Norm Peterson

Three team round-robin works. Less complicated that way. And both teams are in town already? Nevada is for sure.

Can you guys imagine fielding a starting lineup where you have a 6'9 point guard distributing to a 6'6 5-star freshman guard, a 6'6 senior guard, a 6'9 senior stretch 4, and (depending on lineups) either a 6'7 senior forward or a 6'0 sophomore guard, all of whom can probably hit the three at ~ a 40% clip or better? It boggles the mind.

I know I've said this, but I really would like to see a Eduardo Andre get a chance. Maybe he's a stiff. We'll find that out soon enough. But his length is far greater than anyone else's on the roster. He's the only one who represents a real shot-blocking threat that would allow us to play more aggressive perimeter defense. I don't expect he'll be a stiff, though. And, if there's not clear separation between him and the next big, then I think you give the nod in minutes to the guy who represents more upside in the long term, and that has to be Eduardo. If Eduardo can beat out the other bigs, then my ideal starting lineup would be: 1. Banton 2. McGowens, B. 3. Allen (unless he turns pro, in which case McGowens, T.) 4. Mayen 5. Andre Small ball lineup would be: 1. Banton 2. McGowens, B. 3. McGowens, T. 4. Allen (unless he turns pro, in which case either Wood or Tominaga) 5. Mayen

Why do you assume Teddy Allen won't be an NBA draft pick next year? I'm not kidding about this. I think there's a reasonable chance he blows up this year and gets drafted. (And if he does, it will mean DONU will have done pretty well this season, so that would be OK, too.)

Tennessee just cancelled their event, so a couple of teams like VCU and Charlotte suddenly have openings on their schedules. Tennessee basketball cancels Volunteer Classic (247sports.com)

Anyone who picked Samari Curtis over Elijah Wood probably hasn't seen this video: Elijah Wood (B-CC) 2018 Capitol Hoops Summer League Mixtape at DeMatha - YouTube

I'd be down with that. I would have preferred St. Louis and San Francisco but I'd take Nevada and NoDakSt in a swap and not feel too bad about it.

He’s a good shooter. If he can run the point, that makes him pretty rare as a 6’6 point guard who can also shoot.

So, did anyone change their vote from where it was originally?

Teammate this year of Bryce McGowens at Legacy Early College. Was offered this spring. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WH5Z8IkE1HA

Most interesting statistic in Hoiberg's spiel: Lat Mayen going 86 out of 100 on shooting treys in a particular drill they ran and then following it up with 83 out of 100. Second-most interesting statistic: We were in the bottom 50 teams in NCAA D1 for size last year; this year, we're in the top 50. Let that sink in a bit. From bottom 15% to top 15%. That probably strongly correlates with our bad rebounding a year ago.

Last year's freshman class had superior numbers. Yvan and Kevin were both major contributors, but that has more to do with the quality of the rest of the roster than it does with them, to be honest. I think this might be the closest category, but I have to say I think that I think Eduardo will probably be a better player by the end of this season than Yvan was by the end of his first year. I just think Eduardo has such a high ceiling and his height and length, coupled with agility and some developed skill, suggest to me he's going to overtake Yvan relatively quickly. Yvan is very strong and can hold his position in the low post pretty well. But he's an offensive liability. He has hard hands and doesn't catch the dish and get off the ground quickly. What I've seen from Eduardo is a kid who needs some polish but his skill level as a high school senior was higher than Yvan's at the end of his freshman year. Eduardo is a shot-blocker, which is something Yvan was not and probably will never be. But that's the difference between an athletic 6'11 guy with a 7'5 wingspan and 6'7 guy with maybe a 6'9 wingspan.

Jervay and Cam where ranked slightly ahead of Teddy and Lat. (I went off memory for last year's ranking but I double-checked to confirm the rankings for this year's group: https://www.jucorecruiting.com/2020-junior-college-basketball-player-rankings-top-100.). Teddy and Lat both have D1 experience, which Cam and Jervay lacked. In the end, I think Jervay's skills were more reflected by his FT% from juco (bad) than his 3-pt% from juco (good.) And Cam was uber athletic, extremely talented, with major holes in his game and some mommy issues. I don't think this is even a close call, especially after hearing that Lat shot 86/100 treys in a recent drill. Wowzer. Dachon isn't just beaten out by shear numbers in the sit-out transfer category. Dachon might be as good or better than Shamiel and Derrick but I would be beyond shocked if he's anywhere near as talented as Dalano. And the immediately-eligible guys, clearly the nod goes to this year as well. Haanif was a solid teammate and a good player who did a lot of good things. I don't think he's as good as Trey. And even without the injury, I just don't think Matej will end up as good as Kobe. So ...

Is there one category that weighs in favor of last year?

I could only ask a certain number of questions, so this is part 1. Part 2 will have freshmen and returning players. I'm not going to ask about walk-ons or players sitting out not eligible.

Wow. Honestly? This makes me feel a lot more optimistic about the upcoming season. It looks like guys who you wouldn’t have expected to be solid shooters based on numbers put up at their last stops have really stepped up their game. The length we can put on the floor is very encouraging. And that was just crazy how Lat Mayen hit 86 of 100 three-pointers in a drill followed by 83 of 100. I think we’ll be able to shoot and will certainly be able to rebound a hell of a lot better than last year. Our defense should be better just because it looks like we have guys who care.

So Chadron State is the replacement for Illinois state? Now I hate the red birds even more. They killed Kenny.

What’s so hard to pronounce about Keisha?

I assume it's a quicker reset. But we had such high hopes for Jervay Green and we all know how that turned out.

After last year, you're kind of reluctant to jump in with both feet until you see some actual results on the floor. But if a few certain things break our way, we could surprise some people. Teddy Allen: Can his game translate to the Big Ten? And does he keep it together? Dalano Banton: Is he for real? Is the talk justified? Is he more than just a tall distributor? Trey McGowens: Which Trey shows up? The one who went off for 24 pts against UNC or the one who was held scoreless by Arkansas Pine-Bluff? Lat Mayen: Is Lat a typical juco who will need a year to get up to speed? Or a guy who comes in ready for P5 play? Yvan Oudraogo: Is his game a year older? Or will someone else take his spot in the starting lineup? If enough of these don't knows break our way, we could be pretty dangerous this year.

There's a part of me that looks at the roster and thinks this team looks reasonably complete and could be very competitive depending on how good some of the players are. There's another part of me that remembers last year. I didn't expect last year to be great, but I sure expected it to be better than 7 wins. A lot we didn't know about how good the players on last year's team would be, but there's a lot we don't know about how good the players on this year's team are. I want to believe this team could be pretty good, but we could be a lot better than last year and still be pretty terrible. I think we're just going to have to play a few games before I feel like I have any sense of what to expect.

How many years in the past have I lamented "if we just had a decent power forward" or "the only thing missing is a really good shooting guard" or words to that effect? It seemed like a lot of years we were just one player short, had decent quality starters at 4 out of 5 spots, but could just never seem to put it all together. You look at this roster and you go by what we've been told and you think this might actually be a season where we might have 4.5 out of 5 if not 5 out of 5 spots. And then I think we have some quality depth as well. The question is whether we have enough good shooters that your leading scorer can have an off night and it doesn't kill you. And then, for me, I wonder how much of a step forward Yvan has taken (or if others on the roster are further along.) But, yeah. I hear ya.

Never got a shot at the title, though. Soft chin.

I needed to give this both an up arrow and a laugh emoji. One is not enough.

I don't doubt this to be true. Don't doubt it at all. Teddy is a junkyard dawg. He's just going to put up points and that's just the way it's going to be. He's like the kid on the 6th grade basketball team who scores the most points not because he's more skilled than anyone else but because he's just more aggressive than anyone else and just more determined. Watch some of his freshman year highlights. The kid was fearless. No deer in the headlights look. He's like the honey badger. So, you're a big ol' lion, huh? Honey badger don't GAF. He's going to through a dunk down on your ass and act like it was NBD. In fact, I think "Honey Badger" as a nickname might be more fitting than "Teddy Buckets."