Upcoming Season

With the season slowly approaching I thought it would be fun to make this thread. I would like to see how everyone answers these questions:

  1. 8 man rotation
  2. Team MVP
  3. Most Improved
  4. Breakout player
  5. Leading Scorer/Assist/Rebound
  6. Conference Record
  1. C. Donnal PF. Irvin SF. Duncan SG. MAAR PG. Walton Bench. X Wagner DJ
  2. Zak Irvin
  3. Duncan Robinson
  4. Xavier Simpson
  5. Irvin/Walton/Walton
  6. 12-6
  1. Rotation: Wagner, Irvin, Robinson, MAAR, Walton. Bench: DJ, Donnal, X.

  2. MVP: Irvin

  3. Most improved: Wagner

  4. Breakout Player: DJ

  5. Points: Irvin Assists: Walton Rebounds: Wagner

  6. 13 conference wins.

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9 man rotation: Walton, MAAR, Robinson, Irvin, Wagner, Donnal, DJ, Simpson, Watson.
Team MVP: Walton
Most Improved: Wagner
Breakout player: Wagner
Leading Scorer/Assist/Rebound: Scorer= Irvin, Assists= Walton, Rebounds= Wagner
Conference Record- 10-8

Would agree with literally everything here, except hoping for that 11th B1G win :slight_smile:

Side notes: I think Duncan is a close second for most improved and break out, he’d just have to go from 11-3-2 to 13-5-3 (I liked his flashes of passing ability), and he’d likely be one of the most efficient players in the B1G, especially if he can maintain a 42-45% 3pt clip in B1G play. And I think Dwalt will be our MVP by a large margin.

8 man rotation - DW/ZI/Duncan/MAAR/Donnal/Mo/X/DJ
Team MVP - DW
Most Improved - Mo
Breakout player - Mo
Leading Scorer/Assist/Rebound - Zak/DW/Mo
Conference Record - 12-6

Did this before i read other posts. Looks like @tarverine and I are on the same page save for the record if Mo really is the breakout player. Hoping his jump gets us up a level/adds a dimension in a way that adds Ws

  1. Starters–Wagner, Irvin, Robinson, MAAR, Walton; Next 3–Donnal, Simpson, Watson.

  2. Zak Irvin (close with Walton)

  3. Mo Wagner

  4. Mo Wagner

  5. Zak Irvin/Derrick Walton/Derrick Walton

  6. 12-6

  1. Walton, Rahk, Robinson, Irvin, Wagner, Donnal, Simpson, Wilson
  2. Irvin
  3. Mo
  4. Mo
  5. Zak/Derrick/Mo
  6. 10-8
  1. 8 man rotation - Walton, Simpson, MAAR, Irvin, Robinson, Wilson, Donnal, Wagner (but this might be a year where Wilson & Watson each average around 7-8mpg in conference)

  2. Team MVP - Irvin (or at least it needs to be Irvin if the team is going to succeed)

  3. Most Improved - statistically it may be Irvin, but practically I think Wagner

  4. Breakout player - I guess Wagner?

  5. Leading Scorer/Assist/Rebound - Robinson/Walton/Irvin

  6. Conference Record - 11-7

  1. Walton - MAAR - Irvin - Robinson - Wagner (Donnal, X, Wilson)
  2. Walton
  3. Wagner
  4. Wagner
  5. Walton / Walton / Walton
  6. 11-7

Starters-Walton, MAAR, Robinson, Irvin, Donnal; Bench-Simpson, Wagner, Watson

MVP-Irvin

Most Improved: Wagner

Breakout-Not sure I see anyone qualifying for this

Pts/assts/rbnds- Irvin/Walton/Donnal

Conf record 10-8

I think the people putting Wilson in the regular rotation are going to be disappointed. He is just not a contributor at this level. And while I would very much like to see Wagner break out as a high-quality big, I can’t quite sell myself on that, either. He showed some tantalizing flashes last season, but he still only earned 55 minutes of PT in the whole conference season, which is not a very promising sign. At this point, I would put him down as a decent backup at the 5, with Donnal an adequate but not dominant starter.

And yeah some people will say that putting Watson in there is a crapshoot, too…but given our lack of guys even resembling a decent big shooting guard, I think if he’s any good at all, we’ll have to play him. I think if Watson isn’t good enough to be the 8th guy, we won’t have an eighth guy in the regular rotation. It’ll be Wagner and Simpson as the regular guys off the bench, a lot of small lineups, and too many minutes for Irvin and Walton.

Mvp- Maar or Walton all day. Depends if Walton can finally score consistently. Wagner will be most improved and break out.

The leading scorer is a tough guess. It will be whoever beilein wants if to be. Personally I hope it’s Maar, and that we run a lot of stuff for him. I think that is our best chance to win.

Unfortunately I think Irvin will be shooting to much. I just really hope the shots are spread around/ pick on the matchup or hot hand.

Here’s praying Walton puts it all together. If so I think he’s the top guy.

8 man rotation: Walton, MAAR, Irvin, Robinson, Donnal. Bench: Simpson, Wilson, Wagner
Team MVP: Irvin 
Most Improved: Wagner
Breakout player: Irvin re-breaks out. 
Leading Scorer/Assist/Rebound: Walton
Conference Record: 11-7

Playing donnall as starter would be a huge mistake. It’s clear wagners improved play was a big reason we played ok late. Wagner can finish and score on the block.

I hope beilein doesn’t make that mistake. Having Wagner out there particularly with guys who could get him open like our big three is crucial.

Also lets pray Duncan is the best shooter in the country. If he can not swoon this year it really helps beileins offense obviously. The starting five has s lot of potential if they put it together

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Edit: originally commented on how you had Dwalt leading scoring, assists, and rebounds, but Zak has the MVP, and how that seems a little counter intuitive. But…that’s basically what happened, last year (Zak had like .2 ppg more)…

Good call, and glad you brought that to my attention

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What are we judging Wagner’s improved play by? It’s still such a small sample size to say he improved because we hardly saw him at all for many games last year.

For MAAR to be the leading scorer he better had improved his jump shot significantly or that will not be a possibility. I think it will be either Irvin or Duncan who leads in scoring and it should be close.

To answer your question I would re-read umhoops article titled: “After scout team stint, Wagner shines in March”.

It is important to remember Wagner had some flashes of success on our team last year while he was the age of the vast majority of high school seniors and the same age as some high school junior recruits. He is extremely young and he put on over 25 pounds of muscle.

Plus he got taller!

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Playing Donnal as a starter might not be ideal, but if he is the best big we have (as he was pretty consistently last year), then it can hardly be classified as a “mistake”. Wagner showed a little bit of an uptick our last four games (after doing barely anything for quite a stretch before that), but that’s not much to project him jumping Donnal from, especially since he didn’t significantly outplay Donnal even then, and we still lost 2 of those 4 games, anyway. It may look like Wagner has a higher upside than Donnal, but whether he actually develops it is another matter. Developing big men is not one of Beilein’s strengths.

As far as Robinson, I have my doubts about whether he has the athleticism to be a top-notch shooter against real competition. He only shot 35% on threes in the Big Ten last year (a rather precipitous drop from 55% in NC games), which is OK, but not as good as we need him to be.

I hope that Wagner can win the job, but Donnal was solid in conference play last year. He hasn’t lost the job yet IMO.