Caleb and Cody Martin

[Scarlet Shack]

Thiam has signed his LOI. That's very, very good news. As for next year's lineup, I have no idea what Doorson and Diallo can bring to the table...I hope they can combine for 8-10 points, 8-10 boards a night, but both are coming off injury and both still seem to be projects with nice upside. Next season, I think we can have a lot of success playing small and fast, with three guards and Freeman and Sa up front. Wouldn't be surprised if our lineup looked something like this, with a similar minute distribution...

PG Sanders (32), Johnson (8)
SG Johnson (22), Williams (14), Bullock (4)
SF Williams (12), Laurent (20), Thiam (8)
PF Freeman (27), Thiam (10), Sa (3)
C Sa (22), Doorson (14), Diallo (4)

I think we see a really solid 10-man rotation next season...

Sanders (32)
Johnson (30)
Freeman (27)
Williams (26)
Sa (25)
Laurent (20)
Thiam (18)
Doorson (14)
Diallo (4)
Bullock (4)

This is about what I think will happen...except I think you need to find a few more minutes for Laurent and a few less for Thiam. Thiam is 6'9 1/2" and 190...desperately needs weight. This will probably keep him to a 13 mpg game guy...and get Laurent numbers up to 25

In an ideal world, which we are not...you redshirt Thiam for S&C purposes. That isn't happening here...

 

[cyrock3]

People are too concerned about PPG.

More important is FG%. I have no doubt Johnson/Sanders can combine for 35+ppg. The key is how many attempts it takes for them to get there.

 

[Greene Rice FIG]

I know there is 200 minutes to be had in a regulation game.

Sanders 32+ Johnson 30+ Williams 28+ Freeman 28+ Laurent 20+

That is 138 accounted for with 62 to give with most of those minutes allocated to bigs. Laurent probably takes a few more.

 

[ScarletLongIsland]

Does anyone know if the twins are visiting Texas following their visit to Nevada?

 

[higgins3]

People are too concerned about PPG.

More important is FG%. I have no doubt Johnson/Sanders can combine for 35+ppg. The key is how many attempts it takes for them to get there.

Lol. Johnson has yet to play a big ten game and we are putting him at 18 points?He is going to be good for us, but its hard to tell what he will bring from a point perspective.

 

[Mr Magoo]

Lol. Johnson has yet to play a big ten game and we are putting him at 18 points?He is going to be good for us, but its hard to tell what he will bring from a point perspective.

Lol. This is like two years ago when people insisted Mack and Jack would combine for 40 points per game.

 

[higgins3]

Lol. This is like two years ago when people insisted Mack and Jack would combine for 40 points per game.

I am bullish on the kid as well, but cant slot him in for more than 7 pts a game until he goes against the Michigans,Marylands of the world. Really think this team has a lot of potential in transition. 10-15 pts a game if done the right way.

 

[PhilaPhans]

Lol. This is like two years ago when people insisted Mack and Jack would combine for 40 points per game.

In everybody's defense, we had the other 13 guys on the roster averaging a total of 10 points per game.

 

[RUChoppin]

Just for comparison, the scoring of the top two guards from each Big Ten team last year (for guards that played at least 75% of the team's games):

33.6 - Michigan St
33.6 - Illinois
33.1 - Indiana
29.5 - Northwestern
28.2 - Rutgers
26.7 - Nebraska
26.1 - Maryland
25.0 - Iowa
23.6 - Minnesota
23.4 - Michigan
21.2 - PA St
20.6 - Wisconsin
19.5 - Ohio St
14.4 - Purdue

That's with Sanders/Williams as our two top-scoring guards.

Our 28.2 has to be put into perspective, too. With so many injuries to bigs, our guards were pressed into more minutes than they would have otherwise. Our offensive game plan had to be very guard heavy, too. We also had our starting guards in at the end of blowout games playing against backups and walk-ons in several contests, after the dogs had been called off. On the flip side, opposing defenses had to be more focused on the guards because we lacked a lot of big bodies - especially those that were scoring threats. So, it's hard to really gauge our 2015-16 ppg number.

 

[RUChoppin]

To follow on that list, here's the breakdown of what percent of the overall scoring the top two guards accounted for:

48.6% - Illinois
47.6% - Rutgers
47.3% - Michigan St
46.5% - Northwestern
43.4% - Nebraska
42.8% - Indiana
37.8% - Maryland
36.2% - Michigan
35.8% - Iowa
31.8% - Minnesota
31.7% - PA St
28.4% - Wisconsin
25.9% - Ohio St
20.6% - Purdue

Given the injuries to our bigs, it makes sense that our top two guards carried a large portion of the scoring. At the other end of the list, Purdue's top four scorers were all bigs. I'd have to think that our percentage will go down next year with the return of our frontcourt players, and that our overall points per game (59.3 vs conference average of 68.9) will go up.