Preseason Rankings and Expectations 2021-22

That site looks conspicuously similar to umhoops. Are you expanding the franchise?

My point guard rankings, defined as “that guy feels like their PG to me”

Tier 1

  1. Ivey, Purdue
  2. Curbelo, Illinois
  3. Jones, Michigan

Tier 2
4. Walker, MSU
5. Baker, Rutgers
6. Johnson, Indiana
7. Wheeler, OSU
8. Bohannon, Iowa
9. McGowens, Nebraska

Tier 3
10. Buie, Northwestern
11. Russell, Maryland
12. Davison, Nebraska
13. Sessoms, PSU
14. Whoever, Minnesota

You may think Baker is too high (and he may be) but I feel like if he was a CAA guard and transferred over he might not seem THAT different from Walker. But the pieces within each tier are relatively close to one another.

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That isn’t exactly a murderers row of PGs like the conference has had in years past. I like Jones, but as a PG I am still not sure what to expect so without listing names I wouldn’t have expected to see him that high.

I love Curbelo, but he still has a lot to prove with his offense and turnovers this year.

Could be a pretty interesting year of ups and downs throughout the league.

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Does that really matter though?? I would be more concerned that Pitt is keeping Capel around, 5 straight losing seasons as a coach. He had Blake Griffin and was able to carve out a coaching career for himself, he wasn’t even that great at VCU.

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It actually does. I’m not saying that Capel is a good head coach; he’s pretty clearly not. However, that doesn’t mean that he doesn’t recognize that talent is the most important part of winning; indeed, having been an assistant at Duke in the latter Coach K years, that point likely resonated with him pretty forcefully. And yet, he was not only willing to lose his most talented player, he was willing to escort him to the door. There’s a reason for that.

The material below is from an article in a Pittsburgh area media publication announcing Johnson’s departure. It is NOT the only such article:

“The Pitt men’s basketball program and Xavier Johnson have mutually agreed that it is in everyone’s best interest to part ways,” Capel said in a statement. “He will enter the transfer portal and is no longer a member of our program. We wish him the best of luck as he looks to continue his career elsewhere.”

Johnson had been the target of Capel’s ire and frustration in recent weeks when he received technical fouls against Notre Dame, Georgia Tech and N.C. State. During that stretch, he began two games on the bench, including the Virginia Tech game Feb. 3 when he scored a career-high 32 points, a record for a Pitt reserve.

But Capel seemed out of answers when he spoke to reporters after the N.C. State game — a one-point loss Feb. 17 — when Johnson received a technical for shouting at the Wolfpack bench after hitting a 3-pointer.

“Nothing I’ve said has worked,” Capel said at the time. “I’ve been telling him for 2½ years. Stop talking to the refs. Stop being demonstrative. Nothing we’ve said has worked.”

Maybe he’ll turn it around at IU under Mike Woodson. He’s certainly a talented player. That said, yeah, it’s a flashing red light, especially when coupled with efficiency numbers which have been subpar throughout his career against teams with a pulse.

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I already read that article when everything went down. Seems like a lot of sour grapes from Capel. These coaches build relationships with players through work and time. Are you telling me Capel had zero clue Xavier Johnson wasn’t that type of guy??

I think you’re too hung up on the 2 weeks because I would say what happened after that speaks more to what people think of Capel. Champaigne declares for NBA draft, goes undrafted. Their 2nd leading scorer Au’diese Toney who still had eligibility left and went to Arkansas. So yes Johnson and Capel mutually agreed to leave but why are the most talented guys all leaving Pitt??

I just don’t like how Capel gets the final word and we should take it as gospel. I wonder if newspapers will talk to Johnson Champagnie and Toney about what they thought of Capel?? If I was to guess they might give some canned response. So Capel escorted Johnson to the door and there’s a reason for that but what’s the reason the other 2 left??

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Certainly willing to concede that Capel could be a part, maybe the largest part, of the overall Pitt problem, but when a college player gets on-court technicals in 3 out of 5 games, that’s not the coach, that’s the kid.

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He’s played 84 games in his career, so it’s probably not entirely fair to focus on a 5 game stretch in which his coach, aghast at Johnson’s poor behavior ALSO happened to pick up two techs himself. Especially a 5 game stretch following three years of losing, now in the midst of a pretty weird and stressful season.

Johnson has five career techs - which suggests it’s not an acute problem. The larger issue is that he’s not that good (big numbers on poor efficiency (a pretty mediocre shooter, lots of turnovers and personal fouls) on a bad team is a red flex for me).

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5 techs in college seem like a lot to me

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I like Ivey but he won’t be worth more than Hunter imo. They are underrating are star here a bit. Kid just wins , even if it’s not the sexiest style of play (although I’m an old schooler sucker for good foot work and post scores).

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I think people are looking at it the wrong way. I imagine those 3 techs in a weeks span probably sealed his fate. Unfortunately all you’re getting is Capel’s side. I would say Xavier Johnson not saying anything is a huge sign of maturity more than you can say for Capel. He had 3 techs in a week or so but the other 81 games he only had 2??? So what happened in that week that didn’t happen in the other 81 games?? Capel saying he’s been trying to get through to him for 2.5 years so what is it the techs or something else? I imagine Toney and Champaigne would have some things to say about their stay at Pitt but like I said in college sports it’s always trust the coach and it’s the players fault.

The techs aren’t Capel’s side. He didn’t hand those out. They are given by a neutral third party referee based on conduct in the game. There are no sides with that one. I obviously don’t know what was going on in the locker room but coaches didn’t force him to act that way on the court

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Way more concerned about Johnson’s turnovers than his technicals.

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It’s been a while now since his transfer was announced so I may have missed it, but is there a reason for Johnson’s drop in minutes this past season (58%) compared to his first two (79%, 83%)? Is it tied to the apparent disconnect between he and Capel?

Primary reason is that he left the team before the season was over.

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Oh, duh. :man_facepalming: For some reason I assumed those games were left out of the calculation, but there’s no way KenPom is going through all 357 D1 teams and determining why guys didn’t get any minutes in a particular game.

Yeah, that’s one of the key differences between minutes percentage and MPG.

Percentage of possible minutes played (%Min): Self explanatory, I think. Better than MPG in that it accounts for overtime periods. Worse than MPG in that it’s impossible to distinguish lack of PT due to injury from lack of PT due to better teammates. Thus, the G column indicates games played for a player to help on this issue.

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Wow, now I feel doubly stupid. It’s right there on the page!

https://kenpom.com/blog/help-with-team-page/

Hunter Dickinson at 6
DeVante’ Jones at 89
Caleb Houstan at 37

Keegan Murray and Donta Scott are both snubs.

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Full list of B1G players and counts by team:

122 - Zach Edey
121 - Joey Hauser
113 - Fatts Russell
108 - Geo Baker
99 - Tyson Walker
90 - Eric Ayala
89 - Devante Jones
85 - Jordan Bohannon
67 - Ron Harper
37 - Caleb Houstan
16 - Andre Curbelo
15 - Jaden Ivey
9 - Trevion Williams
7 - Trayce Jackson-Davis
6 - Hunter Dickinson
5 - EJ Liddell
2 - Kofi Cockburn

By team:
Michigan - 3
Purdue - 3
Illinois - 2
Maryland - 2
Rutgers - 2
Michigan State - 2
Ohio State - 1
Indiana - 1
Iowa - 1

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