SI's Brutaly Honest Scouting Report on the Gophers

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Otis

Otis

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Minnesota: “They have a lot of new pieces. You can score on them. Their bigs get in foul trouble. When [junior center Reggie] Lynch is out of the game, they’re not the same. [Junior guard Nate] Mason is really difficult to guard. You can’t let him turn the corner and live in the paint. He’s got that old-fashioned pull-up game. [Freshman guard Amir] Coffey seems like a guy who would be fun to play with. He makes plays for his teammates. They’re very physical defensively. Their weakness is shooting. If [senior guard Akeem] Springs and Mason are not making shots, it’s going to be hard for them to score. You have to make Mason play to his left hand and make him score across his body. Coffey’s a freshman, so you have to chase him off the line and make him make decisions. Make him play in a crowd and play him soft on the perimeter, because he’s not a great shooter.”

1. Lynch making us a different team when not on the floor. I don't think this evaluator is paying attention to Curry's development.

2. Shooting is our weakness. Don't need to be too adept at evaluation to figure this one out. But we have improved.

3. Coffey doesn't seem to have any problems making decisions and if you play him soft on the perimeter he will get to the lane and make you pay with his passing.
 

Sports Illustrated is primarily a photo shoot. :mad:
 

They are absolutely correct about Lynch's foul trouble changing us as a team. Good news is we have become much better when that happens. Bad news is Curry just isn't big enough to defend a true post. Konate was big early, but we can all agree we don't want to have to rely on him in crunch time. Michigan wasnt able to exploit it there because they don't have one. Doesn't mean it won't be a concern once we're in the tournament.
 

Otis said:
Coffey’s a freshman, so you have to chase him off the line and make him make decisions. Make him play in a crowd and play him soft on the perimeter, because he’s not a great shooter.”
Click to expand...

Coffey isn't a "great" shooter yet, but FWIW, he is shooting 44% from 3 in the Big Ten Season (20-45)
 

Otis said:
Minnesota: “They have a lot of new pieces. You can score on them. Their bigs get in foul trouble. When [junior center Reggie] Lynch is out of the game, they’re not the same. [Junior guard Nate] Mason is really difficult to guard. You can’t let him turn the corner and live in the paint. He’s got that old-fashioned pull-up game. [Freshman guard Amir] Coffey seems like a guy who would be fun to play with. He makes plays for his teammates. They’re very physical defensively. Their weakness is shooting. If [senior guard Akeem] Springs and Mason are not making shots, it’s going to be hard for them to score. You have to make Mason play to his left hand and make him score across his body. Coffey’s a freshman, so you have to chase him off the line and make him make decisions. Make him play in a crowd and play him soft on the perimeter, because he’s not a great shooter.”

1. Lynch making us a different team when not on the floor. I don't think this evaluator is paying attention to Curry's development.

2. Shooting is our weakness. Don't need to be too adept at evaluation to figure this one out. But we have improved.

3. Coffey doesn't seem to have any problems making decisions and if you play him soft on the perimeter he will get to the lane and make you pay with his passing.
Click to expand...

Coffey does get into trouble sometimes when other teams guard him aggressively, he's had his pocket picked on a few occasions, but I agree I wouldn't play him soft, he can hit the open three, so can Dupree
 


SI doesn't know much about BB but they sure can put out a great swimsuit issue each year!
 

Otis said:
1. Lynch making us a different team when not on the floor. I don't think this evaluator is paying attention to Curry's development.

2. Shooting is our weakness. Don't need to be too adept at evaluation to figure this one out. But we have improved.

3. Coffey doesn't seem to have any problems making decisions and if you play him soft on the perimeter he will get to the lane and make you pay with his passing.
Click to expand...

Agree, the he's a freshman decision making is not a problem for Coffey.

Curry is playing fantastic, Lynch might be seeing more bench time fouls or not. Good problem to have.
 

GopherinPhilly said:
SI doesn't know much about BB but they sure can put out a great swimsuit issue each year!
Click to expand...

But SI are not the ones who came up with the scouting report. They anonymously interviewed other Big Ten coaches who gave their thoughts on other teams.
 

DeathClutch said:
But SI are not the ones who came up with the scouting report. They anonymously interviewed other Big Ten coaches who gave their thoughts on other teams.
Click to expand...

Yep, some team has a poor scouting report on us. I hope that's either Maryland or Wisconsin.
 



Wait what's wrong with that scouting report?

Agree that Lynch changes the team defensively. They don't have a lot of good shooters and Coffey can get turnover prone if you crowd him.

None of that stuff wasn't true. That's why its called "brutally honest"
 

Biggsohnasty said:
Wait what's wrong with that scouting report?

Agree that Lynch changes the team defensively. They don't have a lot of good shooters and Coffey can get turnover prone if you crowd him.

None of that stuff wasn't true. That's why its called "brutally honest"
Click to expand...

Yeah, I am struggling to see what the issue with that report is, felt pretty spot on to me. Every team has strengths and weaknesses, this is not a complete team by any stretch of the imagination at this point. The exciting part though is that it is easy to see how it could get there in the near future if things keep developing the way they have to this point.
 

MaroonGold1 said:
Coffey isn't a "great" shooter yet, but FWIW, he is shooting 44% from 3 in the Big Ten Season (20-45)
Click to expand...

Coffey is money from 3 when he's open, catches, and shoots in rhythm. When those 3 things happen, I assume it's going in.
 

MadtownGopher said:
Coffey is money from 3 when he's open, catches, and shoots in rhythm. When those 3 things happen, I assume it's going in.
Click to expand...

Exactly, he makes open threes nearly every time he gets them.

The problems occur when he has a contested shot or (gulp) has to hit a jump shot. He throws up set shots even when he's on the move in traffic.
 



Feel confident that college coaches have much better scouting report on MN than SI. Yet, we are winning because other players step up. Bottom line, there team needs to guard all five our guys and have the personnel to do that effectively. It's all about matchups.
 



Pretty good assessment. If we had one more "shooter " we'd probably have only 2-3 losses
 

I don't disagree with most of what is said. Although Curry starting to come into his game if Lynch is in foul trouble. I do, however, think their assessment of Coffey is odd. I always thought the scouting report is to force him to go to his right. He is hard to stop if he can turn the corner on his defender going to his left, but to me it seems like he has trouble getting to the basket when he is forced to go to his right.
 

good analysis overall

The first few points were spot on. These two sentences sort of contradict each other. One would chase someone off the 3pt line if you were a great 3pt shooter, ala springs, and if they were turnover prone and a freshmen one could expect turnovers.

Coffey is a solid shooter in big ten play, and an excellent decision maker.

4. Give their bigs the 3 point shot as they will shoot it and it rarely goes in.





Otis said:
Minnesota: . Coffey’s a freshman, so you have to chase him off the line and make him make decisions. Make him play in a crowd and play him soft on the perimeter, because he’s not a great shooter.”
Click to expand...
 

It's a really good scouting report, especially considering how many teams SI has to cover.
 

According to kenpom, we have the 15th best adjusted D in the nation and the 105th best adjusted offense in the nation.
 


"You can score on them"

"You can score on them."

I agreed with the majority of the scouting report until I read the statement above. While their PPG allowed isn't elite, I believe that has more to do with the amount of OT games played vs the quality of the defense.

They're currently ranked 18th in FG % Defense at 39.7 and are ranked 11th in 3 PT FG % Defense at 30.0

Can you score on this team? Yes. Is it easy? No.

GO GOPHS!!
 

SI's Scouting Report on the Gophers

Dated February 20th, a summary of anonymous coaches/scouts.

Minnesota: “They have a lot of new pieces. You can score on them. Their bigs get in foul trouble. When [junior center Reggie] Lynch is out of the game, they’re not the same. [Junior guard Nate] Mason is really difficult to guard. You can’t let him turn the corner and live in the paint. He’s got that old-fashioned pull-up game. [Freshman guard Amir] Coffey seems like a guy who would be fun to play with. He makes plays for his teammates. They’re very physical defensively. Their weakness is shooting. If [senior guard Akeem] Springs and Mason are not making shots, it’s going to be hard for them to score. You have to make Mason play to his left hand and make him score across his body. Coffey’s a freshman, so you have to chase him off the line and make him make decisions. Make him play in a crowd and play him soft on the perimeter, because he’s not a great shooter.”
 



I wish I had posted this. :rolleyes:
 

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