Since PSU men's basketball received a huge verbal this week, lets talk about the 2015/16 squad

[Ranger Dan]

Feel free to respond to the following questions:

Starting Five?
Leading scorer?
Leading Rebounder?
Most minutes off the bench?
Player with best shot at all Big Ten team?

 

[fairgambit]

Geeze Dan. Why would you want to get away from all this good Rutgers/Temple talk? Actually, I'd pitch in but I'm not much more than a casual basketball fan. I hope you get some feedback.

 

[dawgduice]

I hope the three freshman are starters, that is all. I especially want to see Watkins who appears to be a "BIG" that can chew gum and walk at the same time ;-)
I do expect a tough season, but by playing the freshman and then add the kids coming in next year, well maybe we will be on to something.

 

[Ranger Dan]

I'm not confident on some of the below... I could see Foster starting and Garner coming in as the 6th man, but I think Garner earned a starting spot. Also, I'm not sure about the combination of Jack, Moore and Dickerson at the 4 and 5 spots. Maybe one of the freshmen start at SF and Taylor moves to the 4.

PG Garner
SG Reaves
SF Taylor (leading scorer)
PF Jack
C Dickerson (leading rebounder)

Foster leads with minutes off the bench, Garner is closest to all big ten, but not quite honorable mention..

 

[Chris92]

I'm not confident on some of the below... I could see Foster starting and Garner coming in as the 6th man, but I think Garner earned a starting spot. Also, I'm not sure about the combination of Jack, Moore and Dickerson at the 4 and 5 spots. Maybe one of the freshmen start at SF and Taylor moves to the 4.

PG Garner
SG Reaves
SF Taylor (leading scorer)
PF Jack
C Dickerson (leading rebounder)

Foster leads with minutes off the bench, Garner is closest to all big ten, but not quite honorable mention..

I could see Payton Banks starting at SF and bumping Taylor to PF.

 

[Ranger Dan]

I could see Payton Banks starting at SF and bumping Taylor to PF

That may be true... I don't think Jack brings much offensively and gets into foul trouble a lot.

 

[doublehaul]

Feel free to respond to the following questions:

Starting Five?
Leading scorer?
Leading Rebounder?
Most minutes off the bench?
Player with best shot at all Big Ten team?

Dickerson, Garner and Taylor will start along with Jack and maybe Reaves. If Coach wants to go smaller he
can go with Banks who played some quality minutes and had his moments from three. I hope Washington can
contribute some. Foster comes off the bench at point and I really think they bring Watkins along slowly.
One thing Coach hinted at, Zemgulis is reportedly good from behind the arc, which might mean some early minutes.
Julian Moore will back up or rotate at PF or center.

 

[doublehaul]

That may be true... I don't think Jack brings much offensively and gets into foul trouble a lot.

Dan, I think a lot of Jack's foul problems have come while he's in the post against stronger players. At the four he's
a mismatch for a lot of teams. He didn't shoot well from three last year , but he's had his moments. And at 6' 9" he can drive the baseline
or across the lane, plus a good shot blocker.

 

[Ian]

In 2015/16
SF Banks, Zemgulis(RS)
PF *Taylor, *Jack
C *Dickerson, Moore, Watkins(RS)
SG Reeves, Washington, Samuel(sits out)
PG Garner, *Foster
4 seniors and 1 open ship slots

In 2016/17
SF Reeves, Banks, Zemgulis
PF Hampton, (Stevens)
C Moore, Watkins, (Painter)(RS)
SG Samuel, Washington, Bostick(RS)
PG Garner, Carr
No seniors! Expect a couple transfers likely Banks and/ or Washington

Nice line-up brewing!!!!!

 

[bdgan]

I'm not confident on some of the below... I could see Foster starting and Garner coming in as the 6th man, but I think Garner earned a starting spot. Also, I'm not sure about the combination of Jack, Moore and Dickerson at the 4 and 5 spots. Maybe one of the freshmen start at SF and Taylor moves to the 4.

PG Garner
SG Reaves
SF Taylor (leading scorer)
PF Jack
C Dickerson (leading rebounder)

Foster leads with minutes off the bench, Garner is closest to all big ten, but not quite honorable mention..

Garner is not a true point guard, he's a shooting guard. Garner brought the ball up to give Newbill a break but he isn't a player that can take his man off the dribble or break down the defense.

 

[Raffycorn]

Here is what I think the starting lineup will be:

Foster
Garner
Taylor
Jack
Dickerson

Here is what I hope it will be:

Garner
Reaves
Taylor
Moore
Dickerson

 

[NittanyPirate]

Reaves will start this year.

PG Garner (30)
SG Reaves (30)
SF Taylor(30)
PF Jack (25)
C Dickerson (20)

G Foster (15)
F/C Moore (15)
F/C Watkins (10)
F Banks (10)
F Zemgulis/Washington (5)

(MPG)

 

[Ranger Dan]

Garner is not a true point guard

OK, then who is your starting 5?

 

[bdgan]

OK, then who is your starting 5?

Foster is our only true point guard so I expect him to get a lot of PT. I'm not sure if Reaves can play the point. Garner will probably play some PG out of necessity.

We have a similar problem at PF now that Travis is gone. Dickerson or Jack will play center but I hate seeing them play together (lots of size but not much agility). Unfortunately we might not have a choice.

PG Foster
SG Garner
SG Banks
SF Taylor
C Dickerson

I expect Chambers to do a lot of experimenting with this lineup. No PG and no PF could be awful. Fortunately we have Carr & Hampton coming next year. This could be a good team 2 years from now but I expect this year to be ugly.

 

[nitlion93]

I agree that this will be a year of a lot of players equally sharing minutes with a lot of experimentation while the young guys get acclimated.

C: Dickerson backed up by Moore
PF: Taylor backed up by Jack.
Occasionally Watkins... until he gets up to speed and surpasses the upper classmen.

I cannot see Dickerson and Jack playing much at the same time. I think they both will get around 20 minutes per game where they will likely be in foul trouble. When Dickerson is in he will provide the defense and Taylor will provide the offense. When Moore is in, Jack will provide the offense. They will all be spelled with Watkins who may only get 10 minutes per game.

PG/SG: Foster, Garner, and Reeves will split the PG/SG position with the 80 combined minutes being a 30/25/25 split. When Foster is in with Garner, Foster is PG. When Garner is in with Reeves, Garner is PG.

SF: Banks and Taylor (when Dickerson is in and Watkins or Jack are playing PF).