Gophers Basketball Game One: What We Learned

by PJS on Nov 15, 2008 10:34 AM CST in Gopher Basketball

It wasn't always pretty, but the Gophers led throughout in the season opener last night against Concordia-St. Paul. Here are my shotgun thoughts of the game.

Al Nolen has more confidence with his shot. He had 17 points on 7-11 shooting include 3-5 from three. He made defenders pay when they gave him room to shoot and he showed a willingness to drive to the basket and finish or dish. All around improvement from Nolen.
Anomaly of the night: Blake Hoffarber grabbed 12 rebounds. Don't expect that to continue. But Hoffarber also didn't make a three point shot (0-4). I wouldn't expect that to continue either.
Both Ralph Sampson III and Colton Iverson got in early foul trouble. With Damian Johnson and Jon Williams out, this is something that could hurt the Gophers. They're young and this is going to happen, but at least one of Iverson's fouls--near midcourt--was inexcusable, even if it came because of effort.
RSIII looked a bit hesitant. This was expected. I'm not overly concerned. He has to adjust and get comfortable.
Devron Bostick looked nervous. This was expected. I'm not overly concerned. He has to adjust and get comfortable!
Paul Carter looked very confident even shooting 2-8. I like the confidence and think he has the capability of being a difference maker. I eagerly awaiy seeing him and Damian Johnson on the floor together.
The Gophers didn't apply full-court pressure, at least not much. I wonder if Tubby Smith didn't want to show his hand against Concordia or if the newcomers weren't ready.
Devoe Joseph only played at point and never at shooting guard. For the most part he did fine running the point and pushing tempo. There was a stretch in the second half when he had trouble getting the Gophers into their offense. I'd like to see Joseph, Nolen and Westbrook on the floor together at some point. Devoe didn't look for his shot (0-2). I'm sure he would more often if he wasn't the floor general.
That was more observations than I thought. You notice anything else?

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Thoughts

Sampson looked a lot better toward the end of the second half when we were actually looking to involve him in the offense. He was a bit awkward in the first and definitely a bit hesitant, but the second gave some glimpses into what he can become.

Al Nolen is also much improved from last year, but I was wondering why he wasn’t guarding the point guard on defense for the majority of the game. Whenever he and Hoff were in there, Hoff was guarding the point. Maybe this was just something that was being played around with for a game, but I’d much rather see Nolen on the ball than Hoff.

Joseph really should drive to the basket more. He did it in the second preseason game and was very successful, but against Concordia he didn’t really try to make plays himself. He’s young, so that’s expected but I’d still like to see him drive as it really sets up his outside shot.

Iverson got in foul trouble early, but played very well with fouls later in the game. He was still aggressive offensively and got a handful of trips to the line because of it. The fouls early were kind of unnecessary, but he showed that he could at least play with them (albeit against a team that had no size whatsoever).

Our backup lineup did a terrible job scoring points. I don’t know if it was first game jitters or what, but the lineup that had Busch, Abu and Joesph on the court at the same time really struggled scoring. They let Concordia back into the game when the Gophers were up 20, which was promptly stopped with Tubby bringing Al and Westbrook back in. I also don’t understand why Busch was the first sub off the bench, but that needs to change in the future.

And finally, Damien really needs to get well soon. He was shooting with the team before the game, which is good to see but he still had his left hand wrapped up. Hopefully he’ll be 100% when the real games come around.

by Felix on Nov 15, 2008 11:33 AM CST 0 recs