DR said:
How about a quick rundown of the players in MSU's rotation, strengths/weaknesses, etc? Not trolling, this is probably the least I've known about a MSU team since I can remember. To me the younger players I've seen haven't impressed me much (outside of Appling, I do think he'll be a good Big Ten guard), but after the debacle last year I'm sure Izzo is going to put together a solid team.
My opinion and what I think the starting rotation will probably be.
Starters: Appling and Wood at guard, Green and Dawson at forward, Payne at center.
Bench: Thorton, Trice, and Kearny at guard, Gauana and Byrd at forward and Nix at center will all see time.
Appling has the skill set just needs to find his groove. He needs to improve ball handling and three point shooting, otherwise he has an extreme upside.
Wood was all everything at Valpo for the last couple years. I believe he was first team in his conference. I don't know a lot about him but there was talk of him possibly being drafted last year, but he choose to transfer to play one more year in a tougher conference. I only saw him play against Hillsdale last week, so I don't know HOW good he is. I do know he averaged a lot of points last year.
Green, well we all know about him. Team leader Mr everything for us. He was knocking down quite a few threes in exhibition, and looked great.
Dawson is a STUD. He is a Freshman, 5 star forward who many scouts said was the best rebounder in last years class. He looks impressive, very physical and ripped on a 6'6 frame. I was very impessed with him in the exhibition. He will be something special.
Payne was highly recruited, a 5 star big guy that does have a lot of athletic ability but gets lost in space. For such a high rating I expected more. He still looks to be a work in progress.
Thorton gives you minutes but is slow for a guard. He will give you 100 % and thats why I think Izzo gives him so much PT. He is a work horse, not much upside though.
Trice and Kearney are both freshman guards, with Trice at the point.
Trice was gatorade player of the year in Ohio, not to be confused with Mr Basketball that went to your guy. He is undersized but very quick and looked very comfortable with he ball, maybe even more than Appling. He was a lower star recruit, I think 3 star, but still was a big scorer and ran the point well in HS. He is a coaches son, which is always good to have.
Kearney is a long SG who was a fairly high recruit. He wasn't ranked as high as Brundridge but in the same boat. I don't know much about him but did watch him last year in the High School finals. He didn't look that great to me, needs a lot of work with his shot. It looked pretty flat.
Byrd is another higher recruited player out of Indiana. He was hurt last year and saw no time. He was hurt in the off season too so it makes you wonder about his health. He was a SG in High school but I think he is growing out of that, heck I think he is 6'8 now. I think Izzo will use him at SF. Heck of an outside shooter, Izzo said that he had the best shot he had ever seen in high school. He looked good in his last exhibition, will need time to get with the college game.
Gauna is an unknown. Goran Sutton kind of player is what has been said about him. He is around 6'10 and is pretty solid. Red shirted last year and played at a small high school. Lower star recruit, development project.
Nix looks better this year than he ever has. Former Mr Michigan is a huge body down low at 6'9 280. Has had a lot of troubles since he has been a Spartan, mainly weight control and mental. They say he is the best he has been since becoming a SPartan but I will belive it when I see it. I would like to see him play more than 5 minutes without being winded. If he plays he will be a key piece to the puzzle. For a big fat guy, he is pretty mobile and nimble around the rim.
Kind of lengthy, sorry about that.
