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MBB Scholarship Chart

POYOLA RAMBLERS!©

Edited to add copyright symbol. Learned the hard way after I failed to copyright "March Madness" and "Threepeat".

Huge congrats to Marques!

Let's make it back-to-back-to-back next year with Krut.

Crazy to think Krut came in third as only a sophomore, have to think he's preseason POY going into next season.

As for Marques, just awesome. He got snubbed out of post season awards last year, but really took on the challenge this year and exceeded my expectations.

This is somewhat off topic, but I'm very interested in what our offense will look like next year. There are a lot of question marks (The freshman have hype but will they be ready, juco guys/grad transfers, what impact will Tate Hall have, what kind of leap will Lucas make), but I don't think it's a stretch to assume Krutwig will be the centerpiece of the offense next year. The last time our center was our best player was maybe Averkamp? I saw one year of him play and I don't remember a lot. I wonder how much of the load Krutwig can shoulder without the offensive flow breaking down, or maybe we'll see Porter adopt a different offensive strategy altogether. I think watching the team figure things out next year will be a lot of fun. There will be a ton of talent but I think potentially a team that looks very different that the Porter Moser teams of the past 7 years.

I actually really enjoy pondering this too. I’m super excited for all 3 freshman but I agree it’s important to remember they will be just freshman, and will have their own unique growing pains (same for Tate Hall as well to some extent).

Personel wise however I think we project to have an offense more similar to last season with the addition of what should be two above average shooters in wojcik and hall, plus a healthy Williamson. While I haven’t seen a ton I’ve read Welch can step out and hit the 3, and Kennedy can get hot from 3 (though like Townes I don’t think he’ll ever be a true “shooter” type). Aher having confidence to shoot the 3 would be gravy but who knows there.

With that, my hope would be we can really pass the ball around the perimeter and capitalize more on open looks. PG will be the biggest question mark, as will finding who can capitalize on driving lanes that open up with spacing (Kennedy, uguak, bujdoso, JUCO/Grad pg??).

The catch to all this is we’ll be young, and those younger guys will have to learn how to play smart on offense and defense. But on the flip side we’ll be deep, and have a lot of options. I think it’ll be a fun team to watch.

It’s puzzling to me why Aher stopped attempting the three. I’m guessing he was told to just pass or drive, and I get that he couldn’t hit anything at first....but then he did start to hit some, his form looked ok, and that’s when he stopped taking them. Teams are giving him all the space in the world to shoot it by playing back (which makes driving, that he’s good at, tougher to do). Hopefully he adds that.

It's not puzzling to me. Aher shot 52.5% on 2-point shots and 20% on threes. His ability to finish around the basket was a great complement to Krutwig.... that became especially apparent later in the conference season. In the first conference game of the year, Indiana State didn't go within eight feet of him behind the arc, and he drained two threes. That was HALF of his made threes for the year, in the first half of that game against Indiana State. Take away that game, and he was 2 for 18 for the year on threes.

In conference games, Uguak shot 54.4% from the field, which ranked 7th in shooting percentage in the league. And because he's been playing inside more often on offense, he's second on the team after Krutwig on offensive rebounds. Uguak had more than twice as many offensive rebounds as Marques Townes, and had almost 18% of the offensive rebounds of the entire team. To me, that's a great tradeoff to having a fourth three point shooter on the court.

Yes, which matches up with what I said. He was 1/14 from three prior to the Indiana State game. Then he was 3/4...and stopped shooting. I’m not saying he needs to put up 6 or 7 a game, or even needs to attempt one every game, but at some point in his career, in our offense, where he’s initially positioned at the three line, he’s going to need to make defenses at least think he might shoot it. It will open up the lanes not just for him, but for everyone.

I honestly don’t think there will be a drop-off next year. We lose Custer and Townes, but we gain depth.

At center, krutwig will still be a beast, and i’m very happy with the development of Frank. with a little improvement, and now with some experience, that position is shored up for next season. and we should have 40 strong minutes at center every game. I think we will be consistently getting 20 points and 10-15 rebounds a game from them.

At power forward, Uguak has been a bit of a project this year, but I think The coaching staff is going to work with him in the off-season to fix some of his issues. He’s been good for 4-6 points per game this year in 20-some minutes per game, and I expect he can get that average closer to 8-10 in the same amount of time. I think he will be a lot more like 2017 Andre Jackson next year. Welch will back him up, which will be an improvement from our bench last year, and will add some depth at the position we didn’t have. His ability to shoot the three will help with spacing, and hopefully he will be good for 4-6 points a game. Those guys should bring us 15 points per game.

Small forward position is strong in our starting rotation with Williamson. Healthy, he has the ability to shoot the three from the corners, drive, and hit mid range jumpers. He’s our most complete player and I assume he will lead the team in minutes next year. He will be good for 12-15 a game. Whatever we get from our backups will be a bonus. Tate Hall is 6-6, and while we don’t know exactly what his capabilities are, reports say he is a sharp shooter, and his size and ability to shot from outside will also help with our spacing, and draw defenders out of the paint to give Krutwig room to work down low 1 on 1.

Shooting guard looks decent with Kaifus taking over that starting position. He will be better on defense, and has proven that he is one of the biggest outside threats in the MVC. We might be a little light here with Wajcik backing him up, who is unproven. Kaifus is not a 35 minute player yet, but if wojcik is as good for us in his freshmen year as Kaifus was, we will be in great shape. There’s no reason to not be optimistic that this will happen, since woj has been an offensive juggernaut in high school at a very competitive program.

Point guard is the one position that bothers me but you never know if we get a grad transfer or JUCO to improve that position. If Bujdoso stays, he’s proven that he can adaquately run the point and play defense, but he’s a liability as a scoring threat. BUT are going to have Kennedy who could very well blow everyone away - think Milton Doyle his first year with Loyola. While this is the most uncertain position for us, the hope for Kennedy makes the position intriguing. We could struggle at it, or we could be blown away. Also, maybe skokna works this summer to become more of a ball handler to get minutes in his final season. He’s not going anywhere, and he’s decent, so porter will have to work him in somewhere.

Overall, we have three positions in the front court that are strong, both in the starting lineup and back-up positions. The guard play could struggle a bit, but we have the numbers now to overcome any major issues.

The question marks?

1) JUCO/grad transfer point guard - we could USE one to try and shore up the position, but it may not be necessary.

2) Negron - he would add even more depth at power forward, but will he stay?

3) Bujdoso - he’s capable. Nothing flashy. With Kennedy and wojcik coming in, maybe he doesn’t like the direction things are going and leaves for more pllaying time. He’s a 37 minute starting point guard in the horizon league.

I truly think, despite losing clay and Marques, we have the potential to be BETTER next year than this year because of new depth.