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Sound off: Pick a point guard, the one you want on your team
| Jan 13 2009, 1:40 PM | Topic: Talking Big Ten | |
With that in mind, I'm here to start the debate. If you could pick any current Big Ten point guard to start your team, who would you take? I'm taking Penn State's Talor Battle. No disrespect to Kalin Lucas, Al Nolen, Chester Frazier/Demetri McCamey, Juice Thompson or Trevon Hughes, I just feel Battle is the most complete of the deep conference pool. Why it's got to be Battle: Let's see, he's made Penn State basketball relevant -- never an easy task -- so it's hard not to recognize his play. Aside from that, Battle does more with less than any of the other point guards. While the Nittany Lions are an improving team, they don't boast the caliber of talent of, say, a Michigan State, Minnesota, Illinois or Wisconsin. So that's another big plus for the star sophomore. But Battle can literally do it all. Jason Kidd he is not, but look around the nation and you'll be hard pressed to find a point guard who scores (18.9), rebounds (5.9) and assists (5.5) at such a high rate. He can also defend (1.5 steals), and everyone knows he can score from anywhere on the court, as evidenced by his conference-leading 47 treys. Who are you taking? Give us your thoughts as a comment below. |
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| Permalink | Comments: 9 | Submit a comment | ||
| Comments | ||
| Jan 13 2009, 2:01 PM | Henry | Comment #1 |
| It's got to be Kalin Lucas. He has the most speed, he plays defense, he's the most efficient distributor, and he's starting to become a feared scorer. His shooting may still be a little inconsistent but there's no way I'm taking any of the nation's point guards, let alone the Big Ten's, over the blur that is Kalin Lucas. | ||
| Jan 13 2009, 2:07 PM | Timothy | Comment #2 |
| Battle is a nice choice, one I don't think you can argue against. That said, I'm going to try to make the argument that it should be Juice Thompson. Thompson, in my mind, is the purest of the Big Ten point guards. His numbers aren't as impressive as some of the other conference's talents, but a lot of that has to do with the Princeton offense the Wildcats run. If you put Juice in a system like Michigan State's, there's no doubt in my mind that his numbers would increase across the board. | ||
| Jan 13 2009, 3:34 PM | Diane | Comment #3 |
| Two words for you: Talor Battle. | ||
| Jan 13 2009, 5:49 PM | d bash | Comment #4 |
| As a purdue fan... I definetly gotta pick Battle... Not only did they start out somewhere around 17-2 on the Boilermakers, Purdue still cut the lead, and actually led by 4 points with 10 minutes or so in the game... Yeah, we didn't have Kramer nor Hummel, but Battle really step it up for his team and hit the big shots to give penn state a huge win at home over top 15 ranked purdue. | ||
| Jan 13 2009, 6:56 PM | Marcus | Comment #5 |
| I'm sold on Talor Battle. Any point guard who can rebound it and score it as well as he does is a special kind of talent. It's hard to believe he's only a sophomore! | ||
| Jan 14 2009, 9:30 AM | Luke | Comment #6 |
| The best point guard has got to be Kalin Lucas. When you watch him play you sit and worry what he may do next. I hate being on the otherside and watching him put up big numbers against my favorite team!!! The most valuable point guard to his team however is Al Nolen. The gophers use his energy on defense and his leadership on the floor to get them going. Without this guy they would not be where they are now. | ||
| Jan 14 2009, 11:38 AM | Jeff | Comment #7 |
| This analysis will prove to be pretty foolish after the Spartans stomp the kittens tonight. | ||
| Jan 14 2009, 2:53 PM | Brent | Comment #8 |
| I don't think a Michigan State win over Penn State proves anything about who is the better point guard. As I said, the Spartans have more talent than the Nittany Lions, meaning they should win. At the end of the day, at least in my mind, tonight's game will pit the conference top two point guards. Taking all variables into consideration, though, I just think Battle is slightly better. | ||
| Jan 14 2009, 7:58 PM | Barbara | Comment #9 |
| Taylor Battle is amazing for a short guy. Even in the loss tonight he was leaping and rebounding. | ||
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