As a junior in high school in 2015-16, some rated Chris Negron more highly than Cameron Krutwig (who was chosen as the Mid-Major freshman of the Year in 2017-18). That ended when Chris was injured & sat out his senior year.
Chris struggled in coming back from injuries as a freshman at LU playing only 71 minutes & putting up poor stats.
That all changed last year when his minutes moved up to 191 (still low) and his stats greatly improved.
Of LU’s returning players, he led the team in rebound per 40 minutes, was 2nd in points per 40, 2nd in FG%, 3rd in FT%.
Rebounds/40 NEGRON 11.9, Agunanne 10.7, Krutwig 10.2, Williamson 7.9, Uguak 5.5
Points/40 Krutwig 21.0, NEGRON 11.9, Williamson 11.7, Agunanne 11.2, Kaifes 10.4
FG% Krutwig .629, NEGRON .521, Agunanne .521, Uguak .504, Kaifes .481
FT% Kaifer .813, Uguak .687, NEGRON .667, Agunanne .632, Williamson .600
He appears to have great potential, although he was used as a backup center, rather than his natural power forward position. But it appears the coach is against the power forward position.
I would hope the coach abandons his 4 guard, midget set this year & Chris gets more minutes (which we will need if either of the other centers are injured or get in foul trouble). The 2018 Final 4 team went with a 4 guard set a little over 3 minutes a game for the season.
This year, in our MVC Championship loss to Bradley we played 25 minutes with 4 guards and we were killed on the boards 44-31 & on blocked shots 9-0. Bradley played 0 minutes of 4 guard midget ball.
Chris, our best rebounder sat on the bench for the whole game, 0 minutes. The coach’s favorite, Skokna played 21 minutes with 0 rebounds.
I don’t know if Chris is returning, or if the coach will use him, or if the coach is running him off (teams like NIU or UIC could certainly use him), but I hope he stays. I think he has a lot of talent.
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