Smith confident he has shooters

Last year, as prolific shooting guard Blake Hoffarber was anticlimactically wrapping up his Gophers career -- playing out of position on a team that won one of its final 11 games -- his exit was producing questions for the future.

The three-point shooting percentage for the Gophers' returning players was 24 percent. With Hoffarber gone, who would make the big shot for this team?

But a week into practice, coach Tubby Smith seems confident that his new collection of talent can more than adequately fill Hoffarber's shoes. With improvement from Austin Hollins and the addition of Oto Osenieks, Joe Coleman, Andre Hollins and Julian Welch, Smith is outwardly optimistic.

"I think it's the best shooting group I've had in a long time," Smith said buoyantly before Monday's practice. "I don't see any issues with the outside shooting at all."

Which shooting guard will be picked to start is still unknown. But the reason is probably not the one Gophers fans would have identified in April; Smith said he simply has too many intriguing options to choose just yet.

Andre Hollins is leading the team in three-pointers in team scrimmages. Fellow freshman Coleman is 5-for-10 from behind the arc. Osenieks is shooting 46 percent. Among sophomores, Austin Hollins is at about 40 percent, and Smith said he has watched Chip Armelin and Maverick Ahanmisi improve substantially.

"We have some good shooters," said Osenieks, a three-point specialist who as a redshirt last season remembers watching game after game from the bench as his team struggled from outside. "It was sad that Blake was the only good shooter out there. It was hard for me to watch knowing I couldn't go out there and help, but I always knew I'd been able to do it the next year.

It's possible Smith could rotate players at shooting guard in the early weeks of the season until he finds the ideal fit. Monday, he said he could see the 6-8 Osenieks getting time at power forward as well. Nothing about the starting five is set in stone, but for now that's a good problem to have.

"We've got guys shooting the ball really well and that's really pleasing because that's an area we've really struggled with last year," Smith said.

Notes • Smith said Mo Walker would not play "for a while" -- probably another week or two -- because of soreness and tenderness in his right knee from reconstructive surgery last season. The 6-10 sophomore was out on the court for warmups Monday and looked to be hopping on his brace but left once contact drills began.

• Andre Hollins had a large bandage on his left cheek in practice from what Smith described as four or five stitches from a "collision" with Austin Hollins when the two were going after a ball. "You can imagine -- two Memphis boys, you would have thought they'd fist fight," Smith joked.