Aargh wrote:Stutz made a lot of improvement between his Fr and So years, and had a lot of improvement in the second half of his So year. Stutz is likely to have another 15 pounds this year and be more physical and aggressive. I'll take Stutz with 2 years of experience in WSU's system over a transfer with no on-court experience in his teams' system.
Orukpe is a mystery, but he's likely to be a reasonably effective minute-eater backing up Stutz. Orukpe is not currently an offensive threat, although he will stuff it if he gets the ball close to the hoop. He doesn't have a good sense of where to position himself for rebounds, but he is an exceptional leaper for someone 7' tall and he can get some rebounds when he's not in position. He's a decent passer and was used in JuCo to set up their scoring machine guard.
The rest of WSU's front court is Durley, Blair, and Ellis - all of who have significant MVC experience. CU had Lawson and air. Now they have Lawson and Echenique (sp?). I think it's safe to say that when CU plays WSU, the front court play could get physical. Then it could become a game of front court depth because of foul issues.
WSU has weapons if Stutz and Durely are on the bench with fouls. I don't understand the confidence of the CU fans. In a physical game, what does CU have in reserve if their two frontline guys are on the bench? Before you trot out your 6'11" guy that weighs 180, I will confidently assure you that WSU's 7', 250 guy from Nigeria is likely to look like a scoring machine against a guy that physically overmatched.
Your explaination of the Shockers is exactly why just about everyone, including Bluejay fans, have picked Wichita State to win the league. I don't think there are many, if any Creighton fans that expect to win the league this year. What they are excited about is to have more than one post player. You mentioned the Bluejays had Lawson and air. You're exactly right, now they have doubled their post presence. If Eshenesque is only mediocre, it is still a marked improvement in what they had. I think the Bluejay fans are excited simply to have a couple of post players and be moving in the direction of better post play. On the flip side, I think Creighton fans were simply getting pretty frustrated with having zero post depth