Gophers playing "poorly"?

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I want to see how this team responds against an opponent that stops transition and forces us to run a half-court offense. So far every team has tried to run and that's this teams strength.
 

balds said:
I don't like our spot if Lynch gets in foul trouble. I don't like what I see from Washington and Fitzgerald. I'd take Hurt and Harris over those two any day. The loss of Curry will loom larger than we could ever imagine.
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Thus far I agree with you on Fitz. Hoping he settles in and can contribute.
 

Well, we found our team's real Achilles' heal tonight: The powerplay.

I'm starting to get worried.
 

We played poorly for 8 minutes on the power play, man that sucks. They practice that right?


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die hard gopher said:
Really? You don't think Murphy is immensely improved? You don't think Amir, Reggie or Hurt have improved? You don't think having two backup guards on scholarship (Washington and Harris) will provide more depth than only having Springs come off the bench? Do you think that last years team could have gone on the road and beat a borderline top 25 squad in the second game of the season by double digits? I don't think so. Our starting 5 has gotten a lot better and our bench now has more bodies in the rotation than last year that will only get better. It's hard to not say this team will be better.
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We are worse. The bench and our defense are much worse this year. The starting 5 on offense is the same as last year.
 




Well it appears that right now the team having springs and curry coming off the bench is better than what we have coming off the bench right now as 6th and 7th man. There is room for growth and it is early. We need Washington to improve rapidly and fitzgerald to figure things out.
 

XMan said:
Well it appears that right now the team having springs and curry coming off the bench is better than what we have coming off the bench right now as 6th and 7th man. There is room for growth and it is early. We need Washington to improve rapidly and fitzgerald to figure things out.
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This is true - last year's main rotation is looking just as good if not better right now. Springs is/was very underrated. Had some of that Vince Grier impact for us - but a little less of a go-to man.

Also, I think people take it for granted that an extra year under a player's belt automatically leads to improvement (see our starting 5). Sure, some guys will progress but it's also very realistic for guys to stall out or even slump.

Jury is still out though.
 



Goldteam said:
We are worse. The bench and our defense are much worse this year. The starting 5 on offense is the same as last year.
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The starting 5 is definitely better than last year. Murphy, Lynch, Mason, and Coffey are all better than they were last year and McBrayer as well. The bench is not as good- but this is a better team than last year.

The team has hit a bad stretch. They haven't been quite the same since the 3 on 5 moment. There were symptoms of poor play in the Miami game, more in the Rutgers game and this game - they played awful. Just not a good effort. But they will bounce back and be better than last year before it is over.
 

Average seed strength for last year's Sweet 16 field was a 5 seed. We'll slot in nicely. :)
 

bga1 said:
The starting 5 is definitely better than last year. Murphy, Lynch, Mason, and Coffey are all better than they were last year and McBrayer as well. The bench is not as good- but this is a better team than last year.

The team has hit a bad stretch. They haven't been quite the same since the 3 on 5 moment. There were symptoms of poor play in the Miami game, more in the Rutgers game and this game - they played awful. Just not a good effort. But they will bounce back and be better than last year before it is over.
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Their being better does not make up for the loss of Springs and Curry. Our bench is going to horrid in Big 10 play.

The starters are all slightly better probably, but so is any player that is back from last year in the big 10.

I guess I see us as weaker defensively because Curry and Springs could defend, and I see us struggling in the half court. We don't have pure scorers.
 

XMan said:
Well it appears that right now the team having springs and curry coming off the bench is better than what we have coming off the bench right now as 6th and 7th man. There is room for growth and it is early. We need Washington to improve rapidly and fitzgerald to figure things out.
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Exactly. We have less "depth" this year even though we have more bodies. Last year, the first guard off the bench at this point in the season was Springs who was dependable (on both ends of the floor). This year we have two freshman who are far less dependable than Springs. The first forward off the bench was Curry who was far more capable than either Hurt or Fitzgerald. The backup center is the same but even he seems noticeably worse than last year.
 



At the beginning of last season, Curry was not dependable - especially on the defensive end and Springs had some problems with shot selection on the offensive end. Both of them improved as the year went on and became reliable and good contributors. Along with that, Hurt was lost on both ends of the floor all year long.
This season, Fitz, Dimes and Harris are struggling for the most part right now. With Fitz, he is working himself back into basketball playing condition after being away from the game for 2 years. The two Fr look like Curry did last year. I believe all three are going to be fine as the season goes on. Hurt has really improved on the defensive end, he just needs to be more aggressive on offense, but we really don't need much out of him on that end. The big difference this year is we are playing conference games right now and some difficult non-conference games. The level of competition has exposed the weaknesses of those players, but in the long run it is going to be better. They aren't getting the chance to grow as much against weaker non-conf. opponents right now.
After this tough stretch, they will have some time to develop and by the time conf. play resumes in Jan. I think they will be better contributors.
 

Losing Curry hurts a ton. Not sure if people remember, but that guy made alot of "huge" shots in tight wins we had last year. Plus the guy is a superb athlete and could defend. He came in the game, the level of play didnt' go down at all. As of right now, any front line player they bring off the bench and it is an immediate downgrade. I think Washington is pretty darn good though. He can break down defenders better than anyone on the team. He just needs some time to calm down a bit. By the end of the season, I think he will be a huge weapon off the bench, right now he is just playing like a freshman.
 

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