Can the Mavericks improve on 5 Summit League wins?

October 28, 2015November 11, 2015 acroth86 College Basketball, The Summit League Brandon Bos, CJ Carter, Creighton Bluejays, Denver Pioneers, Derrin Hansen, Devin Patterson, Doug McDermott, IPFW Mastodons, IUPUI Jaguars, Jake White, Joe Edwards, JT Gibson, Marcus Tyus, Mike Rostampour, Nebraska Cornhuskers, North Dakota State jackrabbits, Omaha Mavericks, Oral Roberts Golden Eagles, Randy Reed, South Dakota Coyotes, South Dakota State Jackrabbits, Steve Forbes, The Summit League, Tim Miles, Tim Smallwood, TraDeon Hollins, TreShaun Thurman, Tyler Larson, UMKC Kangaroos, UNO Mavericks, Western Illinois Leathernecks, Zach Pirog

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.

I had some time, so I came up with a Summit League Super Team

October 22, 2015 acroth86 College Basketball Chris Kading, Dan Jech, Denver Pioneers, Deondre Parks, Devin Patterson, Dexter Werner, Dylan Miller, Garret Covington, George Marshall, IPFW Mastodons, IUPUI Jaguars, Jake Bittle, Jake White, Joe Reed, Marcellus Barksdale, Mo Evans, Nate Engesser, Nick Osborne, North Dakota State Bison, Omaha Mavericks, Oral Roberts Golden Eagles, Paul Miller, South Dakota Coyotes, South Dakota State Jackrabbits, The Summit League, Thomas Neff, Tre Burnette, Tre'Shawn Thurman, Trey Miller, Tyler Flack, UNO Mavericks, Western Illinois Leathernecks

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

Thomas Neff – Denver

ex: Thomas has had Eneff

Paul, Dylan, and Trey Miller – North Dakota State

ex: It’s Miller Time.

Expect this to get incredibly annoying.

Dan Jech – South Dakota

ex: Dan with the ReJechtion!

Tyler Flack – South Dakota

ex: Tyler takes no Flack!

Deondre Parks – South Dakota State

ex: Deondre Parks himself on the bench.

Who has the best core of post players in the Summit League?

October 15, 2015 acroth86 College Basketball Adam Dykman, AJ Jacobson, AJ Owens, Andrew Poulter, Bobby Word, Brandon Conley, Brent Calhoun, Chris Kading, College Sports Madness, Connor Devine, Craig Smith, Dan Jech, Daniel Meyer, Darian Harris, Denver Pioneers, Dexter Werner, Eric Robertson, Evan Hall, Ian Theisen, IPFW Mastadons, IUPUI Jaguars, Jake White, Jalen Chapman, Joe Reed, Kory Billbury, Lawrence Alexander, Michael Daum, Mike Miklusak, Mike Rostampour, Nick OLeary, Nick Osborne, Noah Thomas, North Dakota State Bison, Obi Emegano, Omaha Mavericks, Oral Roberts Golden Eagles, Racine Talla, Reed Tellinghuisen, Rylan Murry, Scott Nagy, South Dakota Coyotes, South Dakota State Jackrabbits, Spencer Eliason, Steve Forbes, Tate Stensgaard, The Summit League, Tre Burnette, Tre Vance, Tre'Shawn Thurman, Tyler Flack, Tyler Hagedorn, Tyler Larson, UNO Mavericks, Western Illinois Leathernecks, Zach Pirog

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.

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.

Who has the best Big 3 in the Summit League?

September 24, 2015September 24, 2015 acroth86 College Basketball #TheMoreUNO, Aaron Brennan, AJ Jacobson, Andrew Poulter, Brandon Bos, Brandon Conley, Bryant Rucker, Carlin Dupree, Casey Kasperbauer, Chris Kading, Cody Larson, Connor Devine, Daniel Amigo, Daniel Meyer, Darrell Combs, Dave Richman, DeAngelo Stewart, Denver Pioneers, Deondre Parks, Devin Patterson, Dexter Werner, DJ McCall, Eric Robertson, Garret Covington, George Marshall, Ian The, IPFW Mastadons, IUPUI Jaguars, Jabari Sandifer, Jake Bittle, Jake Pemberton, Jake White, Jamie Batish, JC Fuller, Joe Reed, Keaton Moffitt, Kory Brown, Lawrence Alexander, Marcellus Barksdale, Marcus Byrd, Marcus Tyus, Matt O'Leary, Max Landis, Mike Miklusak, Mo Evans, Nate Engesser, Nick Osborne, North Dakota State Bison, Obi Emegano, Omaha Mavericks, Oral Roberts Golden Eagles, Paul Miller, Randy Reed, Reed Tellinghuisen, Rylan Murry, Scott Sutton, Skyler Flatten, South Dakota Coyotes, South Dakota State Jackrabbits, Tate Stensgaard, The Summit League, TraDeon Hollins, Tre Burnette, TreShaun Thurman, Trey Morris, Tyler Flack, Tyler Larson, UNO Mavericks, Western Illinois Leathernecks

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. — 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.

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 basketball wild cards of the Summit League

September 17, 2015 acroth86 College Basketball Adam Dykman, AJ Jacobson, Albert Owens, Alex Phillips, Bobby Word, Bryant Rucker, Caleb Steffensmeier, Carlin Dupree, CJ Carter, Connor Devine, Craig Smith, Daniel Amigo, Daniel Meyer, Denver Pioneers, Derrin Hansen, Devin Patterson, Garrett Covington, Ian Theisen, IPFW Mastadons, IUPUI Jaguars, Jake White, Jalen Bradley, John Kochnar, Jordan Pickett, Justin Simmons, Keaton Moffitt, Korey Billburry, Kory Brown, Malik Clements, Marcellus Barksdale, Marcus Byrd, Marcus Tyus, Michael Daum, Mike Rostampour, Nate Engesser, Nick Osborne, North Dakota State Bison, Omaha Mavericks, Oral Roberts Golden Eagles, Paul Miller, Rachine Talla, South Dakota Coyotes, South Dakota State Jackrabbits, The Summit League, Trey Norris, Tyler Flack, UNO Mavericks, Western Illinois Leathernecks

With players coming and going, roles need to be filled on teams, and some players just respond quicker than others. North Dakota State’s AJ Jacobson clearly had a big year as a redshirt freshman, which was a huge help to the Bison as they lost three key seniors from their 2014 championship team. IUPUI’s Marcellus Barksdale went from averaging 0.3 points per game as a freshman in 2012-13 to averaging 8.6 points per game in his sophomore season, and now is considered an All Conference candidate by many. South Dakota State’s Keaton Moffitt transferred from a division 2 program to be a top guy off the bench for the Jackrabbits. Omaha’s Mike Rostampour made an immediate impact with Omaha in his junior season after transferring from division 2.

With the Bison and Jackrabbits as the two favorites to repeat as the two top teams in the Summit League, the league seems to look like it will be in a pretty tight battle for who is 3rd to 8th (or 9th) in the conference standings at the end of the year. So who are some of the potential wild cards in the Summit League that can set their team apart in 2015-2016?

Denver

EVERYONE ON THE ROSTER NOT NAMED MARCUS BYRD, NATE ENGESSER, OR BRYANT RUCKER

Here is a statistic that may jump out at you. Denver returns the second fewest amount of division one starts on their roster in the Summit League, behind IPFW. They are a young team, though so was North Dakota State last season, with 6 freshman and 4 sophomores on the roster, so I am incredibly curious who can make up for the losses of Cam Griffin, Brett Olson, and Jalen Love.

The team virtually has no post game, but it is not really something that is incredibly needed in the Princeton offense. Barry Collier ran the Princeton offense really well without a competent big man at Nebraska. That was a really bad joke. Could sophomore Daniel Amigo make a big jump if he is healthy? He started in all 15 of the games he played in during his freshman year averaging 5.7 points per game, and had three double digit scoring performance, but they were all in blow outs.

IPFW

JOHN KONCHAR – 6’4″, rFR

Could Konchar be a big time player as a freshman. He redshirted in his first season with the ‘Dons, I assume because of the 4 upperclassmen guards that were on the roster last season. Konchar averaged 29 points, 14 rebounds, 4 assists, 3 steals, and 2.5 blocks per game in his senior season in high school in Chicago. Holy crap! He did see action in IPFW’s preseason game last season, but he only had 3 points in 15 minutes, but hey it was a preseason game.

RACHINE TALLA – 6’9″, SO

Talla is seriously the biggest question mark for IPFW. He redshirted at USC Upstate his freshman season, and then only played in 2 games in junior college because Mississippi is the worst place on earth. So how much of an impact can a guy be who has basically not played a competitive game of basketball in 3 years.

IUPUI

JORDAN PICKETT – 6’0″, SO

Pickett transferred to IUPUI after only playing in five games at Loyola before suffering a season ending injury in 2013-2014. The Jaguars do not have much of a back court, they have a lot of 6’5″ guards, but can the bigger players deal with all of the smaller shooting guards the Summit League has to offer. Pickett is likely to have a big role for the Jaguars in 2015-2016. In the Jaguars’ red-white scrimmage last season, which was basically IUPUI vs their players who were forced to redshirt due to transferring, Pickett was able to score 11 points against…the Jaguars.

NICK OSBORNE- 6’8″, JR

One of three transfers from Loyola on the roster. Osborne is expected to make an immediate impact with the Jaguars, as they have not had much talent in the post in a few years. Osborne averaged 5.4 ppg and 4 rpg, and shot 50% from the field in his sophomore season at Loyola. He did average 3 fouls per game, so curious to see how much time he will spend on the bench due to foul trouble in the Summit League.

How much of a difference can Nick Osborne make with the Jaguars.

NORTH DAKOTA STATE

They lost Taylor Braun, Marshall Bjorklund, and TrayVonn Wright a year ago, and they ended up repeating as Summit League Champions with a 1st year coach. I think they will be fine…

One could ask; who is going to be make up for the 19 points per game that they lost in Lawrence Alexander? Can Kory Brown, Carlin Dupree, Paul Miller, and junior college transfer sophomore Malik Clements make up that 19 points a game in the back court? Yes, they probably can.

OMAHA

JAKE WHITE- 6’8″, SR

Can Jake White be the best post player in the Summit League? Can he?

Last year we were teased with White. With 10 rebounds in his first half as a Maverick, we were thinking our front court would be unstoppable with him and Mike Rostampour. Then a few minutes into the second half, White hurt his knee, and then for almost a month we kept being told: not this game, but next game probably… If you look around the post players at the Summit League, White is capable of being the best post player in the League, but he has to stay healthy. When White transferred, Derrin Hansen stated that White would be the best post player in the Summit.

DANIEL MEYER – 6’9″, SO

Meyer only played 4.5 minutes per game in his freshman season with the Mavericks, but with Mike Rostampour and Rylan Murry (i cried a tear) no longer on the roster, Meyer should expect more playing time in his sophomore season, I mean, right? It sounded as if he did really well in Italy, but it did not sound like the teams the Mavs played against had many players taller than 6’5″…but I did not look at official rosters, just shady looking websites that did not look fully updated. When Meyer did play last season, I was never terrified that he was going to ruin everything. He seemed to move pretty well without the ball, set good screens, and had a nice touch. He even looked like he could be as good as a passer out of the post as John Karhoff, but we will have to wait and see.

ORAL ROBERTS

ALBERT OWENS- 6’9″ SO

With the graduation of Denell Henderson, Owens will competing for the starting center position with junior college transfer Tre Vance. Owens did average 3.8 ppg and 2.4 rpg, but he never really received any significant playing time in any of the Golden Eagles’ big games. Yet, if you look around at some of the conference predictions, Owens is expected to be a big key factor to ORU’s success. You know, assuming they have some success this season.

Owens had great size listed at 6'9" and 260lbs. — Owens has great size listed at 6’9″ and 260lbs.

JALEN BRADLEY- 6’0″ JR

Bradley is familiar with the Summit League, as he originally played for the Mavericks, but he only played in a total of 26 minutes against the Summit League due to injuries in 2013-2014. Bradley went on to junior college for his sophomore season, where he averaged 17 points per game. Everyone knew Bradley could shoot at Omaha, I remember watching him shoot from half court in warm ups and making it regularly, but we did question if he could defend or play the point guard position. While he was at Omaha, they were deep with guards with: CJ Carter, Marcus Tyus, Alex Phillips, Caleb Steffensmeier, Devin Patterson, and Justin Simmons. The Mavericks could have used him in his sophomore season as that energy guy off the bench, and that would likely still be his role, but ORU fans are expecting him (and 6’3″ Div 2/Fresno State transfer Aaron Anderson) to fill a void left in Korey Billbury and Bobby Word. That is a lot to ask.

SOUTH DAKOTA

TREY NORRIS – 6’0″ SR

Norris started in all 28 games he played in for the Coyotes in his sophomore season, but then was sent to the bench in his junior season as Craig Smith took over at South Dakota. Can he be counted on to be the starter again and help lead the Coyotes to another winning record?

TYLER FLACK – 6’7″ JR

Sat out 2014-2015 with an injury. He started 19 out of 29 games his freshman season and 27 out of 30 games in his sophomore season. As a sophomore, he averaged 8.5 ppg and 4.7 rpg, he also shot 55% from the floor. Is he going to be the same after a serious injury, and will Smith have big plans for Flack?

Here is a glaring stat for South Dakota. I was looking at the South Dakota State fan forum, wishing I had it in me to do some trolling, and the Jackrabbits are pretty stoked that they return so much of their scoring. The Jackrabbits return 74% of their scoring, which is second in the conference behind Western Illinois who returns 89% of their scoring, but that is Western Illinois… Anyway, South Dakota lost the most scoring in the Summit losing 54% of their scoring. So they are going to need Flack and Norris to return to 2013-2014 form.

SOUTH DAKOTA STATE

CONNOR DEVINE/IAN THEISEN

Did I mention that South Dakota State is returning 74% of their scoring? I think I just did that. Most of that is the loss of Cody Larson. The Jackrabbits arguably have the best guard trio in the Summit League with George Marshall, Deondre Parks, and Jake Bittle, but they are left with little in the post after the loss of Larson, and they are young in the post. Devine and Theisen shared the time behind Cody Larson in the post last season, can they and freshman Nebraska natives Michael Daum and Adam Dykman make up for that loss in Larson?

WESTERN ILLINOIS

When you only when 8 games, you lose 13 of your last 14 games, one of your wins is a 2 point win at home against Devin Patterson-less Omaha team, and 15 of your 20 losses are by 10 points or more, there is not much confidence riding in your team going into the next season. So basically everyone on your roster not named Garrett Covington is a wild card.

The Leathernecks did have some injury issues in 2014-2015, and they have the 2nd most returning division one starts on their roster in the Summit League behind North Dakota State, and as previously mentioned, they do return 89% of their scoring.

Summit League Men’s Soccer Blind Resume Game

August 12, 2015 acroth86 College Men's Soccer, College Sports Denver Pioneers, IUPUI Jaguars, Omaha Mavericks, Oral Roberts Golden Eagles, Portland Timbers, Summit League Soccer, The Summit League, UNO Mavericks, Washington Huskies, Washington State Cougars, Western Illinois Leathernecks

So even though the men’s basketball team is heading to Italy, we are still still a few months away from the regular season; but hey UNO has other sports to keep me from debating a chemically induced coma to ride out the wait until mid-November.

My wife and I recently took a much needed 10 day vacation, half of it was in Portland and the other half was in Vegas. While we were in Portland, our friends were talking a lot of Portland Timbers talk and I just stood there and did the smile and nod to pretend to know that I knew what they were talking about. A majority of our friends in the Northwest are Washington State alumni and fans, so they absolutely hate the University of Washington and I have jumped in that circle of hate (for the conformity). Since the Cougars do not have a men’s soccer team, I have allowed them to join in on the Mavericks soccer bandwagon. They were actually pretty satisfied to join the Mavericks bandwagon since UNO plays an exhibition against their bitter rival Washington Huskies. We have a few more fans!

I know very little about soccer. I sit there and watch it, and I am generally pretty entertained, but I am a lot like a woman trying to watch Avengers: Age of Ultron as her first movie in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Offense? I do not understand how to formulate an offense in soccer. Whenever I have played open soccer, my strategy is to just kick it the ball in that one direction that gets less people getting mad at me.

So instead of being that guy that opens the hood of his car and pretends to know what he is doing until breaking his pride realizing that his man card is about to expire, I am just going to throw out some blind resumes and hope for the best here.

In the 2014 season: Denver, Omaha, Oral Roberts, and Western Illinois all tied for the regular season championship. Denver won the conference championship, but how about we take a look to see if anyone can overthrow them as Summit League champions by looking at the blind resumes of those four teams based on some 2014 statistics. Aside from these four teams, IUPUI looks like they can actually be pretty good this season. I based that on very little.

If you were a die hard fan, you probably already know who all of these teams are, so yeah, I am dumb.

Team 1-

RPI: 91

Overall Record: 11-8-1

In 2014, they had 6 All Conference players, one of which was on the 1st Team. Of those six players, they are losing 2 of those players. If you are keeping track, they are returning four 2nd Team players.

Best RPI win was against # 55, and they also had a win against # 57.

Worst RPI loss was against # 146, also lost to # 142.

Goals on the year: 32 (1.6/game)

Opponents Goals: 25 (1.25/game)

Steaks: 3 separate two game winning streaks

Team 2-

RPI: 99

Overall Record: 10-5-2

In 2014, they had 5 All Conference players, three of which were on the 1st Team. Of those five player, they are losing three of those players. They will be returning one 1st Team player and one 2nd Team player.

Best RPI win was against # 91, also had a tie with # 55.

Worst RPI loss was to # 166.

Goals on the year: 25 (1.47/game)

Opponents Goals: 18 (1.05/game)

Steaks: 3 separate three game winning steaks

Team 3-

RPI: 117

Overall Record: 9-7-3

In 2014, they had 5 All Conference players, four of which were on the 1st team. Three of those players have graduated. They will be returning one 1st Team player and one 2nd Team player.

Best RPI win against # 99

Worst RPI loss to # 189

Goals on the year: 22 (1.15/game)

Opponents Goals: 18 (0.95/game)

Streaks: 6 game winning streak (all shutouts), 2 separate two game losing streaks

Team 4-

RPI: 143

Overall Record: 8-8-2

In 2014, they had 2 All First Team Conference players, both of which have graduated.

Best RPI win was against # 76.

Worst RPI loss was to # 183

Goals on the year: 24 (1.33/game)

Opponents goals on the year: 25 (1.38/game)

Streaks: 4 games in a row without scoring a goal (3 losses, 1 tie). 3 shut out wins in a row

Based on this very little amount of information, I would have to say Team 1 is the favorite, but there is also very little information because I know very little…

What a Summit League-Missouri Valley Conference challenge could look like

May 22, 2015November 11, 2015 acroth86 College Basketball Barry Hinson, Big 10/ACC Challenge, Bradley Braves, Denver Pioneers, Derrin Hansen, Drake Bulldogs, Evansville Aces, Indiana State Sycamores, IPFW Mastadons, IUPUI Jaguars, Loyola Ramblers, Missouri State Bears, Missouri Valley Conference, North Dakota State Bison, Northern Iowa Panthers, Omaha Mavericks, Oral Roberts Golden Eagles, South Dakota Coyotes, South Dakota State Jackrabbits, Southern Illinois Salukis, The Summit League, UNO Mavericks, Western Illinois Leathernecks

My friend and I were talking and making fun of the Big 10 in how it has all these challenges, really I do not know if two challenges classifies as “all of these” but still, one sounds like enough. Anyway, we were talking, and we got on the subject that the Summit League should get a challenge going. It might not make a bunch of a sense really. Challenges are meant for the bigger conferences, I guess, but really they are meant for some nice television ratings and to ensure all of the bigger conference teams do not just schedule all the SWAC and American East teams of the world…or the Summit League teams.

Maybe for a conference like the Summit League it would not mean a world of exposure, but it could at least ensure a game on television, or atleast ESPN3, for each of the schools involved in a challenge. It seams most Summit League teams automatically throw in some WAC and/or Big Sky teams on the schedule, so really if you put together a challenge with the Summit League and the WAC or Big Sky, you really would not create much of a buzz. So my friend and I (lazily) threw out the Missouri Valley Conference as a potential challenger to the Summit League.

It does not have that high amount of prestige that the Big 10/ACC Challenge has, but what does, really? A bulk of the teams are already all in the same region, some even go after the same recruits, so maybe there would not be much national exposure to this, but regionally it could pick up a decent amount of attention. Fox Sports could get in on this, they seem to like the Missouri Valley, mainly because there is not a whole bunch else they can pick up, so they could get behind this.

So here, I put together what it could look like if these two teams were to meet up in a challenge. I based it off of the 2014-2015 standings, and took Wichita State out, just because, you know… After you see this, you will clearly see that I am in no way qualified to coordinate a conference versus conference challenge. But it actually creates for some pretty fun and interesting match ups if you get these conferences got together.

Final 2014-2015 RPI Rankings in parenthesis.

North Dakota State (94) @ Northern Iowa (11)

Admit it, you just got a little excited and you may have to go to the bathroom. Both schools have gone up against each in recruiting, in just about every single sport that both have available. If you have ever been to the Northern Iowa or the Fargo areas you will know that both like to pretend that they are in the state of Minnesota.

This could really serve as the marquee match up of this hypothetical challenge. Obviously, Northern Iowa finished with a much higher RPI ranking, and South Dakota State even finished higher than North Dakota State, so really you could flip-flop the two. North Dakota State has earned some national recognition for themselves, probably a little more than Northern Iowa sadly. Northern Iowa really seemed to sneak up on people in the middle of the 2014-2015 season, but really they are almost always a really solid team that can go right up against anyone. This game could really be the, Can North Dakota State Prove Themselves game, or the Is Northern Iowa Really That Good game, depending on which way you want to look at it. I want to put a disclaimer here, that I believe both schools are the real deal, but most people unfamiliar with both schools pretty much never give either of them any credit and attribute their winning to playing a weak schedule.

Knowing what I know about Fargonians, if you take the pride that they have in North Dakota State, which is a ton of pride, and you remind them that Northern Iowa snapped the football team’s winning streak, they might declare war on the state of Iowa until this game were to actually happen in basketball. Honestly, if this game were to happen in 2015, I am not sure North Dakota State has anyone that can handle Seth Tuttle. AJ Jacobson and Chris Kading are pretty good, but Tuttle is incredibly consistent and he is 6’8″ and 240 and can do literally everything.

Fargo fans heading to Cedar Rapids, and thinkind Cedar Rapids is the Miami of the Midwest. — Fargo fans heading to Cedar Rapids, and thinking Cedar Rapids is the Miami of the Midwest.

Illinois State (53) @ South Dakota State (84)

It just so happens that these two teams will see each other in the Cancun Challenge in November. It is no guarantee that they will play each other, but they could at least see each at the hotel or something.

Both teams won 20+ games last season, and both made it to the 2nd round of the NIT in the 2014-2015 season. The teams though are returning the opposite type of players though. Illinois State is returning more post players, while South Dakota State is returning an incredibly solid core of guards. Both teams played 35 games in 2014-2015, the Jackrabbits attempted 116 more threes on the season than Illinois State did, so that might be an indicator of the different styles of play that the two teams go with…or it might be some dumb weird coincidence that stats are lying about, I honestly did not watch any Illinois State games last year.

IPFW (215) @ Indiana State (177)

Hey, hey, hey, Indiana! Indiana is a basketball state, but these two schools have not really profited off of that notion for quite some time. These schools appear to be moving in opposite directions with Indiana State on the rise and IPFW on the fall. Okay, has IPFW ever really been on the top of the world? Probably not, but they continue to underachieve. Maybe a little match up with the Sycamores could get them to care. It is not like the Sycamores are above exceptional, but they do have more glamour than the Mastodons do. Wait for it, wait for it…IPFW graduated a good deal of their core, while the Sycamores only graduated two players that were the 4th and 6th best scorers on the team.

(I think) The last time these two teams met was in 2006 in Fort Wayne. The Sycamores won the game 67-61 in front of about 2400 people. Indiana State finished that season 13-18 and IPFW finished 12-17. It is totally cool to not fully understand why people think Indiana is a basketball state.

Evansville (82) @ Oral Roberts (156)

Okay, we are getting lucky here. An Indiana-Indiana match up and now a Private School-Private School match up. Evansville always seems to be a bit of a wild card, and Oral Roberts is showing every sign of being a wild card in 2015-2016. This game could seriously be directed by Wes Anderson. You would be entertained, but you really would not know why. It would be incredibly slow at moments, and then just oddly paced for brief stints to confuse the crap out of you. You would constantly be thinking that you know what will happen next, but you will pretend to be surprised that it actually happened the way you thought it would exactly happen. You would also pretend that you were entertained the whole time afterwards, and somehow forget that you were just survived 2 of the most boring hours of your life, but hey that one guy was really good in it.

South Dakota (212) @ Loyola (87)

Nothing gets you going like an old Coyotes and Ramblers match, or a good old Vermillion against Chicago atmosphere. Does it shock anyone else to hear that Loyola had an RPI of 87? With the exception of a loss to Southern Illinois, the Ramblers really had a season in which they lost to the teams you would have expected them to lose and they won the game they should have won. This was the same team that most of us made fun of as the replacement to Creighton in the Valley. South Dakota exceeded expectations in 2014-2015, much like the Ramblers, but the expectations were so incredibly low for the Coyotes that no one outside of the Summit league seemed to notice. There was some inconsistency, like just about every team in the Summit League…they picked up a win against North Dakota State, but also lost to IUPUI.

Drake (259)@ Denver (234)

We are back on a little private school on private school action. Both teams will return very little in 2015-2016, so this would turn out to be a Who the Hell is That Guy With the Ball? game. Drake had transfers from Northwestern and Penn State sitting out, so they will have some instant help coming in, note that I did not say instant stars, I said instant help.

Also, take note that this is the state of Colorado against the state of Iowa. Those two states have a hate for each other that I will never understand. Maybe it is the fact that they are complete opposites. One has mountains, one has trailer parks, sorry for the slams Iowa, but seriously. I like to think it is because of the episode of South Park when they find the guy frozen from the early 90s, and to help the guy adjust to modern times they send him to Des Moines because it is constantly 3 years behind in everything. South Park is completely factual.

Wait, back to this…Denver is known for not scoring a bunch of points, not because of the inability to do so, but more so for the ability to be patient and wait for shots. With that in mind, Denver scored more points per game than Drake. That is how fun Drake is at the moment. I watched a few of their game this last season, they were incredibly slow, and not because they ran an offense like Denver’s, but because their players were physically all incredibly slow. Drake did shoot 41% on threes in 2014-2015, so there is that.

Missouri State (237) @ IUPUI (257)

These two teams between them only had one guy that averaged more than 10 points per game. that one player, Marcus Marshall, averaged 19.5 before leaving the team in January. I am really not building up a great case of this challenge to be an entertaining series. But IUPUI already gets every game of theirs on ESPN 3 somehow…

Omaha (299) @ Southern Illinois (274)

I love how outside of a basketball game, Derrin Hansen seems like the most fun loving guy you will ever encounter, like he would just go get a beer and watch the NBA playoffs and crack a bunch of jokes with you…but on the sideline he never smiles and is completely ready for business. There is no limit on the price that I would pay to see Derrin Hansen mean mug Barry Hinson all night.

Southern Illinois fans are some of the most sport educated people you will ever encounter. In case you cannot tell, I am being sarcastic. They are probably unaware that UNO is division one, but that is cool, it is not their job to know. But when their fans are looking up information on Omaha on their Motorala Razrs they will realize that their former big time rival is from Omaha. Ohhhhhhhhh, this will boil their blood like no other.

Western Illinois (328) @ Bradley (280)

This would definitely be the Aquaman versus Namor the Sub-Mariner of the crossover. That is a DC vs. Marvel reference, and a damn good one if you ask me. Western Illinois has Garrett Covington and JC Fuller to help them appear entertaining, note that I said entertaining. and not championship contending. Bradley has, well I am sure they have something entertaining about them. I know, I know, I have been completely ignorant for a guy that is in love with a basketball team that finished 299 in RPI.

A look back at the players The Summit League has lost from 2014-2015

May 19, 2015November 11, 2015 acroth86 College Basketball Adam Thoseby, Brandon Bos, Brett Olson, Cam Griffin, Cameron Delaney, CJ Carter, Cody Larson, Craig Smith, DavRon Williams, DeAngelo Stewart, Denver Pioneers, Deondre Parks, Devin Patterson, Dorian Butler, Gage Davis, Garrett Covington, George Marshall, Herbert Graham, IPFW Mastadons, Isaiah McCray, IUPUI Jaguars, Jake Bittle, Jake White, Jalen Love, James Gardner, James Hunter, Joe Edwards, Jure Gunjina, Khufu Najee, Lawrence Alexander, Malik Clements, Marcus Tyus, Michael Daum, Mike Rostampour, Mohammed Conde, North Dakota Bison, Omaha Mavericks, Oral Roberts Golden Eagles, Reed Tellinghuisen, Scott Nagy, Scott Sutton, Skyler Flatten, South Dakota Coyotes, South Dakota State Jackrabbits, Steve Forbes, Taco Cannon, The Summit League, Tre'Shawn Thurman, Tyler Larson, UNO Mavericks, Western Illinois Leathernecks, Zach Horstman

Every year we as sports fans analyze teams in college sports in consideration to what players teams lost versus what they have coming back, and what they have potentially coming in. It is the easiest and the laziest way to determine who we think will be the best and worst teams. So before all of that starts, lets take a look at the players the Summit League has lost so far from the 2014-2015 season.

North Dakota State – The Bison won the Summit League championship for the second straight year, and they are only losing one player to graduation. So the lazy man will tell you that with only losing one player, they will probably go on for a three peat. No, no, no, we are talking about a potential eight peat here. That is a Bill Swerski’s Superfans reference. The problem with the They Won the Championship and Are Only Losing One Player argument is that the only player that they are losing was the best player in the entire league.

Graduated:

Lawrence Alexander – there is no doubt that it will be difficult for the Bison to make up for the loss of Alexander, the 2014-2015 Conference Player of the Year. Losing 19 points per game is no easy thing to lose, but we know players cannot stick around forever Senior to be, Kory Brown showed some moments of that he could be the guy to make up that loss, but the Bison won the Summit League the last two years behind a complete team effort, so they will have to band together again to continue their dominant run in the Summit League. They did pick up a commitment from Malik Clements, a 6’3″ junior college guard that will be a sophomore, who did at one time have an offer from the Mavericks. They also have still no player on their roster that is smaller than 6’3″.

Transferred:

Jake Showalter – After only playing 13 games and averaging 1.4 points per game, it is no surprise to see the guard from Wisconsin transfer out after his freshman year. With the addition of above mentioned Clements, Showalter was still probably going to be at the bottom of the rotation for the guards of the Bison.

South Dakota State – A team that only loses 2 players to graduation, but one player was an All Conference player and arguably the best post player in the league.

Graduated:

Zach Horstman – the senior was getting a lot of playing time before getting sidelined with an injury and being forced to miss two games against Omaha and IUPUI, this opened up more room for some of the younger guys to show off what they could do. Before missing those two games, Horstman had 5 (out of 17) games of scoring in double figures and did not have any afterwards. With lack of depth in the front court, the Jackrabbits had Horstman playing most of his time at the 4, but at 6’6″ and 205 pounds he was probably more in line to be playing the 3. The Jackrabbits will have Reed Tellinghuisen and Skyler Flatten to still pick up most of the time for Horstman, and both are very capable players. Not only that, but the Jackrabbits will have Nebraska native, Michael Daum to make up for the lost time at the 4 position, who redshirted in the 2014-2015 season.

Cody Larson – the perennial Lord of Jerkfaces and former First Team All Summit League player will definitely be tough for the Jackrabbits to make up. Sophomore to be Ian Theisen showed some strong moments of what could come in the future for the post game of the Jackrabbits, and the Jackrabbits have some pretty big expectations from Daum, but are they 9 double-doubles good? Are they 14 and 7 good? Yes, I just puked a little. I will be the first to admit it, and I have already mentioned variations of this before though, the Summit League was not stacked with really good post players this season. There was Larson, Steve Forbes, and Mike Rostampour as the top 3, and then a big drop off after that. Where was I going with this? Not entirely sure, I just started saying that and was hoping it would go somewhere. Maybe, just that the loss of Larson is not as big as it seems if no one else in the Summit League has a great post game.

Transferred:

Anders Broman – I remember coming out of high school, the Jackrabbits were incredibly excited about Broman. Every school sounds excited about every player coming out of high school though. It is not like Scott Nagy comes out to announce the players he signed and talks about his expectations of a few of them never developing and transferring out. Either way, Broman is on his way to Winthorp. Not sure his playing time was going to really increase his junior year playing behind Wisconsin transfer George Marshall, Jake Bittle, and Deondre Parks. Seriously, does that guard trio not scare you, especially with Tellinghuisen and Flatten also capable of playing the guard position?

Oral Roberts – The 2015-2016 does not look like anything the Golden Eagles are looking forward to on paper, but Scott Sutton has seen this and done this before.

Graduated:

Denell Henderson – the loss of Henderson will mean Oral Roberts will again not have much of a post game, but they have never been extremely reliable in their post game. Henderson averaged 3.5 points per game his junior year, before moving up to 8.8 points per game his senior year. Albert Owens averaged 3.8 points per game this last season as a freshman, so is it pretty safe to say Owens will just kind of take over that role. Yes, I based that off of very little. No offense to Henderson, but it is not a bunch to make up. Oral Roberts also has two freshman coming in that are taller than 6’7″, so there is really not a ton of fallout here.

Adrion Webber – I think Oral Roberts made the most appearances on ESPN3 out of all the Summit League teams last season. I watched most of their games, and I cannot remember Webber’s name ever being mentioned. He did score 9 on the Mavericks in their game in Tulsa, so it is possible I was too engulfed in anger to take in anyone’s name from the Golden Eagles during that game. Former Creighton guy, Darian Harris did see an increase in minutes toward the end of the year, I assume Harris is a guy that is capable of making up for the loss of Webber.

Transferred:

Korey Billbury – probably the biggest loss in the Summit League in terms of a guy transferring out. It sounded as if Billbury had issues off the court that forced him to leave, which is why it is not really a huge shocker that he transferred out. With Obi Emegano, I really thought these two had the chance to be the greatest guard combination in the Summit League for 2015-2016, but that will never be played out. He shot 13-19 against the Mavericks in Tulsa, that is why I cannot remember Webber’s name. On the court, he also averaged 14.4 points per game and led the Golden Eagles in rebounds with 7.4 per game. Billbury’s game will be a lot for the Golden Eagles to make up, but they did beat North Dakota State, Denver, IUPUI, and a CBI tournament game without him last season.

Dederick Lee – not a shocking loss for the Golden Eagles here. Former Maverick, Jalen Bradley will more than make up the loss for Lee.

Jabarr Singleton – another guy Bradley can make up for. Singleton did score 10 points in the Golden Eagles win over the Mavericks in Tulsa. Seriously, what the hell was going on in that game?

Bobby Word – an incredibly significant loss for the Golden Eagles. Known mostly for being a shooter, Word averaged 8.4 points per game as a sophomore. He also averaged 13.5 points per game after Billbury stopped playing, I cannot see Golden Eagle fans being super excited about losing both of those guys on the court. The Oral Roberts, are going to be a pretty young team this upcoming season.

IPFW – The Mastadons had high expectations at the beginning of the 2014-2015 season, and it was partially because of their senior trio of Joe Edwards, Steve Forbes, and Isaiah McCray, but with first year head coach Jon Coffman never really materializing the roster, and ultimately just seeming somewhat bored on the bench, the Dons fell below expectations. If their expectations were so high because of the players they lost, what are they going to be like next season without those guys? The Dons did sign three junior college players in an attempt to land some guys to be immediate impacts, so they could be the Magic 8 ball of the league in 2015-2016.

Graduated:

Joe Edwards – losing 12 points per game can be made up. The Dons picked up a 6’5″ junior college player, who at one time played at Alabama State, DeAngelo Stewart who averaged nearly 17 points per game and shot 47% from the field his sophomore year. He averaged 2 points per game as a true freshman at Alabama State, yes Alabama State is a real college.

Steve Forbes – some could argue that Forbes was the best post player in the Summit League, and really it was just because of his roundness and overall size. There was not much seen out of him from a leadership standpoint, just a Hey Lets Get Out There and Try Maybe and We Can Still Get Some Nuggets Afterwards Anyway mentality. I would have much rather had Mike Rostampour or Cody Larson as my team’s main post player last year, each guy had that leadership quality you are looking for. The Dons may have fell off the map because of how little Forbes seemed to give a shit. I watched their loss at South Dakota in March, and kept thinking that Forbes should have been dominating the Coyotes post. South Dakota’s James Hunter, who averaged 6 points a game, had 16 points in the game off of 8 of 12 shooting, because he actually cared about the game.

Kevin Harden – Kevin Harden was never the same after missing 21 games in 2012-2013 with an injury. His minutes kept dropping, his scoring kept dropping, he just fell out at IPFW. It is something that you hate watching happen, but it does happen.

Isaiah McCray – McCray was always capable of doing a lot of things at IPFW, he just never did a lot of things at IPFW. As one of the more inconsistent players in the Summit League, McCray may not be dearly missed by the Dons. They still have junior to be, Mo Evans (10.2 ppg), and senior to be Max Landis, who was on the Summit League All Newcomer team, to make McCray a forgettable player. The more I type, the more easy it is to understand why IPFW did not do as well as expected in 2014-2015.

Transferred:

Gage Davis – He did not play in 2014-2015.

Herbert Graham – everyone likes a guy named Herb, well except for the IPFW coaching staff apparently. In 3 years, he only played a total of 195 minutes at IPFW.

Jure Gunjina – he played in 243 minutes in his one year at IPFW before transferring to Division 2 Georgia Southwestern. Seriously, what has IPFW been doing the last couple of years.

South Dakota – I still feel like head coach Craig Smith did the most with the least in the Summit League in 2014-2015. The losses of Brandon Bos and Tyler Larson will be tough tough on the Coyotes, but Smith continues to bring guys in. He will have Iowa transfer Trey Dickerson and Air Force transfer Matt Mooney sitting out in 2015-2016, unless they get some form of waiver, but Smith is quickly turning South Dakota into the Transfer Here school in the Summit League, which instate foe South Dakota State cannot be too excited about.

Graduated:

Brandon Bos – It can be difficult to make up for someone who was a great shooter, but great shooters are all around the Midwest. And again, Craig Smith, he is no idiot. If you watched the game mentioned earlier with Steve Forbes full out not caring against South Dakota, you would have noticed Brandon Bos playing the game of his life scoring 29 points on 7 of 12 shooting, he also had 7 rebounds and 5 assists.

James Hunter – Hunter came into Vermillion from Washington State and did just enough to give South Dakota some form of a post game. He may have only averaged 6 points per game and 3.5 rebounds, but it is not like he was worthless. Without him, the Coyotes could of had Tyler Larson playing center. Smith will have Nebraska native Tyler Hagedorn and Minnesota guy Dan Jech to come in to fill in the post in 2015-2016, along with a core of upperclassmen guards, the Coyotes may actually have some expectations coming their way at the beginning of the year. Thanks a lot, Craig Smith.

Tyler Larson – at 6’3″ Larson averaged nearly 8 rebounds a game, and averaged 14.4 points per game. He could do a little bit of everything, which is what helped him land on First Team All Summit League team. Not to brag, but I think I called that one.

Transferred

Adam Thoseby – The Coyotes lost one of the greatest beards that the Summit League has ever seen. Thoseby’s minutes were dropped significantly from his sophomore to his junior year, so it was no surprise to see him go.

Denver – Only graduating two players can be a good thing, but only graduating arguably your two best players can prove to be a headache. Losing your two best players and not doing nearly as well as anyone would have thought you would have done, that can lead to a mystery team next season. They will essentially be playing Clue on the court in 2015-2016. Now who scored the shot from the corner last game that started with a pump fake, and can they do it again?

Graduated:

Cam Griffin – Griffin had some off the court issues, which caused his playing time to fluctuate throughout the season. Fans do not miss these guys.

Brett Olson – averaging 14 points per game at a school like Denver, who runs the Princeton offense, is like losing a guy that averages 20 points per game at a different school. One of the best shooters and most disciplined players in the entire league will not be an easy thing to make up. Denver has never been a team for the stars though, they have been successful off of team efforts. Head Coach, Joe Scott, may actually prefer not to have a main scorer on his team. Either way, losing a 2nd team All Summit League player is not anything that anyone should ever be in love with.

Transferred:

Dorian Butler – the 6’6″ California native never played for the Pioneers.

Cameron Delaney – Delaney started to pick up some minutes toward the end of the 2014-2015 season, but it was not enough to convince the Texas native to stay. Delaney and Love could have really been a decent combo for the Pioneers in 2015-2016, but we will never know. Delaney is off to Sam Houston State, which is where all great players go.

Jalen Love – surprised to see him go, I really thought he would have been a guy that would have been used to make up for the loss of Griffin and Olson. But he is off to (Hello,) Newman.

IUPUI – There have been a ton of transfers in and transferred out with the Jaguars since Jason Gardner has taken over at IUPUI, which is not entirely abnormal. I am not really sure they will miss anyone that left, mainly because I doubt the staff has had enough time to learn everyone’s names. They have lost a lot of players, but they have been one of the worst teams in the Summit League, so it is not like the guys they bring in can be any worse. With 5 guys transferring out, you may want to assume that they were leaving because they see the incoming players as guys that are going to be better than them. 6 wins though in 2014-2015 is probably 6 more wins than most people assumed the Jaguars were going to get.

Graduated:

Player name, 2014-2015 stats

Khufu Najee – 6’4″, 190lbs…7.4 ppg, 3,1 rpg, 1.2 apg, 44% FG, 28-35 FTs, 6-22 3pters

DavRon Williams – 6’7″, 225lbs…8.0 ppg, 6.3 rpg, 0.7 apg, 0.7 spg, 0.7 blg, 57% FG, 58% FT

Transferred:

PJ Boute – 5’9″ , 160lbs, Junior…5.7 ppg, 2.4 rpg, 2.9 apg, 1.0 spg, 30% FG, 32% 3ptFG, 78% FT

Josh James – 6’9″, 225 lbs, Sophomore…3.2 ppg, 2.8 rpg, 0.4 apg, 0.3 spg, 0.5 bpg, 48% FG, 69% FT

Jalen McCallum – 5’9″, 160lbs, Sophomore…2.3 ppg, 0.1 rpg, 0.7 apg, 0.6 spg, 56% FG, 2-3 FT

Elijah Ray – 6’6″, 232lbs, Sophomore…4.6 ppg, 2.6 rpg, 0.2 apg, 0.3 spg, 47% FG, 70% FT

Justus Stanback – 6’8″ 220lbs, Sophomore…2.4 ppg, 1.2 rpg, 0.2 apg, 0.3 spg, 0.2 bpg, 52% FG

Omaha – Another a team only graduating two players, but also losing their two best players. On top of losing their two best players, the Mavs top returning players; Devin Patterson, Marcus Tyus, and Jake White each had a significant number of injuries during the 2014-2015 season. If Jake White can get healthy, he and Tre’Shawn Thurman can hopefully make up for what the Mavs are losing in Rostampour on the court. Neither of them really seem to have the motor and intangibles that Rostampour brought to the Mavs however, not sure anyone does really. It is still possible that the Mavs could lose some players to transfer as they have yet to announce any players leaving. The Mavs will also have to learn to deal with more buzz in 2015-2016 as it is their first year being fully eligible for division one, and they will have a brand new arena. Oh, and we cannot forget the Taco Cannon prestige.

Graduated: – I am not going to talk a lot about them at this point, because I kind of already have…

CJ Carter – 2nd Team All Summit

Mike Rostampour – Honorable Mention All Summit

Western Illinois – Although the Leathernecks only went 3-13 against the Summit League in 2014-2015, they have to be pretty optimistic about 2015-2016, when they return their two top scorers, and one of those players was a 2nd Team All Conference player. Really Western Illinois does not lose much of anything, and a number of players on the team showed some flashes of being quality players. Really, I feel like the Leathernecks spent the entire 2014-2015 campaign as a way of waiting for the summer of 2015.

Graduated:

Mohammed Conde – led the Leathernecks in rebounding at 6 per game. The Leathernecks are bringing in two 6’10 freshman, so it is possible that they will not even notice the loss, or at least will fill in the loss pretty quickly. The Leathernecks really played from the outside-in, rather than the inside-out this season, so the post game was never really anything they relied on.

Remy Roberts-Burnett – I am not sure if he had some injuries or off the court issues, but his time decreased significantly this season and he missed 9 games this last season. I also do not want to be mean, but Western Illinois went 5-4 without him. They ended the season 8-20. Math.

Transferred:

Tyson Reynold – The 6’9″ junior from New York played a total of 14 minutes and scored 2 points for Western Illinois. Remember the fallen.

Kendall Rollins- Never played.

While a great game, senior night did not end the way we wanted, and Devin Patterson is the boss

February 20, 2015November 11, 2015 acroth86 College Basketball CJ Carter, Devin Patterson, Jake White, Karl Hess, Kyler Erickson, Marcus Tyus, Mike Rostampour, Omaha Mavericks, Oral Roberts Golden Eagles, Randy Reed, The Summit League, Tre'Shawn Thurman, UNO Mavericks

It seems that the Mavericks have had the same story to each loss so far this season. Mavs get off to a great start, Mavs turn the ball over a bit and let the other team into the game, game gets close, CJ Carter and/or Marcus Tyus do what they can to keep the game close, Mavs miss some key free throws while the other team becomes incapable of missing free throws, and then I leave home sad. Even though last night’s game ended with a loss, it was refreshing to see a little bit of a different story.

The Mavs did not get off to the greatest start in this one. There were some poor decisions in the beginning, bad turnovers, bad luck, bad shots, and a lot of fouls. Then they fought to get back into the game a bit, kept it at a close game, got down by a few possessions, then cut it back down to a position, and even take a lead. It became a back and forth game, rather than watching than a runaway bride game. Jake White, Randy Reed, and Kyler Erickson all came off the bench to give the team a much needed jump start. Each played with great energy that has been needed of the Mavs bench all season, we saw a few lineups that we had not seen all year due to Tyus being out, Mike Rostampour in foul trouble, and CJ getting stitched up.

I brought my wife to the game, my wife does not get to many games due to a busy work and school schedule, but it is like having the world’s most critical commentator next to you. I have gone to sporting events with women in the past and they point out the things that you do not typically see as a dude, like, hey that player has stupid hair, he should cut his hair. My wife on the other hand played basketball for several years and is also coaches high school, so yes it can be emasculating at times.

Anyway, at her first game my wife sits down and asks “who is their best player”? I tell her that each of the key players brings something different that puts them in as the best at something on the team. Mike Rostampour is the best post defender and rebounder, Marcus Tyus is the best shooter, CJ Carter is the best slasher at getting to the basket, and Devin Patterson is probably just the most important player. If he has a 2-7 shooting performance, the Mavs are not going to have a good time. If he gets into foul trouble or rolls his ankle, the Mavs are not going to have a good time. 26 points, 6 rebounds, and 8 assists at Marquette, the Mavs had a good time. 2 of 8 with 7 points and 7 turnover against Kansas State, the Mavs did not have a good time. MmmmK. Things got bad for the Mavs this season when Patterson basically had to sit for 2 and a half games due to injuries, and you could tell he was still at least a little bit slowed down after that for a number of games.

My wife was a point guard, and her number in high school and in college was 3, so she has an instant respect for the junior point guard. The coach in my wife points out every miscue by the Mavericks: they are not moving, that was not the best shot available on that play, that player needs to figure out how to box out, that asshole does not want to play defense, I hate players who cannot catch the ball, but not as much as I hate players who pass an uncatchable pass, that idiot keeps dribbling the ball into traffic and he has three turnovers because of it.

So a lot of that was from the South Dakota loss, my wife did not have all of those complaints on Thursday against Oral Roberts. Mike Rostampour picked up three quick fouls and you can tell some energy is taken out of the crowd. Rostampour is the energy provider, best post defender, and it is also his senior day and he has to go sit down for 16+ minutes, so yeah there was some energy taken out of the crowd. Jake White comes in and provides some energy, but Randy Reed really brought it last night. My wife asks, we did not see him against South Dakota, why does this guy not play more? I have no answer, I do not know why really, I have felt he has needed more minutes all year.

With Rostampour limited with foul trouble, and already with no Marcus Tyus, and with CJ Carter only having 4 points at half time, many of the fans around me felt like the game was over. If you have watched the Mavs all season and seen that the story is much of the same game after game, I could see people feeling that, but this was not the typical game. The game never got so out of hand that you could see the players giving up, they fought through everything, even though the game did not end the way the Mavs wanted to, you have to proud of the effort and the fight.

I think the most frustrating thing as a player in a close loss like that is after the game you will find yourself sitting there thinking, if I would have just not turned it over on that one play, or missed that one shot, or driven right instead of left on that play with a few minutes to go in first half, we could have won that game. I can think of one play that me thinking, had that gone down differently, maybe they could have won that game. With much of the team returning for next season, the team can learn from these moments and fix a lot of the mistakes.

I never like to the blame the officials for a loss, and I still do not blame them for last night’s loss, but they were confusing and knit picky at times last night. Mid-major officials being inconsistent? Get out of here, that never happens… The Summit League officials seem to always want to keep Mike Rostampour in check, which they should do with any player, but at times it seems like they are singling him out. A double technical foul in the game AND a double foul of a block on the defender and charge on the offensive player tells you that the refs are afraid to look like bad guys. I officiated basketball for a few years, you can tell the refs that do not want to be the bad guy and the guys who do not care what you think about them. The refs that don’t want to be the bad guy call make up calls, and it makes people want to punch them in the face.

Refs are people too, they typically do not like being yelled at, and it is not like they get to explain themselves like an annoying Customer Service agent with some BS lingo. You want the refs who forget about what a player did five games ago, the Summit League has officials who want to make sure the players know they have things in check. Take Garth Algar’s advice on wanting expensive guitars, LIVE IN THE NOW! They do not look at it play by play, they look at is as Well This Guy Was a Jerk Last Month, I Will Give Him a Foul For Rolling His Eyes at Another Player. Don’t get me wrong, if some player caused a huge fight a month ago, yeah you want to make sure that guy does not do that again. Rostampour has not been out there punching dudes, there is no reason to “keep him in check” just because he plays like he cares. You want the refs that take thirty seconds of their life to proactively tell a player that they will call a foul if do that one bad thing again, there is a reason why Karl Hess is now only officiating basketball games at Nazi Summer Camp. Watch an Atlantic 10 game some time, ALL of their refs are Look at Me and I’ll Cut You refs, their players are basically not allowed to play with emotion, a guy like Mike Rostampour would only play 5 minutes a game and average 5 fouls a game in the Atlantic 10.

Mickey Gordon wanted to be the first to say farewell.

My wife and I were in Kansas City for a UNO at UMKC game in 2012-2013 and we sat directly behind the UMKC bench…we were even seen in the picture that UMKC used as the photo for the presser of the firing of Matt Brown. Anyway, there was one ref, and Matt Brown would have a complaint and try and talk to the guy, and the guy would come over and make some stupid joke and have a stupid shit eating grin on his face every time and laugh like it was the appropriate time for his failure of a comedy routine. I wanted to yell at this ref for Matt Brown. How much would that mess up that ref? He’s incompetent and trying to be a comedian for a pissed off coach, and the guy sitting behind the bench with the opposing team’s shirt gets up and calls him out as an idiot? I have not seen that ref work a Summit League game since that year, and I watch a lot of them thanks to ESPN3 replay options. If he got promoted I will be really upset. Mild mannered Derrin Hansen was even out at center court yelling at the refs that game because they were unorganized and messing things up. Comedy Ref stood there with incompetence the entire time, he just wanted to be everyone’s buddy. The Mavs won that game, I think it was their first Summit League road win, but they won that game partly with learning to deal with incompetent refs. This reminds me, why the hell is UMKC in the WAC?

A three paragraph tangent about refs might be a new record for myself. Where was I? Last night, yeah that’s right. It was a frustrating loss, but what loss is not frustrating? The most frustrating are the ones where you realize you deserved that loss due to not working hard. The ones like last night, you can actually learn something and move one, so we will do that, we will move on. We will lose two great seniors that helped set the ground work for division one, and who will not be forgotten. Last night when both were sidelined, we were shown that we will be in great hands in the future. The seniors to be, and sophomore Tre’Shawn Thurman, showed great energy and that they are ready for next year. We are in great shape because of what the two of them provided.

I say that Devin Patterson is the most important piece of the team, and that is because he keeps things moving (among other factors). Not only on offense, but on defense he can great so many bad situations for the other team. My wife averaged 4+ steals a game as a freshman in high school, and her favorite thing about basketball was being “the little girl” but also being able to install so much fear into her opponents that they would shit their pants. I have not verified if she made anyone literally shit their pants, but those were her words. Devin Patterson does that for the Mavericks, he creates fear for the opposing team and they try to keep the ball away from him, but they cannot do it. We can see that Mike Rostampour brings energy and gave the Mavs heart when they desperately needed it, and Devin Patterson brought that too when he came to Omaha.

At one point the Mavs were literally not moving, just four dudes standing around (while one picked up his dribble) like they were in a Jurassic Park film trying to not be seen by the T-Rex. You could see Patterson yell at them after that. I am not sure if he was scolding them for not moving, but they started moving around more and more after that. I have seen him yell at players before for making poor choices, and they typically listen and respond, or end up on the bench for not listening to what he had to say. He had this just ridiculous array of moves for the Mavs first basket last night, most NBA players would not have been able to defend it. My wife who was frustrated by the first few minutes of the game, instantly put down her drink and clapped for him with respect. Post game, she said “I can completely see what you mean by saying he is the most important player on the team.” When things got bad, he made things happen for the team last night.

So after last night’s performance, even though it did not end up as a win, I hope that Carter and Rostampour can feel confident about Patterson, White, Tyus, and the rest of the crew to carry on what they worked hard to help build as a positive future for the Mavericks basketball team.

Don’t forget though, they still have three games left. One game is even on ESPN3

A little bit of preview for UNO versus Oral Roberts and IUPUI

January 14, 2015November 11, 2015 acroth86 College Basketball Boston Celtics, CJ Carter, Justin Simmons, Korey Billburry, Kyler Erickson, Marcus Tyus, Matt Hagerbaumer, Mike Rostampour, Obi Emegano, omavs, Oral Roberts Golden Eagles, Randy Reed, Rylan Murry, The Summit League, Tim Smallwood, Tre'Shawn Thurman, UNO Mavericks

After playing the two teams in the Summit League with the best defensive field goal percentage, the Mavs will now have to play Oral Roberts, who has the 4th best defensive field goal percentage (Western Illinois is 3rd). Then they have to play wildcard IUPUI.

The Mavs came close to North Dakota State and not so close to South Dakota State last week. They know they need to move on, but now they have a road test against, historically, one of the best teams in the Summit League. The coaches and players know and feel that they were a couple plays away from starting out conference play at 3-0, and Mike Rostampour is just pissed, and the senior leader should be. Nothing comes easy in any conference and after starting league play at 1-3, now is the time to make those plays that would have put the Mavs at 3-1 now. It is not the time to press the panic button. NO BODY PANIC! Actually, I’m not really sure if there is a panic button. Other than possible CBI and CIT seedings and births, there is not really much of a difference if the the Mavs finish this year in the Summit between placing 2nd and 9th in the standings. If the Mavs win the regular season, they do get some hardware, but it is not like they are going to get a participation medal for coming in 9th in the conference. Mom, this is literally a medal for sucking. But morally, we want to prove ourselves, that we know we belong here. We’re not quite at the point of trading away all of the assets and tanking for the draft. I am sorry, I am a Celtics fan, so I am bitter about some NBA things at the moment…

Oral Roberts

Okay, I am going to throw something at you here. The Mavs are going to have to go deep into the bench in this game. Why would the Mavs have to go deep into the bench on a team that has the worst field goal percentage in the entire Summit League? The Golden Eagles get to the line more than any other team in the Summit League, they shoot nearly 26 free throws a game. They have the second worst three point field goal percentage in the league at 32.5%, so they are a team that needs to get to the basket, and with two of the best wings in the Summit League, they get to the basket. Mike Rostampour will pick up a foul in this game, maybe even two, or maybe even five… So the Mavs may have to get Daniel Meyer, Rylan Murry, and Randy Reed on the court more than they usually get out there. In case you are curious, when the Mavs win Murry shoots 57% from the field, 55% from downtown and in their losses he shoots 35% from the field and 25% from long range. So he might actually be a little more of an X-Factor than you might think. Just saying.

RPI wise, Oral Roberts had the best win of the season against Tulsa to open up their season. Maybe similar to the Mavs, they realize this was a long time ago, and now that they are 8-8, they have something to prove themselves. Maybe the Mavs should not run the typical Mavs pace in this one. The Golden Eagles average 65 points per game (not including their win over Haskell). When Oral Roberts gets above 65 points they are 7-1. Maybe UNO does not need to slow down the pace, but clearly, they need to play strong defense for all 40 minutes.

Obviously the Mavs need to shoot better coming off their two worst shooting performances of the season. Oral Roberts may be in the top half of the league as far as defensive field goal percentage goes, but they have had a few poor shooting nights themselves so far, so here is an incredibly generic thing to say. The Mavs need to play better on offense and defense. That’s simple. Well we are done here.

Here are some other random Mav numbers for you (not counting Iowa Wesleyan):

The Mavs are 5-1 when they hit more threes than their opponent, only loss to North Dakota State
The Mavs are 1-6 when they hit less threes than their opponent, only win to South Dakota
The Mavs are 0-3 when they hit the same amount of threes than their opponent

Hey, remember how Oral Roberts has the 2nd worst three point field goal percentage in the League? They have also made the 2nd least amount of threes in the Summit League. But again, they get to the line, A LOT.

The Mavs are 0-4 when 40% or more of their field goals taken are three point field goals

So it’s not exactly like they should just start jacking up threes, especially after a 1 of 16 performance, but they need to hit the open shots that they found against South Dakota State but could not convert on. Seriously, how generic sports talk can this get?

With the talent they have, I am not even sure if they could beat Kentucky right now. Crap, I am thinking about the Celtics again.

The Mavs do need to contain the wings for Oral Roberts. Obi Emegano in his last five games has averaged 23 points, 3.8 rebounds, 1.8 assists, 3.6 steals, and he has shot 50% (36-72) from the field. He has also made 10 threes overall in the last 5 games after going 9 games in a row without a three. Korey Billbury in the last five games has averaged 17 points, 9.4 rebounds, 2.4 assists, 1.6 steals, and shot 39% from the field. Billburry also made a total of 9 threes in the last 5 games, after only hitting a total of 5 in the Golden Eagles’ first 11 games.

This game is a homecoming for Tim Smallwood, a Tulsa native, so maybe he will play better. Is that dumb to think that? Seems like guys play better in situations like that, or on their birthday. Seriously, you should see my career averages on my birthdays. I was a quadruple 2 guy my whole life, 2 points, 2 rebounds, 2 assists, and 2 steals per game. On my birthday, I averaged about 14 points and 5 rebounds a game. Not to brag, okay I am bragging, but in intramurals at UNO, I had to guard a guy that had played at Midland University and he was about 5 inches taller than me, but I had 17 points with 5 threes that game. It was literally my birthday.

Like Opponents?

Lost 72-66 to North Dakota State in Fargo.

Won 66-57 at Western Illinois

IUPUI

Seriously everyone was sleeping on the IUPUI Jaguars before the start of the season, and many still are trying to wipe the morning fog out of their eyes. They lost 6 in a row at one point, but now have gone on a win a game, lose a game pattern for their last 7 games. If they continue the pattern, they would lose to South Dakota State and win at UNO. That is how stats work, right? They are 2-1 in the Summit with a wins over preseason league favorites IPFW and Denver, so this should have caught the attention of people…who pay attention. They also took that team I was just talking about, Oral Roberts, to overtime.

There is not much size to the Jaguars, nor is there much experience, and their best players are currently sitting out due to transfer rules. They do not make many threes, they have made the least amount of total threes in the conference, and they have the worst three point field goal percentage in the league. They are just a little better than UNO at free throw percentage at 70% to UNO’s 69% but they do not get to the line nearly as much, UNO shoots 27 free throws a game, while IUPUI shoots 18 per game. They average the second least amount of rebounds per game, after Denver who they defeated, but IUPUI has picked up more rebounds as of late. The Jaguars also average the most turnovers in the league, so UNO who averages the most steals in the conference should be licking their chops. Is licking chops still a saying? What are chops?

None of their wins have been a beat down. Of their 6 wins, the biggest amount of points they won by was 6 points to South Alabama. One thing I have noticed about the Jaguars as compared to other Summit League teams, they have not played an opponent that was not division one. So that whole thought process of In Order to Get Better You Have to Play the Best Competition might be coming together for IUPUI, as they are finally starting to pick up some wins.

One thing I notice while looking at all 6 of their wins, a low amount of threes taken. Their three point attempts on wins, 10.6 attempts per game. Their three point attempts on losses, 17.2. Clearly, with the poor percentage and total number of made three point field goals, it is an area they struggle in, so they desperately need to get to the basket. The Mavs need to keep them on the outside, just let them take threes.

UNO has yet to lose to IUPUI as Summit League opponents, and if the Jaguars pick up a win against the Mavericks this year, given how bad their roster is, I may just lose it. They defeated IUPUI by 28 and 22 points last season. CJ Carter has averaged 15.6 points, 4 assists, 2.3 steals, and has shot 19-30 in 3 career games against IUPUI. In his sophomore season, Marcus Tyus averaged 15 points, 3.5 rebounds, and shot 12-22 against the Jaguars. Mike Rostmapour has 18 and 9 in his first meeting against IUPUI and 9 and 8 in his second match up with IUPUI, and he also shot 9-13 on those two games. Devin Patterson averaged 11.5 points, 4.5 rebounds, 5 assists, 2.5 steals, and shot 9-18 versus IUPUI last season.

For real, why do they think tanking for the draft is a good idea? Has it ever worked out for them before? Drafting players is not their thing, draft day trades is their specialty! Aw crap, sorry, the Celtics, they are getting to me.

A suggestion from a guy that has no business giving suggestions to a college athletics program:

Bring Marcus Tyus off the bench.

Okay, I hate the idea of it too. I think Marcus Tyus has been the Mavs most efficient player this season, and has been huge. It is nothing personal against Marcus Tyus, in fact, I hope this is a compliment. Really, it should not matter to a player if you start the game or come off the bench, as long as you are on the court at the end, or your team has won. This team does need a high energy guard off the bench, and Marcus Tyus is definitely a high energy player who can bring a spark off the bench.

You can not really put Patterson on the bench because of his ball handling ability, and for his control of the offense. No one wants to put Carter on the bench, who has started all but three games in his career, and is the teams’ top scorer. So unfortunately, Tyus is the nomination.

The 2013-2014 season, the best season for the Mavs so far in division one, Marcus Tyus came off the bench for half of the season. With injuries to Justin Simmons, Tyus got the nod to start, and he played great, there is no question of that. Last season, UNO was 8-8 with Tyus coming off the bench and 7-7 with Tyus starting, so it’s not like any of this makes sense with that in mind. Four of the losses that he came off the bench though: @ Iowa by 8, @ UNLV by 3, @ IPFW by 4, vs. IPFW by 1.

Whether Jake White gets back into the starting line up or not, the Mavs will have either he or Tre’Shawn Thurman coming off the bench in the post for a key role, but the Mavs do not really have a guard to come off the bench that has produced enough for that second wave of energy and activity. If Justin Simmons was starting last season, Tyus and Phillips were both coming off the bench. If Simmons was hurt and Tyus was starting, Phillips was still providing some energy off the bench. Matt Hagerbaumer was always providing defensive energy in the post off the bench. Reed and Smallwood have not produced as advertised, Rylan Murry has slipped in the last month, and walk on/great guy Kyler Erickson has been the guy to step up off the bench. I am not sure who to start between Reed, Smallwood, and Murry. Reed or Murry would provide more height, and the Mavs could start the game contesting the shots other teams’ 6’4″ – 6’6″ wings a little better, then BAM, Marcus Tyus off the bench for 8 quick points. I am not saying this is a big time solution to anything, it is just a thought.

Some milestone notes:

Marcus Tyus is 11 points away from 700 career points
Mike Rostampour is 18 rebounds away from having the 2nd most rebounds since transition
1. Matt Hagerbaumer – 401
2. John Karhoff – 384
3. Mike Rostampour – 366
Marcus Tyus is 4 steals away from having the 3rd most steals since transition
1. CJ Carter – 128
2. Devin Patterson – 90
3. Caleb Steffensmeier – 73
4. Marcus Tyus – 69
5. Justin Simmons – 69
Tre’Shawn Thurman is 22 points away from having the 2nd most points in a season by a freshman since transition
1. CJ Carter – 303
2. Marcus Tyus – 185
3. Tre’Shawn Thurman – 163
Tre’Shawn Thurman is 3 rebounds away from having the most in a season by a freshman since transition
1. CJ Carter – 105
2. Tre’Shawn Thurman – 102

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Omaha Mavericks Blog

I did not have anyone to talk Omaha Mav sports with, so I decided to talk to the internet.

Oral Roberts Golden Eagles

Can the Mavericks improve on 5 Summit League wins?

I had some time, so I came up with a Summit League Super Team

Who has the best core of post players in the Summit League?

Who has the best Big 3 in the Summit League?

The basketball wild cards of the Summit League

Summit League Men’s Soccer Blind Resume Game

What a Summit League-Missouri Valley Conference challenge could look like

A look back at the players The Summit League has lost from 2014-2015

While a great game, senior night did not end the way we wanted, and Devin Patterson is the boss

A little bit of preview for UNO versus Oral Roberts and IUPUI