Norm Peterson

Hey, I forgot Kobe, so I'm no one to point fingers.

Oh, yeah, I forgot Kobe.

You don't not start the first 5-star recruit in program history if you ever want there to be a second.

So, if things stay the way they are, right now, from what you're hinting, we're looking at: 6-4 CG Trey McGowens (Jr.) 6-5 CG C.J. Wilcher (R-Fr.) 6-6 CG Bryce McGowens (Fr.) 6-9 S4 Lat Mayen (Jr.) 6-11 PF Eduardo Andre (R-Fr.) 6-0 CG Kobe Webster 6-1 CG Keisei Tominaga (So.) 6-9 CG Dalano Banton (So.) 6-9 S4 Wilhelm Breidenbach (Fr.) 6-8 PF Derrick Walker (Jr.) And if we land the 6-7 SF we're looking at, he'd get slotted in there somewhere? Is that about the size of what you're thinking?

I've seen this sentiment a couple of places. Explain, please.

So, what do we need to finish out the roster? Also, the statement "Banton does not fit that role with Walker or Andre" is true only if Banton doesn't develop a jumper. It's not beyond the realm of possibility that Banton gets his shot grooved in the off-season. He does things Lat does not. So, if he can develop a perimeter jumper, which he could, then he could be that stretch 4. Mayen needs to look over his shoulder at a couple of players.

NBA or follow Beard to UT?

Willcher brings something to the table that neither Banton nor Webster bring: the ability to hit high 30s from beyond the arc.

If he'd said that 5 years ago, he might still be our coach.

If we get him, your brother is clueless about basketball and doesn't know how to evaluate talent. If we don't get him, whew, dodged a bullet, he wasn't that good anyway. Did you see what Jimmy's brother said?

"Oh, you want more playing time? I'm sorry, but do you have a 5-star younger brother? No? Oh well, blame your mom and dad for your lack of PT, then."

Something else worth pointing out about Baylor (apropos to this thread) is that, of their top 6 players in terms of minutes played (the guys getting roughly 20 minutes or more), 4 of those 6 players were transfers, including the top 2 minutes/scoring guys. Auburn, UNC-Ashville, Baylor, Baylor, Presbyterian, UNLV. Those are the schools at which the national champs' top 6 players started their college careers. And when Scott Drew went after players in the portal, he clearly prioritized guards who could shoot. Macio Teague was a ~44% career 3-pt shooter in 2 years at UNC-A. Flagler was a >38% 3-pt shooter in one season at Presbyterian and he improved that by 5% in his sophomore year at Baylor.

That's not far off. Perhaps a closer analogy would be going from plain cough syrup to cough syrup with a whiskey chaser. From a 3.25 on the enthusiasm meter to a good, solid 5.5.

OK, let me put it this way: Tyon Grant-Foster is like a slightly taller version of Akol Arop. Except with good knees. And better ball skills. And (from the sounds of things) can play defense without getting lost. And if he was good enough for Bill Self to recruit, then who am I to question it? Let's reel him in, I guess.

C'mon, guys, we've been through this before. It's camera-angle bias. He's actually much, much taller than the guy he's standing next to. It's just that the other guy is closer to the camera so he only *appears* bigger. I'm sorry, that's all I've got.

Alright. I'm OK with this. Not saying I'm sold, but there's enough there to figure the coaches know what they're looking at and what they want.

Well, juco recruiting had him as the #1 juco recruit last year, ahead of Teddy Allen (#8) and Lat Mayen (#18). So, if we land him, it'd be like swapping out the #8 juco recruit for the #1 juco recruit. At least we'd be moving in the right direction there.

In the video, his shot looks like he should be a lot better than a 13% 3-pt shooter. I think he was like 34% in juco ball.

No, I'm asking why him? He shot 13% from 3. 50% from the line. We can't do better? This doesn't even feel like sloppy seconds.

Why?

OK, offered without commentary: 20-21: Banton-T McGowens-Webster T McGowens-Thorbjarnarson-Webster Allen-Thorbjarnarson-Stevenson Mayen-Stevenson-Lakes Walker-Andre-Ouedraogo 21-22 T McGowens-Banton-Webster B McGowens-Tominaga Wilcher-Banton-T McGowens Mayen-Breidenbach-Lakes Walker-Andre Bold denotes player with returning experience

I'm more worried about him having the heft to body up against Trayce Jackson-Davis or other league PFs.

Here's what I think about Breidenbach. I don't know if he's good enough to leapfrog Lat Mayen out of the gate. But I believe he is good enough that Lat will have to bring his "A game" in order to start ahead of Wilhelm. And he'll have to continually improve in order to keep that lead. And, if he doesn't, I believe Wilhelm will be good enough to give him a good run for his money.

Reminds me of the discussion you had with @basketballjones about Teddy Allen.

Going into this past season, I had my doubts about whether we'd be improved at all, and I openly questioned why anyone thought we'd be any better in Hoiberg's 2nd season than we were in his first. For a traditional sunshine pumper, I was decidedly gloomy in my forecast. Some on here tried to rescue me with arguments as to why a virtually-completely overhauled roster in year 2 would be any better than a virtually-completely overhauled roster was in year 1. We know how that turned out. I'm going to take a cautiously optimistic approach this time around. Reasons we were bad before: Hoiberg Year 1: A 17-year-old freshman with stone hands beat out anyone else we had to start at center, and he was backed up by undersized true freshman Kevin Cross; For a team built around "loving the three" we shot less than 32% from beyond the arc as a team and nobody was good enough from a volume perspective to make at least 50 threes on the year; We couldn't rebound for crap (12th in the league); We couldn't hit free-throws (13th in the league); Chemistry was questionable Hoiberg Year 2: Walker was suspended for half the season and Andre got COVID and so we had to continue to play an 18-year-old with stone hands at center for half the year; For a team built around "loving the three" we shot just more than 33% from beyond the arc as a team and nobody was good enough from a volume perspective to make at least 50 threes on the year; We still couldn't rebound (last in the league in rebounding margin); Still couldn't hit free-throws (again 13th in the league); Turned the ball over a lot (last in league in assist:turnover ratio); Chemistry was still questionable Reasons we *might* be better in 21-22: Eduardo has a lot of upside and Walker ain't bad. Eduardo comes back as a "seasoned" freshman and has the potential to be a future star. Great length, solid athleticism, good hands. And he's only going to get better as he gets older and adds muscle to his frame, which could be as soon as next season; We'll have Walker to start the season; We'll play a non-con that should include more of the usual cupcakes that will teach our players how to win; The recruits we're bringing in should be a substantial upgrade over the players they replace on the roster; We return the core of our top 8 rotation, including basically all of our starters so, for the first time since Hoiberg came here, we'll have some returning experience and won't have to use flash cards to try to remember who's who; On paper, we're bringing in some shooters who should move the needle significantly in terms of our team 3-pt%. I'm guessing an aggregate improvement of maybe 3%, which might not sound like much, but would have been good enough to move us to 6th in the league in 3-pt accuracy this past season, and a virtual dead-heat with 4th and 5th place Wisconsin and Ohio State; The guys who are likely to have the ball in their hands the most when opponents foul are almost certain to be significantly better FT shooters than their counterparts this past season. In fact, I'm going to go out on a limb and say that Eduardo Andre's bad FT numbers last year were because: 1) he didn't get a lot of opportunities; and 2) it was a team-wide funk. I've seen this kid shoot FTs. He's a natural 70% FT shooter. And I think that's where he'll be when, as a team, we don't see that team-wide funk.