2020 Gopher Hoops Player Preview: Gabe Kalscheur

De La Salle high school standout and multiple time state champion stayed home and quickly became a fan favorite on the Gophers due to his outside shooting and on-ball defense. Since his debut at Minnesota, he's been in the starting lineup and been a major piece of what coach Pitino has built.

His first season was special. As a true freshman he was able to knockdown over 40% of his three-point attempts, but as a sophomore, that number dipped down to 34% with a much higher volume and expanded role.

Inside Gopher Nation looks into the stats, film, and tries to project what the junior will bring to the Gopher table this season.

PREVIOUS PLAYER PREVIEWS: LIAM ROBBINS

In his freshman season, Kalscheur recorded 10 points, 1.1 assists, 2.0 rebounds, 0.3 blocks, 0.8 steals, and 1.1 turnovers on 41.7% from the field, 41.0% from three, and 75% from the foul line in 30.7 minutes per game. He did so with what KenPom would describe as a limited role (12-16% of possessions used). Advanced stats show a possession percentage of 14.8, while taking 18.1% of shots while on the floor. With this usage, he posted an impressive 57.6% true shooting, and 55.3% effective field goal.

As a sophomore, his percentages took a bit of a dip. He scored 11.6 points(+1.6), dished out 1.5 assists(+0.4), grabbed 2.7 rebounds(+0.7), and defensively took in 0.3 blocks and 1.0 steals (+0.7) per game with 1.5 turnovers (+0.5) while shooting 37.5% from the field (-4.2%), 34.1% from three (-6.9%), and 70.5% from the foul line (-4.5%) in 33.3 minutes per game. He expanded his role this season to a role player (16-20% of possessions). His possession percentage raised to 18.4 while taking 21.9 percent of shots while on the floor. His true shooting dipped to 50.3% and effective field goal to 48.8%.

Kalscheur excelled his freshman season in a limited role. While playing on a team that gave him the fifth most usage of any of the starters, behind Amir Coffey, Jordan Murphy, Daniel Oturu, and Dupree McBrayer, he was able to settle into a role as a spot-up shooter and thrive with less attention on him. As a sophomore, he was asked to shoot more and be more of a threat due to the departure of four of the five aforementioned.

Kalscheur led the conference in three point attempts with 223 as a sophomore. He knocked down 76 of those attempts. As a freshman he hit 77 three's... on 188 attempts. His window of opportunity to shoot shrank as a sophomore with defenders being much more cognizant of his shooting prowess. Also, as a freshman, a higher percentage of his looks came from spot-ups due to less of a need for Kalscheur to be a primary scorer.

I'm not going to project advanced stats, but if I were to bet, I think it's fair to expect that Kalscheur's usage will fall from third to fourth on the team. Marcus Carr will take the lead, and transfers Both Gach (pending approval) and Liam Robbins should take on the role of second and third options. With that, Kalscheur should get cleaner looks moving back into either a limited role or lower use role player. With cleaner looks and less attention coming his way, he should take steps forward in efficiency that improve on his sophomore year and get closer to his freshman year numbers at a slightly higher volume.

Offense:

When watching Gabe Kalscheur play his freshman year, you got to see him excel in a role where he wasn't asked to do anything he wasn't comfortable doing. He went from being the number three guard/ball-handler behind Coffey and McBrayer to being the number two guard behind Carr. The addition of Both Gach moves him back to the third ball-handler in the starting lineup.

On the 2019-20 Gophers, Payton Willis played the role that Kalscheur played as a freshman. This allowed Willis to shoot a higher percentage from deep, although no one would consider Willis a better shooter than Gabe Kalscheur. If you go back and watch the Gophers offense, a lot of it was designed around the pick and roll with Carr and Oturu as well as getting post-touches to Oturu. The next option is kicking it out to the outside. To neutralize Kalscheur, they face guard and don't help off the ball. Often times, even when the defense is forced to scramble on rotations, that leaves Kalscheur out of the mix for an open look and the ball gets in Willis' hands for three instead of his own. With a big that can score in Robbins, and guards that can attack the hoop and shoot in Carr and Gach, that type of denial defense should not be possible on him this year.

When breaking down his outside looks against Wisconsin (a game in which he shot 3-8 from three), I decided to log the looks they got from deep. (NOTE: He actually went 3-7 from three in this game. I couldn't find his first miss so I went to the play-by-play, and they said a deep step-back two that he missed was a three-point miss. It was not.)

He hit an open three on the move off a screen from the right wing, made a three off a dribble pitch on the right wing while his defender was closing out, and knocked down an open spot-up three on the right wing off an inside-out kick with his man helping off. Those were his first three attempts of the game. His next three point attempt was a miss on a corner three that was contested hard. Next miss came on a spot-up look from the top of the key with a man closing out. His next one came on a down screen from the right wing and the shot was well contested. His last miss came from an open corner three. In summary, he hit 2/3 open three's, 1/3 contested three's, and missed a three with a defender closing out hard. He was 1/4 on spot ups (two were heavily contested), and 2/3 moving or coming off screens (two were contested).

Defense:

It's not easy to do what Gabe Kalscheur does on the defensive end, and that's being tasked with the opposing teams best guard every game. During the Wisconsin game, Stephen Bardo referred to him as possibly the best defensive guard in the Big Ten. Most of this game, he was matched up with Brad Davison, who finished with four points that all came from the foul line.

In my Liam Robbins preview, I mentioned the idea of the Gophers playing drop coverage. This is a great fit for someone like Gabe Kalscheur as well because he's so good at getting skinny and getting over the top of ball-screens.

He's impressive off-the ball as well. His head is always on a swivel and he never keeps his eyes focused on one area too long. If he's peaking at the ball it's for positioning and he moves to the right spot while keeping one eye on his man to be ready for backcuts.

He has good knowledge of his opponents and knows when he should stay on his man and when he can afford to cheat in to help and recover. His attention to detail on this end shows with this, and also his footwork on closeouts. If his man catches on the perimeter he does a good job of chopping his feet, keeping his hands high, then spreading and getting low and wide in his stance once the threat of a shot passes.

He commits just over three fouls per 40 minutes, and that's a very solid number for someone that is usually tasked with the opposing teams top threat. He only fouled out one game, and had four fouls or more in just over 25% of games this year.

Moving down to a more comfortable role as third guard/creator and fourth option in the offense should mean that Gabe Kalscheur can return his game to what he does best. Similar stats should be expected in terms of overall numbers, but with less pressure on him defensively his efficiency should return to a very high level.