The Fans Speak: Point Guard Palooza

Often the Poll of the Week results get rolled into some post or another, but this week I think the voice of the fans deserves its own space. We asked, "Who should start at point guard?", and the results are close indeed:

Steve Luptak: 13 (25%)
Daniel Munoz: 7 (13%)
Nick Hendra: 16 (31%)
Blake Jolivette: 15 (29%)
Total Votes: 51 (100%)

Hendra leads with 16 votes, which on one hand is surprising as he is the least like a true point guard of the four. On the other hand, he is definitely the biggest offensive spark and leads the team in assists, although is ball-handling skills and knowledge of the offense from the one spot might not be as great as the others.

Neck-and-neck with Hendra is Blake Jolivette, who has only seen about a minute and a half of play time this season. We've speculated for months as to why he's been riding the pine for about a year now, as last season he shared the starting spot with Danny Munoz up until late December. A fantastic 3-point conversion at West Virginia gave fuel to the "Let Blake Play" camp, although others are quick to point out that it was in the final seconds versus WVU's scrub team. Still, with a dearth of dribble penetration from our other guards, it still holds merit.

Following closely behind Jolivette is Steve Luptak, the first candidate to actually see significant play time at the point guard position this season. He's probably the best defender of the bunch, but the weakest on offense. His ball handling skills are not as tight as Danny's, but his bigger frame helps him hold onto the ball better in tight situations, and his experience as a Senior and accompanying leadership skills get him the starting spot as of now.

Last, surprisingly, is Danny Munoz. I think Steve and Danny coming in 3rd and 4th place respectively speaks to fans' collective disappointment with how weak this position is for us right now, but I didn't expect Danny to fall behind the rest of the pack quite so much. As stated, Danny probably has the best ball-handling skills of the bunch, can hit the occasional three, and against softer teams can make it to the basket every now and then. While I think he should be higher, that's just my opinion, and if my opinion was the only one that mattered then why take a poll?

Last, I do want to mention option #5, Wayne Simon II. As he's new to the team and stands little chance of starting this season, he wasn't included in the poll. This being said, in the years to come we will likely see a lot of him. He's tiny, but quick, and from what I've seen can drive to the basket and pick much larger defenders like it's nobody's business. He has the opportunity to get a bit bigger this summer too, and the cleanup minutes he's been seeing so far have hopefully been helping him adjust to the college game. When we lose Nick and Steve to graduation after this season, we'll likely look to Wayne to step up and contribute much more, along with fellow freshman Tony Wroblicky. This team has a bright future, and Wayne will definitely be a part of it.

Thanks to everyone who voted. AUHoops only gets better when there's more voices being heard. If you have further thoughts on the point guards (and I'm sure you do), share them with us in the comments, then vote in this week's poll, "Which Patriot League opponent will be our greatest contender for the title?" We'll be back shortly with a preview of tomorrow's UMBC game.

Pro Deo Et Patria and GO EAGLES!
Josh

Sharing the Holiday Hoops Wishes

As a part of the AU community, we'd like to join in sharing AU's first-ever holiday video card with our readers. It's really impressive, and does a great job encapsulating all the things that make us great. Don't miss  basketball players Vlad Moldoveanu, Jordan Borucki, and Wayne Simon II at the 00:24 mark, giving us their wish for an NCAA Tournament run this March. Hey, that's our wish too!




AUHoops hopes everyone is enjoying their holiday season, and we'll be right here with you as the men's basketball team gives us the great present of a few more wins before the New Year.

Pro Deo Et Patria and Happy Holidays,
Josh

We're Like One of Those Birds That Lands in a Croc's Mouth to Clean Its Teeth Except the Croc Eats Us

Well, that was fun. AU loses its third game in a row, 67-48 against the Florida Gators at the Verizon Center. Sorry again that we didn't have the liveblog. Sometimes our schedules just aren't conducive to doing them. Unfortunately, this was one of those times. Ah well. In any event, here is the AUEagles recap, the AP recap, and the box score. For the second straight game, I'm not going to review how things went in the Good, Bad, and Ugly format. I think I'm going to abandon that format from now on, actually. Here are my reasons why, then I'll talk about the game:


First, Good, Bad, and Ugly has been decreasingly enjoyable for me to write. This is because I feel badly about labeling our players' performances either as "Bad" or "Ugly." I'm not opposed to criticizing their performances (I'm going to criticize a number of them tonight, for example), I just think it's unduly negative to categorize them as such in broad categories. Second, the Good, Bad, and Ugly format doesn't allow for nuances of description. If, for example, some aspects of a player's game were good but others were bad or ugly, it makes it difficult to do the write-up. Third, I wasn't really using the Ugly category. Because of reason one, I was never going to put a player in the Ugly category. That again made the format less useful. If anyone misses this format terribly, I'm sorry. I'll listen to compelling reasons why I should continue it, but otherwise I will probably continue without it.

On another note, I need a new name for the recap. "Random Thoughts About the Game" just doesn't have the same gravitas, so come up with something good for me.

Anyway, to the game.

Eagles Point Guard Battle Continues

Going into Thursday’s exhibition against Randolph-Macon, Eagles coach Jeff Jones said that his point guard race was a toss-up between Steve Luptak, Danny Munoz, Blake Jolivette, and dark horse contender Wayne Simon II. If Friday night was any indication, be prepared to see a lot of Luptak and Munoz.

“We wanted to approach it like it was a game, and we knew it was a quality opponent,” Coach Jones. “As you can see, we wanted to win the game. We weren’t just trying to get everybody minutes. We were trying to play as if the game counted.”

If that’s the case, then Jolivette and Simon could be in for a long year. Neither one of them cracked the rotation Thursday, as Munoz played 22 minutes while Luptak started the game and played 18 minutes.

Neither one had a flashy line, but the two combined for sufficient point guard play. Luptak scored four points (all free throws) with four rebounds and two assists with one turnover. Munoz put up seven points, two boards, two assists and a blocked shot, but he also committed three turnovers.

“I think different guys have different strengths,” Jones said. “I think Luptak is our best defender at that spot for sure. Danny’s the guy that if we were putting him in the first half to try to get some dribble penetration because I think he’s more comfortable doing that than Steve is.”

The depth at point guard might be a logjam, but it’s one that Jones prefers. He says this team’s total depth is among the best American has ever had. Both Luptak and Munoz could see starts this season.

“To be honest with you, I know they probably do, and maybe their girlfriends and parents care, but I don’t care who starts,” Jones said. “It’s been a very competitive battle – much more competitive than it was a year ago. We want both of them to continue playing well.”

Jones said that Jolivette was in the thick of the battle, but he never left the bench. He and other scratches will have their chance to impress coaches soon.

“The scrimmage on Saturday is a closed scrimmage,” Jones said. “So there really won’t be any public observation of it and we’ll have an opportunity to play more people.”

The scrimmage against Youngstown State won’t be a game, but it’ll be three second-halves in order to “build in” the late game pressure.

If Jolivette and Simon want playing time at the one, there’s the chance to earn it.

Until then, the Luptak/Munoz battle will power the team. There’s nothing quite like a coach giving totally equal playing time to two players fighting for one spot. Everything’s equal, and it’s up to each of them to make the most of each minute.

“We’re all just working,” Jones said. “But they’ve been competing to try to make that a strong position for us.”

Freshman PG Rounds Out Recruiting Class

While we are still digesting the news of Jeff Holton's transfer, Coach Jones has surely been working tirelessly to snag a suitable replacement before the late signing period ends on May 19th. AU Athletics announced today that the search is over, and "suitable" is a bit of an understatement. Freshman point guard Wayne Simon II (another Simon?!) will be donning an Eagles jersey in 2010-2011, and let me be the first to say I'm glad he chose the Red, White, and Blue.

While it may seem like the last thing we need is another point guard, as between Danny and Blake there's plenty of competition and a year of experience under their belts, having a successor in that position to relieve them and push them even harder is not a bad thing. Remember when Derrick Mercer would play 40 minutes every game? The only thing worse than an exhausted Mercer on the court was no Mercer on the court. Having more depth on the bench during the two tournament runs we so fondly remember would have been huge, and is something we're gearing up to have this season. Of course, in order to relieve Danny and Blake, Wayne has to be good. So there's the question - is he good? Admittedly, I'm just a blogger, and I've never seen him play. A bit of research tells me, though, that he's going to make an impact. He might not be a 4-year starter, but he's not going to be warming the bench for 4 seasons either.

First things first, I'm pleasantly surprised we got him. Wayne comes out of St. Joseph's high school in Westchester, Illinois, under Gene Pingatore, one of the most legendary coaches in Illinois High School Boy's Basketball (if such a thing can be said to be legendary). Other players to come from St. Joseph's include Isiah Thomas (of Detroit Pistons fame), and current Big 10 players Evan Turner and Demetri McLamey. The Big East features Wayne's former teammates as well, including sophomore Nate Rogers, whose DePaul team we obliterated (I reserve the right to exaggerate) this past season on their home court. Wayne was being recruited by a lengthy list of schools, including North Dakota, Niagara, Lehigh, Western Kentucky, George Mason, Northeastern, Eastern Illinois, James Madison, Tulsa, and Tulane. Not a bad list at all. On top of that, Siena threw him a scholarship just three weeks ago. Something is conspicuously missing on that list however - American. We might not have been on the table for him because until Holton decided to transfer, there were just no scholarships available. So the fact that as soon as one opened up, we got him over, say, a recent mid-major power like Siena, says very good things about our program.

Wayne's rankings are fairly decent, with ESPN giving him an 81, and Hoopscoop a 592. ESPN wrote last July, "Wayne is a quick, athletic guard that uses his speed to challenge opponents. He has long arms for a 6'0 point guard, which allow him to get deflections on defense and guard bigger opponents. Simon has good ball handling skills and is tight with his dribble moves. He changes speeds and direction exceptionally well and attacked the basket fearlessly. Wayne makes very good decisions with the basketball. He has shooting range to three point line and is consistent with his form; he will get even better the more he works on his shot."

Wayne sounds like a player with a serious pair of cajones. With any luck, he'll jump right out on the court without hesitation, which was the shortcoming of last year's freshman guards near the beginning of the season. Looking at his stat line, he averaged 15 ppg his senior season, so he's probably more of a shooting guard than a true point. His relatively small frame (we have him listed at 5'10", for the record, not 6'0"), the fact that he's not a traditional PG but is listed as one, and that his rankings are probably based on one or two games from his junior season lead me to believe that, depending on factors such as his assist to turnover ratio (he averaged 4 apg his senior season, not too bad, but not great), he really deserves maybe an 85 or 86 on ESPN. But, of course, that matters little until we see how he adjusts to the college game.

Wayne averaged 15 points, 4 rebounds, and 4 assists per game his senior season. He was named Illinois All-State 2nd team, played in the 2010 Chicago High School Classic, and traveled with the Illinois Wolves. The Chicago Tribune reported he was the best player in a one point loss to Chicago power Whitney Young, which has guards who committed to Purdue and Oregon State. His coach says of him, "I think the big thing is he's become our go-to guy. All year, he's the guy we could go to when we need a bucket and defensively he's been one of our stoppers. He's been a very reliable player in the two years we've had him. He's an outstanding young man." Chicagohoops.com calls him "one of the top 2010 basketball prospects in the State of Illinois."

Ultimately, I think Wayne definitely shores up the point guard position, which was without a doubt one of our weaker points this past season. While he might not be an immediate impact player next season, he might fill in a key role when Nick Hendra graduates. While he's not a true replacement for the big center that Holton was, we also have 6'9" Tony Wroblicky coming on board as well, so I'm not too worried - we have enough good big men for now. If Wayne is able to put on a little weight and improve his shot, he might be even better than I predict. What shot am I talking about? See below:



2010-2011 is going to be a good year. Hello March, you were missed last season.

Pro Deo Et Patria,
Josh