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Message: [QUOTE="Ricker, post: 5054898, member: 1245"] You know I'm a big Alex fan but I'm going to take the under on both Alex & Aiden and the over on McNeeley. Alex 1. Averaged 13.3 ppg playing over 31 min a game and the minutes on the court won't be increasing 2. He will be the focus of defenses this year and as an unselfish player he will defer to the open player in many games 3. He led us in scoring 9x last year playing 39 of 40 games with a high of 26 pts I figure that might be about the same number of games he will be the hot hand this year 4. Nobody averaged 16 pts for us last year and we have diversified scorers again this year (Newton was high at 15.1) 5. Alex values winning over hunting shots and I think 13-14 points will be about the average again 6. I believe Hurley trusts his bench depth at the forward spot and will want to get Ross/Abraham minutes when he can Up 20 points with 6 minutes to go, I think Alex gets a few less closing minutes against some teams Aiden 1. Averaged 13.9 points last year taking 435 shots in 34 games =12.8 shot attempts per game 2. Newton only took 439 shots in 40 games, and Spencer took 405 shots or 10 attempts per game Aiden might take important shots, but IMO we aren't going into this season relying on him to shoot more than Newton/Spencer 3. I believe his attempts will be down to 8-10 per game with all the options we have 4. Spencer had to put up 225 3 pointers in 40 games at 44% to average 14.3ppg last year (5.6 attempts per game) Aiden put up 234 3 pointers in just 34 games at 35.5% to average his 13.9 ppg (6.88 attempts per game) At UConn he may increase his respectable percent but I don't see him getting nearly 7 three pt attempts per game He may get 7 attempts in particular games but that just won't be necessary every time out I suspect we will have 8 players that score in double figures more than once, (Karaban, McNeeley, Mahaney, Diarra, Ball, Stewart, Reed, Johnson), and, I'm not going to bet against (Nowell, Ross, or Abraham) getting in the act at least 1x, (heck Roumoglou got 5 pts in 2 garbage time minutes). But that kind of scoring diversification means averages of 5 to 10 ppg for several very capable players because we aren't averaging more than 80 points I would assume. Liam McNeeley in that 12-14 point range leading the team in scoring 9x like Alex wouldn't surprise me. He is on the team to score. The limiting factor for him will be playing good enough defense and rebounding to get the minutes from Hurley that he needs to score. [/QUOTE]

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