Talent, Versatility, and Depth

[75unlgrad]

I like to drink the Kool-Aid.  I believe we have the talent, versatility, and depth to vault to the top half of the conference this year.  This is my overview of the team.

 

Point Guard/Primary Ball Handlers:

      Dalano Banton  --  Primary ballhandler regardless of position

      Trey McGowens --  Combo Guard

      Kobe Webster --  Combo Guard

 

Wings/Perimeter Players:

      Teddy Allen

      Kobe King

      Shamiel Stevenson

      Thor Thorbjarnarson

Also capable of playing this position:

      Dalano Banton

      Trey McGowens

      Kobe Webster

 

 

Stretch 4/Power Forward:

      Shamiel Stevenson --  Stretch 4

      Derrick Walker -- Power Forward

      Lat Mayen -- Stretch 4

Also capable of playing this position:

     Dalano Banton

     Teddy Allen

     Thor Thorbjarnarson

 

 

Center/Defend the Rim:

     Yvan Quedraogo

     Adama Sonoga (please)

Also capable of playing this position:

     Derrick Walker

     Lat Mayen -- Stretch 5  ??

     Dalano Banton -- Stretch 5 ??

 

We have a talented and versatile group of guards/wings; stretch 4's and power forwards; and big men in the paint.  And they can shoot and MAKE free-throws.  I look forward to the season.  

 

[royalfan]

The potential is there.  Will take tremendous coaching to get it to all come together on a consistent basis.  I can see many highs and lows with such a crew.  I believe we are capable of dancing with this team.  By the time the dance is here, we won't be easy to beat.  

[AuroranHusker]

35 minutes ago, royalfan said:

The potential is there.  Will take tremendous coaching to get it to all come together on a consistent basis.  I can see many highs and lows with such a crew.  I believe we are capable of dancing with this team.  By the time the dance is here, we won't be easy to beat.  

 

High risk-high reward. I feel like that's a good thing. I'd rather Freddy shoot for the moon and fall short, than continue to accept meddling and mired in the middle (or much worse, a 'bad' team--see 2019-20). I'm excited for 2020-21 for Hoiberg & Co. They will have a big task in front of them, I feel like they'll be up to the task! GBR

 

 

 

Edited April 20, 2020 by AuroranHusker

[kleitus]

It's going to take half a year to see what we really have.  Weve got talent and should be probably .500 as a floor.  Do we have the depth to go to the tournament?  Maybe.  Depends on who gets waivers etc., who gets better, and if we are a team after say 10 games to grow together.

 

2021 is going to look pretty darn solid though.

Edited April 20, 2020 by kleitus

[PimpMario]

I am just not seeing how you can install your culture in a program when you don't have more than 2 of the same players year to year.  I get that adding new guys and roster attrition is prevalent, but this is just ridiculous.

 

Next year will be really rough and every year after that until we can get some roster stability.

[Fullbacksympathy]

2 hours ago, PimpMario said:

I am just not seeing how you can install your culture in a program when you don't have more than 2 of the same players year to year.  I get that adding new guys and roster attrition is prevalent, but this is just ridiculous.

 

Next year will be really rough and every year after that until we can get some roster stability.

When transfers are redshirting in the system, that’s how.  

 

Banton, Walker, Stevenson, Yvan, Thor, Cross, Arop all know the system.  Throw in some juco specialists and a blue chip freshman once in awhile and it’s really a better system than traditional recruiting.  It seems to me Fred’s philosophy is players aren’t getting recruited unless they can play right away.  Next season should be pretty good evidence of this.  

[Red Don]

On 4/19/2020 at 11:14 PM, PimpMario said:

I am just not seeing how you can install your culture in a program when you don't have more than 2 of the same players year to year.  I get that adding new guys and roster attrition is prevalent, but this is just ridiculous.

 

Next year will be really rough and every year after that until we can get some roster stability.

 

(This is likely More than anyone Wants to know )

Returning scholarship players with minutes last year:
Thorir Thorbjarnarson 6'6 Sr G
Kevin Cross 6'8 So F (Transfer Portal @ 4/21/20)
Yvan Ouedraogo 6'9 F
Akol Arop 6'6 So F (did not play many minutes last season)

Returning walk-ons (as far as I know):
Charlie Easley 6'2 So G** (just announced he's transferring to So Dak St)
Jace Piatkowski 6'4 So G (I haven't heard anything about Jace lately)

Sit-outs eligible this year: (practiced with the team all season - familiar with the above 6 & Fred's system)
Derrick Walker 6'8 Jr F
Shamiel Stevenson 6'6 Jr G/F
Dalano Banton 6'8 So G

Newcomers:
Kobe Webster 6'0 Sr G (eligible)
Kobe King 6'4 Jr G* (sit-out, if no waiver granted)
Lat Mayen 6'9 Jr F (eligible)
Teddy Allen 6'5 Jr G/F (eligible)
Trey McGowens, 6'0 Jr G (sit-out)

Plus one open Scholarship available to be filled.

 

And then there's this little gem from one of Fred's interviews.  .

Quote

Hoiberg isn't all that worried, he said. His three sit-out transfers — Banton, Derrick Walker and Shamiel Stevenson — ran the offense in practice with two walk-ons and often beat the eligible starters handily.

 

Edited April 21, 2020 by Red Don

[Vinny]

With 13 scholarships you’re going to have 3-4 new faces every year if everyone stays through graduation. That obviously doesn’t happen. Your every game rotation is 8-9 players. If those 4-5 non-rotation guys are either not happy about that and choose to transfer/are encouraged to look elsewhere, we’re going to have 6-7 new faces each season between that, graduation and hopefully the draft.  If the new faces aren’t because of rotation players leaving on their own, we’ll have plenty of continuity among our contributors. I think Fred will get to that spot and losing so many rotation players was a first year aberration.

[49r]

2 hours ago, Red Don said:

 

Hoiberg isn't all that worried, he said. His three sit-out transfers — Banton, Derrick Walker and Shamiel Stevenson — ran the offense in practice with two walk-ons and often beat the eligible starters handily.

 

 

 

I mean, so did UC Riverside, Southern Utah and North Dakota; so one could be excused for taking that statement with a huge grain of salt.

 

(did I do the semicolon correct here?)

[atskooc]

10 minutes ago, 49r said:

 

 

I mean, so did UC Riverside, Southern Utah and North Dakota; so one could be excused for taking that statement with a huge grain of salt.

 

(did I do the semicolon correct here?)

Should have been just a comma. But I appreciate the effort. Get rid of the “so” and the semicolon works just fine. 

Edited April 20, 2020 by atskooc

[Red Don]

I mean, I took out the so  ( so did UC Riverside), making the phrase a question instead of a statement; then realized you were talking about the second so.  So there! 

[atskooc]

13 minutes ago, Red Don said:

I mean, I took out the so  ( so did UC Riverside), making the phrase a question instead of a statement; then realized you were talking about the second so.  So there! 

LOL! 
 

Wrong “so.”  If you have a comma-conjunction (“so” is one of those), it’s the same thing as a semicolon. So, use either a comma-conj or a semicolon. 
 

I haven’t been able to go to teach this stuff at school in a month. I need an outlet. 
 

Edit: I just finished reading your entire comment...LOL!

Edited April 20, 2020 by atskooc

[Red Don]

  

[49r]

3 hours ago, atskooc said:

Should have been just a comma. But I appreciate the effort. Get rid of the “so” and the semicolon works just fine. 

 

I have a bad habit of not proofreading my posts every time before I hit the "Submit Reply" button. 

[AuroranHusker]

2 hours ago, Red Don said:

I mean, I took out the so  ( so did UC Riverside), making the phrase a question instead of a statement; then realized you were talking about the second so.  So there! 

 

Whelp... ight imma head out. It's the Monday-est Monday when it is back to Grammar Mondays.  

 

[Norm Peterson]

Known Quantities:

 

Thor Thorbjarnarson: Heady G/F with a high hoops IQ; good passer who moves well w/o the ball on offense; unselfish; came on as a spot-up shooter his junior year; lacks a bit of lateral quickness on defense so tends to play off his defensive assignment so as to err on the side of stopping penetration, leaving more space to the offensive player to shoot perimeter shots.

 

Yvan Ouedraogo: Strong, thick-built but slightly undersized PF; appears to lack high-level explosiveness both in terms of leaping and quickness; hands are a question mark as both passes and rebounds sometimes bounce off the stones at the ends of his arms; has some low-post skill and sometimes does a good job of using his shoulders to create space but lacks touch and hasn't finished well around the rim; tends to try to finesse his way around defenders in the low post instead of going up strong with the ball and tends to take too much time to gather himself and loses the advantage of the defender being off-balance when he receives dishes in the low blocks; played his entire freshman year as a 17-year-old; could take a substantial step forward from freshman to sophomore year.

 

Kevin Cross: Either a way-undersized big with A+ skills or an under-athletic wing with average wing skills. He could improve his athleticism with some off-season conditioning but has probably maxed out on size. Was out of position as the only option to back up Yvan and almost never played in any other capacity. Could be a quality Hoiberg 4 if he can groove his 3-point shooting, which he certainly has potential to do. Lacked production as a rebounder as a freshman.

 

Akol Arop: Uber athletic wing with the platform to build a solid jumper, but very raw in the skills department and seemed frequently lost on the floor last season, particularly on the defensive end.

 

Unknown Quantities:

 

Everybody else, including Dalano Banton, who could end up being really *really* good. Or just average. Or terrible. We really have no way of knowing. At his prior school, he was a bad FT shooter (55.9%) and a bad 3-pt shooter (21.6%). Small sample size, perhaps. Might have really improved his shooting while sitting out. Might have. Might not have. None of us really know.

 

At his last stop, Kobe Webster shot 33.3% from 3-point range last season; Kobe King shot 25% from 3 last year; Trey McGowens, if he's eligible, shot 31.1% from 3 last season at Pitt; Lat Mayen is a 6'9 juco kid who shot it well but not a lot; and Teddy Allen pretty much burned the nets up at the same school where Jervay Green burned the nets up the year before.

 

So, in an offense that likes the rim and loves the 3, we seem to have recruited a bunch of players who love the rim even when they're shooting 3s. And while it's entirely possible that we've found the recipe that will get us into the top half of our league and get our danced card punched, it may be more likely that we finish outside the league's top ten.

 

But there are simply too many unknowns to look at this roster and say we're *confident* in any sort of favorable outcome to the season. I'm all for being hopeful. But I have no confidence that I can predict this one way or the other.

[OmahaHusker]

Aim for a .500 overall record. Anything above that is gravy to me. I'm personally viewing this as Year 1. 

[Handy Johnson]

I’m usually overly optimistic (especially this time of year) but I’m tired of falling in love with the press clippings. Safe to say some guys will be better/worse than we expect, last season tho, most all of our players were universally sub-par. Thor, Hannif were about what I expected, Jervay/Dachon/Sumari were not. I think we have potentially MORE “good” players, so if some don’t measure up the season won’t collapse. I’m convinced Fred can take a bigger more experienced lineup back up to the .500 range...maybe more

[TheKamdyMan]

14 minutes ago, Handy Johnson said:

I’m usually overly optimistic (especially this time of year) but I’m tired of falling in love with the press clippings. Safe to say some guys will be better/worse than we expect, last season tho, most all of our players were universally sub-par. Thor, Hannif were about what I expected, Jervay/Dachon/Sumari were not. I think we have potentially MORE “good” players, so if some don’t measure up the season won’t collapse. I’m convinced Fred can take a bigger more experienced lineup back up to the .500 range...maybe more

 

I can get behind some of that but I doubt anyone truly believed Thor would be considered "as expected".  That was one guy most people wanted to move on.  He then goes on to be towards the top of league in 3 pt shooting.  If anyone expected that you should be in Vegas.

[Navin R. Johnson]

For me the biggest disappointments were Green and Kavas.  I thought Green would be a consistent scorer both from the arc and going to the rim.  Neither happened.  Kavas never really found his stroke until toward the end, and of course then got hurt.  If he wasn't hitting shots, he was not much help at anything else.  He did seem to keep a good attitude though. Green's play shows how you just can't say a JUCO player will come in and do this or that for you.  They truly are wildcards. 

[Handy Johnson]

2 hours ago, TheKamdyMan said:

 

I can get behind some of that but I doubt anyone truly believed Thor would be considered "as expected".  That was one guy most people wanted to move on.  He then goes on to be towards the top of league in 3 pt shooting.  If anyone expected that you should be in Vegas.

I said Thor was “about” what I expected, and based on how he played towards the end of his Sophomore year & in the B1G Tournament I don’t think that’s a stretch. BUT, I also think he’s probably hit his ceiling & if he’s playing major minutes next year, a lot of things have went wrong... He’s a 6-7th man on a REALLY good team.

[TheKamdyMan]

4 hours ago, Handy Johnson said:

I said Thor was “about” what I expected, and based on how he played towards the end of his Sophomore year & in the B1G Tournament I don’t think that’s a stretch. BUT, I also think he’s probably hit his ceiling & if he’s playing major minutes next year, a lot of things have went wrong... He’s a 6-7th man on a REALLY good team.

 

I don't expect him to start on next years team and those that cover the team don't as well.  Now if he exceeds expectations again and plays out of his mind I won't complain but I expect him to get some good minutes, especially early in crunch time, as he plays solid team ball.

[nustudent]

18 hours ago, Handy Johnson said:

I said Thor was “about” what I expected, and based on how he played towards the end of his Sophomore year & in the B1G Tournament I don’t think that’s a stretch. BUT, I also think he’s probably hit his ceiling & if he’s playing major minutes next year, a lot of things have went wrong... He’s a 6-7th man on a REALLY good team.

Thor exceeded my expectations last year.   But it's also fair to acknowledge that a big reason he had a chance to do so was because of the team he was on.   There just wasn't anyone there to take minutes or shots from him.  There will be this year.   I think we showed enough as a shooter that there will be a role for him but I'd be shocked if his minutes stayed the same.

[busticket]

I think Thor very well could be more productive this year from an efficiency standpoint in a diminished role.  Thor moves excellent without the ball and does great back cuts.  He is also a pretty good shooter.  His problem last season was his team mates just weren’t good enough to draw the focus of the defense away from him.  If Thor is one of your main weapons you are in trouble.  He is the kind of high IQ basketball player that can help as a complimentary piece.

[jayschool]

4 hours ago, busticket said:

I think Thor very well could be more productive this year from an efficiency standpoint in a diminished role.  Thor moves excellent without the ball and does great back cuts.  He is also a pretty good shooter.  His problem last season was his team mates just weren’t good enough to draw the focus of the defense away from him.  If Thor is one of your main weapons you are in trouble.  He is the kind of high IQ basketball player that can help as a complimentary piece.

Thor's gonna have one of those games off the bench where he goes 6-of-8 from deep because some team decided it needed to take away Teddy and/or Kobe(s), Trey and Shamiel.