Laughable Top 25 players in college hoops List

[Jerry1714]

http://insider.espn.go.com/mens-col...eads-nation-top-25-players-college-basketball

Bazz 20th, which is a joke

20. Shabazz Napier, Connecticut Huskies
Why should Kane get all the credit under the heading of "scoring point guard who also crashes the defensive glass and eliminates the need for an outlet pass?" At a listed height of 6-1 Napier is personally rebounding 15 percent of UConn opponents' misses during his minutes. And every one of those defensive boards is an invitation to Kevin Ollie's senior to start his own one-man fast break.

Napier is having the best season of his career from beyond the arc (44 percent), and his play at the point has ignited a Connecticut offense that's tearing through American opponents to the tune of 1.12 points per possession. The Huskies will want to try playing defense at some point, but until that day comes their senior star at least keeps them in all these shootouts.

 

[storrsroars]

At least he made the Wooden Award watch list. Only other AAC player is Russ Smith.

Wooden seems a bit of a BS list though, IMO, w/o Lamar Patterson on it (#3 on the ESPN list). Either he or Ennis will win ACC POY. More a product of hype machines than actual game contributions.

 

[tcf15]

1. Doug McDermott
2. Marcus Smart
3. Lamar Patterson
4. Tyler Ennis
5. Julius Randle
6. Jabari Parker
7. DeAndre Kane
8. Jordan Adams
9. Joel Embiid
10. C.J. Fair
11. Russ Smith
12. JayVaughn Pinkston
13. K.J. McDaniels
14. Casey Prather
15. Rodney Hood
16. Nick Johnson
17. Keith Appling
18. Aaron Gordon
19. Kyle Anderson
20. Shabazz Napier
21. Andrew Wiggins
22. Sean Kilpatrick
23. Nik Stauskas
24. Xavier Thames
25. Jordan Bachynski

 

[mauconnfan]

Let me guess this is either a Syracuse grad or fan's list?

 

[bear]

This is embarrassingly bad analysis. Tyler Ennis is a very good freshman point guard but to say that he's a more productive college point guard than Shabazz is out of control.

 

[BigErnMcCracken]

Stupid list. The mid-season Wooden list is a joke too. Aaron Craft is on it but Joel Embiid is not? Okay.

Shabazz is hurt by the fact that he's playing in near anonymity this year. Try to find an article on last night's game in a national publication, you can't. You can't even find reference to it anywhere. Gottlieb sounded legitimately shocked that Shabazz is as good as he is.

 

[Tenspro2002]

At least the list doesn't include Aaron Craft.

 

[Inyatkin]

Sure, make fun of UConn's defense but put Jabari Parker sixth on your list.

 

[donyell34]

No way Ennis over Bazz. Good young player but not yet. Is he a2 or3 year player?

 

[champs99and04]

Shabazz at #20 seems awfully low, but unfortunately not being in the top 25 as of the moment (we should get back in next week if we take care of Rutgers Saturday) is going to hurt him in these discussions.

 

[James]

Bilas seemed shocked as well during Memphis , so much so that posters here believed the higher ups pushed him to praise us.

 

[aceboon]

Stupid list. The mid-season Wooden list is a joke too. Aaron Craft is on it but Joel Embiid is not? Okay.

Shabazz is hurt by the fact that he's playing in near anonymity this year. Try to find an article on last night's game in a national publication, you can't. You can't even find reference to it anywhere. Gottlieb sounded legitimately shocked that Shabazz is as good as he is.

This is nonsense, Gottlieb is the same one that had Bazz in the top 10 in his mock draft last year and said he would've been one of the first PGs selected in his soph year had he come out and had the board in an uproar and downplaying Bazz's talent. He always has twitter buzzing during his in game performances, check public enemy #1 Goodman gushing over him after every game(although the Boston ties plays a part in that). This anonymity narrative in regards to Bazz just doesn't exist.

 

[Walker11]

When we were undefeated, Bazz was on the front of ESPN MCBB several times so lets not say he is playing in anonymity. Plus, he was at the top of more than 1 player of the year poll. The team has not performed as well recently, and Bazz has fallen due to the teams accomplishments. Does anyone think Ennis would be top 5 of Pinkston top 15 if their teams weren't so successful? Same can go for many other players on the list.

The list is still sub-par but what do you think you are going to get from ESPN? They put out material for the general public - those sort of people who need to digest info in a list form. People here simply beg to overreact. BTW, Bazz also played out of his mind last night so maybe that's why Dougie seemed surprised.

 

[Jerry1714]

Gottlieb has always gushed about Bazz, said he would have been a 1st round pick if he left early and will be one this year(one of the few in this camp). The Gottlieb hates us narrative is old and tired.

 

[aceboon]

Gottlieb's big board from last year, although it highlights how all over the place he is in regards to evaluating talent, he still thought highly of Bazz. The "playing in anonymity" narrative existed last year, definitely not this year.

http://www.cbssports.com/collegebasketball/writer/doug-gottlieb/21687186


9. Shabazz Napier, Connecticut, Guard, 6-1, 171, Junior: Wildly underrated, Napier is super quick, very strong and excellent off the ball screen. Just because fans won't see UConn in the NCAAs, it hasn't kept the scouts away.

 

[BigErnMcCracken]

Gottlieb's big board from last year, although it highlights how all over the place he is in regards to evaluating talent, he still thought highly of Bazz. The "playing in anonymity" narrative existed last year, definitely not this year.

http://www.cbssports.com/collegebasketball/writer/doug-gottlieb/21687186


9. Shabazz Napier, Connecticut, Guard, 6-1, 171, Junior: Wildly underrated, Napier is super quick, very strong and excellent off the ball screen. Just because fans won't see UConn in the NCAAs, it hasn't kept the scouts away.

His big board from last year proves that the "anonymity narrative" doesn't exist this year? Makes sense. You really think UConn has any sort of media profile this season? Playing games on CBSSports Network that no one watches and nobody writes about? I don't think a tweet from Jeff Goodman is what I had in mind, but okay.

 

[Jerry1714]

His big board from last year proves that the "anonymity narrative" doesn't exist this year? Makes sense. You really think UConn has any sort of media profile this season? Playing games on CBSSports Network that no one watches and nobody writes about? I don't think a tweet from Jeff Goodman is what I had in mind, but okay.[/quote

Did you see us hosting gameday last week and playing in the prime time ESPN Sat night game? Or how about Thursday on ESPN?

Goodman wrote in an article saying Bazz was the best PG in the country.

How many games have we played on CBSSN?

But yes we are hidden.

 

[aceboon]

His big board from last year proves that the "anonymity narrative" doesn't exist this year? Makes sense. You really think UConn has any sort of media profile this season? Playing games on CBSSports Network that no one watches and nobody writes about? I don't think a tweet from Jeff Goodman is what I had in mind, but okay.

You said Gottlieb acted like he was surprised at how good he was. Having him ranked as the #9 prospect last year obviously shows that wasn't the case. When UConn was undefeated Bazz was #1 on the Wooden Award list with Brennan on ESPN, and he was ranked #1 on Dauster's(NBC Sports) NPOY list. Then guess what, he and the team threw up a clunker in the 2nd half against Stanford, he and the team threw up a clunker in the 1st half against Houston and then lost to an awful team, and then he didn't play well and the team lost to SMU. Its not a shock that his NPOY stock took a dip as the team struggled. I follow all the major cbb writers on twitter and they're always talking him up but if you want to discount that then whatever. I'm not sure how some list that was put together using some forumlas that were input into a TI-83 proves that he's playing in anonymity, but I understand on the Boneyard some of ya'll are in a jousting match to prove just how miserable one can be so run with that narrative if you like.

 

[BigErnMcCracken]

Did you see us hosting gameday last week and playing in the prime time ESPN Sat night game? Or how about Thursday on ESPN?

Goodman wrote in an article saying Bazz was the best PG in the country.

How many games have we played on CBSSN?

But yes we are hidden.

Congrats. You just named the two games we've played on the big boy network since, what, the Florida game? I'm not going to argue with you, because it's a waste of time, but if you don't think there's a pronounced lack of coverage of this UConn team relative to prior years then you're dreaming.

 

[upstater]

I've watched a lot of Russ Smith. Either he's trying to carry that team because no one else is chipping in or he is hurting them with how wildly out of control he is. I know he scores a lot. But he's shooting 44% and has more than 3 turnovers per game.

His 58 turnovers are the second highest in the nation from any of the P-5 and big mid-major conferences (i.e. MWC, AAC, A10, BE) after Jahii Carson's 60.

 

[Walker11]

Congrats. You just named the two games we've played on the big boy network since, what, the Florida game? I'm not going to argue with you, because it's a waste of time, but if you don't think there's a pronounced lack of coverage of this UConn team relative to prior years then you're dreaming.

Aceboon is clearly right and you are clearly stubborn. End of argument. Proceed with sarcastic response. Some people enjoy being miserable.

 

[BigErnMcCracken]

Aceboon is clearly right and you are clearly stubborn. End of argument. Proceed with sarcastic response. Some people enjoy being miserable.

I love this _____ where a different opinion means somebody's "miserable." If anything that happens on a message board makes you miserable you need to reevaulate your situation. You clearly do anyway, but that's got nothing to do with this post.

 

[Walker11]

I love this _____ where a different opinion means somebody's "miserable." If anything that happens on a message board makes you miserable you need to reevaulate your situation. You clearly do anyway, but that's got nothing to do with this post.

I think someone is miserable when 99% of their responses are caustic or condescending. To each his own.

 

[Jerry1714]

Congrats. You just named the two games we've played on the big boy network since, what, the Florida game? I'm not going to argue with you, because it's a waste of time, but if you don't think there's a pronounced lack of coverage of this UConn team relative to prior years then you're dreaming.

Ha this is really funny since your argument is based around the 1 games we played on CBSN.

Oh and since Florida we had 6 ESPNU games (the big boy network) and played Stanford on ESPN2. At least put some effort in defending your point.

Facts suck I know.

 

[champs99and04]

if you don't think there's a pronounced lack of coverage of this UConn team relative to prior years then you're dreaming.

That's true, but the coverage UConn received while they were in the Big East is unlikely to be replicated again unless they eventually join the ACC or B1G. Exposure is not an issue with this UConn team. Maybe that changes in the future when Louisville leaves, but for this year the AAC has been a solid league at the top and it's getting a fair shake nationally. I mean, Doug McDermott is the prohibitive favorite to win NPOY - it's not like Creighton is playing on CBS and ESPN every week. Bazz has dropped in the rankings because UConn has lost to some teams they shouldn't have lost to.