Norm Peterson

Of course, the next question is, after the iceberg collapsed, did it leave Conception Bay immaculate?

Sign of a coming apocalypse? God telling us we're about to get f____ed?

I stand corrected.

which is about like losing a quarterback to incarnate word.

Sure, but 2 things: 1. We were never as bad as Grand Canyon; and 2. He was playing ahead of KEVIN!

Speaking of Yvan Ouedraogo, I looked up his stats just now and, remarkably, he averaged more points and rebounds as a 17-year-old true freshman at Nebraska than he did last year as a 4th-year player at Grand Canyon U. How is that even possible?

Kind of an extremely impoverished man's Zion Williamson. It's like he's built like Yvan Ouedraogo but with, like, skills.

I probably got that started, so blame me. I've been calling him that since we first signed him. Rivals lists him at 6'7, 210#, which, coming out of HS, is pretty beefy. That's about Juwan Gary's dimensions. And, when I look at his game, it just strikes me that it translates more to a stretch 4 than a shooting guard. I think his frame will easily support another 20-25 pounds of muscle. He has good range as a shooter, but I don't see him having the quickness to guard Big Ten 1s and 2s.

Here's another PG who just entered the portal. https://www.espn.com/mens-college-basketball/player/_/id/4701222/jeremiah-williams

This guy just entered the portal. https://n.rivals.com/content/athletes/b-j-edwards-260374?view=pv

Here's what we have That leaves us 2 scholarship spots available. Now, what do we need?

Here, let's play a game of "Never Have I Ever." Never have I ever seen a highlight video for a kid that shows him missing 4 mid-range jumpers in a row.

Here's a semi-up-to-date breakdown for the entire conference: https://www.si.com/college/indiana/basketball/big-ten-basketball-transfer-portal-tracker

He was a good guy. I ran into him before the season started last year and talked to him about how his rehab was going and how things looked headed into the season. Good kid. I shall not speak ill of him. But did anyone have him pencilled in as a starter?

Sorry, I need to catch up on this discussion. My wife and I were out at the Venue with another couple last night, so I was away from the board for a bit. What’s going on?

NFM

And our resident male model is just the guy to do it.

This is a GREAT year for us to be able to take a foreign trip. You get a bunch of extra practices (and some games) which will be really helpful when you consider we lost 2 really important pieces from our starting lineup and need a little bit of game reps to figure out how the pieces are going to fit together. And there will be some GREAT head-to-head competitions within the roster. Allick vs. Gary. Gary is muscle and defensive motor; Allick is a bit more finesse and polish. Mast vs. Breidenbach/Keita/Allick. Let's see Mast face all comers. It's like Porsche vs. Ferrari. Mast is precision German engineering; the other guys might be a bit more agile and quick but more likely to blow a gasket. Ulis vs. Lloyd. They both want the PG job. Age against beauty. Experience against talent. Who distributes better? Who follows the script better? Does the ball stop in either of their hands too much? Who plays better defense? Wilcher vs. Williams vs. Lawrence vs. Tominaga. Four guys fighting for two spots. Keisei's job seems pretty secure. But can CJ find an extra gear and fight for a spot in the rotation? He'll have to dig deep or he'll be odd man out.

And, in fairness, Gary was also battling a shoulder problem all season until he finally went down against ... Illinois? It'll be interesting to see 1) how well Gary recovers following surgery; and 2) if he does recover completely, how much better of a player he is. Also, Josiah Allick had post-season surgery on his ankle. So ...

I'm going to bet on Wilhelm's development over Blaise's ankles/knees/etc.

Gary's high-water mark was last year when he shot 26% on 57 attempts from beyond the arc and 62% from the line. Allick's high-water mark was his junior year at UMKC when he shot 36% on 36 attempts from beyond the arc and 75% from the line. Combine his sophomore and junior years at UMKC and he was a combined 29 of 81 for 35.8% before slumping last season. According to Torvik's stats, Gary was 65.5% at the rim and 34.4% on other 2-pointers for us last year. Allick was 70.3% at the rim and 42.9% on other 2-pointers last year at New Mexico. Even with a bad year from downtown, Allick's EFG last year was about 10 pts higher than Gary's. Their rebounding numbers are very similar. Gary is *slightly* better on defensive rebounding and Allick slightly better on the offensive side. Allick was a full-time starter logging 32 minutes/game on a New Mexico team that was 35-40 spots better than us depending on whose computer you're going by. I agree Gary can guard all 5 spots. Allick is longer. It'll be an interesting battle.

It's gonna be a pitched battle. We'll see.

Fred likes his lefties.

Sam G out doing some recruiting.

Perfect example: When the reporter asked him about the last play of regulation and he's says, yeah, they're going to pull my 'defense' card over that one. I think the reporter thought the teammate botched the play and Josiah was like, nope, it was all my fault. No excuses. Just this is what I was trying to do, but I didn't communicate it to my teammate and that's how I botched the play. And then I almost did it again at the end of OT. (paraphrased.) I mean, yeah, that was refreshing. Guys who take responsibility like that are the guys who are very coachable. And he was trying to base his decision to come here on basketball reasons and not just because his sister is a rockstar on the volleyball team, so he's looking to work on his 3-point shot and get back to the level he was at when he was at UMKC. And he thinks Fred can get him there. And I have every confidence he will give it the effort it requires.