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Who are the league's best freshmen?

Y

yoda

Well-known member
Bradley has three freshmen, one of whom I would rank among the league's best, Jaquan Johnson, Timoty van der Knaap and Gus Rugaard.
Jaquan is averaging 5 ppg (5.7 in league play), but is a solid PG, excellent defender and 2nd in the league in steals.
Belmont's Sam Orme is averaging 8.6 ppg (7.5 in league play), and Drew Scharnowski is averaging 5.6 ppg
Missouri State's Zaxton King is averaging 9.9 ppg on a fairly high volume of shots for an 0-7 squad in the MVC
UNI's Will Hornseth is averaging 5.3 ppg
ISU's Jack Daugherty is averaging 7.5 ppg
Valpo's All Wright is a starter averaging 10.7 ppg, Justus McNair 5.6 ppg
Evansville's Gabe Pozzato was averaging 15.4 ppg but went out with injury a month ago and has only played in one MVC game
Indiana State's Bruno Alocen is averaging 6.7 ppg but only 4.3 ppg in league play.

So those are the best - nobody else close to 5 ppg & deserving of mention....unless I missed someone...

I think the top 5, given their importance to the team's success and whether they stepped it up in league play,
would be...
Sam Orme, Zaxton King, All Wright, Jack Daugherty and Jaquan Johnson.
Pozatto might have gotten on the list, replacing King, except he simply hasn't played enough in league play.
 
yoda said:
Bradley has three freshmen, one of whom I would rank among the league's best, Jaquan Johnson, Timoty van der Knaap and Gus Rugaard.
Jaquan is averaging 5 ppg (5.7 in league play), but is a solid PG, excellent defender and 2nd in the league in steals.
Belmont's Sam Orme is averaging 8.6 ppg (7.5 in league play), and Drew Scharnowski is averaging 5.6 ppg
Missouri State's Zaxton King is averaging 9.9 ppg on a fairly high volume of shots for an 0-7 squad in the MVC
UNI's Will Hornseth is averaging 5.3 ppg
ISU's Jack Daugherty is averaging 7.5 ppg
Valpo's All Wright is a starter averaging 10.7 ppg, Justus McNair 5.6 ppg
Evansville's Gabe Pozzato was averaging 15.4 ppg but went out with injury a month ago and has only played in one MVC game
Indiana State's Bruno Alocen is averaging 6.7 ppg but only 4.3 ppg in league play.

So those are the best - nobody else close to 5 ppg & deserving of mention....unless I missed someone...

I think the top 5, given their importance to the team's success and whether they stepped it up in league play,
would be...
Sam Orme, Zaxton King, All Wright, Jack Daugherty and Jaquan Jackson.
Pozatto might have gotten on the list, replacing King, except he simply hasn't played enough in league play.
Click to expand...

I know he doesn't play very much but I like Rugaard.
 
Pozatto would have been a shoe-in if he hadn't gotten injured. He is still Evansville's leading scorer, and was averaging 15.4 ppg. Only 3 players in the league are averaging more. Hopefully, his injury isn't season-ending.
 
Da Coach said:
Pozatto would have been a shoe-in if he hadn't gotten injured. He is still Evansville's leading scorer, and was averaging 15.4 ppg. Only 3 players in the league are averaging more. Hopefully, his injury isn't season-ending.
Click to expand...

nothing confirmed, but there is talk that he may play tomorrow or next Wednesday
 
yoda said:
Bradley has three freshmen, one of whom I would rank among the league's best, Jaquan Johnson, Timoty van der Knaap and Gus Rugaard.
Jaquan is averaging 5 ppg (5.7 in league play), but is a solid PG, excellent defender and 2nd in the league in steals.
Belmont's Sam Orme is averaging 8.6 ppg (7.5 in league play), and Drew Scharnowski is averaging 5.6 ppg
Missouri State's Zaxton King is averaging 9.9 ppg on a fairly high volume of shots for an 0-7 squad in the MVC
UNI's Will Hornseth is averaging 5.3 ppg
ISU's Jack Daugherty is averaging 7.5 ppg
Valpo's All Wright is a starter averaging 10.7 ppg, Justus McNair 5.6 ppg
Evansville's Gabe Pozzato was averaging 15.4 ppg but went out with injury a month ago and has only played in one MVC game
Indiana State's Bruno Alocen is averaging 6.7 ppg but only 4.3 ppg in league play.

So those are the best - nobody else close to 5 ppg & deserving of mention....unless I missed someone...

I think the top 5, given their importance to the team's success and whether they stepped it up in league play,
would be...
Sam Orme, Zaxton King, All Wright, Jack Daugherty and Jaquan Jackson.
Pozatto might have gotten on the list, replacing King, except he simply hasn't played enough in league play.
Click to expand...

Please tell me this was an intentional typo since Dave Snell said his name as this at least three times on the InSU broadcast. If so, WELL DONE! :-D
 
On a different team Johnson would be. If he were playing 30 mpg I could see him as a 11/5/2.5 player right now. He’s very athletic and active and has an advanced game as a true PG
 
Jaquon Johnson will be a truly special player with his knack for getting steals and getting better on offense. He is the heir apparent for next year. Can't see Duke returning next year with the new rule in place. Five years of college I would think be enough and the ave him move on to the next chapter in his life.
.
 
daveineureka said:
Jaquon Johnson will be a truly special player with his knack for getting steals and getting better on offense. He is the heir apparent for next year. Can't see Duke returning next year with the new rule in place. Five years of college I would think be enough and the ave him move on to the next chapter in his life.
.
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Agreed. And his biggest strength in my opinion is his effort. 100% all out effort all the time. Rare quality.
 
Pozatto would have been a shoe-in if he hadn't gotten injured. He is still Evansville's leading scorer
Click to expand...
Pozzato started & is playing today for Evansville (played 14 min in 1st half) but at half, he is just 1-7 and has 2 pts, 2 reb and no assists
In order to even be eligible to be listed in the MVC conference stats (must have played in 2/3 of their games), he will have
to stay healthy and play in every remaining conference game they have, but I suspect his averages will drop.


edit, Pozzato did play 25 min - ended with 4 pts
his overall average drops to 14.4ppg and league average to 9.5ppg
 
Last edited:
the top freshmen from the original list above- current stats


All Wright 14.2 ppg
Gabe Pozatto 15.5 ppg
Jaquan Johnson 6.4 ppg
Jack Daughtery 6.9 ppg
Sam Orme 9.6 ppg
Zaxton King 9.2 ppg
Bruno Alcocen 5.6 ppg
Will Hornseth 4.9 ppg

If those who vote on All Freshman team go only with scoring numbers, then Jaquan's numbers place him 6th among freshman in the MVC
But.. if they actually watch the game and see the impact each of those players have, their consistency and their importance to their team's success,
then I would rank the MVC freshmen just as I have listed them above. All Wright would be the Freshman of the Year & Jaquan would
definitely be on the All-Freshman team as he does so much more than scoring - capable ball handler, passer and plays excellent defense.
 
Jaquan will get All-Freshman recognition, IMO. But I still think Pozatto will get the FOY award, based on his numbers, and the fact he's been a starter all year, except while he was out with injury.
 
Da Coach said:
Jaquan will get All-Freshman recognition, IMO. But I still think Pozatto will get the FOY award, based on his numbers, and the fact he's been a starter all year, except while he was out with injury.
Click to expand...

Agreed DC - simply b/c Bradley was a great team in the Valley this season and anyone who watched their games knows how JJ's valuable role was on a team of seasoned vets, and how he fit in well with them.
 
Pozzato has played in 13 MVC games averaging 15.3ppg
Wright has played in all 19 MVC games and averaging 15.8ppg
Both will get votes, it'll be a tight race.
 
Yeah, I gotta say, from what I've seen, All Wright would get my vote. If for no other reason than his name dictates he wins.
 
Valpo's All Wright is the MVC Freshman of the Week again for the 4th straight week, and for the 7th time overall this season.
Nobody else is even close - so I think he's got the inside track on Freshman of the Year.
 
All Wright will definitely be Freshman of the year. Bully will make the all freshman team and would have a chance to be Foy if he was a starter. I would not trade him for any of these freshman listed because he offers so much more then just scoring.
 
All Wright is definitely a keeper, and one of the best players Valpo has....
unfortunately, there's a chance he hits the portal looking for more money...

He averages 14.5 ppg, but if you watch him closely and check his stats, he's kinda one-dimensional - he creates and takes a lot of shots...
He's a solid shooter & scorer but not exactly high shooting percentages (39.6% shooting overall & 35.4% 3pt shooting)
He also grabs only 2 rpg, pretty low for a big guard (even Duke Deen grabs 3.5 rpg), and his assist numbers and other stats are low.
He's only a freshman so he can build on all that but as teams see more & more of him, they will break down his weaknesses and
he might hit the sophomore slump.

In our two games against him, we had him scouted well & he averaged 10 ppg on 6-18 shooting.
Meanwhile, FWIW- comparison -- in those two games vs Valpo, Jaquan averaged 8 ppg on 5-12 and had twice as many assists as Wright, but played 20 fewer minutes...
 
Yes, I like Wright, and he has had an impressive freshman year. But he does get his 14.2 points partly because of the volume of shots he takes. He averages 12.2 FG attempts per game, more than any other MVC player except Stirtz (18.8 ppg), Dibba (17.0 ppg), Samage Teel (17.0 ppg), and Tayshawn Comer (16.2 ppg), all of whom average significantly more points per game than Wright.
By comparison, Gabriel Pozatto, Wright's main competition for FOY, averages 15.3 ppg (3.1 ppg more than Wright), on fewer shot attempts per game.
 
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