Olivier Nkamhoua Leads Finland in Scoring vs. Germany
I know we have this little thing called football season to get through first, but Olivier Nkamhoua in the World Cup is giving us slivers of hope that basketball season might be OK.
In Finland's final World Cup game against Germany (a big loss), Nkamhoua led the Finns in scoring with 15 points on 6-10 shooting from the floor and 2-3 from behind the line. He also had four rebounds and three blocks, all while playing against NBA guys and other pros. That will hopefully bode well when he starts playing against UNC Asheville and Youngstown State.
He even outscored Mo Wagner, who had 12 points for Germany on perfect 5-for-5 shooting.
Nkamhoua's stat line loses a little luster when you see that one of his threes was taken uncontested at the final buzzer - but look how far back he was!
August 30th, 2023 at 9:17 AM ^
Sorry - Olivier's triple at the buzzer is in the bottom video.
August 30th, 2023 at 9:31 PM ^
feel bad for the gamblers who had Germany at -28.5
August 30th, 2023 at 9:52 AM ^
Nkamhoua even outpaced NBA All-Star Lauri Markkanen on his team who had a rough outing going 3-11 from the floor (0-6 from 3).
Based off of this one game sample size and absolutely no context outside of looking at the Box Score it seems like we have an NBA All-Star on our hands fellas!
August 30th, 2023 at 9:58 AM ^
Honestly, I'm get cautiously more optimistic about this basketball season because it does seem like the guys they have coming in should integrate well with the existing roster. This isn't a championship-level team right now but there's some solid players and, perhaps more importantly, guys who may be more consistent on both ends of the court.
August 30th, 2023 at 10:35 AM ^
I'm somewhat optimistic about the upcoming season.
I had an ongoing argument with some friends about last year's team and how the relative youth was a big issue.
Took the time to look at the top seven scorers of all of the teams in the Sweet Sixteen this past March.
Most teams had at least five or six 3rd/4th/5th-year players among their top seven contributors.
Shannon would've made a huge difference on last year's team. An experienced, tough, good defender...who also would've blocked a lot of Jett's playing time. Most of the data shows what a lot of us saw with our own eyes...that the team was better without Jett on the floor.
Looking forward to seeing what a group of experienced, more mature players can do this year.
August 30th, 2023 at 10:50 AM ^
Also keeping Jett on the bench so he can grow and learn for his second season at U of M.
August 30th, 2023 at 10:50 AM ^
Trouble is we're still incredibly thin with ballhandlers - even assuming Llyweyn makes a full recovery from his injury last year.
We're still arguably short a 5, though I know the Seton Hall transfer could play that role in a pinch, his past results aren't ideal.
Wing scorers are possible, but still TBD.
I can squint and make the case that we have a reasonably solid BIG-10 starting 5 - but anything after that falls off a cliff.
I think I've been one of the more level-headed basketball commenters, and even I still have a hard time seeing optimism for this team (by optimism I mean a NCAA birth).
August 30th, 2023 at 11:52 AM ^
The unknowns are the tough part now; they have a glut of guys who are sorta-4s and not a lot of guys elsewhere. I agree about the ballhandlers but I think Llewellyn should bounce back and Dug showed he can carry a heavy load last year. Burnett has the physical tools to be a solid playmaker but hasn't put it all together but maybe he figures it out and then you've got 3 guys who can handle the ball enough. GW3 is maybe that guy in the future but not this season.
The center depth is just going to be hard for UM to deal with this year but if they're willing to play smaller then you can survive against most teams on the schedule and hope you get lucky against the Purdues of the universe. We haven't really seen a Howard-led UM team without Dickinson at center (that first year they had Teske but being Howard's first year and coming in late it's hard to read a ton into that) so I'm not sure how this team looks when they trade in that offensive efficiency for maybe more switching.
The ceiling for this team is probably a 10 seed/play-in spot, with a good chance they don't make the tournament. But at least this year will be different and likely employ a different approach than, say, bringing back Dickinson for another year and they try to muddle through that again.
August 30th, 2023 at 11:02 AM ^
He’s going to be a great backup to TWill this season.
August 30th, 2023 at 11:03 AM ^
I feel like the international players have better all-around fundamentals than US age-equivalents, and are not as easily categorized for a certain role. I'm certainly hoping that this translates into additional competent ball handling on the floor at any given time.
August 30th, 2023 at 11:09 AM ^
I think that this year's team will be more likeable than last year's: tougher, smarter, and prone to trying harder. But I also think that they'll have too many holes--particularly at the three--to do much of anything.
August 30th, 2023 at 11:19 AM ^
Olivier didn't put up tons of points in this tourney, but he did a pretty good job filling the rest of the stat sheet. Teams need those "other things" to win to go along with points.
I'm more interested to see how this team comes together. Watching the games last year, it was pretty clear many of the guys did not enjoy playing with Jett. They may have liked Jett, thought he was a great guy, etc...but they did not enjoy playing with him. That is really tough to play through for an entire season.
From the little snippets and tidbits of interviews I've seen over the summer, it seems like the new additions to the team have their heads on right and want to play for the team.
There are good pieces on this team which have the potential to fit together really well. I'm excited to see what this team can do once they get comfortable with each other. The start may be a little slow, but I expect them to figure it out by the start of conference and surprise some people.
August 30th, 2023 at 12:39 PM ^
He is the best transfer addition by far and he should finally give us a solid starting 4. If only we had added another quality guard/wing, I could see this team competing for a tourney berth.
That seems like a longshot given the lack of depth and talent at the 2/3 spots.
August 30th, 2023 at 4:55 PM ^
Fingers crossed and trust in Howard.
August 31st, 2023 at 12:02 PM ^
Really, needing Yo Yo's contribution too have any chance of being upper tier within B1G.
His time to shine...