The Gophers overcame a referee corps that did everything in its power to get the home state Hoosiers to Saturday, the continued absence of Spencer Tollackson, and another monstrous double-double from D.J. White in notching what constitutes the first signature win of the Tubby era in the Twin Minny.
Without two more wins this weekend the Gophers will likely be NIT-bound by virtue of their sub-five hundred conference ledger. Nonetheless, when Blake Hoffarber’s imitation of Laettner found the bottom of the well at Conseco Friday night it was the sight and sound of justice served.
This was one of the least impressive forty minutes of basketball Hoopraker has witnessed all season, but at least the end result was redeeming. Through 39 minutes, 58.5 seconds this was a game played by two teams whose offensive schemes can best be described as freelance.
Free Eric Gordon
On the Hoosier side of the ball it is evident Dakich has made the decision to not interfere with the prevailing Sampsonesque notions of Eric Gordon-on-five offense with occasional dump-downs or garbage putbacks by White. In lieu of these options one of the other Indiana guards launches an ill-conceived jumpshot or attempts a one-on-five drive to the rack. This is atomized offense, a far cry from the kind of smart, surgical, five-man halfcourt offense that has led Wisconsin and Purdue to the top of the conference and is keeping Illinois alive this weekend.
Gordon, for his part, seems to have a good understanding with the Big Ten officials if Friday’s kid glove treatment is representative. With his jumpshot looking increasingly suspect, the putative superstar’s game has become one-dimensional, consisting entirely of bulling his way to the hoop, throwing the ball towards the rim, and collecting yet another suspect foul call. From Hoopraker’s perch at Conseco’s midcourt, the number of offensive fouls that Gordon gets away with is startling.
Tubby Ball
Though it is premature to make any kind of final pronouncement about the nature of Tubby Ball in Gopherland, his team’s offensive characteristics at this stage seem to also be mostly freelance in nature. There is a lot of desultory dribbling, not a lot of movement without the ball, and more often than not, the offense is reduced to one player trying to make a play on his own.
Fortunately, rapidly emerging players like Damian Johnson are making their share of plays. Certainly McKenzie and Westbrook enjoy dominating the ball and also have the athleticism to play one-on-one offense, sometimes to good effect. Somewhat dispiriting however was the number of times the Gophers were reduced to awkward, disorganized sets out of timeouts.
For the forseeable future as Tubby brings in deeper, more talented rosters, the results may well be commensurate or better. Against Illinois today, though, a team that will bring one of the best team defenses to the battle, it will be interesting to see how Tubby’s offense fares.
News Flash
The dilettantes and bandwagon hoppers who have been maligning Bruce Weber’s poor recruiting classes are receiving some stiff rebukes. Obvious to Hoopraker long, long ago, Demetri McCamey is a very good basketball player and is well on his way to evolving into another of the program’s superstar point guards. But McCamey is far from the complete picture of his recent successes on the trail.
Anyone paying attention should have noticed the strides Mike Davis, Tisdale, and Jeff Jordan have made this year thanks to Weber’s tutelage. With McCamey and also not forgetting Bill Cole, this is fast emerging as one of the conference’s best recruiting classes, and one that will be around Champaign for long beyond Eric Gordon’s migration to an NBA bench. It’s time to jump back on the Brucewagon.
Spartans Need Patience
Kalin Lucas provides a speed component to the Spartans that can be either a devastating weapon or a turnover engine. The push the ball, play fast mantra, while superbly effective at times, can also be a trap for Izzo’s team. There were countless offensive trips yesterday when more patience, a few extra passes and cuts might have yielded higher percentage looks.
Lucas and company need to find a better speed-slow balance, knowing when to push and when to put the brake on a bit and force defenses to guard for longer stretches. When the team tries to force the speed at inopportune times, the result is often bad shots and/or turnovers. They are definitely going to need to exercise greater offensive discipline to get by the Badgers today.
Of course, if Drew Neitzel shoots like he did Friday, that will excuse some of the impatience-born mistakes that they have displayed all season. That said, a deep March run by the Spartans is predicated on finding the balance between their fast and fastest speeds.
