Random thoughts from the North Florida game

UpAndUnder43

Well-known member
Joined
Jan 3, 2017
Messages
13,743
Reaction score
11,630
Points
113
Obviously Murphy, Washington and Coffey played well. Oturu seemed to lack lift and explosiveness. Still was productive. Did leave the game and get re-taped at one point, so guessing he was hampered by his ankle injury.

Murphy's production is insane. No other words need to be said, he is amazing.

Coffey hit a couple mid-range jumpers in in the final 10ish minutes. One from the short corner against the zone. I love using him there. Can score off the dribble, shoot from there, pass if someone is open and has the size to see over a lot of defenders if they double.

Hurt did some nice things. He works hard and seems to get unlucky a lot. Had a big offensive board off a missed shot after a jump ball when the Gophers had 1 second on the shot clock.

Stockman needs to finish better. Does a lot of good things but this wasn't his type of game. Quicker bigs that stretched the floor. Still like him.

Oturu seems to be a proficient free throw shooter. That is a very good thing.

Gophers ran a 3/4 court trap for a while. North Florida handled it well but it did limit their time to run their offense, which is nice. Good thing to practice against the non-conference to see if you like it long-term. Gophers are long and athletic (Coffey, McBrayer, Oturu, Murphy, Hurt, etc) can all cause problems for smaller guards.

Game didn't make a shot BUT still rebounded and defended and hustled. They got him a lot of good looks which is encouraging.
 

Murphy's production is insane. No other words need to be said, he is amazing.

For a guy who always looks like he's either on his way to or from a nap, his output is unbelievable.

Cool to see him providing in-game instruction to Oturo.

JTG
 

Several guys need to recognize where they're going to get shots in the offense and take them (Stockman, Oturu, Hurt, Stull) including short-mid range jumpers. Be ready to shoot! Would like to see the big guys go up with the ball without dribbling every time, especially after rebounds.
 

My only gripe with Murphy was his turnovers. He had 6 of the team's 10.
 

Several guys need to recognize where they're going to get shots in the offense and take them (Stockman, Oturu, Hurt, Stull) including short-mid range jumpers. Be ready to shoot! Would like to see the big guys go up with the ball without dribbling every time, especially after rebounds.

My wife, who doesn't know a ton about basketball, said to me "is there a reason these guys dribble when they are open?" and I just laughed because she couldn't have been more spot on.
 


My only gripe with Murphy was his turnovers. He had 6 of the team's 10.

The alley-oop to Coffey was hilarious though. Coffey just looked at him like "WTF are you doing?" and Pitino's face was redder than anything in the building.
 

The alley-oop to Coffey was hilarious though. Coffey just looked at him like "WTF are you doing?" and Pitino's face was redder than anything in the building.

It was actually quite funny the two times Murphy threw passes 20 feet too high and out of bounds. He looked flabbergasted like he had no idea why they couldn't be caught.
 
Last edited:

3 double-doubles for the Gophers last night got me wondering if that had ever happened before. As someone said, how quiet can 20 points and 18 rebounds be?
 

Obviously Murphy, Washington and Coffey played well. Oturu seemed to lack lift and explosiveness. Still was productive. Did leave the game and get re-taped at one point, so guessing he was hampered by his ankle injury.

Murphy's production is insane. No other words need to be said, he is amazing.

Coffey hit a couple mid-range jumpers in in the final 10ish minutes. One from the short corner against the zone. I love using him there. Can score off the dribble, shoot from there, pass if someone is open and has the size to see over a lot of defenders if they double.

Hurt did some nice things. He works hard and seems to get unlucky a lot. Had a big offensive board off a missed shot after a jump ball when the Gophers had 1 second on the shot clock.

Stockman needs to finish better. Does a lot of good things but this wasn't his type of game. Quicker bigs that stretched the floor. Still like him.

Oturu seems to be a proficient free throw shooter. That is a very good thing.

Gophers ran a 3/4 court trap for a while. North Florida handled it well but it did limit their time to run their offense, which is nice. Good thing to practice against the non-conference to see if you like it long-term. Gophers are long and athletic (Coffey, McBrayer, Oturu, Murphy, Hurt, etc) can all cause problems for smaller guards.

Game didn't make a shot BUT still rebounded and defended and hustled. They got him a lot of good looks which is encouraging.

Also loved the mid-range shots by Coffey. Those are very important shots to take and make since its what the defense often allows. I think Curry could be particularly strong here if he is the same player he was two years ago (it is sad to say this).

Also agree that the habit of the gather dribble near the rim is a bad one for Oturu and Stockman. Oturu does not have great leaping ability and needs to learn that this is not HS any longer and a repertoire of fakes and passing skills are needed when he is in traffic. I think he could improve his vertical with some training as well.
 



3 double-doubles for the Gophers last night got me wondering if that had ever happened before. As someone said, how quiet can 20 points and 18 rebounds be?
Its amazing with that kind of production that the game was so close. I still can't quite figure it out.
Really enjoyed seeing what has been lacking, which is seeing the talented pieces come together in a productive way. Last nights game was what it needed to be in terms of developing cohesion.
 

Last night the offense had the best ball movement I have seen all season. There were extra passes being made, quickly, so the defense struggled to rotate. It's just too bad we shot so poorly because the offensive flow was excellent.
 


Its amazing with that kind of production that the game was so close. I still can't quite figure it out.

I would say the following reasons:

1) North Florida played pretty well. Until the end, whenever we would get a little breathing room, they had a response. Although our best players are stronger than their best players, our weakest players may be weaker than their weakest players.

2) Much poorer than average three point shooting by the Gophers.

3) The usual mediocre free throw shooting by the Gophers (we get to the line a lot but don't convert them that well).
 



You are all more positive in talking about this game than I. Our defense was horrid. Lazy effort, missed rotations and missed block outs. Murphy's lateral quickness (or lack thereof) was really exposed when defending on the perimeter.

Am I the only person that hates Amir's lack of spreading his arms on defense? He is 6'8" and keeps his arms to his sides when guarding the ball. For the last few games he has been defending the other team's PG. Spread your arms and it is hard for these small guys to pass around you. The PG last night did the same thing over and over and Amir never caught on as the guy penetrated at will.

Funny that this team wanted their identity to be defense and rebounding after the BC loss.
 

5 in the first half. forcing it to much.
What was Murph complaining about when he launched that lobb pass to Coffey into the upper deck? I do not recall ever seeing a lobb go so high and out of orbit as that one. My goodness...NASA is still tracking the d@mn thing!
 

I'm glad they won, but this was not a good game overall IMO. This was a cupcake team. Should win by 20 and control the game. They didn't. However, with all the things going on with Dupree, etc, we have to give them a pass on this one and just be happy they won.
 

It was actually quite funny the two times Murphy threw passes 20 feet two high and out of bounds. He looked flabbergasted like he had no idea why they couldn't be caught.

lol exactly....that one he threw to stull 20 rows up into the stands....he was legit mad at stull for not getting it.....and the dumbfounded look that Pitno had on his face when Murph tried explaining himself was classic
 

It's the same dumbfounded look on most fouls --- like "who me????":confused:
 

I know most Gopher fans are disappointed with the ending score, but remember that many power-6 teams have already lost to mid-majors this year. We still aren't one of them. Last night, Andy Katz said repeatedly that it's important to survive these winnable December games until conference play starts up again. Also, I thought North Florida played pretty well last night.
 

lol exactly....that one he threw to stull 20 rows up into the stands....he was legit mad at stull for not getting it.....and the dumbfounded look that Pitno had on his face when Murph tried explaining himself was classic

That one was good. I don't think Pitino said anything. He just let Murphy say what he wanted to say.
 

I know most Gopher fans are disappointed with the ending score, but remember that many power-6 teams have already lost to mid-majors this year. We still aren't one of them. Last night, Andy Katz said repeatedly that it's important to survive these winnable December games until conference play starts up again. Also, I thought North Florida played pretty well last night.

I think the Ospreys are a well coached low major team, who played out of their mind against an undermanned and distracted Gopher team. I couldn't be there but heard consistently from the TV guys when a NF player made a 3 that it was his first or second of the year. Interesting coaching philosophy to have guys who really don't shoot threes that often or well to jack them up when they are open, because they were so over matched inside that it was the only chance they had to win, and they nearly pulled it off. They made eight threes and we made one. Ouch. Their smaller inside players did a good job on our bigs as well. Said above and I agree, the defense was basically pretty bad. That defensive effort won't win many conference games.

Still won without Dupree and Curry, and a sub par shooting night for Gabe, and a bad offensive effort by Matz, who on paper should have had a field day and had a really tough night. Without IW, it's a disaster. Nice time to be heading into break.
 

Despite the score being close throughout the game, I never had the feeling the Gophers would lose. Seemed like every time we were on the verge of separating, someone would make a 3 or there would be a scramble underneath and they'd get a bucket. But they could never string a bunch of stops together either.
 



Its amazing with that kind of production that the game was so close. I still can't quite figure it out.
Really enjoyed seeing what has been lacking, which is seeing the talented pieces come together in a productive way. Last nights game was what it needed to be in terms of developing cohesion.

Simple reason to your first pondering: We shot the ball horribly. With just an average shooting night, we would have won by a comfortable margin.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 

The alley-oop to Coffey was hilarious though. Coffey just looked at him like "WTF are you doing?" and Pitino's face was redder than anything in the building.

I laughed too. That's a play that is really funny if we win the game, and really not funny if we lose a close one
 




You must not follow politics, lol.

Snowflake is an insult thrown at liberals. Generally, it is intended to mean weak minded and overly sensitive.

No, I just didn’t understand why you have to throw it into this conversation, wingnut.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
 




Top Bottom