This year's surprise player of the year ...

[Norm Peterson]

Good or bad.

 

I think there are a lot of potential nominees for this.

 

I'd say most people would have to go with David Rivers as a pleasant surprise.  Whoda thunk that he could step into the starting lineup this year, and comport himself reasonably well, after what we saw from him last season? 

 

In conference play last year, he averaged 6.1 minutes per game in the 9 conference games in which he saw action, and he did not score.  He was 0-13 from the floor including 0-9 from 3 and he went 0-3 from the stripe.

 

This year, Rivers is scoring 6.4 ppg in conference play while shooting 42.9% from the floor and an even better 44.4% from beyond the arc.  And those numbers are actually up from what he did against lesser competition during the nonconference.  So, against stiffer competition, he's actually played better.

 

I would nominate David Rivers for the (pleasant) surprise Player of the Year.

 

Frankly, I think all of the starters have individually performed better than what we might have expected,  But I don't think anyone would have expected to see Rivers starting, let alone be so much preferable an option over anyone else on the bench that you'd see him playing as many minutes (29.5/game in conference) as he has.

 

Other nominees?  Let's hear 'em.

[atskooc]

Shields.

 

Honestly, I didn't expect much from the kid.  I didn't think he was athletic enough. 

 

Dude showed me skills I didn't think he had. 

 

Glad to have been wrong!

[49r]

I like the Shields kid.  

 

Rivers is about what I expected him to be, especially by year 2 (he was a disappointment last year).  Gallegos could also be considered a pleasant surprise, but he was so consistently inconsistent it's hard to put him above Shields.  I'm going with Shields.

 

Then again, it's not like that's a surprise to anyone here I'm sure.

[MandRHusker]

To be the devils avocate, I say Dylan Talley. We all expected him to be good but did we really expect him to be as good as he has played the 2nd half of the B1G season? Since Dyaln has become comfortable playing point guard he has played lights out and the team is dramatically better as a result!

[cozrulz]

To be the devils avocate, I say Dylan Talley. We all expected him to be good but did we really expect him to be as good as he has played the 2nd half of the B1G season? Since Dyaln has become comfortable playing point guard he has played lights out and the team is dramatically better as a result!

 

I wasn't even thinking about Talley but without him we only have 2 or 3 wins in conference.  I was going to go with Rivers but will give the nod to Talley.

[royalfan]

Talley not a complete surprise.  But he could qualify since it is surprising how much and how well he has handled the basketball.  If he qualifies then him.   But in the spirit of the question as I see it, I go Shields.  But Rivers indeed surprise me as well.  Gallegos surprised me some as well with ability to score in bunches. 

[Huskerpapa]

I really have no surprises.  The closest to being a "surprise" would be the growth of David Rivers.  If he can improve as much from this year to next year as he did from last year to this year, it will be fantastic.

[KZRider]

Positively, I'd agree with Rivers.

 

On the other hand, I guess I was surprised Parker struggled to play well. While I didn't expect him to be an elite guard in his freshman year, I expected him to be our point guard at least a good bit of the time. He may still prove to be a good player for us but not what I hoped for this year.

[FredsSlacks]

Vooch

[hal9000]

Positively, I'd agree with Rivers.

 

On the other hand, I guess I was surprised Parker struggled to play well. While I didn't expect him to be an elite guard in his freshman year, I expected him to be our point guard at least a good bit of the time. He may still prove to be a good player for us but not what I hoped for this year.

I agree, I though Parker was going to look to score way more than he has this year.  I admit I bought into his highlight reels.   I know I shouldn't do that.  But didn't he score close to 20 / game in high school? 

[colhusker]

I will go with Rivers.  Here is hoping Parker makes the same kinds of strides.

[PAhusker]

Talley based on last year he was nothing more than a role player and i never really saw him being anything more than that even though we knew he had to, combined with him moving to point which i never pictured. he might be the hottest player in the conference right now

[AuroranHusker]

Talley based on last year he was nothing more than a role player and i never really saw him being anything more than that even though we knew he had to, combined with him moving to point which i never pictured. he might be the hottest player in the conference right now

 

Talley taking over at point was nothing short of amazing as far as performance of his game & the team's. Dylan Talley is the surprise for his transformation to B1G point guard/forward.

[nustudent]

Tough to nail down one.

 

I think the votes for Shields, Rivers and Talley are all spot on.

[jimmykc]

Talley because of his impact on our victory total this year, his attitude, and his durability since I had thought he was damaged goods.

[Badgett Fan]

Bad: Almeida

I really thought the guy I saw against Minnesota this week would have shown up in at least half of the conference games. But, other than him and Vooch, every player has either met or exceeded my expectations. That's kind of rare in college hoops, where there usually seems to be a pretty equal mixture of met and unmet message board/talk radio growth expectations, and that's why I agree with the more tempered expectations for next year that I've seen on a couple of the other threads on here. Team's absolutely on a good trajectory, but it's going to take some time to move up to the middle of the Big 10 pack. Hate that Maryland's being added in 2 years.

[waverlydude]

Ubel and has stepped up his came and has surprised me being a great leader

[waverlydude]

game not came still need more coffe

[AuroranHusker]

game not came still need more coffe

 

Definitely, coffee. 

 

 

And, I do like Ubel's contribution to the team as a bonafide leader.  Sure wish he'd have another year under his belt before his SR campaign, but I guess we'll need to hope he steps up again & again for these final few ballgames.

[kldm64]

Surprise = Shields & Rivers

Disappointment = Parker & Almeida

[hhcmatt]

I'd have to say Rivers....he was actually the freshman from last year I was most surprised was still on the roster.

Next would be Shields.  He played with some talent in Kansas so I thought he could ball...might have been a different story with a deeper roster.

Tyrance and Peltz also were surprises as well.  If Peltz had stayed healthy he probably would still be playing significant minutes.

 

Talley made the JUCO jump and since we've been running on JUCOs for the last 3-4 years it wasn't a big surprise.

I thought Gallegos was going to be lined up for minutes so that wasn't surprising either

[Norm Peterson]

Yeah, I think some people may have forgotten what kinds of things were being said about Rivers before this season.  In the eyes of some, it has to be somewhat of a minor miracle that David was able to beat out Sergej for minutes this year.  A number of people on this board shared the perception that, in their estimation, David could barely walk and chew gum at the same time, let alone walk and dribble the basketball.  Yet, the gap between Rivers and any non-starter on the roster is giant.  And this is a team that generally has exceeded most everyone's best guess about how well they would do and they did it even with David Rivers playing 30 minutes per game.

 

Now, who would honestly have thought before the season that Rivers would be a 30 minute/night starter at all, let alone for a team that exceeded most everyone's expectations?

 

Again, I think arguments can be made that all of the starters have exceeded expectations and been surprises.  I think the most persuasive argument is that Rivers is the biggest surprise.

[49r]

Agree, Norm, which is why I have a hard time understanding why Benny and Sergej are getting so easily written off by so many on here.

[Silverbacked1]

But remember Norm we have 4 maybe more better players coming in next year.

 

Where are all the minutes going to come from.

[hhcmatt]

Agree, Norm, which is why I have a hard time understanding why Benny and Sergej are getting so easily written off by so many on here.

 

To play devil's advocate, Parker and Sergej will be fighting Mike Peltz to be the 10th man for a team that might only go 8-9 deep and in today's NCAA guys transfer.

 

Will Parker stick it out if he's not playing/thinks he won't be playing next year?  Biggs and Webster will probably be handling the rock next year or two...does that leave any minutes for Biggs?  Is playing time the most important thing for Parker?  Can he develop into a viable offensive force?

 

Sergej shows flashes of offense and a shooters touch and he's the default second string center next year...unless he was a complete whiff by the coaching staff in terms of either athleticism and/or dedication, he should play next year unless we want to run Pitchford into the ground like Ray.  He is the early favorite for next year's surprise player.