The View from out here on My Limb

[Norm Peterson 9,133]

Banton seems like a lock to start. That's not much of a limb. Let me climb out a bit further.

 

I like Yvan but I don't like his hands yet. I don't think he's a lock to start. I'm surprising myself to say this, but I'm leaning in the direction of Lat Mayen. His 3-point shooting ability on the pick-and-pop is a tool the other guys who could potentially fill that stretch-4 big role don't have as much of. And, though slight of build, he's a good rebounder.

 

Trey McGowens could be cleared to play, but that's a big "if." And IF he is cleared to play, I think he starts. But if he doesn't get cleared, we're thin at guard. And I think Kobe Webster is a guy who shoots the ball well enough to open driving lanes for Teddy Allen. I have both of those guys penciled into the starting lineup, with Teddy's name in a slightly-more-permanent #2 graphite, given that, last I heard, Trey McGowens wasn't cleared yet.

 

My last starter (drumroll please -- and I'll white it out and let some people guess before I do the big reveal): Thorir G. Thorbjarnarson. Damn straight. Shock the world.

 

He's a crafty sonofabitch who just seems to know how to make the right play at the right time. Role player. He's not a star. He won't be all-conference. Though he could potentially be 6th man of the year. And I'd bet dollars to donuts he's been working his ass off shooting 23 footers. It's not the prettiest shot, but damn, it's effective and there ain't a lot of moving parts to it. It's just catch and flick, catch and flick.

Edited June 27 by Norm Peterson

[Handy Johnson 1,857]

The practical part of me says Walker, but my heart says Thor...

[Huskerpapa 4,564]

The player that busts his arse in practices and who can bring the tangible and intangible elements to the floor that meets or exceeds the staff expectations?

[Vinny 197]

If Thor is our 5th starter and also 6th man of the year, it’s going to be a wild ride!

[aphilso1 1,095]

I have 4/5 of the same starting lineup if McGowens is ineligible:

Webster

Teddy

Banton

Thor

...Walker...?...I don't know, I really have no confidence in how the Lat/Yvan/Walker/Andre platoon will shake out.

 

I do think Thor is the odd man out if McGowens is cleared to play though.  Trey, Teddy, and Banton are our three most talented players, and Fred will find a way to get them all on the court together.

[khoock 1,464]

Trey McGowens will start if eligible. But he currently isnt so I will noy include  him.

 

The starting 5 will look something like this:

- Dalano Banton

- Teddy Allen

- Yvan Ouedraogo or Derrick Walker

- Kobe Webster, Thorir Thorbjarnarson, or Shamiel Stevenson (two out of these three will start)

 

I would be a little surprised if Lat Mayen is a day one starter. I would be shocked if Akol Arop, Eduardo Andre, or Elijah Wood or starting.

[busticket 364]

I tend to agree with Norm on Lat starting.  Fred wants 5 guys who are threats on the court....teams are easier to defend if you have a guy on the court that can’t score.  Having a guy playing the 5 that can hit the 3 is huge for spacing.  Yvan will likely never be a threat from 3 but at the moment he has very little in the way of posts moves.

[REDitus 51]

There are folks suggesting we are thin at guard if McGowens doesn't qualify? 

 

I am not so sure I agree.  It's not ideal but I think we are still in an adequate position giving the flexibility of the players on our roster.   IMHO as long as you have a primary ball handler and a big post your in good shape if your 2,3 and 4 have players that are somewhat interchangeable.    I think we are okay.  

 

 

[LK1 1,418]

Banton - Webster

McGowens - Wood - Thor

Allen - Thor

Stevenson - Thor 

Mayen - Yvan - Walker - Andre

 

I think Mayen will be interchangeable with Yvan based on opponent matchups.  I think Webster will be a green lighted scoring spark off the bench, and I think Thor will log a starter’s minutes playing between 2-4 as needed. 

[millerhusker 229]

18 hours ago, Handy Johnson said:

The practical part of me says Walker, but my heart says Thor...

I think it’s more of a Thor or Shamiel question. I don’t see any scenario that we’ll have two of our four bigs starting. I think it’ll be one big (Yvan, Walker or Lat), one guard (Webster or Trey, if eligible) and three ball players (out of Dalano, Teddy, Shamiel, Thor).

[khoock 1,464]

1 minute ago, millerhusker said:

I think it’s more of a Thor or Shamiel question. I don’t see any scenario that we’ll have two of our four bigs starting. I think it’ll be one big (Yvan, Walker or Lat), one guard (Webster or Trey, if eligible) and three ball players (out of Dalano, Teddy, Shamiel, Thor).

Exactly where im at.

[millerhusker 229]

1 hour ago, REDitus said:

There are folks suggesting we are thin at guard if McGowens doesn't qualify? 

 

I am not so sure I agree.  It's not ideal but I think we are still in an adequate position giving the flexibility of the players on our roster.   IMHO as long as you have a primary ball handler and a big post your in good shape if your 2,3 and 4 have players that are somewhat interchangeable.    I think we are okay.  

 

 

I don’t think it’s a concern offensively, as we have several versatile wings. Defensively, it would’ve been nice to have King on this team to guard the smaller, quicker guards of the big ten. Players like Eli Brooks, CJ Walker, Geo Baker and Trent Frazier. I love Thor, but he does have trouble staying in front of guards like this, and I’d imagine so will Teddy and Dalano. This is the biggest reason why I’m hoping Trey gets his waiver. Otherwise, all we have is Webster.

[REDitus 51]

3 minutes ago, millerhusker said:

I don’t think it’s a concern offensively, as we have several versatile wings. Defensively, it would’ve been nice to have King on this team to guard the smaller, quicker guards of the big ten. Players like Eli Brooks, CJ Walker, Geo Baker and Trent Frazier. I love Thor, but he does have trouble staying in front of guards like this, and I’d imagine so will Teddy and Dalano. This is the biggest reason why I’m hoping Trey gets his waiver. Otherwise, all we have is Webster.

 

This is reasonable.   I can concur with that concern. 

[Handy Johnson 1,857]

Remember: the original question was to speculate on Norm’s 5th starter other than, 

Lat

Teddy

Dalano

McGowens/Webster

And I guessed Thor, so I was RIGHT...!

[Art Vandalay 309]

Webster

Teddy Buckets

Stevenson

Banton

Lat

 

this is what I hope to see if Trey is not eligible. If he is he starts over Webster or Stevenson. Think in big ten Lat plays the 4 more and Yvan or Walker get more PT

[hhcmatt 11,736]

I will go out on a limb and say Lat will play very little at the 5 and that a combination of Yvan and Walker will be on the court over 90% of the time.

[OmahaHusker 277]

If McGowens isn’t eligible it’s gonna be another rough year IMHO 

[LK1 1,418]

1 hour ago, hhcmatt said:

I will go out on a limb and say Lat will play very little at the 5 and that a combination of Yvan and Walker will be on the court over 90% of the time.

It really depends if Lat is better at the 4 than Shamiel.  If he is, then Yvan is probably our 5th best player to role out there.  Lat is definitely a more natural 4.  

[REDitus 51]

9 hours ago, hhcmatt said:

I will go out on a limb and say Lat will play very little at the 5 and that a combination of Yvan and Walker will be on the court over 90% of the time.

I agree with this.    I like a Stevenson and Lat rotation at the 4. 

 

I think it's a 9 man rotation like this.  

 

Banton----------------|

                                >  Thor

Webster--------------|            

 

Allen--------------------|

                                  >  Lat,Arop

Stevenson------------| 

 

Yvan--------------------->   Walker

Edited June 28 by REDitus

[Norm Peterson 9,133]

On 6/26/2020 at 10:58 PM, Vinny said:

If Thor is our 5th starter and also 6th man of the year, it’s going to be a wild ride!

 

6th man if he's not a starter.

[Norm Peterson 9,133]

On 6/27/2020 at 8:54 PM, hhcmatt said:

I will go out on a limb and say Lat will play very little at the 5 and that a combination of Yvan and Walker will be on the court over 90% of the time.

 

You may be right. And I considered that. Maybe if I'd seen more of Walker, I'd think differently. But I look at his numbers from Tennessee (very small sample size) and, unless he's really REALLY improved, he probably isn't going to see a lot of time on the floor. (I get that he was buried on the depth chart on a very good Tennessee team, but while it's true there were a lot of good players in front of him, it's also true that his numbers would have kept him off the floor even on a bad team -- 29% from the foul line? Yikes.)

 

Yvan has a lot to offer in terms of strength and heft and holding his position defensively on the inside. But he also  has a lot of work to do on skill development. And I'd like to see him look a little more explosive. He was tentative taking it to the basket when he was in scoring position and, as a result, wasn't very effective scoring inside. I think the game was still going a little too fast for him at the end of the season. He could make huge strides this off-season. But it'd be helpful if he was here.

 

Meanwhile, we have this kid who is as long as anyone on the roster, put up good rebounding numbers in juco, and is a solid shooter, including over 80% from the stripe. And I think it's more likely that Lat can put on weight and build strength between now and November than it is that Yvan suddenly develops soft hands. And Derrick Walker is still too much of an unknown commodity for me to assume that he's transformed his game since his days in Tennessee. Maybe he has. But he'd have to in order to get the starting nod here.

 

I'm fairly comfortable that starters will include Banton, Allen, and Webster. I took Thor over Shamiel. But that could be a foot race, honestly.

 

And then I looked at all the possibilities to fill the big man role. And I decided they all have their strengths and they all have some glaring weaknesses (absent updated info on Walker). So, whose balance of strengths and weaknesses will benefit the team the most? I went with the springy, long kid who shoots the ball well and rebounds.

[Swan88 1,358]

Here are some details about Lat Mayen from Huskers.com:

 

Mayen spent the 2019-20 season at Chipola (Fla.) College . . . , helping the school to an 18-10 record. Mayen, who was the No. 34 prospect in the latest JucoRecruiting Top 100, averaged 11.8 points per game on 47 percent shooting along with 8.4 rebounds and 2.7 assists per game. He shot 38 percent from 3-point range (38-99) and 81.5 percent from the foul line for the season.

Inside conference play, he raised his numbers across the board, averaging 14.6 point and 9.1 rebounds per game, shooting 47 percent from the field and 39 percent from 3-point range on his way to collecting earned first-team All-Panhandle Conference accolades. On the year, Mayen totaled eight double-doubles in his lone season at the school, highlighted by a 20-point, 16-rebound effort against Northwest Florida State.  In all, he reached double figures in 20 of his 28 appearances and totaled 11 double-figure rebounding efforts as a sophomore.

[ConkintheCorner 234]

I also agree wit Lat at the 4.  Any word on when we might expect Yvan to get here...??  Robin W. continues to be pretty confident that Trey will play this year. 

I will leave him off for now but just thought id mention that.

 

Banton

Kobe/Trey if eligible

Teddy

LAT

Yvan

[jayschool 3,124]

Whatever the lineup, is this more of a:

• Pikiell at Rutgers rebuild second season (3-15, 14th place in 14-team conference); a
• Miles at Nebraska rebuild second season (11-7, 4th place in a 14-team conference); a 
• Hoiberg at ISU rebuild second season (12-6, tied for third in 10-team conference); OR
• Somewhere in between.

 

I think this roster lands us somewhere in between Pikiell and Miles/Hoiberg, but that's a huge space to occupy. The early non-partisan analysis like this and this, have us struggling to rise much above Pikiell's benchmark, and unless Allen emerges as a Pettway-style all-conference type player and we have other players emerge and complement in the fashion of Rey Gallegos, Shavon Shields, Walter Pitchford, Tai Webster and Benny Parker, they may be right.

[hhcmatt 11,736]

2 hours ago, Norm Peterson said:

Meanwhile, we have this kid who is as long as anyone on the roster, put up good rebounding numbers in juco, and is a solid shooter, including over 80% from the stripe. And I think it's more likely that Lat can put on weight and build strength between now and November than it is that Yvan suddenly develops soft hands. And Derrick Walker is still too much of an unknown commodity for me to assume that he's transformed his game since his days in Tennessee. Maybe he has. But he'd have to in order to get the starting nod here.

 

See, to me it's Walker's two years at Tennessee and a year as a redshirt that makes me think he is more of a known commodity than Mayan who had a partial season at TCU and then one at JUCO. Combine that with Mayan weighing just shy of 210 and it becomes very hard to picture him guarding centers in the B1G unless he has superior rebounding, shot blocking and/or shooting attributes.  He certainly has more range than either Yvan or Walker but I just don't think it's going to be enough to displace the girth those guys bring.  Why else are we still recruiting traditional centers?

 

Hopefully we shall see.