Warning ... Be careful where you get your MAAC information.
College Basketball's Bleacher Report recently posted a list of the top 15 rebounders from this past season returning for 2012-13.
Here's what the site(the report is written by an individual who, clearly, has very little knowledge of MAAC teams) had to say about Siena's O.D. Anosike, who led all Division I players last season with 12.5 rebounds per game:
"For the first time since Paul Millsap in 2005-06, the nation's leading rebounder is returning to the college game. Standing at 6'8", Siena junior O.D. Anosike grabbed 12.5 rebounds a night last season, making him one of the few bright spots in a disappointing 14-17 campaign. However, the odds of Anosike repeating his magnificent showing next year are slim at best. Siena leaned on a tight seven-man rotation last year, and three of those players are graduating, leaving Anosike with minimal help for his final season on campus."
OK, much wrong with what Bleacher Report has to offer here.
First, was Siena's 14-17 season "disappointing?"
Not hardly. Considering that it started the year with a seven-man rotation, and played its last 21 games with, basically, a six-man rotation (after the transfer of DaVonte Beard) ... what team, under those extenuating circumstances, wouldn't be satisfied with a 14-17 season?
The Saints were picked to finish eighth, in the league's preseason poll, and finished sixth. Along the way it claimed victories over first-place Iona and other ones over Fairfield and Manhattan, all programs that went to national post-season tournaments. It then upset Manhattan in the first round of the league tournament.
Not bad for a six-man team that included two freshmen with one of them its starting point guard. And, certainly far removed from being a disappointment.
As for the site's diminished expectations for Anosike as a rebounding force again for the coming season ... the expressed reason, that Anosike will have a lesser supporting cast, makes little sense.
If that were the case, Anosike would be expected to do even more in the coming season.
In truth, though, if Anosike's stats in 2012-13 don't approach those of this past season it's because he'll have more on-court help.
The Saints, for the coming season, will have the services of a pair of promising 6-8 players, Lionel Gomis and Imoh Silas who both were ruled ineligible for the past season due to an NCAA regulation that requires players to finish high school in a specific period of time. Siena will also have a healthy Davis Martens, a 6-9 sophomore who was in the playing group in 2010-11 but missed this past season after hip surgery. And, then, there's touted 6-8 freshman forward Brett Bisping who is likely to get minutes up front this season.
Anosike played 36.8 minutes per game last year, basically because the Saints didn't have anyone else. He won't need to approach those on-court minutes this season.
It all should mean that Anosike's statistics might diminish because he has more help for the coming season and not less.
1 comment:
And somehow BR has reached some level of authority status. Just goes to show you what a little internet savvy can do. It can turn a hack into an authority with the increase of page views.
Post a Comment