Who will be the next Blake?

Hello all -- wanted to say thanks for reading my blog. I've been having a blast so far. Before I took this job, I planned a short holiday vacation to Hawaii (I'm in flight right now!!). So unfortunately, I will not be accompanying the Gophers to the Old Spice Classic in Orlando. I will reduce my blogging as well, although I will still have posts for tomorrow through Thanksgiving day. From then through the following Sunday, my editor Michael Rand will be covering for me in Orlando and posting pregame and postgame blogs here. You can also follow him on Twitter for in-game updates @RandBall.

Thanks again for reading!

At the start of the season – spurred by coach Tubby Smith's talk of the "best shooting group" he's ever had – the popular question became: Who will be this team's Blake Hoffarber?

Three games in, with outside shooting continuing to struggle, the question has morphed: Is there one?

Before exhibition games had started, the initial answer was redshirt freshman Oto Osenieks, who came to the Gophers with a sharp shooter reputation.

"We're going to expect a lot from him," Trevor Mbakwe said before the season, at Big Ten media day. "Oto has to be our new Blake. He's definitely our best shooter."

He showed a spark of that Thursday against Fairfield, hitting consecutive treys to help give the Gophers a needed padding and key an offensive turnaround. But being tabbed as the "new Blake" is a tall order, and one that Osenieks is probably not ready to live up to yet.

After Thursday, Osenieks has hit three three-pointers in the young season, and added another in an exhibition game. But playing no more than 12 minutes in any game, the 6-8 forward hasn't really been able to get into a groove yet and doesn't really look totally comfortable out there yet either. Even after hitting the consecutive shots Thursday, he passed on an open look one possession later, seemingly untrusting in his own hot streak.

"I don't want to put a lot of pressure on me because I know he's a very good shooter and it would be hard to step in his shoes either way," Osenieks said about Hoffarber comparisons back in October. "I'll just play defense and rebound and the offense will come. I'm not trying to go in there and shoot at the beginning all the time. It will come with time."

The other clear candidate so far is Austin Hollins, who also has three treys in the first three games, and added three more in the exhibitions. Hollins is getting more than twice the playing time of Osenieks, and while several of his shots have come at key moments and spurred momentum, the sight of Hollins setting up on the outside is hardly a sure thing.

Monday against South Dakota State, the Gophers had their best shooting performance of the early season, hitting six total three-pointers, from six different shooters. Out of the 12 guys who have seen more than two minutes of playing time (that excludes Kendall Shell and Chris Halvorson), seven have hit at least one three. Of course, it's been far from constant.

Is there a Hoffarber in this group?

It's not necessarily a bad thing if there's not. After all, Hoffarber was an experienced senior with a great outside touch – something the Gophers don't have right now (except for maybe Ralph Sampson III , who probably could have hit a three-pointer or two if he had the green light – he doesn't -- and we all know that's not really where he's supposed to be).

If the Gophers truly have a balanced offensive attack, as Smith believes will shine through with time, that could in fact be more dangerous, because you don't have to worry about getting the ball to just one guy for the big shot. Only time will tell.