Barstool Basketball Mailbag: Michigan State, Carmelo, Backcourt Battles, URI, Wojo's Improvement

Your Friday basketball mailbag is here. I’ve been doing these for the last 2 years and decided to set on just one day a week so people know when to expect it. Again, this will cover all basketball asa we’re starting to see the growth of the sport and it turning into a year-round event. This week we have plenty to discuss as college teams are starting their overseas trips – unless you’re Duke, who is now not going overseas due to Coach K needing knee surgery. I get the cancellation of the trip, as it is a young team and K wants to mold them into the ‘right’ Duke team. However, you have to send these kids. You have enough assistant coaches with plenty of experience and it helps form team chemistry. There’s such a benefit to being able to play in these things and Duke being one of the 10 best teams in the country, it doesn’t make sense to delay the chemistry building on and off the court. Anyways, I figured I should address that without a separate blog so here we go with the weekly mailbag.

I 100% believe it’s Cassius Winston. He’s not the second best player on the team – that would be Jaren Jackson – but Winston needs to take a jump this year to give stability at the point guard spot. We’ve seen who Tum Tum Nairn is – a fine, rotational player that can be in the rotation of a national championship team. However, he’s turnover prone. His best season was a turnover rate percentage of 23.2%. He’s essentially a 1:1 assist to turnover ratio guy, which is fine for a secondary ball handler or an off ball guy. Winston is the better player in my opinion and the guy who should be out there to start. That said, he was also wildly careless last year with the ball as he had a turnover percentage of 26.4%. The big difference between the two? Assist percentage. Winston looks to get others involved as he ranked 2nd in the country with a 46.7 assist percentage. That’s going to be huge for this team. They don’t need Winston to go out and get buckets. They need him to push the floor with Bridges, find Jaren Jackson and get Nick Ward in the right spot in the paint. So yeah, while I think Jackson/Ward are better and possibly Langford too, Winston is the guy who is the second most important behind Bridges, especially with how valuable point guards are in college basketball.

I’ve been saying this from the get-go, I’m fine with Melo staying on the Knicks. I think he gets a bad rap and will be the most overlooked best player of this generation (Chris Bosh close behind him). I still think if a trade to the Rockets happens you see a third team – one that can take Ryan Anderson in the deal. The other thing here is I’m fine with the Knicks just tanking. There’s no reason to trade for a PG right now as I’m all for throwing Frankie Smokes to the fire and seeing what he’s made of as a rookie. Let him learn that way instead of this mentor bullshit. The more the Knicks suck this year, the better in the long run. Go get Luka Doncic in the Draft to help you on the wing and run Kristaps at the center next year. See if Frankie is worth something or did Phil miss on draft night for a guy who fit the triangle. If you get something for Melo, then great. But, I wouldn’t just trade him to trade him and bring back assets that either tie up cap space or don’t help the future. Most importantly don’t bring back Ryan Anderson’s contract – even though Anderson is an awesome guy and a decent player. The last thing is Melo is pretty dead set on only going to Houston. I don’t see how that changes unless something drastic happens in Cleveland. So I don’t know what ‘better’ deal will come along.

Cam Johnson is a really good player, however he doesn’t fit the need for Carolina. They still need a true big to replace what they lost in Kennedy Meeks, Tony Bradley and Isaiah Hicks. I really like Carolina’s backcourt and even their wings are solid and that’s where Johnson should be playing. He’s not a guy that is a great rebounder or someone who can protect the rim defensively. Carolina’s best offense last year was the fact they were so good at offensive rebounds. They lose that this year. So I don’t think the impact will be as great as some make it out to be, he just provides depth and leadership to the wing. More importantly though he provides a safety blanket in case someone like Theo Pinson/Garrison Brooks gets hurt.

I’m taking this question with a little bit of a grain of salt. Marquette isn’t Duke. Duke is one of the 5 best programs in college basketball history and Marquette isn’t close to five. So that said, is Wojo improving Marquette? Yes. They still aren’t back to where they were with Buzz Williams, but it’s unfair to judge the two yet as Buzz was there for 6 years. Wojo has done what you want to see new coaches do. They took a team that was ranked 68th in Buzz’s last season and in three years turned them into a tournament team. The other thing to look at is the roster. Wojo wasn’t left with much his first year as Deonte Burton transferred after just 8 games. His second year you could say was a little bit of a disappointment because they did have Henry Ellenson and couldn’t make the big jump. But in his third year they were ranked 32nd and made the NCAA Tournament as well as finished 10-8 in the Big East. He’s starting to get more and more recruits and see that the expectations are back. Marquette should be a NCAA Tournament team again this year and while they won’t be Duke 2.0, they are getting back to Marquette, which is a consistent top-25 team.

I always hate these sort of questions because it’s impossible to say yes or no without seeing a bracket. The NCAA Tournament is predicated so much on matchups it doesn’t matter if you think URI is a top-16 team or not. I personally don’t see them as a top-16 team this year, but that doesn’t mean they don’t get two favorable matchups. They do lose two important pieces in Kuran Iverson and Hassan Martin, who provided rim protection that helped make that URI defense so good. Without the two of them back there, how much can guys like Jarvis Garrett or Stanford Robinson get up and pressure the ball? They had that safety net knowing if they got beat, there was still someone behind them. My one hope is that EC Matthews stays healthy, because he’s one of the best players in the country. Now, they will be in and out of the top-25 all year.

It’s still Kentucky as of right now. You get 6 5-star recruits and you win this argument for the time being. Now, Duke/Missouri/Arizona are all close, but the depth of the talent in the freshman class gives Kentucky the win. They have a lot of guys who are similar players, but Hami Diallo getting the second semester last season to learn the system should give him an advantage over other freshmen in the country. Again, this is all based on expectations and what we’ve seen through high school/AAU.

Here’s who I’m looking at for each backcourt:
Kentucky: Quade Green, Shai Alexander, Jermarl Barker, Hamidou Diallo
Alabama: Collin Sexton, John Petty, Herb Jones, Avery Johnson Jr.,Dazon Ingram

Those are both loaded backcourts. Alabama has the best player in the group in Collin Sexton – who is my second favorite player in the class of 2017 behind Michael Porter Jr. The dude is seriously going to be a stud and can do a little bit of everything. Man, it’s tough not to take Alabama here as they have a couple big time recruits in Sexton/Petty and some guys returning in Ingram (who was arguably the best player on the team last year) and Johnson. I’ll take Alabama by a small margin here, simply because I love Sexton’s game. For Kentucky to win this argument, either Green or Alexander need to become more consistent shooters as Barker provides that.

Sure. He’s a guy that you can have out there and win a title. Similar to the Michigan State situation, he needs to cut down on turnovers as he had a turnover percentage of 21.1%, but he’s a good passer, ranking 108th nationally in assist percentage. He’s not a guy that needs a bunch of shots and plays his role of defensive-minded, pass-first just fine. That’s what Arizona needs from him this year. He can get in guys shorts defensively and then distribute offensively. Play through Ayton and Trier and let PJC attack when needed. He’s not going to be a top-10 PG, which is fine because of Arizona’s talent, he just needs to fit the role for Sean Miller.