Another grad transfer target
- Thread starter lou v
- Start date
This guy's a player. Very good shooter & playmaker.
I hope Collins has a strategy of pursuing grad transfers for this coming year - be competitive + preserve schollies for the "moonshot class" of 2021 Pat Baldwin Jr. & Max Christie. If they come, the program is forever changed. And Collins would have multiple schollies for that class, to use for top talent that will likely be multiple year additions, whereas one or both of Baldwin & Christie could be one and done.
A fan can dream...
I hope Collins has a strategy of pursuing grad transfers for this coming year - be competitive + preserve schollies for the "moonshot class" of 2021 Pat Baldwin Jr. & Max Christie. If they come, the program is forever changed. And Collins would have multiple schollies for that class, to use for top talent that will likely be multiple year additions, whereas one or both of Baldwin & Christie could be one and done.
A fan can dream...
Much more attractive statistical profile than the other player mentioned this morning. We need guys who can knock down shots.
Absent transfers out, Collins will have 3 schollies for the 2021 class. Just 2 if Gaines returns for a 5th year. I think it will be 2. And I project that both Baldwin and Christie will play college ball for a couple of years. I would put Baldwin in the 1 or 2 year category. He is still maturing physically but also needs to establish his place in the NBA. Still a work in progress on both fronts. Christie strikes me as a 2 or 3 year college guy. He’ll need to prove he can lead a team with the ball in his hand, get to the rim, play adequate defense at the next level and get a lot stronger.
Getting both legacies who already love the program, the people and the school would be a game changer for sure. Probably moreso than what the Taj Fitz is doing for football.
GOUNUII
It would be difficult to imagine a bigger change of environment than moving from Boiling Springs to Chicago. Boiling Springs is in the sticks of North Carolina and has a population of 4,647. I once had the chance to visit Gardner-Webb because my wife's grandparents used to eat regularly at the Hardee's situated next to the campus entrance. With that said, they often manage to put a very respectable hoops team on the court.
You make a good point, Loyola. I wonder if they believe Buie is not enough to get to the basket consistently. Anybody else? Gaines may be a bit of help.
The inside-outside challenge is a bit of a chicken-egg question. My initial thought is that teams somewhat pack it in for NU b/c it's pretty easy to handle Kopp 1-on-1 and there's not much else outside.
Good point, but it's an hour from Charlotte, about an hour from Asheville. 30 from Gastonia. Totally different than Evanston, but he is by some larger cities (Gastoni not being one of them), for sure.
Erik
We need more shooters more than anything at this point. It's really hard to win basketball games these days when you have 1 guy that's a good 3-point shooter on the floor. Buie can get to the basket and should get a lot stronger. He needs to be a lot more consistent in shooting 3's, though. He was unbelievable in 4 games and shot 14 for 80 the rest of the season. Spencer did a lot of nice things but his 3-point shooting (and reluctance to take 3's) definitely hurt our offense at times.
We had a lot of one dimensional guys on the team last year. Kopp (great shooter but struggled getting to the basket and creating shots for others), Spencer (great mid-range game but poor 3-point shooter); Gaines (good at getting to the basket but poor 3-point shooter), Bouie (good at getting to the basket but poor 3-point shooter in all but 4 games), Beran (basically shot the same percentage from 2 as 3 (which is not good), Nance (struggled from 2 and 3 through a long stretch in the middle but seemed to regain his confidence later in the season), and Young (should not have shot any 3's last year). Turner should have been a multi-dimensional player but he never came close to his 3-point shooting at Boston College (37% his sophomore year to 27% this year). I hope Buie can be a more consistent shooter, Beran and Nance get stronger and more confident and Kopp continues to work on his ball handling and shot creation. All those things are very doable. Berry looks to be a great shooter and average athlete but hopefully he can get to the basket from time to time. Audige looks to be able to do a little of both, although he is much smaller than Turner. So there is hope for a much better season next year.
It seems to me that since they changed the rules attempting to get rid of hand guarding....the guard who can penetrate and finish,,penetrate and dish to the open 3...or just penetrate and create a double team to open someone up......has become the key to all offenses.....We have a bunch of stand and shoot guys who need some one to create situations in which they are open....and if they do not get double teamed they can finish at the rim and not get bumped off.....I do not know the stats for Buie at the rim this year....he may have finished better than I remember..but I thought he got bumped off the rim a lot. I thought Spencer did not get double teamed a lot but was able to hit a lot of shots around the hoop....did not think he was so good at finding the open man when he was in traffic or got double teamed...?
Also, my concern about the way Buie's game evolved was never his ability to get to the rim.
I don't know whether it was an influence from coaching or other players, but I thought he looked for outside shooters more when he was in the lane before the injury. Later in the season, he was looking to force his inside game way too much.
But I think that can be easily solved when he sees some film of Kopp out there on an island.
I don't know whether it was an influence from coaching or other players, but I thought he looked for outside shooters more when he was in the lane before the injury. Later in the season, he was looking to force his inside game way too much.
But I think that can be easily solved when he sees some film of Kopp out there on an island.
Yes that's my point - schollies are precious, and Collins is wise to preserve them in the event we do land the Baldwin / Christie lottery. If that happens, the national profile will be raised so much that we'll only be offering the very top players. So a grad transfer for next year makes a lot of sense.
I really like the Berry-Nicholson 2020 class, and the upperclassmen in the Baldwin / Christie Freshman year are solid - Nance, Kopp, Young, Buie, Beran, Jones, hopefully Audige. Add Baldwin & Christie... that team wins the Big Ten and goes deep in the tourney, IMO.
A lot of these guys going elsewhere . Does NU have a shot any of the other top guys?