Posts Tagged ‘Trevor Mbakwe’

B1G Transfers and Returns

Published by Source on April 16th, 2012

Several B1G players have announced that they are leaving or returning to their respected programs in the last 24 hours. Below you can find a list of the most recent moves:

* Ohio State sophomore J.D. Weatherspoon will be leaving the Buckeye program. The forward is a Columbus-native and played high school ball with OSU teammate Jared Sullinger. Weatherspoon played just 6 minutes per game this season and averaged 3.0 points and 1.1 rebounds.

* Purdue junior John Hart announced that he will use his final season of eligibility at another school. Hart will graduate at the end of this season and will be immediately eligible to play at any out of conference school if his graduate program of choice is not offered at Purdue. The guard has seen his minutes decline in each of his seasons with the Boilers and he averaged just 1.6 ppg in 5.3 mpg as a junior.

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Posted in Michigan, Minnesota, Ohio State, Purdue
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Revisiting My Preseason Predictions

Published by Source on March 21st, 2012

With the regular season finished and postseason tournaments in full swing, it is time to take a look back at the predictions I posted the day before this college basketball season began. I went game-by-game to predict wins and losses, tallied them up and listed the teams from 1-12. Needless to say, I did not do that well.

The first thing that jumps out is that the B1G really beat up on each other in conference play, with a lot of teams at the top of the standings losing to teams at the bottom. No team dominated the season the way that I (and many others) expected Ohio State to do.

It was not all bad, though, as I was pretty spot on with my non-conference records. For most teams, I only missed 2 or 3 non-conference games (I missed 4 for Penn State, but was perfect for Minnesota and only missed 1 each for Michigan State, Northwestern, Purdue and Wisconsin). Below, you will see a couple different lists. The first is the side-by-side of my predicted conference standings and the actual conference standings. Next, you will see a team-by-team breakdown of the records I predicted so that you can see how wrong/right I was. NOTE: I do not include conference tournament games, as those would have been impossible to predict before the season. NOTE 2: 3-way tie in actual B1G standings, but I listed the 3 teams in the order they were seeded in the conference tournament.

PREDICTED:                       ACTUAL:

1 – Ohio State                  T-1 – Michigan State

2 – Michigan                   T-1 – Michigan

3 – Wisconsin                 T-1 – Ohio State

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Posted in Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Michigan, Michigan State, Minnesota, Nebraska, Northwestern, Ohio State, Penn State, Purdue, Wisconsin
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2012 NIT Brackets released

Published by Source on March 12th, 2012

For the bubble teams who did not find themselves in the NCAA field, or the mid-major teams that fell short of their conference’s automatic bid, there is the 32-team National Invitation Tournament (NIT). Those brackets were also released Selection Sunday, and feature several local teams. The top seed in the first round (seeded 1-8) will host the game, except in Iowa’s case as explained later. Below is a breakdown of who is in and what they are up against:

 

Northwestern - The Wildcats fell short of the NCAA tournament once again despite a great season and a record-setting year from senior John Shurna. While Northwestern is still in search of their first ever NCAA bid, head coach Bill Carmody continues to have postseason success. The 4-seed Wildcats will host Akron Tuesday night (9pm/8ct ESPN2). A win will find them up against either 1-seed Washington or 8-seed UT-Arlington. This is the fourth straight NIT appearance for Northwestern, who advanced to the quarterfinals last season.

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Posted in Iowa, Mid Major, Minnesota, Northwestern, Uncategorized
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Minnesota’s Mbakwe has torn ACL

Published by Source on November 28th, 2011

Minnesota head coach Tubby Smith is no stranger to adversity. He has had to deal with numerous injuries and defections in his time in Minnesota, but this year was supposed to be drama free. Star forward Trevor Mbakwe is the senior leader of a team that is supposed to be building off of a rough season last year in which a hot start was spoiled by an awful ending.

Things got a little bit more complicated for the head Gopher Monday when his greatest fear became a reality: Mbakwe’s “serious looking” knee injury is in fact a torn ACL, and the star senior will miss the remainder of the 2011-12 season.

Mbawke suffered the injury on Sunday in Orlando while the Gophers were facing Dayton (5-1) in the Old Spice Classic title. Early in the second half, with his team trailing 45-36, Mbakwe twisted his right knee awkwardly under the basket while going for a rebound and was unable to put any weight on that leg as he was helped off the court. He returned to the bench later in the half with a heavily wrapped and iced knee, but the look on his face had most fearing the worst.

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Rivals’ top 50 college players

Published by Source on November 10th, 2011

Rivals.com released their list of the top 50 players for the upcoming college basketball season. The list features several players from the B1G and/or with Chicago ties. Here’s a quick overview of the list:

 

#46 – Cleveland Melvin, DePaul

#45 – William Buford, Ohio State

#43 – Doug McDermott, Creighton

#38 – Tim Abromaitis, Notre Dame

#35 – Christian Watford, Indiana

#28 – Tim Hardaway Jr., Michigan

#27 – Darius Johnson-Odom, Marquette

#24 – Draymond Green, Michigan State

#22 – Robbie Hummel, Purdue

#19 – John Shurna, Northwestern

#15 – Trevor Mbakwe, Minnesota

#10 – Tu Holloway, Xavier

#5 – Anthony Davis, Kentucky (Chicago-native)

#4 – Jordan Taylor, Wisconsin

#1 – Jared Sullinger, Ohio State

 

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Posted in Chicago HS Prospects, DePaul, Indiana, Marquette, Michigan, Michigan State, Mid Major, Minnesota, Northwestern, Notre Dame, Ohio State, Purdue, Uncategorized, Wisconsin
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CBSSports Season Preview – Player/Team Ranks

Published by Source on October 25th, 2011

The guys over at CBSSports.com are currently in the process of putting together a massive preview. The team consists of some of the most highly-regarded scouts and basketball writers in the business: Jeff Goodman, Gary Parrish, Jeff Borzello and Matt Norlander. Here’s a preview of some of the stuff they have put together, as well as links to their full lists:

Top 100 Players:

1. Jared Sullinger – F Ohio State (soph)

3. Jordan Taylor – G Wisconsin (sr)

7. Anthony Davis – F Kentucky (frosh) – Chicago-native out of Perspectives Charter School

17. Trevor Mbakwe – F Minnesota (sr)

18. William Buford – G Ohio State (sr)

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Posted in Chicago HS Prospects, Illinois, Indiana, Marquette, Michigan, Michigan State, Minnesota, Northwestern, Notre Dame, Ohio State, Purdue, Wisconsin
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Preseason Wooden Award Watch List

Published by Source on October 5th, 2011

A number of Chicago-area and B1G players were named on Monday to the Preseason Watch List for the Wooden Award. The award is given to the nation’s top player at the end of each season. While a freshman or transfer is eligible for the actual award, they are not eligible for the preseason list. That’s a disclaimer for you if you are wondering how the Anthony Davis’ and Cody Zeller’s did not make the cut.

This is the 36th annual Wooden Award season, and the winner will be announced the weekend of the Final Four (April 6-8, 2011). The B1G Conference the second most nominees with 9 (behind 10 from the Big East).

Breakdown after jump!

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Posted in Marquette, Michigan, Michigan State, Mid Major, Minnesota, Northwestern, Notre Dame, Ohio State, Purdue, Wisconsin
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The B1G’s Top 12* Players – Part 2

Published by Source on August 29th, 2011

The Windy City Source is profiling the top 12* players in the Big Ten Conference for the upcoming season. The reason we say “12*” is because rather than choosing the best players regardless of school, we will be taking 1 player from each team. Some players will be obvious, others not so much. And in case you forgot, Nebraska is in the conference now! Anyways – here’s the second part of four (link to Part 1), featuring players from the “M” schools:

* Tim Hardaway Jr. – Michigan sophomore from Miami, FL

With the early departure of guard Darius Morris to the NBA, the Wolverines have become Tim Hardaway Jr’s team. The sophomore guard, son of former NBA All-Star Tim Hardaway, will be relied upon for a heavy leadership role (and more dunks like this one) on an up-and-coming Michigan team. John Beilein’s crew is looking to continue building upwards after a surprising season that ended with a Sweet Sixteen loss to top-seeded Duke. One of the youngest teams in the conference, Michigan finished the season strong due in part to Morris and 13.9 ppg from Hardaway. The Miami product finished his freshman campaign as a 42% shooter, having scored 20+ six times. He earned All-Big Ten honorable mention and was a unanimous choice for the All-Freshman squad. Not bad for a player ranked a 3-star prospect by both Rivals and Scout.

This past summer, Hardaway travelled to Latvia with Team USA to compete in the FIBA U19 World Championship where he emerged as the team’s sixth man. The experience allowed the sophomore to grow as a basketball player. USA coach Paul Hewitt noted: “…going to the basket and finishing with contact is something he probably will be better at next year.” Hardaway is already a seasoned veteran, starting all 35 games for the Wolverines last season. Michigan fans will certainly be counting on Hardaway, along with seniors Stu Douglass and Zack Novak, to keep the momentum building in Ann Arbor. The leadership and experience on the Wolverine roster is quite an improvement over last year’s squad and should be enough to push Beilein’s crew back to the top of the conference and into the NCAA Tournament.

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Wally Ellenson becomes first 2012 Minnesota commitment

Published by Source on August 18th, 2011

By; Jonah Steinmeyer, Minnesota contributor

 

With Ralph Sampson and Trevor Mbakwe set to graduate after this season, as well as the potential of losing junior Rodney Williams to the NBA Draft, having a solid 2012 recruiting class is vital for Tubby Smith and company.

With that in mind, Tubby did not want to miss a step. Wally Ellenson of Rice Lake, Wisconsin, is the Gophers’ first verbal commitment of the 2012 class. Ellenson, a 6-foot-5 shooting guard, is renowned for his dunking abilities, but Tubby believes Ellenson has a real future ahead of him as a scorer.

“[Tubby] talked about my role,” Ellenson told the Star Tribune. “He said I could be a shooting guard coming in and I would be relied on to make a lot of shots.”

Ellenson is a three-star recruit according to Rivals.com and had already been offered by such teams as Nebraska, Oklahoma State and West Virginia. He is familiar with the state having spent the past summer playing with Minnesota Pump ‘N Run.

Although Ellenson’s commitment isn’t going to blow minds away with his name or game, it should be considered a real win for Minnesota basketball fans. To sum it up, they swooped a solid recruit away from his home state and ultimately, a rival school. There have been countless occasions where Bo Ryan ends up with a Minnesota kid who matures into a top contributor for the Badgers, most recently Jordan Taylor and Jon Leuer.

Whether Ellenson can play the dagger-to-the-heart role that Taylor and Leuer have done their whole careers against Minnesota remains to be unseen, but you can certainly consider this a step in the right direction in what should be Tubby’s most important recruiting class yet.

 

Ellenson video:

CityLeagueHoopsTV Mixtape

YouTube page of High Jumps and Dunks

 

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