These lists are ridiculous. There is absolutely no reason to have them and they mean nothing. Yes, preseason All-American lists are jokes, as is a preseason top 25.
I don’t think they’re jokes. They give less dedicated fans info on who is projected to be good. I can’t watch 11:00 Pac 12 games so I know very little about the league and stuff like this gives something to work from. Are they perfect predictors of success? No. Do they do any harm? Also no.
From a statistical pint of view, preseason rankings absolutely do have an impact, something Bart Torvik has talked about a lot. He keeps them in the calculations for the entire season because they help account for intangibles that a formula can’t and the rankings are more accurate when taking them into account. I think Bill Connelly has expressed similar thoughts regarding S&P+ for football.
FWIW, I don’t think Simpson is a clear cut top 20 PG nationally.
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Great name for a point guard: Jaylen Hands.
Anthony Cowan should be on that list
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I’m very interested to see a running tally of opponents that Zavier “shuts down” this season.
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Bowman is one of the most underrated players in college basketball today. It feels like Josh Perkins has been at Gonzaga for forever. Approaching Aaron Craft levels. Do we really have to call Carsen Edwards a point guard? Because I’m convinced he’s not going to be.
My top ten of this list I’d say: Bowman, Waters, Ponds, Edwards, Jerome, Winston, Martin, Howard, Dotson, and Pritchard.
There’s a thread I started a few weeks ago on defensive stats. Since you seem to be skeptical of Simpson’s shut down abilities, would you like me to list all of the games that Simpson’s opponent had an efficiency ranking over 20% below his norm (hint: the list includes Winston, C.J. Jackson, Davison, Frazier, Brunson, Carsen Edwards and a whole host of others)?
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I mean if Aaron Wiggins is gonna make this list why not Matthews and Iggy both?
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I’ll be honest, I didn’t even realize that expectations were (that) high for Wiggins?
Big Ten Players:
2. Edwards
7. Happ
15. R. langford
22. Winston
25. Matthews
31. Morgan
39. Murphy
43. JPJ
45. Ward
46. Cowan
82. Coffey
97. Fernando
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Zero early love here
I mean, it’s John Rothstein
Palpable buzz!
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I know MSU is in the top 10 in the AP Poll too, but if they finish the season there I will eat my hat. They are so overrated in my opinion.
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Matt McQuaid is going to play real minutes at point guard and they are somehow a top 10 team lol
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I was about to predict McQuaid would have a surprisingly good season until I heard he was going to be a backup point guard. I think he is a good player but I can’t imagine him playing point guard.
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McQuaid as backup PG is kind of like Stu Douglass as Trey Burke’s backup PG. He’s not really a PG, but he knows what is going on and can get the offense initiated for the few minutes that Cassius Winston is on the bench.
Means to me that they don’t trust Loyer on the floor in these early big games against teams like Kansas, which makes sense.
Given how much set offense MSU runs, it probably can work out fine for a few minutes. I’d guess almost every possession with McQuaid at the point ends up with a post touch for Ward or Tillman.
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