Back from a trip to see the in-laws in Portland just in time to see some Summit League basketball.
Random Note: I was wearing an Omaha Mavericks shirt out in Portland and ran into a guy with a Nebraska Cornhuskers who started a rant at me that the Mavericks “suck.” I am still unsure what to make of the whole situation. I tried to talk to my father-in-law about it, but he is a North Dakota fan, so that was worthless.
Anyway, it is 2016, and the Mavericks are still a full fledged member of division one. The Western Illinois Leathernecks will be the first opponent for the Mavericks to try and build their record to get in good standing for their first trip to the Summit League tournament. There is a good chance (or a bad chance depending how you look at it) that the Baxter Arena crowd may not be a large crowd in the conference opener. College bowl season is going on today, students are back home (even though most UNO students hail from Omaha), and many people are still struggling to find dignity at 1pm on New Year’s Day. The Mavericks started each season in the Summit League on the road, but this season they get a great chance to start out with a decent record with 2 games at home against Western Illinois and IUPUI.
What is there to know about the Western Illinois Leathernecks?
Record: 7-4
They beat Wisconsin at the beginning of the year, you may have heard of it. You probably have not heard many positive things for the Badgers since that either, but hey let the Leathernecks brag about it to cover up their loss to Chicago State. Oh wait, this sounds familiar.
They only played out out of the state of Illinois in 3 games in their non-conference schedule. This is their second game in the state of Nebraska after losing to Creighton 97-67 in November. Does this make you want the Mavericks to beat the Leathernecks even harder to hurt Creighton’s RPI? I am not even sure if that would hurt Creighton’s RPI, but it wouldn’t help it.
Garret Covington is pretty good at this basketball thing. At 6’5″ and 180lbs, Covington is currently 3rd in the Summit in scoring with 17.4 points per game. I don’t want to talk smack about Covington, but he does not really rank that well in any other statistical category…He is 10th in the Summit in free throw percentage.
JC Fuller appears to be the X-factor for the Leathernecks. In wins, he is averaging 17.7 points per game and shooting 52% from the field. In losses, Fuller is averaging 9.5 points per game and shooting 29% from the field. Do the Mavs have a really good defensive guard to help slow Fuller down? Yes…
Jabari Sandifer gave the Mavericks problems last season. He is 2nd in the conference in assists behind Tra-Deon Hollins, and Sandifer is 2nd in the conference in Assists to Turnover ratio, so the match up between Sandifer and Fuller against Hollins and Devin Patterson appears to be a big factor in this game.
The Leathernecks were really excited for 6’11” freshman Brandon Gilbeck before the start of the season. The frosh is averaging 3.3 points and 4.6 rebounds per game and has only made one free throw all season, so I am not sure if they are still super jacked about him or not. The front line for the Leathernecks is deep with 4 guys that are 6’8″ or taller to play in the post, but none of them are half has good as Jake White or Tre’Shawn Thurman.
Since only one conference game has been played so far, and the non-conference schedule had completely different levels of competition for each Summit League team, I feel it is dumb to discuss team statistics at this point…and Western Illinois only played 11 games in their non-conference schedule when everyone else had 13 or 14 games…and 3 of their 11 games were against non-D1 teams…and they played Eastern Illinois twice…my teeth hurt right now. But hey, the Summit League is currently 10th in RPI as a conference!
The Summit League RPI rankings as of December 31st…
It was one of the most stressful games I have seen in a while, but the Mavericks got the win, so I cannot complain. There were some teaching moments, and there was also some great aggressive plays from the Mavericks. I was kind of upset in the first game that the score board did not tell you how many points and fouls the players had. I am super glad this got fixed. The battery on my phone was getting pissed at me for having to look it up every couple minutes.
The worst picture ever, but basketball was fun last night.
The Shock Top stand is not open on weeknight games I guess. I just wanted Twisted Pretzel.
Kareem Richardson just always looks like he is ready to leave as quickly as possible. He’s done a great job at UMKC though. I doubt he is in Kansas City too much longer.
The first time I saw Shayok Shayok, he is was 6’6″, and now he is listed at 6’9″. Why can’t I grow like that?
My favorite thing about the MavX ap is that it tells you the menus of all the concession stands in the Baxter Arena. My wife is an extremely healthy eater, so usually when we go to sporting events we spend a half hour walking around the entire arena finding her something healthy to eat. The ap cuts down on this time, and that has pretty much made my year.
Tra-Deon Hollins court awareness is just unreal. I feel like he is in training to be The Flash. In the Flash, they just shoot arrows and other objects at him to see if he can catch everything. Hollins has a way of making it appear as if the opposing team is just throwing the ball at him to see if he can catch it.
Jake White appeared that he had something to prove against UMKC. Not that it ever looks like he’s ready to put on an open mic stand up comedy routine, but he looked like he knew he had a task to stay out on the court and to not let UMKC get any offensive boards. He was fighting out there. The Mavs let up a few key offensive boards, but it is going to happen no matter what you do sometimes. The Mavs only gave up 9 offensive rebounds this game, and Jake White had a big role in keeping the ‘Roos off the glass.
LaVell Boyd and Martez Harrison might one of the three best back courts the Mavs play this year.
Another guy who looks as serious as the Terminator trying to hunt down Sarah Connor is Tim Smallwood. He’s the Timinator. He’s constantly ready put up a three, and he chases after his misses, and he’s hustled his ass off the last two games after not getting much time against Santa Barbara. That is exactly what you want out of a senior guard. His near coast to coast drive was something we did not see much out of him last season.
I know that UMKC made quite a bit a threes in the game, the Kangaroos did find some wide open looks from the perimeter, but the Mavs did contest a lot of those shots. Just being that the Mavs are forcing so many threes, you can tell that teams are maybe a bit nervous about having to get through Devin Patterson and Tra-Deon Hollins…The Devil’s Gate. The ‘Roos had some threes from big guys, there are not many bigs in The Summit that can hit multiple threes a game.
I felt like I was watching the pre-LeBron James Miami Heat play the Dallas Mavericks in the NBA Finals in the second half. The Heat that year just put the ball in Dwayne Wade’s hands and kept having him drive to the basket because of the all the fouls. Why do I feel like this? The ‘Roos had 37 fouls in the game. The Mavericks were 36-48 from the free throw line. When the Mavs came down the court down 83-80, I was thinking it would almost be dumb to shoot a three. It seemed like the Mavericks were stuck at 5 of 18 on threes for the past 15 minutes, and I was looking at the fouls and just saying that: I would bet money here that UMKC will make a dumb foul here.
We need to keep getting more excited for Zach Jackson. Out of the three freshmen on this year’s team, he had the least known about him coming into the year. He makes a few odd decisions, but for the most part he plays great, and what college freshman doesn’t make a couple questionable decision in his first three college basketball games. There are seniors out there making poor decisions on the court. Near the end of the game, there was an overthrown pass to him that went out of bounce and some guy near me was pissed that he didn’t try and save the ball. Really, had he thrown the ball back it could have gone to an opposing player and UMKC would have been off to the races at the end of the game and anything could have happened. Jackson is a high IQ player, the Mavs need that for a guy that is filling in. I made this point earlier, the Mavs are asking less out of their newcomers compared to other Summit League teams. Others are asking newcomers to be stars right away, the Mavs are asking the newcomers to be role players…this has to be something that will pay off.
Growing increasingly nervous about this team’s three point shooting as we head to The Summit League, but the Mavericks advantage is going to be Patterson and Hollins breaking down the defense and getting into the lane. The Summit does not have a bunch of post players, White and Thurman could be 2 of the top 5 post players in the Summit League.
This game needed a little cowbell toward the end of the game.
Tre’Shawn Thurman literally wiped the floor tonight. He was playing like he was in a video game, and his player rating kept rising because of his great play. He’s added some moves, he was feeling it, and was incredibly focused. He just looked more relaxed at the free throw line tonight, which I thought showed with 7 of 9 from the line. Thurman has the highest ceiling of any Maverick that we have seen in a while. When people walk into the Baxter Arena, they immediately take notice of the muscle he put on.
Kelley Wollak did a great job as the MC in timeouts. I feel bad with her being on crutches out there though. I was a little bummed that Mikaela Shaw could not be in Omaha and Grand Forks at the same time. It feels like it could have been a Bill Brasky level of story that Mav fans could have screamed at a bar in the future. ONE TIME MIKAELA SHAW RAN FROM GRAND FORKS TO OMAHA SO SHE COULD GIVE OUT A FREE OIL CHANGE AND THEN SHE RAN BACK TO GRAND FORKS TO DROP 19 ON NORTH DAKOTA….TO MIKAELA SHAW!!!!
Every win is needed, but this was a much needed win for the Mavericks. UMKC is an improved team, and going on a three game road swing after going 1-2 would have been…I think my brain just tried to escape my head.
Who else sat there entire time asking: Why is UMKC in the WAC?
Elsewhere in The Summit
Western Illinois beat Illinois-Chicago 84-57. Jabari Sandifer had 16 points, 9 rebounds, and 7 assists. JC Fuller had 19 points and 9 rebounds. Garret Covington had 17 points and 3 rebounds. The Leathernecks are making us all look like idiots.
So I had kind of a bummer of a day yesterday. My laptop finally died on Thursday night and confirmed yesterday that it had passed. It was an ASUS, and I somehow got 7 years out of that piece of crap. I was hoping to stretch its life out until after Christmas, but I knew our relationship was ending soon, so I had been backing everything up pretty good for the last year or so. I still lost a few things that I will never get back, but I will not lose the pride in making a cheap hunk of junk last twice as long as it should have. If anyone wants to go to a field and break it to pieces with my wife’s softball bats and listen to some gangster rap, I’ve got a little spare time. We can bring the cheapest 40 we can find too. Why? Because I think it’s actually a societal norm that if a cop catches you doing illegal stuff in the middle of a field that you need to have a 40.
But there was a basketball game last night. It was frustrating, there was very little flow to it with all of the fouling. Yeah, not a big fan of the fouling. We saw some new faces and some old ones with new haircuts. The crowd was big, which was great. The student section was full! It wasn’t very loud, but they did not have much to cheer for in the first half. It was just a really odd first half. Justin Simmons and CJ Carter were both on the sideline to cheer on the Mavs. I think I may have saw Alex Phillips as well, but I was not 100% sure about it.
So my seats got temporarily moved over a section with something to do with hockey that I didn’t quite fully understand but I nodded my head because I am a weak adult, the new seats were not as great of an angle. I made up for it by drinking a Shock Top Twisted Pretzel ale. As far as I know, you can only get this beer at Omaha Mavericks and Omaha Stormchasers games. I am one and done with drinks at sporting events. I never get these people spending 80 bucks on 10 beers at a sporting event and going to the bathroom every 10 minutes. You spent at least 100 bucks to pretend to be at a sporting event. I’m pointing at you CenturyLink Citizens.
The pregame for my friend and I was at Ponzu. Why is Ponzu so bad at wrapping their sushi? It just falls apart. We were able to make at least 20 Seinfeld references though. You cant beat that.
As we were sitting there the marching band (or I assume the marching band) came by pounding on drums around Aksarben Village. My friend and I discussed how it’s actually kind of weird to see school spirit around UNO. That wasn’t there 5 years ago.
So Randy Reed? High energy guy off the bench? Damn it, I hope that continues! He is going to play such a big role in the Summit League, everyone has a 6’5″ or 6’6″ guy they throw in at the 4.
I know that Santa Barbara was missing their top returning player, and Omaha was missing Marcus Tyus, but Tyus’ three point shooting was dramatically missed last night. I still say the basket on the side of the visiting team’s bench is cursed.
The fouls got annoying, this is worse than two years ago, it completely took any flow out of the game. This scares me for a team that needs a face pace and flow to win games.
Jake White fouled out, took some contact himself, but he was healthy and that is so awesome. He had a hard fall to the ground and quickly got up, like it was his way of showing us all that he was alright. I remember a game last year in which he fell to the ground and my wife’s coach mind was saying “get up kid, get back on D, what is wrong with him?” And I sat there like: Careful babe, he might literally break.
I feel like Devin Patterson is able to channel this inner Chris Paul thing from time to time, but last night was not that night. He has taken bad games by him personally in the past and had great bounce back games in the past. Can he save that for UMKC when he goes up against an All American?
Did anyone notice that Kyler Erickson has an entire Millard South section cheering for him? I think it’s 215 or 216? His one rebound in the game was fantastic. It was another moment where I thought the Mavs were giving up another offense board, but then he came flying out of no where to start a break. He was out on the floor for the last defensive play. I want to point that out.
It was so hard for the Gauchos to find passing lanes with Devin Patterson and Tra-Deon Hollins on the court at the same time, like they seriously could not figure it out. I’m coining that backcourt as: The Devil’s Gate…whether you like it or not.
Hollins is a bandit. He steals everything. Remember in Home Alone 2 when Marv is thinking of all the dumb nicknames for him and Harry? I motion to nickname Hollins as The Sticky Bandit. It’s also great that this team has two passers that can penetrate as well. All the kick out threes from the two of them to Tyus and Gibson are hopefully coming.
I want to say this about Tre’Shawn Thurman. He picked up that second foul in the first half, and you could tell he was just angry with himself. He sat on that bench in absolute Hulk like anger. He was never more ready for that second half to begin. When the first half ended, he wasted no time getting up off that bench and running to the locker room. The fouls did not scare him in the second half, he came out more aggressive on offense and showed off some new post moves. You could feel his pain and anger at the end of the game as he walked off the court. He is a leader.
Seeing Zach Jackson get the start was a shock for me, especially since Tyus was in warm ups. Jackson did okay though, he didn’t pass up on his first shot and took it with confidence. He was not scared.
JT Gibson also played with great confidence. Those two threes in a row got the big crowd back into the game. He made it a game. Going to love watching Gibson and Jackson grow and develop.
Toward the end of the game, the team bench was dry. It was a close game, and guess who got the rest of the team to get up and cheer on their teammates…Ben Kositzke. I think I was sitting near the Ben Kositzke and Alex Allbery fan clubs too.
I saw Rylan Murry after the game. He looked sad. I wanted to yell “Skinny Love” again, but I had Pandora on Skinny Love at work all day on Thursday and I think I almost cried at the music selection.
Did I hear Jon Green say this right on the radio: If UNO Volleyball wins the regular season title, they get to host the Summit League tournament the following year? Oh my. I wish this worked to a degree in basketball. But like, since we beat Marquette last season, they have to come to Omaha to play the following year. Or if Wisconsin lost to Western Illinois last night, they will have to travel to the fine town of Macomb in 2016. Why cant that be a thing?
IUPUI beat Indiana State. Oral Roberts beat Missouri State. North Dakota State beat UC Davis. How tough is the Summit this year?
If the Mavericks are ever on ESPN or ESPN2, or whenever they make the NCAA tournament; I badly want to see Derrin Hansen slowly and dramatically take off his glasses like he is in the cheesiest TNT drama that has ever been produced.
Sometimes I find preseason predictions pointless, other than starting a conversation about the upcoming season or letting people know what could potentially be the biggest games of the year, there is not really much of a point to it.
I mainly find them useless because of the methodology in ranking teams. Many seem to just copy and past the standings of last year, and then make a small edit if a team had a high amount of turnover from last season’s roster. But I came up with a plan to do this for the Summit League. I was reading some preseason predictions for the Big 10 football season which was done by a bunch of ESPN writers. Some made good points but they all had to come up with a record for each team, and the math did not always make sense. One clown had Ohio State going 12-0 with a 8-0 Big Ten record and Michigan State going 11-1, and also with a 8-0 Big Ten record. Seriously, how drunk and lazy and/or bad at math was that guy? Or some guys would have two teams going 8-0 in conference, a couple going 0-8, and everyone else going 5-3. The math didn’t add up and they were telling you that these teams would win these amount of games because they are Skeletor and they said so.
So I came up with a plan. I would go through the Summit League conference schedule and assign wins and losses over the course of a number of weeks. At first it was just: South Dakota State is a better team than Denver, so win goes to the Jackrabbits. Then later, I would look at the difficulty of each team’s conference schedule. Obviously, everyone plays each other twice, but there are some things that stick out; like how Denver is the only team with the highway to the danger zone in playing at North Dakota State and South Dakota State in back to back games. Or how South Dakota and Oral Roberts are the only two Summit League teams without three straight games on the road in conference play. Then things like Omaha playing on the road against someone on a Thursday, as road games on Thursdays appear to be difficult for most teams. Actually road games are pretty difficult for anyone. Then I would go through the schedule again and consider some teams’ strengths versus their opponents weaknesses. Like how teams better be good at three point shooting against South Dakota as they forced teams to take the most threes with their defense…and other things.
But I assigned wins and losses to each game, and did it several times considering different factors. Then I plain and simple would add up each team’s wins and losses to see who had the most after going through it about 15 times. Is it perfect? No. Is it better than just saying South Dakota State will go 15-1 in conference because of Jesus? Probably.
Really, after going through all of this; I really do not see much separation between many of the teams. South Dakota State seems like a clear cut favorite. Then North Dakota State seems like they are 2nd best, but they really should not be as comfortable as one would think. Then Oral Roberts-Omaha-IPFW-IUPUI-South Dakota appear to be in a fight for spots 3 to 7 with Denver and Western Illinois sitting at 8 and 9; but Denver is a difficult place to play; and Western Illinois, while not great last year, they do return basically everything.
So much of the 3 to 9 in the Summit League appears to come down to:
Who can stay healthy?
Who can win on the road?
Who can pick up a win against South Dakota State and North Dakota State?
But for the sake of length, I am going to just post about Omaha to get started and why they should win more games than their 5-11 record last season. Then I will come out with the rest of the Summit League later.
Omaha
Range of wins: 7 to 11 wins
Boldest Predictions: Will pick up win against North Dakota State at home, will sweep South Dakota
Clearly, I am biased in how well I think the Mavs could do this season. The Mavericks finished 5-11, but they had 4 conference losses decided by one or two possessions. I know it does not work this way, but the Mavericks could have finished 8-8 or 9-7 in the Summit League had just a couple more things gone their way. There is also more to play for with the Mavericks this season, and they should have a slightly stronger home court advantage with their new arena being right on campus. The attendance for the Mavericks has risen each season since transition, and people in town are starting to take them more serious. 2012-2013 was probably the most fun season to watch, but Omahans did not seem to even notice. UNO Men’s Basketball was that new television show that had some good looking commercials that got you interested; but it was pitted in the same time slot as Breaking Bad in it’s prime and Sunday Night Football. Justin Simmons had some of the most exciting dunks you could possibly witness; but Doug McDermott was in the middle of one of the greatest careers in Creighton and NCAA history; and Tim Miles was bringing a personality to the Huskers. Omahans were in the mode of thinking they’d like to go to a Mavs game, but never fully pulled the trigger. A few years later: Creighton is down and Nebraska is too young for locals to know what is happening. UNO has a brand new arena, in a fun part of town, some local guys on the roster that can make some noise, and six seniors to help start the new era of the program.
The Mavericks also have a pretty good way to start conference play with Western Illinois and IUPUI at home. 2013-2014 started @ Western Illinois, @ North Dakota State, @ South Dakota State; and 2012-2013 was @ North Dakota State, @ South Dakota State, and then a month conference break before they had South Dakota and Kansas City at home before going back on the road against very good IPFW and Oakland teams. Last year the Mavs started on the road @ South Dakota and Western Illinois, and then came back home for North Dakota State and South Dakota State, before going back on the road against Oral Roberts. The Mavs are finally not being welcomed to the Summit League with the middle finger jammed in front of their face, so hopefully they can start league play with some momentum. The most difficult part of the conference schedule is going to be three straight road games at Denver, and the Mavericks yet to have a good game in the state of Colorado; then at Oral Roberts which is one of the toughest places to play in the Summit League; and then at South Dakota State who is the preseason favorite in the league and swept the Mavs last season by margins of 19 and 22 points.
As far as what is returning to the Mavericks: they lost Mike Rostampour and CJ Carter, but they are returning 61% of their scoring; which is the 4th highest in the league. Marcus Tyus and Devin Patterson as a returning back court is arguably one of the top 3 back courts in the league. Jake White is hopefully healthy enough to give significant minutes when the conference season turns around, he is tied with his fellow teammate Tre’Shawn Thurman as the 2nd leading returning rebounder in the league. Randy Reed and Tim Smallwood should hopefully finally have roles edged out to really help this team improve. Lack of depth was an issue for this team last season, but newcomers Zach Pirog, JT Gibson, and Tra-Deon Hollins sound as if they can really help the Mavericks improve on some of the weaknesses the Mavs had in 2014-2015, and add some needed depth to this team. This team can go big, it can go small, it has adaptable lineups that can go up against anyone in the Summit.
From what I could tell, the preseason predictions biggest concerns with the Mavericks are that they cannot make up for the loss of Mike Rostampour and CJ Carter. Okay, everyone loses someone in college athletics, but should we really be concerned about losing two guys that were not recruited to ever play in a Summit League conference tournament? So really, why are people so hard on them for losing Rostampour and Carter, but no one is hard on IPFW for losing Steve Forbes and Joe Edwards; or South Dakota for losing Tyler Larson and Brandon Bos; or Oral Roberts for losing half of their team? Please don’t take this as a Rostampour and Carter Were Not Unimportant thought… The Mavs would not be the same without them. The point is, it does not seem like the Mavericks are asking as much out of their newcomers and returning players as much as other teams. They are asking Jake White to be healthy enough to score 2-4 more points and grab a couple more rebounds, which I realize is easier said than done; Tre’Shawn Thurman to continue to improve; Tyus and Patterson to be more consistent; and Reed and Smallwood work more on their roles that they established toward the end of last season. Other than North Dakota State and South Dakota State, everyone else appears to be asking guys to come in and be stars or huge impacts right away. One thing that does scare me about Omaha finishing in the top half of the conference is the injury to Marcus Tyus. He’s coming off ACL surgery that he injured in February. Being ready in full form throughout November, December, and January just seems like a lot to look for at this point.
Hip hip hooray, it’s the annual: Who the Heck is Going to be in the Starting Line Up this Season post
I was listening to the Summit League media day, it sounded as if Derrin Hansen was not 125% sure of who to start on his team, and it is kind of fun to sit around and speculate stuff for people so here we go. If millions of people can sit at their computers dressed like a 7 foot tall puppy and speculate as to why Mark Hamill is not on the new Star Wars poster, then I can sit on the internet decked out in UNO Mavs gear and speculate who is going to start for the Mavericks and who will be the first guys off the bench.
One can safely assume that Devin Patterson and Tre’Shawn Thurman will be back in the starting line up. One could also assume that Marcus Tyus will be in the starting five as well, but he ended the season early on a knee injury in 2014-2015. It has been put out there that Tyus is doing fine in his recovery, and I am sure he is, but remember when Jake White got hurt in his junior season and we kept being told that he would be back next game because he was doing fine? I am sure that Tyus will be in the starting line up, but maybe not at first. We will see how his knees is actually doing in a few weeks.
So that leaves two spots open for starters to replace Mike Rostampour and CJ Carter.
Is it safe to assume that Jake White will fill in Rostampour’s spot? White started in 3 games in his junior season as a Maverick. He averaged 6.3 points per game in those three starts, and 8.3 rebounds. He is probably the obvious choice over sophomore Daniel Meyer and freshman Zach Pirog.
What becomes a more difficult choice for Hansen and staff will be filling in the void left by CJ Carter, one of the top scorers in school history. The leading candidates at this point appear to be Tim Smallwood, Tra-Deon Hollins, Randy Reed, or JT Gibson.
I was kind of hard on Smallwood and Reed last season. It’s not that I thought they were bad players, I just felt that UNO was not entirely sure how to use them for most of the season and did not have well defined roles for either of them for a majority of the year. I was unsure about them as most of you would be if there was a new movie coming out featuring Adam Sandler and Nicholas Cage. Over a ten game stretch, Smallwood had 3 DNPs, and was 0-10 from three point land. I felt that Reed’s junior year was up and down. One game he was getting 20 minutes, then the next game he was getting 2 minutes, and then a week from then he was getting a DNP. It just seemed like it was difficult for either of them to get any rhythm going. I would love a world where Smallwood is hitting three 3s a game and Reed is getting a monstrous dunk every other play. That world might actually have Luke Skywalker on a Star Wars poster.
Then Marcus Tyus went down with an injury and missed the last 6 games of the season, and these two guys became the twist at the end of an independent film. Smallwood was put into the starting line up, and I thought to my self: oh great, the guy who hasn’t had it in 2015 is getting the starting spot. When Smallwood started getting more minutes, I realized how good of a defender he was. He was not racking up a bunch of steals or blocks, but he was disrupting opposing players shots and passes, and he was a big reason why the Mavericks ended the season on a 3 game winning streak. I grew super proud of his work on the defensive end in those last 6 games. His 5-of-7 from downtown at IUPUI was a big factor for what helped the Mavericks hold on for a overtime win. A statistic that surprised me when I saw the final results was that UNO finished 8th in the Summit League in 3 point field goal percentage last season. Whether Smallwood is going to start or be one of the first guys off the bench, he has to help improve the team’s 3 point shooting. If he can get his 26% 3 point shooting up to the 33% range, he can be a huge impact on his team. The Mavs are 3-1 when Smallwood hits two threes or more…
Going into 2015, Smallwood has scored in 7 straight appearances. How does Paul Miller tie his shoes? Photo by Mark Kuhlmann
Due to life, my wife was not able to get to many games last season. She was able to attend Oral Roberts at the Ralston Arena. When Randy Reed came onto the court, my wife asked me who this guy was. I read off his resume to her, and we watched on. Reed was the high energy guy off the bench that the Mavericks needed that game. He had clutch defensive plays to keep the game close, blocked some shots, altered even more shots, and really disrupted the Oral Roberts’ rhythm. Every time the Mavs were on defense and Randy Reed was on the court, the Mavs fans were completely locked in. We all wanted to see Reed take his game to the next level that night. Like, who cares if they have Obi Emegano? We’ve got Randy Reed on defense! You have to like Reed coming off the bench though, since he can really guard the 4 and the 3. With the much of the Summit League going to small ball, teams will really have a difficult time going up against Tre’Shawn Thurman and Randy Reed at the 4 for 40 minutes if they really want to play small ball against the Mavericks. If they want to play big, the Mavs can go with Reed at the 3 and either Meyer, Pirog, Thurman, or White at the 4 and 5.
Reed can be one of the most excited Mavs to watch. Photo by Mark Kuhlmann
Then there is Tra-Deon Hollins. Get excited for this kid. He adds a lot to this team, and he brings a lot to the areas that the Mavericks were missing last season. He can defend, he can pass, he can score, he can rebound, and he can hit threes. I would not be shocked if he got into foul trouble (along with other guards) early on in the season with the rule changes in college basketball, but hopefully everyone can adjust to everything fairly quickly. If Hollins does not start and he is used as the high energy bench guy, he should definitely be on the court in crunch time in most situations. It seems to take junior college players a little while to really define their role on a team, unless they are going to a 0-30 team that had no scoring before and they averaged 25 a game in junior college, then they probably know they will be taking a large quantity of shots. Hollins knows what the Mavericks were missing last year though, so hopefully it does not take him long to find his niche.
The Mavericks and some local media sound to be pretty excited about J.T. Gibson as part of future for the Mavs. Gibson was the player of the year for the state of Minnesota last year, and there are several Minnesotans that think bigger schools made a mistake by not recruiting Gibson. Sounds like this other guy named Tre’Shawn that we know. I have doubt that Gibson will start right off the bat for the Mavericks, but maybe he will as the season goes on and he establishes himself. He would really have to impress coaches and set himself apart from teammates as there are so many upperclassmen guards on the team. Apparently, Gibson is completely capable of playing the both guard positions.
Either way, the Mavericks should at least know who their top 8 guys are at this point. They probably even have a good idea what their best line ups are, which is not something every team in the Summit League has figured out yet.
The Summit League preseason team came out last week, and it was pretty fair. It is actually really difficult to come up with a 1st and 2nd Team list of picks, especially in a guard heavy league and you are a fan that wants to see the first team be a traditional line up with 2 post players, a wing player, and 2 guards.
I was listening to the recordings from the Summit League Media Day yesterday and was happy that Scott Nagy basically called preseason teams pointless. Last year no one predicted that his players Deondre Parks and George Marshall would be all league picks, and it is basically because no one knows how the newcomers are going to do at this point. Or if someone like Tyler Larson is going to see a huge improvement in play.
IUPUI’s transfers Nick Osborne and Darell Combs could be better than AJ Jacobson and Garett Covington for all we know. Or IPFWs redshirt freshman John Konchar could be a better player than Jake Bittle. We have to wait and find out. Preseason picks are basically made to make us even more excited for the college basketball season.
So I wanted to do something (that I thought) that would be fun and create a Summit League Super Team… This was nothing more than merely fun and to verify my lunacy…maybe to show how much time I have on my hands with my wife busy studying and working toward her PhD.
Imagine there is a tournament with the best players from each conference each year at the end of every season. There can be a power conference tournament and a mid-major tournament if you are really scared about this, but it is make believe, so get over it. So, each conference has to put together a 12 man roster of their best players from the conference, and you can have three players that can be reserves in case any of the 12 get injured. They can be in any year of eligibility, but they must have been eligible in the 2015-2016 season in this case. One wrinkle in the roster is that you have to have at least one player from each team on the 15 man roster.
So let’s pick someone from each team.
Denver – Nate Engesser – 6’3″ Sr
2nd best field goal percentage (51.4%), free throw percentage (82.9%) of any player returning to the Summit
4th highest amount of 3 point field goal percentage (42.9%) of any player returning
IPFW – Mo Evans – 6’0″ Jr
Ranks 3rd in Assists Per Game (3.3) of returning players
IUPUI – Marcellus Barksdale – 6’5″ Sr
Tied for 2nd highest steals per game average (1.7) of any player returning to the Summit League
Played 4 different positions for the Jaguars in 2014-2015
Ranks 4th in free throws attempted per game for any returning player
NDSU – AJ Jacobson – 6’6″ So
4th highest free throw percentage (82%) for any player returning
18 games of scoring in double figures
Omaha – Devin Patterson – 5’11” Sr
One magazine voted him as preseason defensive player of the year
Summit League leader in steals per game for last 2 years
2nd highest Assists Per Game (3.9) of any returning player
Ranks 3rd in free throws attempted per game for any returning player
ORU – Obi Emegano – 6’3″ Sr
Voted Preseason Player of the Year
Most points per game (18.3) of any returning player to the Summit League
Tied for 2nd highest steals per game average (1.7) of any player returning to the Summit League
Scored in double figures in 28 games in 2014-2015
USD – Tre Burnette – 6’5″ Sr
Leading rebounder (5.9/game) for returning Summit League players
Had 4 double doubles in 2014-2015
Averaged 12.3 points per game in the month of February
SDSU – Deondre Parks – 6’1″ Sr
3rd highest points per game average (14.1) for any returning Summit League player
2nd most 3 point field goals made (69) of any returning player to the Summit League
Scored in double figures in 27 games in 2014-2015
WIU – Garret Govington – 6’5″ Jr
2nd highest points per game average (15.5) for any returning player
4th highest amount of three point field goals made (63) for any returning player to the Summit League
3rd highest free throw percentage (82.8%) for any returning player
2nd most free throws attempted per game for any returning player
Okay…okay…the first thing I think when I look at this finished roster is that the team is small. We are going to need some height on this roster to compete against the other conferences. We cannot reasonably take this team to a tournament like this with Barksdale, Burnette, and Jacobson as our post game. How about we throw in candidates to fill out the roster.
Denver – Marcus Byrd
IPFW – Joe Reed, DeAngelo Stewart
IUPUI – Mason Archie, Darell Combs, Nick Osborne
NDSU – Kory Brown, Carlin Dupree, Chris Kading, Dexter Werner
Omaha – Tre’Shawn Thurman, Marcus Tyus, Jake White
USD – Casey Kasperbauer, Trey Norris
SDSU – Jake Bittle, George Marshall, Reed Tellinghuisen
WIU – JC Fuller, Jabari Sandifer
So we have to pick six out of these twenty guys, which is not easy. How about we address the post player void first and pick three post players from the list. Am I too bias to throw in Jake White and Tre’Shawn Thurman right off the bat? Are Byrd or Kading better players than either of them? The jury is out on Byrd since he plays in such a slow paced offense. Kading apparently had 3 surgeries since the basketball season ended. Osborne has yet to play a game in the Summit, and we are just going off of the He Played Alright in a Slightly Bigger Conference So He Has to be Pretty Good With a Year Off and Now Into a Smaller Conference card.
I like Reed though, he’s going to go from being the ‘Dons 5th option to being their 2nd or 3rd option. He can step back and hit the three, even though he is not going to do it a lot. He also played very well when Steve Forbes was hurt for a few games. Okay, we are adding Reed and Thurman for sure. So White or Kading…I know Kading did not score a bunch of points in 2014-2015, but he did not need to. He led the Summit League in blocks per game season, and this team needs rim protection. With Thurman and Burnette on the team, the team will have to the two leading returning rebounders in the Summit League, so we are somewhat covered there. I think I got to take Kading on this one. But crap, what about Dexter Werner? He was probably actually the most important member of the Bison last season not named Alexander or Jacobson. You look at Werner and you think he is just going to get rebounds and put backs, but that is not true. He gets the ball at the top of the lane and drives it to the basket when he wants. He also has some pretty spectacular spin moves that put a number of Summit League guards to shame. I know he is undersized, but I think we have to go Werner, especially considering the injuries to Kading and White.
So we have Werner, Thurman, and Reed on the roster. We are up to twelve.
G Marcellus Barksdale – 6’5″ Sr
G Tre Burnette – 6’5″ Sr
G Garrett Covington – 6’5″ Jr
G Obi Emegano – 6’3″ Sr
G Nate Engesser – 6’3″ Sr
G Mo Evans – 6’0″ Jr
F AJ Jacobson – 6’6″ So
G Devin Patterson – 5’11” Sr
G Deondre Parks – 6’1″ Sr
F Joe Reed – 6’8″ Sr
F Tre’Shawn Thurman – 6’7″ So
F Dexter Werner – 6’6″ Jr
This team has two very good point guards in Devin Patterson and Mo Evans, but they both can be a little fast. We might need a guy to say “SLOW DOWN!!!” The guy for that is Jake Bittle. It is not like Bittle is slow, but if you ever watch a Jackrabbits game, Bittle is the man to run the half court offense. He holds the ball at the top of the key and then Parks and Marshall work to get open. He is the quarterback and they are the wide receivers.
I feel like we are one post player away. I know I had Kading and White as the leading candidates before, but I want to go with IUPUI’s Nick Osborne on this one. He is a transfer, sure, but there are high expectations around him for the Jags. Maybe not as much as Cody Larson had when he transferred to South Dakota State from Florida, but there are high expectations for him. I am not sure if he is going to be a great player in the Summit League, or better than White or Kading, but damn it I want to take the gamble here.
So this team has some rebounding and rim protection, ball handling and passing, three point shooting, and perimeter defense. I think we might have to go with George Marshall here. He is probably not the most important player on his team, but he is highly needed on what should be the best team in the Summit League in 2015-2016.
I don’t know how this team would do in a tournament like this, because I already wasted enough time make this, so it is not like I’m going to go waste even more by making an Super WAC Team. It is probably not even the top 15 guys in the conference, but it would be an extremely competitive team.
Here is a change of pace and the All Summit Get Ready for Terrible Puns and Poor Jokes Team
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.
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.
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.
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