Friday, November 9, 2012

Initial Rankings of Top 10 2012-13 Collegiate Cheeshead Basketball Players

For the first time I thought I would rank the best collegiate Cheesehead basketball players. With all deference to the non-Division One collegiate Cheesehead basketball programs like Cardinal Stritch's (shout out to Mama Cheese), I decided to limit myself to the "Big 4" collegiate men's basketball programs: Green Bay Phoenix, Marquette Warriors, Milwaukee Panthers, and Wisconsin Badgers.

Some guys from those four programs that would be ranked very high on the list are not included for various reasons such as: injury (Josh Gasser and Paris Gulley) and academic issues (Todd Mayo). Instead of ranking players 1 through 25 I decided to rank the Top 10, identify who I think are the 11th through 25th best players but not rank them in any particular order because we haven't seen them play enough, and assign the rest of the guys as "honorable mention" just in case one of the guys I do not include in the initial 25 has a breakout year.

Honorable Mention (alphabetically, by program):
- Green Bay: Nick Arenz (#30, FR, F, 6'8"), Ryan Bross (#55, FR, C, 7'1"), Josh Humphrey (#10, SO, G/F, 6'5"), Carrington Love (#12, FR, G, 6'1"), Greg Mays (#15, SO, F, 6'9"), Alfonzo McKinnie (#34, JR, F, 6'8"), Sultan Mohammad (#1, JR, G, 6'1"), Cole Stefan (#2, SO, G, 6'4"), and Daniel Turner (#22, JR, F, 6'6").

- Marquette: Jamal Ferguson (#1, FR, G, 6'4"), Dylan Flood (#30, SO, G, 6'4"), Todd Mayo (#4, SO, G, 6'3"), Garrett Swanson (#33, SO, F, 6'7"), Steve Taylor Jr (#25, FR, F, 6'7"), Jake Thomas (#23, JR, G, 6'3"), and Derrick Wilson (#12, SO, G, 6'1").

- Milwaukee: Austin Arians (#34, FR, 6'6"), Paris Gulley (#14, SR, G, 6'2"),  Quinton Gustavson (#33, JR, F, 6'9"), Ryan Haggerty (#44, SR, F, 6'8"), Steve McWhorter (#25, JR, G, 6'2"),  J.J. Panoske (#23, FR, F, 6'10"),  Evan Richard (#22, SO, G, 6'2"), Mitch Roelke (#20, JR, G, 6'0"), and Joe Tagarelli (#5, FR, F, 6'6").

- Wisconsin: Evan Anderson (#32, SO, C, 6'10"), Zach Bohannon (#34, JR, F, 6'6"), Dan Fahey (#10, JR, G, 6'3"), Zak Showalter (#33, FR, G, 6'2"), Jordan Smith (#2, SO, G, 6'1"), and J.D. Wise (#22, SR, G, 6'0").

#11 through #25 (alphabetically):
Jordan Aaron (Panthers, #1, JR, G, 5'10"), Juan Anderson (Warriors, #10, SO, F, 6'6"), Mike Bruesewitz (Badgers, #31, SR, F, 6'6"), Kam Cerroni (Phoenix, #13, JR, G, 6'2"), Brennan Cougill (Phoenix, #44, SR, F/C, 6'9"), Sam Dekker (Badgers, #15, FR, FR, 6'7"), Jordan Fouse (Phoenix, #4, FR, G/F, 6'7"), Davante Gardner (Warriors, #54, JR, F, 6'8"), Demetrius Harris (Panthers, #15, SR, F, 6'7"), Traevon Jackson (Badgers, #12, SO, G, 6'2"), George Marshall (Badgers, #3, FR, G, 5'11), Thierno "Bobo" Niang (Panthers, #10, JR, G, 6'1"), Keifer Sykes (Phoenix, #24, SO, G, 5'11"), Jamil Wilson (Warriors, #0, JR, F, 6'7"), and Christian Wolf (Panthers, #45, SR, F, 6'9").

Top 10:
#10) Frank Kaminksky (Badgers, #44, SO, F, 6'11") - Shed the baby fat in the off-season moving from 18% body fat to 12% body fat in hopes of becoming the newest Vanilla Gorilla (ala multiple Ultimate Warriors in the WWE). 

#9) Chris Otule (Warriors, #42, SR, C, 6'11") - Would be a lock for the Top 5 based on his body alone but Otule has been a injured way too much throughout his college career. 

#8) James Haarsma (Panthers, #42, SR, F, 6'7") - Leading scorer and rebounder from last season is the only real known commodity on the roster for the Panthers. 

#7) Ben Burst (Badgers, #1, JR, G, 6'1") - Only shot 38.9% from three-point range last season so be needs to improve this season, especially with the lost of Gasser for the season.

#6) Junior Cadougan (Warriors, #5, SR, PG, 6'1") - Needs to improve on 2-1 assist to turnover ratio.

#5) Jared Berggren (Badgers, #40, SR, C, 6'10") - Looks like Jon Leuer reincarnated so yes, I am a fan.

#4) Vander Blue (Warriors, #13, JR, G, 6'4") - Created one of the biggest in-state recruiting wars between Wisconsin and Marquette.  Obviously Marquette landed Blue but his ranking of 4th overall is still more based on potential upside than actual production.

#3) Ryan Evans (Badgers, #5, SR, F, 6'6") - A legitimate scoring threat that "made the jump" from his sophomore to junior season.  Loo for Evans to play in the NBA if he continues to impress this season.

#2) Trent Lockett (Warriors, #22, SR, G, 6'5") - Leading scorer and rebounder for ASU last season is trying to pull a Russell Wilson for the Warriors.

#1) Alec Brown (Phoenix, #21, JR, C, 7'1") - Jeff Nordgaard and Tony Bennett better watch out because Brown is on pace to be the best player in program history.  Brown was very productive last year scoring 13.8 points, pulling down 8.2 rebounds, and blocking 3.0 shots to become a legitimate NBA talent.  If you think I am overstating how impressive Brown might be, he was one of only two players in the country to average 13 points, 8 rebounds, and 3 blocks. The other guy was the first pick in the 2012 NBA Draft, Anthony Davis (14.2 pts, 10.4 rbs, and 4.6 blocks).

I hope you enjoyed my initial 2012-13 Cheesehead Collegiate Basketball Player Rankings.  I don't know when, but check back for more of my extended thoughts on collegiate Cheesehead basketball soon.

No comments:

Post a Comment