2010-2011 Gophers

[Dotch]

Many frustrating things last night, but again it's a hard place to win and the Gophers did some good things out on the court. I was frustrated when the Gophers rushed their shots with a few minutes to go, even though the Badgers were missing 3s. That's the time to collect a bunch of 2s and even the score.

I didn't like the calls at the end (like the grab of Mbakwe's arm so he couldn't get the rebound) but those evened out some non-calls that went Minnesota's way earlier in the game.

Hopefully this squad can learn something and take a win at Michigan St.

Amen. When they made their run I was hoping they'd pound the ball down low and punish them. Didn't happen. It's a long season though and lots of things can happen. I was only able to see the last half but would agree that after watching Gopher basketball for 45 years, Big Ten officiating is still haphazard at best and consistently inconsistent at worst.

[Trucks]

The gophers will be just fine. Wisconsin is the toughest place to play in the big ten. You don't win the big ten going undefeated. Usually a team with 3 or 4 losses wins. No need to give up on the team after playing a good squad in the badgers. Sure it's a game we should have won but this is the best team we've had in a number of years.

[CodyDawg]

I dont understand why they dont drive on Hoffarbers side more. you got the defense in a pickle...either you sag to help on the driver and leave Hoff open (not gonna happen) or the driver gets to go to the hole and/or dish across the lane to a wide open big guy. And I think they need to be a little more original in their screens for Hoff. If he gets hot (and that is what you need to win a game like this on the road in the Big Ten), it covers up a lot of other sins.

[Northlander]

Yup!

[Scott M]

No incentive to play better. They just don't play smart. Yes, they play good defense. But the best coaches in the country get their teams to play good defense AND play smart on both ends of the floor. Haven't seen Tubby's players mature into smart players. I thought State and Minnesota played poorly in the first half. Gophers should have been thrilled to be up 6 at the break. But apparently they thought they could keep plodding and win the game. Instead, they get creamed in the second half and lose 71-62, almost giving up 50 in the second half . This team is going to take it on the chin from Purdue, Illinois, and especially Ohio State. They'll be in the tournament all right but another one and done. They'll nearly fall out of the Top 25 now. I was really hoping we weren't going to see the best basketball of the year in November but all signs are pointing to it turning out that way.

[Northlander]

They just arent consistent and play young. From watching them it looks like a few of their better players just dont have a good basketball IQ.

[blue_healer_guy]

sampson is really soft.

[CJH]

The guards are not distributing or creating on the offensive side, and sagging of the three point shooters way to much. There is no reason to sag when you have two of the big three in the lane. They played with no energy or enthusiasm. Joseph isn't the same player he was last year, hopefully he rounds into form.

[Scott M]

Devoe Joseph out indefinitely

by Myron Medcalf, Star Tribune

The Gophers won't have junior guard Devoe Joseph against Indiana Tuesday and he could be out longterm, Tubby Smith said Monday.

"Devoe wasn't at practice for the last couple of days but that's the only issues that we've had so far," Smith said. "He's working on some things he's got to work on ... some of everything. ... It could be [longterm]."

Joseph missed the team's first six games for violating team rules. Since his return last month, he's averaged 11.3 points per game.

Joseph, Canada's national prep player of the year during his senior year of high school, blossomed during a performance in last season's Big Ten tournament. He earned all-Big Ten tourney honors after leading the Gophers to the title game.

[Dotch]

Definitely not the kind of news one likes to hear after the start they're off to. Joseph is a good player but just seems like he's been a little off since he returned, not playing up to his potential. If it's off the court stuff bothering him, hope he gets the issues dealt with. On the flip side, some of the freshmen will get more playing time as a result which could help bring them along more quickly. We shall see.

[LMITOUT]

Quote:

It appears Devoe Joseph has played his last game for the Gophers.

Suspended for skipping a recent practice, Joseph informed coach Tubby Smith on Monday afternoon he plans to transfer, a source close to the "U" basketball program said.

The 6-foot-3 guard from Pickering, Ontario, also was suspended for the season's first six games for off-the-field problems. Since returning, Joseph was averaging 11.2 points in eight games for the Gophers, who are 11-3 entering Tuesday's Big Ten home opener against Indiana.

Smith may try to convince Joseph to stay, the source said. But unless something drastic changes, the Gophers will be moving forward without him.

[EBass]

What's going on Tubby?

[EBass]

From the Strib

When you get an email at 3:49 a.m., you know you're dealing with a serious situation.

Connie Joseph, the mother of Gophers combo guard Devoe Joseph, reached out to me Tuesday morning.

She's traveled here from Canada to be with her son, who's preparing to transfer. She said she's convinced that her son will not change his mind.

"The decision to transfer, it’s a difficult decision," she said during a phone call Tuesday. "It’s not a good situation. … It’s not something that’s taken lightly and it’s a difficult thing to do. Having said that, it’s something that Devoe has [decided to do]."

Her view of the events leading up to Monday's news varies from what sources close to the team told the Star Tribune Monday.

Connie Joseph said her son has pondered his decision for a long time. But after the team's loss at Michigan State Friday, he told his mother that he felt like it was time to go.

She said Devoe Joseph called Tubby Smith before the team's next practice and informed him of his decision to leave the program. Connie Joseph said her son skipped practice over the weekend because "once you've made this difficult decision, the best thing is just to move forward."

She said her son isn't suspended, as some outlets reported, but has decided to leave the team.

"No, there’s [no turning back]," she said Tuesday. "I'm going with him [Tuesday] morning to pick up his release papers. He wishes the team well. It’s a tough thing."

She added: "I don’t expect anything to change."

Connie Joseph said her son doesn't know where he's going yet. But she supports him, although she's shocked by the recent sequence of events. Just three years ago, Devoe Joseph was the top recruit in Smith's first recruiting class with the Gophers.

"I’m extremely, extremely surprised … really disappointed," said a sobbing Connie Joseph. "Devoe had dreams of playing for the Gophers."

[CJH]

W.T.F. is going on over there. The more I hear about this kind of stuff, the more I think Tubby is the one causing it.

I was excited when he got here, but he's got to get his stuff together. You are never going to win if you can't keep your players on the floor!!

Guess we will see what the freshman are made of.

[Scott M]

Wow, down by 6 at home to Indiana, a team that got whupped by Penn State at home...ouch, this club is lost right now.

[Scott M]

Quite a finish. It took a monster effort to beat a very scrappy Indiana team. Mbakwe with an 11/16 (7 O boards), 12 from Rodney who looked very good with an aggressive streak, 16 for Blake, and a rock solid 14 from Al Nolen. If Nolen played this well all season they would be in great shape.

They really needed this win. Things would have gotten out of control if they lost, Joseph transferred, and another season was for waste.

Remember in "Road to Perdition" when Sullivan went to the brothel to collect Rooney's money, and the dealer got the note that read "Kill Sullivan and all debts are paid" ? That's my take on the Ohio State game. Beat OSU on the road and all sins are forgiven.

This Joseph situation is a real head scratcher. The commentators on ESPN2 talked about how Tubby is a disciplinarian and if you can't play for him, it's on you not Tubby. I have to agree. I don't understand how the players think they are running the show...perhaps they've been coddled too much, because you can't tell Tubby what to do. When you have Tubby's track record and a ring, you call the shots unchallenged. That Devoe can't make his talents fit or play in his niche shows what kind of team player he is. I don't understand how you can walk away from a team as an upperclassman when you are being counted on and your team is ranked in the top 25. Outwardly it looks like he's selfish. I don't know what has happened behind closed doors but Joseph's not going to win the battle of public relations. He'll be remembered as a quitter. Attitude, grades, lack of leadership, rumored drug use...there's something going on behind the scenes that we may never know about.

[Dotch]

Hear, hear! Geesh, the Gophers sure didn't press the "easy" button on this one. They made a lot of work out of it. Rather than pounding a really mediocre team into submission when they got ahead in the 2nd half, they let up on defense (again) and it nearly cost them the game in the final seconds. Don't know what to think of this mess but I have to agree, blaming Tubby for Devoe's "problems" and the team's potential reaction to it doesn't cut the mustard. Personal responsibility has to enter into the equation somewhere along the line.

[thatoneguy]

W.T.F. is going on over there. The more I hear about this kind of stuff, the more I think Tubby is the one causing it.

I was excited when he got here, but he's got to get his stuff together. You are never going to win if you can't keep your players on the floor!!

Guess we will see what the freshman are made of.

Exactly what part is tubby's fault? It's not on him if a player can't follow the rules.

[EBass]

Not pretty, but I like the W at the end. Now for Ohio State at their house....eek

Heard a rumor that Devoe got busted for weed which was the issue last time. This is just a rumor I heard from a co-worker. PA from KFAN seems to know the real reason, but can't/won't comment on it since it was "off record".

What rumors have you heard?

[CJH]

Exactly what part is tubby's fault? It's not on him if a player can't follow the rules.

Tubby is the Head Coach and it all falls on him, he even said so in a recent interview about Joseph. He recruits the kids, brings them here, and then basically controls their lives for 4-5 years. There is always going to be some turnover in college basketball, but if players are constantly coming and going, then there is something not right. Are the players responsible for their actions? Absolutely. But we don't know what is going on behind closed doors on a daily basis.

This isn't Kentucky, he can't afford to keep turning over his best players and have success. I think we would all agree that we want the program to be better than what the track record has been thus far.

If it was something like smoking weed, big woop. How many college kids do that???!! Suspend him, but it doesn't need to be indefinite.

The bottom line point I am trying to make is, so far we have blamed the players for all the off the court stuff, at what point does Tubby have to start owning it?

[Scott M]

CJH, Souhan agrees with you. He tells it like it is:

Any mystery as to why Devoe Joseph left the Gophers basketball program was solved Tuesday.

Joseph apparently couldn't stand to watch his team play offense anymore.

Gophers apologists will call him a quitter. I think this makes him a man of taste.

Most of the night, a bunch of fans and maybe a few of his teammates probably envied Joseph's position, his position being elsewhere.

The Gophers finally survived a game they desperately needed to win Tuesday, beating a horrible Indiana team 67-63 at Williams Arena, but in many ways they looked worse than in their first two Big Ten games, when they lost at Wisconsin and Michigan State.

Losing on the road to those teams is understandable. Barely beating this collection of Hoosiers was less excusable.

Without Joseph to help at the point and hoist three-pointers, starting guards Al Nolen and Blake Hoffarber took on greater responsibility. The Gophers won because in the second half their veteran guards took over, with Nolen playing intense defense and scoring 12 of his 14 points, and Hoffarber bailing out the amorphous half-court offense and scoring 11 of his 16.

Too often, though, the Gophers failed to get the ball inside to Trevor Mbakwe, who often had a tremendous size and athletic advantage. Or failed to get a clean shot before the shot clock dwindled. Or failed to get a shot at all.

Too often, the Gophers are dependent upon their defense, Hoffarber's uncanny release and Mbakwe's relentless offensive rebounding for points, and that dependence is a crutch that good teams kick away.

"I miss him already, not being around,'' Nolen said of Joseph.

Joseph's departure -- his mother told the Star Tribune that he will not return to the program this year, amid speculation that Joseph simply did not like playing for Smith -- shouldn't be a crushing blow to a solid basketball program. Joseph gave the Gophers sporadic scoring, but he had not fulfilled his potential as a top recruit.

His absence is more of a red flag for a program that has reestablished respectability under Smith but doesn't seem prepared to establish much more.

Smith has recruited an interesting collection of talent that doesn't play all that well together.

On Tuesday, the Gophers got lucky. After taking an eight-point lead with 4:05 remaining, they allowed Indiana to close to within 65-63 with seven seconds remaining.

Indiana called timeout. The Gophers struggled to inbound the ball, and it soared above a group of players. With the ball still loose, an official called Indiana guard Jordan Hulls for a foul, and Hoffarber made two free throws to end the suspense.

It was an awful call. The Gophers shouldn't have required such charity.

Their talent is obvious. Hoffarber is one of the best shooters in the league, and Nolen one of the best defenders. Rodney Williams might be the most gifted athlete in the conference (he had 12 points and a couple of frightful dunks), and Mbakwe might be the most dominant rebounder (he had 16 boards and five blocks.)

"I don't know why I'm so inconsistent,'' Williams said with a smile and a shrug.

Perhaps it's that Smith's offense and substitution patterns rob his players of offensive flow and easy scoring opportunities.

Tim Brewster employed three offensive coordinators in four seasons as the Gophers football coach. If he were in charge of this team, he'd be on his third offensive coordinator this season.

I asked Smith why his half-court offense struggled, and he cited the inability of his big men to finish inside, which also kept his shooters from getting open shots.

I also asked Smith, who snubbed an initial attempt at an explanation of Joseph's absence, if he could tell us anything about the situation. "No,'' he said, before leaving.

That's silly. Smith recruited and touted Joseph. He's responsible for bringing Joseph to Minnesota, and he's responsible for communicating to a public that buys tickets and creates broadcast revenues.

Smith's silence was just another missed opportunity on a night filled with them.

[rundrave]

I asked Smith why his half-court offense struggled, and he cited the inability of his big men to finish inside, which also kept his shooters from getting open shots.

I dont like Smith's response. The first half anytime a post player got the ball it was at the FT line, and not once did any of the big guys get a good inlet pass down low, let alone with enough time left on the shot clock to make an effort for a good shot.

It got better in the 2nd half but was still terrible. There was a couple times when Iverson got it down low and he just looked timid and immediately kicked it back out instead of taking it to the rim. Especially with a couple of Indiana big men in foul trouble.

I was really afraid the way Indiana was hitting 3's that the gophers were gonna blow the win.

[guideman]

As a 30 year season ticket holder I have seen them come and go and seldom do teams live up to the fans expectations. If you think Tubby's teams have been a disapointment I guess there is some good reasons for that. However please keep in mind that these are just kids, many of them just freshmen and sophmores. They are bound to be erratic on the court. All I need to do is remember the teams that our last coach had and what he did to this program. It's only been a short time since that 7 year stretch of bad teams that went nowhere, remember!

Ohio St. only beat a very bad Iowa team by 5 the other night and nobodys jumping down their throats, and they have way more talent than the Gophers do. So put it all in perspective. They are going to lose some games they should have won and they will win some games they should have lost. It college basketball, played by college kids, they will break your hearts one day and beat Michgan St. the next.

Thats the beauty of college basketball! If the best team always won we would never have seen Butler in the national finals last year, heck they couldn't even beat the Gophers!

Go Gophers, 12-3 overall, 1-2 in the Big 10.

"Ace"

[Scott M]

67-64 Ohio State. A what might have been game. Minnesota plays aggressive down the stretch, cutting a 15 point lead in the second half to 3 with possession of the ball but can't get a shot off. I can't help but think of a couple unforced turnovers, how hard it was to get buckets and then to have those turnovers just kills you. Tubby is culpable here for his friggin' line changes. He pulled Mbakwe in the first half when he didn't have a foul and was the Gophers only form of offense. Mbakwe gets a 16/12 to Sullinger's 15/12, but he only got half as many shots as the big freshman (11 vs. 5 FGAs). The freshmen weren't able to contribute much. Would have been really nice to have a creator and shot taker in Joseph with the shot clock running down.

I thought David Lighty was the best player on the floor, but I've thought that about him in games for a couple years. He's so gifted athletically that if he puts his mind to it he could be an NBA player but he coasts through a lot of games. Lighty gets 19 in 26 minutes before fouling out. They had him guarding Mbakwe, and Tubby had Mbakwe playing on the perimeter. Why they didn't isolate that mismatch in the post I'll never know.

I guess I looked at this game differently than Tubby did. I figured the Gophers had good enough individual defenders in Mbakwe, Sampson, and Iverson that they didn't need to double team Sullinger and leave Craft, Lighty, and Diebler open. OSU's runs just cut up the Gophers and some of them came in transition guarding outside shots and a lot of them came on double teams that freed guys up with the extra pass. I would have played them straight up, but I'm not the highest paid public employee in the state of MN like Tubby.

The bucks play some of the best defense in the country. The Gophers are a few steps behind. It just seemed like a few possessions, particularly in the first half, weren't valued enough when they should have been. You have to know that its not going to come easy in Columbus but at least they made a run at the end. The conference schedule is going to be a grind this year although admittedly they had a rough draw in their first 3 of 4 on the road with ranked opponents. They can't slack off because they are still going to get a ranked team at home or away every week or two.

Bring on #10 Purdue, Thursday night at the Barn.

[winterwalleye]

Gophers only played about 10 mn of decent basketball. They seem to have no half court offense. Can't even get a decent shot at end of game.If they play up tempo they are much better.