Welcome to The Holy Land of Hoops

This one will be tough...

The suspects:
CU - Ballock
G’twn - Blair
BU - Bolden
UConn - Bouknight
PC - Duke
MU - McEwan
VU - Moore
SHU - Reynolds
X - Scruggs
DeP - Weems
SJU - Williams

Wow, this will cause some discussion. My top 7 and why...(some projected based on team)

1. Mitch B - Very efficient (60% eFG%), great range, wiley veteran.
2. Scruggs - Tough, veteran, can drive, can shoot. Would expect to be All-BE 1st team. Solid player.
3. Duke - Very good two way player; replaces Diablo as the “Alpha,” expect 1st team All-BE
4. Bouknight - Very promising frosh year, can score in a variety of ways; will be UConn’s go-to so I suspect his #s to rise; A/TO poor last year, needs to improve there
5. Moore - Very consistent and mature beyond his years; very good shooter from 3; would expect him to lead the team in scoring with Bey gone
6. Blair - The Hoyas will need someone to score and my best guess in Blair; pretty solid player stat wise; not overly flashy but does a little bit of everything.
7. McEwan - Could be a stud if he could be more efficient; not great shooting #’s last year (eFG% of 41%), will be interesting to see how many of Howard’s shots Coby will try to hunt.

I would expect kyky to be the starting SG for the muskies. And I expect him to do very well.

DudeAnon wrote:I would expect kyky to be the starting SG for the muskies. And I expect him to do very well.

I can’t seem to figure out if Scruggs is your PG, your 2 or a combo wing. Kyky? PG? 2G? Both? I thought Odom would be your starting PG and both Scruggs and KyKy off the ball but was told that I was mistaken. So I don’t know...

If you consider him a 2G where would you put him on this list?

GumbyDamnit! wrote:This one will be tough...
1. Mitch B - Very efficient (60% eFG%), great range, wiley veteran.
2. Scruggs - Tough, veteran, can drive, can shoot. Would expect to be All-BE 1st team. Solid player.
3. Duke - Very good two way player; replaces Diablo as the “Alpha,” expect 1st team All-BE
4. Bouknight - Very promising frosh year, can score in a variety of ways; will be UConn’s go-to so I suspect his #s to rise; A/TO poor last year, needs to improve there
5. Moore - Very consistent and mature beyond his years; very good shooter from 3; would expect him to lead the team in scoring with Bey gone
6. Blair - The Hoyas will need someone to score and my best guess in Blair; pretty solid player stat wise; not overly flashy but does a little bit of everything.
7. McEwan - Could be a stud if he could be more efficient; not great shooting #’s last year (eFG% of 41%), will be interesting to see how many of Howard’s shots Coby will try to hunt.

1. Moore or Duke - One or both will make a big jump with Bey/Alpha gone.
3. Scruggs - If he's a 2, put him here.
4. Bouknight
5. Ballock - Love him but doesn't do enough on defense or to create shot to rank as No. 1.
6. Weems - Really good looking player. I think DePaul makes a jump this year, and I don't say that every year.

GumbyDamnit! wrote:

DudeAnon wrote:I would expect kyky to be the starting SG for the muskies. And I expect him to do very well.

I can’t seem to figure out if Scruggs is your PG, your 2 or a combo wing. Kyky? PG? 2G? Both? I thought Odom would be your starting PG and both Scruggs and KyKy off the ball but was told that I was mistaken. So I don’t know...

If you consider him a 2G where would you put him on this list?

Not sure myself, but my guess it that Scruggs will start PG with Odom as his backup. If Odom shows out Scruggs will play PG and SG. He will probably start regardless because of seniority but kyky is too good to not be the main SG option. As for the list:

1. Moore
2. Bouknight
3. Duke
4. KyKy (I am very high on KyKy)
5. Ballock
6. Weems
7. Blaire
8. McEwan
9. Reynolds
10. Bolden
11. Williams

Might be the strongest position in the Big East, always seems to be so many good shooters in this league.

In the world of positionless basketball it is really hard to designate players and make lists like this. It really is guard, wing, or big. Those are the three positions, and some teams have lineups with only two of those position groups.

Doubtful that SHU's starting 2g will be Shavar Reynolds. Depending on how the Hall lines up, I could see it being any of Jared Rhoden, Myles Cale and Takal Molson. Of the group, Molson's the only pure guard (Rhoden and Cale are both more 3s) but if Obiagu is serviceable enough to let Mamu play the 4 I imagine one of Rhoden or Cale would play a lot of 2 to get on the floor at the same time.

xufan02 wrote:In the world of positionless basketball it is really hard to designate players and make lists like this. It really is guard, wing, or big. Those are the three positions, and some teams have lineups with only two of those position groups.

Wouldn't it be fair to say that, when void of any serious pressure, the guy that brings the ball over the time line and initiates the offense is the PG? This is consistent with most teams. Now the 2 or SG would be the other "backcourt" player that tends to create offense from distance or driving the lane with less concern with assists.

The 3 guard approach or combo/wing scenarios are becoming much more common, so yeah it gets a little muddled when trying to argue a position list like this, but anyway you slice it Paul Scruggs has to be the 1 or 2 best backcourt player in the league.

BTW, viewing Ballock as a SG seems odd.