What if Mbakwe never sees the basketball court?

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Plinnius

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How much would your expectations for the upcoming season change?
 

I think he is the difference between making a Round 2 and Sweet 16/Elite Eight run if things fell right. With him in the lineup we are much more flexible in how we use Damian and the other forwards. He has a tenacity and physicality that is critical to winning Big Ten games that we lack in anyone else (with the possible exception of Royce if he develops that way).

Without him, my expectations are top 4 Big Ten, NCAA Round 2. With him, Top 2-3 Big Ten with a shot at winning it and at least NCAA Round 2 with a shot to go Sweet 16 if we get seeded well.

Either way I think we lack a reliable scorer unless someone steps up.
 

borninthebarn said:
I think he is the difference between making a Round 2 and Sweet 16/Elite Eight run if things fell right. With him in the lineup we are much more flexible in how we use Damian and the other forwards. He has a tenacity and physicality that is critical to winning Big Ten games that we lack in anyone else (with the possible exception of Royce if he develops that way).

Without him, my expectations are top 4 Big Ten, NCAA Round 2. With him, Top 2-3 Big Ten with a shot at winning it and at least NCAA Round 2 with a shot to go Sweet 16 if we get seeded well.

Either way I think we lack a reliable scorer unless someone steps up.
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I would concur with the offensive concern. We have a talented team, but last year's offensive struggles are not yet forgotten.
 

We have a very deep team, his loss would not be significant (Engen Nurumbi comes to mind).

PS to borninthebarn -- be careful about judging a player by his play in a summer league (I am guilty of it too) -- far better to judge someone in what he has actually done in real college games.
 



tjgopher said:
Did you just really compare Mbakwe to Nurumbi? Wow.
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LOL, no, but I do remember how the posts on GopherHole about Nurumbi before he suited up as a Gopher made him sound like Karl Malone. :)
 

MillionMoves - true. Bostick looked like he would make a huge impact last year.

I can't imagine Trevor not converting his aggressive play and rebounding to a structured environment, but his ability to play Tubby's brand of defense is as of yet unknown.
 

> "What if Mbakwe never sees the basketball court?"

More minutes at PF for Royce White/Damian Johnson, and perhaps we'd see more of the two posts playing at once.

My expectations would not change much. We're a deep team. There would be games where we'd miss him, but who knows how it would effect the record in the long run, or effect whether we won or lost a particular NCAA tourney game.
 

IF No Mbakwe

Plinnius said:
How much would your expectations for the upcoming season change?
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F Johnson - Carter - White - Williams - Bostick - Dawson
C Sampson - Iverson
G Westbrook - Nolen - Joseph - Hoffarber - Cobbs - Allen

Still good depth at F spot.
 



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