Comments on: 20 At The Top: Big 10 Player Rankings

By: NCBadger

NCBadger — Sun, 08 Aug 2010 18:26:48 +0000

Re Battle-McCamey ranking, I’d put Purdue’s Moore ahead of both.

By: rtmsf

rtmsf — Thu, 05 Aug 2010 00:50:18 +0000

In reply to zhayes9.

Yeah, I’ve seen a lot of complaints about rating freshmen highly who haven’t yet “played a game of college ball.”

And yet we’ve seen over 30 one-and-dones go in the NBA Draft in the last four years. Not every top ten prospect pans ou (ahem, Abdul Gaddy), but there’s a greater likelihood of those few players near the very top being great than there is that they won’t even finish in the top 20 players of a conference.

The landscape of college basketball has changed, for better or worse, but I feel that some folks are slow to realize that.

By: zhayes9

zhayes9 — Wed, 04 Aug 2010 18:48:37 +0000

Matt- C’mon man, have you watched college basketball the last 5 years? Freshmen make an ENORMOUS impact in every major conference, bigger than ever. This is a ranking for the top players in the conference in 2010-11. In my view, Sullinger will be on that short list. You would have sounded rather silly ranting about how John Wall shouldn’t have been considered a year ago today, no?

By: Matt

Matt — Wed, 04 Aug 2010 17:21:23 +0000

Sullinger in the top ten? Richmond being considered? Neither of these two have played one second of college ball and already they are being anointed as top players? Insanity. It’s okay to rate them in their own category (i.e. an incoming freshman ranking), but to put them ahead of other players that have actually played and had some success is ridiculous (see Cully Payne, Keaton Nankivil, etc.) Who knows how they will handle the transition from high school to college. The level of competition they have played at is completely different from the Big Ten players they are going to see.

By: zhayes9

zhayes9 — Wed, 04 Aug 2010 16:54:12 +0000

Yeah, Sullinger could win national freshman of the year. Special talent.

By: Andrew

Andrew — Wed, 04 Aug 2010 15:52:39 +0000

Sullinger>>>>>Creek

By: harvo45

harvo45 — Wed, 04 Aug 2010 13:52:51 +0000

you said you would have listed Creek at 12 or 13 because of a league loaded with veterans yet you listed sullenger at 9 and he hasn’t played a min of college ball

By: zhayes9

zhayes9 — Wed, 04 Aug 2010 04:07:53 +0000

He’s a very talented scorer who averaged 15 PPG as a sophomore while contributing nearly 4 APG and RPG. Plus he gets to the line a ton. Could be a nice 2nd option after Creek.

By: Ryan

Ryan — Wed, 04 Aug 2010 01:21:22 +0000

I wouldn’t put Verdell Jones in the top 50 Big Ten players. What exactly were you “considering” about him?

By: zhayes9

zhayes9 — Mon, 02 Aug 2010 18:15:29 +0000

If he kept up that scoring production, I’d say 12-13 range. Loaded league with more veteran players.

By: AR

AR — Mon, 02 Aug 2010 17:33:11 +0000

Great list here. I’m a Purdue guy, and I think this list is very fair, but I’m interested to see where you think Creek would’ve been on this list had he not gotten hurt. Honestly, I would be surprised if he didn’t make the top 10.

By: EJ

EJ — Mon, 02 Aug 2010 05:29:42 +0000

Re: JR’s point above “Can he mesh with Izzo or will that end poorly again?”

Uhh…if you mean losing in the final four without your best player is ending poorly. Wait – what do you mean by that?

Green and Izzo get along phenomenally well. Dayday is on his way to being one of the great players/leaders in MSU history.

By: Andrew

Andrew — Sun, 01 Aug 2010 08:48:40 +0000

I’d take Battle over McCamey without a second thought…

By: Writing Illini

Writing Illini — Sun, 01 Aug 2010 03:24:56 +0000

Excellent post.

I’m an Illinois guy, but I’d agree with Battle over McCamey.

While Demetri had a great junior season, he still needs to be more consistent and play a semblance of some defense.

http://writingillini.com/2010/07/26/illinois-basketball-summer-school-senior-guard-demetri-mccamey-part-i/

http://writingillini.com/2010/07/27/illinois-basketball-summer-school-senior-guard-demetri-mccamey-part-ii/

http://writingillini.com/2010/07/28/illinois-basketball-summer-school-senior-guard-demetri-mccamey-part-iii/

Poor Battle — he just doesn’t have much help.

I love the kid’s heart and toughness.

By: zhayes9

zhayes9 — Fri, 30 Jul 2010 16:20:22 +0000

JR- Shurna did get a 2-3 spot bump. I underrated him at the beginning anyway regardless of Coble.