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

[HB]

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.

 

Guilty as charged, Norm.  I do recall scoffing at CWG when he suggested Rivers could be decent.   Bugeater Moon said the same thing based on his prior practice observations.  You may have been with those guys as well; I can't recall.    In any event, I was on the wrong side of this one, I'm happy to acknowledge.

[Norm Peterson]

HB, if you looked at what he did in games last year, you would have had good reason for having very low expectations.  (And you certainly weren't the only one.)  He was O fer everything in conference play last year.  That's one of the reasons I think he's runaway winner for pleasant surprise POY.  Few people could look at what he did this season and say, "Yeah, I saw that coming."

[nustudent]

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.

I understand on Sergei.  He can add weight and we will have holes in the front court.

 

Parker is another story though.   He has one issue effecting him that he will never be able to fix.   Even a guy like Rivers had some physical attributes that allow him to be pretty good.  He just had to develop his game.

 

Parker is fighting much more of an up hill battle.

[Norm Peterson]

Yeah, Parker is in a tough spot.  He's a good kid and he plays pretty decent on-ball defense.  He does as good a job fighting over the top of screens as any guard we have right now.  But he's offensively challenged and there's no real one single area on offense where he excells and, unfortunately, a few areas where he's lacking.  He's not a good perimeter shooter.  Nor is he a particularly effective driver, able to get into the lane.  That's important for a PG because if you can penetrate, you can dish or kick the ball out.  So he's not hitting outside jumpers and he's not taking his defender off the dribble and driving.

 

When you have a liability (size, in this case) you have to make up for it somehow.  For example, for Cookie Miller, he made up for lack of size with quickness.  I don't think Benny has Cookie's quicks.  If he did, he might be able to get it into the lane and hit some of those little floaters, which would force defenses to account for him.  Lacking that, he's always going to be facing an uphill battle for playing time.  And that's too bad because I think Benny's a good kid who wants to succeed.

 

Honestly, I think his confidence may have taken the kind of hit that David Rivers' did last year when he stopped getting minutes.  Hopefully that isn't the case and hopefully he works through things.  He's just a freshman.  It's not like he's maxed out and hit his ceiling on ability.  But, yeah, especially given our recruiting, he's in a minutes crunch and might wind up on the short end of that stick.

[Cazzie22]

Dylan Talley's job at PG was totally unexpected and a key reason that the team was comptetive.  He is the Team's player of the year in my humble opinion.

[Cazzie22]

Duh!  The game is tomorrow!  No wonder I couldn't find it on TV.....AAAUUUGGGHHHH!!!!

[Norm Peterson]

Dylan Talley's job at PG was totally unexpected and a key reason that the team was comptetive.  He is the Team's player of the year in my humble opinion.

An argument can definitely be made for that position. 

[PimpMario]

I was never publicly hard on Rivers.  And I did think it was hard to give a freshman such a bad time.  Everyone wanted him to transfer is what I remember.

 

Having said that, Rivers has performed so much better than I ever anticipated.