Now that the season has ended and Tony Wroten has prematurely ended his career at UW to see if his skill set will translate to the NBA, I thought it would be interesting to compare GBJ and Tony Wroten's Freshman campaigns.

Offensive Production:

Tony Wroten--

If you were to look strictly at ppg it would seem that Wroten is the clear cut winner but it really depends on the team's needs. Wroten is great at driving to the basket and has a respectable if not spectacular FG% of 44.3%. He gets to the line a lot averaging 7.5 FTA but he only makes 58.3% of them. He is abysmally bad from behind the arc shooting only 16.1% on the season (9-56). He shoots the ball liberally taking 12.8 FGA/Game. Taking all of these stats into account he scores a considerable number of his teams points at 16ppg but he doesn't do it very efficiently and has no outside game. He averaged a respectable 3.7apg but unfortunately they were overshadowed by the fact that he had more turnovers than assists.

Gary Bell Jr.--

Bell has been outstanding and filled his role in his freshman season perfectly. While he scored considerably less at 10.3ppg he was incredibly efficient. His overall FG% was 49.6% and he shot an incredible 47.7% from beyond the arc giving him the best 3P% of any Freshman this season. He doesn't get to the charity stripe as often as Wroten but when he does he shoots at a 74.1% clip. Later in the season Gary developed confidence in the drive and was much more aggressive going to the basket. As a freshman he was very good at everything and showed the potential to become a dominant all-around player by the time he leaves GU.

Verdict:

I would take 10 points off of 7 shots over 16 points off of 13 shots any day of the week. If Wroten develops the 3 he will be a much better player but he is essentially starting from scratch. Bell doesn't necessarily need to develop any new skills, he can concentrate on merely improving on all of the things he already does well. Wroten produced more in his freshman season as an individual but I would argue that Bell was better for the team as whole. Advantage: Bell

More after the jump...

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With the inclusion of BYU it was necessary to make some changes in the format of the WCC Basketball Tournament.  Per the end of season WCC press release the tournament will go from Wednesday February 29 thru the following Monday.  Wednesday will be a play-in game between the 8 and 9 seeds with the winner playing the 5 seed the following day.  Other than that the current bye schedule will remain in place with seeds 3-4 playing for the first time on Friday in the Quarterfinals and the top 2 seeds getting a bye to the Semi-finals on Saturday.  Because BYU does not play any games on Sunday the final will be played on Monday March 5th.  The tournament will still be sponsored by Zappos and no announcement has been made regarding a venue change so I imagine it will remain the same.   Here is the final press release in case you are interested:  http://grfx.cstv.com/photos/schools/west/sports/m-baskbl/auto_pdf/mbb2011FINAL.pdf

I'm not even sure how I got there but I just ran across a couple of tweets from Chase Webb out of Erie, CO saying that he has been talking to GU and SMC coaches and that one of our assistants has told him that he might have a shot.  I haven't been able to find much about him but here are a few quick highlights:

-Listed as a 6'1" Guard

-McDonald's All-American Nominee (One of the top 1200 players in the country)

-Averaged 21.3 PPG

-3.6 GPA

Here are some links that I have found :

http://twitter.com/ChaseMWebb

http://www.coloradohometownweekly.com/print.asp?ID=5937

http://www.varvee.com/team/statistics/19983

http://www.varvee.com/team/player/27/23236

Doesn't really seem like an elite prospect, but it appears that the staff is showing an interest.  I don't see how he could get a basketball scholarship with the current roster situation, but with his solid academic record I wonder if he may try to receive financial aid from an academic scholarship and join the team as a walk-on.  I am curious to hear what Zach and Max have to say about this one.

While it may seem like on the surface that the women's team got screwed in their seeding (they are much better than an 11 seed).  I couldn't be happier that they were placed in the Spokane Regional.  Now they have an opening game against Iowa and a potential second round matchup against UCLA in the Kennel.  If they move on they will have to travel all the way down the street to the Spokane Arena for the Sweet 16 and Elite 8.  Potential matchups in the Regional rounds include top seeded Stanford and 2nd seed Xavier.  So stoked for the Lady Zags right now!

After only four years, Coach Earlywine was given the pink slip this morning.  There is some great coaching talent in Spokane that could possibly step up to the challenge, namely Coach McIntyre and Coach Hayford.

This could very well be an emotional reaction, but part of me really wants to see G-Prep coach Matty McIntyre make a HUGE jump to take over the program.  I can't help but be impressed with the job he has done at G-Prep at such a young age.  He coached the hell out of the WIAA tournament this year and took it to far more talented and athletic teams to bring the championship to Spokane.  I would love to see him make the jump and possibly start a very successful coaching career at the next level.

The other obvious local choice would be Coach Hayford of Whitworth.  He has done an absolutely phenomenal job building Whitworth into a highly competitive Division III program.  They are currently ranked 1st and will be playing in the Sweet 16 this weekend with a very good chance of making it to the Final Four.  If Whitworth wins the national championship I would hope that he would get serious consideration for the EWU position.

Thoughts?  Who else would you like to see take over in Cheney?

We have a few days before the WCC Tourney Semifinal and BYU is playing their best basketball in the school's history, so it seems like now is as good a time as any to discuss the future of the WCC with the addition of another big fish.  As a BYU alum and lifelong GU fan I will say that I cant wait for this addition and hope for many years of a strong rivalry.  When the announcement was made I was pretty vocal about my distaste for irrational BYU fans (not the knowledgable and generally pleasant minority), but I have a lot of respect for Coach Rose and the players and I am confident that they will consistently be found in the Top 25 and will be a legitimate presence in the WCC and that they will be a constant challenge at the top of the conference standings.  I couldn't be happier that we won't have to face their current star whose horrible name I can't bring myself to mention, but they have a pretty stacked roster this year and should be strong next year as well.  What do you think the BYU effect will be?  Take a moment to answer in the poll and let's get this discussion rolling!

I know we all get caught up in the Men's team (myself included) but the Women are putting together a great season and deserve a little love as well.  Here are some quick shots on their accomplishments and some reasons why we should care.

-  They are currently ranked #23 in the AP poll and are likely to be ranked in the Coaches poll today

-  They just clinched their 7th straight WCC title while dropping 103 points on the Dons

-  They have outscored WCC opponents 1026-706 (average margin of 26.67 ppg)

-  They have one of the nation's best players in Courtney Vandersloot who is averaging 18.5 points and almost 10 assists per game

- They are all but guaranteed a spot in the Women's Tourney and will play the 1st and 2nd Rounds at GU and could potentially play the regional rounds in the Arena.  Tickets for the first two rounds cost $34 for all sessions or $22 for GU students.  Tix for the regional are only $45.

Give the ladies some love and support!