Lineups We Should Test Out - what's the downside?


Good lord in any scenairo that Ihlen is playing more than 5 minutes is awful in my mind. At least carrington will rebound. Ihlen has averaged 23 minutes a game his last 3 games he is shooting 3-16 has 10 rebounds 2 blocks. He is awful on defense. Feel bad for the kid with the injuries he is not a big ten player. His problem from day 1 has been he is a big size that is afraid of contact and is to slow and not a good enough shooter to play wing. Ihlen has never done anything (outside of UTSA) to make me believe he is a real basketball player. Numbers dont lie he is awful, and even worse on defense.

I think unfortunately the best way to win is to play the only 3 ball handlers you have and hope with 3 guys that can handle the one with the worst defensive player guarding them brings it up. If the other teams PG guards Hawkins have Christie bring it up and intiate. When you make the decision to recruit a 4/turnover game guy you saddle yourself. Preference is Christie(hopefully draws a 6'6 or 6'7 SF) Mitchell, Hawkins, Carrington in terms of primary ballhandler. But mix and match.

1-2-3
Mitchell-30
Hawkins-30
Christie-30
Carrington-25
JOJ-5 at the Wing

Big roatation
Garcia-35
Payne-25 (assuming foul trouble limits him to around 25 but play him 30 if out of foul trouble)
JOJ-20 (will have to play tough maybe Fox can steal a few here as well)

There is no reason in the world to play Ihlen he is not it. Who is he going to guard, even against a bubble team like WI? Wahl that is a bucket all day on the block. Storr he will go outside and right around him.

Play zone. His length is an asset at the top of a 3/2 zone. Leaves Payne and Garcia to rebound. Carrington is a net negative at this point. You can't have JOJ and Carrington on the floor together. Ihnen at least is capable of making shots. There aren't a lot of great options, which is why we are terrible yet again.
 

3 assists in 14 minutes is pretty good. Maybe he should be the PG....Really commit to position-less basketball.
All three of those assists were handoffs that led to 3 3-pointers.

I think the total distance of those assists was 3 inches.
 

Play zone. His length is an asset at the top of a 3/2 zone. Leaves Payne and Garcia to rebound. Carrington is a net negative at this point. You can't have JOJ and Carrington on the floor together. Ihnen at least is capable of making shots. There aren't a lot of great options, which is why we are terrible yet again.
Hes 3-16 in his last 3 games, hes 3-18 from 3 this year outside of UTSA he does nothing of any value on the floor. Carrington will out rebound him all year rather have him on the floor than Ihlen that way you are not forced to play zone. Ihlen is incapable of guarding any position. I hate changing the way my team plays because of one massive glaring liabilty. Remove the liability. We have others but he is god awful and has been his entire time here.
 

Hes 3-16 in his last 3 games, hes 3-18 from 3 this year outside of UTSA he does nothing of any value on the floor. Carrington will out rebound him all year rather have him on the floor than Ihlen that way you are not forced to play zone. Ihlen is incapable of guarding any position. I hate changing the way my team plays because of one massive glaring liabilty. Remove the liability. We have others but he is god awful and has been his entire time here.

Outside of Garcia, Payne and Christie everyone is a liability. I don't feel like listing everyone's shortcomings so I won't, but there isn't a great option. I'd be okay with a Garcia, Payne, Christie, JOJ and Mitchell lineup. I think we'd be limited offensively but okay on defense.
 


Outside of Garcia, Payne and Christie everyone is a liability. I don't feel like listing everyone's shortcomings so I won't, but there isn't a great option. I'd be okay with a Garcia, Payne, Christie, JOJ and Mitchell lineup. I think we'd be limited offensively but okay on defense.
My thing is maybe and a very big maybe carrington is 19 and figures some stuff out, Ihlen is already 23 he is what he is. If gun to head i would rather have minutes with Carrington than Ihlen.
 

My thing is maybe and a very big maybe carrington is 19 and figures some stuff out, Ihlen is already 23 he is what he is. If gun to head i would rather have minutes with Carrington than Ihlen.

That's a good point. We've just never seen Carrington do much, and he's a terrible shooter. But Ihnen isn't that good either. Not a great problem to have.
 

Start your best five players and play the defense that suits them, not your flawed ideology.

So, ( in descending order of skill)

Garcia
Christie
Payne
Hawkins/Mitchell
JoJ

Ditch the ridiculous idea of playing man to man. Play a 3-2 match-up zone that keeps Hawkins in top and Payne and Garcia underneath.

It’s really the only way the can hide the defensive liabilities. Switching and giving the other team favorable matchups is death.
 




My thing is maybe and a very big maybe carrington is 19 and figures some stuff out, Ihlen is already 23 he is what he is. If gun to head i would rather have minutes with Carrington than Ihlen.
Ihnen not Ihlen
 


Calling someone’s basketball skills (one who is in the highest level of D1 basketball) trash, not good, terrible, bad….is all the same thing. He is a great person, but his skills are trash / terrible / bad for this level. You guys are soft.
 

Calling someone’s basketball skills (one who is in the highest level of D1 basketball) trash, not good, terrible, bad….is all the same thing. He is a great person, but his skills are trash / terrible / bad for this level. You guys are soft.
Yep, we soft because we don’t think it’s cool to call a Gopher player trash. And you definitely a big tough guy. Way to go!
 



Yep, we soft because we don’t think it’s cool to call a Gopher player trash. And you definitely a big tough guy. Way to go!
They are all great. We can only say positive things about the gophers going forward.

To be fair, it would be more mean to show his stats / highlights from the last few games and let people draw their own conclusions…that may be worse than me calling it out.
 
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Hes 3-16 in his last 3 games, hes 3-18 from 3 this year outside of UTSA he does nothing of any value on the floor. Carrington will out rebound him all year rather have him on the floor than Ihlen that way you are not forced to play zone. Ihlen is incapable of guarding any position. I hate changing the way my team plays because of one massive glaring liabilty. Remove the liability. We have others but he is god awful and has been his entire time here.
Your numbers are off some as he is 8 of 21 for the year. Take out UTSA and he's 3 of 16 in rest of games. He hasn't played competitive college bball in 2 years, he needs to continue playing to work through that (same with Fox). It's too early in the season to write him off. I believe he can be a solid contributor this season, just needs more time adjust his body and mind to playing at this level again.
 




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