BSC Polls

[oldrunner]

Crandall 4th in BSC in assists and 2nd in steals as a frosh plus 4 boards a games as frosh...too many turnovers...Bernstine top returning rebounder per game in BSC...Avants 8ppg 3 rebounds 56% from field and Seales 7.5 ppg as frosh was a rivals 3 star recruit. Juco Kinsey turned down 5 other D1 offers..... UND need a couple of the sophs to show a nice 2nd year pop to contend... Last I looked jones got UND to the CIT 5 of the last 6 seasons better than most BSC teams....

All of that is a good argument for a top 4 finish. My answer to that would be Cannon, Senglin, Committee, Hill, and Braxton. I am not that impressed with Shanks. He is big, but slow and does not rebound. Braxton will kick his butt. Hill is as good or better than their 4 man. Senglin is as good or better. Cannon is as good or better. Any one of our group of wings can play with or are better than UND's. What does that leave? Coaching? I can make those same arguments with UM's guys or UI's guys as well. ISU and Sac have to be included as dark horse candidates. After the top 6 it is a total crap shoot. People are talking about how far UM may be dropping after losing their stud post man. They may be smaller, but they are certainly a lot quicker. They have some really good guards and wings. If they can get any rebounding at all, watch out.

For us, the guys I have watched making the most improvement over the summer and early fall, are Hill, Braxton, Senglin, and John. I know that Senglin's game was already quite good, but he has really stepped up his leadership and seems to have picked up a step. He never lacked for confidence, but it is off the charts right now. Hill has worked really hard on his rebounding and outside shooting and it shows in his confidence. Braxton is simply a monster right now. Cannon does not look like a freshman any more. He runs the show.

Yes, Bolomboy was a big loss. However, IMO, this team is better than last years version.

 

[sacstateman]

OK Olds, here are the stats from last year....
Cannon= 5.5pts 2.0rbs 2.7a Crandall=10.8pts 4.2rb 4.1a
Senglin= 17.9pts 3.6rbs 2.8a Hooker= 20.1pts 4.9rb 3.5a
Hill= 8.2pts 5.9rbs 812mins Bernstine=9.7pts 9.1rbs 993mins
Braxton=6.9pts 4.1rb 701mins Shanks=5.5pts 3.3rbs 488mins

Richardson, John, Baker, Gittens and Williams averaged 24.1 combined in 2485 mins
Baldwin, Seales and Avants averaged 22.1 combined in 1960 mins

Make what you want out of them but those are the facts of the matter.....

 

[thescout]

Olds is right about Braxton better than Shanks who may not even start... Hill will get more boards with Joel out, Senglin and Hooker about even. Crandall better than Cannon

 

[sacstateman]

I agree that Braxton is better than Shanks but I believe Bernstine is better than Hill, Crandall is better than Cannon and Hooker is a better all around player than Senglin....I know that is akin to blasphemy here to say someone is better than Senglin but the stats are the stats....Hooker outscored, outrebounded and out assisted Senglin last season...in my book, that means he is better....Where you have the advantage is your depth with
Baker, John, Gittens, Williams and Richardson...I also feel that UND has a disadvantage in travel as their shortest trip is 640 miles one way...Overall, I think Weber has the edge but it is razor thin...

 

[oldrunner]

I agree that Braxton is better than Shanks but I believe Bernstine is better than Hill, Crandall is better than Cannon and Hooker is a better all around player than Senglin....I know that is akin to blasphemy here to say someone is better than Senglin but the stats are the stats....Hooker outscored, outrebounded and out assisted Senglin last season...in my book, that means he is better....Where you have the advantage is your depth with
Baker, John, Gittens, Williams and Richardson...I also feel that UND has a disadvantage in travel as their shortest trip is 640 miles one way...Overall, I think Weber has the edge but it is razor thin...

If all you looked at were the individual stats, yes, you would conclude that Hooker was a better all around player than Senglin. However, when you take into consideration that Senglin also had Bolomby on his team, along with several other capable scorers, and senglin was not tasked with handling the ball as much as Hooker, those individual stats can be a bit misleading. With our coaching staff, and the nature of our attack, we seldom have one player getting the majority of assists. Also, lets face it, with Bolomboy cleaning the glass, there were not a lot of leftover rebounds to go around. I know that Hooker is a very good guard, but I wouldn't trade two of him for Senglin. In my book, UM has two guards better than Hooker and MSU has Hall, who may be the best in the BSC. Hooker will continue to get the stats and look good in GF. He is the big fish in a small pond. It doesn't mean that he is the biggest fish of all the ponds. :twocents:

 

[sacstateman]

I'm not the only one who thinks Hooker is better....he is the pre-season POY and that includes Hall....and Hooker had Crandall handling the ball enough that Crandall averaged more assists than Hooker....Senglin has never shown the ability to play point so he will never be the primary ball handler (another reason I consider Hooker better)....Hooker also had 60 steals to Senglin's 23 last season along with 58 TOs to Senglin's 78, even though he handled the ball more than Senglin (according to you).....Senglin is a superior 3 pt shooter without a doubt but Hooker shot 85% from the line vs 61% for Senglin.....I will never convince you right now so lets agree to disagree and see what happens when they meet....peace...

 

[oldrunner]

I'm not the only one who thinks Hooker is better....he is the pre-season POY and that includes Hall....and Hooker had Crandall handling the ball enough that Crandall averaged more assists than Hooker....Senglin has never shown the ability to play point so he will never be the primary ball handler (another reason I consider Hooker better)....Hooker also had 60 steals to Senglin's 23 last season along with 58 TOs to Senglin's 78, even though he handled the ball more than Senglin (according to you).....Senglin is a superior 3 pt shooter without a doubt but Hooker shot 85% from the line vs 61% for Senglin.....I will never convince you right now so lets agree to disagree and see what happens when they meet....peace...

OK, you have convinced me, Hooker deserves the preseason accolades based on last years stats. He had a better year than Senglin. However, Senglin is still my guy and I believe that he can do better this year. We will have to wait for 5 months to find out. I would bet you a Reno beer on it if it wasn't for the 'small pond'/'big pond' element to this discussion. After seeing all BSC teams last year, IMO Hall of MSU was the best guard last year, as far as raw talent goes. Ultimately, productivity needs to be measured by wins and loses, along with individual stats.

 

[sacstateman]

I'll buy you the beer no matter what happens to Hooker and Senglin...it'll be fun to watch...

 

[mattman_121]

Both Senglin and Hooker are damn good players, as witnessed by their 38 and 31 point head to head performances in Reno. I think Senglin has the higher ceiling for sure if he can just tighten a few things up and keep improving. He has always turned the ball over way too much (why they moved him off the ball a couple years ago) and it's bizarre that he shot 61% from the free throw line last year, I'd expect to see that at around 80% this year. I think Senglin has the better year on the better team. Hooker is right to have the preseason honor he hails though, he is spectacular and really edges Senglin in getting to the line (and making them 14-14 in that game vs Weber), low turnovers, and his playmaking ability.

As far as the overall UND vs Weber debate, I just don't trust UND for some reason that isn't really logically based. They had one of the youngest teams in the country last year and bring virtually everyone back so on paper you would think that everyone would improve and make them contenders. I guess in comes down to not trusting the system/coaching. I know what I'm getting every year with the Weber culture and system, with North Dakota not so much, we shall see.

Anyone remember what happened last time Weber lost a player to the NBA? Had there best team in forever, this team won't be nearly as good as that team, but they are the best in the Big Sky in my opinion.

Braxton is a significantly better big than anyone UND has, period.

 

[Siouxfan5121]

Crandall 4th in BSC in assists and 2nd in steals as a frosh plus 4 boards a games as frosh...too many turnovers...Bernstine top returning rebounder per game in BSC...Avants 8ppg 3 rebounds 56% from field and Seales 7.5 ppg as frosh was a rivals 3 star recruit. Juco Kinsey turned down 5 other D1 offers..... UND need a couple of the sophs to show a nice 2nd year pop to contend... Last I looked jones got UND to the CIT 5 of the last 6 seasons better than most BSC teams....

All of that is a good argument for a top 4 finish. My answer to that would be Cannon, Senglin, Committee, Hill, and Braxton. I am not that impressed with Shanks. He is big, but slow and does not rebound. Braxton will kick his butt. Hill is as good or better than their 4 man. Senglin is as good or better. Cannon is as good or better. Any one of our group of wings can play with or are better than UND's. What does that leave? Coaching? I can make those same arguments with UM's guys or UI's guys as well. ISU and Sac have to be included as dark horse candidates. After the top 6 it is a total crap shoot. People are talking about how far UM may be dropping after losing their stud post man. They may be smaller, but they are certainly a lot quicker. They have some really good guards and wings. If they can get any rebounding at all, watch out.

For us, the guys I have watched making the most improvement over the summer and early fall, are Hill, Braxton, Senglin, and John. I know that Senglin's game was already quite good, but he has really stepped up his leadership and seems to have picked up a step. He never lacked for confidence, but it is off the charts right now. Hill has worked really hard on his rebounding and outside shooting and it shows in his confidence. Braxton is simply a monster right now. Cannon does not look like a freshman any more. He runs the show.

Yes, Bolomboy was a big loss. However, IMO, this team is better than last years version.

Shanks has been incredibly frustrating to watch. He get in very quick foul trouble. Is slow. Also gets stripped of the ball way to easily. I'm a fan of getting Connor Avants in there. Maybe Shanks will figure it out.

 

[hawkssb04]

All the hype's on Senglin this year, but don't sleep on Hill. He seemed to turn a corner with his aggressiveness late last season when Joel missed a few games. I wouldn't be shocked if he had a breakout senior season as an all-conference performer.

 

[oldrunner]

All the hype's on Senglin this year, but don't sleep on Hill. He seemed to turn a corner with his aggressiveness late last season when Joel missed a few games. I wouldn't be shocked if he had a breakout senior season as an all-conference performer.

I totally agree with you. Senglin will have a good year, but the guys who may have improved the most, over the summer and fall, are Hill, Braxton, and John. Those guys are ready to make a significant jump over their performance last year. All of those guys are showing extreme confidence and playing very, very well. Hill, in particular, is shooting better and chasing down every rebound that Braxton doesn't get to first. We will just need to keep our big men out of foul trouble. On the flip side of that is that our guys will draw a lot of fouls as well.