Man, I love that people are high on next year’s outlook. I hope they nail it. But “top 4 seed and a second weekend birth” seem so far-fetched to me, with or without Livers. That might have been my prediction if Josh Christopher chose the good guys, but there’s too many question marks.
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I agree with you to agree!
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Why is it so far-fetched?
I think you have to start any analysis by looking at the Big Ten conference, since we’re going to play 20 out of approximately 32 regular season games against conference opponents.
Of the 12 non-conference games, probably only 3-4 will be against really good teams. And in the past two seasons, we have wins against UNC (twice), Gonzaga, Creighton, and Villanova in non-conference play, with a close loss to Oregon and a road loss to Louisville. In short, we’ve looked pretty good against non-conference opponents.
Back to the Big Ten. Who’s better than we are? On paper, I’d say Iowa and Wisconsin. But then who? I think you could make cases for the following teams being as good as us, depending on who returns: MSU, Illinois, OSU, and maybe Indiana. I’ll go ahead and say we finish in the middle of those four teams, which would put us fifth in the conference.
Regarding the conference as a whole, it was strong this year and I think that will continue. I don’t know that there will be any elite teams, but I think several will continue to be very good.
Just way too hard to predict conference finishes until we know who’s in/out of the draft, or if there’s even a season.
I’m just taking “top 4 seed” and “second weekend” to really mean the team is a true title contender, and a consensus top 16 team in the country, which does not seem realistic at all to me with the holes at point guard and center, although I love Hunter Dickinson.
Franz would have to be all-American level for me to buy into this, which I guess is somewhat possible but seems overly optimistic
I think Franz is going to be an all Big Ten player next year, one of the top 2-3 in the league.
I’ll bet we have as many top 100 kids on our roster as anyone else in the Big Ten, save maybe MSU.
Also, I feel like every year there are teams in the top 16 who, while pretty good, are not a real threat to win it all. An example from this past season would be Maryland, or maybe Iowa.
Yeah that’s fair. I like our depth and overall talent as a whole, I buy that it stacks up well with the rest of the big ten for the most part. I don’t think the pieces will fit well enough to compete for a conference title or attain a top 4 seed nationally, mostly because of lack of shot creation.
Yeah. Tough to make a championship roster completely out of forwards who can’t dribble
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Franz can dribble.
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It’s definitely there In flashes. When he gets a little bit more confident with his handle it is going to be over for his opponents!
I guess no one on here believes this but Chaundee Brown can put it on the floor, too, and take it to the hole.
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You know, I just didn’t have him on my mind. From the film I’ve seen, I certainly agree.
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Haven’t been following too closely, but something in Juwan’s tone in that last interview led me to believe that Livers might be coming back.
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My comment wasn’t directed at you LA. I just used your comment, which I agree with, to point out that Chaundee can put it on the floor. If you haven’t already done so, listen to Sam’s interview with Randolph Childress. That interview and the tape I’ve seen on Chaundee lead me to believe he’s going to help us…a lot. I’ve come to really like the kid’s game.
And, yes, I’m right there with you on Franz.
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I hope so, Matt, and I think we’ll be very good if he’s back and if Chaundee is eligible.
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If you’re holding up Franz as our best dribbler, then we’ll youre making Reegs point. Franz is a capable dribbler for his size.
I guess it depends on how you define “dribbler.”
For a 6-9 guy, I would say Franz is elite when it comes to using the dribble to get to the basket.
If we’re talking about using the dribble to create shots for others, he was improving in this area by the end of the year but it still needs a lot of work.
I would think Mike Smith, Zeb Jackson, and Chaundee Brown are our other top options in terms of players who can attack the basket.
I think Eli will start at the point, and I think he’s fairly effective in ball screen situations. I’d be curious to see the stats on that.
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Spending more time with family is usually a pretext for something else that is going on (see e.g., Urban Meyer at Florida). Curious to see what comes out of that.
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If brown and livers are here I agree with the assessment. Top 4 in the big ten is very possible with a chance to contend.
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He was mentioned in the Athletic as a possible candidate for the Piston’s GM. I think it’s been known for some time that he’s interested in moving up. In this case, I guess family just means he’s leaving before taking another job.
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