I’m curious. Comparing 3 squads from last 10 years

[TourneyBound]

2013-14 starters

David Rivers

Terran Petteway

Walter Pitchford

Tai Webster

Shavon Shields

 

2017-18 Starters

Isaac Copeland

Glynn Watson

James Palmer

Isaiah Roby

Thomas Allen   Evan Taylor

 

2023-24 Starters

Jamarques Lawrence

Keisei Tominaga

Brice Williams

Juwan Gary

Rienk Mast

 

 

Not factoring the benches of each squad…

 

Which starting lineup would you take if you needed to win one game?

 

Rank each starting squad 1-3.

Out of those 15 players who would be your starting 5?
 

 

 

Edited January 29 by ConkintheCorner

[AuroranHusker]

My top 10 of the past 10 years' worth of 3 specific tourney-level squads:

 

Shavon Shields / Juwan Gary

JPJ / Isaiah Roby

Isaac Copeland / Rienk Mast

Terran Petteway / Brice Williams 

Glynn Watson Jr. / Tai Webster

[Serenity Now]

‘17-‘18 squad

[RedEyedFanatic]

Oh man the possibilities....

 

18, 24, 14, still biased because of how 14-15 turned out.

 

Prolly go all 18 guys except Allen. I'd take either mast or keisei for the other spot. They both bring things that squad could use

[49r]

11 minutes ago, Serenity Now said:

‘17-‘18 squad

 

Unquestionably the best starting group of the three.  But as far as depth goes, it was probably the shallowest.  If you pair this years bench with that season's starters, you might have a final four contender on your hands and I'm not even joking.

[hskr4life]

This is a tough tough one.

 

Watson/Webster

 

Petteway/Keisei

 

Palmer/Shields

 

Copeland/Gary

 

Roby/Mast

[Serenity Now]

Glynn, Tai, JPJ, Shields, and Cope. 

[cipsucks]

I kind of like this year's squad.  

[Huskerpapa]

I would take the squad from this year.  The other squads likely have players not in game shape. 

[Vinny]

This is difficult to discern.
 

Mast and Roby are my bigs. 

 

Gary and Palmer are my wings.

 

Brice is bringing it up the floor. 
 

This would give incredible length defensively and make rotations/close outs quicker, everyone would at least need to be respected from three, everyone can get to the basket and very few teams would match us on the boards. 
 

I also choose this lineup with the notion that we’re running the Fred Hoiberg offense we see today. I think a big reason we’ve been successful this season while having a patchwork group at PG, is that the responsibility usually bestowed upon the PG position can be minimized in this offense. 
 

How often do Lawrence, Williams, Sam, even Allick or Mast, bring the ball across mid-court just to immediately hand it off or complete a short pass to the top of the key and get into our motions. A benefit of the five out “positionless” offense, is that, anyone can initiate the offense. 
 

So that would be my five from this group, assuming we’re running today’s offense and defense.

[hskr4life]

8 minutes ago, Vinny said:

This is difficult to discern.
 

Mast and Roby are my bigs. 

 

Gary and Palmer are my wings.

 

Brice is bringing it up the floor. 
 

 

I'd worry about teams packing it in and daring this group to shoot.  While you have to respect Gary, Palmer, and Roby... I also wouldn't mind making those two beat me from outside.  Especially with the driving ability and post up ability of this group.

[Dean Smith]

First of all it seems that everyone is mixing and matching which is fine, but not the op’s question. The no bench is a big factor because 17-18 didn’t really have one but probably had the best five. And  to me people are sleeping on Copeland. His combination of skills and athleticism is probably one of the best to play here. 

[millerhusker]

Best starting lineup: ‘18

Best team: ‘24

Need to win one game: ‘14 because Petteway was cold blooded and that team was hard to score on. We gave Terran the ball in East Lansing and he went and won that game against a damn good Michigan State team. 

[Vinny]

12 minutes ago, Dean Smith said:

First of all it seems that everyone is mixing and matching which is fine, but not the op’s question. The no bench is a big factor because 17-18 didn’t really have one but probably had the best five. And  to me people are sleeping on Copeland. His combination of skills and athleticism is probably one of the best to play here. 

You’re right, I didn’t understand the OP fully. 
 

I’d take this year’s team to win one game, look what they did to Purdue.

 

Worst to best, 13-14, 17-18, 23-24.

 

The last part is what I did answer.

[AuroranHusker]

20 minutes ago, Dean Smith said:

First of all it seems that everyone is mixing and matching which is fine, but not the op’s question. The no bench is a big factor because 17-18 didn’t really have one but probably had the best five. And  to me people are sleeping on Copeland. His combination of skills and athleticism is probably one of the best to play here. 

 

The last question asked who your starting 5 would be, which implies a combination of all 3 teams.

 

I went a step further and made it a top 10, with 2 from each spot (1-5) on the squad.

[TourneyBound]

It’s crazy how talented that starting 5 was in 2017-18..  if I’d rank them I’d prolly rank them by starting lineups only:

1 2017-18

2 2013-14

3 current squad

 

my top 5:

1 TP

2. JPJ

3. Shavon Shields

4. Roby

5. Watson/copeland

 

just something I was thinking about today and thought I’d get some thoughts from the board.  Thought it was interesting. Our current squad may not have the top end talent that those prior teams did but it has a lot more depth. If benches are included I would take our current squad over the other two.

Edited January 26 by ConkintheCorner

[KZRider]

Tough to say since this year is not complete but...

Top Squads

17-18... Current... 13-14

 

Starting 5

Petteway...Palmer...Shields...Roby...Mast

 

Win one game

13-14 - Either Petteway/Shields likely to come through

 

[tcp]

Oh boy, if Copeland didn't get hurt...

 

 

[Dean Smith]

Both very good players but I don’t think TP and Palmer could co-exist for a season. I think 17-18 by far the most talented starting five but had no bench. My combined would be:

 

Watson

Keisei

JPJ

Roby

Copeland

 

We play an 8 1/2 man rotation now. Rice the 1/2. So my bench is:

 

Mast (might send  Roby to the bench vs big teams)

Gary

Thomas

Shields 

 

Everyone could shoot the three, size, physicality, Mast is the least athletic which means you’re solid. 

[big red22]

1 - 2017/2018

2 - 2023/2024

3 - 2013/2014

 

That team in 2017/2018 could of won the the Big 10 and made it to the Sweet 16.  Instead injuries had them hanging their heads and they choked big time.  Talent wise that team wins hands down IMO.

 

2023/2024 Team is very talented, but they have no Glynn Watson to run point and I think Lawrence has been our weakest link this year.  With that said this is our best shooting team since the 90's, but athleticism is slacking.

 

2013/2014 Team was really good, but they lacked a big man.  Shields was great but was not a true basketball player.  He lacked explosiveness!  Pettaway was a beast, but I am not a hero ball fan and he was the epitome.  Pitchfork could shoot the 3, but he was not consistent.  Rivers is the weakest play listed of the 15 you have above.  Webster on paper was great, but definitely never performed to his potential IMO

[jimmykc]

I'll defer until this season ends, and this should assume that none of the injuries happen. Nice topic to ponder, however.

[hugh42]

28 minutes ago, big red22 said:

Shields was great but was not a true basketball player.  He lacked explosiveness!

 

By this logic, Larry Bird was not a true basketball player either. Shields turned out to be a better player than most fans thought he would be. Underrated in my opinion.

[hskr4life]

33 minutes ago, hugh42 said:

 

By this logic, Larry Bird was not a true basketball player either. Shields turned out to be a better player than most fans thought he would be. Underrated in my opinion.

He was also somewhat explosive. Still remember some of his driving dunks including early on in the No Sit Sunday game.  

[hskr4life]

JLaw isn’t as far away from being in the Top 10 either IMO.  If my man is able to create on O and make shots like he was last year… combined with his D this year, he’s a near lock for Top 10 if not starting PG.

[hhcmatt]

13 hours ago, ConkintheCorner said:

2013-14 starters

David Rivers

Terran Petteway

Walter Pitchford

Tai Webster

Shavon Shields

 

While Tai Webster ended up being a pretty good player for us what might be missed is that this is freshman year where he was so ineffectual on the offensive end that Benny Parker off the bench was arguably the better option.  You're getting peak Walt Pitchford here though.

 

2 hours ago, big red22 said:

Rivers is the weakest play listed of the 15 you have above

 

One other thing is that Ray Gallegos started more games than Rivers. For the sake of this argument, that might be a more compelling argument for some.