I think that Minnesota is going to be in for a historically bad season in the Big 10.  Just about the entire team jumped ship after Richard Pitino was not retained.  Jameson is likely going from being a big scorer on a well below average A10 team to a big scorer on an excessively bad Big 10 team.  He may easily end up with the highest scoring average amongst all of these players but as far as impact on wins is concerned, there just aren't going to be very many wins.

The three most intriguing possibilities to me are:

1) Terry Nolan...I suspect he will feel very comfortable playing close to home, not to mention in a conference where he has a genuine chance to shine.

2) Jameer Nelson, Jr...This should boil down to how much or how little Meer's game has progressed since he last played for GW.  If his game has progressed, he has the chance to be a very special player for Delaware.  

3) Tyler Brelsford...My sense of Tyler's game last season was that he is a natural shooter and scorer who as a freshman coming off the bench, felt he needed to defer to teammates more often than not.  Tyler averaged 3.7 shot attempts per game last season but took at least 5 shots in each of the team's final 7 games, a sign of a more confident player.  Assuming that he is a starter and a counted upon scorer for Bryant, Tyler's confidence should soar even more. 

 

Last edited by Gwmayhem (7/20/2021 1:50 pm)

So, would you rather go with a roster of departures or the current roster? Quite honestly, not sure the current team could beat a team of outbound transfers (of course, we have not seen most of the current roster play yet so this is purely pulling a conclusion out of my ass...)

I wasn't aware that Collin Smith would be allowed to play this year after he opted to sit out last season due to COVID. With the rigid way that the NCAA makes(or made) decisions, I thought the NCAA would strip the remaining eligibility of players who chose to opt out of playing. Was C.Smith still taking classes at Central Florida during this past year? 

Looking at the list, it seems like a lot of the former Colonials will flourish this year when you look at the skill level and situation they'll be in. I could easily see 11 or 12 of these guys being high-impact players this year. I expect Terry Nolan, Battle and Jair Bolden(I believe he led Butler in scoring last year) to be the highest profile players who will get the most national attention. Jameer Nelson and Maceo Jack should also do very well playing at a lower level, when you consider they were double-digit scorers for a lot of their time at GW. 

Jair was the third leading scorer at Butler, but his stats were bad in a team that struggled (lots of youth and injuries in the backcourt last year).  He averaged 10.5 ppg, but had an efficiency rating under 100, had anemic peripheral stats (worse assist, block, and steal rates than he had at gw), shot a career worst 35% from inside the arc and just 34% outside. 

That said, a 6th year Bolden (who would have graduated two years ago if he stayed at GW) is probably a better bet early in the year than a freshman Freeman or inexperienced Bamasile, even if both our guys project to be much better and more well rounded than what bolden has produced.

I think if probably take our current team over the transfers but it’s close.

-  Bishop is better than Nolan (and neither Nolan or Boldren are true PGs so their team doesn’t really have a true point guard, we presumably have two).

- 6th year Bolden > Freeman if only because we haven’t seen Freeman yet and don’t know what we have.

- Battle > Bamisile, but Bamisile brings athelticism, defense, and speed where battle does not excel in those areas.  But Jameson’s offensive game is tough to match for a kid who hasn’t played much yet. 

- Lindo >> Marfo.   Marfo is way to slow to guard Lindo and chase him around the perimeter.  You can’t really play both Marfo and Smith together (smith priced at UCF much better at the 5 than 4 so you wouldn’t want to play him there), so maybe this should really be Maceo or battle at the 4,  Marfo wouldn’t even excel at rebounding against lindo’s bounce and athelticism, and offense they’d be 4 on 5 with Marfo out there. 

- Lee = Colin smith.  I love smith so maybe I’m being generous calling it a tie, but I also love Lee and they are ultimately probably a wash assuming Colin kept his skills sharp.

- Adams/Amir > Maceo/Jameer.    This assumes Amir is healthy which might be a big if. Personally I think the two departees were overrated by the board. Maceo was a subpar defender, an average shooter, and not a ball handler.  Great guy, but Adams is simply a more talented and athletic player and defensively it’s no contest.  Jameer was a fantastic defender and a good slasher, but poor ball handling and lack of outside shooting made him a below average offensive player and often a floor spacing problem in the half court.  Harris is actually a similar player (if healthy), in that he is an outstanding defender who can guard many positions  (I’m guessing most of the board forgets how much better we looked on D the few games he played two years ago).  Nelson is potentially a better shooter than Harris because Harris is not an outside shooter and Jameer looks like that could click for him at some point, , but Harris was a plus ball handler and longer. Obviously this assumes health.

(Could also say Noel brown v Marfo if you take Marfo off the bench, which is a lot closer than people may think based on rebounding stats at a small school that didn’t translate to a bigger win).  Finally, Brelsford may be better than our 8th or 9th man, but that may not be enough for me to tip the scales. 


Obviously this is all just theory.  Overall, I’d give our guys the edge in talent, versatility, ball handling, defense, and athelticism.  Their team has a big edge in experience and obviously has some weapons. 

But at the end of the day, I’ll also take our guys because they want to be here this year, and the other guys do not.