Let me state unequivocally: Nick was the best or second best Wildcat last year depending on how you value health as a skill.When rating systems rank players in what Is a bizarre way to anyone with 2 eyes, you look at the methodology and try to determine a reason. Often reasons are given and they are ignored if they don’t fit a narrative. Honestly, any ranking system that Ranks Nick as the 5th most efficient player is garbage. It’s nonsensical. Don’t care to explore it further and waste time analyzing an algorithm. The Coaches and Media vote on all Big Ten teams, personally I certainly trust their voting than some ranking system that I believe the author won’t even claim identify the best players.
That said, we are veering a smidge into “Hatteberg can’t replace Giambi because I know what a ballplayer is” territory.
As the statistical revolution matures in hoops every year, it is clear that the guy who takes the most shots is very often not the most valuable player on the floor. Nick got a lot of bad shots when our offense stagnated because his bad shots were and are way better than everyone else’s. I think that hurt him a lot in these types of ratings systems.