What do you hope to see in offseason for Gophers to take the next step for next year?

One thing I would like to see.........no off-court issues that land the program in the news. (that goes for the football team too - this summer)

I'll second this. No offseason news is good news.
 

Outside shooting. That has to be the main thing. We have some good bigs (when they stay out of foul trouble -- Lynch and don't try to take 3 pointers -- Murphy), but we don't have a consistent outside shooter on the roster. Mason is so hot/cold, and McBrayer has an ugly shot that sometimes goes in but not on a consistent basis. Coffey can hit a couple every now and then, but again, not on a consistent basis. If a spot opens up due to a transfer (such as Gilbert) I hope Pitino is all over the grad transfer market for a guy who can shoot from the outside. Doesn't even have to be a starter, but a guy who makes you confident enough that you'd draw up a play to get him a 3-point look late in a game. We desperately need that. Maybe it is Harris, but I'd feel better going into the season if we could find someone with experience.

I don't disagree with your point on overall shooting, but Dupree shot 41.5% from 3pt range...
 

Outside shooting. That has to be the main thing. We have some good bigs (when they stay out of foul trouble -- Lynch and don't try to take 3 pointers -- Murphy), but we don't have a consistent outside shooter on the roster. Mason is so hot/cold, and McBrayer has an ugly shot that sometimes goes in but not on a consistent basis. Coffey can hit a couple every now and then, but again, not on a consistent basis. If a spot opens up due to a transfer (such as Gilbert) I hope Pitino is all over the grad transfer market for a guy who can shoot from the outside. Doesn't even have to be a starter, but a guy who makes you confident enough that you'd draw up a play to get him a 3-point look late in a game. We desperately need that. Maybe it is Harris, but I'd feel better going into the season if we could find someone with experience.

This. Shooting drills until they can score blindfolded. We saw great improvement with McBrayer, but this team is still not a good jump-shooting team. And hopefully we add a grad transfer forward or bigger shooting guard that can confidently shoot the three. We would be so much better offensively next year if opponents feared our outside shooting.


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Someone's gonna have to explain to me how McBrayer's 42% from three isn't consistent, but Gilbert's 32% is.
 

Someone's gonna have to explain to me how McBrayer's 42% from three isn't consistent, but Gilbert's 32% is.

For some poster to have said this means they are ignoring the facts and simply remembering some game where Gilbert hit a couple of threes. 42% from three is excellent. 32% is not.


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Here is what I hope we see, in order, for us to take the next step and position ourself for at least a second weekend run in the Tournament:

1. Reggie Lynch needs to figure out how to stay on the floor. He averaged 23 minutes per game. There is no reason why he shouldn't be able to average 30-32 minutes per game. He's a complete game changer on defense and his offensive game really developed throughout the year. This has to be priority number one for Reggie and the staff.

2. Find an outside shooting threat. Whether it's Jamir Harris or a spring addition, we need a guy who can come in and consistently hit 3s and extend the offense. I was hoping that Hurt would show flashes of this, but he didn't look interested in touching the ball the last four months.

3. Amir Coffey taking the next step. Whether its a combination of adding more size/strength, improving his jump shot a bit, etc., I expect Coffey to take a big step this offseason, and position himself as an elite player in the conference next year, with an outside goal of going pro after next season. That seems like a stretch right now, but he has an NBA game, amazing body control, and is a very smart player. I expect him to be our best player game in and game out next year (that's not a knock on Mason, Murphy, etc., more of a reflection of the potential I think he has).

4. Curry needs to get mean. He needs more Jordan Murphy in him on both ends. He needs to dunk hard down low and not get "cute" around the basket. We need a bit of nasty in him.

5. Michael Hurt needs to rediscover his confidence. He looked scared from about late December until the end of the season. I am not sure what his potential is at this level, and I recognize he's only a freshman, but I think he and the staff expect him to make a noticeable improvement heading into next season.

The future is bright and the opportunity is there for us to take yet another step forward.

Go Gophers!!

I'd agree with all of this. I do think the 3 point shooting thing is not as big of a deal as most.. If you eliminate all of Curry/Murphy's attempts.. we are shooting above 36% as a team which would put us in the middle of the Big Ten. Not great, but not bad. When you consider we held other teams to 30% or some crazy stat.. its even better. I think Mason finishes next year closer to 40% and Amir cracks 35%. I think we will be fine in this area, especially if either of the newcomers can hit 3's at a decent clip. It would be nice to have one guy be the clutch guy..
 

You already hit it. We need Harris to play some meaningful minutes. Our lack of outside shooting killed us on Thursday. When Mason is off.....he's nonexistent. Poor shooting, hardly any assists, TURNOVERS!
 

Work on less ball dominance by our guards and more ball movement. When things got tough Mason and McBrayer tended to dribble the clock away and then make a hero ball play just before a shot clock violation. Maybe it was a chicken and egg thing. Often one player would dribble interminably and the other four would stand there and watch him. I think an offense with more ball and player movement will create a lot more open shots next year.
 

For some poster to have said this means they are ignoring the facts and simply remembering some game where Gilbert hit a couple of threes. 42% from three is excellent. 32% is not.

For some poster to have judged a guy on a sample size of 7 made shots when 9 made shots gets him into "excellent" range...

7 for 22... 32%
9 for 22... 41%
 



For some poster to have judged a guy on a sample size of 7 made shots when 9 made shots gets him into "excellent" range...

7 for 22... 32%
9 for 22... 41%

Excellent point. I, for one, made the point earlier that Gilbert is a good 3pt shooter. I am certain that Pitino would say so. In fact I'd guess that Michael Hurt is a good 3pt. shooter even though he shot about 15% this year. When you get limited time on the court, it's not easy just come in and start nailing threes. I just don't think Gilbert has the athleticism at this level that Pitino is looking for and would do well one level down.
 

Don't have so much dead weight on the roster. Too many scholarship players this year were non or minimal contributors, for various reasons. We had little depth, even with Akeem.
 

Don't have so much dead weight on the roster. Too many scholarship players this year were non or minimal contributors, for various reasons. We had little depth, even with Akeem.

The thing with the Gophers and dead weight on the roster...sometimes coaches play 7 guys and you wonder if somebody 8 through 15 could contribute given the opportunity. When we are forced to play somebody, it becomes immediately clear why they don't play. That's an evaluation mistake in building the roster. Often times teams have guys who can play but they have attitude issues, discipline issues, academic issues etc. so they don't. We just have guys who can't play. I guess you could argue bringing on the attitude issues in the first place but we aren't immune there either...we've lost a handful of guys for that reason too.
 

Don't have so much dead weight on the roster. Too many scholarship players this year were non or minimal contributors, for various reasons. We had little depth, even with Akeem.

Yea, though it seems like that happens in many places so I dont want to act like we're unique. That said We took Gaston because Josh Martin dipped because we needed big bodies. That hurt our frontcourt depth. Jarvis wasn't able to play, then we recruited a nice backup PG in Dorsey and he's gone which hurt our PG depth. Fitzgerald being out for the year meant Coffey had to play the 3 almost alone too so that hurt.
 



I'd like to see Coffey get better at taking care of the ball when he puts it on the floor. As good as his overall level of play was I never felt confident watching him try to dribble through traffic. Whether that means you get smarter about when not to dribble through traffic, or you learn how to do it without making turnovers, either way it needs to improve.

With as good as Lynch is a shot blocker, I'd like us to learn how to rebound around him. Too many times you see two guys going up for a block, shot misses and we have no one to rebound. Guys need to learn that if help moves to stop the ball that low then your job should be to out position the guy who the help left for the rebound.
 

Excellent point. I, for one, made the point earlier that Gilbert is a good 3pt shooter. I am certain that Pitino would say so. In fact I'd guess that Michael Hurt is a good 3pt. shooter even though he shot about 15% this year. When you get limited time on the court, it's not easy just come in and start nailing threes. I just don't think Gilbert has the athleticism at this level that Pitino is looking for and would do well one level down.

Completely agree with the bolded text, but I'm curious why you think Gilbert is a good three point shooter and are certain Pitino would say so? I'm not saying you're wrong. He might be a good shooter, I just don't think he has shown that considering his career three point percentage here is about 25%.
 

I'd like to see Coffey get better at taking care of the ball when he puts it on the floor. As good as his overall level of play was I never felt confident watching him try to dribble through traffic. Whether that means you get smarter about when not to dribble through traffic, or you learn how to do it without making turnovers, either way it needs to improve.

With as good as Lynch is a shot blocker, I'd like us to learn how to rebound around him. Too many times you see two guys going up for a block, shot misses and we have no one to rebound. Guys need to learn that if help moves to stop the ball that low then your job should be to out position the guy who the help left for the rebound.
May I add that our bigs need to learn how to catch the ball high and attack the rim without feeling the need to bring the ball down and dribble. We had a number of opportunities lost because our bigs couldn't pivot and go to the rim.
 

Completely agree with the bolded text, but I'm curious why you think Gilbert is a good three point shooter and are certain Pitino would say so? I'm not saying you're wrong. He might be a good shooter, I just don't think he has shown that considering his career three point percentage here is about 25%.

Because he passes the eye test. Some guys can shoot, some guys can't. Gilbert can shoot. However, he looks lost on defense and slow laterally...this is not a good combination for playing time in the Big Ten.
Just like in the beginning of the year when Springs didn't make any shots...people thought he couldn't shoot. Same thing...Springs could shoot and can shoot. Shooters gotta get comfortable. Even Curry is streaky...he has bad shooting games. Just less than most people....but when you watch him shoot on a bad night, you still know he can shoot.
 

Because he passes the eye test. Some guys can shoot, some guys can't. Gilbert can shoot. However, he looks lost on defense and slow laterally...this is not a good combination for playing time in the Big Ten.
Just like in the beginning of the year when Springs didn't make any shots...people thought he couldn't shoot. Same thing...Springs could shoot and can shoot. Shooters gotta get comfortable. Even Curry is streaky...he has bad shooting games. Just less than most people....but when you watch him shoot on a bad night, you still know he can shoot.

I get what you're saying, but sometimes guys have good form and aren't great shooters, just like sometimes guys have bad/awkward form, yet are very good shooters (John Shurna comes to mind). At the end of the day, it's about how frequently your shots go in, and based on that, it doesn't seem like he's that good of a shooter. Again, I know it can be difficult when you aren't getting consistent minutes, but I just looked up some high school stats and it looks like he shot 28.6% from three during the EYBL (15 games). Maybe he just isn't that good at shooting?

http://www.d1circuit.com/roster_players/4853288
 

Won't repeat what others have said. My take: Curry and the coaches need to decide what type of a player he's going to be. Is Curry an inside presence - or a guy who roams the baseline and the perimeter putting up mid-range jumpers. Curry certainly showed some real flashes of ability, but there were times when he just looked uncertain about whether he should attack the basket, or put up shots from the outside. He has to decide what he's better at, and then do it.

on the coaching end - need to get bench players more minutes in non-conf games and any game where the Gophs get a 15-20 point lead. After Springs got hurt, the Gophs needed someone to help off the bench, but they weren't ready. Maybe another 5 minutes a game for Gilbert or Hurt and they would have been ready to make a bigger contribution by the end of the season.
 

Will Michael Hurt be anything more than a cheerleader on the bench? I understand he was only a freshman but I saw literally NOTHING from him on the court. I saw a scared player who ran around in circles on the court like the basketball was a hot potato. If someone passed it to him he held on to it for a millisecond before passing it to someone else and then taking off in the other direction. Wasn't he a pretty decent recruit coming in? I just can't understand and cant get a read on this. I think I saw him take one or two shots this year, he is lefthanded correct? What is next year going to bring for this kid? Can we eventually just swap him out for his brother?
 

I agree with most of the repeated points on the last few pages. Shooting, development and adding strength. We are still going to be a young team with only 3 seniors getting minutes next year. I believe that the B1G will be "down" next year. Wisconsin loses almost everyone, Mich St loses Bridges but reloads again, Maryland and Northwestern could be contenders but idk how good they will be. It could be open again next year and if we don't have any serious injuries/departures, I think we should finish in the top 4 with a similar record. WAY too early Win/loss prediction 25-6 (12-6)
 

Will Michael Hurt be anything more than a cheerleader on the bench? I understand he was only a freshman but I saw literally NOTHING from him on the court. I saw a scared player who ran around in circles on the court like the basketball was a hot potato. If someone passed it to him he held on to it for a millisecond before passing it to someone else and then taking off in the other direction. Wasn't he a pretty decent recruit coming in? I just can't understand and cant get a read on this. I think I saw him take one or two shots this year, he is lefthanded correct? What is next year going to bring for this kid? Can we eventually just swap him out for his brother?

Hurt had a rough year no doubt. I hope he can make a jump forward as a player or he will find himself without any role very quickly. He did look scared with the ball and it is hard to pinpoint even one area of potential. I hope this is a big offseason for him.
 

Will Michael Hurt be anything more than a cheerleader on the bench? I understand he was only a freshman but I saw literally NOTHING from him on the court. I saw a scared player who ran around in circles on the court like the basketball was a hot potato. If someone passed it to him he held on to it for a millisecond before passing it to someone else and then taking off in the other direction. Wasn't he a pretty decent recruit coming in? I just can't understand and cant get a read on this. I think I saw him take one or two shots this year, he is lefthanded correct? What is next year going to bring for this kid? Can we eventually just swap him out for his brother?

I'm guessing the non-conference was a blow to his confidence. He was like 1 for 10 from behind the arc.
He needs another year to grow and was (I think) the #2 guy in the state behind Coffey. I think he'll be ok.
 

I agree with most of the repeated points on the last few pages. Shooting, development and adding strength. We are still going to be a young team with only 3 seniors getting minutes next year. I believe that the B1G will be "down" next year. Wisconsin loses almost everyone, Mich St loses Bridges but reloads again, Maryland and Northwestern could be contenders but idk how good they will be. It could be open again next year and if we don't have any serious injuries/departures, I think we should finish in the top 4 with a similar record. WAY too early Win/loss prediction 25-6 (12-6)

I don't know I think the Big Ten will be tough next year. Wisconsin will definitely be down but we've had that discussion a million times over the years between basketball and football and how has that played out. NW, Mich St, Iowa, Michigan, Purdue, and Indiana could all be very good depending on who comes back and leaves. Penn St will be good, Rutgers returns everyone (I think) and Illinois has a good recruiting class coming in.

I'm very excited about the gophers team and think they will be very good but I don't see them getting where they will be going because the Big Ten will be down. They will have to earn every win like they did this year.
 




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