Post Season

[LetsGoRabbits]

Some have already made some predictions, but does anyone want to give their official League awards guesses before the awards come out this week. Wednesday i think, but maybe Thursday?

I believe that Abmas, Massner, Mayo, and Nelson are near locks for the first team.

in my opinion, the final two spots on the 1st team should go to Conover and Dentlinger. i have already said it many times, i believe Conover has a slight edge, if only one of them makes it, but Dent has really made this a close call and based on their clear standing as the top two teams in the league, Conover putting up very significant shot blocking numbers and being a top 3 rebounder, and Dent leading the league by a LOT in FG efficiency, i would give the nod to these two

but there are plenty of good players who could make an argument for one or both of the last two spots on 1st team and those who do not get it will make 2nd team and honorable mention

in no particular order

R Mitchell
S Allen
both from KC. can the 7th place team get two on the all league team

F Fidler
can he make it from the last place team?

T Brunner, Denver
can he make it from the 8th place team? i would debate if he is really their best player, but he did lead them in scoring and has the best stats

K P-Hunt
i believe he has to have the best shot of the yotes

B Skunberg
probably the #2 guy for the 3rd place Bison. i believe he has a good shot


WIU got 4th place, but i am not sure they have anyone make the team, besides Massner. i would guess Rosner would be next, but they have others who you could make an argument for

Rhode and
Bjorklund
could STU have 2 on this list and neither of them is Sr guard Riley Miller?


that covers 14 of the 16 all league spots and i think the 14 i have listed are very solid and reasonable choices! in my opinion, i probably give the other two spots to Thompson and McBride for ORU. they went undefeated in conference play and should have the most representation on these teams, but last year the jacks only had 2 on this list, so......

i also think they are both very good players and underrated. Thompson particularly always manages to hurt the jacks badly, but mcbride had the two killer 3s late on saturday

I highly doubt i nailed all 16, more likely that i have half of them wrong. there are lots of players who could make an argument that they at least deserve to be on the HM all summit team. i did not list anyone from UND. i could not decide on which one, but they could get someone on. i will leave it at that. there are just too many possibilities to list all of them and list the reasons they could be included and / or why they would not


DPOY
comes down to Conover and i believe Allen (kc) but i believe Mims should be in the discussion. great defense is more than how many blocks or steals you have

i will guess Conover, Allen, and Mims are on the all defense team. i will also say West from WIU. he put up good rebounding and shot blocking numbers. i cannot pick the 5th guy. too many possibilities


Necomer of the Year
maybe they give dpoy to allen and give this to conover or maybe conover gets both, but i really doubt that

my guess R Mitchell from KC gets this, but Conover, Mitchell, Brunner, and Rhode are all very good guesses and choices!!

those 4 should all be on the newcomer team. like the all D team i will let you debate who the 5th guy is. WOW there are a LOT of possibilities. WK3 is one of them, but i doubt he makes this team

[bigticket1]

I agree with your four first team locks - Vanover and one of the KC guards (most likely Allen ) round out the top six. They won't put three bigs on the first team, so Dent goes on the second team.

[LetsGoRabbits]

I agree with your four first team locks - Vanover and one of the KC guards (most likely Allen ) round out the top six. They won't put three bigs on the first team, so Dent goes on the second team.

I DO NOT disagree with your choices. i definitely think that could be correct. that said i ABSOLUTELY believe that Dent has been more valuable this year than either Allen or Mitchell from KC and i honestly think you can argue he is more valuable than Conover

Dent is the head and shoulders #2 guy on the #2 team and there have been several games this year where he has been the #1 guy for that given night. Conover, on the other hand, is less of a clear #2 on his team. he gets a lot of attention for being 7'5 and for the blocked shots, but if that team did not have him would they really be much worse with Mwamba? and Stevens is very effective as well. imagine where the jacks would be without Dent. I know that is not exactly the criteria!!! but i do think it matters that Dent has known all year that his team REALLY needs him and he has delivered!! to be honest on saturday ORU probably played better after Conover went out with his 4th foul. he absolutely had no answer for guarding Dent one on one

as far as the KC guys, i also think it is close. as i already said there are a bunch of guys who are close. in a close vote, i think HOW did your team do matters. head to head the jacks beat KC twice, including IN KC when we had no AA and no Charley

anyway i definitely do not think you are wrong. it is gonna be a close call. FUN to discuss it))))!!! one last thing, i dont think Dent cares one bit either way. just a total team guy!!!

[LetsGoRabbits]

I agree with your four first team locks - Vanover and one of the KC guards (most likely Allen ) round out the top six. They won't put three bigs on the first team, so Dent goes on the second team.

one other thought, YES Nelson plays post for the bison, but in the right lineup, you could kinda put him at the 3 spot

since i started another post
obviously we could look it up but i KNOW Dent led the league in FG% and by quite a bit as i recall. i think he shot almost 59% and #2 guy was about 53%
and Mitchell and Allen were the # 5 and 6 scorer but they were definitely volume guys NOT efficient scorers

believe Allen was 34ish? maybe 35%
and Mitchell under 32%
i will go look at those, maybe i am wrong, but that is how i recall it

again when it is SUCH A CLOSE call, i think these things should matter

EDIT. i went and checked
Dent ended at .588
Nelson was second at .532

i belileve i had the 3pt % for Allen and Mitchell listed above. their actual FG% are better than what i listed above, while still not exactly GOOD

Allen shot .414

and Mitchell .348


maybe that is how you chose Allen over Mitchell as your first team guy, because i think they are really tough to distinguish, but Allen did lead the league in steals and .414 from the field is at least respectable

Mitchell at .348 is truly inefficient for someone who scored 17 a game

[LetsGoRabbits]

ANY CHANCE that Max does not get POY?
i believe this is a lock, BUT

in most years either of Massner and maybe Zeke have done enough to win it

if not Max, Massner is clearly the guy and i think if you give an overall rating Massner is more deserving than many would think

Max 22.3 pts, 4.4 boards, 3.7 assists, 1.2 steals

Massner 19.3 pts, 5.3 boards, 5.3 assists, 1.5 steals

???? what do you think

Max team being undefeated counts for something too and he has Massner on TOs and just barely on the shooting percentages, but there is no denying Massner has been a total savage this year!!

one thing for Zeke, hopefully he cleans up the turnovers for next year. he had 87 this year. he is only a bit over a 1 to 1 assist to TO ratio

[OldHare]

Massner is a Nate Wolters type of player who racks up the assists as he adds up the points in a game. He is a smooth ball handler with a slippery move. He ought to be a top alternate to Abmas.

[LetsGoRabbits]

From the league website:


2023 Summit League Men's Basketball Awards
First Team All-Summit League
Max Abmas, Oral Roberts^** (Sr., G)
Trenton Massner, Western Illinois* (Sr., G)
Zeke Mayo, South Dakota State (So., G)
Grant Nelson, North Dakota State (Jr., F)
Andrew Rohde, St. Thomas (Fr., G)
Connor Vanover, Oral Roberts (Sr., F)

Second Team All-Summit League
Shemarri Allen, Kansas City (Sr., G)
Parker Bjorklund, St. Thomas (Gr., F)
Matt Dentlinger, South Dakota State** (Gr., F)
Issac McBride, Oral Roberts (Jr., G)
RayQuawndis Mitchell, Kansas City (Gr., G)

Honorable Mention All-Summit League
Tommy Bruner, Denver (Jr., G)
Frankie Fidler, Omaha (So., G)
Tasos Kamateros, South Dakota (Sr., F)
Kruz Perrott-Hunt, South Dakota* (Sr., G)
Boden Skunberg, North Dakota State (Jr., G)

^Player of the year automatically earns a spot on the first team
*previous all-league selections noted above

All-Defensive Team
Shemarri Allen, Kansas City (Sr., G)
Matt Mims, South Dakota State (Jr., G)
Grant Nelson, North Dakota State (Jr., F)
Connor Vanover, Oral Roberts (Sr., F)
Jesiah West, Western Illinois (Jr., F)

All-Newcomer Team
Tommy Bruner, Denver (Jr., G)
William Kyle III, South Dakota State (Fr., F)
RayQuawndis Mitchell, Kansas City (Gr., G)
Andrew Rohde, St. Thomas (Fr., G)
Connor Vanover, Oral Roberts (Sr., F)

Player of the Year
Max Abmas, Oral Roberts

Defensive Player of the Year
Connor Vanover, Oral Roberts

Sixth Man of the Year
Matt Norman, North Dakota

Freshman of the Year
Andrew Rohde, St. Thomas

Newcomer of the Year
Connor Vanover, Oral Roberts

Coach of the Year
Paul Mills, Oral Roberts


Dont see any big mistakes in this one either. I do not believe Vanover was really good enough this year (good player but the HYPE has him more than that) to get two individual awards. as noted above, i would have gone with R Mitchell for NOY

I will not say he was not worthy of consideration, but I did not / would not have had Kamateros on an all league team. I think the easy choice was Rosner but i also had K Thompson ahead of him

i am surprised but happy to see WK make the newcomer team!! i do believe Rosner had a more than solid case to be ahead of WK and while not a glaring omission, i believe Rosner probably should have been included somewhere in these awards

Congratulations to all the award winners, especially the 4 Jackrabbits!!

[jacked_up_rabbit]

Don't think we need to start this conversation again Paul.

https://twitter.com/caydenmc/status/...VVJghh1tw&s=19

[bigticket1]

Don't think we need to start this conversation again Paul.

https://twitter.com/caydenmc/status/...VVJghh1tw&s=19

Somebody call the waahmbulance for Paul.

[LetsGoRabbits]

Anybody surprised by UND taking Denver down by double digits? i guess i am not saying it is a big surprise, obviously denver finished 8th for a reason and UND has shown some good signs coming down the stretch. also it hurts denver losing Tevin Smith

that said Kisunas was unguardable. he had 20 with over 16 minutes left in the game. they have other good players in Tainomo (however you spell it) Brunner and Mullens. i really thought that Kisunas was a player who could give ORU trouble based on Conover inability to guard Dent at all. i also feel like brunner and / or mullens are tough matchup for max

i REALLY think that Denver did not play up to the level of their talent this year

that said Eaglestaff and Omot and some other younger guys are coming on for UND. be interesting to see if they keep everyone this year. i feel like those two freshman will stay and they will be tough players going forward

[Southeast]

UND looked pretty impressive tonight just like they did in that 3 pt loss at ORU a couple weeks ago. They’re definitely not playing like a 9-seed these days. It will be interesting to see what they can do with thousands of new fans in blue tomorrow night.

[LetsGoRabbits]

UND looked pretty impressive tonight just like they did in that 3 pt loss at ORU a couple weeks ago. They’re definitely not playing like a 9-seed these days. It will be interesting to see what they can do with thousands of new fans in blue tomorrow night.

they really hurt denver with the 3s in the second half but they probably need to shoot better than 13-36 from 3 tomorrow. i am not cheering one way or the other. i dont like Mills attitude but i am not gonna cheer big against oru. if they dont make it to Tuesday that is on them, but i would be happy to be the team that knocks them off.

that said i do believe they bring another gear focus and intensity wise when they play the jacks. if they played everyone like they play the jacks they would not have had all the close games they had this year. i believe this is because Mills has a big chip on his shoulder about everything SDSU and he apparently passes that on to his team

[LetsGoRabbits]

gotta say ORU looked well focused today

[Southeast]

If ORU keeps playing like that they’ll win more than just 3 games in Sioux Falls. So much talent spread out on that team - very much like our WBB team.

[LetsGoRabbits]

in my opinion, it is WAY better for us if usd wins tonight. there is NO SUCH THING as an easy game for us with the bison!! but it is not possible for me to cheer for usd. just hoping it will be an interesting game to watch.


i am a bit surprised by UST beating WIU. credit to them for hanging in there and their two studs for carrying them home