Wednesday, October 1, 2014

Starting Lineup Projections

I haven't posted in quite some time so I figured it'd be worthwhile to give my take on the starting lineup for the All-Military Classic at West Point this November. It's been a pretty quick off-season (at least for me), given the success of last year's team...and the fact that they played all the way into April added another month to what would've been a crushing Big South tourney loss.

It would be quite an understatement to say replacing Rodney Glasgow and D.J. Covington will be difficult. In fact it will be impossible. There is no one on this team, as far as I know, who is capable of producing what those two produced this past season at their respective positions. That is not to say the future looks bleak. Let's take a look.

PG: Jon Elmore, Freshman

From what I've heard around town it seems this guy is the real deal. Amazing right, for a guy that's never played a single collegiate game? Nevertheless, Jon averaged 19.5 points per game in his senior year for Christ School, and was also first in steals and assists on that team. It's very rare that a Rat would find himself in the Starting 5 beginning the season, but Jon will more than likely find himself in that position,

SG: QJ Peterson

Obvious choice here. QJ easily matched and surpassed his preseason expectations last year, averaging 19.0 PPG for the season along with 5.6 rebounds and a 32% shooting mark from beyond the arc. He faded a bit as the season progressed, especially in the Ohio and Yale games where he chucked up bricks off forced and unbalanced shots. But last season is done and the future looks very bright for him.

SG: Brian Brown

Throughout most of his career Duggar has generally gone with a three-guard lineup, save for late-game situations when he needs the height. Brian (aka B.B.) will fit the bill quite nicely. Last season he averaged 6.8 PPG (tops among our non-"Big 3" players) and shot 33% from three. His main problem was inconsistency, as there were many games where he had absolutely nothing going (Citadel, AFA, Bridgewater,VUL, LwU, HPU, and a couple others). On the upside Brian kept us in a lot games with the three-ball: he hit 4+ against Wright State, GWU, CSU, and CCU. If he can get that percentage up to a Glasgow-like 39%, Brian will be a critical asset to a team that needs all the scoring they can get.

F: Jordan Weethee

I'm going on a hunch here because Weethee wasn't in the starting lineup in any game past November last year, but he's 6'6 and a senior so, might as well. Actually he averaged 6.7/3.7/0.9 which is decent for a guy who gets fair playing time. Of course he absolutely dominated the Military Classic and did some other things too, but after that he just kinda faded away. I'd like to see him play like I know he can.

F: Phillip Anglade

Honestly Anglade isn't even listed as a center on the roster so I won't call him a center, but for all intents and purposes, he's a center. It was interesting last season that Anglade was a starter basically all of the second half of the season, yet Duggar tended to take him out fairly quickly. Phil averaged slightly over 15 minutes/game, and scored 3.4 PPG in that time. He is used mostly for his physicality, but needs to clean up the fouling: 87 person fouls last season (second only to Covington). Expect him to rotate around with Craig Hinton, Armani Branch, Trey Chapman, and Jarid Watson.

Primary Bench: Branch, Chapman, Hinton, Watson, Tim Marshall
Secondary Bench: Ot Elmore, Fred Iruafemi, Tyrell Mason, Julian Eleby, Christian Burton