Omaha post-game thoughts

After a slow start the Gophers ramped it up offensively and defensively to dominate the end of the first half. Held and extended the lead in the second half. Saw a lot of the second unit, which was good.

Coffey looked really good going to the basket. Finished well and made free throws. Pushed the ball well and defended very well. Looks healthy.

McBrayer looks great shooting 3s. A few defensive lapses but he was often on their best player. Looks healthy. Handled the ball well. He is so valuable to this team.

Oturu with some big rebounds and easy buckets inside. Didn’t get a lot in the offense but found a way to score on putbacks. Contested a lot of shots, blocked a few. Nice debut for the big man.

Murphy walked into a double double. They’ll struggle to double team him with the other weapons. I believe he had 5 assists as well! We all know what Murphy can do.

Gabe is really fun to watch. Very active defensively, very nice stroke, doesn’t force anything. Can handle the ball a bit and attacks the rim with ease. I very much underestimated him. So glad he is here.

Washington was outstanding. Missed some 3s but was under control. Pushed the ball very well and the assist numbers don’t lie. Got easy buckets for all of the bigs and was part of two high light reel alley oops to Omersa. Biggest takeaway is that he looked so much more aware defensively. Was usually in the correct spot and seemed engaged on both ends of the court.

Stockman is pretty cool to watch. So long. Moves pretty well. Not explosive or anything. Catches pretty well. Did miss a couple easy ones but a few lefty finish layups and a classic tall white guy dunk on a beautiful pass from Washington c

Omersa is lost at times. Needs to get better at walling up defensively, boxing out and with the ball in his hands in the half court but my oh my what an athlete. Two monster dunks brought the remaining crowd to their feet. Great athlete, bit of a project I think.

Hurt struggled shooting BUT was aggressive and took shots. That is really nice to see. Had a nice finish in the first half, rebounded, competed. He is a role player but one with a lot experience. Solid defensive effort.

Stull was passive initially. Turned down some open looks but I think he hit a pair of 3s. Steady, stable and experienced. Will help but I don’t think he will have a major impact in most games. Can’t say I watched him closely on defense. That’s for another time I guess.

Bench:
Carr and Jarvis Johnson were really funny on the bench. Lots of celebrating. Glad to see them supporting the team in a game they won’t play in.

Final thought: this team is deep. They can score a lot of points. Defense is a process sometimes but Omaha hit a ton of tough shots inside and a bunch of deep 3s. Gophers can be a really very good team if they stay healthy and work on both ends of the floor.

Dont get BTNplus, but can't argue with the score.

Best depth by far in pitinos tenure. Stockman can track a rebound unlike our previous back up post players and changed a bunch of shots inside. Omaha packed defense into lane and we had several turn overs trying to bully our way inside. Defense will improve once we get scouting reports on other teams(first game is always a crap shoot) I don’t know where Carr will fit in (isn’t that a luxury) Curry also. We have better 3 point shooting all around and it should really open things up inside with improved post play. Very, very encouraging.

Thymanst said:

Best depth by far in pitinos tenure. Stockman can track a rebound unlike our previous back up post players and changed a bunch of shots inside. Omaha packed defense into lane and we had several turn overs trying to bully our way inside. Defense will improve once we get scouting reports on other teams(first game is always a crap shoot) I don’t know where Carr will fit in (isn’t that a luxury) Curry also. We have better 3 point shooting all around and it should really open things up inside with improved post play. Very, very encouraging.

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My takeaways, first we finally begin the season! They looked very good but we have to temper to much optimism with knowing Omaha would probably be a last place team in the Big. But what really caught my eye is how fast the youngsters put the ball back up down low in the paint, either from a play or rebound. This tells me a lot.

Thymanst said:

Best depth by far in pitinos tenure. Stockman can track a rebound unlike our previous back up post players and changed a bunch of shots inside. Omaha packed defense into lane and we had several turn overs trying to bully our way inside. Defense will improve once we get scouting reports on other teams(first game is always a crap shoot) I don’t know where Carr will fit in (isn’t that a luxury) Curry also. We have better 3 point shooting all around and it should really open things up inside with improved post play. Very, very encouraging.

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With Kalschuer playing the way he has I'm not sure Carr starts this year, if Hurt or Stull can provide quality minutes it might not be a bad thing that Carr sits a year

My first thought is I have no idea how the two students who do the Gophers Student U for Basketball are still in school. I swear it's been the same guys for way longer than 4 years now. Maybe I only notice cause they are just horrific

jovs said:

With Kalschuer playing the way he has I'm not sure Carr starts this year, if Hurt or Stull can provide quality minutes it might not be a bad thing that Carr sits a year

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I'm of the same mind. If (IF IF IF) we can avoid injuries and the usual Gopher style suspension, might it actually be a good thing if Carr sits this season and retains 3 years of eligibility?

IMO Coffey is still lefty dominant in his dribbling and driving and still struggles to go right. The Big Ten teams will expose this. Hopefully Carr becomes eligible and/or Washington plays well. Murphy's lateral quickness is has not gotten any better and still has no jumper. He is a standstill outside shooter. If both have aspirations to make it to the NBA, how do you not improve on those areas as these have been their weaknesses now for over two years.

Hopefully both can continue to work during the season and improve throughout.

RatherBeGolfing said:

My first thought is I have no idea how the two students who do the Gophers Student U for Basketball are still in school. I swear it's been the same guys for way longer than 4 years now. Maybe I only notice cause they are just horrific

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Turn down the volume and listen to Grimm and Spencer.

Zeppelin Gopher said:

I'm of the same mind. If (IF IF IF) we can avoid injuries and the usual Gopher style suspension, might it actually be a good thing if Carr sits this season and retains 3 years of eligibility?

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Was thinking the same thing. Seems like he'd be much more valuable to us three years from now than this season.

Perimeter defense looked suspect at times. The three Minnesota freshmen looked very good, especially Oturu. Stockman surprised me, in a good way. McBrayer was deadly. I'd like several more months of Washington posting an assist/TO ratio like this, please. Still love just about everything Coffey does on the court.

Team didn't seem to take Omaha too seriously. Or maybe they're just having a lot of fun playing basketball.

JTG

rockford said:

Team didn't seem to take Omaha too seriously. Or maybe they're just having a lot of fun playing basketball.

JTG

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I think they really enjoy playing with each other. This team seems to "fit" better. Honestly, throwing the ball to Murphy over and over didn't work as well as the ball movement and faster pace they employed for most of the game.

rockford said:

Perimeter defense looked suspect at times.

JTG

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This is where having Carr could only help this year.

Thymanst said:

I don’t know where Carr will fit in (isn’t that a luxury) Curry also.

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I have had this thought on Carr as well. I love Washington playing 20-25 minutes off the bench as PG and instant offense for the second unit. I also like Kalscheur starting and spacing the floor. So how would Carr fit? I'm not sure.

I think Curry is a much easier answer. He mostly takes Omersa's minutes as the backup 4, and maybe some of Stockman's minutes as the backup 5 against teams employing more of a stretch 5 or smaller lineup. It would be perfect. (I think Omersa will be good eventually, but not this year against good B1G teams).

The team was fun to watch last night. We played fast, took threes where available, hassled them on defense, and had an entertaining style. I'm a little concerned about Oturu's ankle injury. November is a rough month schedule-wise, and we'll need him.

Sure it was only Nebraska-Omaha, but it's hard not to be optimistic about this squad. Especially considering Curry and Carr didn't play last night.

Coffey at PG is a match-up nightmare. His length is nearly impossible to guard, and the fact that he can score and distribute is everything in this offense. When IW plays under control like he did and the bigs can handle the feeds like last night, look out. Incredibly refreshing to see Stockman's play last night. Glad it worked out that he came back after that weird grad transfer situation.

Kalscheur sure isn't playing like a freshman. My goodness is he poised out there. I'm mostly glad that despite his youth, he's not afraid to look for his shot, drive the lane and shoot when it's open.

Athleticism all over the floor, I'm curious to see how it all comes together against a tougher opponent in Utah Monday night.

jmag21 said:

The team was fun to watch last night. We played fast, took threes where available, hassled them on defense, and had an entertaining style. I'm a little concerned about Oturu's ankle injury. November is a rough month schedule-wise, and we'll need him.

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Pitino said on the post-game that the trainer said Oturu was fine to go back in after he got taped up, but that he felt there was no point to push it at that point with the game out of hand.

ltf said:

Was thinking the same thing. Seems like he'd be much more valuable to us three years from now than this season.

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Totally disagree. He's the best PG on the roster.

I didn't get a chance to watch the game so this is based on box score and highlights I have seen.

Offense was very good last night, offensive rating of 130 vs. a sub par team is what you want to see. Would like to see the defense tighten up a bit with a defensive rating of 95 vs. Omaha, the starters only played half the game so I will let it slide. Looked like Jackson and Tut hit some contested shots as well. It does appear they will be able to space the floor with Gabe, Dupree and Stull from 3. We know that Hurt and Coffey are capable 3 point shooters too.

According to Ryan James, Dupree was a little slow reacting to his man running off screens and got burned a couple times. 20% turnover rate is a little high with Hurt and Murphy committing 4 apiece. Uncharacteristic from Hurt since he doesn't have the ball in his hands that often.

Should get a good idea how good this team is when they face Utah next week. Utah is usually a very solid defensive team. I believe they lost their top 2 scorers from the previous year. Local angle vs. Utah is that they have Both Gach who played at Austin before spending a year at prep school

I would still think Carr starts over Kalscheur who then would push either Stull or Hurt out of the rotation.

die hard gopher said:

I would still think Carr starts over Kalscheur who then would push either Stull or Hurt out of the rotation.

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Really hate to see Hurt pushed out of the rotation. I would think if his playing time goes backward, that only is a negative in regards to getting his brother - and I'm sure that's not lost on Pitino either.

WriterGoph said:

Really hate to see Hurt pushed out of the rotation. I would think if his playing time goes backward, that only is a negative in regards to getting his brother - and I'm sure that's not lost on Pitino either.

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FWIW I don't see Stull or Hurt playing a ton if Carr and Curry are able to play consistently. Unless they are shooting well they don't provide a lot that other players don't

UpAndUnder43 said:

FWIW I don't see Stull or Hurt playing a ton if Carr and Curry are able to play consistently. Unless they are shooting well they don't provide a lot that other players don't

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From my perspective, I think it's super early to make a determination on Stull. He has been a very solid player at the D1 level for 3 years already. As much as we like Gabe's early play and intangibles, he is straight out of high school. I have to believe over the course of the next month, we will see Stull's experience rise to the surface. I think he is still finding his fit on a new team and getting back into full game shape.

On another note, if Stull doesn't play this year, we can bet that other potential grad transfers will be aware of that as they look at Minnesota as an option this spring.

Bryce Webster said:

Totally disagree. He's the best PG on the roster.

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This is a big, big year for the program. No holding back, we need all the horsepower we can get. This year can catapult the program or sink it. I want Carr now. He's a very good guard and you cannot have enough of those.

WriterGoph said:

From my perspective, I think it's super early to make a determination on Stull. He has been a very solid player at the D1 level for 3 years already. As much as we like Gabe's early play and intangibles, he is straight out of high school. I have to believe over the course of the next month, we will see Stull's experience rise to the surface. I think he is still finding his fit on a new team and getting back into full game shape.

On another note, if Stull doesn't play this year, we can bet that other potential grad transfers will be aware of that as they look at Minnesota as an option this spring.

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Good points. I don't see Omersa playing much either, if Carr and Curry are good to go. Splitting minutes across 12 players is tough in tight games. Lots of guys will get chances in non-conference but the bench shortens as the season goes on, usually.

bga1 said:

This is a big, big year for the program. No holding back, we need all the horsepower we can get. This year can catapult the program or sink it. I want Carr now. He's a very good guard and you cannot have enough of those.

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Yep. Carr could be the difference between NCAA and NIT or first weekend exit and second weekend.

Bryce Webster said:

Totally disagree. He's the best PG on the roster.

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Without a doubt!! Carr is a game changer!!

Carr would definitely put Washington into "Better get it together" mode!

I think Hurt could well be on his way out of the rotation at some point anyway. It comes down to who gives you more, Hurt or Stull. I love Hurt's hustle and moxie and desire to move the ball, but he didn't make open three pointers last night, he turned the ball over, and he got torched on defense a few times. The beauty of course is that we have depth. I don't feel bad about playing Hurt if we need to, and if we have better options, so much the better. Same with Carr and Washington. Although I think Washington is going to be good for us this year.

After watching Stull's highlights and the second half of the Chicago Loyola game when he basically took over the game, I was excited to have him. Not only is he a good shooter, but can take it to the hoop. Not sure about his D and probably not much on the boards. If he plays like his highlights, my guess is that he will compete for PT with Gabe and give relief to McBrayer.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=RsuYafe2rWU