Norm Peterson

What elephant?

Gary and Allick will probably be in a pitched battle for the 4-spot. I give a slight nod to the Lincoln kid. CJ, Ramel and Lawrence fighting over that 6th man guard spot. Whoever is the best option at point probably wins that one. OR we could bring Lawrence into the starting lineup, bump Williams to the 4 and go a bit smaller.

I checked Torvick's site and, without Allick, he had us at #46. WITH Allick (I tested using his "funalytics" function) we bumped up to #42. I'm just going to lay this out here and not trying to slight anyone: Starters: PG Ulis, 6'3 Jr SG Tominaga, 6'2 Sr SG Williams, 6'7 Jr PF Allick, 6'8 Sr C Mast, 6'9 Jr Bench: SG Lawrence, 6'3 So PF Gary, 6'6 Jr SG Lloyd, 6'6 Fr PF/C Breidenbach, 6'10 So

I need a GoFundMe

I really like this kid.

This off-season has been a home run already. If we get Allick also, it's a walk-off.

How do you mean? He will only be a junior, eligibility-wise. But, if he has a good year next year (hopefully for us) he's almost certain to bolt for the bigs. That's not a bad thing.

Ramel has the tools to be successful. How good he is depends on him. The sky is the limit. He's extremely skilled and he's got great length to go with it. Of course, we need to keep in mind that he's just a freshman. There will be growing pains. And while we have a window into what his offensive skills look like, we have no idea how well he holds up on the defensive end. But I'm glad we have him. He might not be the leading scorer but I think he's poised to have an impact, which is all you can really ask for from a freshman.

Not saying you're wrong, but it's just kind of interesting that his name was brought up several weeks ago, long before he declared for the draft or entered the portal.

Heh heh

For anyone who hadn't figured it out by now, the PG we were all talking about was Chucky. I can't tell you how I heard what I heard, but I can say it was more than just idle gossip or manufactured rumor. There was legitimate smoke to the rumors. But then Wisconsin made a run in the NIT and things must have changed, so that didn't pan out. But that's who probably a bunch of us were thinking would be our starting PG next year and we had good reason to think that way. And as I write this, there's still a name out there (not a PG) who could potentially be a difference maker and we still have a spot, so ... stay tuned.

I was composing commentary about what our rotation would look like with Hunter Sallis as the starting PG when the news broke he committed to Wake.

I considered that question also. And then I looked at his stats and saw that, as this past season went along, his minutes were getting squeezed. He averaged about 22.5 minutes on the year, but the last five games, he averaged 16 minutes. Looks like he lost his starting job those last 5 games and his role was diminished. Plus, he was playing for Fran McNuclearBlastery. It's easy to see why he'd be looking for a new environment. Change of scenery will probably do him some good. Watch him blossom.

I like this kid. I hope Fred does. Just a spot for a local, Lincoln kid. Get him now and train him up so you don't have to try to grab him off the portal when he blows up at Wyoming or wherever.

Not only that, but his brother was 5'8 ... and played in the NBA. Which is rare. There was a lot of discussion on Twitter by Kentucky fans hoping that Ahron would come to Kentucky and be coached by his brother who is now an assistant there. Not sure Kentucky offered, but there were a lot of people who were apparently Kentucky fans who seemed to want him.

Looking him up, I found his stats on Max Preps. He's a 6'8 sophomore and he put up 16.5 and 9 with about 2.2 assists and just as many turnovers per game this past season.

Just for visual purposes. PG: Ulis SGs/Wings: Keisei, Lawrence, CJ, Ramel, Brice, Sam (one of those guys is probably Ulis's backup) Bigs: Mast, Gary, Wilhelm, Blaise, Rice (Rice could be a wing for all I know) Two open spots.

This is going to sound sacrilegious, BUT ... Our final Kenpom ranking last year was #94; Bradley's was #90. So, two roughly equal teams in terms of quality. We lost Derrick to graduation, who was certainly ONE of our THREE best players last year. In his place, we got Bradley's BEST guy. He'll be different than Derrick. Some of the things he'll do won't be as good; some of them will be better. For instance, the new guy is a legit 3-point threat. Which might open the door for more Juwan Gary at the 4. Or maybe a fully healthy, rehabbed Wilhelm. Maybe he won't be quite as good as Derrick. But I'm not sure it's more than just a marginal backslide.

Big Ten-caliber PG, check

We'd only be looking at Sallis the PG, not Sallis the SG. So, apples to apples, PG to PG, that's the comparison. I don't think we were looking at Sallis for any other role than PG. And maybe that's how he ended up at Wake. And I'm OK with that.

This was already a homerun off-season of recruiting. We're reaching walk-off HR territory.

OK, so he's a MUCH better perimeter shooter than Sallis. He's not a volume guy, so that's good. Won't mess with our chemistry in terms of guys being uptight about who's going to get the shots. He's not quite as good at the stripe as Sallis, but he's certainly respectable. His assist:turnover ratio is much better. He started on an Iowa team that danced. He knows the Big Ten. Him vs. Sallis is a coinflip if you ask me. I'm comfortable with this.