Frustrated

Donate To GopherHole
T

Tubby Tyme

Member
Joined
Oct 16, 2009
Messages
88
Reaction score
0
Points
6
I am a bit frustrated after this game. We are very close to be a very good team but we are not there yet. We still need that key win on our resume whether it be Purdue at home, Michigan State at home or Wisconsin at home (hopefully 2 wins if not all 3 wins).

Ralph needs to be more aggressive in the paint. Way to many layups by Michigan State. Ralph has the talent, height, and athletic ability but he seems to shy away from contact. On the other hand, Iverson is less talented but provides the aggressiveness that MN needs.

2 questions and 2 comments:
(1) Can we run screen plays or picks for Blake to get open? It was frustrating watching him run around the perimeter all game.
(2) Can Rodney dribble the basketball? He seems to be on the wing every play that he is in the game. He gets the ball and either passes right away or dribbles once and then passes. Can he drive to the hole? (sorry, 3 questions).
(3) Thank God for Westbrook. We might not have many wins without him (this year or last year). There has been a lot of people knocking him lately, but he is easily our best and most consistent player.
(4) Gophers should be confident playing Sparty at home in 2 games.

Go Gophers!!!!!
 

It would seem that if we could some how fuse Colton and Ralph's games together we'd have a terror down on the blocks. A Colt Samson-type creature could be Big Ten player of the year material down the line... We should get the microbio and genetics departments at the U working on this.

Regarding getting Blake open - I have no confidence in our halfcourt offense to create many open shots on the perimeter. We have some set plays that seem to work getting an open look down low, but not much on for aggressive perimeter defending teams like Purdue and MSU. OSU was just plain lazy on Blake, and let him run free. Izzo would not make that mistake.
 

I'm starting to think that the Gophers are going to have to figure out how to get in without a PUR or MSU win. Maybe 7 wins at home and 4 or 5 on the road (lose at OSU, PU, MSU, and NW)? The OSU home win will turn out to be pretty impressive, as would a win over the Badgers.
 

(3) Thank God for Westbrook. We might not have many wins without him (this year or last year). There has been a lot of people knocking him lately, but he is easily our best and most consistent player.


I would strongly disagree with that statement, consistancy I would say is his biggest weakness.
 

People, prior to the start of the BigTen schedule, everyone seemed to think that it was imperative that we go 3-2 minimum. We did that, gang. The only game of the 5 that stunk was the whitewashing we took at Purdue. The other 4, showed the rest of the conference that we are gonna fight to the end and show the opponents where the Bear $hit in the Buckwheat.

Go Gophers!
 


JohnnyGopher said:
(3) Thank God for Westbrook. We might not have many wins without him (this year or last year). There has been a lot of people knocking him lately, but he is easily our best and most consistent player.
Click to expand...

No matter what anybody says, Damian Johnson is flat out our best player night in and night out. He never has a bad night. Ever. He is always present on defense and as a hard-nosed scorer and defender. He is our most reliable rock to rally around because we know what he is bringing to the table each and every game.

LW takes too long to get into what I like to call his "Urgent Mode" where he actually decides to take the ball to the whole. It's always with 10min in the 2nd half that he seems to be a factor. He needs to be more aggressive with dribble drive penetration because we have seen he is capable of it and never seems to do it.
 

PeanutButterTubbyTime said:
No matter what anybody says, Damian Johnson is flat out our best player night in and night out. He never has a bad night. Ever. He is always present on defense and as a hard-nosed scorer and defender. He is our most reliable rock to rally around because we know what he is bringing to the table each and every game.

LW takes too long to get into what I like to call his "Urgent Mode" where he actually decides to take the ball to the whole. It's always with 10min in the 2nd half that he seems to be a factor. He needs to be more aggressive with dribble drive penetration because we have seen he is capable of it and never seems to do it.
Click to expand...

I generally agree on DJ - but his performance at Purdue was not up to snuff.

Westbrook seems to be resigned to the fate that he has to be the one to pick up the team on his back, and he doesn't seem to relish that role. Nolen seemed to want to take the team on his back the final 2 minutes tonight though, and that didn't work so well...
 

I thought they played really well tonight. Many different players had periods where they excelled.

Nolen kept the Gophs in the game early.

Westbrook caught on fire in the second half.

Johnson played great defense and got some key baskets down the stretch.

Sampson played a physical game in the middle and displayed good moves around the basket against a very good defense.

That game is at Williams Arena and they come away with a win.
 

JohnnyGopher said:
(3) Thank God for Westbrook. We might not have many wins without him (this year or last year). There has been a lot of people knocking him lately, but he is easily our best and most consistent player.


I would strongly disagree with that statement, consistancy I would say is his biggest weakness.
Click to expand...


Hense that horrible pass to the post with like 1:45 left that pretty much sealed the deal with us down 5......
 



gopherguy05 said:
Hense that horrible pass to the post with like 1:45 left that pretty much sealed the deal with us down 5......
Click to expand...

gopherguy...In the game of basketball, there are like about 100 different possesions, and you choose one towards the end as the deal sealer. How about the others, earlier, that kept us in the game?

I guess my question is... Do you have a clue of the entire game? Or just the one or ones you choose at the end?
 


Gopher Bandanna Guy said:
It would seem that if we could some how fuse Colton and Ralph's games together we'd have a terror down on the blocks. A Colt Samson-type creature could be Big Ten player of the year material down the line... We should get the microbio and genetics departments at the U working on this.

Regarding getting Blake open - I have no confidence in our halfcourt offense to create many open shots on the perimeter. We have some set plays that seem to work getting an open look down low, but not much on for aggressive perimeter defending teams like Purdue and MSU. OSU was just plain lazy on Blake, and let him run free. Izzo would not make that mistake.
Click to expand...

So we fuse Colton's terrible hands with Sampson's terrible hands. They both lack rebounding skills and they both are not scoring threats. I don't see BTPOY potential in that. If they got the genetics department together to splice Ralph's and Colt's genes together they might end up with a child with abnormalities. I think evolution in this case would take a few hundred steps back.
 

I think he's been fairly consistent. I mean having nobody else as great scoring threats off the dribble puts a lot of attention on him, plus matchups play a big role when you're a 6 foot sg. I don't disagree with you about him not being our most consistent player, but I don't think he's far off. I mean the only other options are Hoffarber and DJ unless you count our consistently bad players. I'd say DJ is most consistent because his presence is always felt on defense even if he struggles on offense. Even if Hoffarber is more consistent than Westbrook, that's only two ahead of Westbrook, and he can't be that far ahead. Hoffarber has been pretty damn good since being a starter, but with his style of play he's going to have more invisible games than Westbrook.

JohnnyGopher said:
(3) Thank God for Westbrook. We might not have many wins without him (this year or last year). There has been a lot of people knocking him lately, but he is easily our best and most consistent player.


I would strongly disagree with that statement, consistancy I would say is his biggest weakness.
Click to expand...
 



Dr.Don said:
gopherguy...In the game of basketball, there are like about 100 different possesions, and you choose one towards the end as the deal sealer. How about the others, earlier, that kept us in the game?

I guess my question is... Do you have a clue of the entire game? Or just the one or ones you choose at the end?
Click to expand...

If you want to be great, you got to do it in crunch time. MSU had just hit a runner to go up 5, and we NEEDED points that possession. He lazily tried to force it in the post, and it was easily stolen. Hell I could have stolen that pass...it was weak for a high schooler.

Westbrook is amazing offensively when he wants to be...now he needs to get that killer instinct to ALWAYS be, or at least in crunch time.
 

Westbrook had 5 turnovers last night. Not the "no-call" type turnovers but obvious bad passing and bad choices. I love him to death, he has a great killer attitude that is rare on our home team but when he tried to split defenders with a dribble behind the back: yuck.
 

Huh?

Tubby Tyme said:
I am a bit frustrated after this game. We are very close to be a very good team but we are not there yet. We still need that key win on our resume whether it be Purdue at home, Michigan State at home or Wisconsin at home (hopefully 2 wins if not all 3 wins).

Ralph needs to be more aggressive in the paint. Way to many layups by Michigan State. Ralph has the talent, height, and athletic ability but he seems to shy away from contact. On the other hand, Iverson is less talented but provides the aggressiveness that MN needs.

2 questions and 2 comments:
(1) Can we run screen plays or picks for Blake to get open? It was frustrating watching him run around the perimeter all game.
(2) Can Rodney dribble the basketball? He seems to be on the wing every play that he is in the game. He gets the ball and either passes right away or dribbles once and then passes. Can he drive to the hole? (sorry, 3 questions).
(3) Thank God for Westbrook. We might not have many wins without him (this year or last year). There has been a lot of people knocking him lately, but he is easily our best and most consistent player.
(4) Gophers should be confident playing Sparty at home in 2 games.

Go Gophers!!!!!
Click to expand...

Some good points and some bad points. On the bad points, you gotta stop smokin' that really bad shxt because bad shxt really messes with your judgement. It can make you think you know more about basketball than one of the nation's great college basketball coaches. Now that is some wicked shxt if it can do that.
 

As to your question about running blake off screens and picks, remember that was pretty much MSU's entire offense for 2 years with Nietzel. We'd run Drew off 2,3 and sometimes even 4 screens before he'd shoot. Izzo had those offensive sets and he has defensive sets (also learned some new ones watching how people would defend Nietzel) so when we encounter a team with someone like Blake Izzo just puts one guy on him. Usually in MSU's defense we switch defenders so that it's harder to screen off a defender. If Luscious is defending someone and they run a screen, say Morgan, the defender in closest proximity, will switch over so that we can somewhat negate screening. This has issues if our guys don't communicate because it causes the guy setting the screen get WIDE open if both guys go with the shooter.

In this game Izzo had a few guys, Summers, Lucas, Morgan for a bit, and Luscious, although I saw primarily Lucas and Summers on Blake. Against teams that have a really hot shooter we adjust to having one guy glue to the shooter. For instance last year against Texas Walton just glued himself to their sg (whos name escapes me right now). This requires a little more defensive intensity, and basketball IQ as well as the ability to fight through screens. That's what we did to Blake, Lucas or Summers would just glue themselves to him because with their quickness they can cause trouble. Sometimes they will still switch up if they get caught in a screen but you will see them very quickly get back to their man and resume their duties. This year generally Raymar is our designated defender in those situations because of his ability to guard multiple spots. Last night Ray got into some early foul trouble so Izzo used Summers, Lucas and a little bit of Allen.

Don't look to much into Blake having an off night. Izzo tends to like to try and take away a teams best scorer/shooter and make other guys step up and beat us.
 

Neitzel

Remember Neitzel ran the point alot... he had handles and quickness. Plus he had a pull up jumper..

Hoffarber is a catch shoot guy he is not Reggie Miller. A team like Mich St has 4-6 perimeter players that can switch off on Hoffarber not matter how many picks are set. When Mich St switches on the picks it doesnt hurt their D because they are all athletic no mismatches are created when they switch on D.
 

BrewsterBooster said:
Some good points and some bad points. On the bad points, you gotta stop smokin' that really bad shxt because bad shxt really messes with your judgement. It can make you think you know more about basketball than one of the nation's great college basketball coaches. Now that is some wicked shxt if it can do that.
Click to expand...
Aw man, you got me rolling with that.
 

vaporboy said:
Westbrook had 5 turnovers last night. Not the "no-call" type turnovers but obvious bad passing and bad choices. I love him to death, he has a great killer attitude that is rare on our home team but when he tried to split defenders with a dribble behind the back: yuck.
Click to expand...

When he goes behind his back, turnovers happen way, way, too often. For every point he scores, he gives the other team points with his TO's...
 

You must log in or register to reply here.



Top Bottom