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The groin injury will keep him out against Houston -- we know this with Matt's blog but this is a definite. Nothing like having arguably your best player out against CUSS's second-best team. However, Roberts is expected to return on Saturday against Tulsa. He's averaging 9.9 ppg.

George S. Patton wrote:The groin injury will keep him out against Houston -- we know this with Matt's blog but this is a definite. Nothing like having arguably your best player out against CUSS's second-best team. However, Roberts is expected to return on Saturday against Tulsa. He's averaging 9.9 ppg.

You would have a hard time convincing me of that in an arguement about our second best player.

MustangIcon wrote:

George S. Patton wrote:The groin injury will keep him out against Houston -- we know this with Matt's blog but this is a definite. Nothing like having arguably your best player out against CUSS's second-best team. However, Roberts is expected to return on Saturday against Tulsa. He's averaging 9.9 ppg.

You would have a hard time convincing me of that in an arguement about our second best player.

Then who is our best player in your estimation?

George S. Patton wrote:

MustangIcon wrote:

George S. Patton wrote:The groin injury will keep him out against Houston -- we know this with Matt's blog but this is a definite. Nothing like having arguably your best player out against CUSS's second-best team. However, Roberts is expected to return on Saturday against Tulsa. He's averaging 9.9 ppg.

You would have a hard time convincing me of that in an arguement about our second best player.

Then who is our best player in your estimation?

I actually read your post too quickly and thought you were claiming Roberts as our second best player, which makes my response above a bit confusing. My response should have read "You would have a hard time convincing me that he is our best player."

To me Roberts has become pretty much a spot up jump shooter but he isn't very good at that skill. What does he shoot from 3pt range- MAYBE 30 percent this season? On his career he may be is just over 30 percent but still not that great. His talent when he got to SMU was taking the ball to the hole. Injuries have limited his explosiveness some and he does not penetrate much anymore. I will take Doh's word that he and Killen are both great leaders, so he has that going for him. Killen is awful handling the ball, but make him a 2 like D-Rob and play him off the ball and he is more valuable than Roberts.

To me Dia, Bamba, Killen are all players that I see as more valuable than Roberts at this point in his career. Malone too potentially. Roberts would be more valuable than a lot of these guys, specifically against UH which runs a small fast line-up at you, but I don't think he is our best player.

***None of this is meant to at all bash D-Rob. I am very appreciative of his hard work at SMU and the way he has represented our school. I just don't think he is our best player.***

At this point, I don't think we have a best player. I guess I used Roberts because he's a senior.

One thing we can agree on -- we do not nearly enough dribble penetration out of our guards. Man, do we need people who can handle and distribute the basketball.

Ritter is a Sr do you think he is our best player too?

George S. Patton wrote:At this point, I don't think we have a best player. I guess I used Roberts because he's a senior.

One thing we can agree on -- we do not nearly enough dribble penetration out of our guards. Man, do we need people who can handle and distribute the basketball.

We certainly do agree on that.

Statistically speaking - I would say that Bamba and Killen are our "best" players. Average points/40 minutes is as follows:

Bamba - 18.27
Alex Malone - 18.06
Papa - 16.56
Killen - 13.68
Roberts - 12.41
Walker - 10.9

Couple this with the fact that Killen has by FAR the best assist to turnover ratio, and both he and Bamba are easily the team's best defenders (both in terms of steals and blocks).

In terms of shooting %, rebounding and assists to turnovers, Roberts does not stand out from the pack - 5th in pts/40 min.

It's encouraging to see that Malone and Papa are such efficient scorers, and should see good numbers with increased minutes. I would think our offense should be much improved next year - Harp and Walker will be much stronger players than Killen and Roberts.

Our biggest questionmark will be frontcourt depth - after Papa and Bamba its TK and Spencer???

I don't find many teams in CUSA or in our poor OOC schedule that present much of a threat in the post in terms of size. Malone can easily match-up with just about any 4 we will face all season, even though it appears he will mostly play the three for us. I am not concerned with our front court depth next season in the least bit. I am concerned with having a perimeter guy that can score or create for others. Time will tell what we have in that regard.

Losing Roberts for an important home game will prove detrimental to SMU especially on the defensive end. He would match up against Rob McKiver, who is averaging over 20 ppg for Houston. I think because this is the first home game of the new year and students are anxious to out and cheer, SMU will come out of the gates fast, but will be over matched. I see SMU losing by double digits (12-15 points)