BleedGopher
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per Heather Rule:
Isaiah Washington had a huge reputation on the basketball court before he even set foot on the floor of Williams Arena as a Gophers player.
He was a star high school player in New York and a co-creator of a movement: Jelly Fam, a group of basketball players who roll a signature layup off their fingertips in a pretty fashion. Washington has developed a brand, plus more than 35,000 followers on Twitter and more than 500,000 on Instagram.
Unfortunately for the 6-foot-1 guard from Harlem, N.Y., his transition to Gophers basketball hasn’t garnered quite the same success he saw in high school as Mr. Basketball in New York – at least not yet. Call it freshman growing pains.
He had potential to be one of the top reserves to come in off the bench for Richard Pitino’s Gophers (14-9, 3-7), but lately, Washington’s minutes have dipped significantly. Of course, things for the Gophers as a team have also dipped recently. They’ve lost six of their past seven games, with the lone victory coming in overtime at Penn State.
So with the injury issues and personnel changes on the team, what’s Pitino looking for in his freshman guard known as Jelly?
“Just gotta get better,” Pitino said, after the 77-69 home loss to Northwestern on Tuesday night. “Just gotta get better more than anything. It’s pretty much that simple.”
Washington had perhaps his best game of the season a few weeks ago, in a 65-55 non-conference victory over Harvard at Williams Arena. He made his second start of the season in place of the injured Nate Mason for the Dec. 30 game. Washington turned on the jets in the second half, ending up one point shy of his first double-double, grabbing 13 rebounds and scoring nine points over a season-high 35 minutes.
Washington’s only 3-pointer of that game in four tries gave the Gophers a 51-42 lead in the second half, coming on the heels of a trey from junior Dupree McBrayer. Soon after, Washington followed that up with a steal-and-lay-up combo for a 53-42 lead. That got the crowd at The Barn to its feet and raise the noise level to the highest it had been all day in celebration of Jelly.
Washington’s 13 boards were a team-high, beating out one of the nation’s best in teammate Jordan Murphy, who had 12 boards to record his 15th double-double of the season at the time.
“He’s been telling me in practice that he rebounds now,” Murphy said, after the Harvard game. “I didn’t believe it until today. That’s good for him. We definitely need someone else to rebound at that level. If it’s him, then more power to him.”
https://www.1500espn.com/gophers-2/...aiah-washington-going-freshman-growing-pains/
Go Gophers!!
Isaiah Washington had a huge reputation on the basketball court before he even set foot on the floor of Williams Arena as a Gophers player.
He was a star high school player in New York and a co-creator of a movement: Jelly Fam, a group of basketball players who roll a signature layup off their fingertips in a pretty fashion. Washington has developed a brand, plus more than 35,000 followers on Twitter and more than 500,000 on Instagram.
Unfortunately for the 6-foot-1 guard from Harlem, N.Y., his transition to Gophers basketball hasn’t garnered quite the same success he saw in high school as Mr. Basketball in New York – at least not yet. Call it freshman growing pains.
He had potential to be one of the top reserves to come in off the bench for Richard Pitino’s Gophers (14-9, 3-7), but lately, Washington’s minutes have dipped significantly. Of course, things for the Gophers as a team have also dipped recently. They’ve lost six of their past seven games, with the lone victory coming in overtime at Penn State.
So with the injury issues and personnel changes on the team, what’s Pitino looking for in his freshman guard known as Jelly?
“Just gotta get better,” Pitino said, after the 77-69 home loss to Northwestern on Tuesday night. “Just gotta get better more than anything. It’s pretty much that simple.”
Washington had perhaps his best game of the season a few weeks ago, in a 65-55 non-conference victory over Harvard at Williams Arena. He made his second start of the season in place of the injured Nate Mason for the Dec. 30 game. Washington turned on the jets in the second half, ending up one point shy of his first double-double, grabbing 13 rebounds and scoring nine points over a season-high 35 minutes.
Washington’s only 3-pointer of that game in four tries gave the Gophers a 51-42 lead in the second half, coming on the heels of a trey from junior Dupree McBrayer. Soon after, Washington followed that up with a steal-and-lay-up combo for a 53-42 lead. That got the crowd at The Barn to its feet and raise the noise level to the highest it had been all day in celebration of Jelly.
Washington’s 13 boards were a team-high, beating out one of the nation’s best in teammate Jordan Murphy, who had 12 boards to record his 15th double-double of the season at the time.
“He’s been telling me in practice that he rebounds now,” Murphy said, after the Harvard game. “I didn’t believe it until today. That’s good for him. We definitely need someone else to rebound at that level. If it’s him, then more power to him.”
https://www.1500espn.com/gophers-2/...aiah-washington-going-freshman-growing-pains/
Go Gophers!!
