Okay, so I don’t really do this anymore, but I wanted to throw some thoughts out there that were too long for a Tweet, or is an X? You know what, they’re tweets.

(I did this in a rush and didn’t proofread any of it)

So, Frankie Fidler is having one of the best seasons by a Mav in recent history. Along with Tra-Deon Hollins, he’s the only Mav who is a potential triple-double threat in every single game he plays. We’ve all talked about Fidler, though, so are we not appreciating the rest of this Mav core, mainly Marquel Sutton?

Before the season began I saw the Mavs needing Frankie Fidler and Marquel Sutton to be Batman and Robin this season, and Tony Osburn, Nick Davis, or JJ White would have to be…the other Robin… in any given game.

In their sophomore seasons, I thought Sutton was a great sidekick to Fidler, but thought he needed to add muscle and become a more consistent player for the Mavs to have more success…along with other factors. 

He did that.

In Sutton’s sophomore season, he seemed to get pushed around on the block a bit too much and was forcing too many contested shots on offense. He could go for 25 points and 8 one night and then have 2 points and 4 rebounds on 3-of-15 shooting the next game. It never really felt like we knew what we were getting.

In Mav wins last season, Sutton averaged 12.3 ppg, 6 rpg and shot 47% from the field. In losses he was at 8.8 ppg, 4.5 rpg, and shot 41% from the field.

Instead of being Robin, he’s become Nightwing.

This is a new phrase I’m introducing into sports culture. Basketball fans consistently look at duos as Batman and Robin like Michael Jordan and Scottie Pippen or Shaq and Kobe. If you’re not a nerd, you’re probably not a nerd, Nightwing is the original Robin, Dick Grayson, grown up and goes on to become a hero in his own right. So here, Nightwing in terms of this reference is a sports sidekick who could go off and be his own star someone else.

Point here is, Sutton is a legitimate star being overlooked because of the greatness of Frankie Fidler, but I’m totally fine with Sutton being kept under the radar. I’m not sure where you’d want to rank Sutton amongst Mav big men in the D1 era, but if you’ve been debating it and wondering about it; lucky for you I recently went back to school to learn Data Management and used Omaha Men’s Basketball stats as the data to import into a database I created. I also inputted it all myself before learning you can just download the data from Basketball-Reference.

So here are the stat comparisons between Marquel Sutton and other Mav big men in the D1 era in their first 8 conference games as juniors.

Mitch Hahn (missed Omaha’s first 8 Summit League games, then played the final 8)

Mavs Record: 2-6

Stats: 12.3 ppg, 7.3 ppg, 2 apg, 0.9 spg, 0.5 bpg, 38 fg%, 33 3ptFG%, 78 ft%

John Karhoff (recruited as a D2 player but adjusted nicely to D1)

Mavs record: 6-2

Stats: 12 ppg, 3.5 rpg, 2.5 apg, 1.1 spg, 0.9 bpg, 52 fg%, 1-2 3ptFG, 81 ft%

Matt Pile (with Covid looming)

Mavs Record: 5-3

13.8 ppg, 9.8 rpg, 1apg, 0.5spg, 1.7bpg, 61fg%, 55ft%

Mike Rostampour (was more known for just being a hustle guy his junior year)

Mavs Record: 4-4

Stats: 6.5 ppg, 7 rpg, 0.6 spg, 0.1 bpg, 41 fg%, 1-5 3ptFG, .65 ft%, fouled out 4 times.

Tre’Shawn Thurman (was the 3rd or 4th option on offensive)

Mavs Record: 4-4

9.9 ppg, 7.3 rpg, 1.3 apg, 0.3 spg, 0.8 bpg, 40 fg%, 2-6 3ptFG, 74 ft%

AND Marquel Sutton

Mavs Record: 4-4

Stats: 18.1 ppg, 7.0 rpg, 1.1 apg, 1.4 spg, 0.1 bpg, .583 fg%, 5-17 3ptFG, 74 ft%

Those are some Nightwing stats.