Joe Scott knows his team is young and the Pioneers are a work in progress, but he is preaching maturity to his team.
Jon Coffman is pretty damn excited about college basketball and his team.
Redshirt Freshman John Konchar has apparently put on a ton of muscle, and the ‘Dons are really excited about him and are more prepared to go small ball this year in the Summit
Brent Calhoun is expected to make a big jump for the ‘Dons, he has lost a bunch of weight and is in the best shape of his life.
I have realized that after an entire season that I have been spelling “Mastodons” incorrectly.
Jason Gardner is excited about this program, and thinks his staff will be more comfortable working together this year. He has gained a large amount of respect for the Summit League.
In his opinion, Mason Archie is his team’s best defender and wants to defend the other team’s best player.
Marcellus Barksdale had to play four different positions in just about every single game for the Jaguars, he will not have to do that this year and expects Barksdale to benefit from not having to playing too many different roles.
Barksdale and Archie have both graduated already, and set a great example for the team.
His 4 transfers are really going to help this team.
The new arena has really helped the Jaguars in recruiting.
Dave Richman acknowledges that his team has 11 of his 15 guys as freshman and sophomores, but they are a deeper and more talented team than last year.
Chris Kading had 3 surgeries in the off season, will probably miss the first couple games of the regular season.
Lawrence Alexander carried the Bison on his back, he was the winningst most player in Bison history, it is not going to be easy to replace him. They will have to replace him by committee.
The Bison ended up 12-4 in the league, but many of their games were won by just a possession.
Derrin Hansen (and Brittany Lange) is excited about the new arena, it has been a huge asset to the program, and they know it will help them catch up to the rest of the league in the next few years. Not to mention it is extremely huge for the community.
Hansen is expecting more productivity from Tim Smallwood, Hansen is unclear if Smallwood will start or come off the bench yet. Smallwood has a much better feel for the game right now. He was a huge help when Marcus Tyus missed the last 6 games of the season.
Devin Patterson has become better in his leadership role.
Marcus Tyus is coming off his knee injury very well.
Jake White was only healthy for 2 or 3 games last year, he can have a big year if he is healthy.
Randy Reed is going to have a big role this year.
The players UNO has brought in bring in a winning culture, with all of them playing in their state championship games. Zach Jackson’s team won the state championship.
Hansen thinks his new guys can be immediate impacts for his program, but it sounds like minutes may be an issue at this point.
Scott Sutton says he is excited and optimistic, but he also sounds like he wants to skip the morning and get straight to lunch. He likes his new players, he knows there will be growing pains, but it is a tough group of guys that should be ready by the conference schedule. Their non-conference schedule should really help prepare the Golden Eagles for the Summit League.
Obi Emegano and Brandon Conley have both been injured throughout the summer and had shoulder surgeries, but are doing very well at this point. The staff is doing the best that they can to protect them.
Sutton thinks the rule changes in college basketball are going to benefit a guy like Emegano the most. He already led the league last year in free throws attempted per game and he should get even more attempts at the line this season. Sutton also likes how his team plays with a 30 second shot clock.
Sutton really really likes Jalen Bradley, and will have a hard time keeping him out of the lineup. Bradley got to play a lot on the team’s summer trip, where the team got to play with a 24 second shot clock.
Sutton could have a year where he is starting a couple freshmen. AJ Owens is their post player, but not as consistent as they would like him to be. Owens could have the biggest jump this year in the league.
Craig Smith sounds like he came to party. He thinks it is going to be a heck of a year for the Summit League, and his team will be a work in progress. He is glad that his team set a foundation and a culture last year. They lost a lot of scoring, so they have to figure out a way to score the ball.
Smith really does not know who is going to help take on the scoring yet, but Tre Burnette really caught on toward the end of the season. Casey Kasperbauer is one of the best three point shooters he has ever coached.
The Coyotes have had a lot of injuries. They have 17 players on the roster, but ended a practice with only 10 players recently. It has been hard to get going and figure out lineups and who plays well together.
Dan Jech can score in a lot of different ways and is a great rebounder. Smith sounds really excited about Jech.
Tyler Hagedorn has a great feel for the game and can do a lot of different things.
Tyler Borchers has been a great surprise for the Coyotes, he doesn’t look pretty with everything that he does, but he does great things.
Scott Nagy says his team has taken their time getting ready because of the great experience that they have at the guard position. He thinks the Jackrabbits have a lot of depth, which is going to be needed in college basketball with the rule changes.
He points out that preseason awards mean nothing. No one expected Deondre Parks and George Marshall to be all league picks last year. Some transfers from IUPUI or on other teams could be big time players, and no one knows anything about them yet.
Jake Bittle and George Marshall both have nagging injuries, nothing that would keep them out, but they will be hurting after games.
Nagy thinks his team is smaller than he would like it to be. They could even go very small with no true post player in some games.
Adam Dykman works extremely hard, and down the road will be a tremendous 4 man in the future.
The biggest question mark for the Jackrabbits is: how will they replace Cody Larson? They are looking at 3 guys to replace him…Connor Devine, Ian Theisen, and Mike Daum. He has no idea who will be their starting center at this point.
Nagy just seems displeased by rule changes, doesn’t see the need for them, but they have to play with them. He doesn’t think the rule changes will affect how they play though.
Billy Wright feels his program is headed in the right direction. His team has set a philosophy in how they want to recruit and compete.
Western Illinois returns 85% of their scoring.
His freshman are working hard to compete for starting spots and playing time.
Garret Covington has really worked hard to improve his rebounding
JC Fuller is one of the most underrated players in the league.
De’Angelo Brewster and Brandon Gilbeck will have big breakout years as freshmen.
The Summit League is close in talent, you are an injury or two away from going from the top to the bottom, or a recruit away from going from the bottom to the middle of the pack.
Okay, I am skipping the Mavs home game against Simpson College. It’s just…you know…
Wyoming
2014-2015 final record: 25-10
2014-2015 home record: 15-2
2014-2015 Post Season: Lost to Northern Iowa in NCAA tournament in “2nd Round”…I still think it’s the first round, but whatever.
Final 2014-2015 RPI: 72
Random Stat: Wyoming record vs Northern Colorado/Denver/Air Force/Nevada – 4-1. UNO record vs Northern Colorado/Denver/Air Force/Nevada – 3-2
Let me start out by saying…I like the Mavs in this game. I like them a lot, even despite the fact that the Mavs are 0-5 when playing a division one opponent in the Mountain time zone since the transition. Their only win since transition was against Johnson & Wales in 2012. The Mavs are going to have 5 chances this season to get a win in the hour behind region (Colorado, Northern Colorado, Montana State, Wyoming, Denver). I think Grand Canyon University might be in the Mountain Time Zone this time of year as well, I am not sure. Bite me Arizona.
By the way, I learned something about myself here. I somehow naturally always first type “Cowboys” as “Coyboys”. It’s not a slam if you see that around here, just my natural incompetence.
Before we go any further, let’s talk about what the Cowboys lost.
Ricky Grabau, a 6’2″ guard that averaged 9 points, 2 rebounds, 2 assists, he shot 37% from three point range, made 61 threes in his senior season, and he was a 94% free throw shooter that got to the free throw line three times a game last year.
Derek Cooke, a 6’9″ forward that was an 8 and 6 guy and shot 72% from the field, and he also averaged a block and a steal per game in his senior season for the Cowboys.
Charles Hankerson, a 6’4″ wing player that averaged 7 points, 3 rebounds, and 2.6 assists in his last season at Wyoming. He also made 42 threes last season.
Matt Sellers, a 6’10 post player that only got 10 minutes per game, and he missed the last 18 games of the season. He gave the Cowboys length though when he was available, and he had a 16 point and 8 rebound performance against Florida A&M while going 8 of 9 from the floor that game.
Oh, and then there is this other guy named Larry Nance, Jr. 6’9″ and 230 pounds, and he was a first round draft pick to the Los Angeles Lakers. Nance averaged 16 and 7 his senior season, and also dished out 2.5 assists per game. He also shot 51% from the floor and 78% from the free throw line.
Mitch Kupchak is excited about Larry Nance as anyone.
I know losing some quality players, and only having one senior does not necessarily mean that the Cowboys are going to be terrible by any means. But losing the main pieces of your roster is never a great thing. What were your thoughts when That 70s Show lost Topher Grace and Ashton Kutcher? Or when Scrubs lost every damn member of the cast as regular characters? You immediately wrote off the show, right? I am apparently one of the few people that stopped with 2 and a half Men when Charlie Sheen left the show, not that I was an avid watcher while he was on the show though.
It is very hard on mid-majors when they lose a NBA guy. It is a lot to lose, and a lot to make up. I know Creighton was no longer a mid-major when they lost Doug McDermott, but they essentially had a mid-major roster when they lost him; and they had a significant drop off. The Bluejays struggled finding an identity after they lost Kyle Korver and lost to Nebraska in the NIT while Korver was draining 3s with the Sixers. Wyoming is going to have 8 new players to mix into their lineup. Even when Creighton lost Anthony Tolliver and Nate Funk, the team had a huge drop off in a weak year for the Missouri Valley. The team was mixing Dane Watts with a couple junior college players and like 6 freshman. Things were okay, but not great.
So if they lost some great talent, what do they have coming back?
Josh Adams is a 6’2″ senior guard that is the only returning Cowboy that averaged in double figures. He averaged 12.8 ppg, 3.3 rpg, 3.6 apg, 1.4 spg, and shot 44% from the field last season. His season high was 27 points against ranked Boise State. He has averaged 6 points per game and 36% from the field in five career games against Summit League opponents (Denver & South Dakota). A player like this could really prepare new guards like Tra-Deon Hollins and JT Gibson for the Summit League.
A guy with a fun name to say: Jason McManamen is a 6’5″ junior that played in about 17 minutes per game last season and averaged 3.7 in each contest while shooting 40% from the field. Probably his best all around game last season was when he had 5 points and 7 rebounds in a win over Montana State.
The last returning Cowboy to get significant minutes in 2014-2015 was Alan Herndon, a 6’9″ post player who is going to be a sophomore. He averaged 3 points per game and 2.2 rebounds per game in his freshman season. He was able to help the Cowboys pick up a win against some team called the Denver Pioneers in his freshman season with a 9 point and 6 rebound performance, perhaps helping out my stance that you need a decent offensive post game to beat the Pioneers, along with quick defensive guards. We’ll get to that another day, probably.
Aside from these returning players, the Cowboys were able to pick up 2 three star freshman (per Rivals) who could be immediate impacts for Wyoming. Their recruiting class is highlighted by Austin Conway from Aurora, Colorado. He was rated a three star recruit and also held an offer from Indiana. He appears to have some great handles.
Considering the Mavericks have a good chunk of their roster returning, and the Cowboys are not returning much; I really like the Mavs chances here. I have questioned if the Mavericks can keep up their high pace on the road in the Rocky Mountain region, especially with a roster that hasn’t been extremely deep when they’ve played there. Wyoming is actually at a higher elevation than Denver. It is something that visiting teams need to be prepared for. Can the UNO Biomechanics building prepare the Mavs for this? Can they donate that? I feel like I have seen elevation masks in there, or they were all playing Batman in there. I’m sure it’s most likely science related stuff though, that program is crazy good.
So the Summit League is stacked with guards and wing players this season. College Sports Madness recently came out with a All Summit League 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and 4th team and 16 of the 20 players were guards, 17 if you count South Dakota State’s Reed Tellinghuisen as a guard. The Summit League came out with their preseason 1st and 2nd teams yesterday, and 8 or the 10 players were guards. The teams they selected are fair for the most part, though I do not agree with leaving Tre’Shawn Thurman off the list, but I get that I am biased.
Anyway, there are so many guards on this list, and that is because the Summit League is going to be a very guard heavy league this year. So could one come up with a conclusion that who ever has the best post game is going to set themselves apart from the rest of the conference? So who has the best post players in the conference?
For the sake of argument, I am going to reduce each team’s list to their top 4 post players, because realistically teams hardly ever use more than 4 post players in the Summit League. Hell some players do not use more than two post players.
North Dakota State
Chris Kading, Dexter Werner, AJ Jacobson, and one of the other 3 players that will mix in.
I have kind of had North Dakota State as my team to win the conference this year, but I am growing more and more uncomfortable with that recently the more I am looking things up. Not that I think they are in trouble or anything. Anyway, it is pretty hard to argue that they do not have the best core of post players in the Summit League. I know someone might look at Chris Kading and say he’s only a 5 points and 4 rebounds guy, but he takes smart shots, he led the Summit League in blocks per game, and he would routinely hold the other team’s best post player to a bad game.
Dexter Werner was the Sixth Man of the Year in the Summit League last year, and he completely deserved it. He was a big time force that brought immediate energy to the Bison post game off of the bench, and he shot 51% from the field. He was playing undersized most of the time, but he was still able to get 1 block per game, which is tied with the 2nd most for returning players to the league.
Dexter Werner was selected to the 2nd Team for the All Summit Preseason Predictions.
Then the Bison have AJ Jacobson, and while there is no official Summit League Freshman of the Year Award, I am pretty sure it would have been him last season. He appears to be a popular choice for 1st Team All Summit this upcoming year, after coming off averaging 11.6 points per game and 4.2 rebounds, and many people think he is going to take a large load of the shots that Lawrence Alexander was taking. He is probably more of a traditional 3, but he did quite well for the Bison at the 4 position, and the Bison can bring in Werner off the bench and slide Jacobson over to the 3, making for a big lineup.
It is kind of unclear who the 4th post player will be at this point for the Bison. They had Nebraska-native, Spencer Eliason redshirting last season, and they are bringing in two 6’8″ freshmen that they appear to be pretty excited about. With Kading and Werner, you kind of expect one of the two true freshman to redshirt though, right?
South Dakota
Eric Robertson, Tyler Flack, Tyler Hagedorn, Dan Jech
I admit that is pretty difficult to go on from here, so how about South Dakota? The Coyotes might actually have the most talented post players, but there are some questions to it. Can Tyler Flack bounce back from sitting out all of 2014-2015 with an injury, and does Craig Smith even like him? Flack was averaging 8.5 ppg, 4.7 rpg, 1.5 bpg, and shooting 55% from the field as a sophomore in 21 minutes on a pretty bad South Dakota team.
Flack is back.
Can Eric Robertson survive as a starter if Smith doesn’t feel comfortable with starting a true freshman? Then there is two freshman, Tyler Hagedorn and Dan Jech. Jech gives the Coyotes a post player and Hagedorn gives the team a stretch four. The Coyotes were able to survive last season with 6’3″ Tyler Larson and 6’5″ Tre Burnette as their primary options in the post last season, so what is going to happen when Smith adds some height to their post game. Oh yeah, and there is also Tre Burnette, who had the highest rebounding average of any player returning to the Summit League.
Omaha
Jake White, Tre’Shawn Thurman, Daniel Meyer, Zach Pirog (or Randy Reed)
It is kind of a bold move picking the Mavericks that high here. Consider this though, no player 6’7″ or taller that is returning to the league averaged more points per game than Tre’Shawn Thurman last season. Jake White is healthy apparently, while I cannot 100% verify this, but I am pretty sure he had limited minutes in his junior season due to injuries. Even with as many injuries that he had in his junior season, he was probably the fastest post player in the league. So you have to assume he will go from 20 minutes per game to 25-30, his field goal percentage should rise above 40% while he’s healthy, he can probably be a 10 and 8 guy. 10 and 8 should get you Honorable Mention in the Summit.
Could Jake White be the most underrated post player in the league?
Daniel Meyer should be getting a minutes increase as well. Statistically, he had about the same statistics that Dexter Werner had in his freshman season at North Dakota State, and he should receive an increased role (maybe even a Werner like role) with Mike Rostampour and Rylan Murry no longer on the team. One game last year, I was sitting near Matt Hagerbaumer, you seriously need to take the opportunity to sit next to Hagerbaumer if you ever get that chance. He’s constantly yelling support to younger players, and he was so excited about Thurman and Meyer as freshman. He at one point said that they needed Meyer to be a banger down low and be the dirty work guy. Basically, the Mavs need him to be Matt Hagerbaumer 2.0, and he is capable of being that. Meyer apparently played very well on the team’s trip to Italy as well.
I am still unsure if Zach Pirog will redshirt. Hansen kind of has a history of redshirting big players, and the team already has White, Thurman, and Meyer; but maybe Pirog is even better than advertised? He should add immediate rim protection to the team, which would be extremely helpful, but how many minutes would be able to get this season? Not to mention, there will probably be a lot teams playing 6’5″ guys at the 4 position for a decent chunk of minutes this season, so wouldn’t you want to play Randy Reed more at the 4 position this season; leaving a lot of the minutes at the 5 to White, Meyer, and even Thurman. Just seems like minutes wise it would be a good idea to redshirt Pirog, but he is someone that can immediately help this team.
South Dakota State
Connor Devine, Ian Theisen, Michael Daum, Adam Dykman
There is a big gaping hole to make up in the loss of Cody Larson for the Jackrabbits, and it is unclear who will fill that role. The Jackrabbits also grew comfortable playing Reed Tellinguisen at the 4 last season, as the team’s 5th best offensive player, they really couldn’t keep him off the floor, even if he was playing undersized at times.
You look at Devine and Theisen and you think two guys that don’t even combine for 5 points per game, but really they were playing behind Cody Larson and sharing that role of backup post player. Then you realize that they both shot over 50 percent from the field, and they both had stretches over the season where they were making big plays. It’s also not like Scott Nagy cannot develop guys at all. Devine as a 40% free throw shooter might get left off the court down the stretch of the few close conference games the Jackrabbits will have.
The Jackrabbits also had Nebraska-native Michael Daum redshirting last season, who seemed like a pretty attractive recruit coming out of high school, so who knows how much he developed under the Jackrabbits staff. The basketball fan in me says “oh wow this guy averaged 25 and 13 as a senior in high school,” but the Nebraskan in me says “I have never even heard of Kimball, how could anyone be good at basketball from there.” The Mavericks offered him a scholarship though, he also held offers from South Dakota, Wyoming, North Dakota, and others, so non-Nebraskans see something in him.
Then there is even another Nebraska-native on the team, 6’7″ Adam Dykman. I am pretty nervous about Dykman, I constantly saw his name in the paper for big games, and I know a few guys hugely into Nebraska high school basketball that were upset that UNO or Nebraska did not give an offer to this kid. I am afraid he’s psycho angry about that.
With such a strong group of starting guards, I don’t think it’s going to come down to the post players for the Jackrabbits. The show Scrubs had a great core of cast with JD, Turk, Kelso, Elliot, and Dr. Cox, would the show have been successful if they threw in a bunch of episodes centered around Ted and made a three episode story arch about Ted? Many people would have turned away. I actually would have watched the crap out of that. So how many times are you going to hear a ESPN3 commentator say: The Jackrabbits are having a great night with Marshall, Bittle, Parks, and Tellinghuisen knocking down all these outside shots and beating their defenders to the rim; but I really think they need to get the ball into Devine to work his magic on Dexter Werner? Probably never.
IUPUI
Nick Osborne, Matt O’Leary, Evan Hall, and Noah Thomas
Nick Osborne and Matt O’Leary were decent players at Loyola and will now have increased roles with the Jaguars. Evan Hall and Noah Thomas are both true freshman, so the hard part for the Jags is throwing in an entirely new core of post players into their lineup. Hall is a 6’7″ freshman that was rated as a 3 star recruit and had offers from Eastern Kentucky, Western Kentucky, and Lipscomb out of high school. Hall is a 6’9 and 235 post from the state of Indiana that averaged a double-double in his senior season. The Jaguars also survived last year on having guards playing as post players, so it’s not like they cannot win without a post game at all. Essentially, the team decided that they didn’t like the cast of the last season of the Power Rangers and went with entirely new ranger squad, and they feel pretty comfortable about how the new cast will go. How many other places are you going to find a Power Rangers reference talking about sports? Actually, I don’t think this my first time on here.
IPFW
Joe Reed, Brent Calhoun, Andrew Poulter, Racine Talla
You’ve got to feel confident in a 6’8″ guy like Joe Reed that has shot about 55% for his career. Like Jake White and Tre’Shawn Thurman getting more shots because of departures, you’ve got to think that Reed’s shot attempts will go up with the loss of Steve Forbes. Reed is another guy with potential to be a 10 and 8 guy. His other three front court teammates are kind of question marks.
I’ve seen people bragging up Andrew Poulter, and I do not get it. He was a 7 and 5 guy as a sophomore at a junior college, and he also shot 47% from the field. I watched a video of him in high school working on some 1 on 1 moves, he was looking like an All American but he’s 6’11” and 275 going up 1 on 1 against some 6’5″ 175 pound guy. Granted, it is high school and I doubt there were too many guys near his size to work out with, but still, I don’t see how his 1 on 1 skills will ever come into play from the Summit. Then there is sophomore Racine Talla who is 6’9″ but hasn’t played a game of basketball in 3 years. It just seems like a gamble to take them seriously at this point. Maybe Jon Coffman realizes how to use them appropriately though, we will clearly have to wait and see. And many people have them picked as the 4th best team in the conference, so maybe I am just a moron. 95% chance that I am a moron.
Oral Roberts
Brandon Conley, Tre Vance, AJ Owens, and Darian Harris
Did you know this team led the Summit League in blocks per game last season? They essentially did not need production offensively from their post players as they had Obi Emegano, Kory Billbury, and Bobby Word to take on a bulk of the scoring, so they really just needed their post players to play defense and make great outlet passes. I don’t think people are realizing how important Denell Henderson was to this team. None of these players are huge scoring threats, and a lot of people are high on Owens even though he basically only got minutes when the Golden Eagles were getting killed last season. He shot 40% from the field, and he was basically playing against other teams’ 3rd string most of the time. Darian Harris also seems like he should be a shooting guard, but the ORU had to use him at the 4 position several times last season due to lack of a post.
I am nervous for Scott Sutton this season, but not in a way that I think he’s going to get fired or anything. I really do not think he has a great roster this season, but it is Sutton and Obi Emegano. I love hearing rumors every off season about schools looking at Sutton as a head coaching hire, but we may not get that this April and May. If Sutton can come in top three of the league this season, I really think he deserves coach of the year, but I don’t think he’ll get it.
Denver
Marcus Byrd, Daniel Amigo, Christian Mackey, and 1 of 2 freshman.
I am scared for Denver this season. A few have selected them to finish in last this season, CBS Sports rated them as the 3rd best team in the Summit League but it was pointless. It is really hard to look at Denver and say they have the best players in anything, not because of a lack of talent, but because of the offense that Joe Scott runs. Marcus Byrd averaged 8.5 points per game as a junior, 8.5 at Denver is like averaging 13 any place else. Byrd can also step out and take the three, he actually has the highest three point field goal percentage of any player returning to the Summit League this season, and he makes nearly 2 threes a game.
Daniel Amigo was also giving the Pioneers pretty good minutes as a freshman, but his season ended early due to injury. The Pioneers also have a 6’7″ freshman named Abiola Akintola from Australia, who was not widely recruited, but he averaged 17.8 ppg and 6 rebounds per game in the U18 Australian Junior Championships, whatever the heck that is. I know there are a lot of question marks for international players, and it could be difficult to figure out if he is even the right fit for Denver, but it could be something amazing watching him develop.
Western Illinois
Tate Stensgaard, Jalen Chapman, Mike Miklusak, and the mystery man
All are average guys that on any other team in the Summit League would be role players, and really they are just role players for Western Illinois, but they give a lot of minutes to the Leathernecks when they are available. They many lost the last 13 of 14 games of the season because they had no Stensgaard or Chapman for that time, but still, could they have made the difference. The team has 4 freshman post players that will mix in. I wonder how they will work out.
2014-2015 WAC record: 8-6 (tied for 2nd in the WAC with UMKC)
2014-2015 non-conference home record: 8-6
2014-2015 final RPI ranking: 279
Best wins in 2014-2015:
Random Stat: Both UNO and Grand Canyon lost at Chicago State and at UMKC.
2014-2015 post season: 75-70 loss to Northern Arizona in the CIT
Grand Canyon University… Last season, on the first night of college basketball, I was reading through ESPN’s bottom line for all the basketball scores to my wife. I tell her that Kentucky beat Grand Canyon by 40. My wife, who knows more about college sports than most people immediately says “who the (expletive) is Grand Canyon, is that even a real school?” About a month later we learned that one of her best friends from high school was enrolled in grad school at GCU.
At first glance, I am kind of scared of GCU as an opponent. I am partially scared because they are in the middle of transition, and I feel like they could have added incentive for this game to beat a team that just finished transition; to show that they are ready for the next step. I am also worried because they have Thunder Dan as their head coach, and they have Thunder Dan’s kid as one of their main players. It’s just you know…Thunder Freakin’ Dan. I really hope the Mavs are getting a return game with Grand Canyon in Omaha next season. I know a handful of Suns fans that would go to a game just to see Thunder Dan, which I think is weird to go to a sporting event just to watch a coach, but whatever, I would pay money to go watch Phil Jackson take a nap at a Knicks game. With possibly Thunder Dan and Brian Fish as coaches to see at Baxter Arena in 2016-2017, the Mavs could have a pretty fun home non-conference schedule next season, but I am not ready to look at 2016-2017 yet. I am not ESPN wanting to discuss the 2019 NFL draft already with a half stock.
Grand Canyon has Thunder Dan signed until 2019.
The Lopes have had a winning record since transitioning to Division 1, and they have been invited to the CIT two years in a row. Looking up their schedule over the last 2 years, I immediately get angry and scream out “HOW THE HELL WERE THEY ABLE TO PLAY A CONFERENCE SCHEDULE IN THEIR FIRST YEAR, I THOUGHT THAT WASN’T ALLOWED!!!!” It’s Thunder Dan, isn’t it?
The schedules that they have come out with each season have not been all that difficult since transitioning. They are playing the WAC to load up their conference schedule, oh the WAC. Their non-conference wins last season were against: Montana State (323), Florida A&M (350), Illinois-Chicago (297), Bethune-Cookman (344), New Mexico (175), Abiline-Christian (326), and UC-Riverside (239). So while they finished with a 17-15 record in 2014-2015, it does feel a little inflated, especially considering that all of those wins were at home. It is not like the Mavs had a string of much more impressive wins last season, but I am just saying that GCU’s 17-15 record does not sound as impressive as it looks when you look at it as far as just win totals and a post season trip.
Seriously, how are they getting all of these games at home? Is it because everyone wants to go to Phoenix in November and December? The Lopes non-conference home schedule before Omaha gets there this season is: Portland State, Black Hills State, Alcorn State, Hampton, Central Michigan, and Southern. Did they just look up an old Creighton non-conference schedule and copy and paste it?
De’Andre Davis – 6’1″, SO: 5.7 ppg, 2.3 rpg, 1.9 apg, 52 fg%
Aside from returning these four guys, the Lopes will get to add a couple graduate transfers to their team. A 6’6″ forward from Saint Louis, Grandy Glaze, who sat out last season due to an injury. Glaze averaged 3.8 ppg and 4.5 rpg for the Billikens while shooting 48% from the field. There is also Grant White from Jacksonville state who is a 6’1″ guard that played in 13 games as a junior and averaged 3.6 ppg, 1.0 rpg, 1.0 apg for a team that went 12-19 and 5-11 in the Ohio Valley. The Lopes will also have a 6’8″ graduate transfer from Coastal Carolina named Uros Ljeskovic who did not receive much playing time in his junior season at Coastal Carolina. How in the hell is a transitioning school getting so many graduate transfers? Does this have anything with them being a public university listed on the NASDAQ? Actually they are a private school, but they a public…seriously this makes you want to shut down. I claim unfair advantage. It sounds like they figured out the cheat code to play as Goro against Mortal Kombat right now, that’s not fair, you have to play as Kano like the rest of us. Damn it, I hate Kano.
The Lopes also have a transfer from Memphis named Dominic Magee, a 6’4 guard who was rated a 4 star athlete out of high school. He picked transferring to GCU over LSU, and had offers to UCLA and Arizona out of high school. He redshirted last year at Memphis and transferred at the semester, so I am unclear if he will be playing for the Lopes in the first semester of 2015-2016, or if he will have to wait until January. This just sounds pretty scary.
Really, I do not think that the Lopes have much competent size on their team, so I really hope the Mavs can get Jake White and Tre’Shawn Thurman going in this one, and the Lopes were already one of the worst rebounding teams in Division 1 last season. With the guards they have coming back, the graduate transfers coming in, and this Magee looking like he could be the greatest thing that the WAC has ever seen; it appears that this team is actually pretty stacked in the back court. As much as I am sure the Lopes will have an added incentive to beat the team that just finished transition as a measuring stick for themselves, I seriously hope the Mavs will have added incentive to not lose to a team that is still in the transition stage they just got out of.
It does not really look as if this team has been too terribly tested in the last two years. They did have receive spankings at the hands of Kentucky and Indiana last year, but I think those are games that transitioning teams go into their second year and just write off the second they read them on the schedule. I don’t even want to look back at the scores of some of the Mavs games in year two of transition. One thing that does make me feel slightly better about looking at the Lopes is the fact that they were swept by Chicago State last season. Talk about the least interesting conference match up that God could ever come up with. They did sweep Seattle though, damn it this is confusing.
It is going to be a very exciting year in the Summit League for men’s basketball. Several teams are returning a good portion of their rosters, and while many think the league will be easily won by South Dakota State; they will be in a much tighter race for a championship than most people think. Every team has a goal of winning the Summit League, but what is their case as to why they are number one? After all, 9 walk in and only one comes out… I’m just messing with you.
Denver
Hi, we are the Pioneers, and we know that some people are picking us to finish last in The Summit League this upcoming season. But we saw a statistic from kenpom recently that our coach, Joe Scott, has coached teams over the last ten years that have had the 2nd highest 2 point field goal percentage in division one. That is because we run the Princeton offense, we are all about using the entire shot clock to find the absolute best shot possible, it is based on unselfishness and not on stars.
We ranked 298th in division one in points per game as a team, but we were 20th in the country in field goal percentage which was 1st in the Summit League. We were 3rd in the Summit League in 2013-2014 in field goal percentage behind North Dakota State and Fort Wayne, who were both pretty good that year. We were also 3rd in the Summit in three point field goal percentage over the last two years, and we recruit to our style, so expect that to continue.
We know we are a young team this year with 8 freshmen and 4 sophomores, but it is not like we are going to just play the underclassmen for 40 minute a game. We have an unselfish trio of seniors to run our offense with Marcus Byrd, Nate Engesser, and Bryant Rucker. Engesser shot 51% from the field last season, he and South Dakota State’s Jake Bittle are the only 2 guards in the Summit League to shoot over 50% on the year, and they have the two best shooting percentages of any players returning to the Summit League this year.
With the exception of three games in the Summit League last season (we are still pretty baffled by our losses to IPFW), we play every game very close, so your players better be ready to hit some clutch shots in the closing minutes. We know we had a record of 12-18 last season, but we are a tough home team going 9-7 at home and we even beat this upcoming year’s favorite, South Dakota State, in Denver. So take that!
Engesser is the only returning player for Denver that averaged more than 10 points per game.
Fort Wayne
So we return the least amount of division one experience in the Summit League, but at least we have arguably one of the top three point guards in the league with Mo Evans. Our offense will probably run through him, and he will hopefully be either on the 2nd team All Conference team or at least Honorable Mention at the end of the year. Team that up with Joe Reed and we have a good inside-outside game that can be pretty difficult to defend. With so many new faces on our roster, it could be difficult to set a consistent line up at first and get everyone on board with our team defense, but at least we will be a mystery team for our opponents to defend.
One thing that we would like to point out is that we were last in The Summit League in free throw percentage last year, which can matter sometimes apparently. Our three players that shot the most free throw attempts: Steve Forbes (75%), Joe Edwards (63%), and Isaiah McCray (49%) are all gone. We still have Evans and Max Landis who both shot over 80% from the free throw line, two of the best returning players in the league in free throw percentage. We recruited a junior college player named DeAngelo Stewart who shot 82% from the free throw line in his sophomore season at North West Tech. Let’s just say we do not plan on losing to Dartmouth by 1 because we went 18-30 from the line or losing to Georgia Tech by 9 because we went 14-28 from the line. Oh, we know we cannot go 100% from the free throw line, but damn it we lost 4 games last season where missed the exact number of free throws that we lost the game by. That stings a little.
Stewart also played at Alabama State his freshman season, where his team went to the CIT, and we are totes expecting Stewart to be a major contributor on this team. Some magazine also tabbed him as the preseason newcomer of the year in The Summit League. We added another junior college player who has division one experience in 6’11” and 270lbs Andrew Poulter who started his career at Arkansas-Little Rock. Does anyone in the league have anyone that can defend 6’11” and 270? Do not answer that. Aside from these additions, we have two transfers from Purdue and Bradley that will have to sit the year out, but hopefully they should help our team out in practice.
Wait, what does Stewart’s jersey say? The Mastadons will need big things from their newest addition this season.
IUPUI
Remember how many dicks picked us to finish dead last in The Summit League last year, and we ended up winning 6 conference games? Do you remember that? Were you there for that? Sorry if we are a little rambunctious right now, but seriously do you freaking remember that? We have one of the better young coaches in probably all of the Mid Majors, and he can go into any recruits home and his parents will remember who he is just by his name alone. Scott Sutton goes into someone’s home and his parents are automatically concerned if he has his drinking problem under control because they hear the name Sutton, and that is what they associate with. With new facilities, a new coach, a new type of recruit, our program is a reboot film and it is being led by the best young director out there, James Gardener. We had one of the largest attendance increases by per game average in the country last season, so you know things are getting good.
Again sorry if we seem rude, but y’all can suck it. Combine our coach with Indianapolis, the 14th largest city in the United States and we are actually a fun place to live. It’s not like we’re a bunch of yokels that base their diet off of a 5.99 steak combo meal at the local grocery store chain. No, this is IndianGoshDamnApolis!
We lost 5 players to transfer, but it is cool because we have already forgotten their names. We get to put 4 new players onto our team that transferred from bigger conference schools, so basically we traded in a vespa for a regular motorcycle. Like, we actually have a threatening post game now that we get to add to a 6-10 team, so we are thinking those wins are going up. Oh, and we still have the widely disrespected Marcellus Barksdale, maybe the best wing defender in the league. Who are the two biggest offensive threats at the wing position in the Summit League? Obi Emegano and Garret Covington? That is cute. Barksdale held Emegano to 30% shooting in three games and Covington to 36% shooting in two games last season, so that is nothing to us.
What can the Jaguars do with an actual post game this year?
North Dakota State
We basically win everything as it is, so why would you expect anything to be different this year? We lost Lawrence Alexander, but we return everything else for the most part. Our players actually have the most returning division one starts in the entire Summit League. On top of all the players returning, we got to take our team on a summer trip to the Bahamas for exhibition games, where we learned even more about each other. We have the best defense in the league, and while we are young, we have an incredibly mature and well disciplined roster. Anyway you want to cut it, we are the San Antonio Spurs of the Summit League. We have the best fans in the Summit League, because of the cold weather and there not being much to do in Fargo or the state of North Dakota, there is not much else to do.
Can you think of a team with a better core of post players than us? Chris Kading, AJ Jacobson, and Dexter Werner: the three players combine for the complete package in the post. If you think Omaha’s Tre’Shawn Thurman can run the floor and dunk, you should see our newest recruit post player Deng Geu, he’s 6’8″ and has about a 40 inch vertical. There is about 4 blocks a game right there with Kading, Werner, and Geu. Oh, and our perimeter players are incredible defenders, so that stupid Jackassrabbits and their great core of guards do not scare us at all. We held that team to 31% shooting in the Summit League championship last year. What a bunch of turds.
The Bison lost by 10 to Gonzaga in the NCAA tournament.
Omaha
We know you are supposed to get better the more and more you go through transition, but we admit that last year we did not appear better by our amount of wins and losses. Looks can be deceiving though… After picking up our best win ever as a basketball program, we stumbled mightily with losses against teams we should have beat like UMKC and Chicago State. Consider the injuries though to some of our best players: Jake White, Devin Patterson, and Marcus Tyus battled through injuries. You get all of those guys healthy on the court and we have a pretty deadly team. Throw in some added motivation with a brand new arena and an opportunity to play in the Summit League Tournament, and we have an under the radar team. Our attendance has been rising each and every season since the transition, and we expect that to continue as we move into the Baxter Arena so hopefully we can gain more and more of a home court advantage as time goes on.
We ended the 2014-2015 season on a three game winning steak, all those games were on the road. We were actually even maybe 2 or 3 plays away from ending the season on a 6 game winning streak. We still have yet to beat North Dakota State, but we came closer than we ever have before. This was all with only having 4 players returning last year. This year we have 9 players returning and 61% of our scoring, which is the 4th best in the league behind Western Illinois, South Dakota State, and North Dakota State. We were able to take our players to Italy and learn about each other, we got in 10 extra practices, 4 exhibition games, and we know that this will pay off this season We score a lot too.
College Sports Madness put senior guards Marcus Tyus and Devin Patterson on the Preseason All Summit League 2nd team, SDSU had George Marshall and Deondre Parks on the first team, so if you think about it; we have the second best back court in the league. That is probably how it works, right? Sophomore Tre’Shawn Thurman has the highest points per game average for any returning post player in the league, unless you count NDSU’s AJ Jacobson as a post player, that is up to you. Thurman also has the 2nd highest rebounds per game average for returning players, actually he is tied with fellow Maverick Jake White. So we could have the second best back court in the league, as well as one of the top post combinations in the league.
The transition is over!
Oral Roberts
“OBI EMEGANO:PLAYER OF THE YEAR! SCOTT SUTTON:14 STRAIGHT WINNING SEASONS! FIRST IN THE LEAGUE IN ATTENDANCE! GOLDEN EAGLES RULE!”
*drops microphone*
*flips off the crowd with both hands*
If there is ever a Summit League All Century team, Emegano will probably be on it.
SOUTH DAKOTA
We had a winning record last year and most people were thinking we would finish in 7th or 8th in the conference. Fun thing: we were able to pick up a win against every single Summit League team last year, other than ourselves, that would be ridiculous. Craig Smith is from the Tim Miles coaching tree, so you should expect him to increase his win totals this season, based on nothing. We may have lost a ton of our scoring and whatever, but we still have Casey Kasperbauer: the three point king of the conference. We also will have Tyler Flack back who sat out 2014-2015 due to injury, and a gang of role players that know how to play as a team. No one was expecting Tyler Larson to be one of the best players in the league last season, so who knows who will step up this year.
Yes again we lost a lot of our team, but we found two great recruits in Tyler Hagedorn and Dan Jech. Hagedorn picked to come here over Omaha and North Dakota State, and Jech picked us over North Dakota State, Montana State, Louisiana-Lafayette, and others. You want to talk about a place where there is nothing to do? Talk about Vermillion, South Dakota. All our players can do is work out and get better at basketball. Also, somehow Hagedorn continues to get taller and is now listed at 6’10”. Did any teams in the Summit League pick up any big men better than what we picked up (on paper)? Probably not.
Fear Red! Or something like that.
SOUTH DAKOTA STATE
We are the favorite to win this league this season, everyone’s favorite. We return the most scoring in the Summit League, after Western Illinois, but ours has proven to be competent. Slam! We have an inexperienced post, but if we cannot get the ball into them we can just do whatever we want with Deondre Parks, George Marshall, and Jake Bittle. Even after those three we have Reed Tellinghuisen who can score on the outside and is also capable of getting to the basket. We keep being told about how our freshman Adam Dykman was incredibly overlooked by everyone as well.
We lost to North Dakota State by 1 in the Summit League championship, and our returning core is clearly upset about it. It is not a question of why will South Dakota State win the Summit League, but rather; who has any chance of beating South Dakota State?
Seriously, come at us, bro.
Western Illinois
We do not have much to say. Garret Covington will score a bunch of points though, probably even be 1st Team All Summit. We had a lot of injuries last season.
If it were possible, Covington might be demanding a trade.
Random stat: Derrin Hansen and the Mavs posted a 4-3 record against Kim Anderson and Central Missouri in the MIAA.
Best wins in 2014-2015: vs Valparaiso (57), and vs LSU (65)
TV: SEC Network, 7pm
Let me start out by saying that I hate University of Missouri Athletics. Every time I watched Nebraska play the Tigers in any sport, I found an unease and chill move down my spine like I was Batman trying to investigate a crime scene left by the Joker. I sometimes find myself unable to change the channel when I turn on a Missouri sporting event and see that they are losing. I was in a hotel in downtown Denver during softball season and I was the only person in the entire hotel bar watching Alabama beat Missouri in softball, actually I was probably the only person in Denver watching it. I could sit here and say a lot of nasty things, but I do not really want to do that even though I would have the time of my life.
Anyway, after I get back to reality and think about Missouri Tigers basketball the only thing that comes to my mind is that they lost to UMKC to open up the season last year. A friend of mine told me that he knows a guy who knows a guy who knows a guy that coaches for UMKC, or something like that. So when I was checking basketball scores at the beginning of last season and saw that UMKC upset Missouri and texted my friend that I was proud to have a connection of six degrees of separation to someone involved with beating the Tigers; we both grew an agreement that the Missouri Tigers were done as a basketball program last season, and we were apparently right.
The Tigers finished 9-23 last season, but they did play what appeared to be a somewhat difficult non-conference schedule. Try and wrap your head around the fact that UMKC beat Missouri, but Missouri beat Oral Roberts. Try that one. Then again a Missouri fan could say: how did the Mavericks beat Marquette and lose to Chicago State? I know I have difficulties with it as well, but I know the Mavs were not fully healthy.
The Tigers are a young team with only one senior on the team, 6’10” Ryan Rosburg that averaged 3.3 ppg and 2.6 rpg in his junior season.
How about we go over the players that Missouri has lost.
It is probably never good when your team loses guys named Keanu and Deuce. Never.
Something that sticks out about Missouri is that they were virtually in the bottom half of division one in every statistical category last season, and on top of that they lost 3 of their top 4 scorers. The Tigers ranked 321st in points per game as a team and 307th in field goal percentage, so based on that it does not seem like the Mavs’ poor defense would be too much of an issue here. Maybe it is a good thing they are losing those guys actually, but losing two young core players to transfer is never anything anyone brags about.
The Tigers were able to pick up the 55th best recruiting class in college basketball for whatever that is worth. On top of what sounds like an okay recruiting class, Missouri is returning Wes Clark a 6’0″ junior that averaged 10 points per game along with 3.5 rpg and 3.1 apg. The Tigers were able to pick up two junior college transfers, one that was a 6’2″ second team Junior College All American, and a 6’9″ player who was a 14 and 7 guy in junior college.
Wes Clark did miss the last 8 games of the 2014-2015 season.
Just looking at the Missouri fan board, Tiger fans have many mixed emotions about their team. Fans appear confident in Kim Anderson as a coach, but maybe not so much confidence riding on him as a recruiter. I would assume fans found some confidence after upsets against Valpo and LSU. Also Anderson has not taken over a dream situation for any coach. As a fan base for Maverick basketball, it appears our fans are pretty optimistic moving forward, so it feels pretty good going up against a power conference opponent that has a fan base mumbling uncertainty.
Anderson had been an assistant at Missouri and Baylor before spending 12 solid seasons at D-2 Central Missouri
With that in mind, you have to feel comfortable that the Mavericks can make this a competitive game, and maybe even pick up a win. The Tigers do have a pretty difficult non-conference schedule with Xavier, Kansas State, Northwestern (or North Carolina), North Carolina State, and Illinois. So it is entirely possible for a young team like Missouri to completely overlook a team like Omaha that was plagued with injuries the season before.
I know before I said that our best chance to pick up a win against a power conference team was Minnesota, but this may actually be a little more doable. The big hope is that the Mavs will have a healthy back court of Devin Patterson and Marcus Tyus at this point in the season. Patterson has averaged 16.2 ppg, 4.4 rpg, 4.4 apg, 1.6 spg, and shot 55% from the field in 5 career games against power conference teams, and Tyus has averaged 8.4 ppg and shot 52% from the field in nine games against power conference teams. Also on top of that, Tre’Shawn Thurman averaged 8 ppg and 5.7 rpg and shot 52% in the three games against Marquette, Kansas State, and Nebraska last season.
So I love talking about college basketball any time of the year. A buddy of mine finds it incredibly difficult to talk about college basketball until the month of October, which I fully understand and respect. I am pretty sure he was talking about late October after the MLB has concluded, but this is what you get when you are not specific. Last season we had a bet, a parlay bet if you will, based on the win totals of the division one men’s basketball teams for Nebraska, Creighton, and Omaha. I am not completely well versed on all the gambling terms out there, but I think it is a parlay bet. I love going to the casino and playing blackjack, but I seriously learned what a parlay bet was from watching “Silver Linings Playbook”. Anyway, even though no one won last year, we fully intend on doing this bet again.
The idea is that we set an agreeable number set as a over/under figure for how many wins each team will have, but we will not include their conference tournaments or any potential post season tournaments. If we think one of them will go 15-15, we will set the over/under on that team at 14.5 or 15.5. Each of us then decide between them getting more than 14.5 wins or less than 14.5 wins. We set a different prediction for each team, and in order for you to win, you have to get all three right. We’re not betting tens of dollars on this, just a growler of beer at the winner’s choice of brewery. It is very difficult for me to decide between Nebraska Brewing Company and Benson Brewery. Nebraska Brewing would make sense though, because that this is about Nebraska.
Since each of the three teams under performed last season, neither of us came even close. The world will break your heart ten ways to Sunday. See what I did there? Being that I had no faith in Creighton to do well last season, I had the under on them correctly, as we set the over/under on Creighton at 19.5, I believe. Nebraska and UNO underperforming, kept me from getting a free growler from Benson Brewery though. By the way, in the state of Nebraska it is apparently illegal to take an outside growler into a brewery and have them fill it. My mother-in-law and sister-in-law each got me growlers for Christmas. One was an Oregon Ducks growler and the other was to some brewery in the state of Washington. I tried to take the Oregon Ducks growler in some place in Nebraska and was notified that Nebraska is one of two states to have this rule. Denied.
Anyway, I am open to suggestions on to what to set the over/under on each team this season. All three teams had trips to Europe, so you have got to be thinking some sort of improvements for each team.
Nebraska
It is almost a gut instinct to set the Huskers at a low win total. They only had 13 wins in 2014-2015 and most preseason predictions have them finishing 13th in the Big 10 this upcoming season. They lost Terran Petteway who is now with the Atlanta Hawks, and they have nine new players being thrown into the mix.
The good news for the Huskers is that they only have two true road non-conference games, and one of those games is in Omaha against Creighton. They lost Petteway, but they still have Shavon Shields. I never think it is great when your main scorer is a volume scorer like Petteway. Your first option on offense last season shot 39% from the field, and now your main option on offense shot 44% from the field last season, those few more field goals can make a big difference, especially if your volume scorer is taking poor shots just for the sake of scoring points. The bad news about Shields is that his field goal percentage has dropped in each of his 3 seasons as a Husker, but I feel like he was playing hurt for much of the 2014-2015 season, am I wrong? I could be making that up, I thought I remember reading that.
The Huskers’ third option on offense, Walter Pitchford is also gone, and they should be look at this like it is a great thing. Pitchford’s production dropped from his sophomore season to his junior season, and he did not even look like he was into it most games. He just looked like a guy that was being forced to go to a chick flick with his wife, because the comic book movie you took her to had terrible dialogue. He also just seemed unwilling to take the ball into the post and score, which is what you look for in a 6’10” player (not). So two of your top three scorers shot less than 40% from the field, in a way, you should actually feel pretty good about replacing that with a Kansas transfer and a few highly touted freshman. I still seriously need someone to explain to me how Pitchford is competing for a roster spot on a NBDL team and Mike Rostampour is not.
I think the Huskers can at least get 7 wins in their non-conference schedule. Are they better than 7-11 in the Big 10? As they are picked 13th to win the conference, many people do not think so. Their season is really going to be dependent on how well their freshmen Glynn Watson and Ed Morrow can adjust to division one, but really we are in an age where most power conference teams are relying on a number for freshmen to step in right away.
I’m still not completely confident in the Huskers, I think we are going to have to set the over/under for the Huskers at 13.5. I badly want the over on that though, but I understand there is some risk involved.
Creighton
The Bluejays finished 14-19 last season, and they lost 5 contributors from last year’s team, but it was a seriously awkward year for Creighton. After losing 4 major contributors from 2013-2014, including Doug McDermott, Creighton was left in a bit of a mess. They had a few injury issues that did not help them try to carve out a starting lineup, with only one player during the season starting in all of the team’s games.
Greg McDermott gets to play transfers Cole Huff (via Nevada) and Maurice Watson (via Boston University) this season, who were both double digit scorers at their previous schools. These two should more than help replace some of what the team lost. If anyone has been paying attention, Creighton has freshmen Khyri Thomas and Martin Krampelj sound ready to make an impact right away. Both players averaged double digits in scoring on the team’s trip to Italy.
Anyway, it seems completely realistic for the Bluejays to improve on 14 wins this upcoming season, but by how much? They do have two true road games against Oklahoma and Indiana in their non-conference schedule that will be incredibly difficult, and they also have the Huskers in Omaha which seems like an automatic win for the Bluejays anymore. They also have a tough Arizona State team at home as well. Every team in the Big East looks to be improving as well, as most of them were down last season, so with 31 games on the regular season schedule I am thinking of setting the over/under for Creighton at 17.5. It is tough, but I want to take the under on this.
Omaha
A depressing 12 wins last season, I think we had the over/under last season at 16.5 and we both selected the over. I opened up to you, and you judged me. There were a number of injuries for the Mavericks, and some games that were lost in the final couple minutes, and the team is returning a lot so one could think the Mavericks will improve upon the 12 wins. However, the Mavs have what appears to be a more difficult non-conference schedule this upcoming season.
Does this Omaha team remind anyone else of the 2004-2005 Phoenix Suns roster? White-Amar’e, Thurman-Marion, Hollins-Johnson, Tyus-Richardson, Patterson-Nash? I say that only ever watching one game of Hollins ever, and that was Omaha Central’s championship game his senior season. I was only really watching the game to see how Nick Billingsley would do. Oh, how the world works.
Anyway, if the roster is like the Suns, one could assume that the Mavericks will have a pretty good season in the conference, but likely lose to a North Dakota State or South Dakota State in the semi finals. They will also more than likely lose in a way that will make you debate the pros and cons of getting in a fight with a referee. I want to set the over/under at 15.5 for Omaha, and I want that over.
So I am welcome to any thoughts and suggestions if those are appropriate figures.
Also, something completely trivial that I typically send this friend at the start of the college basketball season is a Pre Season All State of Nebraska Division 1 Team. This is what I set for the team, but I do not feel all that confident about it. It’s not like this really makes a difference anyway. Unless a Creighton die hard finds this, then they will bitch about it. Take that photo of the state of Nebraska being a Husker basketball state downtown and you will for sure find yourself into a condescending man that will lecture you on Creighton versus Nebraska.
Big Win in 2014-2015: vs UT-Arlington (180 RPI) 104-81
Random Stat: UNO and Montana State both won at North Dakota last season by the exact same score of 80 to 78.
When you first hear of Montana State, you assume this could be an easy road win. I mean, it is Montana State of all schools.
Okay, this has been getting a little stale talking about who is returning, and what new players might be good, but now we get to add a new ingredient to the recipe. Some fish.
Brian Gosh Darn Fish. I really do not think that his is full legal name, but it could be. The Mavs may not have a shot at playing Creighton, but they do have a shot at former Creighton/Oregon/San Diego/Marshall Assistant Coach, Brian Fish. Trying to get his program going, Fish will take on the Mavericks in their first full year of division one. This seems like it should be a home and home series. I feel like we should be able to expect the Bobcats in Omaha in 2016.
I cannot really think of many press conferences that introduced a new basketball coach that required him to wear a hat. So this must be serious, right?
I felt pretty confident in Fish’s ability to recruit a good team and make a positive impact on Montana State right from the second he got hired. He appeared to be Dana Altman’s number one guy after Kevin McKenna left Creighton. Fish was responsible for recruiting some great players to the Bluejays. Every time Creighton played a team that had a coach in the hot seat, Fish appeared super into the game, like he wanted the opportunity to be a head coach. It was always in him. He had been rumored for a number of head coaching jobs before, one in particular was hearing his name being floated around when Western Illinois needed a new head coach…twice that came up actually.
We are going to throw in a pinch of another ingredient though. Fish was able go all the way to Rock Island, Illinois to go after a recruit named Tyler Hall. Why is this an item of interest? Tyler Hall was rated a 3 star recruit by ESPN, but ESPN’s recruiting website is not all that great at rating players so it might not be that big of a deal in the long run. However, Hall was given a scholarship offer by the Mavericks as well; and on top of that he saw offers from South Dakota, South Dakota State, Ohio (Saul Phillips), and Western Michigan. So yes, Fish came into Omaha’s backyard and stole one from us. It could be a big deal, it could not be. The Bobcats are advertising Hall as a player that will be competing for a starting spot, but they won 7 games last season, so I assume every new guy is competing for a starting spot. Fish was also able to get a commitment from Minnesota native, Sam Neumann. The Mavericks did not offer Neumann, but Minnesota is an area the Mavericks like to get into for recruiting…Neumann did receive an offer from South Dakota State.
Actually kind of stoked to see JT Gibson and Hall go head-to-head.
This could give Omaha fans an indication of what kind of guys the Mavericks are losing out on and what type of guys we are going after, other than the obvious list of players that are currently on the roster. As a fan, you like to know your team is offering guys that are capable players. I hate it when Nebrasketball fans lose out on some recruit to Auburn and that player turns out to not be competent enough to player in a power conference, and the Husker fans get all giddy that the player “sucks”. Shouldn’t you be upset that this dude was almost on your roster, but he did not think your team was good enough for his abilities? Am I right?
How else has Fish done in recruiting? Like many coaches trying to turn their team around quickly, Fish went after junior college players to add experience to his team. He signed 5, that is right, 5 junior college transfers to his team. 3 of those junior college players are 6’8″ or taller. I’m just going to do some quick math here. 5 junior college players, 4 freshman…that is 9 new players to work into the mix. With 9 new players, it feels kind of worthless to bring up many teams stats from 2014-2015.
Montana State also had 3 players transfer away from the program, who all according to a Big Sky blog were “non-contributors” and should not be a big deal to lose.
The Mavericks were 2-0 against non-conference opponents in 2014-2015 that had a player that ended up averaging more than 4 assists per game. Those wins were against Central Arkansas and North Dakota.
Omaha is 4-0 against the Big Sky since becoming Division 1, but in reality, 3 of those wins are against North Dakota. This will be the second game of 2015-2016 that the Mavericks go up against the Big Sky after playing at Northern Colorado.
This should be a difficult game for the Mavericks. Road game, on Sunday, in a place like Bozeman, Montana. With so many new faces for the Bobcats, it could be difficult to scout Montana State, but the Bobcats could still be trying to figure each other out at this point. Brian Fish is not going to be surprised by the Mavericks either, he should be pretty knowledgeable of the program and have a plan for this game.
Basketball, meh, mainly the NBA has entered into an era of looking at teams by asking the question: Who has the best Big 3? Having a Big 3 certainly is key, but really I think it’s just as important to follow up with who has better role players to back up Big 3? Could the 2008 Boston Celtics have won an NBA championship without their young starters Kendrick Perkins, Rajon Rondo, and older bench players of PJ Brown, Sam Cassell, and James Posey? But while we are on the subject, that I brought up, let’s take a look at who could have the best Big 3 in the Summit League in the 2015-2016 season.
SDSU:
Jake Bittle, George Marshall, Deondre Parks
There is little doubt that the Jackrabbits will have the best guard trio in the league. Each averaged double figures in scoring, and all three can defend the perimeter. Each averaged double figure scoring, and Bittle has the highest field goal percentage of any returning player to the Summit league at 53.4 %. The Jackrabbits also have 3 of the top 5 returning players in 3 point field goals made, Marshall made 64 threes in 2014-2015 and he did not even play the entire season. The big question mark is; with Cody Larson graduating, who is going to rebound and defend in the post for them?
The Jackrabbits are returning 74% of their scoring from 2014-2015.
Role Players:
Reed Tellinghuisen, 6-6 SO: If you look at the Jackrabbits fan forum, someone posted pictures of Tellinghuisen lifting weights, which is not weird at all. He does appear as if he has added some weight onto his frame, which is great as he will be used more at the 4 position in his second year as a Jackrabbit. The Summit League has Tellinghuisen, AJ Jacobson, and Tre’Shawn Thurman all in the same class at the forward position. How excited are you for 2017-2018?
Connor Devine/Ian Theisen: These two split time and basically taking turns of who was backing up All Conference player Cody Larson. These two combined for for almost 5 points and 4 rebounds per game. With a young front court, these two will be counted on more in the 2015-2016 season to step up.
Skyler Flatten, 6-6 SO: Flatten was actually getting a decent amount of minutes, but then something happened. George Marshall happened.
Keaton Moffitt, 6-5 SR: Keaton Moffitt also happened. The transfer, from Division 2 Sioux Falls, made quite the impact on his team with his leadership and hustle, routinely making big plays when it was needed most.
Omaha:
Devin Patterson, Tre’Shawn Thurman, Marcus Tyus, (Jake White)
The Mavericks could have a Big 4 if Jake White is healthy, with as many injuries as he had in his junior season, it is going to be like getting an entirely new player in the line up. It seemed as if the entire team faced injuries issues last season, so if the Mavs can stay healthy, they can be a very dangerous team in the Summit League with their senior back court of Patterson and Tyus to go along with their rising sophomore star Tre’Shawn Thurman.
Random stat: The Mavericks have the most experienced roster with the average eligible player being 2/3 of the way through their sophomore season, but they have the smallest roster with an average height of 6’4″. If Zach Jackson, Ben Kositizke, and Zach Pirog all redshirt, the roster gets even smaller, but more experienced. It is still up for debate if this is one of the meaningless things I have ever posted here.
The Mavericks are looking to make a big jump with a new arena and new era.
Role Players:
Tra-Deon Hollins, 6-2 JR: Averaged 17 ppg, 6.2 rpg, and 5.3 apg his freshman season of junior college, he appears to be a little bit of everything, and can really help the Mavericks improve their perimeter defense.
Daniel Meyer, 6-9 SO: Only averaged four and a half minutes a game in 2014-2015, but he is likely to see an increased role with the graduation of Mike Rostampour and the departure of fellow redshirt freshman Rylan Murry. Meyer appeared to play with a lot of activity on the team’s trip to Italy.
Randy Reed, 6-6 SR: I’d like to see Reed’s shot chart, I cannot think of many jump shots Reed made, or took. He really can slash and get to the basket though. When Marcus Tyus missed the last 6 games of the season, Reed really did a decent job of bringing energy off the bench. There were many instances in the Mavericks’ home game against Oral Roberts that he made a play to keep Omaha in the game. I would think with not a ton of post players around the Summit League that Reed will be used as a backup 4.
NDSU:
Kory Brown, Carlin Dupree, AJ Jacobson
After losing the Summit League player of the year, Lawrence Alexander, the Bison will look to replace that offense in their back court. AJ Jacobson said in a Q&A that the Bison are all about a team effort, and know that there is a next one up to take Alexander’s place. It will probably actually be two up with Kory Brown and Carlin Dupree to take the load on offense over. Seriously, this team is starting to become the HYDRA of the Summit League.
While this team is still relatively young, they seem to have completely bought into Dave Richman’s schemes. A Big 3 probably does not really matter to the Bison, they appear to be ready for anything. Looking at their roster, they probably have the most complete roster in the Summit League. It is also probably worth nothing; that while the Bison are a young team, their roster has the most division one starts on the active roster for 2015-2016 with 197 starts. Kory Brown is after all a 4 year starter…assuming he is going to start this season.
The Bison will continue to work as a team after the loss of Lawrence Alexander.
Role Players:
Chris Kading, 6-8 SR: Kading averaged 5.3 points per game and 3.9 rebounds per game in 2014-2015. He is not much of a threat on offense, but he does rarely make mistakes. Actually the Bison rarely make mistakes as a team. Kading led the Summit League in blocks per game.
Paul Miller, 6’4 SO: Miller averaged 6.7 points per game and 3.8 rebounds per game, while making 37 threes in his freshman campaign, which is all impressive considering he was sharing the back court with the likes of Lawrence Alexander, Kory Brown, and Carlin Dupree. He also had 10 games in which he scored in double figures.
Dexter Werner, 6-6 JR: Had a massive jump from his sophomore to his junior season going from 2.8 points per game to 8.4 points per game. He also only averaged under 20 minutes per game in 2014-2015. With Werner coming off the bench, he and Jacobson allow the Bison to be extremely tough at the 4 position for 40 minutes. It also allows Jacobson to move over to the 3 and play more outside, which is not a bad thing for them. Werner was second on the team in blocks per game, and is tied with Omaha’s Tre’Shawn Thurman as the 2nd leading shot blocker returning to the league.
IUPUI:
Marcellus Barksdale, Darrell Combs, Nick Osborne
A bunch of new faces for IUPUI, which is not a terrible thing. Marcellus Barksdale is the team’s returning leading scorer, but he can easily fall to the team’s 2nd or 3rd best scorer on the team. Eastern Michigan transfer Darrell Combs is ready to go and has shown he can get buckets. I cannot wait for the “combing the court” puns from terrible ESPN3 commentators. Loyola-Illinois transfer Nick Osborne is expected to make a big impact on this team as well, and will more than likely serve as the team’s primary post presence, as he and other Loyola-Illinois transfer Matt O’Leary are the only upperclassmen post players on the team. Osborne was known for getting into lots of foul trouble when he was a post player for Loyola. The Jaguars are going to look entirely different this season.
The Jaguars exceeded expectations in 2014-2015, what can they do with a group of new and improved players?
Role Players:
Seriously, how many 6’5″ guards do the Jaguars need?
Aaron Brennan, 6-6 SO: Averaged 6.4 points per game in 2014-15 and started in 24 games, but could be moved to the bench with the additions of Osborne and O’Leary. Not a bad thing for your team to have a guy on your bench with 24 career starts as a freshman.
DJ McCall, 6-5 SO: Averaged a shade under 5 points per game and had 15 starts on the year. Could also see an increase of minutes with the graduations of Elijah Ray and Khufu Najee.
The further I get into this, I realize that the entire team is a group of role players.
South Dakota
Tre Burnette, Tyler Flack, Casey Kasperbauer
I admit that throwing Flack’s name into the mix is a risk. Due to an injury, he has yet to play under Craig Smith, but Craig is probably going to like using a 6’7″ guy who shot 45% on threes in his sophomore season. Combine that with Casey Kasperbauer ranking 95th in the nation last season in threes made, and South Dakota will rely on the three ball a lot this season, again. The trio can really make up for the losses of Tyler Larson and Brandon Bos from last season.
Tre Burnette is the Summit League’s leading returning rebounder from 2014-2015, and Kasperbauer has the most three point field goals made of any returning player to the League, he also has the 3rd highest three point field goal percentage of any returning player.
South Dakota lost 56% of their scoring, that is the most in the Summit League.
Role Players:
Trey Norris, 6-0 Sr: Came off the bench in his junior year after being a starter in his sophomore season, but will compete for the starting point guard position with incoming JuCo player, Shy McClelland. Norris had a drop off in production from his sophomore season under coach Smith, but he can still be a capable part of the offense for the Coyotes.
Eric Robertson, 6-8 Sr: He made the game winning shot over the Mavericks in Omaha, right? I just remember the beard, and being incredibly angry. I do not completely blame him for the Mavericks’ loss, it is just the final image I have in my mind of that game. Perhaps an increased role in his senior season with the departure of James Hunter, but Craig Smith did a decent job recruiting two 6’9″ freshman (Tyler Hagedorn and Dan Jech) that he may be intrigued to get to the top of the rotation immediately.
IPFW
Mo Evans, Max Landis, Joe Reed
I continuously forget about the existence of Max Landis, but he is on the team, I swear it, and he was 4th on the team in scoring last season. The ‘Dons lost a lot of their post game, and they do not appear to have much replacing what they lost, so the team could rely a lot on Mo Evans to be a star. Landis will be there to shoot the three, and Joe Reed will need to be counted on even more to be a stretch 4 than he has before. Seriously, this is the first time we have seen the ‘Dons without a serious threat of a stretch 4. Yep, first time in 5 years? Reed did shoot 36% from behind the line last year, but did not take many as he only made ten on the year. The team will be counting on two junior college transfers to fill the void of what they lost from last season, and will need them to adjust and contribute quickly.
Side note: The ‘Dons will have transfers from Louisiana Tech, Purdue, and Bradley all eligible to play in 2016-2017.
The ‘Dons have the fewest number of Division 1 starts by players on their roster.
Role Players:
Andrew Poulter, 6-11 JR: Played in seven games his redshirt freshman year at Arkansas-Little Rock before transferring to Western Texas for his sophomore season, where he averaged 7 points and 5 rebounds per game.
DeAngelo Stewart, 6-6 JR: Played his freshman season at Alabama State before transferring to Northwest Tech in Kansas for his sophomore season. Averaged 16 ppg, 6 rpg, and shot 47% from the field in his sophomore season. A few people have already tabbed Stewart as the Newcomer of the Year in the Summit League.
Western Illinois:
Garret Covington, JC Fuller, and Jabari Sandifer
It is hard to determine who the Leathernecks’ third best player is behind Covington and Fuller. Sandifer was the third leading scorer on the team with 7.4 points per game, and he also led the Summit League in assists with 4.3 per game. He even had a great opening weekend in the Summit with 22 points and 4 assists against IPFW and 20 points and 6 assists against Omaha, but then he was basically never heard from again only scoring in double figures one more time through the season.
Western Illinois actually has a lot of experience on their team, but how much faith can you put in a team that has gone 1-27 on the road in the last two seasons. The last time they won a road game was January 30th, 2014 against IPFW.
The Leathernecks return 89% of their scoring, can they see improvement if they stay healthy?
Role Players:
Mike Miklusak, 6-6 JR: Played in 15 games because of a season ending injury He had 21 points and 7 rebounds against Omaha. I am putting my head down right now.
Jamie Batish, 6-4, SR: A bit of an inconsistent guard, but gives the Leathernecks an option on offense after averaging 6.4 points per game in his first season with the team. He had 15 points in a win against Omaha. Seriously, I am going to punch myself in the face right now.
Tate Stensgaard, 6-8 SR: Played in 20 games before facing a season ending injury. Has shot over 56% on his career as a Leatherneck.
Denver:
Marcus Byrd, Nate Engesser, Bryant Rucker
Honestly it is pretty difficult to analyze a team’s Big 3 when they run the Princeton offense. Excuse me, I have to take a break, I just had a random memory of Barry Collier being a terrible basketball coach.
Okay, I am back… With their offense you need guys that take high percentage shots. These three seniors-to-be had a combined shooting percentage of nearly 50% from the field and 42% on threes. Marcus Byrd has the highest three point field goal percentage for any player returning to the Summit League. The Summit League has been more difficult for Joe Scott and the Pioneers than it was for them against the Sun Belt and WAC, which hopefully is not all that surprising. The Pioneers have gotten worse each of the last three seasons going from 22 wins to 16 wins to 12 wins, can they go for 10 this year? With their high shooting percentage, the Pioneers can always be in a game, but with the Summit League having so many good shooters, teams have been able to take over games down the stretch. It is pretty difficult to beat at home as they are 32-13 at home over the last 3 years, and last year they lost 7 games at home by a combined total of 39 points…one of those games was a 16 point loss to IPFW as an outlier.
Denver does not care about a Big 3.
Role Players:
Daniel Amigo, 6-10 SO: 5.7 ppg, 46 FG%
Jake Pemberton, 6-3 SO: Likely to see an increased role with the graduation of Brett Olson and Cam Griffin.
Oral Roberts:
Obi Emegano, Brandon Conley, Scott Sutton
With Korey Billbury and Bobby Word departing from the team, I really cannot come up with who is going to make up a Big 3 for the Golden Eagles. On paper, it looks kind of rough for Oral Roberts and coach Sutton, but Sutton is probably one of the top coaches in the Summit League and entering his 17th season as the head coach of the Golden Eagles, so they cannot really be counted out, especially if they arguably the best player in the conference. You want to talk about new faces? Oral Roberts is going to be like trying to figure out who is joining the cast of another Expendables film.
Obi Emegano is a popular choice of Preseason Player of the Year.
Role Players:
Seriously have no idea what will be happening with this team. Perhaps this is what happens to a team when they change conferences so often…naw what I mean Denver? Brandon Conley is probably the only for sure thing on the team, everyone else seems to be the mystery man with his trigger on the finger. The Golden Eagles can probably get above .500 in the conference with Emegano and Sutton though.
The Eagles do not have a very experienced roster, and they only have two seniors who combine for returning 5 points per game. They add two junior college transfer guards to their roster; Ty Toney who averaged 18 points per game; and Willie Magnum who averaged 20 points per game in his sophomore season.
The Eagles have size, but they are not incredibly talented in the post. Seriously, how does a 6’8″ man shoot 27 % from the field?
The Mavericks will need this win. Really, you need every win, but the Mavericks will meet the Eagles after a 3 game road trip and right before another three game road trip. The next home game the Mavericks will play will be against Simpson College, so I am guessing most fans are pretending it is not a real game. After Simpson, the Mavericks have another three games on the road before starting another three game road swing. The Mavericks have two home games in the month of December, the Eagles and Simpson College…when they come back, Omaha will start the Summit League.
Prior to playing the Mavericks, the Eagles will take on Vermont, Oakland, Michigan State, and 3 non-division one teams. They have 4 non-division one teams on their schedule, I get annoyed with the Mavericks having 2 non-division one teams on the schedule, I cannot imagine 4.
Eastern Michigan
2014-2015 Record: 21-14 (but they went 18-14 vs D-1 opponents)
2014-2015 Road Record: 4-10
Final RPI in 2014-2015: 148
2014-2015 Post Season: Lost to Louisiana Monroe in CBI 71-67
Big win in 2014-2015: @ Michigan 45-42
Random Stat: Eastern Michigan ranked 280th in the nation in field goal percentage in 2014-2015
That name is made up, right? He was a 3rd Team All MAC as a sophomore showing he is a serious scoring threat averaging 16.7 ppg and shooting 44% from the field. It is scary to think about who the Mavs will have guard him. He made 70 three point field goals as a sophomore. Lee is a guard that could really prepare the Mavericks for the Summit League.
Tim Bond, 6’7″ G/F, Soph
Bond is listed at 160 pounds. That kind of stands out… He was 4th on the team in scoring with 6.1 ppg and in assists at 1.1 per game. A 57% free throw shooter.
Jodan Price, 6’8″ F, Junior
Transferred to Eastern Michigan from DePaul after his freshman season. At 6’8″ he likes to play on the outside with 75% of his shot attempts being from outside for three. Averaged 4.3 points per game, but only shot 27% on the year. He constantly has a look on his face that makes you feel like he is bored. Actually if you look up any picture of any player on their team, they look like they just woke up from a nap.
The Rundown-Continued
I say I am afraid of Raven Lee because of the Mavericks’ poor perimeter defense last season, but I am gaining more hope as I read about the additions of Tra-Deon Hollins and Alex Allbery. Both claim to be defensive specialists, but I do not imagine Allbery getting much playing time. You can be comfortable with your walk on wanting to be a defensive specialist. In most scenarios, your walk on is going to be your 5th option on the court, so it can be huge if he can make some defensive stops while he is on the court.
While, the Mavericks were one of the highest scoring teams in college basketball in 2014-2015, they unofficially averaged the 19th most points in division one…the Eagles are a sound defensive team. The Eagles were 11th in the nation in steals per game, and ranked 51st in blocks per game. How much can the Mavericks score on a defensive team like this?
Hey, the Mavericks are 3-0 against the MAC since joining division one, but all three of those wins are over Northern Illinois. But, hey, the Eagles had the same conference record as Northern Illinois last season.
I am not going to sit here and say this game is a guarantee for the Mavericks, but if Hollins is as good as a defender as advertised, don’t you like Mavericks’ chances to pick up a win at home against the Eagles? I know there was not a lot here, but how excited can one man get in writing about Eastern Michigan basketball? Earl Boykins played at Eastern Michigan, he was pretty fun to watch.
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