Final NSIC All-Conference predictions?

[MrAugustana]

According to the internet, last year's All-Conference release for the NSIC came out the day after the opening round of the NSIC Tournament.

With that in mind, does anyone have further thoughts on the following categories:

Player of the Year:
Defensive Player of the Year:
Freshman of the Year:
Newcomer of the Year:
Coach of the Year:

All-NSIC 1st Team (10 players):
All-NSIC 2nd Team (10 players):

Just to get things going, I'll throw out my sad attempt at knowing things:

Player of the Year: Gage Davis - My guess is he wins it due simply to his eye-popping numbers, even if his team doesn't make the Regional this year (short of a strong NSIC Tourney run, obviously).
Defensive Player of the Year: John Warren - I never pay as close attention to other teams' defenders to really have an informed opinion about this, I just know that if I were a basketball player, I would not want John Warren guarding me for the entirety of a game. I think that would be miserable.
Freshman of the Year: Harrison Clearly is the obvious choice, but I think in almost any other year, Jai'Vionne Green would be a strong candidate. Then again, we probably could've said the same thing about whoever was 2nd best after Gage Davis last season.
Newcomer of the Year: Jon Doss at Moorhead? Aarias Austin at Mankato? I can see it being either of them. But I also haven't paid close attention, so maybe I'm overlooking someone obvious.
Coach of the Year: Chad Walthall - My guess is that it goes to Walthall, even though SMSU fans will lament that the Mustangs were picked to finish 7th and ended up finishing 2nd overall and that's more impressive than Walthall's outright conference title. I don't entirely disagree, but, as these awards have shown over the years, the award almost always goes to the coach who wins the conference outright, other than when Bigler won it a few years ago. But maybe I'll be proven wrong on this one.

All-NSIC 1st Team (10 players):
-Jordan Spencer, Augie
-Gage Davis, St. Cloud
-Scottie Stone, St. Cloud
-Tyler Rudolph, Minot
-Aaron Lien, Moorhead
-Tanner Kretchman, Moorhead
-Mack Arvidson, Northern
-Logan Doyle?, Northern
-Bryan Jefferson, U-Mary
-Harrison Cleary, Crookston

All-NSIC 2nd Team (10 players):
-Ayob Ayob, Moorhead
-Mike Busack, Augie
-Ryan Bruggeman, SMSU
-Mitch Weg, SMSU
-Jon Fuqua, Mankato
-Joey Witthus, Mankato
-Jai'Vionne Green, Bemidji
-Drew Geubert, USF
-Riley Bambenek, WSU
-Damonta Henry, U-Mary

About 2/3 of my 1st and 2nd team picks were carefully reasoned out. The rest were mostly me looking at the top names in the scoring, rebounds, and assist columns of the season stats in the NSIC and picking the guys whose names came up most frequently toward the top of those columns.

[Stanger86]

Re: Final NSIC All-Conference predictions?

Newcomer of the Year: Jon Doss at Moorhead? Aarias Austin at Mankato? I can see it being either of them. But I also haven't paid close attention, so maybe I'm overlooking someone obvious.

Mike Busack. While not a newcomer to the NSIC, he's a newcomer to his team. I believe that's how they interpret it.

If not, KJ Davis here in Marshall could be another possibility.

[Stanger86]

Re: Final NSIC All-Conference predictions?

All-NSIC 1st Team (10 players):
-Jordan Spencer, Augie
-Gage Davis, St. Cloud
-Scottie Stone, St. Cloud
-Tyler Rudolph, Minot
-Aaron Lien, Moorhead
-Tanner Kretchman, Moorhead
-Mack Arvidson, Northern
-Logan Doyle?, Northern
-Bryan Jefferson, U-Mary
-Harrison Cleary, Crookston

All-NSIC 2nd Team (10 players):
-Ayob Ayob, Moorhead
-Mike Busack, Augie
-Ryan Bruggeman, SMSU
-Mitch Weg, SMSU
-Jon Fuqua, Mankato
-Joey Witthus, Mankato
-Jai'Vionne Green, Bemidji
-Drew Geubert, USF
-Riley Bambenek, WSU
-Damonta Henry, U-Mary

About 2/3 of my 1st and 2nd team picks were carefully reasoned out. The rest were mostly me looking at the top names in the scoring, rebounds, and assist columns of the season stats in the NSIC and picking the guys whose names came up most frequently toward the top of those columns.

Biggest problem I have with this is that the North/South split is 9/1 on the first team and 3/7 on second team. Considering the quality of the two divisions, I think that's more likely to be reversed, or at least closer to 50/50.

I think Busack and Bruggeman have a strong chance at first team. Some other omissions from these lists include Jordan Hay and Carson Parker from UIU (no Peacocks) and maybe Adam Beyer. I'd probably drop in order from first team: Jefferson, Cleary, Doyle.

[laker]

Re: Final NSIC All-Conference predictions?

Biggest problem I have with this is that the North/South split is 9/1 on the first team and 3/7 on second team.

The last time those numbers were so unbalanced, Grant was meeting Lee at Appomattox. And even then it wasn't that bad.

[MrAugustana]

Re: Final NSIC All-Conference predictions?

Biggest problem I have with this is that the North/South split is 9/1 on the first team and 3/7 on second team. Considering the quality of the two divisions, I think that's more likely to be reversed, or at least closer to 50/50.

I think Busack and Bruggeman have a strong chance at first team. Some other omissions from these lists include Jordan Hay and Carson Parker from UIU (no Peacocks) and maybe Adam Beyer. I'd probably drop in order from first team: Jefferson, Cleary, Doyle.

I 100% didn't consider North/South splits. That's a good point.

As far as the UIU guys, it certainly wasn't a slight at them, it was mostly the fact that they really have no clear cut, "this player is noticeably better than that player" types of guys on their roster. They are just a bunch of balanced, all-around solid players. I guess the test would be, could you sub out Jordan Hay with just about any other decent, non-All-Conference big man in the NSIC and have the Peacocks still be as good as they are? Personally I'd say probably yes, but maybe others would disagree. Same with Carson Parker. That being said, they're both good and are both capable of putting up 20 on any given night.

I love Beyer, but figured going for three all-conference guys from Augie would be a stretch for some people. And Adam will go from games where he has 25 points to games where he has 8. Which is fine, but I think if he were putting up 15-18 ppg night in and night out he'd be more of a lock for an all-conference team. It's rare that do-everything guys get substantial recognition unless they do everything at a really high level. He does everything at a solid level, but not an overly noteworthy level.

I kind of figure if Gage Davis made 1st team as a freshman last year, Cleary probably makes a 1st team selection reasonable. Then again, Davis was also a very strong rebounder as a freshman and Clearly really only has solid scoring stats and that's about it.

Bruggeman and Busack were both on my maybe-1st team list. Doyle, as the question mark noted, was the one I most considered dropping down to 2nd team.

[Stanger86]

Re: Final NSIC All-Conference predictions?

As far as the UIU guys, it certainly wasn't a slight at them, it was mostly the fact that they really have no clear cut, "this player is noticeably better than that player" types of guys on their roster. They are just a bunch of balanced, all-around solid players. I guess the test would be, could you sub out Jordan Hay with just about any other decent, non-All-Conference big man in the NSIC and have the Peacocks still be as good as they are? Personally I'd say probably yes, but maybe others would disagree. Same with Carson Parker. That being said, they're both good and are both capable of putting up 20 on any given night.

Understandable, but they went 16-6. They will probably get two of the 20 slots.

[NSU4LIFE]

Re: Final NSIC All-Conference predictions?

Doyle is our most important piece and Ian is there with him...I'd have Mack behind them without looking at stats

[MrMustang]

Re: Final NSIC All-Conference predictions?

I think Bruggeman will be the only Mustang to get all conference. I think he'll be second team because of all the good guards. He deserves 1st team but will get 2nd team.

It is unlikely any other Mustang will make 1st or 2nd team.

KJ Davis has an outside shot at newcomer. Huge addition to the team.

[Stanger86]

Re: Final NSIC All-Conference predictions?

I think Bruggeman will be the only Mustang to get all conference. I think he'll be second team because of all the good guards. He deserves 1st team but will get 2nd team.

It is unlikely any other Mustang will make 1st or 2nd team.

Hard to see only one player from a division champ get honored, but maybe that's just my homer side talking. If anyone, I'd peg Bartlett or Kirk as next up for the Mustangs.

[DapperDan]

Re: Final NSIC All-Conference predictions?

According to the internet, last year's All-Conference release for the NSIC came out the day after the opening round of the NSIC Tournament.

With that in mind, does anyone have further thoughts on the following categories:

Player of the Year:
Defensive Player of the Year:
Freshman of the Year:
Newcomer of the Year:
Coach of the Year:

All-NSIC 1st Team (10 players):
All-NSIC 2nd Team (10 players):

Just to get things going, I'll throw out my sad attempt at knowing things:

Player of the Year: Gage Davis - My guess is he wins it due simply to his eye-popping numbers, even if his team doesn't make the Regional this year (short of a strong NSIC Tourney run, obviously).
Defensive Player of the Year: John Warren - I never pay as close attention to other teams' defenders to really have an informed opinion about this, I just know that if I were a basketball player, I would not want John Warren guarding me for the entirety of a game. I think that would be miserable.
Freshman of the Year: Harrison Clearly is the obvious choice, but I think in almost any other year, Jai'Vionne Green would be a strong candidate. Then again, we probably could've said the same thing about whoever was 2nd best after Gage Davis last season.
Newcomer of the Year: Jon Doss at Moorhead? Aarias Austin at Mankato? I can see it being either of them. But I also haven't paid close attention, so maybe I'm overlooking someone obvious.
Coach of the Year: Chad Walthall - My guess is that it goes to Walthall, even though SMSU fans will lament that the Mustangs were picked to finish 7th and ended up finishing 2nd overall and that's more impressive than Walthall's outright conference title. I don't entirely disagree, but, as these awards have shown over the years, the award almost always goes to the coach who wins the conference outright, other than when Bigler won it a few years ago. But maybe I'll be proven wrong on this one.

All-NSIC 1st Team (10 players):
-Jordan Spencer, Augie
-Gage Davis, St. Cloud
-Scottie Stone, St. Cloud
-Tyler Rudolph, Minot
-Aaron Lien, Moorhead
-Tanner Kretchman, Moorhead
-Mack Arvidson, Northern
-Logan Doyle?, Northern
-Bryan Jefferson, U-Mary
-Harrison Cleary, Crookston

All-NSIC 2nd Team (10 players):
-Ayob Ayob, Moorhead
-Mike Busack, Augie
-Ryan Bruggeman, SMSU
-Mitch Weg, SMSU
-Jon Fuqua, Mankato
-Joey Witthus, Mankato
-Jai'Vionne Green, Bemidji
-Drew Geubert, USF
-Riley Bambenek, WSU
-Damonta Henry, U-Mary

About 2/3 of my 1st and 2nd team picks were carefully reasoned out. The rest were mostly me looking at the top names in the scoring, rebounds, and assist columns of the season stats in the NSIC and picking the guys whose names came up most frequently toward the top of those columns.

Why would Cleary not be newcomer as well as freshman of the year?

[Stanger86]

Re: Final NSIC All-Conference predictions?

Why would Cleary not be newcomer as well as freshman of the year?

Newcomer is typically reserved for transfers

[ddwitte]

Re: Final NSIC All-Conference predictions?

Newcomer of the Year: Jon Doss at Moorhead? Aarias Austin at Mankato? I can see it being either of them. But I also haven't paid close attention, so maybe I'm overlooking someone obvious.

Doyle?

[NSU4LIFE]

Re: Final NSIC All-Conference predictions?

Doyle?

No doubt

[Stanger86]

Re: Final NSIC All-Conference predictions?

Doyle?

If Busack isn't eligible, Doyle is a high probability

[MrAugustana]

Re: Final NSIC All-Conference predictions?

Doyle?

Hence my mention that I would probably forget somebody obvious. Yes, I am guessing it goes to Doyle. Although, I would imagine that any other graduate transfer from out of the conference would likely be a Newcomer candidate, so it would seem Busack should be eligible. Unless coming from an in-conference team changes the rule.