It's going to take some time for us to get a full picture of how quickly and adequately the team has picked up coach Richard Pitino's new offensive system.
Can the Gophers turn perceived strengths – running and shooting, which are the pillars of a run-and-gun style – into actual strengths? Can they have enough balance to execute in the half court and under the boards as well as in transition? Can this system work immediately with this group of players?
Those are all questions that won't be answered, at least in full, more a while.
Our first glimpses – against opponents that aren't teammates – however, begin later this week.
Monday's media day featured excitement across the board, both from players, who are getting "sick" of playing against each other and Pitino, who says his squad is in tip-top shape and eager to improve as the Gophers barrel toward the exhibition opener against Cardinal Stritch on Friday.
Pitino hasn't named a starting rotation yet – and may tinker long past Friday, saying that the first exhibition's opening five might not be indicative of what he does the rest of the non-conference schedule, and the season.
"I may try to do something different just because we have an opportunity to kind of dabble with that a little bit," the coach said. "It changes every week. Guys may have a good practice, somebody may not have a good practice. I think it's probably not beneficial for our basketball team if I say this is the starting five because certain guys may get discouraged and they want to work their way into the starting lineup. So it changes week by week, opponent by opponent as well."
But as far as where the team is as a whole at this point is encouraging, Pitino said.
