This team is actually kind of interesting and has some promise. There are interesting players who are fun to watch and who will develop with experience. Clem always said it took 50 games to really develop at this level of college basketball, talking about high school students more than transfers. But even bad Clem teams had young players offering hope for future and fun for fans as they competed hard and we got to know them. We should maybe enjoy this team a little bit more.
For evidence let's look back to the 90-91 team that was a whopping 5-13 in Big Ten but was fun to watch and got fan support all year. I chose it because it was a team I remember pretty well and enjoyed watching the story lines and getting to know the players on the floor.
Kevin Lynch and Walter Bond were only seniors. Kevin a great leaper who provided highlights. Bond played a steady game and had some good shooting nights.
Bob Martin was a junior, tall, unathletic, hard worker.
Nate Tubbs was sophomore who averaged 4 points. Dana Jackson was a talented Chicago HS player player who transferred from San Diego State (2.5 ppg there), sat out a year, and had a pretty steady sophomore year (12 starts and 8.5 ppg) though did not develop from there).
Freshman class had some talent. Randy Carter was a major talent at power forward and ended up at 9.6 ppg and 5.9 rebounds a game. Ariel McDonald grew during the year and was second leading scorer. Townsend Orr didn't get much play, averaging 0.5 ppg. Ernest Z had some physical gifts but lacked elite basketball skills. (see part 2)
