I think most people think Barnhizer will lead the team in scoring this year, but of course he's not at 100% yet, and we don't know how good he'll be when he's the focal point of opposing defenses. Who's going to be #2 this year?
Who will be second in scoring this year?
- Thread starter SmellyCat
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I thought I would be clever and contrarian by voting Nick, but I am far from a minority on this. I think Nick poses matchup problems in the low post for a lot of guys. Of course, someone needs to be a threat from outside to keep him from getting doubled.
I watch a lot of highlights from last couple years, and boy are we going to miss Boo and Langborg. This doesn't seem like a good three-point shooting team right now, even if we expect Barnhizer and Martinelli will improve. Berry is the threat, but he's been inconsistent throughout his career. Seems that the 2025 guys are all good shooters, but we need guys now.
It seems likely to me that Brooks, Ty, Nick, and Matt will be the top scorers almost every night, and that which order they fall in will meander. I think we can expect an average of 12 ppg from each of them, again with some meandering, which doesn't bode well for lots of wins unless we get some solid help from a couple of other guys every game.
Agree, but I hope Leach is on that list as well. NU didn't bring him in for him to average six points a game.
If Matt averages 12 a game we will either be top 10 in the country or bottom 4 in the B1G.
Berry, Leach, or Martinelli have received all of the votes so far (well, one for Barnhizer, but presumably that would mean one of these three LED the team in scoring).
So I would be fascinated to see what would happen if someone else were in the top two in scoring for this team. Like some teams have superstar freshmen...why not us and Windham? Of course, no one expects it, but it's possible I suppose. Or maybe Nicholson worked so hard on his game that he's got 12-foot jumpers and better free-throw shooting and he's ready to be an unstoppable big man?
Mostly I'm just excited for basketball season and to see what new (or new and improved) presents we have under the tree.
I dunno, that's just three more dunks per game. With him, Brooks, and Nick all crowding the paint I think he gets more hand offs underneath this year.
Yes, that seems very unlikely...
But not impossible if we truly pound the ball inside.
I just don't think we do that.
Good interior passing is pretty rare in the modern game.
BUT, when guys are shooting 8 footers, its much easier for a true big like Nicholson to get offensive rebounds.
If Barnhizer only averages 12 its going to be a long season.
To my surprise, Torvik also had Mullins #4 at 9.7 PPG. If that happens Cats will be strong.
He projects 18-12, 10-10 in the BiG. I'd take that in a heartbeat.
I mean, Mullins at 9.7 ppg is kind of out of nowhere. I'm actually surprised Leach is so low (4.6 ppg I think). Maybe switch those two?
My guess without knowing would be that Torvik tries to predict the difficulty of transferring up. Last year Leach played in the 25th-best conference with an SOS of 309. He only played two games against what Kenpom considers top 100 competition adjusted for location and averaged 9.5 points, 1 assist, 2.5 rebounds and 1.5 turnovers in 29 mpg, including shooting 1-9 from 3. Last year was also a breakout year for him after not showing much previously in his career.
I will be optimistic, but I also remember Ryan Taylor.
I will be optimistic, but I also remember Ryan Taylor.
Yeah, that's what I'm afraid of. Still (fair or not), he'll have very big shoes to fill, so I would expect NU will give him every opportunity to score. He's far more likely to be replacing Langborg's production (which wasn't bad) than Boo's.
Dood, if he can replace Langborg's production we will be singing his praises.
I agree. I think as long as we don't expect him to fill Boo's shoes (and no one can, really), we would be thrilled if he merely filled Langborg's.
He played in 8 Quad 3 games. His averages in those games were 17.5 points, 2.4 assists, 2.4 turnovers, 4.6 rebounds, and 38.5% from 3 in 35 mpg.
In 21 Quad 4 games, he had 16.9 points, 3.4 assists, 1.4 turnovers, 4.2 rebounds and 38.0% from 3 in 33 mpg.
Our schedule currently features 1 Quad 3 game and 6 Quad 4 games out of 30...
In 21 Quad 4 games, he had 16.9 points, 3.4 assists, 1.4 turnovers, 4.2 rebounds and 38.0% from 3 in 33 mpg.
Our schedule currently features 1 Quad 3 game and 6 Quad 4 games out of 30...
Some guys translate, and some don't. Domask turned out to be really good for Illinois last year, but I would expect he would've had similar numbers and quad 3/4 games the year before (I could be wrong - I'm not looking it up). And of course we were talking about Langborg as well, who likely played a lot more Quad 3/4 games the previous year and still seemed to be fine.
If Leach turns out to be Ryan Taylor, we'll all be disappointed I suppose. If he turns out to be Langborg, we'll be thrilled. If he turns out to be Domask, we're going back to the NCAAs. You just don't know which guy you're going to get when someone transfers up.
If Leach turns out to be Ryan Taylor, we'll all be disappointed I suppose. If he turns out to be Langborg, we'll be thrilled. If he turns out to be Domask, we're going back to the NCAAs. You just don't know which guy you're going to get when someone transfers up.
I am hoping we don't need Leach to score double-digits, but that would mean a significantly different offensive footprint for this team.
Barnhizer 14.5
Berry 11.2
Martinelli 10.6
Leach 8.0
Windham 7.1
Nicholson 7.0
Hunger 4.9
Mullins 3.5
Ciavarino 2.8
Others 2.2
That adds up to 71.8 points per game (I hope). This is based on "total points by player" / "games played by team" as opposed to the more common "total points by player" / "games played by player."
Berry 11.2
Martinelli 10.6
Leach 8.0
Windham 7.1
Nicholson 7.0
Hunger 4.9
Mullins 3.5
Ciavarino 2.8
Others 2.2
That adds up to 71.8 points per game (I hope). This is based on "total points by player" / "games played by team" as opposed to the more common "total points by player" / "games played by player."
Leach's good shooting touch was a highlight of yesterday's practice for me.
I think he’ll be a double-digit scorer. Not as one dimensional as Ryan Taylor.
The MVC is a tough league. There were four transfers from the MVC last season to the Big Ten. Marcus Domask (Illinois), Lance Jones (Purdue), Reink Mast (Nebraska), Ben Krikke (Iowa). They were all good double figure scorers. Domask and Jones were teammates at SIU. The toughness of the MVC is one reason Ben Humrichous is projected as a key player at Illinois.
Not sure I’d rely on Torvik too much. It had Kasparas Jakucionis as the 8th leading scorer at Illinois and a nonstarter. He is the best player on the team and a projected lottery pick.
I didn't realize that all four transfers from the Missouri Valley Conference had done so well, but yes, when comparing to the MAAC, it is definitely a superior conference. MVC to Big Ten is still a big step up, which makes Domask's performance even more impressive, but it's not quite the leap from the MAAC.
Ryan Taylor averaged 9.8 pts at NU. His eFG% dropped from 50% to 45%. Not great, not terrible. I will be very happy if Leach averages the same.
Thing about Taylor was that expectations were much higher than that.
Thing about Taylor was that expectations were much higher than that.
Memory is a strange thing. Maybe this is Mandela Effect stuff, but I bet if you asked most big NU fans, we'd think he averaged like five points a game and did not shoot well at all. Thanks for sharing.
I mean, he averaged 21 ppg his last year at Evansville on 42% 3pt shooting, so yeah, expectations were higher.
The biggest problem was that he averaged 5.8 ppg on 27% shooting from 3 during the last 14 games of the season, in which we went 2-12. Even before that stretch, we lost to Oklahoma in OT when he shot 2-11 from 3, lost to both Indiana and Michigan by 2 in the opening conference games where he shot 1-5 from 3 in each game.
This. He has to be around a 40% 3pt threat to really open things up for the offense.
I went with BB at #2 in the premise he’ll have a strong overall year providing good scoring, rebounds, ball handling, defense, etc. while spending a little more of his energy on all those things rather than scoring because Ty Berry makes it absolutely rain
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