All-Central Region Team

[BearcatMediaStudent]

2016-17 D2 Conference Commissioner's Men's Basketball All-Central Region
PLAYER OF THE YEAR
Justin Pitts, Northwest Missouri State


FIRST TEAM
Gage Davis, St. Cloud State University
Aaron Lien, Minnesota State University Moorhead
* Justin Pitts, Northwest Missouri State University
Braxton Reeves, East Central University
Jordan Spencer, Augustana University

SECOND TEAM
Rob Davis, Fort Hays State University
Derylton Hill, University of Arkansas at Monticello
Tyler Rudolph, Minot State University
Brady Skeens, Washburn University
Anthony Virdure, Lincoln University

* Denotes 2015-16 All-Central Region First-Team selection

[Stanger86]

Re: All-Central Region Team

Interesting....

[BearcatMediaStudent]

Re: All-Central Region Team

Interesting....

Agreed, I'm a little surprised Bruggeman didn't make the list. He is a fun player to watch. Maybe it's an indication of how deep SW Minnesota is as a team.

[laker]

Re: All-Central Region Team

Agreed, I'm a little surprised Bruggeman didn't make the list. He is a fun player to watch. Maybe it's an indication of how deep SW Minnesota is as a team.

To me Southwest has long been a program that emphasizes the TEAM aspect. They just haven't had superstars- instead the whole becomes greater than the sum of it's parts. Easy to talk about but really tough to do.

[Stanger86]

Re: All-Central Region Team

To me Southwest has long been a program that emphasizes the TEAM aspect. They just haven't had superstars- instead the whole becomes greater than the sum of it's parts. Easy to talk about but really tough to do.

Bruggeman still does that AND is getting the stats to back it up. He's on pace to become the program's all-time leader in assists and steals AND finish among the top five in scoring.

[MrAugustana]

Re: All-Central Region Team

Bruggeman still does that AND is getting the stats to back it up. He's on pace to become the program's all-time leader in assists and steals AND finish among the top five in scoring.

Can't speak for the non-NSIC players, but strictly from the NSIC side of things, he is high up there but the guys who made it over him had better stats in most relevant categories, at least when looking at the NSIC stats for the year (don't know if those count regional games and whatnot or if they stop at the end of conference play). From the stats available to review that way, the only categories where he was really better than Spencer, for example, were field goal percentage and free throw percentage. Granted, he played 4.8 fewer minutes per game than Spencer, but Jordan still had stronger numbers overall in terms of scoring, assists, assist-to-turnover ratio, steals, etc. And in my opinion, up until Busack came on in the second half of the year or so, Jordan had to carry more of the load than Bruggeman has to carry (other than in the first half of yesterday's game against East Central, in which Bruggeman did just about everything). And along with higher scoring numbers overall, Lien and Davis also had strong numbers in areas like rebounding and whatnot where Bruggeman doesn't make his bread and butter.

Maybe your complaint wasn't any of the NSIC guys picked ahead of him, but there are already 4 out of the 10 who are in the NSIC, which didn't leave much more room for another NSIC-er. But if you disagree with the NSIC guys, it's tough to argue it on-paper.

I still think Bruggeman is very good and I'm disappointed that he will be around for two more years as he seems to play really well against us, particularly in the clutch, but I don't necessarily know if he got snubbed in terms of the stats and numbers.

[Stanger86]

Re: All-Central Region Team

Can't speak for the non-NSIC players, but strictly from the NSIC side of things, he is high up there but the guys who made it over him had better stats in most relevant categories, at least when looking at the NSIC stats for the year (don't know if those count regional games and whatnot or if they stop at the end of conference play). From the stats available to review that way, the only categories where he was really better than Spencer, for example, were field goal percentage and free throw percentage. Granted, he played 4.8 fewer minutes per game than Spencer, but Jordan still had stronger numbers overall in terms of scoring, assists, assist-to-turnover ratio, steals, etc. And in my opinion, up until Busack came on in the second half of the year or so, Jordan had to carry more of the load than Bruggeman has to carry (other than in the first half of yesterday's game against East Central, in which Bruggeman did just about everything). And along with higher scoring numbers overall, Lien and Davis also had strong numbers in areas like rebounding and whatnot where Bruggeman doesn't make his bread and butter.

Maybe your complaint wasn't any of the NSIC guys picked ahead of him, but there are already 4 out of the 10 who are in the NSIC, which didn't leave much more room for another NSIC-er. But if you disagree with the NSIC guys, it's tough to argue it on-paper.

I still think Bruggeman is very good and I'm disappointed that he will be around for two more years as he seems to play really well against us, particularly in the clutch, but I don't necessarily know if he got snubbed in terms of the stats and numbers.

Fair points. I guess I was speaking more to laker's point about the SMSU program.

I guess I'm somewhat disappointed that they don't put more stock in team success. Not just because of RB, but in general. It's easier to put up numbers on bad teams, but does that make you one of the ten best players in the region? Only 5 of the 10 players even made the NCAA Tournament.

[MrAugustana]

Re: All-Central Region Team

Fair points. I guess I was speaking more to laker's point about the SMSU program.

I guess I'm somewhat disappointed that they don't put more stock in team success. Not just because of RB, but in general. It's easier to put up numbers on bad teams, but does that make you one of the ten best players in the region? Only 5 of the 10 players even made the NCAA Tournament.

I thought that was interesting as well. That being said, I do think you can be the best player in a district, conference, region, league, etc. (talking all levels of basketball, not just D2) without being on a winning team, partially because it's not entirely the great player's fault if he isn't surrounded by good players. For example, I do think Gage Davis is amazing and while it's easy to say, "If he's so good, he would've made his team better and they would've won more games," but I really don't think it's his fault if Reimerthaler doesn't do the best job of surrounding Davis with the talent to win games (at least this year, I mean). If you put Gage Davis on SMSU/Augie/Upper Iowa/Moorhead's teams, I think his numbers drop slightly, but not enough that we wouldn't still be impressed. Particularly the rebounding. Rebounding really isn't inflated by bad teammates the way scoring can be. That's just a dude being willing to go in and crash the boards, which I have a lot of respect for, especially coming from a guard.

[Purple Mav Man]

Re: All-Central Region Team

Fair points. I guess I was speaking more to laker's point about the SMSU program.

I guess I'm somewhat disappointed that they don't put more stock in team success. Not just because of RB, but in general. It's easier to put up numbers on bad teams, but does that make you one of the ten best players in the region? Only 5 of the 10 players even made the NCAA Tournament.

Don't they have a Tournament Team for this? Or is it only MOP?

[86Catillac]

Re: All-Central Region Team

Fair points. I guess I was speaking more to laker's point about the SMSU program.
I
I guess I'm somewhat disappointed that they don't put more stock in team success. Not just because of RB, but in general. It's easier to put up numbers on bad teams, but does that make you one of the ten best players in the region? Only 5 of the 10 players even made the NCAA Tournament.

I can only speak to those players I have seen in person. Davis, Verdure and Skeens are all very deserving from the MIAA. Although they weren't from top notch teams, all 3 of these guys are skilled and dynamic players. I've only seen Reeves play twice, but he is obviously a gifted player.

RB is a good player, no doubt. He is just one of several that may have been overlooked.

[CatFan88]

Re: All-Central Region Team

I can only speak to those players I have seen in person. Davis, Verdure and Skeens are all very deserving from the MIAA. Although they weren't from top notch teams, all 3 of these guys are skilled and dynamic players. I've only seen Reeves play twice, but he is obviously a gifted player.

RB is a good player, no doubt. He is just one of several that may have been overlooked.

MIAA had really good guard play this year, much like the Big 12. If the kid from MSSU hadn't gotten hurt his name might be in there as well. Bruggeman equally deserving, but can't put them all on there. Tough competition.

[Stanger86]

Re: All-Central Region Team

I can only speak to those players I have seen in person. Davis, Verdure and Skeens are all very deserving from the MIAA. Although they weren't from top notch teams, all 3 of these guys are skilled and dynamic players. I've only seen Reeves play twice, but he is obviously a gifted player.

Where would you rank Reeves if he was in the MIAA? From what I've seen, he's probably the second-best player in the region, but again that's with not knowing MIAA/GAC talent other than who's in the regional.

[Stanger86]

Re: All-Central Region Team

Can't speak for the non-NSIC players, but strictly from the NSIC side of things, he is high up there but the guys who made it over him had better stats in most relevant categories, at least when looking at the NSIC stats for the year (don't know if those count regional games and whatnot or if they stop at the end of conference play). From the stats available to review that way, the only categories where he was really better than Spencer, for example, were field goal percentage and free throw percentage. Granted, he played 4.8 fewer minutes per game than Spencer, but Jordan still had stronger numbers overall in terms of scoring, assists, assist-to-turnover ratio, steals, etc. And in my opinion, up until Busack came on in the second half of the year or so, Jordan had to carry more of the load than Bruggeman has to carry (other than in the first half of yesterday's game against East Central, in which Bruggeman did just about everything). And along with higher scoring numbers overall, Lien and Davis also had strong numbers in areas like rebounding and whatnot where Bruggeman doesn't make his bread and butter.

I guess my biggest gripe is with Rudolph. Must be nice to do most of your damage against the NSIC North on a bad team. At least SCSU had a winning record...

[BearcatMediaStudent]

Re: All-Central Region Team

Where would you rank Reeves if he was in the MIAA? From what I've seen, he's probably the second-best player in the region, but again that's with not knowing MIAA/GAC talent other than who's in the regional.

I would say 2nd best, a better shooting Rob Davis. Virdure was really good, had a 50 point game vs Northwest, but he wasn't as consistent as Reeves.

[CatFan88]

Re: All-Central Region Team

I would say 2nd best, a better shooting Rob Davis. Virdure was really good, had a 50 point game vs Northwest, but he wasn't as consistent as Reeves.

With all the good guard play in the MIAA this year and the good guard play in the regional, it's a toss up. I don't know where you begin except the gold standard in Pitts.