I know you've all been waiting on pins and needles for this! No fear...I haven't given up on CU even though the great Doug McDermott has moved on.
Attended the first two games and as you would expect I've seen some things that give hope for life post DM and some signs of trouble. If ever there as a true "rebuilding year" this is it. CU lost a lot when you add Wragge, Manigat and Gibbs to DM. But alas, the cupboard is not bare...
First of all CU will likely have the best walk-on in the country 2 years in a row...that should touch a soft spot for husker fans right?
Last year DM was a walk-on. This year Ricky Kreklow is doing the same. He's a transfer from Cal who gets to play right away as he has graduated already. Problem was CU didn't have a scholarship. No worries...he's paying his own way. And he led CU in scoring the first night. Not a bad deal for CU.
Artino led the way in game two with 20 and 9. 14 and 10 the night before. He can fill up a stat sheet without playing 30 minutes a game. Nope. He's not an all American. CU doesn't have any of those this time around. I'm not going to do the research but I'd be surprised if CU had more than two guys (DM and Wragge) lead the team in scoring in a game last year. This year I will guess that number will be 7. It's already at 2 and I would say Chatman, Zierden, Miliken, Brooks and Hegner will all have their nights. That's good and bad. Good because there are a lot of options. If the guys can recognize the hot hand on a given night that will help. Bad because maybe outside of Chatman who is your "go to" guy? I'm sure those roles will be more defined as the season goes on of course.
CU will still be CU. They're going to shoot the three and not run clock for the sake of running clock. And there are a lot of guys on this squad that can hit the three. Like all of them outside of the 5s.
At the 5...as the season goes on it will be artino and Hansen. I've been a little disappointed in Hansen the first couple games. I thought he'd look sharper. It's early though. Groselle isn't good enough for extended minutes as the competition gets better. It's too bad he's dealt with bad wheels. When he gets the ball inside he shows he would have had some nice, classic offensive "center" moves. But the injuries have made an old man out of him.
Chatman is solid as a rock at the point. Zierden is just simply a BASKETBALL PLAYER. One of those guys you watch for just a couple minutes and you know that he just gets the game. It's a "coach's son" thing. Brooks can play some point as well so they won't have to run Chatman into the ground with tons of early season minutes.
New faces..Milikan is the "instant offense" kind of guy. Good shooter and can put it on the ground. He and brooks provide an element that CU hasn't had much of over the years. Toby Hegner red-shirted last year. Good recruiting get at the time. 6'9" guy who will play on the perimeter. Tough guy to defend. Kreklow...I think CU is his 3rd stop. The guy has been plagued with injuries but will be a good addition. They had him on the radio after the first game and he sounded like a coach. After all the experience CU lost an "old guy" like this might be a good thing for CU.
Biggest disappointment? Feeding the post from the wings. Ugh. They need a LOT of work on that. In fairness, as Greg McDermott explained, a lot of these guys weren't around or playing much last time CU had a true center to feed (Echinique) so hopefully they'll get it straightened out. The other thing I'm a little disappointed in is that Leon Gilmore wasn't redshirted. He's received some garbage time minutes but I don't see where, as the season progresses and the rotation shrinks, where he's going to get a lot of minutes. Hopefully it's not a wasted year. The other Frosh...Ronnie Harrell...is redshirting. Both were pretty well regarded recruits and, with Patton from Omaha North, form the future of the Jays.
But I don't think the present is something that's going to be as ugly as some expect it to be. There will be growing pains for sure. But this team isn't going 12-19 or going to finish 9th in the big east as was predicted by the writers.
I predict they'll go 8-4 in the non-con...maybe 9-3. And then 9-9 in the big east...which would be good for 6th probably. NIT bid. If that ends up being close to reality I'll consider that a success of sorts.
Not much time to work out the kinks though. Oklahoma comes to the clink on Wednesday. Odd that CU couldn't get a home game like that til DM left.
Attended the first two games and as you would expect I've seen some things that give hope for life post DM and some signs of trouble. If ever there as a true "rebuilding year" this is it. CU lost a lot when you add Wragge, Manigat and Gibbs to DM. But alas, the cupboard is not bare...
First of all CU will likely have the best walk-on in the country 2 years in a row...that should touch a soft spot for husker fans right?
Last year DM was a walk-on. This year Ricky Kreklow is doing the same. He's a transfer from Cal who gets to play right away as he has graduated already. Problem was CU didn't have a scholarship. No worries...he's paying his own way. And he led CU in scoring the first night. Not a bad deal for CU.Artino led the way in game two with 20 and 9. 14 and 10 the night before. He can fill up a stat sheet without playing 30 minutes a game. Nope. He's not an all American. CU doesn't have any of those this time around. I'm not going to do the research but I'd be surprised if CU had more than two guys (DM and Wragge) lead the team in scoring in a game last year. This year I will guess that number will be 7. It's already at 2 and I would say Chatman, Zierden, Miliken, Brooks and Hegner will all have their nights. That's good and bad. Good because there are a lot of options. If the guys can recognize the hot hand on a given night that will help. Bad because maybe outside of Chatman who is your "go to" guy? I'm sure those roles will be more defined as the season goes on of course.
CU will still be CU. They're going to shoot the three and not run clock for the sake of running clock. And there are a lot of guys on this squad that can hit the three. Like all of them outside of the 5s.
At the 5...as the season goes on it will be artino and Hansen. I've been a little disappointed in Hansen the first couple games. I thought he'd look sharper. It's early though. Groselle isn't good enough for extended minutes as the competition gets better. It's too bad he's dealt with bad wheels. When he gets the ball inside he shows he would have had some nice, classic offensive "center" moves. But the injuries have made an old man out of him.
Chatman is solid as a rock at the point. Zierden is just simply a BASKETBALL PLAYER. One of those guys you watch for just a couple minutes and you know that he just gets the game. It's a "coach's son" thing. Brooks can play some point as well so they won't have to run Chatman into the ground with tons of early season minutes.
New faces..Milikan is the "instant offense" kind of guy. Good shooter and can put it on the ground. He and brooks provide an element that CU hasn't had much of over the years. Toby Hegner red-shirted last year. Good recruiting get at the time. 6'9" guy who will play on the perimeter. Tough guy to defend. Kreklow...I think CU is his 3rd stop. The guy has been plagued with injuries but will be a good addition. They had him on the radio after the first game and he sounded like a coach. After all the experience CU lost an "old guy" like this might be a good thing for CU.
Biggest disappointment? Feeding the post from the wings. Ugh. They need a LOT of work on that. In fairness, as Greg McDermott explained, a lot of these guys weren't around or playing much last time CU had a true center to feed (Echinique) so hopefully they'll get it straightened out. The other thing I'm a little disappointed in is that Leon Gilmore wasn't redshirted. He's received some garbage time minutes but I don't see where, as the season progresses and the rotation shrinks, where he's going to get a lot of minutes. Hopefully it's not a wasted year. The other Frosh...Ronnie Harrell...is redshirting. Both were pretty well regarded recruits and, with Patton from Omaha North, form the future of the Jays.
But I don't think the present is something that's going to be as ugly as some expect it to be. There will be growing pains for sure. But this team isn't going 12-19 or going to finish 9th in the big east as was predicted by the writers.
I predict they'll go 8-4 in the non-con...maybe 9-3. And then 9-9 in the big east...which would be good for 6th probably. NIT bid. If that ends up being close to reality I'll consider that a success of sorts.
Not much time to work out the kinks though. Oklahoma comes to the clink on Wednesday. Odd that CU couldn't get a home game like that til DM left.
