Yes I am counting on Whalen getting Pitts into the flow earlier in the B1G season than she did last season.
In the Gopher's first nine B1G games Destiny scored: 13, 1, 7, 15, 16, 5, 10, 19 and 19.
In Minnesota's next nine B1G games Destiny scored: 19, 14, 17, 21, 27, 22, 24, 24 and 26.
Look at the above stats a bit differently by breaking it down into the first 7, and then the last 11 of the B1G games (thus grouping the last two 19-point games of the first set with the first 19-point game of the second set).
This gives you a points-per-game average for Pitts of 9.57 in the first 7 games, and 21.09 for the second 11 B1G games. That's more than a doubling, and an increase of about +11.5 points per game once she got dialed-in for the remainder of the season. Thus, it seems to me that's she's capable of 21 points per game this year. Yet, there will be a lot of defensive focus on her, as noted, so let's dial that expectation down to a target goal of 20 points for a decent game by Destiny.
For some reason, DP's shot was a bit off early last season, through the non-conf games (maybe less so then due to weaker opponents on average that had more trouble defending her) and in the early part of the B1G season. But then her "shooting radar" locked onto the target for the rest of the season. Plus, on the basis of that, her confidence went up. I expect her shot to be dialed in from the get-go this season, thanks to not only more shooting practice under her belt, plus also the benefits of the NOAH shot-practice feedback system.
Thankfully, Gadiva Hubbard will also be shooting for us again this year. She's easily capable of 10 points per game. And Jasmine Brunson is also capable of 10 points per game (maybe mostly shorter jumpers and penetration, more in the style of K. Bell). So together, I'd say that Pitts, Hubbard and Brunson are jointly capable of 40 points per game.
Likely Pitts or Hubbard, but kind of hoping its Taiye. When was the last time a true post player led the Gophers (other than Zahui B. when Banham was injured)?
I concur with Whay's statement (on record in another thread) that Taiye might well be capable of multiple 20/20 games this year. I'll predict that she'll get at least one of those during the non-conf season. During the B1G season, maybe the expectations need to be dialed back a bit due to tougher (and taller) competition in the post - maybe 15/15 would be a good game with a few games even better.
Another interesting phenomenon is the improvement of Kehinde (although still not a leading-scorer candidate). Even if the younger posts take a bit of time to mature their game, I think that this year, Kehinde will be a much more capable sub for her sister (e.g., should Taiye get in foul trouble, the coaches need not despair). I think that we might see at least one 25/25 game from the twins (combined).
If you add together the expected 40-point production of the three most experienced guards (OK, perhaps SF for Destiny) plus a reasonable combined expectaion for the Bellos (during a B1G game, say) of 20 points plus 20 rebounds, that gives you about 60 points. Add in production by the rest of the team, and we could have a lot of 80- to 95-point games this year. Hopefully, they can add solid defense plus minimization of turnovers to that, for a respectabe B1G showing.
In the long run, I think it doesn't matter who's the highest scorer. I think balanced scoring plus Bello-caliber rebounding might be the name of the game.