Projecting Rotations

[Cdizzle]

First Team All-MVC:

Fred VanVleet, WSU
Ron Baker, WSU
Seth Tuttle, UNI
DJ Balentine, UE
Anthony Beane, SIU

Second Team:

Egidijus Mockevicius, UE
Daishon Knight, ISUr
Khristian Smith, ISUb
Marcus Marshall, MSU
Milton Doyle, LUC

I expect Tekele Cotton will be closer to MVC POY than not on the 2nd Team.

It would not surprise me one bit. For the sake of argument, who do you bump in place of Cotton?

Any of Balentine, Beane, Knight, Smith, Marshall, VanVleet, Baker, Doyle.

I will admit to being very high on Cotton his entire career, and expecting a phenomenal senior year from him. But I've also based a lot of my feeling on the progression of his skills, stats and on-court performance. I expect he will be a little below basically all of those guys in pure PPG, but he will help his team win almost all of their games, will be the best defender in the league (if not top D-guard in the country), and his peripherals will all remain great.

[glm38]

Missouri State preseason storyline:

The talented combo guard Marcus Marshall will be back in action after an injury ended his season after just 12 games last year! Marshall will join talented backcourt running mate, sophomore sharp-shooter, Austin Ruder and push steady junior PG Dorrian Williams back to the bench. The front court returns 6-11 sophomore Tyler McCullough, 6-8 senior Christian Kirk, and 6-7 junior Gavin Thurman. The trio has shown a load of potential, but have been frustratingly unable to produce an all-around game. Senior Ron Mvouika started towards the end of the season, but needs to demonstrate defensive effort to maintain his position. 6-6 JUCO Camyn Boone was brought in to add toughness to the post, but the key to the Bears success this year may be the addition of three undersized freshman forwards. 6-6 Robin Thompson, 6-5 Loomis Gerring, and 6-4 Chris Kendrix are great athletes, slashers, and rebounders. Ball skills and shooting is still developing, but if one of the three can be effective early in the season, MSU's chance at a high finish are dramatically improved.

Nice analysis. Gerring is a Juco and not a freshman though. And I think Gerring, Kendrix, and Gavin are talented enough that we will be pretty good at the forward positions. My main concern is post play. We really need McCullough to step up and play like he's capable.

I would add that Roundtree is a really talented Frosh guard that may push for PT this year.

Totally missed that Gerring was a JUCO. Thanks for the correction. I know there is a lot of hype around Roundtree, but with a crowded backcourt, I don't see significant contribution in his debut season…See Fred VanVleet.

FVV didn't play huge minutes his freshman year for you but do you really think he "didn't have a signifcant contribution"? I thought he did. He was the backup PG and he hit some big shots and made some big plays for the Shox. I'm not saying Roundtree is in his class. But I think he'll be a very good Valley point and while I don't see him starting I think its possible he contributes big off the bench.

[Wufan]

I expect Tekele Cotton will be closer to MVC POY than not on the 2nd Team.

It would not surprise me one bit. For the sake of argument, who do you bump in place of Cotton?

Any of Balentine, Beane, Knight, Smith, Marshall, VanVleet, Baker, Doyle.

I will admit to being very high on Cotton his entire career, and expecting a phenomenal senior year from him. But I've also based a lot of my feeling on the progression of his skills, stats and on-court performance. I expect he will be a little below basically all of those guys in pure PPG, but he will help his team win almost all of their games, will be the best defender in the league (if not top D-guard in the country), and his peripherals will all remain great.

Cotton might be the team MVP, but as mentioned, his PPG just don't hold up to the others on this list. For one year only, I'd take Tekele over Doyle, Knight, Smith, Marshall, and Ballentine, but it's close and I am trying to keep the Shocker Kool-aide out of this.

[Wufan]

FVV didn't play huge minutes his freshman year for you but do you really think he "didn't have a signifcant contribution"? I thought he did. He was the backup PG and he hit some big shots and made some big plays for the Shox. I'm not saying Roundtree is in his class. But I think he'll be a very good Valley point and while I don't see him starting I think its possible he contributes big off the bench.

I have no doubt that FVV was a key for the Shockers in his freshman season. Roundtree might have the same impact, but I tried to keep the analysis limited to 7-10 players per team, and with what MSU has at his position, I didn't see it as worthy of an off-season storyline. Corey Henderson, a freshman at WSU is almost certain to be the primary back-up to FVV this year, but I didn't see it fit to mention as Cory is not the storyline for this year. Same with RS freshman Shaq Morris. It's quite possible he could start; or he might be barrier on the bench. The Shockers success is not dependent on Morris/Henderson this year, and MSUs success is not dependent on Roundtree. Rather, the Bears will be looking to shore up the defense and rebounding and that's not where Roundtree excels.

[Rollbird5]

I will admit to being very high on Cotton his entire career, and expecting a phenomenal senior year from him. But I've also based a lot of my feeling on the progression of his skills, stats and on-court performance. I expect he will be a little below basically all of those guys in pure PPG, but he will help his team win almost all of their games, will be the best defender in the league (if not top D-guard in the country), and his peripherals will all remain great.

Cotton might be the team MVP, but as mentioned, his PPG just don't hold up to the others on this list. For one year only, I'd take Tekele over Doyle, Knight, Smith, Marshall, and Ballentine, but it's close and I am trying to keep the Shocker Kool-aide out of this.

[/quote]

I'd take Cotton over all of them he effects the game in so many ways and is one of the best defenders in the nation if not the best.

[Cdizzle]

Cotton might be the team MVP, but as mentioned, his PPG just don't hold up to the others on this list. For one year only, I'd take Tekele over Doyle, Knight, Smith, Marshall, and Ballentine, but it's close and I am trying to keep the Shocker Kool-aide out of this.

I get trying to stay off the kool-aide for the sake of the discussion. But I don't think it's that much kool-aide to think a guy that was on the 2nd Team last year, and at that basically just because 3 of his teammates were already on 1st Team, would show up again on one of these lists. His usage rate went up as the season progressed, and I think he'll be even more aggressive this year as teams turn their attention from Cle to Ron and Fred.

I'm definitely not asking anyone else to get on board the Tekele Cotton for MVP train I'm driving, as he'll have a ridiculously hard time beating out a couple of guys on his own team, much less the rest of the league. But I think 2nd Team at the very least would seem realistic to everyone else. Otherwise we assume he regresses or gets passed on the improvement scale by a number of guys, neither of which I see happening.

[DUBulldog]

Drake's preseason storyline:

The Bulldogs are in rebuild mode this year…again. Gary Ricks returns after being granted an extra year and the 6-11 norseman, Jacob Engvold, is a year older. The rest of the rotation will be filled by senior PG Jordan Daniels and a slew of skilled but underwhelming 6-6 wings. Five freshman will be relied upon to provide depth and two transfers will sit out and wait till 2015-16 before taking the court. Coach Gia will work on developing talent this year, but even if some of the newcomers are able to produce immediately, it's hard to predict Drake as anything more than a Thursday night team in St. Louis.

Daniels was a PG at Boston College, but did not play the point at all last season for DU. I would expect Karl Madison and Reed Timmer to split duties at the point early in the season, with Timmer getting more time as the season progresses. I also expect Ore Arogundade to be a starter at the 2 or 3, probably the 3, with Ricks at the 2. No idea who will start at the '4'; there are several possibilities.

[glm38]

FVV didn't play huge minutes his freshman year for you but do you really think he "didn't have a signifcant contribution"? I thought he did. He was the backup PG and he hit some big shots and made some big plays for the Shox. I'm not saying Roundtree is in his class. But I think he'll be a very good Valley point and while I don't see him starting I think its possible he contributes big off the bench.

I have no doubt that FVV was a key for the Shockers in his freshman season. Roundtree might have the same impact, but I tried to keep the analysis limited to 7-10 players per team, and with what MSU has at his position, I didn't see it as worthy of an off-season storyline. Corey Henderson, a freshman at WSU is almost certain to be the primary back-up to FVV this year, but I didn't see it fit to mention as Cory is not the storyline for this year. Same with RS freshman Shaq Morris. It's quite possible he could start; or he might be barrier on the bench. The Shockers success is not dependent on Morris/Henderson this year, and MSUs success is not dependent on Roundtree. Rather, the Bears will be looking to shore up the defense and rebounding and that's not where Roundtree excels.

What you said in your first post regarding FVV does not equal what you just said in this one. But whatever. I do appreciate your detailed analysis in the basketball wasteland of summer.

We'll see about Roundtree. You never know how a freshman will react in his first year but I think it's possible he takes minutes from Dorrian Williams this year.