Pre-Draft MML 2022-2023 Team Preview

What Awaits The MML for 2022-2023?

Well, it’s taken awhile but I think I have a handle on this pandemic extra year, or, two, or, hell, even three years of eligibility. On the other hand, nobody can really prepare for one of their studs, who happens to be playing for a low or mid-major program transferring up to a high major and seeing those phenomenal stats take a substantial dip-with rare, rare, exception. So, while scoring in college basketball may be up, scoring in fantasy college basketball may be, eh…variable, for want of a better word. That means less guys who can be classified as “studs,” (25 or more fppg average) and may make having a deep roster of guys who can pretty regularly get 20-22 fppg more important than it has ever been. I can be wrong, but I think over time the above will be more than just a current trend. Which means, you got to’ do your homework!

Driving The Car With The Most Options (Best Positioned Teams Pre-Draft)

Gator Bait and Vindaloos. The returning numbers make them staggering favorites. Let’s look at GB. The fantasy averages of their returning players will not intimidate anyone. However, I expect that Mushila (22.8 fantasy points per game/fppg), and Austin (21.8 fppg) will both bump up this coming season. I think Abmas is going to slightly better his 21.7 fppg. Akec (+5.9 spread) should be around 21 fppg, and Devries has the look of a stat-stuffer. Timme is going to continue to get his 21 or so fppg. And don’t forget Charley Pride, who averaged 25.1 fppg last season. They are 8 deep and will have no trouble finding a freshman…AHEM…while most of the rest of the league is trying to lock up elite freshmen, they will be adding depth and talent to the lineup, helping to remove (along with yours truly) the creme de la creme of the free agents (FA’s). The Vindaloos are the only other team, pre-season, which has a lineup that can go toe to toe with GB. The Vins’ return the top center in fantasy basketball and the top player in Tshiebwe (a scintillating 34.2 fppg!). I don’t think that 34.2 will be dropping much, if at all. Ike (a great add last season) and Clawson should both equal or better their averages of 23.3 & 23.1, respectively. After that I must speculate that Hayden Brown will not average 24.1 fppg for South Carolina. And, I must question what Mosley will put up after transferring to Missouri; as 24.8 seems unlikely-as both suffer from the dreaded disease that plagues fantasy basketball known as “transfer-up-itis.” In this case, the SEC form of the virus. I would bet the house that Payton Sparks takes a nice jump up during his soph year for Ball State. Colby Jones (8.5 spread) is solid. Technically, the Vindaloos top 5 players are better than Gator Bait’s top 5, but GB has a slight edge in quality depth.

Can Serve A Good Entree, But How Are The Sides?

Saluki YRD’s. The YRD’s need 2 impact starters. Stud guard McGhee (25.3 fppg) returns as does the top negative spread player (one of only two players with a negative spread who are still a plus most of the time for their team) in Anthony Davis (22.5 fppg & -1.4 spread). UConn will spread the wealth, especially with their influx of transfer guards but Sanogo figures to bump up. Cisse (+7.0 spread) may improve enough to become their starting center. But there is no upside with the rest of the roster. Their FA moves (more important than the draft) will determine if they are a strong player at the end.

Ravaged By “Transferupitis?”

Maize And Blue Bloods. In name and stats, they return 5 that are the equal of any. However, 4 of those five will be playing “up,” for new teams. Omier will not go for 30.6 at Miami-FL-even though they brought him in to impact. He’s a big-time rebounder, though, so, his dip should still leave him around 23+-25 unless he’s overwhelmed by ACC comp and doesn’t see the rock much. Scheierman is great but Creighton is loaded, and it will be interesting to see what he can put up (24.9 fppg last season). Again, not a tremendous dip and they need his shooting, but Creighton has a lot of balance in their starting lineup. Again, in McKinnis, we have a great rebounder but one who’s making a prodigious leap from the SWAC to the SEC. 23.3 fppg is too much to expect from him-and the plan is to share some of those minutes. Somewhere from 16-20 is more likely. Kendric Davis should do about the same at Memphis as he did at SMU, even though they have more talent than SMU did but his spread worries me (+1.9) when playing for a new coach in a new system. In any event, it’s doubtful he moves up from his 21.3 fppg average. They do have a high upside guy in Traore, who hit the frosh wall hard but still put up 18.8 with a spread of +9.3 and should jump up to 21+. Kinsey is an interesting player. Had a negative spread last season as he struggled to make shots for most of the season and regressed from 2020-2021. If he can start hitting a decent percentage, he could make an enormous impact.

The Appetizers Are Tasty, But, Not Substantial In And Of Themselves…

In alphabetical order: Deep Valley Grouchos, Hoosiers, KC Warthogs, and North Pole Fightin’ Reindeer. These teams have a few nice pieces but don’t have as many and/or need to have a lot of stuff happen with them to morph into something better-so, they are more dependent on a good draft and free agency because of the numbers they don’t have. The DVG’s have some players such as “former stud” Johni Broome, who is not likely to average 26.9 fppg at Auburn like he did at Morehead State. However, being the stud he is, I can see him still getting around 22-23 fppg, with an occasional 18-20 and a rare 25-30. I’ll take that for the center position. Cam Holden, with his +6.8 spread needs to score more and shoot the trey a little better and he could easily move his 19.8 up to the 21-22 range, but that’s about it. The DVG’s need to add 4 impact starters. Moving on, I have been whining about guards for the past three years but at least I have had a few. My pet peeve with the Hoosier management is inaction in the FA pool which has wasted the talent they have in Aimaq (27.8 fppg), Jackson-Davis (26.2), Assadullah (22.0). Another frontline player, Oduro, should bump up nicely from his 21.9 fppg last season, which will help balance the drop Aimaq will see at his new school, Texas Tech next season. But they don’t have a single guard on the roster who can do anything. Two guards and they could be a tough out. KC is a little bit of this and a little bit of that, mostly not good (transferupitis) but I like a couple of their players, even if it’s purely on speculation (spec). Tanner Holden and his non-three-point shooting 22.9 fppg will not transfer well from Wright State to Ohio State. Shouldn’t have changed schools. Neal Quinn’s 22.5 will drop at Richmond. Zach Edey’s 21.9 should rise however, and Dayvion McKnight now has the experience he lacked to become a major threat (20.0 fppg +3.8 spread while still averaging 3.3 to’s per game indicates upside). The most interesting player is David Jones. He transferred in-conference from DePaul. I liked his upside way more with DePaul as their go-to guy for this coming season. St. John’s is helter-skelter, so, expect him to be erratic and despite a 5.7 spread, I don’t know if he can move up more than a point. Hunter Dickinson and his 25.8 returns for the Reindeer. Tyler Burton (22.0) could move up to studdom (25+) this year. Jesse Edwards surprised and should be a very nice player this year. Can Maizen Fausett get more shots? He sports an impressive 7.4 spread. Jayden Martinez left New Hampshire for North Texas and is an interesting wild card.

Top Heavy, Like A 5’2 Woman With 38 DD’s

Well, I don’t mean to offend anybody who may be married to a 5’2 woman with 38 DD’s, it’s just a fact, not a slur…The Hillbilly Maulers have a stud returning in Armando Bacot (29.1-that’s from a 12.8 spread). JT Shumate should bump up nicely. Kobe Brown with his 6.7 spread is the interesting one here. So, the Maulers could be brawlers if they choose wisely.

They Can Make Bread, But, Will It Rise?

The Prozac Pups (AKA, the “peripatetic Pups” at times) are a collection of puzzle pieces that don’t quite fit but look nice. I LOVED Jake Stephens at his old school, not so much at Chattanooga. Now, the level isn’t so high that he can’t be effective, but I don’t see him getting his 29.7 fppg average this coming season. He should still be a quality player for the Pups. Kevin Samuel (he who can’t make ft’s) shouldn’t change much as he just does what he does and can do it with some level of consistency if not at a high level. Behind them Prozac needs two players to make a nice jump up in Nelly Joseph & DaRon Holmes. Joseph was at 21.3 and if he gets more jacks should get up to around 23. He had an impressive spread of 8.3. Holmes had a spread of 6.0, which is also impressive, especially for a freshman. That resulted in 18.7 fppg. He almost must move up for Dayton to move up. Pencil him in conservatively, at 22 this coming season. How about the guards? Guards! They don’t get no stinking’ guard. Cam Spencer left Loyola (MD) for Rutgers. Do you think he’s going to get his 22.2 fppg? I think not. So, while they also only need maybe two impact starters (both guards), they may need more. This team as it currently stands, is certainly a dark horse-but, in a good way.

Not Totally Impoverished, Just Average and Bland. Need More Than Just Salt To Sell This.

The Psychos have two decent centers who can also play forward. That’s nice. Will Richard’s upside is going to die on the vine after having transferred down to Florida from Belmont where he would have been a stud this year. That’s…not so nice…and, that’s about it. They don’t have a single stud and studs are difficult to find in the draft…if they were a cuisine, they would be a vegan one. As for The Hoop Guru, Maldonado returns. That’s nice. Jahmir Young transferred “up” to Maryland. Question mark on that one. Probably not going to be as good, but he has a chance. A 4.0 spread for a big who only got 5.9 rebounds per game is not promising, moving forward and neither is that player, Branden Carlson-however, his role must increase for Utah to be better, and I think he will bump up. How much is the question. Allen & Groves are nice basketball (but not nice fantasy) players who never should have transferred up.

Slim Pickins” (apologies to the actor Slim Pickens). Throw ‘Em All In A Pot And Whadda’ Ya’ Got? Goulash! Or, Do You Remember The Fable About Stone Soup?

Slim Pickens’ claim to fame was as the pilot who decides to ride a nuclear missile to his death is the classic black comedy, “Dr. Strangelove.” I also liked him in the movie with Willie Nelson (an autobiography of Nelson’s life) as the driver of his touring bus whose daughter Willie has an affair with. The fable about stone soup basically is about 3 war-weary soldiers who are starving when they arrive in a little European village. The villagers have had other soldiers come through and eat all their food, so, not wanting to go through starvation again, have hidden all their food, so, when the soldiers ask for some food, they are told they don’t have any. So, the soldiers ask for a huge cauldron and set about making soup. They have no food, and they find three big stones and put them into the boiling water. The villagers ask what they are making, and they say: “stone soup.” But they add that it would be so much better if they had an onion. So, one village volunteers that he thinks he can find an onion. After they get the onion in there, the soldiers then say if only they had a turnip. And, eventually, they get all the ingredients they need to make a hearty soup and they share it with the villagers. Well, it’s not the moral of that story, but the initial ingredients of their rosters that has me put the Hardwood Heroes, House of Sparky, formerly known as The Deadwood Gang, and Sam Jacobson Went To Class in this category. They have more than stones on their roster, but not much more to start with. First, again, all props (and, in all seriousness) to Hardwood for the job he did last season (and remember, he’s been in two of the last four championship games!). He has Castleton as one top tier player. After that he has Alexander with a chance to bump up a little. He has an interesting question mark in KJ Williams who is making a huge move up to LSU. Mballa & Nance are question marks. That’s a lot of spots to fill. Personally, I don’t think he can wait as long to dip into the FA pool as he did last season, but that’s just my opinion. The “Gang” had been on the lam for a while now after being one of the better teams a few years back, and finally had to leave the country. House of Sparky has moved in to take their place and inherits the roster. Like HH, they have one player in Enrique Freeman. They are slightly better off as they also have Kendal Coleman, but like Williams is taking a huge step up in comp having also transferred to LSU. Sherfield is not going to kill it at Oklahoma after having NOT killed it at Nevada. The Big 12 may have taken it on the chin with football but is a very, very strong basketball conference. The way UCLA plays & his injury history means that Jaquez is also not likely to do much more. Sam? Sam I am? Malachi Smith is now at Gonzaga. He’s taking a dip. Ossuniyi is now at Iowa State. He’s taking a dip. Felipe Haas is now at Southern Miss. He’s taking a dip. Yes, it’s a freaking pool party with beer, nachos, and bikinis, but not much fantasy scoring. Maybe Robertson can be a 21+ fppg player, and Mostafa should move up but that’s it.

As Strong As The Russian Army

And have a shake with those deep fat fries while you’re at it Virginia Gentlemen. Is it as bad as indicated above? YES. They only have 3 players. Are they 3 horrible players, no. Dillon Jones had a very nice 23.3 and should be closer to 25 this year. Killen from Marshall is interesting. He has a good upside and could be 21-22 this year. I don’t have much faith in Furst doing a lot at Purdue, fantasy-wise. So, while they have one nice player and one nice promising player, they have no guards, no center, and need at least 4, and probably 5 impact players to do something come playoff time. That’s a tall order. You know, you should have that slice of chocolate devil’s food with a scoop of vanilla and a tall Coke chaser…oh yeah…