My thoughts on Louisville-Ole Miss
Posted on December 19th, 2008 – 11:52 AMBy Myron Medcalf
Minnesota’s Saturday opponent, Louisville, faced Mississippi as part of the SEC-Big East Challenge Thursday night. For awhile, the No. 9 Cardinals looked unstoppable in a 77-68 win.
If I were an NBA GM with a lottery pick in next summer’s draft, I’d pick Earl Clark. Only Hasheem Thabeet, Blake Griffin and Ricky Rubio are ahead of him, in my opinion. The 6-9 stud had 17 points in the first eight minutes of Thursday’s game. I’m sure Ralph Sampson III, Jonathan Williams and Colton Iverson were somewhere drooling.
But then, Louisville exposed a weakness that’s affected it in multiple games this season: a ofconsistency. Against Western Kentucky, Louisville played in spurts and lost. Against Austin Peay Saturday, Louisville played in spurts and needed a strong finish to pull of the win. And Thursday, Ole Miss tied up the game at 67 with five minutes to go before a strong push by the Cardinals and a lot of mistakes by Ole Miss (it made just 4 out of 24 three-pointers) led to the Louisville win.
As I watched that game, it was easy to see that Louisville has enough talent to explode early against the Gophers and make things easy on themselves. But I think a top 10 team that goes up by 18 and then has to fight off a second half run against a team that New Mexico beat by 33 points has some weaknesses that can be exploited. Louisville: 16 turnovers. Ole Miss: 7. And Ole Miss was able to compete on the glass with 43 rebounds to Louisville’s 56. Trust me, it could have been much worse.
But man, are they gifted or what? Clark, Terrence Williams and Samardo Samuels can do things that Minnesota’s young squad has not had to defend this season. I’m anticipating a great game.
-Gophers football recruit Bryant Allen of Maplewood, Mo., committed to Minnesota Thursday and said he hopes to play basketball for the Gophers, according to multiple recruiting services. He averaged 25.1 points for his high school team, which won a state title last season. Sources I’ve talked to haven’t mentioned him. But, Tubby Smith has talked about the team’s need to expand its roster for next season. I’m sure Allen can help in some way.
5 Responses to "My thoughts on Louisville-Ole Miss"
“If I were an NBA GM with a lottery pick in next summer’s draft, I’d pick Earl Clark. Only Hasheem Thabeet, Blake Griffin and Ricky Rubio are ahead of him, in my opinion.”
What about Stephen Curry?
Louisville may jump out to a quick lead, but unlike Pitino…Tubby coaches for the full 40 minutes.
Gophs 62, Louisville 55
Write that down.
Tubby wants to expand the roster next year? Barring injuries or unexpected transfers, they only lose Abu-Shamala and Jonathan Williams, and replace them with Royce White, Rodney Williams, Trevor Mbakwe, plus a PG out of California.
This year’s roster already looks like some deserving guys will get limited PT. Next year it will be even tougher for Tubby to shorten his bench. So why the talk of expanding the roster?
And Tony, I agree about Stephen Curry. he reminds me of Reggie Miller, with a few Larry Bird type intangibles, especially in the clutch. I wouldn’t be disappointed to see him in a Wolves uniform.
I like Curry as a college player but he’s only 6′3”, 4 inches shorter than Reggie Miller. I don’t think he’s tall enough to play the 2 consistently in the NBA which is why Davidson has pretty much moved him to PG this year. I think he might struggle to be a star in the NBA because he won’t be getting his shot off against 6′6”, 6′7” SG’s and he won’t be quick enough to get around a PG. JJ Redick sound familiar?
Stephen Curry is no J.J. Redick. Playing with lesser talent he carries his team against some of the best programs in the nation, often scoring despite double an triple teams (often through relentless work to get open). Redick was surrounded by MacDonald’s All-Americans and played against teams less talented than Duke in most games.
I don’t know if Curry will be an undersized 2 who finds ways to score or refines his PG skills and make the transition to the 1, but he’ll continue to make people regret passing on him.
Remember Charles Barkley was a fat 6-4 1/2″ All-American center in college. Yet he found a way to develop into a HOF forward. Dennis Rodman was the best rebounder in the NBA at 6-8″. There have been a lot of prolific scorers that didn’t fit the NBA’s ideal size/quickness standards.
They guy will find a way to score at the next level.
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