Judd: Pitino to Coffey: When are they going to start talking about you?

BleedGopher

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per Judd:

Richard Pitino had a message for Amir Coffey before the Gophers played Nebraska on Wednesday night at Williams Arena.

“I said, ‘I’m sick and tired of going into every game and they talk about (Jordan Murphy) for us, and then they talk about all the potential pros on the other team,'” Pitino told Coffey. “(I said), ‘When are they going to start talking about you? And that’s on you. We’ll put you in positions, but you’ve got to be aggressive.'”

Evidently, Coffey got the message because the junior guard went out and had one of his best games as a Gopher.

Coffey, who entered the game averaging 14.3 points, finished with a career-high 32 points and added six assists and six rebounds as the Gophers rallied from a 13-point deficit early in the second half for an 85-78 victory over the 24th-ranked Cornhuskers.

Coffey had 14 points in the first half but was limited to 13 minutes, 38 seconds because he picked up three fouls. In the second half, Coffey gave the national pundits something to talk about as he took control by scoring 18 points, dishing out six assists and grabbing four rebounds in 17:44 of action.

Coffey was fouled with 3:31 left in the second half and the Gophers trailing by two points. He made both free throws to tie the score and shortly thereafter, with Minnesota up by only one point, he made a three-pointer to give the Gophers a four-point cushion.

http://www.1500espn.com/news/2018/12/pitino-coffey-going-start-talking/

Go Gophers!!
 

1st team big ten and takes us to another level if he can continue this play. Played with emotion, fire, and confidence that we haven't seen before. Miles said they simply had no answer for Coffey. Interesting that Husker fans are heated at Miles for not trying zone defense.
 

1st team big ten and takes us to another level if he can continue this play. Played with emotion, fire, and confidence that we haven't seen before. Miles said they simply had no answer for Coffey. Interesting that Husker fans are heated at Miles for not trying zone defense.

Yes, very interesting. They did momentarily try some sort of trapping zone, which the Gophs didn't seem to be prepared for, but they went away from it and never went back.
 

Yes, very interesting. They did momentarily try some sort of trapping zone, which the Gophs didn't seem to be prepared for, but they went away from it and never went back.

Especially since we had no answers for OSU zone. Kind of inexplicable that Nebraska would go almost exclusively man
while giving up 85 to us.
 

Especially since we had no answers for OSU zone. Kind of inexplicable that Nebraska would go almost exclusively man
while giving up 85 to us.

A well executed zone can cause a lot of problems for offenses, a poorly executed zone can lead to wide open shots. Don't know much about Nebraska but they might not be very good at running zone defense which would explain why they stayed man most of the time.

As for Amir, guards keep getting bigger and bigger but at 6'8" and also being left handed he has the potential to be a matchup nightmare for most teams. Might not score 30 most nights, but if he can consistently score 20+ points he could give this team the go to guy they have been searching for. He has the ability just has to get it done but has not shown the consistency on a nightly basis.

He has ramped things up some in the 2 Big Ten games we have played, hopefully it is a sign that he is finally ready to take over. With Coffey's ability to slash and get to the basket combined with Gabe's outside shooting and Murphy's presence down low this has the makings of a pretty good team. But they need Amir to take that next step and prove he has NBA level talent.

Good on Pitino for coming right out and saying it, challenge him to be the guy.
 


1st team big ten and takes us to another level if he can continue this play. Played with emotion, fire, and confidence that we haven't seen before. Miles said they simply had no answer for Coffey. Interesting that Husker fans are heated at Miles for not trying zone defense.

I think the fans are right. Almost all of Coffey’s damage was driving to the hoop. Zone would have thrown a wrench in that plan.


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