Awesome to start the conference season with a road win. Maryland may not be a great team, and we didn't play awesome, but we ground out a win and were fairly strong in crunch time, with the exception of Buie missing a front-end of 1&1. Our team defense throughout was really good - our rotations and help were much better than they had been against WF, when in my opinion we gave away a game we should have won due to poor team defense (and probably overuse of the zone). I was at the 8-12 range to start the year for my guess of what we could accomplish in conference season. I'm sticking there for now, but with the conference not looking as scary this year I have some hope that maybe we can beat that number.
Players, in order of importance:
1. Nance- Clearly the top dog, at least in my eyes. I think he could make it to the NBA as a late draft pick. Does he have option for one more year of eligibility? One thing I don't understand is his minutes restriction. Collins seems to play him a bit more in the 2H, but he sits on the bench too much for my liking. He is averaging 26 mpg for the season (vs 31.8 for Boo), and while I get that a lot of those are weaker competition where we want to save his energy and get the depth some work, even against WF it was 29 minutes and Maryland 31 (while Boo had 33 in each). Maybe there is some health reason for this, but otherwise I'd like to see him get 33-36 minutes and only sit for one 2-4 minute spell in each half. I would start our rotations around Pete, and work in the rest of the guys after you've considered him. He had two crucial baskets to secure the MD game, and he almost brought us back against WF - wish we would have re-inserted him earlier and ran the offense through him more often, if we had I think we might have won. He's also our best interior defender on the other side of the ball, and has improved at avoiding fouls. 5th in the B1G with 1.9 blocks per game.
2. Buie- He's our second best offensive player, no question. Everyone else has debated him ad nauseum here so I won't add more. I wish he was a bit more reactive on defense and more efficient on offense, but we need him. Still leads the B1G in assists at 6 apg, with a A/TO ratio of 2.5 which is pretty solid also.
3. Young- I would like to see him get more minutes than the 11 he had yday, but with Beran playing better it's hard to see where they come from. I don't want to remove Williams from the rotation, I like him at 10-15 mins, so maybe Young still has to take some from Beran. He didn't have a very good game against Maryland so struggled with whether he should be listed this high, maybe not. But after the top 2 there's a decent gap.
4. Audige- He's back, and he clearly does things that other players on our team cannot. He's our best defender on the wing, so that's huge to have back. Still not clear to me that he helps out our offense though... the 7-17 (41%) in the Maryland game probably accurately reflects the quality of shots he was taking. He is better at driving to the hole and finishing than other guards on our team (Buie mostly has the mid-range floater, while Chase has the length to finish at the hoop), and he did make a couple of big buckets in the 2H, just some other wasted possessions though.
5. Berry- Has done a solid job as his assigned role right now - which is to be a pesky defender on defense and be a spot-up shooter off kick-outs on offense. He is 16-37 (43%) from 3 pt this year, the best combination of production and efficiency on our team from behind the arc (Nance is 11-24 for 46% probably next, Greer 7-15 for 47%, Beran 8-19 for 42%, Boo 16-51 for 31%). I'm hoping that over time he will improve with the ball in his hands, but he doesn't quite seem to be there yet. Will need to next season for sure.
6. Beran- Seems to be very up-and-down. If he does things right early or makes a 3, then he plays with confidence and is a much better contributor on both sides of the ball. If he misses shots, he seems to lose energy. Wish there was more consistency in his game - you could theoretically play him more when he's playing well, though that sort of reinforces the mopey-ness if he doesn't play well.
7. Greer- Maybe he should be higher? He doesn't necessarily have the upside of the guys above him, but I admire how he's really developed over the course of his time here. He's an efficient player on offense, has improved his decision making, and remains a consistently good defender. I have no issue with him getting late-game minutes.
8. Williams- Feels weird that he's this low, I guess that's a testament to the depth we have this year which is impressive. Williams does a lot of the little things right. Good defender, rebounder, and passer. It's too small sample size to assess his shooting yet I think - the stroke looks a bit awkward but I think he has the ability to make shots. There might be 1-2 conference games where he has a big impact this year.
9/10. Roper and Simmons- Hard to split up these guys, both seem to be a similar mold. I'm slightly partial to Roper right now as he seems to be a bit smoother with the ball which makes me think he has more upside in the future. Right now both of these guys are likely to be in the ~10 mpg role where they bring defense, energy, some floor spacing on offense (Simmons 3-7 from 3, while Roper is 3-12 thus far), and some slashing. The thing is, with Chase back, I think their minutes might wane a bit as conference season rolls on. They both might be better spot-up 3pt shooters than Chase, but they can't yet bring all the other aspects of his game - the length on defense, and ability to create their own shot effectively on offense when things bog down.
Barnhizer and Nicholson - TBD.
Go Cats!
Players, in order of importance:
1. Nance- Clearly the top dog, at least in my eyes. I think he could make it to the NBA as a late draft pick. Does he have option for one more year of eligibility? One thing I don't understand is his minutes restriction. Collins seems to play him a bit more in the 2H, but he sits on the bench too much for my liking. He is averaging 26 mpg for the season (vs 31.8 for Boo), and while I get that a lot of those are weaker competition where we want to save his energy and get the depth some work, even against WF it was 29 minutes and Maryland 31 (while Boo had 33 in each). Maybe there is some health reason for this, but otherwise I'd like to see him get 33-36 minutes and only sit for one 2-4 minute spell in each half. I would start our rotations around Pete, and work in the rest of the guys after you've considered him. He had two crucial baskets to secure the MD game, and he almost brought us back against WF - wish we would have re-inserted him earlier and ran the offense through him more often, if we had I think we might have won. He's also our best interior defender on the other side of the ball, and has improved at avoiding fouls. 5th in the B1G with 1.9 blocks per game.
2. Buie- He's our second best offensive player, no question. Everyone else has debated him ad nauseum here so I won't add more. I wish he was a bit more reactive on defense and more efficient on offense, but we need him. Still leads the B1G in assists at 6 apg, with a A/TO ratio of 2.5 which is pretty solid also.
3. Young- I would like to see him get more minutes than the 11 he had yday, but with Beran playing better it's hard to see where they come from. I don't want to remove Williams from the rotation, I like him at 10-15 mins, so maybe Young still has to take some from Beran. He didn't have a very good game against Maryland so struggled with whether he should be listed this high, maybe not. But after the top 2 there's a decent gap.
4. Audige- He's back, and he clearly does things that other players on our team cannot. He's our best defender on the wing, so that's huge to have back. Still not clear to me that he helps out our offense though... the 7-17 (41%) in the Maryland game probably accurately reflects the quality of shots he was taking. He is better at driving to the hole and finishing than other guards on our team (Buie mostly has the mid-range floater, while Chase has the length to finish at the hoop), and he did make a couple of big buckets in the 2H, just some other wasted possessions though.
5. Berry- Has done a solid job as his assigned role right now - which is to be a pesky defender on defense and be a spot-up shooter off kick-outs on offense. He is 16-37 (43%) from 3 pt this year, the best combination of production and efficiency on our team from behind the arc (Nance is 11-24 for 46% probably next, Greer 7-15 for 47%, Beran 8-19 for 42%, Boo 16-51 for 31%). I'm hoping that over time he will improve with the ball in his hands, but he doesn't quite seem to be there yet. Will need to next season for sure.
6. Beran- Seems to be very up-and-down. If he does things right early or makes a 3, then he plays with confidence and is a much better contributor on both sides of the ball. If he misses shots, he seems to lose energy. Wish there was more consistency in his game - you could theoretically play him more when he's playing well, though that sort of reinforces the mopey-ness if he doesn't play well.
7. Greer- Maybe he should be higher? He doesn't necessarily have the upside of the guys above him, but I admire how he's really developed over the course of his time here. He's an efficient player on offense, has improved his decision making, and remains a consistently good defender. I have no issue with him getting late-game minutes.
8. Williams- Feels weird that he's this low, I guess that's a testament to the depth we have this year which is impressive. Williams does a lot of the little things right. Good defender, rebounder, and passer. It's too small sample size to assess his shooting yet I think - the stroke looks a bit awkward but I think he has the ability to make shots. There might be 1-2 conference games where he has a big impact this year.
9/10. Roper and Simmons- Hard to split up these guys, both seem to be a similar mold. I'm slightly partial to Roper right now as he seems to be a bit smoother with the ball which makes me think he has more upside in the future. Right now both of these guys are likely to be in the ~10 mpg role where they bring defense, energy, some floor spacing on offense (Simmons 3-7 from 3, while Roper is 3-12 thus far), and some slashing. The thing is, with Chase back, I think their minutes might wane a bit as conference season rolls on. They both might be better spot-up 3pt shooters than Chase, but they can't yet bring all the other aspects of his game - the length on defense, and ability to create their own shot effectively on offense when things bog down.
Barnhizer and Nicholson - TBD.
Go Cats!