwards who can be anywhere from 6'4-6'8 in this conference and not strong enough to handle power forwards who typically have at least 20lbs on him. I'd hope that after a full year in the S&C program he could have a more defined role at one position or another. Skill wise, improving his ball handling would be the biggest improvement he could make if he's going to stay on the wing. As for him being fundamentally solid? I've observed him being one of our more active players off the ball (though that was more apparent in the non-conference portion of the season) makes better/smarter attempts to angle in for offensive boards, and cuts backdoor. From a shooting standpoint he does a nice job of getting himself positioned to accept the pass and I believe he's a solid shooter even if the results don't show it.

I feel like his position in the rotation is essentially one of "don't screw it up" right now. I don't think the idea is that when he gets in the game that he becomes the 1st/2nd/3rd option on offense but rather is a floor spacer who Pitino trusts more than his other options to steal a few minutes when fatigue or foul trouble deem it necessary. I'd be curious as to why you think Gilbert is a clearly superior option to Hurt given the fact that Ahmad was 1-10 from the floor including 1-8 from 3 in his last 4 games played with 3 turnovers and no assists. I guess you could argue that Gilbert has at least had a couple games where he's given us definitively good minutes (UT-Arlington, St John's), but he also has had more games where he's clearly been a liability (FSU, GA Southern, LIU Brooklyn).
 

Mr. EG#9, that's a good post and I respect your perspective. Here's my angle... Ahmed Gilbert does not look "nervous" out there on the court. And, Ahmed Gilbert does not shy away from the idea of SCORING points when he's on the offensive end of the court. I truly believe the rest of the team (primarily the PG of the moment) would MUCH PREFER to have #32 on the wing to #42. Neither of these players is close to the value that Mr. Coffey presents, but someone will have to back him up. All I'm saying is that I believe Mr. Gilbert is FAR superior to Mr. Hurt in our current rotation. Peace!
 

TheMetroTheFaust said:
Mr. EG#9, that's a good post and I respect your perspective. Here's my angle... Ahmed Gilbert does not look "nervous" out there on the court. And, Ahmed Gilbert does not shy away from the idea of SCORING points when he's on the offensive end of the court. I truly believe the rest of the team (primarily the PG of the moment) would MUCH PREFER to have #32 on the wing to #42. Neither of these players is close to the value that Mr. Coffey presents, but someone will have to back him up. All I'm saying is that I believe Mr. Gilbert is FAR superior to Mr. Hurt in our current rotation. Peace!
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Based on what?

What a joke this thread is.
 

jmag21 said:
I think Hurt could end up as a Joey King type player, which would be great.
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I agree that would be great, but Joey King had a productive freshman year at Drake (32 games played, 19 minutes a game, and 6.9 pts. per game).
 


TheMetroTheFaust said:
I truly believe the rest of the team (primarily the PG of the moment) would MUCH PREFER to have #32 on the wing to #42. Neither of these players is close to the value that Mr. Coffey presents, but someone will have to back him up. All I'm saying is that I believe Mr. Gilbert is FAR superior to Mr. Hurt in our current rotation. Peace!
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Well, perhaps, but I don't think the choice between Hurt or Gilbert has much to do with their relative abilities to contribute right now. Given his buyout, Pitino likely will be here next year regardless of this season's outcome. However, I think he knows that he needs a larger number of insurance (i.e., depth) players on the roster and next year will be a make-or-break year. Pitino's four years here have been distinguished by having very little depth and margin for error on the roster. Right now this roster has 4 recruited scholarship players (not counting the temporary scholarship given to a walk on) who are contributing little or nothing on the floor. The difference between Hurt and the three others is that Hurt has a very highly rated younger brother.

I feel that we will see departures on this roster at the end of the season that will allow Pitino to pick up one or two additional players during the late signing period. I think the two healthy players who are not playing at all are just getting a nudge in that direction.
 

cjbfbp said:
I feel that we will see departures on this roster at the end of the season that will allow Pitino to pick up one or two additional players during the late signing period. I think the two healthy players who are not playing at all are just getting a nudge in that direction.
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This.
 

I feel that we will see departures on this roster at the end of the season that will allow Pitino to pick up one or two additional players during the late signing period. I think the two healthy players who are not playing at all are just getting a nudge in that direction.[/QUOTE]

I certainly hope this is true, but up to this point, Pitino hasn't seemed to have the stomach to push players out. If he did, I feel like Gas would have been gone 2 years ago as it's been clear he was far too raw to even be considered a project at the time. I feel both Gas and Gilbert would be well advised to seek out other venues to advance their bball careers, I'm just not sure if Pitino is willing to send that message. I've appreciated what appears to be a streak of loyalty in Pitino, but at this point he needs to focus on his own survival and what is best for the program. Gas is not going to benefit by riding pine through a 4 year scholarship.
 

Winasota Gopher said:
emphasis added by me.
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A response consistent with your trademark knee jerk juvenility and shallow mindedness; the point is that King contributed both there (as a freshman) and here (as an upperclassman). The Missouri Valley Conference isn't the Big Ten but it isn't bad competition. Historically, it has been a higher level conference than the Horizon League but Springs appears to have no problems adjusting to Big Ten play.
 

Holf said:
I certainly hope this is true, but up to this point, Pitino hasn't seemed to have the stomach to push players out.
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Well, perhaps not explicitly and/or publicly, but the effect of the rather shabby treatment of Buggs for stretches last season could have been predicted. I'm not sorry that he left but I thought there was a good chance that he would leave and I don't think his transfer was an unintended consequence of Pitino's actions.
 

Tough thread so early into his career. Outside of the bad turnover vs. Maryland, I think he has been pretty solid (in a limited role during extremely limited minutes). He did have a big three at Purdue during crunch time. It's pretty clear that he is a smart fundamentally sound player, and if you watch him during warmups he is a really good shooter. He will shine when we get PG with elite penetration skills (Washington, I hope). Watching the Maryland game, I envision that being us. Washington continually getting penetration with Hurt and Jamir Harris spotted up for three.

In my opinion he could have used a RS season, and would likely have gotten it if Fitzgerald didn't get hurt. If Fitzgerald is back next year, red-shirting next year isn't out of the question (a la Croft in football).

He's a smart, talented, hard working kid who we will all be very happy to have on our team in the coming years.
 

cjbfbp said:
A response consistent with your trademark knee jerk juvenility and shallow mindedness; the point is that King contributed both there (as a freshman) and here (as an upperclassman). The Missouri Valley Conference isn't the Big Ten but it isn't bad competition. Historically, it has been a higher level conference than the Horizon League but Springs appears to have no problems adjusting to Big Ten play.
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whatever dude.

I think it's ridiculous to compare Joey and Michels freshman production and try to extrapolate that to any sense of what Michael will become as a senior.

Pure ridiculousness.

If there is any "knee jerking" going on in this thread its of those wanting to discuss Michael Hurt's value to the team after 20 games into his freshman year.
 

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