hoopsageddon
[Scheduling note: As of now Brian's on play 11,481 of 19,000 of the Indiana UFR so that will be a bit delayed. So here's some #content]
Here it began. There it continued. And then it went on. Now we are on the final two rounds of our gimmicky Big Ten players preview. How things stand:
By the way we did these picks before last week so nobody had any game information go on. Alex is up.
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ALEX—ROUND 7, PICK 2: Tre Demps, SG, Northwestern
TEAM: PG: Bronson Koenig (UW), SG: Caris LeVert (UM), SF: Jarrod Uthoff (IA), PF: Malcolm Hill (IL), C: Thomas Bryant (Ind). Bench: Robert Carter (C/PF, Md), Tre Demps (SG, NW)
Caris never comes off the floor. Demps only takes the end of half/game heaves for my team and that's it.
[Jump for TWO MORE MICHIGAN PLAYERS we took horray!]
Hey basketball's on tonight. Like, real basketball that counts. Our draft also counts: whoever wins gets to be the MGoBlogger who feels smarter than the rest of us. Because Brian and Alex squabbled over point guards in the first round, Denzel Valentine slipped to Ace. Because we had a run on power forwards in the 3rd/4th rounds, Zak Irvin and James Blackmon fell to Ace.
Can he deliver the coup de grace, or does that require, you know, forwards? Also: who are the best/most overlooked basketball players Michigan will have to face in conference this year? Find out in the thrilling penultimate 'geddon of this year's basketball season.
As things stand:
Alex is on the clock.
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ALEX: Round 5, Pick 2: Jarrod Uthoff, Wing, Iowa
TEAM: PG: Bronson Koenig (UW), SG: Caris LeVert (UM), SF: Jarrod Uthoff (IA), PF: Malcolm Hill (IL), C: Thomas Bryant (Ind)
A year ago, Iowa won 22 games, finished tied for third in the conference, and advanced to the Round of 32 in the NCAA Tournament. Aaron White, the underrated and versatile 3 /4 wing, has graduated; almost everyone else is back (save for Gabe Olaseni)—Adam Woodbury, Mike Gesell, and Anthony Clemmons.
The best of the group is senior wing Jarrod Uthoff. He's 6'9 (and with that size, posts a nice block rate of 6.2) and had a shooting split of 47% / 37% / 74% last season. He might not be able to transition to being the leading scorer because of a possible lack of 2nd scoring options on offense. Still, he'd be a good fit as part of my drafteggedon team -- Uthoff can space the floor and score enough to carry a team for prolonged stretches.
[Hit the JUMP if you dare. Or care]
Back by popular demand, welcome to our gimmicky "Best Players of the Big Ten" #content where we draft teams out of the conference's top athletes and you either learn things about Michigan and its opponents or complain about how you don't care about someone else's fantasy draft.
Last time: Ace complained about going first, then got Nigel Hayes, Derrick Walton, and Denzel Valentine, while I tried to get 40 minutes out of two 20-minute bigs. As we resume, Alex is on the clock.
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ALEX: Round 3, Pick 2: Malcolm Hill, Illinois
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| Malcolm Hill was apparently in the building that day we were all staring at Jim Harbaugh and going "Man is this really happening?" [Eric Upchurch] |
After going with backcourt players with my first two picks, I'll turn to a relatively shallow position group in the Big Ten: the stretch forward. As a sophomore at Illinois, Malcolm Hill was arguably the team's most valuable player*—playing most of his minutes at the four (though some at the three), Hill scored 14.4 points per game and posted a nice offensive rebounding rate (6.9) for his size (6'6).
But most importantly, he was very efficient—39% on three point attempts and 65% in the restricted area. For this season, he's expected to be Illinois's best player and its first option on offense. Those are responsibilities that might cut into his overall efficiency, seeing as how the Illini's next-best option is Kendrick Nunn.
But Hill would fit ideally next to Koenig and LeVert as a shooting specialist, above-average defender, and one of those invaluable 3/4 wings that can stretch the floor and create for themselves without sacrificing size or physicality inside on the other end of the floor. Additionally, he's still just a junior and could develop into something even better.
*Rayvonte Rice, who was a senior, was better, but missed over a month of conference play with an injury.
[Hit the JUMP to read about Big Ten basketball players in a kind of ranked order that tells you more about their value than "here's this list I made," or hit THE COMMENTS to complain that your mouse wheel had to scroll five entire clicks to skip this article.]
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