RE: 2016-2017 Freshmen of the Year predictions
The MAC All-Freshman Team was made up of Bowling Green’s Dylan Frye, Miami’s Michael Weathers, Northern Illinois’ Eugene German, Ohio’s Jason Carter and Western Michigan’s Reggie Jones.
I only hit on Michael Weathers, though the others - David DiLeo, Tahjai Teague, Brandon Johnson had good years. Davonta Jordan played a lot in the non-conference season for Buffalo.
The other thing I noticed, for the last couple of seasons at least, verbalcommits.com is a better predictor than espn.com's rankings. For Verbal Commits, the baseline is '2', Jones and Michael Weathers were '3's, Dylan Frye and Eugene Germain were '2.5' and Jason Carter was a '2'. On espn.com, Jones was a '72', and the 52th ranked SF, the rest were 'not ranked'.
espn.com's top rated MAC freshmen this year were Davonta Jordan, '79'& 30th best PG; Ball State's Kyle Mallers, '78' & #32 SF; Quate McKinzie for Buffalo, '77' & #42 PF; Tahjai Teague '80' & #37 PF; and Toledo's Luke Knapke, '76' & #50 C
verbalcommit's other top rated MAC freshmen were Teague at 3.5, Ellis Dozier for Ohio at 3, Kyle Mallers at 3, Rodney Culver for Ohio at 3, Toledo's Justin Roberts at 3, BGSU's Justin Turner at 3, Quate McKinzie at 2.7, David DiLeo at 2.5, and BGSU's Rodrick Caldwell at 2,5
Of course the rankings only show the player, for a freshman to have a successful season, they need an opportunity. A Rodney Culver might have a lot of skills, but if Ohio has Jaaron Simmons playing in front of him, he won't be able to show it
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