Michael Hurt's Potential

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"I’m a really good three-point shooter."

http://www.twincities.com/2015/01/16/gophers-basketball-rochesters-michael-hurt-commits-to-umn/

So, last year he shot 2 of 14 from three. Let's take into account A) a small sample size of 14 and B) can be uncomfortable when you're a freshman and on limited minutes. Still, 2 of 14 has a lot to do with his limited minutes last year into this.

This year: 2 of 5 from three.

I'd like to see him be used as more of a dedicated spot-up threat. Do you think he has raw talent to be our roster's best long range shooter? Is he being too unselfish (passing only)?

If he's not that strong on defense and isn't a considered a threat by teams on the offensive end, what's the point?

He's only a Sophomore so plenty of time to gain confidence and improve.

How much does recruiting leverage for his brother play in to keeping/using him?
 

He’s been pretty good on defense this year, outside of the Miami game. The matchup for him there was terrible and he had to play (or was played) too much. Against non-elite athletes, he’ll be fine on D. He seems to have the want-to required.

As far as looking for a spot-up shot; we haven’t seen much of that and I agree, it’s perplexing.
 

He'll keep improving. When he gets to the point where he can shoot three's with confidence, he will be a big problem for other teams. He needs to take chances and not be afraid to shoot when he is open instead of passing.
 


It's just not his personality to be a scorer. There was no assertiveness, no tenacity or will to score, to carry the team in high school. He does not look for his shot. Yes, he can shoot. I'll be shocked if he turns into a three point assassin. It's not that he can't make the shots. He needs a whisperer and it doesn't appear there are many of those.
Having said that, I'd say he's twice as good this year compared to last year. Maybe he will continue to improve. We have no other options this year.
 


Michael Hurt playing for Larry Brown in the USA East Basketball this last summer has helped him. I see subtle improvements here and there. He needs to work with a team psychologist or someone like that to help him be more tenacious at shooting three pointers. He is the type of unsung players you'd like on your team.

He needs to go to a Grrrrrrr! training camp off season.
 



He has been a liability on defense all year.

Actually he has been an asset more often than a liability. Yes he is a liability when he is required to guard an athletic 3, but against an average player he is an asset. He is very smart and knows his and everyone else's job on defense and offense when he is out there. Watch and you will see him pointing and telling other players where they should be positioned. He is especially important out there when there are mostly second team players in the game. I think how he helps others is why Pitino is using him more this year.
 




Hurt did some nice work with Shaun Brown and/or on his own this Summer in transforming his body. I think he's looked better guarding 4's this year than 3's, but one of the problems in the Miami game for him was that he really couldn't rebound with their guys. On the offensive end of the floor, Michael has been good with some smart back cuts to the basket and some nice passes from the elbow. In the Miami game he was in much more of a "just don't screw up" mode on the offensive end of the floor which was basically his role last year (and why he played over Gilbert who screwed up quite frequently). If you want a crazy stat, Michael only attempted 6 two point fg's in his Freshman year to go along with his 14 three point fg attempts. 40% of his total shots came in the first 4 games of his Freshman year, then he took 9 more shot combined against Georgia Southern and LIU Brooklyn. In conference play and beyond, he took a total of 2 shots. What I think could be a cause for concern is that against our better competition this year, Michael has put up a total of 1 shot in 33 minutes of play against Providence, Alabama, and Miami. He was definitely very good in the Providence game, but the box score stats show a total of 3 points, 2 rebounds, and 1 assist across those 33 minutes of playing time against the 3 best teams we've played to date.

It's completely fine for a couple players on the team to be role guys only, but they actually need to perform a role to earn that title. To this point in the season, nobody on the bench has really shown they can perform at a high level as a role guy. Even Jamir Harris, who is shooting 50% from 3 on the season earned a DNP against Providence and was 0-1 from the field against Miami. He was 2-4 from 3 against Alabama but I believe a majority of those attempts were in the 5 on 3 portion of the game. Bakary has not been giving us serviceable minutes at the 5 and Davonte was terrible against Providence and played just 9 minutes total against Alabama and Miami chipping in a total of 2 points and 2 rebounds with no blocks or steals.

In short, everybody coming off the bench in the Miami game still has a lot to prove this season. We are going to need several of them to rise to the occasion to meet the goals/expectations of this season.
 

I agree that they need to find ways to get him more shots when he's in. when he gets set and doesn't rush his shot, he looks solid.
 

This is only an observation and nothing more, but during the Miami pre-game warm-ups, Hurt was missing way more threes than he was making. His shot looked very flat (not enough arc or rotation). Maybe he felt a lack of confidence during the game as a result? For you Basketball-playing wizards: Did your pre-game feel for your shot ever affect your confidence and shot-taking decisions during the game?


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By the way, Harris was making almost all of his pre-game threes. Arc and rotation was beautiful. All net over and over. Yet his one game attempt was a brutal miss. Nerves.


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Only here do we scream about Washington forcing bad shots and then suggest a career sub 30% 3pt shooter go see a psychologist to be more tenacious on offense. Hurts providing great minutes doing what he’s comfortable with. Scoring has not been a problem for this team.
 




He has great potential to get his younger brother to sign with the Gophers!
Get it done......
 

Hurt will be fine. If you are expecting a team leader in scoring, you will be disappointed. If you can live with a solid bench player as a Jr. and Sr., you should be satisfied.
 

This is only an observation and nothing more, but during the Miami pre-game warm-ups, Hurt was missing way more threes than he was making. His shot looked very flat (not enough arc or rotation). Maybe he felt a lack of confidence during the game as a result? For you Basketball-playing wizards: Did your pre-game feel for your shot ever affect your confidence and shot-taking decisions during the game?


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I think it varies for the individual. I always seemed to shoot better in the game when I struggled during warm-ups.


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By the way, Harris was making almost all of his pre-game threes. Arc and rotation was beautiful. All net over and over. Yet his one game attempt was a brutal miss. Nerves.


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It was also a rushed, contested shot from deep.


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I, for one, am fine having a player on the floor who moves the ball. We have plenty of scorers who look for their own the first time they touch it. I like that the offense doesn’t stall when he’s on the floor. I also think his role could be expanded and he could start looking for his shot the second time he touches the ball during a possession.
I think he will be a solid B1G player before it’s all said and done. A quality off-the-bench guy.


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Only here do we scream about Washington forcing bad shots and then suggest a career sub 30% 3pt shooter go see a psychologist to be more tenacious on offense. Hurts providing great minutes doing what he’s comfortable with. Scoring has not been a problem for this team.

Being a "career sub 30% 3 point shooter" means next to nothing when that career consists of 19 3-point attempts.
 

Only here do we scream about Washington forcing bad shots and then suggest a career sub 30% 3pt shooter go see a psychologist to be more tenacious on offense. Hurts providing great minutes doing what he’s comfortable with. Scoring has not been a problem for this team.

It was on Wednesday... Harris makes his 3 and Hurt banks one in and we win!
 

This is only an observation and nothing more, but during the Miami pre-game warm-ups, Hurt was missing way more threes than he was making. His shot looked very flat (not enough arc or rotation). Maybe he felt a lack of confidence during the game as a result? For you Basketball-playing wizards: Did your pre-game feel for your shot ever affect your confidence and shot-taking decisions during the game?


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Totally depends on the person! Ideally, the mentality would be I'm a shooter...I make shots...I missed in warmups, I KNOW they are going in tonight because it's what I do, I make shots!!! But ya, left to someone's own thoughts without having a coach buzzing in your ear it could easily be whoa is me...especially in Hurt's case with no attempts.
I had a player, if they didn't make the last ball on our team go through the net before tip off, they were lost...superstitions, mental imagery, rituals, mindset are all so, so important to people responsible for scoring points.
The pressure, the difficulty to average 25 or 20 points a night is incredible! Especially, when they are the only scorer and maybe double teamed. I know the Gophers on most nights have 6 guys who can score double figures and they are pretty consistent...so that's awesome and a luxury but against good teams we can't always have zero points from the bench or two or four either and win.
 

Remember the walk-on at OSU, Mark Titus? He wrote a book and had a blog called Club Trillion about his days at OSU. Pretty funny stuff - the name Trillion came from his stat lines of playing one minute and recording no other statistics (1000000000) and someday hoping to record a 4 trillion.

Well Hurt just had himself a 15 trillion. That's gotta be some sort of record.
 

Hurt's only shot to be a starter/6th man for this team in the next 3 years is to become a legit three point weapon. Dead eye that chills outside and makes teams respect him with their spacing. I think he has the raw talent to be a great 3 point threat, but he's only taken 19 of them in 2 years. I'd like to see him launch more than an average of less than one attempt per game.

You're the 6th man (like he was in the Miami game the other night) and in 15 minutes of playing time you take zero shots? One-off examples can be skewed by circumstances, but a top 7 rotation guy is gonna need to be respected at least a little bit. Anything over 30% from downtown is great and he is fully capable to exceed. Take shots! Even Miami's New Zealander freshman that played 10 minutes took 2 shots!

Everyone wants to blame Isaiah but what about a bench that only attempted 1 single shot all night? (Harris took it)

Not good enough.
 

Hurt's only shot to be a starter/6th man for this team in the next 3 years is to become a legit three point weapon. Dead eye that chills outside and makes teams respect him with their spacing. I think he has the raw talent to be a great 3 point threat, but he's only taken 19 of them in 2 years. I'd like to see him launch more than an average of less than one attempt per game.

You're the 6th man (like he was in the Miami game the other night) and in 15 minutes of playing time you take zero shots? One-off examples can be skewed by circumstances, but a top 7 rotation guy is gonna need to be respected at least a little bit. Anything over 30% from downtown is great and he is fully capable to exceed. Take shots! Even Miami's New Zealander freshman that played 10 minutes took 2 shots!

Everyone wants to blame Isaiah but what about a bench that only attempted 1 single shot all night? (Harris took it)

Not good enough.

i believe he made one too. That’s 50%!!
 

Hurt has enough size, mobility and skill to be a player at this level. I personally think he's an asset out there. Not sure what his plus/minus is, but it can't be bad.

Edit: it was +8 against Rutgers...
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