David Mutaf

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Southpaw

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As touched on in another thread, Mutaf is currently playing in one of the Spanish pro leagues on a team located in the Canary Islands. In an admittedly small sample size (6 games) he is averaging 23 minutes and 12.2 points per game, shooting 48 percent from 2-point range and a team-leading 50 percent (12-24) from 3-point range. Keep in mind that the FIBA 3-point line is 1.4 feet further from the basket than the NCAA line (0.9 feet further from the corner).

Mutaf was recruited to the Gophers based on his shooting abilities particularly from 3-point range. On a team whose glaring weakness was 3-point shooting, I have a hard time understanding why Mutaf barely saw any playing time - no wonder why he got frustrated and decided to move on - an opportunity lost for the Gophers.
 

Southpaw said:
As touched on in another thread, Mutaf is currently playing in one of the Spanish pro leagues on a team located in the Canary Islands. In an admittedly small sample size (6 games) he is averaging 23 minutes and 12.2 points per game, shooting 48 percent from 2-point range and a team-leading 50 percent (12-24) from 3-point range. Keep in mind that the FIBA 3-point line is 1.4 feet further from the basket than the NCAA line (0.9 feet further from the corner).

Mutaf was recruited to the Gophers based on his shooting abilities particularly from 3-point range. On a team whose glaring weakness was 3-point shooting, I have a hard time understanding why Mutaf barely saw any playing time - no wonder why he got frustrated and decided to move on - an opportunity lost for the Gophers.
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He was completely new to the country let alone the team and style of play, but also showed up later than normal and had less practice time than in traditional years to get ready. His defense was his biggest weakness as he had a lot of work to go there, but I would have liked to see him play more for sure. He would have been key in the back court this coming season, but understand why he wanted to move on. He would have seen minutes later in the season, especially after Gabe went down. I don't know that the B1G style of play was good for him anyway, probably could have been a killer in the pac12. Pitino was especially bad at working in minutes for players early in the year to prepare them or keep them engaged for later in the season.
 

I wondered the same thing. In the little bit of playing time he received, he looked a little slow but not lost and he appeared to know what he was doing. It was a terrible passing and three point shooting team. It's hard to believe that he couldn't have helped the team at least a little bit.
 

Don't think there is much to analyze about a freshman that left in early January and went pro overseas. Something about that tells me he was never going to succeed over here.
 




Border Gopher said:
Don't think there is much to analyze about a freshman that left in early January and went pro overseas. Something about that tells me he was never going to succeed over here.
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Well, we'll never know whether he would have been successful. In the brief amount of garbage time that he played (9 minutes) he was 4 for 7 from the field with 3 rebounds and a steal. Surely, he could not have kept that pace with more minutes but I would have liked to have seen more.

I think he would have added something to this team if he would have been around at the end of the season. I think the bigger question overall is whether he really wanted to play college ball in the US anyway. Now he is playing quality minutes in a lower level pro league and getting paid for it so I guess that's what he really wanted.
 

The transfer portal on 247 still shows him with a ?. But if he is getting paid to play overseas then i assume that eliminates any college eligibility he may have had.

Will never know what he could have been. I will agree that Pitino was not good at getting bench guys quality minutes. But with the way the team was struggling, and the fact that Pitino knew he was coaching for his life, I have to think he would have played Mutaf if he thought he would help the team.
 




Block M said:
My understanding is that the Gophers led the country in 3-pt field goal attempts and were nearly last in 3-pt field goal conversion rate. One would think there was room on the court for a shooter like Mutaf.
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And, as has been pointed out, one would think that a coach could come up with a way not to have his team take that many 3 pointers. I did see Pitino mention it a couple of times in post-game sessions but a good coach might have employed other methods.
 

Block M said:
My understanding is that the Gophers led the country in 3-pt field goal attempts and were nearly last in 3-pt field goal conversion rate. One would think there was room on the court for a shooter like Mutaf.
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He looked good every time he was out there.

He should have been playing more. I don't know if it would have mattered (in regards to him staying or winning more games).
 

Mulligan said:
And, as has been pointed out, one would think that a coach could come up with a way not to have his team take that many 3 pointers. I did see Pitino mention it a couple of times in post-game sessions but a good coach might have employed other methods.
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Yeah it was strange, it was like he was you or I complaining that his team shot too many 3's, like he was somebody who had no say over what happened on the court. If you have no control over your team, you should not be coaching.
 
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Wasn’t he a liability on defense? Not very athletic and slow. Playing defense is a prerequisite to getting game time.
 




Border Gopher said:
Don't think there is much to analyze about a freshman that left in early January and went pro overseas. Something about that tells me he was never going to succeed over here.
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Thank you.

Has there every been more lamentation over a Fr. who barely played? Some posters on here are waxing so poetically about him, like he's thier first crush in 7th grade that never came to fruition, i.e. "the one" who got away - mine was Lynn Johnson. Let it go people!!!
 

It was clear he was out of shape. He arrived late and was behind in learning schemes. Had some skills on offense. Sounded like it was made clear to him that he was going to be deep on the bench. Given all of that and a once in a century campus life and basketball it is not surprising he left. I’m not sure we can hang that on Richard.
 

Previous leading scorers in LEB Plata include American stars Brett Beeson, David Schuck and Nick Washburn. Don’t remember those guys? Maybe the league sucks. Schuck averaged more PPG in this league than he did it UNC Greensboro.
can he shoot? Yes. But he is playing against a bunch of D2 Americans and also ran pros.
 

UpAndUnder43 said:
Previous leading scorers in LEB Plata include American stars Brett Beeson, David Schuck and Nick Washburn. Don’t remember those guys? Maybe the league sucks. Schuck averaged more PPG in this league than he did it UNC Greensboro.
can he shoot? Yes. But he is playing against a bunch of D2 Americans and also ran pros.
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Which likely means he’s 5 years younger than the other guys. Couldn’t possibly improve or even blow up to be a sensation.
 

Holy Man said:
It was clear he was out of shape. He arrived late and was behind in learning schemes. Had some skills on offense. Sounded like it was made clear to him that he was going to be deep on the bench. Given all of that and a once in a century campus life and basketball it is not surprising he left. I’m not sure we can hang that on Richard.
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I think there a few examples of guys recruited, likely by assistants, where Richard didn’t embrace their strengths.
In Mutafs case shooting.
Like somebody said, he’d average 20 at Purdue.
 

Gopher_In_NYC said:
Thank you.

Has there every been more lamentation over a Fr. who barely played? Some posters on here are waxing so poetically about him, like he's thier first crush in 7th grade that never came to fruition, i.e. "the one" who got away - mine was Lynn Johnson. Let it go people!!!
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Hey, don’t knock those crushes. My 5th grade crush was eventually voted Best Looking in her senior class. Mutaf would have been a starter by February. Okay, maybe I’m exaggerating a little.
 

Minnesara said:
Hey, don’t knock those crushes. My 5th grade crush was eventually voted Best Looking in her senior class. Mutaf would have been a starter by February. Okay, maybe I’m exaggerating a little.
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Any luck with her in HS?
 

Defense. Yes RP knew that would be an issue but it seemed he didn't catch on very fast. Hind sight and blind speculations are what we are good at.

Much more to Bball than shooting
 


Gopher_In_NYC said:
Thank you.

Has there every been more lamentation over a Fr. who barely played? Some posters on here are waxing so poetically about him, like he's thier first crush in 7th grade that never came to fruition, i.e. "the one" who got away - mine was Lynn Johnson. Let it go people!!!
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Happens all the time in football. The backup QB is always a sure fire superstar if the stupid coach would just give him a chance.

Pitino was coaching for his job so if he wasn't playing a kid there was probably a very good reason.
 

MNVCGUY said:
Happens all the time in football. The backup QB is always a sure fire superstar if the stupid coach would just give him a chance.

Pitino was coaching for his job so if he wasn't playing a kid there was probably a very good reason.
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Holy Man said:
It was clear he was out of shape. He arrived late and was behind in learning schemes. Had some skills on offense. Sounded like it was made clear to him that he was going to be deep on the bench. Given all of that and a once in a century campus life and basketball it is not surprising he left. I’m not sure we can hang that on Richard.
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Agreed. Mutaf signed with the Gophers after a positive recommendation from fellow countryman, Alihan Demir. However, due to the pandemic restrictions, he totally missed out on the college campus experience - confined to his room taking online classes and not being allowed to socialize and party like a typical college student. All he had was basketball in an attempt to further a possible career after college. No playing time combined with the sterile atmosphere of games played with no spectators had to be unappealing to him. Whether or not he would have been appeased with more playing time and changed his decision to leave, we'll never know (but I suspect not under the circumstances).
 

alchemy2u said:
Wasn’t he a liability on defense? Not very athletic and slow. Playing defense is a prerequisite to getting game time.
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Perhaps. I didn't get a long enough look to determine whether or not he was slow and/or a poor defender. None of us know how he shot or defended in practice - if he didn't bring his "A game" to practice, then the lack of playing time is on him - if he showed potential at practice, then the lack of playing time is on RP. I would point out that Gach got plenty of playing time while displaying a "matador" defensive posture and being an offensive liability (I'm hoping Gach's performance in the Big 10 season was an aberration and he can bounce back next year).
 

Gopherbbdude said:
Defense. Yes RP knew that would be an issue but it seemed he didn't catch on very fast. Hind sight and blind speculations are what we are good at.
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How can you determine the extent of someone's defensive weaknesses from 9 minutes of garbage time spread over 3 games? Hardly anyone is playing much defense in these situations.

I guess I can understand a little snickering over spending much time wondering what could have been with some international freshman who was here less than the length of a tourist visa. But, what I find more snicker worthy are the views of the authoritarians (You know: "The boss is always right!") defending the wisdom and judgment of a coach who made around $15 million dollars for taking us to Weakling Wednesday five times in eight years, supervising epic collapses, and giving us a season with the most losses in Gopher basketball history.
 

Southpaw said:
Perhaps. I didn't get a long enough look to determine whether or not he was slow and/or a poor defender. None of us know how he shot or defended in practice - if he didn't bring his "A game" to practice, then the lack of playing time is on him - if he showed potential at practice, then the lack of playing time is on RP. I would point out that Gach got plenty of playing time while displaying a "matador" defensive posture and being an offensive liability (I'm hoping Gach's performance in the Big 10 season was an aberration and he can bounce back next year).
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None of us may know how he shot or defended in practice but I would take that fact that he was buried on the bench as a pretty strong indication that whatever the coaches were seeing in practice made them feel very confident that he would not be able to help the team in games.

But I also get that it is easier for some fans to assume that he was a superstar in practice yet the coaches just wouldn't play him because why would coaches play someone who could help the team win? Just doesn't make sense to do something stupid like that. Especially when you have to win games in order to save your job.
 

cjbfbp said:
How can you determine the extent of someone's defensive weaknesses from 9 minutes of garbage time spread over 3 games? Hardly anyone is playing much defense in these situations.

I guess I can understand a little snickering over spending much time wondering what could have been with some international freshman who was here less than the length of a tourist visa. But, what I find more snicker worthy are the views of the authoritarians (You know: "The boss is always right!") defending the wisdom and judgment of a coach who made around $15 million dollars for taking us to Weakling Wednesday five times in eight years, supervising epic collapses, and giving us a season with the most losses in Gopher basketball history.
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The coaches aren't using 9 minutes of garbage time to evaluate the player. They have countless hours in the gym with that player, they know their game inside and out, have seen what they can do. Do coaches make mistakes....or course.....but fans are making their decisions based on super limited information while coaches are making theirs based on actually seeing and working with the players.
 

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