GhostOfJoeMcCray

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his only double digit scoring game in February or March was against us. Fits the profile of what we look for in transfers.

People said we need to be more athletic like A&M. Well we just got a little closer.

Essegian posted on Twitter that he'll be announcing at 3 p.m. (CT) today.

I have a feeling when late October rolls around we're going to be hearing that Nick Janowski has been surprising people in practice.

P.S. in that game mentioned above for Essegian, Wisconsin was up 46-37 with 13:50 remaining when Gard put him in, and that basket he allowed made it 46-39, and Gard benched him 22 seconds later at the next dead ball. Some might call that tough love coaching, others might call it being a d!ck, and others might call it showing up and embarrassing your player. You're going to pull a guy after giving him 20 seconds and one mistake while you're up 7 on Jacksonville State? Why even put him in then if you have that little confidence in him? Just strange. I would imagine at that moment Essegian put both feet out the door.

I read an article on Essegian. Fans were very high on him and excited about him coming into the season after being on the All-Big Ten Freshman Team. He hurt his back in the first game of the season, then received little playing time because Gard didn't like his defensive effort. Yet as Essegian jogged from the scorers table out onto the court, the ovation was loud. He grinned wryly as he settled into his defensive spot. And as quick as Essegian's joy revealed itself, it vanished. Jacksonville State guard Caleb Johnson cut backdoor, with Essegian allowing a layup to Johnson on his first play of the game. Gard called guard Isaac Lindsey off the bench, who replaced Essegian on the court just 25 seconds after he entered. The cheers for his arrival turned to boos as he departed. He draped a towel over his head and paced for a moment before finding his spot on the bench, again, to wait. "We can't afford to let him play through it," Gard said. "The stakes are too high in terms of what this team wants to accomplish." After Essegian's eighth game of less than 10 minutes, the waiting still continues. The sophomore did check in again, hitting a 3-pointer to finish with three points on 1-of-2 from deep in four minutes, but it's his play on the other end of the floor that put Gard in a position where he feels he cannot allow Essegian to find a rhythm with court time." **I don't know enough about his defensive effort, but I do know Wisconsin fans more or less despise Gard and how he "developed" Essegian.

-We're trying hard to get William Kyle, who would be one of if not the best athletes on the team. -If you watch Milicic tape, he's got a lot more to his game than Allick did and he is not unathletic in the least. Based on his frame and shooting numbers you might assume he's Brian Conklin, but that he is not. He blocked 35 shots last year. Our highest on the team was 21 (Brice and Juwan). We haven't had a player with 35 blocks since 2018-19 (Roby had 66). Those two guys would be instant, huge upgrades and impact players. Now looking at what we already have: -Griffiths is more athletic and 6-8 compared to Keisei's "6-2" and, try as he might, was a big liability on defense. Griffiths blocked 13 shots in 571 minutes last year. For comparison, Allick blocked 12 shots in 785 minutes. Keisei and Lawrence each blocked 1 shot in 800+ minutes. -Eli Rice and CJ Wilcher were not athletic. Essegian isn't Lebron James but he's no stiff out there. -Morgan is more athletic than Mast, especially if Mast is hobbling out there. -Ulis and Worster will give us way more at the PG spot than Lawrence did. We haven't added any high fliers or anything but I think sneakily we've gotten more athletic, and if we can get Kyle and Milicic (please!!!), I will be expecting us to be a Top 25 type of team throughout the year.

I guess I would ask, what do you think their vision should be or what would you expect them to do? You need a well balanced basketball team first and foremost, but beyond that you want players with attributes you value highly (which for us lately has been toughness, high IQ, unselfishness).

I'm with you. We really just need Kyle and Milicic and then the other spots do not matter much to me because then you're already looking at Nick Janowski and Sam Hoiberg being guys 9 and 10 (that's with Mast being out) and if Janowski and Hoiberg are your 9 and 10 then you're in good shape.

Essegian is a career 34.5% over 2 years. Hausen is 39.5%. Keisei was right in the middle at 37.4%. They're all different players though. 45% of Keisei's made field goals this season were 3 pointers. He scores a ton at the basket and gets to the free throw line. 88% of Hausen's made field goals were 3s and he does not shoot free throws. He subs in, stands outside the arc and shoots 3s. Like CJ Wilcher but even less interested in going to the basket. Essegian barely played this year so going off last year, 52% of his made shots were 3 pointers, and he got to the free throw line a decent amount. IMO, if you want a legit 3 point specialist to come off the bench, you go with Hausen. Essegian and Janowski are closer to the same type of player, but I think Janowski is better and I'd rather see him get those minutes.

FWIW: Gavin Griffiths was a top 50 national recruit with offers from UCONN, Alabama, Creighton and others. Nick Janowski was a top 130 national recruit with offers from Marquette, Wisconsin, Iowa State and others. Eli Rice was a top 300 recruit with offers from Georgetown and St. Bonaventure. Jamarques Lawrence was a top 200 recruit with offers from Wake Forest, Cal and DePaul. At least on paper, this is a serious upgrade in talent at guard over Rice and Lawrence. Now, Keisei's clutch shots and momentum changing shots will certainly be missed, don't get me wrong. At the end of the day he provided 15.1 ppg and was a 37.6% three point shooter. I think Griffiths/Janowski and the increased volume for Williams can make up all that difference, and we'll be better defensively just by not having Keisei out there.

Janowski should have been included with Griffiths to make it a more equal comparison. I think Janowski can have a better freshman year than Eli Rice did production wise. And I think Griffiths can have a much better first year here than Keisei did his first year (5.7 ppg, 33% from 3). But it's hard to see Griffiths equaling Keisei's 15.1 points per game and shooting percentages from this season. Also, none of these guys should be confused with being elite defenders. But Eli was terribly slow and Griffiths is 6-8 too and seems way more athletic, so if he even tries that should be an upgrade. And Janowski should be a better defender than Keisei even as a freshman. According to this analytics site EvanMiya.com, Eli Rice had the least defensive value on the team at 0.29. CJ was next at 0.29. Keisei was next at 0.64.

Michigan State makes the most sense given their lineup openings, and that Frankie visited there last and postponed his announcement the next day, probably to let Chucky get his stuff in order.

wonder if he got his million after all or "settled" for $750k

Would Creighton or Michigan State be worse? at least with Creighton we get it over with early in the season and don't have to watch them again. Michigan State we'll be competing with in standings all year long.

certainly feels like all 3 are going to end up at the same school, or at least Fidler/Hepburn. Fidler delaying his commitment, Kyle taking a long time and a lot of visits, Hepburn finally pulling the trigger on what's been rumored for a couple years now.

NCAA already ruled on this in November. I don't think there is any doubt that Ulis is eligible to play this upcoming season. “Effective immediately, reinstatement guidelines for student-athletes who wager on teams at their school — excluding their own team — will start at requiring one season of ineligibility and a loss of one year of eligibility…” the DI council stated in a press release. “Previous guidelines, as approved in June, prescribed permanent ineligibility for those cases. The adjusted guidelines may be applied to cases in which student-athletes are currently serving suspensions related to wagering on a different team at their own school that were reported on or after May 2, 2023.”

Well Payne seems to be out of the picture so we don't have to worry about that. Same for Hugley. And although they didn't play, guys like Kojenets, Keita and Diop were all recruited here and had no outside shooting ability. So I think Fred is comfortable having at least 1 or 2 bigs on the roster who are not a threat from outside.

Allick was 8-22 from 3. He attempted less than 1 three per game and on average made one 3 pointer every 4 games played. Rienk Mast was 42-122. Andrew Morgan was 12-33. Igor Milicic was 56-149. IMO, we need 2 of these 3 above and we'll be fine, and then Kyle will do things on the court none of our other bigs could do last year. I expect Brice to carry a much bigger shooting load with Keisei gone, and Griffiths will make a huge leap over his Rutgers production. Lost in all that is Nick Janowski, who I've been really high on and still think can have a role, especially if he comes in this summer and establishes himself as a shooter. We're also still trying to land Essiegan. Also, no one has seen Ahron Ulis shoot a basketball since having Fred Hoiberg coach him for 12 months. I do not think it's unreasonable to think he can match Jamarques' numbers (36-101, 35.6%) while doing everything else at the PG spot better. Fred Hoiberg is not going to have a roster short on shooters.

Correct, and that's why I agreed with millerhusker that I think we are. Morgan is a better athlete than Mast/Allick. Griffiths is a better athlete than CJ/Keisei. Worster and Ulis are at least equal to if not better athletes than Lawrence. Kyle is the one we really need who is next level compared to anyone on our roster.

This. And I'm glad we're not selling our soul to just go get the most athletic guys out there just to try and beat 2024 Texas A&M that shot unbelievable from 3 and would have beaten almost anyone on that night. We have to continue doing the model that has won us Big Ten games over the last 14 months, which is smart, hard-working, unselfish, experienced dudes who can shoot and will give max effort on defense. You can't win a tournament game if you can't get to the tournament. After the A&M game, some fans seem to think we should be getting athletic freaks and that those same players will also be great shooters and super effective in Fred's 5-out offense and will also have the discipline, work ethic and attitude of a Sam Griesel/Sam Hoiberg. Newsflash: if you are all of those things you are in the NBA or getting offered by UConn/North Carolina/Kansas/Duke.

Woodson can use all the NIL money he wants. Fred coached circles around him though this season.

The more I read about and watch this guy the more I think he may actually be our starter this season. But we need to get some shooters. I didn't realize CJ ended the year 50-127 (39.4%) and Brice ended at 50-129 (38.8%). Nearly identical. Would not have guessed Brice was as accurate from 3 as CJ was, but CJ did struggle quite a bit down the stretch. Keisei was only 37.6% (76-202). Milicic was 56-149 (37.6%). We need at least 1, ideally 2 shooters. I want that to be Milicic and Griffiths.

I get what you are saying, but I also don't think Boogie Coleman was coming here planning to be the #10 guy on our team...but in the end somebody had to be. Boogie accepted that ri$k because it had a good deal of benefit to him even if he ended up being the 10th/11th man. And in this era of college basketball, it's not hard to imagine some kids would rather take a big pay day and potentially not play than get a few hundred bucks and play a lot. And based on what we're seeing it would appear our NIL game is in very strong shape. Kyle visiting here a second time can't hurt, but I can't get a good read on that one. Milicic has said he wants to decide after this upcoming weekend. I guess I like the order of how it's playing out. Morgan signed first, but Milicic probably sees plenty of potential to play right now given Mast's risk of missing some/a lot of time, and also not knowing what Kyle plans to do. Then if they're both signed by the time Kyle decides in late April/early May, well you have to figure Kyle still believes he walks in and starts at the 4 on this team. And then Rienk says I'm good, I'll be ready by November :) One can dream.