The Problem with the Minnesota Gophers Men's Basketball Team

The Minnesota Gophers, under Tubby Smith, started this year off with a bang - coming out of the gate 12-0, including a big win over a top 10 Louisville team in a December Holiday tournament. As the conference season has continued to wear on a troublesome trend continues to present itself. Since this issue has yet to improve this late in the year, it will be ultimately the biggest problem facing this team heading into the Big Ten conference tournament in March.

Simply put, they have no offensive consistency, go to guy, or even an established group of five that should be in the game at crunch time. Take a look at these concerning numbers: Lawrence Westbrook leads the team in scoring at 12.5 ppg. But after him, the Gophers have a cluster of 7 guys averaging between 8.8 and 5.6 ppg. Now you can make the argument that there is great depth on this Gophers team. Tubby more often than not goes 11 deep, and 11 guys are averaging 10 or more minutes per game. The problem is that there seems to be no flow on offense, and really no one that they can consistently rely on from night to night. If one of their guys is having a bad game, Tubby more than likely can only replace him with another guy who is only capable of scoring in that 5 to 9 point range per game.

In many instances it seems that they have a hard time in developing any offensive flow, on many occasions 2 to 3 minutes into game Tubby often begins bringing in players off the bench. I'm sure he has his reasons, but he must also understand that his can create problems with the flow and continuity of the offense.

Now the good news is that even with these offensive inconsistencies, the Gophers are still in the upper half of the Big Ten. Of this writing they are 20-7 overall and 8-7 in conference play, currently tied in a 4 way log jam for 4th place. With 3 games remaining and 2 at home, they do have a chance to solidify a top 5 finish in the conference - which would guarantee a first round bye in the upcoming Big Ten tournament.

If they could just find 1 or 2 more reliable and consistent scorers, to go along with their solid defense, this would be a team that is capable of winning a game or more in the NCAA tournament. If you are a Gophers fan, hopefully these offensive threats show themselves soon!