B1G Players in the Portal 2022
- Thread starter CappyNU
- Start date
Hunger and Payne would be a solid frontcourt.
As it is now, Collins has no Payne, no Gaines.
Guess he thought he was going to play more than 7 mpg when he transferred in.
Payne came in thinking Kofi was going pro and he would start. Kofi returned making Payne the backup. Now it appears that Kofi is coming back again, and Payne wants to play.
Payne is a great athlete, but he overthinks the game on the court. Does not have natural basketball instincts. I would take Ryan Young every time over him.
Payne does block shots but he led the country in fouls per 40 minutes. Hope he finds the right spot to play.
Not so much his freshman year. Big Ten Sixth Man of the year. Showed enough to be preseason All Big Ten and All American.
People are underestimating the severity of his concussion/brain injury. His personality changed. Tremendous mood swings. His decision making. He had panic attacks. I wish him luck and will be rooting for him wherever he ends up. Probably somewhere closer to home. St. John’s?
Man, if his concussion caused those issues he shouldn't be playing college basketball. Can't fix brain trauma and college hoops is a contact sport.
Nicholson committed 1 foul for every 4 minutes of action.
However, he led the Big Ten in Free Throw Attempts per 40 minutes.
Big Ten games only...
Nicholson 13.3 FTA / 40 mins
Cockburn 9.0 FTA / 40 mins
Edey 8.8 FTA / 40 mins
Ivey 8.6 FTA / 40 mins
...
H. Dickinson 4.8 FTA/ 40 mins
Maybe Young’s transfer will force Collins’ hand. Nicholson must play.
Still 3 roster spots to fill via the portal. I assume a big will be coming in.
My guess is that Collins will look at Luke Hunger and see the Ryan Young that he wished he had this past season.
Meaning that Hunger is heavier than Young, probably more athletic and willing to chuck up shots from outside the paint.
So he will play Hunger immediately. Because he is able to shoot 25% from distance. Because he is "a threat" off the pick and pop.
Collins does the same thing every year - the new guy is always better than the guy who is already in the program. Its a serious flaw - "the grass is always greener" coupled with "These guys just don't improve despite my brilliant efforts to help them"
And we all know (or should know) that Collins has no use for a solidly built, fairly athletic 7' 1/2" center who only rebounds, dunks and alters shots. Until Nicholson can shoot from 15 feet, he's not going to play much for Collins.
Meaning that Hunger is heavier than Young, probably more athletic and willing to chuck up shots from outside the paint.
So he will play Hunger immediately. Because he is able to shoot 25% from distance. Because he is "a threat" off the pick and pop.
Collins does the same thing every year - the new guy is always better than the guy who is already in the program. Its a serious flaw - "the grass is always greener" coupled with "These guys just don't improve despite my brilliant efforts to help them"
And we all know (or should know) that Collins has no use for a solidly built, fairly athletic 7' 1/2" center who only rebounds, dunks and alters shots. Until Nicholson can shoot from 15 feet, he's not going to play much for Collins.
True, which is why Nicholson came in and immediately started, since he was the new guy.
Nah…your Nicholson “free throws per 40 minutes” post won that by a mile. Don’t choke on the pit.
I guess I am cherry picking as well but Collins seemed to like Pardon just fine and he fits your description perfectly other than the size. He developed a mid-range shot in the last couple of seasons. but he was always a very good defender (both in the post and on switches) and rim protector. I have no idea how Nicholson will do in pick and roll situations (which teams will certainly put him frequently) and neither do you. As I understand it, you have no connection to the team and no inside information. You have never been to a practice or spoken to any of the players. You have no idea how the players perform in practice.
Nance hit 45% of his 3-point shots last year. That's the equivalent of shooting well over 60% from 2-point range. He would have been more efficient if had taken more of those and less shots with his back to the basket. Beran shot 36% from 3-point range. Certainly an acceptable percentage. Young should not have taken any 3-point shots and I don't think Collins encouraged him to do it. If Hunger can hit a third of his outside shots, he should take them. 25% is not good enough and I think Collins would agree. I assume you would agree that if Hunger can hit a third of his 3-pointers than he should make that a part of his game. It does draw the other team's big away from the basket and is an efficient way to score. If he can post up and score he should do that too. I don't think Collins will discourage it. Luka Garza had a nice college career doing both. From the little I saw of Nicholson last year, he looked liked he needed to develop his post moves (brought the ball down a lot) and become better at defensive spacing. I hope Nicholson plays great next year. I hope he is everything that you describe him to be. If he does, I will bet that he will play 20 minutes plus a game.
I see Bryce Hopkins from Kentucky and Oak Park is in the portal. NU offered out of high school.
NU was not in his top 10 out of high school
IU and Michigan were
Thanks for the response.
I have never been to a practice. I wish I could. My evaluation of Nicholson is based on what I have seen in games.
Offensively, It will be Collins putting Nicholson in the pick and roll - bringing him out to the three point line to set screens, then presumably rolling back down to the basket. I don't see that working too well, although Nicholson does seem to set good screens.. When we miss our 3 point try, Nicholson will be away from the basket, which is obviously the problem with bringing your big guy out to set screens 23 feet from the basket. I also don't see Nicholson doing any "pick and pop" because his outside shot doesn't warrant it.
Defensively, it depends on the opponent. We were a bad perimeter-defending team last year. I'd probably keep Nicholson by the basket and consider zone with less help in the paint. Hard to know what to expect at this point. Nicholson will certainly get called for fouls no matter what he does.
For what its worth, Pardon was an undersized "center" who had long arms. 6'8" but 7 foot wingspan if I remember correctly. He scored within 8 feet of the basket. Not much of a jump shot. Good defender for his stature, as you indicated.
I'm fairly confident that Collins told Young to shoot those threes. "You need to shoot from the outside or I can't play you..." some weird directive... it was so out of character for Young... but totally in character for Collins who seems to tell everybody to shoot when they are able.
If Hunger is a 33% shooter from 3, he should only shoot when he is wide open. You need your big guys to rebound the misses and draw defensive attention by the basket. Let somebody else look to shoot from 3. (Not Audige).
Collins has never made a good basketball decision in his career at NU. Everything bad that happens is his fault. He also instructs the players to miss crucial free throws. He has not learned anything from his 30 plus years in the game. Everyone on the board is more knowledgeable than him. Once you understand that, analyzing NU basketball becomes much simpler.
Thats a little harsh.
All I'm saying is that I'm pretty certain that Collins TOLD Young that he wants him to shoot 3's if the opponent left him unguarded after he set a pick out by the three point line.
I don't know how anybody could believe otherwise.
The guy did what Collins told him for 3 years.
What? The last thing in the world Cats need is the big man out on the perimeter chucking 3’s. We’ve seen how that goes.
What are you talking about, man? Hunger shoots 100% from three point land. At least in his highlights.
Yes. Nance shot 45 percent from 3. What a disaster! You really know your basketball. We should only have our bigs play with their backs to the basket even if they are not good at it because that’s what our old school fans like. It’s like many of the people posting here were frozen since 1990.
Nance should have taken more 3’s and less shots trying to post up. No comparison in efficiency. 3-point shots are worth 3 points! That’s 1 point more than a 2 point shot. He was not good with his back to the basket. Young should have only taken shots within 5 feet of the basket and no 3’s. Let’s see what Hunger does well.
Can we ever have an intelligent conversation on this board or is that prohibited in the fine print?
And your point makes no sense. Luka Garza shot 4 3-pointers a game his senior year and won the Naismith. Was he misused? Nikola Jokic was the MVP of the NBA last year and he shoots 4 3-pointers a game. He plays away from the basket a significant amount of the game. Is he being misused? If the other team's big man is forced to guard someone 20 feet away from the basket, isn't he then not able to protect the rim or rebound on that play? Shooting 3's and posting up are not mutually exclusive. In fact, making the other team's big guard all over the court can make it easier to get your big man in good post position.
A lot of the action that we ran from Ryan Young where he set a pick at the top of the key was designed to have the ball rotate around so that he could then drop to the basket and get the ball in good position to make a move. Young was not big or strong enough to simply establish post position on every play. We needed to move him and the ball around.
If a big man can shoot 35% plus from 3-point territory, why wouldn't that be a part of his game? You make it sound like Collins is some sort of radical idiot even though his philosophy is consistent with the vast majority of college and pro coaches. Ryan Young only took a 3-point shot in 5 games all year (he took 6 all year). So Collins was not telling him to take them. Collins loved Pardon and he primarily scored within 5 feet of the basket so Collins doesn't have a prejudice against that type of game. Young was our best post defender but a terrible rim protector and gave up a lot of easy baskets when he was on the court (which drive coaches crazy). I think that's why he didn't play as much as we would have liked. It wasn't because he couldn't shoot 3-point shots.
He wasn’t very good this year for the most part when he did play. Had lots of games he couldn’t suit up due to concussion and covid. Kid has talent but the Harlem globetrotter play style doesn’t work too well in the Big 10. Your pg can‘t make a really good play and then throw the ball away the next 3 times.
Think it’s a mutual parting of the ways- Illinois is bringing in a 5 star and Curbelo is looking for a fresh start probably on the East coast- wouldn’t be shocked if he ends up at St John’s.
He really needs to work on his shot and mental approach to the game.
Payne is awful. Looks really good in a basketball uniform but then when he actually plays has zero feel for the game and makes Nicholson look good from a fouling rate standpoint.
Depends on which version of Curbelo you get. The out of control one who shot 33% overall, 17% from 3, and had 3.2 assists vs 2.8 turnovers per game last year was frankly a lost soul.
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