It would be unfair to call last year's 17-16 season a disappointment, but there were sure some tough moments. The nationally televised blowout loss at home to UNI was tough. The skid we hit in MVC play (losing 8 of 10 in a row) was rough. Josh Parker transferring was a bitter pill to swallow. But as far as I see it, there were some incredible positives. We won the Big Four, AGAIN. We went to our second straight post-season appearance (CIT). We have what appears to be the best recruiting class in some time (until next year's class arrives, that is) coming in this year. Things are certainly going to improve from here.
With so much going on in this offseason, and so much change, I thought it would be useful to spend the first blog entry of the season taking a look at what we kept, added, and lost. Consider this to be a roster breakdown. I like to try to keep things simple, so I'll focus on point guards, wings, and bigs.
Well, I think it's clear that our point guard situation should be the same or get better. Altogether, "The Vet" is solid and can be a threat in transition, but I'd argue that he didn't put as much pressure on defenses in the half court sets than I'd prefer out of that position. Given Phelps' comfortability with him, I'd consider him to be our starter off the bat. But don't count out the "Mystery Man". It's tough to tell what he's going to bring -- he did play for Luxemborg's national team this year but who knows how that will translate. The "Sniper" could really be at the 2, but I put him on here based on his size and due to my own personal opinion that he could be real useful for us at the point. He would add the long range gunner threat that we haven't had at the 1 in a long, long time (let's keep in mind he was Mr. Basketball in Kansas). Overall, we lose Jake but I think we add some really healthy competition to a spot that needs it.
This is probably the most interesting transition of the team to me. We lose a lot here with the transfer of Josh Parker -- it's tough to avoid picturing how we look with JY/JP going 2 and 3 for us in the starting lineup. That's a lot of instant offense that is gone now, and somebody has to pick it up.
Fortunately, I think the "Franchise" is off to having himself quite the improved season from last year. I've heard rumors that he was hampered by his ankle last year... not sure whether that's true or not. Nevertheless, I have to think that another off-season with the system has to help him out. I expect him to be back in the running for all-Valley consideration.
The potential of the additions here are amazing. Ben Simons was runner up for Mr. Basketball in Michigan. The last person we recruited from a small school, who could score at will and led his state in overall scoring, turned out to be a pretty decent player. In fact, he's probably someone you know... I'll just refer to him as the "Franchise". Nevertheless, I'm excited to see how Simons' game transitions to the MVC. I don't expect him to start this year, but I expect him to be a significant contributor. Aaron Hawley seems to present incredible matchup problems. From what I read, it seems like he can play from the 2 to the 4 and is athletic for 6-7. Could be a matchup nightmare. Also, it sounds like David Smith is a combo guard, so if he doesn't crack into the rotation here, maybe he adds into the discussion on the backup point guard role.
Overall, I think the loss of JP is rough in the short term due to the fact that we lose someone that is a proven scorer at this level. But given that he only would be here for this year and next year, I like the long term potential that Simons, Hawley, and Smith offer.
This will be our biggest question in 2009-2010. Last year showed us that the Urban Legend could play at all positions on the floor, but he just didn't have quite the impact that we all expected. It was probably unfair to expect him to step right in and be Klayton Korver. You can even make the argument that he's more of a wing than a forward, but given the makeup of this team, I'm wondering if it's not that bad of an idea to start him at the 4. Likewise, while Bill has been one of my favorite players on the team, but he is better suited to excel in spot duty -- much like a platoon player in baseball. Matches up well in some situations but probably isn't suited well for full time duty.
Our additions are intruiging here. Seth Van Deest made a lot of noise in the state tournament last year, and I've read that he's pretty fundamentally sound and can score. I think we haven't seen a true post presence on the offensive side of the ball yet in Phelps' offense -- it will be interesting to see how the offense progresses once we do have that inside presence. Not sure if we can rely on freshmen to provide that. Uhlenhopp is the hometown boy, from Urbandale high school. Jones is the bonafide seven footer -- a project when he came in.
We're clearly worse off from last year in this area. We lost Bucky Cox, an all-MVC player for the past few years now. Not only are we losing his outside shot and scoring, but he was also at the top of the valley in rebounding. Bill and Adam are rather small for bigs, so we're going to have to rely on the freshmen to man the middle -- especially once we get into conference play. There's a possibility that we're better off in the long term, but that's quite arguable.
When it's all said and done, we're clearly shifting to a young team with little experience. Outside of Young, Stanley, and Templeton -- we don't have anyone else that has experience starting a significant amount of games on this level. There's a lot of buzz around this recruiting class and it will be interesting to see just how talented they really are. Altogether it appears that we are bound for rampant inconsistency, but I think we still have a high ceiling.
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